Daily Dose: 03/25/08
March 25, 2008
» AsianWeek Market Report
» AsianWeek Foundation Seeks Donations for School Raffle Program
» Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Selects Poster Contest Winner
» Vigil Scheduled to Honor Slain Duke Graduate Student
» Chinese-Born Engineer Gets 24 1/2 Years in Prison in Export Case
» New York Worker’s Rights Clinic for Non-English Speakers
» Asian American Film Festival Awards
» China Considers Barring Tiananmen Broadcasts During Olympics
» Daughter Says Former Philippine President Aquino Has Cancer
» Still No Sign of Hmong American Who Disappeared in Thailand
» Vietnamese Man Opens Home to Moms
BAY:
AsianWeek Foundation Seeks Donations for School Raffle Program
Raffle prizes are critical to the success of the program and are donated from local businesses and community members.
Raffle tickets are sold for $3 each. $2 of every ticket goes to the school. Additional prizes of $100 and $500 are awarded to the school selling at least 20 tickets and to the top seller for elementary, middle and high schools.
Last year, 25 different schools participated, representing over 17,000 students. The program raised nearly $10,000. The AsianWeek Foundation in turn donated 104% of the proceeds to participating schools in the
. . . . . . . . . .
Izumi Kurokawa of Sherman Oaks,
More than two dozen entries were reviewed by a panel of graphic designers, community volunteers and committee members. The contest was open to the public. Artists were asked to reflect the spirit of the matsuri (festival) season, emphasizing the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival’s 41st anniversary theme of kansha (appreciation). The festival will take place over two weekends, April 12-13, 19-20, in Japantown.
NATION:
Vigil Scheduled to Honor Slain Duke Graduate Student
Abhijit Mahato, 29, was studying for a doctorate in computational mechanics at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. The native of
The event was held by the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, Parents of Murdered Children and Durham Congregations in Action.
Two teenagers were indicted in Mahato’s death: Laurence Lovette, 17, and Stephen Oates, 19, both of
The autopsy on Mahato said he was shot at point-blank range in the forehead as a pillow was held tightly against his face. His wallet, cell phone and iPod were missing.
. . . . . . . . . .
Chinese-Born Engineer Gets 24 1/2 Years in Prison in Export Case
Chi Mak, 67, a naturalized
Mak was arrested in 2005 after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded flights to
Mak’s attorneys argued that the information was not classified and was made public at industry conferences attended by engineers from all over the world, including
Mak’s attorney, Ronald Kaye, said he would appeal.
. . . . . . . . . .
New York Worker’s Rights Clinic for Non-English Speakers
The clinic will take place on Monday, March 31, at the office of Councilman Liu in Flushing,
“Many workers throughout Flushing and
ARTS:
Asian American Film Festival Awards
The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival wrapped with an estimated attendance of 29,000.
The Jury Awards winners were announced before the Closing Night screening. Richie Mehta’s Amal won the Best Narrative Feature Award. The Special Jury Award was a tie between John Kwon’s Always Be Boyz and Ron Morale’ Santa
Planet B-Boy, directed by Benson Lee, won the Best Documentary Feature Award. The Special Jury Award was given to Wings of Defeat, directed by Risa Morimoto. The jury was comprised of Kathryn Lo (associate director of Program Development and Independent Film at PBS), filmmakers Stanley Nelson (Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People’s Temple) and Celine Parreñas Shimizu (Super Flip).
GLOBAL:
A ban on live broadcasts would disrupt the plans of NBC and other international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the games.
The bar to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by anti-government protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment venues far from the unrest.
Like the Olympics, live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square were meant to showcase a friendly, confident
. . . . . . . . . .
Daughter Says Former Philippine President Aquino Has Cancer
Aquino, 75, was swept into power by the peaceful uprising that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, cementing her as an icon of democracy and a harbinger of change to authoritarian regimes worldwide.
She has remained active in social and political causes, and has attended rallies calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
A former housewife, Aquino reluctantly took over as Marcos’ main challenger after her husband, opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was gunned down at
Aquino held office until 1992, surviving at least six coup attempts.
. . . . . . . . . .
Still No Sign of Hmong American Who Disappeared in
The U.S. Embassy in
Weeks after his disappearance, Thai police found decomposed bodies believed to include several missing Hmong Americans. None of them turned out to have been
Vang, 55, moved from
Vang’s nephew, Lee Pao Xiong, suggested the Thai police may be behind the disappearance.
. . . . . . . . . .
Vietnamese Man Opens Home to Moms
NHA TRANG, Vietnam — Tong Phuoc Phuc, a 41-year-old Catholic, has opened his door to unwed expectant mothers in a country that logs one of the world’s highest abortion rates. In 2006, there were more than 114,000 abortions at state hospitals in
Most pregnant, unmarried Vietnamese women have few options. Abortion is a choice for many who cannot afford to care for a baby or are unwilling to risk being disowned by their families.
The Communist government calls premarital sex a “social evil.” Abortion, however, is legal and performed at nearly every hospital, stirring little debate.
Shelters for pregnant women are rare. Phuc promises them food and shelter until they give birth, and then cares for the children until the mothers can afford to take them. In the past four years, he’s taken in 60 kids.
. . . . . . . . . .
Compiled by Melissa Chin
Comments
3 Responses to “Daily Dose: 03/25/08”
Got something to say?
The Olympic torch was lit today in China, but it isn’t the torch the Chinese people wanted. Their torch was held aloft by their Statue the Goddess of Liberty, the one that they built. That torch was torn down, and the people were attacked and killed or jailed by the “People’s” army in Tiananmen square in 1989. Young adults in China today know nothing of this, because the Chinese government propaganda machine has vilified the patriots who demonstrated for freedom that day, and dismissed them as a few anti-social hooligans. This process is, of course, taking place today in China, only it is currently directed against the Tibetan demonstrators. If the Tiananmen Square demonstrators had been successful in reforming the Chinese government, I doubt if there would have been the demonstrations in Tibet, because the people of Tibet would probably have had far fewer grievances. You can see the photo of the “Goddess of Liberty” and read about the Tiananmen Square massacre on Wikipedia- just Google: Wikipedia Tiananmen Square Massacre
Dear Tim Dunn:
Your references to the “Statue of Liberty” seem to me to be more wishful thinking than “reality,” since the domestic “politics” there are no less byzantine than the domestic politics here, at “home.”
As for “Tibet,” I think you, everyone?, should read today’s Info Clearing House piece by Richrd M. Bennett, which “documents” the long history of CIA involvement, indeed, instigation, incitement.
Bennett notes that whereas the PRC may well be “oppressive” herein, “we,” the CIA, that is, are “manipulative.” Not forgetting esploitive.
And for those who would advance the promise of global “peace,” yeah, snowball in Hell?, there is further dour and gloomy tidings in John Gray’s companion piece on the nitty-gritty of Malthusian geopolitiks today, to wit, oil AND potable water will be the ground-zero of the impending WWIII, and the corollary fact(or) of the Sino-American war the neocons slaver over, beyond today’s Iran, that is.
Bad news all around. Read it and weep. For humanity.
Bennett does posit, in a single brief sentence, if a single scanning proves accurate, that Apocalypse could be averted if all parties could agree to negotiate.
Much too logical and counter to human nature, the machos especially.
And the Olympics itself is, is it not?, a trumpeted and overhyped spotlight on gymnastics?
When everyone should be pondering the problem of mutual genocides?
Frank Eng
P.S.: Now I know why Nancy was in Dharmsala. She’s part and parcel of the theoneocon crowd, a botoxed and matronly warmonger? And Paul Craig Roberts is still pursuing that Russian report of an imminent Cheney Iran preemption. God!, I hope he’s wrong. Plus, Mike Whitney also continues to call the shot on Wall Street’s finessing of the SEC by the Fed.Enough gall for one day?
It’s depressing when someone goes on about “Tiananmen” when they clearly have no clue what happened there. Having been privileged to have a professor who was there and participated, I know what went on thanks to a first hand account.
The protests started as an anti-corruption movement, which the government tolerated for several days and was fairly successful in getting some reforms through. However, when that started to wind down, a small minority sought to use the crowds for their own political agenda, turning it into an asinine “pro-democracy” rally (this is the point where western media started covering it - they were all late to the party).
By that point, most of the participants (such as the professor I knew) left, since they wanted no part of the new agenda. The government warned those who remained they were being disruptive and then proceeded to break up what had by then devolved into a mob.
Tiananmen is not mourned as a disaster by Chinese because the large majority of the people who participated remember it not as a “pro-Democracy rally” but as an “anti-corruption rally.” Since they got anti-corruption reforms passed, they see the deal as a general success in that respect. The “pro-democracy” ones are seen by the others as Johnny-come-latelies who got what was coming to them for being stupid and trying to hijack the assembly.