Tag: racism

Disney Cruises are almost hilariously exploitative

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the years, mythical wife and I have decided that we like cruising.  It’s a good way to get a sampling of lots of international places, and then at the end of the day get dined, sometimes wined, and retreat to what’s basically a mobile hotel room.  Sometimes you stay aboard the ship and enjoy the relaxation and amenities, other times you disembark and do a little bit of exploring.

Recently, we completed a short cruise aboard the Disney Wish, supposedly the newest vessel in the Disney Cruise lineup of ships.  With this one, we’ve now done the Fantasy, Magic and Wish, and are pretty much veterans as far as cruising with Disney goes.  Now the only other cruise we’ve done was Royal Caribbean, but at first comparison, Disney is believed to be the cream of the crop, and at least compared to RC, it really is a step above.

I’ve never done Celebrity, Norwegian, Princess or any other cruise line, but from scuttlebutt, most of them are still a step below Disney if not RC as well, but I’m not going to poopoo them really until I’ve tried them myself.  That’s besides the point though, what spurred this post from coming to fruition is that regardless of how enjoyable and how much I like cruising, it’s also impossible to ignore the fact that the whole business operations of cruising, Disney or other, are almost hilariously exploitative, as far as labor goes.

So we’ve learned that cruising, as enjoyable as it is, is a very expensive mode of vacationing.  Between mythical wife and I, it’s thousands of dollars, even more once we factor in the kids and anyone else we want to come with.  But on the other side of the coin, once we’re on the ship, it’s hilariously evident that the ships are run and operated by almost entirely foreign labor, whom are obviously being paid way less than domestic counterparts would cost.  Mostly Indonesia, India, the Philippines, and seemingly mostly from the south/southeastern Asia/Pacific islands  region, from what I’ve observed.  And obviously, Disney and/or whatever cruise line are the ones pocketing the difference in the middle of what consumers pay and what they pay their labor.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to say that the service on any of the cruises we’ve done has been anything short of outstanding.  I’d want these stewards servicing every aspect of my life if I could get away with it, but it’s just hilariously exploitative that cruises employ almost entirely out of third-world countries, to whom this is akin to winning the lottery of jobs, because they’re making USD, getting tipped in USD, and can probably more than adequately provide for their families, at the cost of their indentured servitude to the cruise lines when they’re on.

It’s kind of mind-blowing, because service on these cruises is nothing short of exceptional, and with toddlers, I’m unfortunately taxing them more than when it was just mythical wife and I on our own, and they’ve had to clean soiled linens and change sheets in the middle of the night, and they always do so with smiles and enthusiasm, and they’re so grateful for the cash tips I give them as way of saying thanks.  And when it comes time to tip out at the end of the cruises, the general expectation of gratuities on a daily basis, would make the internet rage, if such numbers were even proposed to be tipped to an American, but is more than adequate for the staff on a cruise.

Of course, it makes me pleased to know that it helps my bottom line tipping a recommended amount that’s less than the expectations that American laborers would expect, which kind of makes me hypocritical I suppose, but at the same time I’m not going to turn a blind eye at the observation that Disney, and probably all other cruise lines employ the same exploitative strategy of staffing up from third-world countries. 

It’s kind of a shame too, because as observed, all these workers are so upbeat, enthusiastic and seemingly grateful for their jobs, and are getting paid peanuts compared to what Americans would expect, most likely to do their jobs as bare minimum and apathetically as possible, but I guess all that really matters in the end for the consumer, is a positive experience, and if exploiting the third-world in order to gain it, it’s the preferable option, I guess.

When news ≠ reality

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

News: Hulk Hogan channels the power of Hulkamania, lifts wrecked car, rescues teenage driver, cures cancer while he’s at it, completely by himself

Reality: Hulk Hogan present at the scene of an accident while most likely his friend more than likely did the actual work of pulling a teenage driver out of a flipped vehicle

You’d think a story like this would get me out of my seat and prepare to strap in and mark out about how amazing and wonderful the power of Hulkamania is and how great Hulk Hogan is, but let’s not kid ourselves anymore.  As much as I love the idea of Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania living forever, the guy himself, Terry Bollea is far from a perfect human being in his own right; made no more prevalent then the NYPost giving him the professional athlete treatment, and inserting this snippet into the footer, much like a baseball player’s statistics in any story that has nothing to do with sport:

WWE released Hogan from his contract in 2015 after audio from a sex tape revealed him uttering the n-word and saying he was “racist, to a point.” He apologized for his remarks.“

I’m not sure how any of that has anything to do with being a Good Samaritan and stopping at the scene of an accident, but in the grand spectrum of things, it was still pretty cool of Hulk Hogan to stop and give a degree of assistance, up for interpretation.

I think the funniest thing is that Hogan hogs the tagline, as if he himself did a completely selfless and heroic act, and that he and only he, lifted the vehicle with his 28” pythons and the power of Hulkamania coursing through his veins, and rescued a damsel in distress.  Obviously this isn’t necessarily by any fault of Hogan himself, a rag like the Post knows what they have to do in order to draw page views.

I have to imagine the actual reality is more along the lines of his friend, who supposedly is a veteran, along for the ride, sees the accident occur, and his protect instinct kicked in and he wanted to act.  And Hogan, always the politician and puppeteer and his (third) wife probably immediately seeing an opportunity to soak up some positive press and get the Hogan name back out into the public eye didn’t hesitate to be on board.

But then you see the few photos of the scene, and it looks pretty clear that Hulk Hogan himself, in an nWo shirt no less, is just kind of standing around and watching.  The friend, who looks younger and fitter, probably is the one who did all of the work, but solely by being the celebrity in the scene, Hulk Hogan gets to absorb the lion’s share of the credit for the act of heroism.

I’m not going to shit on the Hulkster any more than this, but it’s just funny how Hogan, whether he’s trying to or not, still somehow manages to always stay relevant in some way shape or fashion, and this is a good example of it.  All things considered, it was cool that he stopped at all, because I can’t imagine that most people these days want to get involved, and are more apt to drive off and feign ignorance rather than help out.

Every sports journalist’s worst nightmare

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

😬 – high school football prospect sets the internet ablaze by just his name alone: Noah Knigga

This right here, is every sports journalist’s worst nightmare.  Already, the biggest questions are on the correct pronunciation of his name, if the K is silent, and other low-hanging fruit remarks, but the harsh reality is that his mere existence, is going to inadvertently make life really hard for people who do not have bad intentions and merely want to report on sports.

Honestly, looking at his general junior year stats, 7.8 tackles per game and 3 sacks in just six games is pretty impressive, and supposedly Knigga is on some top-22 best underclassmen list, so it doesn’t sound like he’s a slouch.  He’s also rocking a 4.0 GPA, which leads to believe his character has some class and he respects academics enough, which makes it all the worse that he’s a kid that really deserves to advance his career, and make life difficult for all the people merely scared of his name, from a PR standpoint.

The funny thing is that despite his general paper-test shine, he seems to only have the attention of:

Knigga with a ‘K’ has piqued the interest of several top programs, which include West Virginia, Miami (Ohio), and James Madison

Now WVU is a decent program that often lives in or near the top-25 every year, and JMU is the pride of my hometown that I always have a soft spot for, but it’s interesting that he doesn’t seem to be attracting the attention of anyone, well, better.

I mean, if Arkansas is willing to recruit some kid named Bumper Pool, and Oklahoma is fine going after some guy named General Booty, it’s surprising how many power-5 programs are afraid to go after a guy who’s name sounds like the N-word.  Especially when you consider how most of their predominantly white student bases and boosters probably already use the word liberally behind closed doors, you’d think they wouldn’t bat an eye at a kid who’s name sounds like it in the first place.

But it feels like Knigga is going to be a kid who’s going to unfortunately suffer for what his name looks like it sounds like, mostly because teams don’t want to deal with the hot potato his name will create for their general PR.  You’d think, especially in like an SEC school, where most of the students are a bunch of racists to begin with, Knigga would be capable of moving a fuck-ton of merch from bros and troll bros who basically want to have an excuse to use the name that sounds like the word.

However, make no mistake, by the time the dust all settles, I agree with a lot of sentiment, that there will probably be a lot of sports journalists over the next few years, who will face some scrutiny, if not actual backlash, for them using Noah Knigga’s name.  And by no fault of his own, the poor guy will basically be, the living nightmare of sports journalists all over, and especially the ones local to where he ultimately ends up.

Dad Brog (#122): the endlessly scary world we live in

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I got an email from my kids’ preschool, stating that due to current events happening in Israel, the school would be taking measures to increase the presence of security on site.  You see, my children attend a preschool at a Jewish temple, not because we have any modicum of interest in religion, but solely based on the fact that it’s a well-rated preschool with a proven track record of taking fantastic care of children.

Sure enough, the next time I had the opportunity to drop the girls off myself, there were extra security vehicles in the parking lot, and although I knew this was coming, it still pained me to the heart to see the entire temple feel the need for increased security due to happenings halfway across the planet.

Don’t get me wrong, I know Jews have had perhaps the rawest deal in human history.  I’ve been doing a little side project which basically entails reading up on the events and happenings of every single date, and I’m not kidding when I can say that sparingly, does a day go by, where at some point in history, I don’t come across an event there weren’t a number of Jewish people who were killed, primarily just for the fact that they were Jewish.  And I’m not talking about just World War II, all throughout history, basically since the Judaism was invented, at some point in time on every single day, Jews have been persecuted and/or killed just for being Jewish.

But back to my tiny little world here, it’s absolutely mortifying to think that there would be people so radicalized, so hateful or so just plain misguided, that they’d take action against a freaking preschool, full of children ranging from ages 1-5.  A bunch of kids who are all yet still so pure and innocent and don’t even understand that horrific things are happening in Israel.  Not that anyone is deserving of being attacked with the intention to kill, especially these kids should not be targeted and I’m not just saying it because my kids are also students there.  They’re all just kids, and it takes a real sick fuck to go after them.

It’s just really, really scary to think that my kids’ school even feels the need to shore up their security, and I don’t blame them at all.  It wasn’t even a year ago where another Jewish temple not that far from where I am, had bigots demonstrating right outside their property, brandishing actual Nazi swastikas, with absolutely no fear of doing so without needing to protect their identities.  I know the Jewish community has had it bad historically, and I don’t question one bit when they feel the need to beef up.

I don’t follow the news because my plate is always so full without the feeling of needing to be up-to-date in current events, not to mention that the news is always just so god damn depressing as it is, that I don’t want to hear of such shit in my life, so I’m actually quite uneducated on the specifics on what’s happening out in Israel.  But from what bits and pieces I hear from my friends’ groups chatter, it doesn’t really seem more of anything outside the ordinary from how Jews have had it historically, which is, always a sad thing to hear.  And it’s absolutely frightening to think that it’s why my kids’ school thousands of miles and a continent away, still feels concerned about their safety.  😞

Straight up Nazis

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the weekend, I gave blood.  Little did I realize that the bloodmobile I was giving blood at, was like a block away from where there was a straight up Nazi demonstration in front of a synagogue.

Like, I don’t really have much reason to posted about this at all, other than to condemn and hope that some very internet-ty consequences come to those straight up Nazis who participated in this demonstration.  I guess there’s a proximity thing that makes me feel like I dodged some sort of metaphorical bullet that makes me feel like addressing it.

But really, straight up Nazis.  I firmly believe that there are tons of actual racists and antisemites, but most of these bigots are smart enough to know to keep their bigotry on the downlow, so that they can, exist in modern civilized society, and not be ostracized for their misguided hatred.

However, what we had here, was an actual group of people, who were unapologetically, full disclosure, no attempt to hide their identity, straight up Nazis.  I’m actually a little bit surprised at it, because even the oft-criticized American public school curriculum teaches us that Nazis are some bad people.

And yet, we have a group of people who are completely at peace with their choice to be sympathizers and willing agitators of such extreme hatred, and I’m just kind of like wow.

Also, there’s an easy connection to make with where this happened and the old controversy of Wolfenstein Elementary AKA East Side Elementary and their once, a-little-too-much-like-the-Nazi-eagle logo, but from what I understand this group is like a traveling group of Nazis that just kind of go around to harass synagogues with their surprising Nazism.

Either way, like I said, I don’t really know why I felt the compulsion to write about this.  I guess it was so flagrant and surprisingly shock value, that I just felt like I should share my two cents about the topic.  Obviously there’s something to be said about even acknowledging it at all which isn’t really helping the greater good, but like I said, with all the open identities there, I hope these shitheads are spread out, identified, and get doxed or lose some jobs, because people like this have no business being able to coexist among more civilized people in this country.

Never thought I’d ever see NBA Champion Denver Nuggets

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Originally, when I thought about writing about the Denver Nuggets, it was contingent that they actually won the NBA Championship before anything would be written about them.  I was going to write about being a millennial and seeing the strange sensation of seeing certain teams in major sports break through the wall of success and win a championship. 

But the more I did some cursory research on the history books, at least as far as being a millennial goes, MLB and the NFL doesn’t have nearly the parity as the NBA has had throughout, at least my lifetime.  Which is really strange to say about the NBA having parity, considering the seeming dynasties that have run rampant throughout my own lifetime, with the Bulls, Lakers, Spurs and Warriors all winning a ton of championships, but at the same time, the NBA has had more teams squirt through the cracks of history and win a championship, and break streaks of franchises to never be champions before.

Growing up, the NBA really was my first love as far as sports fandom went.  I was a big Knicks fan, but also a supporter of the Washington Bullets, and whenever the Knicks were bounced by the Chicago Bulls, I’d typically prefer to see them win over whoever emerged from the West.

That being said, during my own upbringing as an NBA fan, there were always certain teams that were always the doormats and/or the laughing stocks of the NBA.  The teams we never, ever wanted to play in a video game, the teams we always went ballistic whenever our favorite teams ever lost to them, if it ever happened, and the teams that were always forgotten about whenever talking about the league in general.

During this time, some of those teams were the Warriors, the Bucks, the Mavs, Cavs and of course, the Denver Nuggets.  Sure, at various points, some of those teams had some fairly successful seasons as far as win percentages go, but they were still never serious threats to win championships, usually being fodder for the Bulls, Lakers, Pistons and the Rockets.

I remember how weird it seemed when the Spurs broke through the glass ceiling and won their first championship.  I was resentful because I was a Knicks fan, and I chalked up the Spurs’ win to being a lockout shortened year, and how it shouldn’t really count.  But then they’d go on to win several more championships over the next decade, and truly cementing themselves as one of the all-time great teams.

The same could be said of when the Miami Heat broke into the upper echelon, even before LeBron James took his talents to South Beach and won two more championships, and the same was said when the Golden State Warriors not only reached the top of the mountain, they built a house on top of it, winning four championships and basically living in the NBA Finals for the better part of a decade.

However, aside from the teams that grew into dynasties, regardless of my casual, and only during the playoffs interest in the NBA, I’m always fascinated by the teams that sneak out a championship, seemingly, to me, out of nowhere.  Especially when they’re one of the teams that I grew up thinking would never, ever, in a million years, see a championship ascension, regardless that on a long enough timeline, everyone eventually has to win one of these days.

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Yet another losing faith in humanity scenarios

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In one of my friends group chats, one of my bros posted a picture of himself with a book, attempting to be funny; it’s okay because he’s black obviously.  Now of course there’s a part of me that did think it was funny, but more than that, I had more questions than I thought it was amusing the whole irony of black guy perusing book with inflammatorily racist title.  Namely, the curiosity on if it really were a book with 328 pages with nothing but the N-word in it, or if it were just an attention-grabbing title, with the contents of the book actually being something substantial.

Nope, it was the exact polar opposite in the sense that it actually had absolutely nothing at all inside of it, as in zero text whatsoever, between the header and footer of every page.  And according to Amazon, it’s not even actually 328 pages, so it’s more like 242 blank sheets of paper sandwiched into a book form, and it’s somehow $14.99 on Amazon, and shocking to absolutely nobody is that it’s been purchased enough to have a slew of verified purchasing reviewers doing their best jobs of being internet comics and failing predictably with “reviews” of it.

All the same, what we have here is another classic example of people out there in the world who knowingly put out means for people to spend actual currency that are useless, pointless, known wastes of said currency; and then to no surprise, people go out and actually do it, because they think it’s funny and/or they really are that stupid to where they’re completely at ease with dumping their cash for goods or services that serve no purpose whatsoever, instead of, possibly putting it to any good use at all.  Not for themselves, not for charity, not for anyone at all, but basically the equivalent of knowingly setting their own personal cash on fire.

It’s like the idiots who raised $50,000+ for some clown’s GoFundMe trying to make a potato salad, or that time where Cards Against Humanity had a live-streaming sale where people paid in real-time to keep an excavator operating digging holes for absolutely no reason, or when Cards Against Humanity literally sold nothing for $5 a pop and still raised tons of money.

People just, love to throw their money away, when they think in doing so, they’re in on some clever joke.  And it’s instances like this where it’s apparent that some people have too much money or too little intelligence or both, and it just turns into scenarios where the end result is just a nihilistic feeling of disappointment and losing faith in the species to where people would rather spend $5 on nothing than putting it to absolutely any form of productivity instead.

I know this is rich coming from a person who has spend an inordinate amount of money on replica wrestling belts, but at least those purchases are going to businesses or individuals, or parties where amassing money is some sort of objective, and not knowingly throwing it into a barrel fire.

And here’s the worst part; while looking up the particular book, just to get my facts straight, it turns out that it’s not alone.  I wish I could say I were surprised by this, but of course I’m not surprised, that there are basically two other alternatives, with one of them literally changing out one word and adding “Fun” into it, while the other is just fewer alleged pages.  And that’s just on Amazon alone, I can only imagine how many other copycat “publications” of this same title are floating out there.

Naturally, people are buying them, and aside from disgust, I’m also a little envious in the fact that these clowns are also getting a cut of the purchases of their bad jokes, while I’m struggling to make ends meet every single month and always looking for ways to try and make some extra money in order to have some breathing room.  I can’t say that I wouldn’t be above trying to capitalize on bullshit to make money, but there’d probably be a part of me that wouldn’t want to be a flagrant hypocrite in order to try it out.