Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Neither a teacher nor a consultant is supposed to be picky about the clients they interact with. Business logic simply does not allow for it. As long as the client is willing to pay, adhere to legal regulations, and interact respectfully, there is little reason for the client to be refused service. Moreover, it is often not ethical to refuse service for reasons that are not knowledge, law, or business-related. In the case of students seeking knowledge, the refusal to provide can be interpreted as unfair discrimination, withholding of resources that they have the right to access without valid explanations.

Malta at this time of the year is home to some unusual faces. Whereas the old British long-stay tourists and the Filipino/Indian migrant workers stick out like a sore thumb amidst the Maltese crowds at any time of the year, groups of Japanese youngsters navigate the country's narrow streets, polite, confused, and looking, in general, all-around out of place. It is vacation time for many of them: Japanese school and work years do not start until the beginning of April while the previous year already ended, giving many just a small window of a few weeks to partake in short-term English language programs in Malta.

The little community library in the Maltese town of Mosta was, well, little. But in a small room with perhaps five shelves, a service counter, and a table, every corner was filled with books, many of them quite worn out. The main focus, as is the case for libraries elsewhere , is books that children can read. Picture books, novels, and non-fiction imparting writing skills and knowledge on young adults make up, at a quick glance, more than half of the collection. As adults turn to the internet for their readings, it is clearly the kids without their own digital devices that still carry around paperbacks and hardcovers.

The first Dune movie was beautiful but predictable. Gorgeous cinematography courtesy of endless deserts simply could not make up for the predictable plotline. On the eve of being reassigned to rule another realm, a powerful house of aristocrats was backstabbed and wiped out by another house with the acquiescence and assistance of the emperor. Just as predictably, the native population of the realm was unconsulted, or even acknowledged, in the entire process, leaving the new rulers of the realm, just like the one before it, fighting a constant insurgency that disrupts economic production.

The non-Japanese portrayal of the Japanese salaryman is often an illustration of the unenviable foot soldier of Japanese economic success. Overworked and exhausted, they drag themselves into similar-looking office buildings in their equally similar corporate uniform of black suits with neckties. Admired for their individual sacrifice and hard work as a sign of devotion to help their companies and country grow and prosper, the non-Japanese observants would nonetheless loathe to emulate the way these salarymen worked and lived.

It was only when the taxi sped out of Malta International Airport that I realized the meaning of the word "development." I had just spent a weekend in Tunis, only a short one-hour flight in North Africa. Fascinating as the capital of Tunisia was, with its combination of colonial French and medieval architecture interspaced with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the city was clearly rough on the edge. Streets were overrun with trash, watery sewage, and feral cats and dogs. The pavements, buildings, and markets were crumbling from the lack of repair and random touts following tourists for a quick "gift."

Watching the Super Bowl and its (some would call, underrated) Half-Time Show this year made me realize once again just how invisible Asians are in the American entertainment industry. As the Chiefs and the 49ers battled it out on the field and Usher reminded us of his hits from the 1990s, not an Asian face was projected, even for a split second, onto the TV screens of more than 100 million people around America tuning into the biggest sporting event of the year. The biggest representation of Asia in this Super Bowl, sad as it is, is whether prominent visitor Taylor Swift would get there in time from Tokyo.