Before the project, I knew nothing about can collectors, though I saw them in every street corner, but they had such a blurred appearance that I couldn’t recognize their existence. We’re living in this huge city but our lives never intersected. However, that changed because of this random side job. Now, I became a friend of the can collections. They have names, friends, families, and also, stories. They’re no longer just a city scene, but living human beings who deserve respect and dignity.

Can Collectors FAQ

Who are the can collectors?

They can be anyone – all races, all ethnicities, all gender, all educational backgrounds, all immigrant status. We thought all things just mentioned above were important in order for success, and to some degree, they were. However, these things were trivial when it came to survival, particularly in bad times.

Why people are doing it?

For money, absolutely. Although news and discussion about the bad economy was everywhere, I thought NYC wasn’t hit as hard as other places. If I had observed carefully, I would have noticed, Chinatown for example, all the garment factories were now outsourced, restaurants had slower business, and rent was at its rocket price. I remember when I first came to the US, most Chinese immigrant women were garment factory workers, and these factories were all over Chinatown and mid-town Manhattan. In just 10 years, it was difficult to find one unless you fly to Asian countries like China, India, Indonesia etc. Moreover, a long time after 911, Chinatown was like a dead city, the main source for income – tourism was very slow for recovery. How would people not need to seek other ways for survival?

How do people do it?

The recycling business is a complex industry that not many people are aware of. The bottling company, beverage company, distributors, retailers and consumers were all involved in the system. It took us a very long time in the documentary to finally understand where the money was in the can collecting business. However, for people at the end of the chain – can collectors, the money was made through the hard way – street to street, trash cans to trash cans, dumpsters to dumpsters, buildings to buildings, one can/bottle at a time, 5 cents each,  boiling hot or freezing cold, all night out, hours of walking, picking, counting and redeeming. Sometimes, their work was life threatened.

Other than the facts, I actually want to tell a story.

Cheezy was the Chinese immigrant woman I met on the project, hardest worker with the greatest heart. When I met Cheezy, as well as other can collectors, I was a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed that I was different. How stupid was that? I thought we were different because I had the nice things that they didn’t have. I just realized, those things we had didn’t identify who we were as a person. This was a lesson that Cheezy helped me to rediscover.

Cheezy came to the US alone, left her family behind in the village in China. She used to have a job, just like many other can collectors on the street, but the restaurant she worked ran out of business after 911, and then she started her can business full time.

Cheezy worked so hard. On a regular day, she started her day around 11am – caning at designated neighborhood (downtown Manhattan, West Village, Soho, or the East Village), finish canning around 8pm then taking the carts full of cans and bottles back to Pathmark Redemption Center. BUT THAT’S NOT IT! She would continue a second trip for another two hours for more canning then back to Pathmark again and start counting how many cans and bottles she collected in a day. 2-3pm is usually when she can go home and rest. 3-4 hours later, she has to show up at Pathmark at 6am to redeem.The next day repeated the day before.

A long day and very tiring labor work. But Cheezy never complaint or blame her hardship on anyone. She is a core believer that everyone has the opportunity to make money if your work hard- yes, the core believer of the American Dream. And often, she laughed so loud. Many little things, like the director mispronounced a Chinese word, would just took her breath away, because she found it so funny and laughed so hard.   Sometimes I couldn’t understand, what she can be so happy when life is so hard on her?

What made me admire her is not just her optimism and enthusiasm, as well as her giving heart. Each time we went out, and usually when we asked for a favor,  she fought for the bill for a drink, a pastry and a meal. She took friend who recently immigrated and being exploited by his boss,  to grocery shopping and paid for his food. Do you know, HOW MANY CANS WERE THERE IN THE GROCERIES???  - she had to collect hundreds of cans for it. She gave a hair cut and shave to her friend J, who became homeless after 911 and no one came near him, except Cheezy. She picked him up under the bridge (don’t know which bridge), brought him to Pathmark where he could stay indoor, taught him the lesson of survive through can collection.

She surprised me, a lot. I don’t understand again, when life is hard, and every penny was made from sweat, how could Cheezy be so giving? And why some people, who have everything in their life, became very skeptical in helping others.

I learned a big lesson from this group of people: nice outfits, nice cars, Channel purses, even education level and successful career, don’t define who we are, but hope, resilience and integrity do.

When it comes to impoverishment, injustice, and inequality, we can’t just be selective blind.

Yes, the problem is the “I” issue. We’re all too busy thinking I give the most, I have more problems, I do it for you, etc. and you, you don’t understand, you don’t appreciate it, you don’t care, etc. Sounds familiar right?

If the ego me is the problem, then what should we do? Here is the sad thing, although we know the problem, we don’t want to change. Why I am the one have to change? See, again, here is the “I”. Our love comes with dignity and pride, we hold them so tight even they hurt us sometimes.

I really suck, so do you!!

Before I start to nag, just to give you a little background about the show – it’s a reality show based in HK, where inequality between the rich and the poor widens. Five people from the top of the society, despite what they had in real life,  participated in the show by taking a role in the lower class struggling daily to have their needs met.

These five people, most of them have a descent upbringing that they never have to worry about money. They are well-educated and successful in their careers. Many of them, believe that your current situation is a consequence of the free-market battle, the weak ones are eliminated through competition. Moreover, they also believe that one’s current status is simply an outcome of previous planning or lack of planning. In the show, these five people live the life as people at the margin of the society – who  live in “cage room”, work 2-3 jobs at minimum wages and barely pass by. These people – from the lower class, never benefited from the rise of free-market, they’re parents who cannot afford to provide their kids with better education and opportunities, so that their kids begin to loose the game at the starting point; they’re young people who don’t have opportunities for upward mobility, even if they try; they’re elderly who have nothing to rely on, except themselves, and who have nothing to hope for, except the end of life.

And often, these people are invisible, invisible to many of us, to the government, to the people at the other side of the game. In the show, the five people would work and live like them, and to learn or widen their perspective of poverty. Fortunately for them, the show is just an experience whereas it’s life to many others.

After watching the show, I couldn’t help but to relate it to the recent hot topic – OWS.  Yes, many people, including many of my friends, questioned about the need and/or significance of the ongoing demonstration, and many of them didn’t even care. To be honest with you, although I protested and demonstrated, I didn’t fully understand the focus of it, the core messages and demands remained a bit ambiguous. Perhaps, I should have put it this way, what made it ambiguous and unclear was that we had too many problems and demands, and it is more complicated than just banking system, financial regulation, etc. Along those lines, inequalities and injustice are just ramifications.

The gap between the rich and the poor, with no doubts, is widening, ordinary people have less opportunities to advance and pursuit, resources have been unevenly allocated, the promise of American Dreams which emphasize on hard-work and accomplishment is broken – aren’t these problems daunted and exasperated? Should Wall Street be the only one to blame for all these issues? I don’t think so. Then who else? The government who is supposed to represent the majority but fails to do so? The protesters who might just be lazy people pointing fingers at others to justify their misfortune? Or million/billion dollar earners who lacks a sense of social responsibility? Maybe the answer is all of above.

I certainly don’t understand enough to talk about improving bank system and government policy. However, as idealist, there is something that I wish to see as a change. I am aware that the world is never going to be a fair place, but I wish to see the world to become a better place that everyone can work toward ensuring equality and justice.

I don’t hate the rich. To a large degree, I admire the rich, who have the talents, attributes, courage, efforts and opportunities to become who they are today. It’s surely more than a blessing. All I hope is that, they can also be aware of that, there are people who also work as hard as they do, just don’t make it. To the rich: God gives you the talent and ability to make a fortune, so you can help many others that don’t.

第一次出發，是深秋初冬的一個星期四，下着濕冷的雨。有一霎那，還真得想說，還是在辦公室附近隨便吃吃好了。不過畢竟，美食的吸引力大於方便。 今天我們要吃的是 Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ (牛角烤肉)。Gyu-Kaku好像很多地方都有分店。紐約有中城和東村兩家分店，最特別的地方是Lady M為他們家提供獨家綠茶口味的Mille Crepes！！！我們選擇了東村的分店，除了因爲東村是我們非常喜歡的一個neighborhood, 年輕，有活力，更重要的是東村分店的午餐Menu選擇比較多。

12:30pm, 人流量不多。我們點了一份lunch special的”Meat Lover Set”, 有miso soup, 白飯，沙拉和chunk rib 和 Yakishabu 兩种牛肉。再分開點了蔬菜，烤蘑菇，烤菠菜，牛舌，Hanger Steak, Chunk Kalbi, 和多加了一份miso soup, 白飯，沙拉 （哈哈，好像太能吃了)

食物的質量：首先有點失望不是用碳烤的。肉的口感還不錯，還是滿juicy的。只是味道稍微太咸了，有點腌過頭的感覺，也因此吃太不出肉本身的新鮮度。不過烤蘑菇和菠菜可以推薦，食物都是用錫紙袋包着直接放在爐子上烤。烤好之後打開可以聞到蒜和牛油的味道，很香。 也許是因爲午餐的原因，食物種類並沒有很多，沒有什麽海鮮類的烤物。而且menu上的一些食物也沒有提供，比如説是bacon蘆筍卷和bacon金針菇卷也都沒有。 我們開玩笑說，因爲昨天晚上賣光了！最後，午餐時沒有提供Lady M的綠茶Mille Crepe！！！所以我們補償式的點了Lava Chocolate Cake. 網上很多評論都說，他們家的Lava cake很成功，蛋糕一切開，裏面的巧克力醬回像熔岩一樣往外流。可是我們點的是失敗之作，沒有火山，也沒有熔岩，而且非常非常的甜。

價格：這個午餐，我們兩個連小費一共吃了$46。比起晚餐的價格，還是很划算的。Meat lover的lunch set, 有10 oz的牛肉，只是索價$12。每一樣單點的烤物，午餐的時候只需要半價。像牛舌和牛扒，每一份就只需要$4. 而我們兩個人點的分量有點太多了，吃完了都撐得不想説話。

不過一點需要注意的是，吃烤肉是需要時間的。兩個偷跑出來吃午餐的小小白領，吃的一半的時候開始緊張無比，開始拼命的把食物全部靠熟，就急着趕緊吃完回到辦公室，免得被老闆發現說，我們的午餐居然吃了兩個小時。哈哈

Bon Appetit & Happy Lunch

這一向不是我愛看的電影類型

也許是太久沒有輕鬆的心情

又或許是很久沒有看過電影

反正看完的時候 心情是飛揚的

我對電影的評價 就只是簡單的喜歡和不喜歡

我喜歡美麗精致的畫面 我喜歡輕鬆溫情 或深刻
(我真的沒辦法看沒有美感的畫面，我個人就認爲斷背山的畫面都髒髒的，是我太膚淺了）

不喜歡刻意的搞怪或純粹的搞笑 

隨便挑的兩部電影 不深刻 可是有美麗的畫面 (謝濤會說的是小資情調)

兩部電影 都是簡單俗套的愛情故事 不單純 卻很美好

好的電影 就是看完之後可以微笑 也可以深思

嗯 我還是願意相信那些簡單的美好

前幾天去了Atlanta出差，Roy也剛好有長周末，所以我們在Atlanta逛了一圈。

Atlanta不是一個非常excited的城市，不過World of Coca Cola 和水族館還是很值得去的。 我喜歡在水族館找到的童真，也喜歡可口可樂把自己的品牌變成一種文化。

成立於1989年，從幾個義工開始，發展成爲今天有20個Full-time staff, 27個Part-time staff, 20多個programs(包括預防，教育到一個提供comprehesive medical care的診所），服務超過200個PWA(people living with AIDS)，一年的budget是310萬美金。在最初最初的時候，沒有人想到APICHA會這樣的走過20年，在無數的反對聲中，以及極少的資源中， 服務着最邊緣的人群 , 以及充滿爭議性的議題。可是，20年過去了， APICHA是成功的，無數的故事見證這個組織存在的價值。這些故事，往往震撼我的心靈，也往往讓我知道，我從事的是很多人在20年前就開始的一個願景。

老闆是APICHA的創辦人之一，當年一個20多嵗的年輕人，在下班之後，利用工作地方的辦公室開會，用辦公室的電腦重復的寫着grant申請經費。從第一個grant到第一個正式辦公室， 一路到今天，我真的覺得是一件很偉大的事情。把理想變成現實，而且20年來，這個信念一直堅定。我很admireAPICHA的每一個創辦人，但是我最admire的是，到了今天，APICHA依然堅持什麽是最重要的。APICHA是我見過那麽多的非營利機構裏面很有藝術深度的一個， 出現在很多細節，很細緻。辦公的地方非常的樸實，除了辦公桌就是文件柜。可是服務客人的診所和會談室， 永遠是簡單卻充滿心思的佈置。John說，他不希望走進來這裡的病人，覺得自己是secondary citizen。

20年，説長也不短，但是很多人，往往忘記了最初的夢想和信仰。

http://apicha.org/

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A Thousand and One Champions Gala