While I wouldn't mind joining in the debate on the latest controversy surrounding golf's teen titan, Michelle Wie, it would be more productive to mention some more profound matters involving another well-known Asian American female.
Yes, I'm talkin' 'bout the US Sec'y of Labor, Elaine Chao.
It seems that a few days ago, she addressed a commemoration of OSHA's 35th birthday. According to a Dept. of Labor press release, she commended the Occupational Safety and Health Admin. for a:
strong enforcement record, indicating how enforcement personnel have identified real safety and health hazards in the workplace, resulting in more than a 10% increase in citations for alleged violations over the past five years. Injuries and illnesses continue to decline significantly, she said, and workplace fatalities remain at historically low levels.
While acknowledging these stats, it seems to me that there might be other interpretations of the basic data. When you read reports of the weekly working death toll, as gathered up by Jordan Barab on his website on workplace safety, health, labor, and politics (Confined Space), you gotta wonder if there's a disconnect in the Labor department's data analysis.
Furthermore, I'm afraid I don't have much confidence in OSHA's capabilities, in recent years. I'd tend to regard the agency as a bit of a joke. My impression is that it's been emasculated under the current Administration. (I'm not certain how long OSHA's decline has been going on, whether it started under Clinton or earlier.)
3 House Democrats, this week, faulted OSHA for not following up on findings from the Nat'l. Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) about the danger of the chemical, diacetyl. It's used in popcorn flavoring, candy, frozen food, and dog food.
NIOSH concluded that exposure to this food-flavoring agent could cause a severe and often fatal lung disease known as "popcorn lung disease". (They figure 200 sick and 3 deaths, nationwide.)
...So something to think about for those of you who consume vast quantities of butter-flavored movie and microwave popcorn. (Warning: DO NOT SNORT popcorn!)
Yeah, so anyhow, the 3 Congressional reps (Miller and Solis from Calif., and Owens from NY) sent Chao a letter asking her to issue emergency safety rules for employees who work with diacetyl. We'll see what happens.
Chao also got lobbied, this week, by 200 women's groups to strengthen her department's Women's Bureau. The bureau is facing budget and staff cuts.
A project director at the Nat'l. Council of Women's organizations said:
"President Bush and the House Appropriations Committee have proposed cutting funding for the Women’s Bureau, positions are not being filled as they become vacant, and they’re giving away all of their institutional memory by outsourcing Women’s Bureau jobs to the lowest bidder.”
According to the bureau's website:
The U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, established by Congress in 1920, is the only federal agency mandated to represent the needs of wage-earning women in the public policy process.
Sounds, downright, wonkish.
In these times of Middle East warfare, I wouldn't be surprised if the only women that this Administration cares about are those rifle-toting babes in the IDF.(Israel Defense Force).