Daily Dose: 05/02/08

> AsianWeek Market Report
> APIs Fair Best Against Breast Cancer
> APA Heritage Month Celebrated On YouTube
> Floyd Mori Presented Award
> Angel Island Immigration Station Foundatin names Eddie Wong as new Executive Director
> National Asian Business Organizations Launch Multi-City Tour
> Kularts Presents Philippine world music legend: GRACE NONO
> 30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
> Japan Tackling Butter Shortage

Compiled by Irene Aranya and Bradford Low

AsianWeek Market Report

NATION

APIs Fair Best Against Breast Cancer

OAKLAND -A 2008 study found that nationwide there is a widening gap in the survival rate of breast cancer among African-Americans versus white women, Asian American women and Latinas.

Genetically, white women are the most disposed to cancer, followed by black women, while Asian American women and Latinas have low chances of getting breast cancer. Eighty-nine of every 100,000 Asian American women and Latinas get breast cancer.

Asian American women and Latinas fare better than white or African-American women. The death rate from breast cancer among APIs is 12.6 of every 100,000 and for Latinas, it’s 16 of every 100,000.

African American women are less likely to get breast cancer than white women, Asian American women and Latinas, but once diagnosed with breast cancer, they are more likely to die from it.

-Oakland Tribune

APA Heritage Month Celebrated On YouTube

To celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Asia Society has joined with YouTube in a callout initiative asking people everywhere: “What does being Asian American mean to you?”

Sandra Oh, Senator Daniel Inouye, Kal Penn, George Takei and others have recorded and posted their own personal thoughts for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month through the Asia Society, which has launched this video campaign to collect stories from Asian Americans throughout the month.

The Asia Society invites and encourages all APIs to post their own response videos on what being Asian American means, with a brand new iPod Nano being the ultimate prize for the best response.

-Asia Society

NATION:

Floyd Mori Presented Award

CALIFORNIA - Floyd Mori, National Executive Director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), was presented with an award from the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, which includes the local Muslim and Arab American Community.

The award was called “The Voices of Courage Award.” It was given for speaking out against racial profiling of Muslim and Arab Americans following the attacks of 9/11.

Mori was National JACL President at the time of September 11, 2001.

Immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center, Mori felt compelled to have the JACL speak out in support of Muslim and Arab Americans. The JACL (under the leadership of Mori as National JACL President, John Tateishi then National JACL Executive Director, and Kristine Minami formerly JACL Washington D.C. Representative) issued a press release admonishing America to NOT retaliate against innocent Muslim and Arab Americans and to NOT repeat the mistake of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

BAY:

ANGEL ISLAND IMMIGRATION STATION FOUNDATION NAMES EDDIE WONG AS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

San Francisco - The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation announced on May 2 the appointment of Eddie Wong as its new executive director.

Wong previously served as a media and social justice investment consultant to the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors. He was also the

Executive Director of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (now the Center for Asian American Media). Wong was also a co-founder of Visual Communications, the Nation’s first non-profit Asian American media production center in Los Angeles.

“I look forward to working with the Board, California State Parks and the community as we develop an extensive public education campaign to herald the Spring 2009 re-opening of the renovated immigration station,” said Wong.

Commerce:

National Asian Business Organizations Launch Multi-City Tour

San Jose - The National Council of Asian American Business Associations and the United States Asian Business Council launched on May 2 a multi-city tour which aims to provide Asian Pacific American small business owners a forum to discuss 21st century issues impacting the community.

Panel speakers will offer solutions and new trends in the economy and within Corporate America and government agencies.

For more information: info@national-caaba.org, (909) 861-9670, or national-caaba.org or tour.national-caaba.org.

ARTS:

Kularts Presents Philippine world music legend: GRACE NONO

San Francisco - In celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Kularts, which is the nation’s premier presenter of contemporary and tribal Pilipino arts, presents music vocalist, songwriter, and Philippine ethnic folk-rock legend, Grace Nono in her first-ever appearance in San Francisco.

Considered by many music critics internationally as one of the most renowned female vocalist and songwriter in the Philippines today, Nono’s music combines the indigenous folk instrumentation and tribal melodies of her native mountain province into driving, percussive experiences of beauty in an unpredictable, modern arrangement.

She has toured extensively in Europe and Asia and has recorded numerous albums. Her Tao Music Publishing is an independent all-Filipino record label officially launched in 1994 under the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts. TAO Music has recorded the Philippine Indigenous Music Series, a recording series of indigenous master artists and shamans of the Philippines as well as emergent Philippine artists.

30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival

SAN FRANCISCO - This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and in celebration of this landmark occasion, 50 master musicians and dancers from around the world join 36 Northern California dance companies on the Festival stage.

What started 30 years ago as a modest experiment by San Francisco’s Hotel Tax Fund to provide support to San Francisco’s many ethnic dance groups has grown into the largest and most prestigious gathering of its kind in the country.

The event, under the direction of the non-profit organization World Arts West, has become an unforgettable marvel of beauty and awe-inspiring virtuoso performances that, over the decades, have represented more than 100 cultures from Hawaii to Haiti.

“The San Francisco Bay Area is home to the greatest ethnic dance community in the world, with many thousands of people sustaining gorgeous dance forms from cultures near and far,” says Executive Director Julie Mushet. “On this year’s stage, there will be evidence of the many lineages nurtured over the years, with masters and their accomplished students performing throughout the entire month of June.”

GLOBAL

Japan Tackling Butter Shortage

TOKYO-Japan has so far escaped the shortages of rice besetting other nations, but it’s running out of butter.

Japan’s Farm Ministry said it ordered the nation’s four major dairy producers to churn out more butter to counter a 230-ton shortage.

The staple-which has grown in popularity in recent decades as more Japanese turn to eating bread-is disappearing fast from store shelves amid production cutbacks and growing demand for domestic butter.

Drought in Australia and bulging demand for butter elsewhere in Asia are making butter imports more expensive, and shoppers are turning to made-in-Japan butter, said Agriculture Ministry official Tsuyoshi Hashimoto.

Manufacturers have also allocated more raw milk to fresh cream and milk-based drinks, which can sell at higher prices than butter.

Officials hope the shortage will subside with a price hike of the product by 8 percent to 10 percent beginning this month.

-AP