The Hyphenator!

Lately, I've been very productive as I sit and watch my TV shows this fall. I taught myself how to knit a few months ago and have been knitting up a storm ever since. Makes me feel better to be doing something, making something as I sit on the couch.

Below is one of my latest creations that I'm very proud of considering it was my second hat. I made it for a friend's 2-year-old niece, and she looks adorable in it (much better than Teddy below, it's not really so lopsided on top). Made with circular bamboo needles with a lovely wool/angora bulky duotone yarn on the bottom and an orange (she loves the color right now), bulky 100% wool yarn on top, with a little crocheted flower (I used to crochet ages ago and almost forgot how).


My first hat was for my hubby, which he actually likes. He's not much of a hat person, but after I gave it to him he wore it inside the next few nights until I told him to take it off since he looked like a dork (albeit with a lovely handknit hat), and he wanted to wear it at work all day, too. I also made one for myself but larger since I have a huge ol' pumpkin of a head.

My last project was a pair of mittens that I made with fuchsia worsted yarn made up of 85 percent wool and 15 percent mohair, which matches a Gap scarf I have. Love Lamb's Pride yarn from the Brown Sheep Company, have it in various colors. I'm also digging Blue Sky Alpacas yarn from Cedar, MN, which comes in organic cotton.

The mittens were a test run because my mom requested a pair. I am quite happy with the results -- OK so I had to redo them once because I followed the pattern and they were so large they would have fit my hubby. Don't think he would have been too keen on wearing fuchsia mittens.

In my knitting craze, I've bought tons of yarn, supplies and books, mostly ones on baby projects -- so cute. Can't wait to make an itsy bitsy sweater or booties.

Yes, I've started to nest.

"Laotian Immigrants Win $55M Lottery"

According to an article by the Irish public service broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann, the father of the boy Madonna is seeking to adopt said he never intended for his son to be adopted, only raised on his behalf.

"Father of Madonna boy not aware of adoption"

The father of the Malawian boy that singer Madonna took to the UK under a temporary custody order has said that he never intended for his son to be adopted, only raised on his behalf.

Yohane Banda told news agency Reuters that Madonna had asked to raise the 13-month-old boy on behalf of him.

"Had they told us that Madonna wanted to adopt my son and make him her own son, we would not have agreed to that," Banda said.

The Korea Times has an article about the documentary "Made in Korea: A One-Way Ticket Seoul-Amsterdam?" by In-Soo Radstake, an adoptee from the Netherlands. It is debuting at the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) ...

"Adoptee's Journey Is Unveiled at PIFF"

More information about the documentary can be found at www.eenenkeltjeseoul.com.

The Register-Guard of Eugene, OR, has a feature story on the Holts that ran on Sunday (Holt is having a 50th anniversary conference this week):

"Children changing lives: The Holt adoption legacy that has created thousands of new families started with eight Korean War orphans"

"Harry and Bertha Holt - who married despite being first cousins - were a God-fearing, fundamentalist Christian farm couple who had fled drought-stricken South Dakota for the Willamette Valley in 1937."

Why does this not surprise me?

At least at the end of the article the writer addresses the fact that not everyone thought of the Holts as saviors ...

Regardless of the Holts' intentions, their work was not admired by all.

"The Holts believed they were doing God's work, but they became lightning rods for controversy about how adoptive families should be made," writes Ellen Herman, a University of Oregon history professor who has studied international adoption, on her "Adoption History Project" Web site.

"Many professionals and policy-makers in the U.S. Children's Bureau, the Child Welfare League of America and the International Social Service devoted themselves (unsuccessfully) to putting the Holts out of business," Herman writes.

Some felt that taking mixed-race babies and children away from their homeland was wrong.

What made the Holts unique, Herman says, is "they took this dramatic personal action." It generated a lot of publicity and made them heroes to many, but others "were absolutely horrified," she says.

USA Today posted an AP article about the air sample tests conducted after the North Korean nuclear test: "Samples are rushed back to labs in the United States for study before they loose their radioactive properties."

Hmm, just noticed the same mistake in an SF Gate article. Tsk, tsk.

I just purchased tickets to go home to the Midwest for Christmas ... and tickets to go to Korea next summer! Yeah, baby!

And the cost to go to Korea? Only $47.53! Well, OK, plus 60,000 frequent-flier miles. But still, what a deal for an international trip.

I'll be going for three whole weeks! Whew. Hubby's meeting me there halfway through the trip and we'll be flying back together.

By next summer, it will have been a little over five years since I was back there. Can't believe it's been that long. Seem like just last year I took the emotional rollercoaster trip back to Korea for the first time.

I'm going home, home, HOME!

Sigh.

What a bunch of crap:

"Nuclear North is Bill's fault, McCain tells Hil"

And I suppose Shrub calling North Korea an axis of evil played no role in the country's actions, or the fact that N.K. has watched the U.S. invade Iraq for having weapons of mass destruction when it didn't.

Stuff magazine is feature the women of "Lost" in this month's issue. And who should grace the cover but the lovely Yunjin Kim! And she's got a HOT photo spread. Check out a little preview. On stands now.

"S Korean proposed as new UN chief"

"South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has been nominated by the UN Security Council as the successor to Secretary General Kofi Annan."

If appointed, he'll soon be dealing with the crisis very close to home.

Some random thoughts about fall ...

Yesterday San Francisco was hit with a "storm," or just plain rain as Midwesterners would call it.

It's funny when people here call rain showers storms. I think, Man, you have no idea what a storm is. A storm in the Midwest would be straight-line winds that can take off roofs and uproot trees, lighting that has been known to defy the odds and strike the same place more than once, thunder that cracks increasingly louder as the storm moves closer and closer, pounding rain that hurts if you get caught in it, still skies that turn an eerie shade of greenish gray before you see a funnel cloud forming in the distance, or snow so high you can't get out the front door and a windchill so low that your nose hairs and eyelashes freeze the second you step outside.

Soon, the San Francisco storms will be hitting on a daily basis. Winter is coming, in other words.

This would explain why I seem to be stuffing myself silly these days. Must be some natural instinct to eat and eat and eat in the fall, storing fat for the upcoming winter. Maybe almost 30 years in the Midwest have trained my body to get ready for hibernation.

I have to dig out my umbrella, rain coat, and rubber boots. And I have to finish fall cleaning so the dust mites don't hibernate for the winter, too. (The other weekend I started by cleaning under my bed. You know it's time to clean under the bed when the dust bunnies start attacking. And, you know it's time to start an exercise routine again when a session of major house cleaning leaves your body aching.)

Anyway.

Not looking forward to the end of daylight-saving time -- waking up while it's still dark outside and leaving work in the darkness.

I miss seeing the leaves change colors in autumn, the smell of wood burning in neighborhood fireplaces. Here, sadly, I think fireplaces are mostly gas-burning ones.

Growing up in the Midwest, fall also means baseball playoffs (unfortunately the Oakland A's swept the Minnesota Twins) and football (for me anyway). Hubby and I are going to the 49ers and Vikings game on Nov. 5. Maybe you'll see me on television -- I'll be the crazy Asian woman wearing the Cris Carter #80 Vikings jersey yelling at both teams and surrounded by drunk white guys most likely.

Hmm, what else?

I'm also looking forward to pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds, and turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and corn muffins next month. And hopefully seeing friends and family in December.

A sure sign of fall? The harvest moon -- be sure to check it out tonight.

Oh, and it's Fleet Week, with Blue Angels roaring overhead, naval ships docked in the bay (with free tours of aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and guided missile destroyers and cruisers -- perhaps it's just me, but doesn't it seem like a bit of a security risk? I guess it is only if Shrub is deckside giving a photo op), and can't forget the sailors everywhere -- think "Sex and the City."

Ahem, getting back to the harvest moon, just want to wish everyone a happy Chuseok. Hopefully, you can spend the weekend with your families and loved ones.

The government has cracked down on the sex trade in Korea, but now business has gone underground -- with much of it headed for the U.S. The SF Gate is running a four-part special report on sex trafficking in San Francisco. The first part includes an audio slideshow on the industry in Korea, and upcoming parts of the series will share the stories of former Korean sex slaves.

Part I:
"Sex Trafficking: San Francisco Is a Major Center for International Crime Networks That Smuggle and Enslave"

View the audio slideshow.

Some excerpts from the first part of the series:

"Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar business. In terms of profits, it's on a path to overtake drug and arms trafficking," said Barry Tang, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement attache with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in South Korea. "There's a highly organized logistical network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries, taxi drivers and madams."

Yuki, 25, who fears for her safety and only gave her first name to The Chronicle during an interview in Seoul, said she was trafficked from South Korea to a karaoke bar in Inglewood (Los Angeles County), where she was assured that she would simply be serving drinks to men. Once there, she was ordered to sell $3,000 worth of drinks each month. When she failed, she was sent to the "touching room," a private suite where men could have their way with her for $400.

Women report being beaten, raped and starved by their keepers. Kim, who also withheld her last name, told The Chronicle in an interview in South Korea that she was forced to pay $4,400 for plastic surgery to open her eyes and make her nose thinner and pointier, "like Marilyn Monroe."

Those who have become witnesses have been burned with acid, have disappeared, or have had their homes ransacked and their families harmed or threatened in their home countries, said Dong Shim Kim, head counselor at Du Re Bang (My Sister's Place), a shelter for sex trafficking victims in South Korea.

[Mayor Gavin] Newsom put together a team of health and safety inspectors in summer 2005, shortly after California's largest sex-trafficking bust -- Operation Gilded Cage -- made it clear that a lot of the sex in the massage parlors was not consensual.

City officials were taken aback that all 100 masseuses removed from the 10 parlors in San Francisco were Korean, just like the 45 others arrested statewide on charges of running an international sex trafficking ring. The federal case is pending.


Related articles:
"Alleged sex-trade ring broken up in Bay Area: Police say Koreans in massage parlors were smuggled in"

"Officials ask if sex trade forced on South Koreans: Women allegedly not told they'd be prostitutes in U.S."

Updated (10/10/06):

Part II - "A Youthful Mistake: You Mi was a typical college student, until her first credit card got her into trouble"

Part III - "Diary of a Sex Slave: You Mi is put into debt bondage -- life becomes an endless cycle of sex with strangers"

Part IV - "Free, but trapped: In San Francisco, You Mi begins to put her life back together -- but the cost is high

From Korea (and Australia):

"Adoption heartache for hundreds"

SOUTH Korea has suspended all new overseas adoptions, plunging hundreds of Australian families into uncertainty.

Adoption agencies in Korea have suspended inter-country adoption because of falling birth rates and new welfare policies that promote local adoption and provide better support for single mothers.

From Japan:

"Adoption profiteers face govt curbs"

With a view to preventing human trafficking masquerading under the guise of child adoption, the government has established a new set of regulations for adoption agencies. However, many questions remain unaddressed.

Under current laws, privately run adoption agencies are allowed to receive money from adoptive families in the form of expenses to cover the costs entailed in arranging both domestic and overseas adoptions.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry drafted a set of guidelines in August--the first of their kind--detailing a concrete list and definition of "expenses."

The list of expenses comprises 10 items, such as travel costs and telephone bills, as well as counseling and related services offered by the agencies to adoptive parents.

On Aug. 28, the ministry urged all 47 prefectural governments, and 15 major cities with adoption-related authorities, to tighten measures to eliminate adoption agency profiteers.

The guidelines prohibit agencies from receiving any money prior to the completion of the adoption process. However, "donations" are often difficult to distinguish from legitimate costs for adoption services, officials said.

And later on in the article, something you don't often read about regarding intercountry adoption: "In some countries, adoption is used as a cover for human organ trafficking or child pornography."

And from Massachusetts:

In a September 17 article, "For-profits to compete in child placements," from Boston.com (but only available by registering):

A little-noticed provision tucked into a bill in the dead of summer has triggered a sweeping change in adoption and foster care placements in the state, allowing for-profit companies to compete in Massachusetts for the first time.

The measure, passed without a public hearing, overturns previous language that had allowed only government and nonprofit agencies to handle the placement of children with adoptive families or in foster care. The measure was attached to an economic development bill, which was quietly approved by the House and Senate late last month, and signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney last week.

The change was pushed by a human services company, Massachusetts Mentor, with the help of well-connected lobbyists with ties to the State House and Republican circles.