Downsize DC is suspending operations

Quote of the Day: ”We must suspend operations until further notice.” — Jim Babka

Back in June we said we were “burning our ships and marching inland,” in order to do the One Sack infrastructure project.

We weren’t kidding.

We really did “burn our ships.”

We spent well above our budget to try and get the project done by August 8. We had to do it. Our infrastructure problems were choking our progress. Well …

We succeeded with the project, but failed with the time-line. It took us three extra weeks to get it done.

Which means that we busted our budget by more than we intended to bust it. That would be a survivable problem except that …

We didn’t get much response to our Dispatch yesterday which said that we had finished One Sack, but that we were $6,400 in the hole.

I’m grateful to those who responded. We received about $1,000. But the shortfall started sirens ringing here. We can’t do our job if we can’t pay our bills. The hole is still big enough that I must take drastic action now.

That’s why I’m suspending operations until further notice — until we get our financial hole filled.

That means there will no Dispatches targeting Congress, or new campaigns, or other projects, until we raise the remaining $5,400.

In yesterday’s Dispatch, I was so full of hope — excited about, and seeing our bright future. THAT FUTURE, WITH 43 NEW TOOLS FOR GROWTH, IS RIGHT AT OUR FINGERTIPS. But, if we don’t raise the remaining $5,400, quickly, then …

We really are in trouble. If you want to help us get back to work, please contribute using our secure web form, or PayPal, now.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. I know that there is someone reading this message who could cover half of the shortfall — or even all of what is needed. Today is the day we need YOU!

P.P.S. If tax-deductibilty of your contribution is crucial, please make your contribution to the Downsize DC Foundation.

Our mailing address is …

1931 15th St. 
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223

Wired youth from China, Japan suffer from ‘character amnesia’

Like every Chinese child, Ms Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

However, the 21-year-old university student now finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as “embarrassed” have slipped from her mind.

“I can remember the shape but I can’t remember the strokes that you need to write it,” she says. “It’s a bit of a problem.”

Surveys indicate the phenomenon, dubbed “character amnesia”, is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.

There is even a Chinese word for it: “Tibiwangzi”, or “take pen, forget character”. 

A poll commissioned by the China Youth Daily in April found that 83 per cent of the 2,072 respondents admitted having problems writing characters.

“When I can’t remember, I will take out my cellphone and find it (the character) and then copy it down,” Ms Li says.

Young Japanese also report the problem, which is caused by the constant use of computers and mobile phones with alphabet-based input systems.

Tokyo student Maya Kato, 22, said: “I hardly write anymore, which is the main reason why I have forgotten so many characters.”

Character amnesia matters because memorisation is so crucial to character-based written languages, says Ms Siok Wai Ting, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Hong Kong University. Forgetting how to write could eventually affect reading ability.

“Through writing, we memorise the characters. Reading and writing are more closely connected in Chinese,” she says.

Chinese reading even uses a different part of the brain from reading the Roman alphabet, Ms Siok’s research has found. It is a part closer to the motor area, which is used for handwriting.

Some argue that the perceived decline in character knowledge is, in fact, nothing to worry about.

A survey by the Chinese news portal Dayang Net found that 80 per cent of respondents had forgotten how to write some characters but 43 per cent said they used handwritten characters for signatures and forms.

“The idea that China is a country full of people who write beautiful, fluid literature in characters without a second thought is a romantic fantasy,” wrote the blogger and translator C Custer on his Chinageeks blog.

“Given the social and financial pressures that exist for most people in China … (and) given that nearly everyone has a cellphone, it really isn’t a problem at all.”