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Dealing with racism
Dear Annie: I am an African-American female and have never been faced with this problem, and I really do not know how to handle it.
Recently, an older Caucasian lady moved into our apartment complex, and she has hung a black-faced doll on her patio, which faces the parking lot. This doll is of the Al Jolson variety that was used in times past to ridicule persons of African descent. I have to pass her patio every day and look at this atrocity.
I feel dehumanized every time that I see this doll. To me, this is the same as displaying a Nazi swastika. My question is, how do I approach this woman and tell her of my feelings? -- Upset in Louisville, Ky.
Dear Louisville: Let's assume this woman has no idea that this doll makes her seem racist. Knock on her door and explain it to her, nicely. Tell her, "I'm sure it isn't your intention to hurt anyone, so I though I'd let you know that the doll on your patio is quite offensive. Would you mind putting it inside your apartment?"
If she refuses, talk to the landlord or the apartment manager. You also can file a discrimination complaint with Kentucky's Commission on Human Rights.
Dear Annie: My daughter, "Alisha," is going to be 5 in a couple of months. She is advanced in reading (second-grade level) and math. She also is good at dance and piano.
I am struggling between putting her in public school versus a private school. I want the best for my daughter and wish her to have a lovely, memorable childhood. But I also want to keep some challenge in her life.
What is your opinion on public schools and private schools? Is there any special after-school program for an advanced kid her age in California? -- Yi
Dear Yi: A private school may give Alisha more individual attention and possibly a more academically gifted group of students in her classes. However, she can miss out on some of the diversity of a public school, not to mention the various extracurricular activities and elective courses that private schools do not offer.
Most school districts around the country offer after-school enrichment programs. Ask about the GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education), or contact the California Department of Education for more information (cde.ca.gov).
Dear Annie: I read the letter from "Caring Father," who thinks his son-in-law may have ADD. I am a 50-year-old female who started taking medication for ADD about two years ago. It happened when I started working again after years as a stay-at-home mom, and I discovered I couldn't stay focused on one thing at a time. Within two months of starting medication, my boss saw a dramatic difference in my work.
I can tell you now that I must have had ADD when I was younger. I couldn't understand how school was so easy for my sisters, while I struggled so much. Now I know. My son has ADD and wasn't diagnosed until he was 17 years old. I couldn't believe that one little pill could make that much difference in a person. I think of all the fussing we did all of his life and what an amazing difference medication made. He now is 30 years old and no longer seems to need any medical help.
I would suggest "Caring Father" tell his daughter to talk to her husband and just see if he would talk to a doctor about this possibility. A lot of people with ADD or ADHD don't like to take medication because it makes them feel different than they are used to, but it's worth a try, isn't it? -- Happy Cajun in Louisiana with ADD
Dear Cajun: It can be quite difficult for those with Attention Deficit to recognize the problem and be willing to try medication, but for many, the results can be life-changing. Thanks for writing.
Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. 2005.07.11
'Food shortage in North Korea could deteriorate into famine'
North Korea's chronic food shortage could deteriorate into widespread famine similar to the mid-1990s when an estimated 1 million North Koreans died from starvation, according to aid agencies.
Aid workers attribute the dire situation to cuts in the North's government-provided rations, the inability of the urban poor to buy food at market prices, and the international community's reluctance to give aid. This is compounded during the summer when malnutrition typically spikes as food runs out before the harvest begins in September.
Tim Peters, founder of aid agency Helping Hands Korea, said that "enlarging pockets of areas" are again experiencing famine, and in the northeastern city of Cheongjin, the food shortage is worse than 10 years ago.
"It's backpedaling to the situation of the 1990s," Peters told The Korea Herald in an interview.
He said urban areas are the worst-affected. Farmers are able to cultivate a private patch whereas city dwellers cannot. Through a network of North Korean refugees in China, Peters learned that during the planting season in May, city government offices were emptied as workers were mobilized to work on farms.
According the United Nations World Food Program, those living in urban areas - 70 percent of the population - are heavily dependent on the government's Public Distribution System of cereals. A further cut is expected to 200 grams - less than one-third of the minimum calorie intake recommended by the World Health Organization.
For more food, the North Koreans have to look to the marketplace. The WFP, the largest humanitarian organization in North Korea, says that since the change in 2002 from a state-planned economy to a market economy, food prices skyrocketed past what the average wage-earner can afford. The WFP estimates that in the last year the market price of rice has gone up 300 percent to about 750-800 won a kilogram.
With the average North Korean wage only 2,500 won a month, most can afford only 3 kilograms a month, putting rice out of the reach of most North Koreans.
Peters' conversations with North Korean refugees in China support these estimates. He met a woman last August who had crossed the border to seek medical attention for her daughter's heart condition. She told him her husband worked in a factory and earned 1,500 won (at the time $1.20) a month and their family of four lived mostly on corn meal costing 200 won per kilogram.
Since they they lived in a semi-rural area, they did not receive any government distribution, but they kept two pigs, chickens and dogs which they would sell so that they could buy more corn. They were able to eat three times a day on a diet of corn meal, kimchi and doenjang (soy bean paste). In their community they were considered well-off.
The food shortages, particularly for the urban poor, are reaching crisis point as international aid which North Korea has heavily relied upon has dropped dramatically.
The U.N. World Food Program is struggling to raise funds. This year the WFP put out an appeal to raise 504,000 metric tons to feed the most desperate 6.5 million people. The United States government - the largest donor to the WFP - pledged 50,000 tons in June, but the WFP still needs 200,000 tons. Peters said that international donors are now less willing to help out because of "donor fatigue." After 10 years of giving aid, it is "getting wearisome" for the international community looking for evidence that the North Korean government has genuine concern for its citizens, he said.
The South Korean government agreed in inter-Korean talks this week to give the North 500,000 tons of rice aid. So far this year, the South has given 200,000 tons of fertilizer aid, and is sending another 150,000 tons. Since 1999, Seoul has provided 1.75 million tons of fertilizer to the North.
Despite the international donations, the WFP fears that if no more aid comes, about 5.2 million people will be left in a desperate situation.
"Usually I'm optimistic by nature, but the situation is very grim at the moment," said Peters, who has been working with North Korean refugees for 9 years.
His Seoul-based nongovernmental organization currently supports a bakery in China that produces high-nutrition buns which are distributed in North Korea, by North Koreans at the grass-roots level, to schoolchildren and orphans. This is more effective than handing out raw grain as cooking fuel is expensive he said. This operation produces 48,000 buns a month and reaches about 1,600 people a day.
"It's indicative of what little grass-roots organizations and 'mom-n-pop' NGOs can do. We can make a difference," Peters said. (jane@heraldm.com) By Jane Cooper 2005.07.13