Daily Dose: 10/7/08
October 7, 2008
» Asian Market Report
» Six Die in Family Murder-Suicide in Los Angeles
» Comprehensive New Survey Shows Asian Americans Could Play Key Role in Presidential Election
» Japanese American Scientist Win Nobel for Subatomic Physics Research
» NY Councilmember Liu and Allies Share Uneasiness in Changing Term Limits
» National Summit on the Reunification of Korea
» Interfaith Blessing for Gay Asian Families in Berkeley
» Banquet to be Held for Asian Women Leaders
» Choi Min-sik Rediscovers His Passion for Acting
» Korean Actress in American Indie Film
» Japanese Cuisine Earns Stars
» Kiyo Sato to Receive Saroyan Prize
» Park Back for South Korean Football Team
» Rey Bautista to Land on Hatton vs. Malignaggi Card
» Kim Jong-il ‘Appears in Public’
» Chinese Lawyers Face Pressure to Drop Milk Cases
Compiled by April Choi, Josh Laddin, and Andrew Lee.
AsianWeek Market Report
| AsianWeek Market Report | ||||
| Asian Stock Indexes | ||||
| NIKKEI 225 | Tokyo | 10,155.90 | -317.19 | -3.03% |
| HANG SENG | Hong Kong | 16,803.76 | -878.64 | -4.97% |
| KRX | Busan | 2,853.12 | 22.06 | 0.78% |
| SSE IX | Shanghai | 7,181.28 | -36.04 | -0.50% |
| BSE | Bombay | 11,695.24 | -106.46 | -0.90% |
| HOSE | Ho Chi Minh | 414.24 | -19.47 | -4.49% |
| SET | Bangkok | 528.71 | -23.09 | -4.18% |
| Asian American Market Report | ||||
| Yahoo! | YHOO | 14.92 | -0.39 | (-2.35%) |
| Citigroup | C | 16.12 | -1.29 | (-7.12%) |
| Amkor Technology, Inc | AMKR | 5.10 | -0.39 | (-7.10%) |
| Sybase | SY | 27.56 | 0.06 | (0.22%) |
| UnionBancal Corp | UB | 73.49 | 0.08 | (0.11%) |
| East West Bank corp,Inc | EWBC | 12.82 | -02.86 | (-18.26%) |
NATION
Six Die in Family Murder-Suicide in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The only hints of trouble in the big beige house on Como Lane were the newspapers in the drive way and the lack of any activity behind the front door. But when police, summoned by worried friends of the residents, got inside Monday, they found a horror—six members of a family fatally shot in a murder-suicide committed by an unemployed father in the financial crisis.
The body of 45-year-old Karthik Rajaram, a gun clutched in one hand, was found by officers who followed a trail of carnage through the home in a gated community in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley. His victims, most slain in their beds, were his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law.
Investigators quickly found two suicide letters and a will and determined that Rajaram held a master’s degree and once worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a major accounting firm, and for Sony Pictures. But he had been unemployed for several months, and his finances had reached a crisis point in recent weeks, Moore said.
Rajaram wrote in his suicide letter that he felt he had two options—to kill himself or to kill himself and his family—and decided the second option was more honorable, Deputy Chief Michel Moore said.
— AP
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Comprehensive New Survey Shows Asian Americans Could Play Key Role in Presidential Election
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Among Asian American voters, many are supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama, but another sizable portion remains undecided—a development that could set the stage for Asian Americans to play a pivotal role in the outcome of the election, according to a new national survey released today.
This groundbreaking study, released at a Washington, D.C., press conference this morning, was conducted by researchers from four leading universities: Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley); University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside); and University of Southern California (USC).
The researchers’ 2008 National Asian American Survey (NAAS) shows that 41 percent of Asian Americans are likely to favor Obama, while 24 percent support John McCain. In battleground states, where either candidate could win on Election Day, Obama leads with 43 percent of Asian Americans supporting him and 22 percent favoring McCain.
Researchers point out that a key finding of the study is the high proportion of undecided Asian American likely voters: 34 percent. Among the general population, national polls conducted since the major party conventions show that undecided voters are approximately 8 percent of the electorate.
The multi-ethnic, multi-lingual survey of more than 4,000 Asian Americans likely to vote in the election was conducted from Aug. 18 to Sept. 26. It is the most comprehensive survey to date of the political views of Asian Americans, with interviews conducted in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
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Japanese American Scientist Win Nobel for Subatomic Physics Research
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Two Japanese citizens and a Japan-born American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in the world of subatomic physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.
American Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half of the prize for the discovery of a mechanism called spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half of the prize for discovering the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.
The Japan-born Nambu moved to the United States in 1952 and is a professor at the University of Chicago, where he has worked for 40 years. He became a U.S. citizen in 1970.
“As early as 1960, Yoichiro Nambu formulated his mathematical description of spontaneous broken symmetry in elementary particle physics,” the citation said.
“Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature’s order under an apparently jumbled surface. It has proved to be extremely useful, and Nambu’s theories permeate the Standard Model of elementary particle physics.”
The trio will share the 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) purse, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.
— AP
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NY Councilmember Liu and Allies Share Uneasiness in Changing Term Limits
NEW YORK — In an emotional two-hour meeting, New York City’s Democratic City Council members met behind closed doors for their first discussion on the legislation that Mayor Bloomberg is pushing to change the term limits from 8 to 12 years.
At the meeting, many council members expressed support for changing term limits, which would force dozens of them from office next year, but said they were deeply uncomfortable doing so themselves because New Yorkers had voted for it twice.
Queens Councilman John C. Liu, who has emerged as a leader in the effort to stop the mayor’s plan, gave what many considered the most moving speech. As he recounted after the meeting, he told his colleagues, “I came into government with a pretty cynical attitude, but over the last six years I came to believe in the system. But in one fell swoop, what has happened here has decimated my belief in that system.”
— New York Times
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National Summit on the Reunification of Korea
The Korea Policy Institute is holding a national summit Friday at 9 a.m. on the reunification of Korea and the role of the United States in this historic peace process. The summit is held in partnership with UC Berkeley’s International and Area Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies and Center for Korean Studies and will be at the UC Berkeley Alumni House.
Participants include scholars, policy experts and community advocates such as Karin Lee (The National Committee on North Korea), Philip W. Yun (The Asia Foundation) and Gi-Wook Shin (Stanford University). Highlights of the conference include an overview of reunification efforts on the Korean peninsula, perspectives from leading U.S. scholars and policy experts and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of past and current administration policies concerning the Koreas.
The event is free and open to the public.
— Kpolicy.org
BAY/CALIFORNIA
Interfaith Blessing for Gay Asian Families in Berkeley
BERKELEY, Calif. — The Network on Religion and Justice for Asian & Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People will sponsor a communitywide interfaith blessing and ritual on Saturday, October 11, at 11:00 a.m. at the Pacific School of Religion chapel, located at 1798 Scenic Avenue in Berkeley, Calif. A light reception will follow the blessing and ritual.
This interfaith community blessing for Asian and Pacific Islander lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families and individuals is being held on “National Coming Out Day.” Multi-denominational religious leaders will facilitate an interfaith service recognizing and affirming families, friends, LGBT individuals and their straight allies.
“Many Asian families and religious leaders strongly support gay marriage, and this celebratory event will recognize that the Asian family also includes its lesbian and gay members,” said Rev. Deborah Lee of the Pacific School of Religion. “God calls us to love, justice and dignity for all the beloved community.”
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Banquet to be Held for Asian Women Leaders
The Society of Asian Women Leaders (SAWL) will hold its second annual banquet on October 11, at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District.
They will present the Guiding Light award for Leadership to Kyung Yoon, vice chairman of Heidrick & Struggles and the Leading from the Heart Award for Community Service to Fiona Ma, state Assembly Majority Whip. There will be a charity auction with unique prizes, such as a private tour of the CBS newsroom, a private tour and 5-course wine lunch at Artesa Winery and a year’s supply of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream. They will also be raising funds to support our “Leading From the Heart” Venture Fund, created by SAWL and C.E.O. Women to support immigrant and refugee women entrepreneurs of Asian descent.
Tickets are on sale now for the early bird price of $90 (normally $100) at sawl.org/.
ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
Choi Min-sik Rediscovers His Passion for Acting
PUSAN, South Korea — The star of Old Boy (2003) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005), Choi Min-sik is known for his ability to captivate the audience with his charismatic acting. But he has not been seen on screen since Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which is what made his appearance at the open talk session during the Pusan International Film Festival on Monday afternoon even more special. Since his name was mentioned in a bitter diatribe by director Kang Woo-suk about the exorbitant fees top actors demand, Choi has scarcely appeared in public, except during the one-man relay demonstrations calling for the screen quota for Korean movies to be maintained.
But then Choi chose Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells by Jeon Soo-il, who is known for his art-house films. In the movie, Choi visits a village in the Himalayas in order to deliver the remains of a migrant worker who died in an accident in Korea to his family. He is the only Korean in the film; the rest of the actors were locally cast.
In the last three years, Choi said, something huge and extraordinary swept through his life, and he realized acting is something that he loves and is passionate about. “I was thirsty, and I was hungry,” he says. He repeatedly stressed the word “starting point” and emphasized that the struggling Korean movie industry should relax and start over. “I felt both scared and ecstatic in front of the imposing mountain range,” he recalled of the shoot. “It was an extremely difficult task, but I was happy to endure that hardship. No matter what the outcome may be, I am glad I chose this film.” The Himalayas movie is to be released in Korea next spring, and, if all goes well, will be submitted to the Berlin International Film Festival.
— Chosun Ilbo
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Korean Actress in American Indie Film
Korean actress Song Hye-kyo’s new movie Make Yourself at Home premiered at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival. A popular actress in Asia, Song’s choice to act in an independent film by first-time Korean American director Sohn Soo-pum was surprising. She has previously been in Korean dramas like Full House and All In.
“The role was a challenge because it is a character that I have never played before. I didn’t choose it to change my image; I chose the work because I liked the overall feeling I got from reading the scenario,” Song said. The film is a joint U.S.-Korea production and is about a shaman who marries a Korean American and tries to live an ordinary life.
— Korea Times
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Japanese Cuisine Earns Stars
Masa and Momofuku Ko won Michelin stars in the new 2009 Michelin guide to New York City. Masa Takayama runs Masa, which is famed for its sushi and one of four restaurants in the city to earn three stars, the top ranking. The others include Jean-Georges and Le Bernardin which both feature French cuisine, and Californian chef Keller’s Per Se.
Japanese-inspired Momofuku Ko won two stars, which puts it in a group with six other restaurants in New York City. David Chang’s restaurant has won other awards from James Beard, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit and is notorious for the difficulty making a reservation. France’s Michelin guide is the foremost restaurant guide in Europe and is currently trying to break into the U.S. market.
— AFP
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Kiyo Sato to Receive Saroyan Prize
Kiyo Sato is one of the recipients of the third William Saroyan International Prize for Writing (also known as the Saroyan Prize). Stanford University Libraries, in partnership with the William Saroyan Foundation, announced the winners during a Sept. 5 ceremony at Stanford.
The biennial Saroyan Prize was established to encourage new and emerging writers and to honor the literary legacy of the Pulitzer and Academy Award-winning writer William Saroyan (1908-81). This year, the award coincides with centennial celebrations on the anniversary of the writer’s birth.
Sacramento-born Sato was honored for her memoir of her family’s history through the Depression, wartime emergency, internment in Poston Camp II in the Arizona desert and life afterward as they struggled against oppressive prejudice and worked to recover from near-total loss. Her father’s folk tales and haiku are woven into the work, which The Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows called “moving and graceful … a powerful, thought-provoking historical document.”
SPORTS
Park Back for South Korean Football Team
Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung has been named in South Korea’s final 24-man squad to face UAE on 15 October.
The midfielder missed his country’s 1-1 draw with rivals North Korea in September due to a knee injury.
Fulham’s Seol Ki-hyeon was omitted once again and West Brom playmaker Kim Do-heon was not considered due to injury.
Former Tottenham defender Lee Young-pyo, now with Borussia Dortmund, also earned a recall and is expected to lead a fairly inexperienced team with Park.
“I want Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo to lead the team to a win by sacrificing for the team,” national coach Huh Jung-moo told the Korea Times.
“Lee has a lot of experience and is adapting to Germany well.”
Other European-based players Kim Dong-jin and Oh Bum-seok also made the squad, but Monaco’s latest acquisition, Park Chu-young, was surprisingly left out, despite a strong start to his Ligue 1 career.
“Park Chu-young requires a bit more time to get used to his new club and league,” Huh explained.
— Sky Sports
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Rey Bautista to Land on Hatton vs. Malignaggi Card
World-rated Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, ranked No. 2 super bantamweight by the WBO, will fight on the undercard of the IBO light welterweight battle between Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) and Paul Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs) at the MGM Grand on November 22.
Young Michael Aldeguer told insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports that the ALA Gym was finalizing details of his possible opponent with Golden Boy Promotions and working out details with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN, which has the exclusive rights to the television coverage in the Philippines.
— Boxing Scene
GLOBAL
Kim Jong-il ‘Appears in Public’
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was seen in public watching a football match between Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang University of Railways to mark the former’s 62nd anniversary, the official North Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday. If the report was true, it was Kim’s first public appearance in 51 days amid rumors that he is recovering from surgery following a debilitating stroke.
The North Korean Central Television Station, the North’s only nationwide TV network, and Radio Pyongyang repeated the same news on Sunday. However, they did not report when and where he watched the match.
A South Korean intelligence officer said the report “could be true,” given that it was reported for both domestic and foreign consumption. But there was no photo or video accompanying the news. A South Korean government official said, “They carried a news report on the activity to publicize his good health at home and abroad, but it seems they didn’t carry any pictures to conceal his sickly appearance.” But neither the South Korean government nor intelligence authorities seem to believe the report was false.
Some observers speculate that North Korean authorities may have decided to publicize the news report to placate public sentiments for fear of social unrest, considering that rumors about Kim’s ill health has been spreading and North Korea’s food problem has become worse.
— Chosun Ilbo
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Chinese Lawyers Face Pressure to Drop Milk Cases
BEIJING — Lawyers advising the families of children sickened in China’s tainted-milk scandal said Tuesday they are facing growing official pressure to withdraw from the cases.
A loose grouping of more than 100 lawyers across China have been offering free legal advice to the families of children who became ill after drinking milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine, said Chang Boyang, one of the lawyers.
The government has been struggling to show the public that it is dealing successfully with the scandal, which has battered the country’s image, so carefully cultivated during the Beijing Olympics. At least four babies have died and more than 54,000 children have been sickened.
At least 14 lawyers from Henan province who have been advising victims’ families were told by officials from the provincial government’s justice department to stop their activities, Chang told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“They called me and my boss at my law firm and put pressure on me,” Chang said. “They said that this has become a political issue and that I ought to follow the arrangements set out by the government.”
“If this suggestion is disobeyed, the lawyer and the firm will be dealt with,” Chang quoted the official as saying.
— San Jose Mercury News
Comments
3 Responses to “Daily Dose: 10/7/08”
Got something to say?
Polls seem to show Asian Americans favoring Obama by 2 to 1, much more than Kerry over Bush when given a choice between 2 white guys. But it’s still far closer than African Americans who almost totally favor Obama (but that has nothing to do with race, of course)
Art:
It has little, possibly nothing, to do with “race,” as you infer.
Ir has to do with the infirmities of old age mired in the immaturities of juvey concepts and precepts.
Frank
P.S.: Are you “conceding”?
Hard to say whether they got the “average” asian american in this poll, or if it’s any different from the asians that show up (or are left out of) national polls. I’ve always maintained Asians tipped left of whites sometime in the 1990s, and choosing a black guy if anything seems to tip Asians even MORE liberal. Go figure. Hey, if you guys want a young charismatic messiah selling magic words, hope and change over a guy with integrity, record of beating up the bad guys, and experience, go ahead.