Now we heard two pieces of news: (1) from Richard Kurts, funeral director, who said Martin’s body showed no signs of struggle; (2) from police video of GZ being arrested. In the video, GZ appears uninjured on night of shooting, no bleeding nose or bruising from the close fight with a desperate dead man.

If the police had carried out these exams, why haven’t we heard anything about it so far? If the police had not done any of these exams, why hadn’t them? Why did the police accept the words of the killer without further investigation? Did police try to protect GZ under the excuse of Stand Your Ground law? If yes, why? If not, why didn’t the police further investigate this crime? At this point, I am left with no choice but this final question: Is it because the dead person was a black boy and deserved what he got?

From the handling of Trayvon Martin’s dead, I have seen one pernicious consequence of Stand Your Ground law. That is,  it provides the police with an excuse to treat killers differently.

The letter starts with this. “Congratulation! You have been
selected as a lucky winner of the $9700 cash prize… Please note this may be your final notice. Kindly contact Mary Grey at 905-xxx-xxxx for further details regarding your prize.”

“…it is a valid cheque, but it has NOT been activated and funds will NOT be made available to you UNTIL YOU CALL US to confirm you have received it.”

If it sounds too good to be true, it is not true. So I did a google search for “scam hanover.” Within 0.35 seconds, about 1,470,000 results came back. I searched it on FBI site and also found a handful of its reports.

I shared it with my daughter, hoping we both learned something from this. My daughter said jokingly “Oh, too bad I could buy so many clothes with this money.”

When facing a torrential public outcry for tough punishment on Yao, some college professors and Yao’s classmates staged a passional appeal for leniency because Yao was a talented music student. The message from the intellectuals seems to be this — you can kill innocent people and walk away from due punishment if you have this or that talent. Imagine the hopelessly muddle-headed mass among Chinese educators!

Luckily, justice was done. Chinese parents should all watch Yao’s execution. Even better, watch it with their children.

We talked a lot on the company, economy, children’s education and a book that she just read on the airplane, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. In that book, the auther talks about 10,000-hour rule. He cites an example of music practice.

Then, the topic shifted to music and education in China, which reminded me of the infamous case of music student turned murderer — Yao Jiaxin. The case exposed the fatal defect of Chinese education — the single-minded pursuit of skills/knowledge/education. Many parents fail to understand that no education is complete without first taking care of the need to be a decent human. As a consequence, they produce blood-thirsty monsters, even though they are highly accomplished musically like Yao Jiaxin.

I am Mr. Wang HongZhang, Chief Disciplinary Officer, People’s Bank of China (PBC). I got your email contact via the internet (Google search) and decided to contact you. I have an interesting/profitable business proposal of US $24.5million and this will be of immense benefit to both of us if only you are interested. Before the U.S and Iraqi war, a client of Bank of China, Mr. Khazeal Hamood Hasaab, a Merchant, made a numbered fixed deposit valued at $24.5 million (Twenty Four million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars), for 18 calendar months, at Bank of China, Tower Branch, 1 Garden Road Hong Kong. Upon maturity several notices were sent to him, even during the war which began in 2003. Again, after the war another notification was sent, but still no response came from him. It was later found out that Mr Khazeal Hamood Hasaab, his wife and two sons had been killed during the war (Basra).

After further investigation, it was also discovered that Mr Khazeal did not declare any next of kin in his official papers, including the paperwork of his bank deposit. He also confided, in the Chief Risk Officer, Bank of China (BOCHK), that no one knew of his deposit in the bank. According to the laws of my country, at the expiration of 6 years such funds are reverted to the Peoples Bank of China (PBC), where it will be deposited in the reserve of the Government, if nobody applies to claim it. Due to the fact that the fund has been in the bank for more than five years, provisions are being made for it to be reverted to my Bank (PBC). When the case was presented at my desk, I contacted the risk officer (BOCHK), who is a good friend of mine and gathered all the information that I have presented to you. Against this backdrop, I will like you, as a foreigner, to stand as next of kin to Khazeal Hamood Hasaab, so that we can receive his funds.

I will like to know if you will be interested in this project please. I will make more details available to you on receipt of a positive response from you. My official lines and email address are not secure as they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy, do contact me only at my private email address: —–@aol.com
Kind Regards,
Mr. Wang Hongzhang

One golden rule to remember: if it is too good to be true, it is not true.

Imagine the agony the young woman had to endure! But, when people talked about it, I got the feeling that the girl herself was partially blamed for her misfortune. “She set herself up for it. She shouldn’t get drunk with a bunch of irresponsible people. If you want to get drunk, make sure you are with some trustworthy people.”

This reminds me of the death of the 18-year-old Kelsey Smith on June 2, 2007. When people watched the video showing how Smith was abducted away from a store’s parking lot, commenting the way she was dressed set herself up for guys with bad intention. Her scantly dressed appearance served to catch attention in a harmful way. In pleading guilty in July 2007, her killer admitted that he had spotted the barely dressed Smith inside the Target store at 97th Street and Quivira Road about 7 p.m. on June 2, 2007. He went outside and waited for her, next raped and killed her.

I would recommend not to get drunk in the first place. Secondly, never put yourself in any kind vulnerable situation either in the way you dress or mixing with the wrong people. The key is to practice self-protection pro-actively in whatever way you can think of.

Rather, they are simply foolish and selfish to the extreme and are the products of bad parenting. They have not learned to stop and think about the consequence of their stupidity. They relentlessly seek fun and thrills, no matter how vulgar and disastrous it is, at the expense of another fellow student.

I have seen more than once such brainless and cruel antics before. As my daughter put it, “Their parents are partly responsible, too. Because they have not taught their children not to take pleasure in publicly humiliating others.” I see the consequence of bad parenting in Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, one from an Indian family, the other from a Chinese family. Both cultures are famous for hammering “good” education into their children. Obviously, not good enough.

This once again brings into focus a key ingredient in successful parenting, that is, parents not only need to make sure that their children become learned individuals, but more important, they should help their children develop the capacity for love, sympathy, and human understanding.

Hence, you are a loser parent if your children are as stupid and selfish as Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei.

When I told my sister of this crime, she searched online and said “Oakland is a crime-plagued area. He should not have gone there at that hour.” Even someone in China knows better than going to that place at that hour.

The city of Oakland, CA has been plagued with typical big-city social problems including “high unemployment, widespread poverty, and an elevated rate of violent crime.” The city is famous for the 2009 shooting of Oakland police officers. The worst part is some Oakland residents called this criminal Lovelle Mixon a hero. Imagine that place!

I wouldn’t say leaving some places to the criminals and never ever going there, but always use your judgment when you have to visit places like Oakland.

First of all, under age killers should be treated more severely than this. The severe punishment will serve as a warning to any potential young criminals and should become part of parenting advice so that both parents and the children will be well-versed on the consequence of crime of this nature. A killer should at least become a lifer (lifetime in prison) no matter how young that killer is.

Lastly, parents should never let down their guard even among the seemingly harmless 10-year-old children.

Her crime: she knew of her HIV status, but she chose to keep it a secret and have unprotected sex with at least three men, not at the same time though. Benaissa was found guilty on one count of causing grievous bodily harm and two of attempted bodily harm, even though she denied deliberately infecting anyone.

After I learned of her troubled youth years – drug addict at the age of 14, pregnant at 16, and HIV-positive at 17 – I no longer feel as bitter toward her as before. What I see is a girl emerging from a turbulent teenage years, from a life of youth and follies, young and stupid, and trying to put behind her that shameful chapter in her life. Just as I see in many people that I know of who once had some eventful and rather wasteful teenager years.

Our past follies and youthful imprudences are like an invisible debt to us. At some point in our lives, we all have to pay for this. For Benaissa, the debt of those wanton youth years — her HIV — will follow her throughout her whole life. Sometimes, we can deceive ourselves into believing that we can put behind our past and turn a brand new page, as if what happened in the past had never happened. But as Benaissa’s recent abrasion with law shows, our past is like our shadow. It will follow us till our last day.

Zhou used to be a licensed cardiothoracic surgeon in China and a former UCLA Healthcare System research assistant. He was terminated there in November 2003. However, he still had access to patient health information and continued to access and read records of both his coworkers and celebrity patient records. Zhou acknowledged in his plea agreement that he had no legitimate reason for obtaining the personal information. Though no evidence has been found by the Department of Justice to suggest that Zhou abused or attempted to share or sell the information he illegally accessed, his illegal reading of private electronic medical records of celebrities and others earned him four months in federal prison, the first of its kind in U.S. legal history. He also received a fine of $2000, in addition to his jail time.

You would think Zhou has not done any harm or damage to anybody, just trying to satisfy his morbid curiosity. Also, there are thousand of others who have done and are still doing the same thing as Zhou did. Still, a rule violation is a violation. Nothing can change the nature of his crime. Hopefully, he could use these 4 months jail time to reflect and make a new start once he is out of it.

Looking ahead, Zhou’s record of incarceration will follow him wherever he goes, almost totally ruining his career in healthcare at least in the U.S. I believe the ruling of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Central District of California not only establishes a legal precedent but also dispatches a clear warning to all medical practice of the severe consequence of what some considers a mere misdemeanor offense. A law is a law, no matter how trivial it is.

Below are some common-used tricks by pocket-pickers.
1. THE SQUIRT
This is a classic scam in which a person will do something funny like squirting mustard dip or ketchup just to get the attention of his victims. As the thief helps clean up the mess, an opportunity is created for him to steal something valuable from his victim.

2. THE PHOTO
This is another “distraction” technique. It often takes a team to complete the task. A couple may come over to take a picture of you. While you explain to the person how to use the camera, the third one takes this opportunity to do the stealing.

3. THE ESCALATOR
As you are getting off the escalator, the person in front of you drops some coins and tries to pick them up. This will create some chaos, a bit jam and jumble, and best of all, an opportunity for the thief to do his job. It turns out the person in front and behind you are the thieves-team.

4. THE SHOULDER SURF
Never underestimate the cleverness of the thief. An experienced thief knows how to manipulate you into acting a certain way so that he can do his job in a split-second. As you are entering your PIN on the charge pad, then you feel a tap on the shoulder and the person behind you asks if you have dropped something on the floor. As you turn to take a look, you create an opportunity in which something valuable from your purse is really dropped forever.

5. THE GOOD SAMARITAN
Because people get a good feeling by helping others, they are willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. This eagerness to help opens another channel for the thievies to creep in.

Keep in mind all these small tricks.

Rita Anderson, a 115-pound woman in her early 50s, an assistant manager of a New York hospital, was helping a 16-year-old, 300-pound female patient to use a bed pan. When she leaned over to lower the rails, “out of nowhere came a blinding punch to Anderson’s jaw,” breaking her jaw. Later, the girl said, “I’m sorry, but I was just tired of waiting.” Tired of waiting? Breaking the nurse’s jaw? It took Anderson 8 weeks to recover and eight week of lost work days.

Pontus recalls an instance when a nurse was walking by a patient’s room, who was calling for help with his urinal pan. As the nurse went to help him, “he smashed the pan on her head.” In another case, a nurse wastreating a patient who had just awoken from surgery, “the patient bit the nurse’s hand so hard the ligament was torn off the bone.”

Nurses working at the ER and the psychiatric units are the most unfortunate ones of all. Very often police who find people under the influence of drugs or alcohol drop them off at the ER. This is called “dump syndrome” which involves more than normal dose of violence. The increase in severity and frequency of violence is directly related to the growing number of police ER dumpings.

Here are some figures:
59% of health care worker injuries from 1995 to 2004 were caused by patients.
48% of all non-fatal assaults in the U.S are caused by patients
50% of Massachusetts nurses have been at least punched within the last two years
72% of ER nurses reported feeling unsafe in their workplace

I would expect 100% of ER nurses feeling unsafe. As many hospitals face the severe situation of nurse shortage, it is very likely that patients have to wait longer and act out their impatience violently. This is something to factor in when you consider jumping into the lofty career of saving lives.

P.S. on 7/5/2010, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick signed a law that will stiffen the penalties for those who assault nurses and other health care workers. The vote follows unanimous votes to approve the measure in both houses of the legislature.

Every time I read news like this, I thought of some hideous male criminal. I used to believe little ones are always safe in the loving hands of a female. Children are especially safe with kind-hearted church folks. Call this prejudice. This time I was aghast and speechless when I learned that this lovely little girl was raped and murdered by a 28-year-old woman, a Sunday school teacher at her pastor-grandfather Clover Baptist Church not far from San Francisco.

When you see this 8-year-old angelic creature, your heart is filled with nothing but love and the desire to protect this tender life. You would never imagine a woman could have taken away this precious little one in such a gruesome manner? What is going on with these crazy people? The perversity of this horrifying crime defies any human comprehension.

Now I have to pronounce this realization — your little ones are not even safe with a female, not even an association of some denomination.

“The motive for Vina’s murder was greed and money.” Crimes like this always shocked me beyond comprehension. I was wondering, would it turn out differently if Patel had been more careful and had seen through Cort? How could she be a partner of Cort for so long and had not a tiny clue or any dreadful bad omen of what was heading to her way when he persistently urged her to double insurance payout upon the death of either of them? When Cort said that he was in poor health and that it was all for her benefit, was she dreaming that she would be the beneficiary upon Cort’s death if she agreed to his request of doubling the life insurance?

Many puzzles and questions were running through my head, with no satisfactory answer whatever. At least, I wish my readers will be more careful and think more than twice when they face similar business arrangement.

A person who would sell her step-sister or anyone of that age to a bunch of bad elements must be wicked beyond hope. The question that first rushed to my head is: how could the parents entrust their 7-year-old daughter to such a bad character? Didn’t they know how unworthy this 15-year-old was? Under what kind of culture could it happen?

I knew wicked males who would plunge upon young girls are never in short supply, and I would expect a bigger girl protecting a younger ones. But in this case, the truly shocking part is what a teenage girl has done to her young stepsister. Now can a parent ever trust a big girl to babysit a small one?

Call me suffering from paranoia. I believe it is better to be cautious than to be sorry.

Sam Waksal, the CEO and founder of this biopharmaceutical start-up, ImClone, was convicted of insider trading when they sold millions of their company stock weeks before it let out the news that the government rejected ImClone’s application for Erbitux.

Martha Stewart sold almost 4,000 ImClone shares the day before the FDA rejected ImClone’s application for Erbitux. She was eventually found guilty and sentenced to five months in prison, five months of home confinement, and a $30,000 fine for lying about the stock sale.

Thus ended a shameful chapter of an otherwise successful founder of a biopharmaceutical start-up. Don’t do any illegal even if it means you will go broke.

Phoebe, recently moved to the area with her family from Ireland, was harassed on that day as she studied in the library at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts, apparently in the presence of a faculty member and several students, none of whom reported it until after her death. She was harassed where she went in school and on her way home. Most of the student body and school faculties were aware of the bullies against her, yet none of them ever stood out for her. Her parents contacted school authority asking them to intervene. Obviously, no one care about it.

The suicide was a violent yet helpless protest against not only all the verbal abuse and physical harm and threats poured upon her in a matter of a few months, but also the whole US high school culture. Over two months after her death, nine Massachusetts teenagers were charged for their part in the tragedy.

This incident reminds me so much of the gang rape that I posted on 12/19/2009. No matter how the justice will turn out, nothing can bring back this young life. The tragedy makes me think a lot about bullies in American high school, American culture, the role of school faculties, the need for parents to come out for their own children, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that U.S. high schools are ruled by laws of jungle with the nearly total absence of justice. If you don’t come out to protect your children, nobody will.

P.S.This news was carried in Time magazine, 4/12 issue.

The most tragic and disturbing part is as many as 20 people stood there watching without doing anything, some even laughing nearby with video cameras, as if they were watching a movie.

Richmond High student body is predominently Hispanics. What can we say about that high school and the people going there and their norms, values and culture, the culture that devalues their women to nothing but sex objects? Is it too much a prejudice to see this as a reflection of a sub-culture? What has made this part of humanity downgrade to this beastly low existence? I don’t have answer. I feel sad beyond words and deeply disturbed when I think of this poor girl.

As with any indiscriminate killing, this one is equally senseless and appalling, thundering out of blue sky. The irony is these soldiers were on their way to kill in a foreign land were stopped and killed by one of them in their homeland. We might never know the exact motive behind this extreme action, yet we do know this is not the first time killing takes place among army comrades and it is the second mass killing in two years. In fact, shootings on US land have been on the rise in recent years due to economic downturn aggravated by the wars.

The imminent departure for the battle zone might have sparked the ignition, but in this case many other contributing factors must have helped push beyond the limit of human sanity and worked together toward this violent outburst. This mass-shooting reminds me of the Virginia Tech shooting, also by a minority, Seung-Hui Cho, in 2007. And just as that shooting, there were some foreboding signs, which were shrugged off as insignificant until after the event.

—He was said to have “faced harassment over his ‘Middle Eastern ethnicity’ and had been trying to leave the army.”
—He “listed his birthplace as Arlington, Virginia, but his nationality as Palestinian” — identity issue.
—He “wanted out of the military, and they would not let him leave, even after he offered to repay.”
—He “did not make many friends” — a loner.
—He “often got into arguments with military colleagues who supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” — anti-war stand.

It is not just another mourning for the dead, but also another case, another statistics for psychologists, sociologist, criminologists and everyone of us to mull over in the years to come.