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Life & Times Transcript
03/13/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Gambling has become more popular with Americans and, for one group, it's become more of a problem. Dr. Timothy Fong>> The Chinese equate, if you win a lot of money gambling, that you are blessed with a lot of luck, that the ancestors somehow look down on you with good fortune. Val Zavala>> And then, is it humor or blasphemy? Why has a series of political cartoons set off such violent protests? These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> There are more opportunities to gamble in our society than ever before and that means there are more gambling addicts than ever before. But one community is especially susceptible to this addiction. Sam Louie has their story. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> Whether it's the thrill of winning, the dream of hitting a big jackpot or just the adrenalin rush of taking a risk, Americans love to gamble. Dr. Timothy Fong>> It was generating more money than sports, movies, amusement parks combined. Sam Louie>> And gambling revenues today are more than double what they were ten years ago. Dr. Timothy Fong is the co-director of the UCLA gambling studies program. Dr. Timothy Fong>> We're essentially a gambling nation kind of like the way we're a fast food nation. So, in a way, Americans' appetite for gambling is just growing and growing and, as demand grows and the supply grows, more and more folks are certainly participating in gambling. Sam Louie>> But no group loves to gamble more than Asian-Americans and that has led to a serious problem: gambling addiction. Dr. Timothy Fong>> In Chinatown, in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1990s, they did a prevalence study and found out about twenty percent of people who were living in San Francisco's Chinatown met the criteria for problem pathological gambling. In another study on the east coast in Connecticut, they found roughly a forty percent prevalence rate among Southeast Asian first generation immigrants. Sam Louie>> John Wang of Rowland Heights is a recovering gambling addict. He came to the United States in 1979 to study computer science at USC. Wang left Taiwan on his own, but he brought with him his love of cards and chance. John Wang>> First month, within a month, I cannot wait to visit Las Vegas. Sam Louie>> Wang did not bet much while he was in school, but after he graduated and got married, both he and his wife had good-paying jobs as software engineers. Wang could not resist the high-stakes action of Las Vegas. John Wang>> Every year, I always lose about an average ten thousand a year during that period of time from 1981 to 1987 and 1988. Sam Louie>> At this point, were you thinking you might have a gambling problem? John Wang>> No, at the time, I was thinking I really had a bad habit. Sam Louie>> Shortly afterwards, he decided to try and outsmart the system by learning how to count cards. It paid off handsomely. Wang won a total of eighty thousand dollars at Blackjack during two trips to Vegas. John Wang>> I feel like I'm not inside the airplane. I feel like I'm just on top of the airplane and floating back home. I think, wow! On the last flight, what I dreamed of was going to come true because two trips in a row I win so much money. At that time, I definitely feel like I'm a pro. Sam Louie>> But the good times didn't last long. Within six months, he lost that eighty thousand and was also one hundred thousand dollars in debt. John Wang>> I was easily going crazy. I'm so mad with my wife, with my kids. I was yelling and sometimes throwing things. I could see myself losing control. Sam Louie>> His wife, Catherine, knew it was taking a toll on the marriage and their three young children. Catherine Wang>> The children were in fear because, when the parents' relationship is not good, we are arguing all the time and fighting over this problem, and they are just victims of the whole thing because our minds are on this problem. We don't have time for them. Later on, they told me that, when we are arguing and quarreling, they just ran upstairs and cried together. Sam Louie>> At UCLA, Dr. Timothy Fong is conducting a one-year study to better understand the relationship between Asians and gambling here in the Los Angeles region. Dr. Timothy Fong>> Every casino you go into here in Los Angeles, you see a high percentage of Asian gambling, much higher than the actual prevalence rates of Asians who are in California, which is around eleven or twelve percent. So you go in the casinos and it's like forty, fifty, sixty percent of the patrons are Asian. Sam Louie>> Casinos often target Asian communities with flyers, mailings, phone calls and cheap shuttle services to and from the casinos. Experts say Asians are one of the most vulnerable groups to develop a gambling addiction. That's because culturally gambling is often seen as an acceptable form of socialization. In addition, the themes of luck, chance and superstition play a major role in Asian tradition. Dr. Timothy Fong>> The Chinese equate, if you win a lot of money gambling, that you are blessed with a lot of luck, that the ancestors somehow look down on you with good fortune, and the Chinese equate those who win a lot of money with being good people from moral standpoints. Whereas, if they lost a lot of money, they're seen as not only losing financially, but somehow bankrupt morally too. Sam Louie>> These types of attitudes along with their pride in keeping the family name honorable makes it hard for many Asians to ask for help. Catherine Wang>> I think a lot of people, the gambler or especially in the Asian or Chinese communities, because of the face issue, we don't want to open our problems. In this way, it's very difficult to reach out and get help. Sam Louie>> By the time Catherine's husband admitted he was addicted to gambling, their marriage was in turmoil. John was depressed and even considered suicide. John Wang>> I think if I cannot bring the money back, I'd better die than suffer. Diane Ujiiye>> We're also seeing what we call ancillary problems, such as domestic violence, alcoholism, bankruptcy. Sam Louie>> Diane Ujiiye is the chair of the Asian-Pacific Islander Gambling Task Force. She wants the state to develop more outreach and prevention services specifically targeting Asians like a model program in San Francisco. Diane Ujiiye>> They've developed in-language materials that de-stigmatize problems in pathological gambling. They have a hotline, a help line, in Mandarin and Cantonese. They also have trained, certified in-language counselors. Sam Louie>> The state contributes three million dollars to fund brochures and a toll-free hotline for gambling addicts. Ujiiye would like the state to spend more on counselors to help Asian-Americans in particular, both the gambler and the families. Diane Ujiiye>> When the gambler goes home, the family often has a whole host of problems to contend with. So we want to be able to also educate the wife or the auntie or the children about what's going on with the gambler. Sam Louie>> After more than a decade of uncontrollable gambling, depression and a marriage teetering on divorce, John Wang broke his addiction to gambling. He gives much of the credit to a local Chinese church. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> He credits God, prayer and family support for the biggest victory of his life. John Wang>> There's hope. If you admit you have this problem, then you can overcome just like I did. In thirty years, I never went back to gamble again. Sam Louie>> Wang admits that, for Asian-Americans, breaking through the cultural belief that winning at gambling is a blessing will make it harder for gamblers to quit, but he did it and wants others in his community to know that the only real losers are those who are afraid to get help for their addiction. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> Now for this Life and Times story update. Last September, we told you about Crenshaw High School. At the time, it was a school in crisis. Curriculum did not meet state standards, absenteeism and tardiness were chronic, test scores were dismal. So the Western Association of Schools and Colleges stripped Crenshaw High of its accreditation, something that happens to only two percent of California high schools. But now the good news. On January 31, Crenshaw High was re-accredited for a year. The accreditation was restored after school administrators reduced class size and instituted stricter policies and procedures. The LAUSD allocated five million dollars for improvement. Two hundred laptop computers were brought in. Winning back their accreditation has boosted morale. Carol Hart>> Actually, I think this has almost been a blessing in disguise because there were a lot of apathetic parents and community members who just thought that it was business as usual. Now that they see that things aren't business as usual, they've risen to the occasion. Val Zavala>> The accreditation is for one year. Crenshaw's principal says a lot of work remains to be done and the association will be back to review the school's progress. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Anne McDermott>> Have you been wondering why the political reaction in the Mideast has been so very, very intense over some cartoons? Well, we got some answers here at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. That's where Dr. Dudley Woodbury is Professor of Islamic Studies when he isn't on one of his many visits to Islamic countries around the world. [Film Clip] Anne McDermott>> Dr. Woodbury is not surprised at the protests against political cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> Muslims' identity is tied up with Mohammed. There are a number of reasons for this. He is their role model. He's considered the ideal person. Even their confession of faith, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the Apostle of God". The part "there is no God but God", that links them with Jews and Christians as monotheists. But it is "and Mohammed is the Apostle of God" that makes them unique. Then Islam is considered a total way of life. Politics, ethnicity, religion, nationality. So for Mohammed to be the model, that applies to every area of their life. When you look at blasphemy laws in that part of the world -- we lived in Pakistan, we lived in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, many parts of the Muslim world -- but in Pakistan, when they talk about the blasphemy law, it is usually applied to defaming Mohammed, not to defaming God. They will not even mention the name of Mohammed without a blessing after it, a blessing which says "Prayers and peace be upon him". Then they won't even make a picture of him, even a sacred picture of him. Now the Persians or Iranians do sometimes, but generally the orthodox Muslims will not even make a picture of him that is a holy picture. Anne McDermott>> Yet Western media have treated Western religious icons in ways that offend many Christians, depicting a rapper in a Christ-like pose, for example. Do Westerners care less about religion? Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> No, no. We do care about our religion. These are offensive and, again, we would say, if our liberties and where our neighbors begin, these are really crowding on the area of religious Christians, for example. Having said this, even people who feel very strongly about the Bible -- Christians -- will put a Bible sometimes down on the floor or will put a hymn book on the floor or put it on the seat beside them when they're sitting in a church pew. A Muslim would never do this. They have Koran holders to hold them high. So for them to be religious, they feel that they have to be much more observant of the symbols and the sacredness of the symbols and the caring of symbols. Anne McDermott>> As for the protests, well, Dr. Woodbury believes the fact that the protests are occurring now is understandable. Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> Lots of things have been building up for some time. A feeling of injustice over the Palestine-Israel situation, a feeling of being invaded by non-Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq no matter how well intentioned we were in all of this. Then the pressure on Iran not to develop nuclear capabilities right now. Now what we don't realize is that this is at a period of time -- it's called the Tenth of Muharram for Shiite Muslims and a majority of Iranians are Shiites -- this is when they have the greatest religious fervor of any time of the year. Way back during the Khomeini regime, it was at the Tenth of Muharram time that the American Embassy was taken over. So this is a time of great religious fervor, so for this type of thing to happen right now is like lancing a boil that lets out all of the frustrations that have been building up over a period of time. Anne McDermott>> It sounds as though ultimately this has very little to do with political cartoons. Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> I would say that there has been enough frustrations that have built up on both sides so that it doesn't take as much as we might think to lance the boil, you might say. What you've had is, for years, Muslims settling in the West. On the one hand, they have often not been sensitive to the feelings of the Westerners. On the other hand, many of them have gotten frustrated without jobs and being looked at as second class citizens in many cases. So frustrations have been building up on both sides and it sometimes takes that straw on the camel. But I would say that, when you're talking about Mohammed, it's much more than a straw on a camel. It's a whole bale of hay, you might say, on the camel. This is a very sensitive issue for them, but it is releasing frustrations that have built up for a much longer time. Anne McDermott>> Dr. Woodbury says that Westerners must be more sensitive to their neighbors just as Muslims must, and the current protests will end eventually. Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> The whole region will probably have their voice. There's a sense that each person, each area, has to protest in some way. I would hope that, once each region has had their opportunity to protest, then things can die down. I was happy to see that, for example, in Lebanon where what started out as a peaceful demonstration and then ended up as a violent demonstration, some of the Muslims went to local Christians and said, "We're sorry it went this far. We had no intention of this going this far." So we are getting some of that which makes me feel very good right now. Anne McDermott>> Thank you so much for being with us. Dr. Dudley Woodbury>> Thank you, Anne. I appreciate the opportunity. Anne McDermott>> You're welcome. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> If you're a dog, you don't have to die to go to heaven. You can achieve Nirvana just by heading to a park off of Mulholland Drive. Canine commentator, Cris Franco, takes us there. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Welcome to the happiest place on earth if you're a Los Angeles dog. This is the Laurel Canyon Dog Park, also known as Doggie Disneyland. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> It's a place where hounds and their humans get to talk, bark, fetch, sniff, drink, lick and run free, free, free. For over a decade -- that's like seventy dog years -- hundreds of pet owners have been bringing their dogs to these three acres of doggie heaven. I wonder how many acres that is in dog acres? The dogs were too busy enjoying each other's company to talk, so I made conversation with their masters. And what do you and Slim get out of coming here to the dog park? >> I get time off because Slim sleeps a lot afterwards. Cris Franco>> I hear a lot of the -- >> Yeah, he really works, and they go crazy. Cris Franco>> Yeah, they seem to adore the company of other dogs. >> Well, yes, they're dogs (laughter). [Film Clip] >> We come to the dog park because she insists on meeting other dogs and because she wants to prove that other people like her more than I do. Cris Franco>> Oh, and what Nina wants, Nina gets. >> What Nina wants, Nina gets. >> Because I think it makes them so much happier and healthier, you know, if they're not constantly controlled by the leash. Cris Franco>> Is she a good dog? Do you like her? >> She's a real sweetheart. You know, like she hasn't gone to obedience school, so sometimes she has a -- Cris Franco>> -- well, neither have I. What does Luca, Lorna, Liza do for you? >> Okay, the basic thing is, he definitely stays with me 24/7. He follows me. If I stop, he stops. He will go wherever I go. He's like a tiny little infant. Cris Franco>> Or he's stalking you. >> He's stalking me. Cris Franco>> I'm not sure. She's eating grass. >> And that's good. Cris Franco>> Is that good for her? >> Yeah, grass is supposed to be good for them, you know. It helps with the digestion. It has, I think, certain vitamins -- Cris Franco>> -- high fiber, high fiber. >> Our dogs get along really well with other dogs and other people and that's really why we're here, to let them run around and get some exercise. Our yard is, unfortunately, not this big, so it's a nice place for them to run around. Cris Franco>> Well, this is three doggie acres of doggie heaven right here. And right here includes a watering area, this arts gallery, a gated play area for small children and a special pen for small dogs. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Are you small or timid (laughter)? What if you're both? >> Then you exactly belong here. Cris Franco>> Here's another sign you'll see at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park. "Aggressive dogs are not allowed in the park. Dogs exhibiting unusually aggressive behavior are to be removed from the park at once." Can we get that applied to people? Dogs and human beings are ninety-five percent genetically identical, yet unlike us, they're nonjudgmental, reliable, honest, love unconditionally. Do you think that dogs should be our role models? Yeah. Do you think that dogs should be our role models perhaps? >> Well, dogs are in many ways examples of how I think humans are supposed to live. Cris Franco>> Bingo! >> Unconditional love and joy. Like the minister said, if you believe in reincarnation, his view of being born as a dog in a good home is like a highly-evolved, higher maybe than human. He was half joking (laughter). Cris Franco>> I mean, if you're Paris Hilton's dog, you're like going to all the stuff and you got bling. Dogs greet each other by sniffing, so in my efforts to get in touch with my inner dog, I asked a couple of people to do the same to see if we couldn't tell something about each other. Go right ahead and tell me what you think. Oh, sniff me. Oh, she's good at it. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Anything? >> Just a nice person, that's all (laughter). Cris Franco>> I'm a nice person (laughter). >> I don't know, like it's hard to -- Cris Franco>> -- I like that. Are you the alpha dog in this relationship? >> Of course, I'm the alpha dog. Cris Franco>> You're the alpha dog and he's -- what you're saying is that's the key to controlling your dog. You have to let the dog think you're in charge. >> I am the alpha dog, but he is spoiled. Cris Franco>> In fact, American dogs are the most spoiled pets on the planet with fawning masters who lavish them with toys, totes, houses, pet portraits and Fido fashions. [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> Do you ever dress your dog? >> I have to because -- Cris Franco>> -- uh-oh, she does. We got a dog dresser. >> Yes, she has more coats than I do. Cris Franco>> She's totally -- >> -- I mean, black cocktail dress, and she's ready to go. Cris Franco>> But this club pup is not without controversy. There's a subject about which everyone is either pro or con. No one is neutral about neutering. Is Oreo neutered? >> He is neutered. Cris Franco>> So he's a he. >> Yes. Cris Franco>> Okay. How do you think he feels about having been neutered? >> I really don't think he pays much thought to it at all. Cris Franco>> Oh, really? >> He still marks everything he possibly can. I don't think he has any problems at all. Cris Franco>> He's a manly dog! He still marks. Is he your only dog? >> No. Our other one, Roxie, is running around over there. She's three years old. Cris Franco>> But she's not neutered. >> She's spayed. Cris Franco>> Spayed. So it's a different term? >> Yes. Cris Franco>> Didn't know. So women get -- bitches get spayed. >> Right. Cris Franco>> This is the only time you can say bitch on KCET, so I'm going to take every opportunity to say that the bitch is spayed. Don't you think that we should just preach abstinence to the dogs? >> I do. I preach abstinence and I keep my dog in on the weekends in fact. You know, basically I've cut up most of her credit cards and she has no email anymore. Cris Franco>> Body language is a dog's first language, but what do all these motions mean? If this dog licks me, is he saying that he loves me or that he loves what I had for lunch? I find it all hard to understand, but not most of the owners. Like what is he saying right now? What is your dog's body language saying right now? >> He's saying, "Daddy, does he have any treats for me?" Cris Franco>> Uh-huh. What's your dog thinking or saying, or what are you reading? >> "I don't want to go. Don't put me on the leash. I'm only coming to you because you don't have the leash on." Cris Franco>> The leash is bad. Bad leash. I think what most bowsers are saying is "I love the dog park because it lets me be all the dog I can be." [Film Clip] Cris Franco>> My afternoon at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park was beyond great. I got to be out in the sun and I got some exercise and I got to spend some quality time with an accepting, loving, intelligent, polite and supportive group -- and the people weren't bad either. Val Zavala>> Yeah, especially the ones who went to obedience school. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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