The Ho Dynasty
August 31, 2009
COCO HO—The 18-year-old and her brother Mason, 21, are the latest iteration of a Hawaiian surf dynasty started by their father Mike Ho and uncle Derek Ho. The younger Ho’s are beginning to dominate their sport.
LA CAÑADA-FLINTRIDGE—A slow-moving mountain brush fire has claimed the lives of two firefighters and destroyed 18 structures since it began Aug. 26 and was still raging out of control Sunday with plumes of smoke rising as high as 20,000 feet into the air above this Los Angeles bedroom community favored by Asian American families who began moving here about a decade ago attracted to the areas schools and suburban lifestyle. A couple watches as a Sikorski Skycrane helicopter swoops low to make a water drop at the La Cañada Country Club in the photo above by Korea Central Daily’s Kim Sang-jin.
Asia Carrera Planning Porn Comeback?
August 28, 2009
Once, you could count the number of Asian Americans in the adult film industry on the fingers of one sticky hand. The hapa woman who singlehandedly launched an industry-wide pandemic of Yellow Fever in the late-90s, Asia Carrera (nee Jessica Steinhauser) is now a widowed single mother with two children (one developmentally disabled) living in Utah.
Oh, Mister President!
August 26, 2009
San Francisco artist Justine Lai likes to paint herself having sex with Presidents of the United States (in chronological order). Raised in Sacramento, Lai, 24, lives and works in San Francisco.
Writes Lai about her irreverent Join or Die series:
I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents.
See Justine Lai subverting authority in watercolors, Join or Die. Correspond with the artist: justinelai@gmail.com
Freed US Journalists Come Under Harsh Criticism
August 22, 2009
SEOUL—South Korean human rights advocates, bloggers and Christian pastors are accusing Current TV reporters Mitch Koss, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of needlessly endangering the very people they tried to cover: North Korean refugees and the activists who help them.
According to The New York Times, the accusations stem from a central fear repeated in newspapers and blogs here: that the notes and videotapes the journalists gathered in China before their ill-fated venture to the border fell into the hands of the authorities, potentially compromising the identities of refugees and activists dedicated to spiriting people out of the North.
But a Current TV spokesman says “many of the details” of the accusations leveled by South Korean clergymen were “not correct.”
Brent Marcus of Current TV told NYT, “We’re concerned about the situation that has evolved with Lee Chan-woo and the Durihana Mission.”
Current TV executive producer Koss, who eluded capture by North Korean border guards back on March 17, declined to answer specific questions about the trip until Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee had spoken first. Still, he said, he was amazed by “how many untrue stories have been published in the last five months” and how “when there is silence, fantasy answers to fill in empty spaces.”
- In SKorea, Freed US Journos Come Under Harsh Criticism, The New York Times
- China Used US Reporters’ Film to Crack Down on NKorean Refugees, Chosun Ilbo
- Who is Mitch Koss, and Why Isn’t He Talking? Epicanthus
- Key Figure in Lee-Ling Incident Hit With Sexual Assault Allegations, Epicanthus
- Springtime in Pyongyang, Epicanthus
Historic Nichi Bei Times Calls It Quits in San Francisco
August 21, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO—First published back in 1899, the Nichi Bei Times (Japan-America Times) was the catalyst that helped the Bay Area’s Japanese Americans endure anti-Asian legislation, the Great Depression and World War II internment. It was the glue that helped Northern California’s proud Nikkei community stay connected throughout the postwar years through the 1980s. But now, beset by a plunge in advertising revenues and flagging circulation figures, it is printing its final edition next month.
In an open letter to its readers Aug. 20, the Japanese-English newspaper’s board of directors announced officially that the venerable Nichi Bei would cease publication after its Sept. 10 edition.
Fox News: Americans View Clinton NK Trip Favorably
August 20, 2009
Nearly four in five Americans agreed, in a Fox News poll released last week, that former President Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea—during which he successfully lobbied for the release of jailed journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling—will not encourage the kidnapping of more Americans.
But Americans doubted whether Clinton’s private rescue mission would actually improve U.S./North Korea relations.
The Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll was conducted Aug. 11-13, while Clinton was reportedly recuperating from his two-day mission to Pyongyang by throwing himself a 63rd birthday party at a pricey Las Vegas Strip steakhouse.
[Click to enlarge]
- Clinton’s Trip Didn’t Embolden Kidnappers, Foreign Policy
- Clinton @ 63: Has He Regained His Mojo? ABC News
- Clinton Celebrates 63rd in Vegas, New York Times
- “Linda Ling”? Washington Independent
- Entire Fox/Opinion Dynamics Poll, Fox News
- Craftsteak Las Vegas
Alarming Asian American Student Suicide Rate; Three Take Own Lives at Caltech Since May
August 17, 2009
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PASADENA, Calif.—Three Asian American students at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have killed themselves in the last three months, reports New America Media writer Alex Pham. Two died by helium asphyxiation and the cause of death of the third student, though deemed a suicide, is yet to be determined. Their stories have been covered in the Chinese-language media, but remain underreported in MSM, writes Pham.
Crasher Squirrel in Pyongyang
August 16, 2009
Moar Crasher Squirrel
By BABAMOTO
RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.—Two North Korean women refugees have alleged that a Seoul-based clergyman, famed for helping defectors flee the communist state, sexually assaulted them and used threats to keep them silent. The allegations first came to light back in May at a Flushing, NY press conference sponsored by a coalition of Korean American Christian organizations and a North Korean refugee aid group.
The two women, Shin Yuu-mi and Ma Yong-ae, told reporters Rev. Chun Ki-won, pastor and CEO of the Seoul-based Durihana, Inc., tried to rape them and used intimidation to prevent them from speaking out. The pair filed criminal sexual harassment complaints in June against Chun at the NYPD’s Queens-Flushing 109 Precinct and the Ridgefield Park Police Department in New Jersey, respectively. The New York edition of Joongahn Ilbo updated the story in its Aug. 10 edition.
Rev. Chun and his efforts to assist North Korean defectors were featured in the 2004 award-winning documentary Seoul Train by Colorado-based documentary filmmakers Jim Butterworth and Lisa Sleeth. In the February 2009 issue of National Geographic, Chun was the focus of Escape From North Korea by Tom O’Neill.
♦
Current TV reporters Mitchell Koss, Euna Lee and Laura Ling consulted with Durihana’s Rev. Chun Ki-won in planning their ill-fated trip to the China-North Korea border March 17 that resulted in the arrests and imprisonment of Lee and Ling for 141 days in the DPRK capital. Chun has said he introduced the Current TV team to a guide Kim Seung-cheol, who reportedly accompanied the Americans onto North Korean soil on Mar. 17 but managed, along with Koss, to elude border guards.
Koss, Lee and Ling traveled to the region in early March to interview North Korean defectors for a story on the trafficking of refugee women into prostitution.
New Euna Lee, Laura Ling Video Posted on Current TV Website
August 12, 2009
Possibly the first time we’ve ever heard Euna Lee’s voice.
A Message From Euna Lee
August 12, 2009
August 10, 2009
It’s been 5 days since I arrived home from my traumatic experience.
What have I done… hmm… let’s see. I made scrambled eggs with Hana, I walked around the neighborhood with Michael and Hana after dinner, I combed Hana’s hair and dressed her for school, I danced and jumped with Hana, I went to a cafe and had a very happy time with Michael listening to his life and shared mine, I went to church and was able to sing unto the Lord.
I am slowly fulfilling the wish list that I made in North Korea one item at a time.
Every moment when I realize it’s real, when I am home and I am with my family, I think of all the individuals who were there at the vigils, who wrote letters to us and to the government, who read and followed our news and were
Knowing that you would not stop until we came home kept me going day by day in North Korea.
As soon as I got home, after I gave a long hug to my family, I wanted to thank the people who helped me. I wanted to let people know how grateful I was and am. I found myself surfing the Internet and reading different blogs and news articles about us. Then I realized that I felt separated again from my husband and daughter, just as I was for 141 days in North Korea.
I decided then not to go through all the emails and articles just yet. I have not checked the Facebook pages about Laura and I or the web site, LauraAndEuna.com. Because I know that once I started to read them I would get caught up in all the love and support everybody gave me and I will neglect my family.
Hana is still a bit nervous about mommy going to work again. She told me today “Mommy, when I ask you to leave (she meant ‘come home’), please come home to me.” She told Doorie (one of my cats) “Doorie, if you don’t listen, mommy will go to the airport.”
I will wait for the time when Hana truly believes that mommy’s always there for her, then I will be free to share my stories and experiences in North Korea and be able to express how thankful I am.
My husband mentioned the names of so many individuals who helped us and supported us through this tough time. I won’t list the individual names here to thank because I believe you already know that I am talking to you when I say “Thank You.”
Again, I am blessed to have such support from everybody who participated and I won’t forget your love and I just want to say, “I love you too.”
Love,
Euna
via Free Laura Ling and Euna Lee
Sarah Wang’s Four Days in North Korea
August 10, 2009
North Korea left no traces in my passport, not even a visa. It showed that I left China in July and returned four days later. There was no indication of where I had been, except that I passed through customs in Dandong, a city in northeastern China that borders the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Thus begins Sarah Wang’s fascinating SLATE dispatch from North Korea, an account of a mildly surreptitious visit to the Hermit Kingdom of Kim Jong-il Ms. Wang made last month while American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were still in custody there for illegal border crossing and crimes against the Korean state. Wang’s piece is a fascinating and objective window into the DPRK that we rarely get from the mainstream media.
From our first moments in the country, it was obvious that some North Koreans receive special treatment. The train for Pyongyang had 15 cars, but only the three “international compartments” had fans to fight the sweltering heat. Well-dressed North Koreans took up the majority of seats in the compartment. The women wore silk blouses, nice skirts, and high heels, and the men were decked out in good T-shirts, which sometimes showed off their big bellies. They were the only fat North Koreans that I saw on the trip.
A keyword in Wang’s dispatch is hunger:
I brought 150 Kit-Kat bars into the country, and I always took several out of my bag when I was alone with a North Korean. They would hesitate for a few seconds, look around to make sure that no one else was watching, and then stuff the Kit-Kats into their pockets.
The resolve of the people—Juche— is apparent among the socialist true believers just as regime change is to American neocons:
“We Koreans have long had a hatred for the United States. Those people bombed our land and killed our people in the war, and they reactivated the use of nuclear weapons in 1994. At that time we had natural disasters, and they imposed sanctions on us. So we had the Arduous March between 1995 and 1998. We were all hungry,” one guide told us. “Now we don’t have natural disasters, but the Americans are imposing stricter sanctions. If we don’t strengthen our national defense forces, we cannot safeguard our motherland. If we don’t make military construction our priority, we cannot safeguard socialism,” she said.
Read Sarah Jang’s important dispatch in its entirety in SALON.
Obama Taps Three Asian Americans for Federal Bench
August 10, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Barack Obama Friday named U.S. Magistrate Judges Edward M. Chen to the Northern District bench and chose Dolly Gee, managing partner of the Los Angeles law firm Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP, to the Central District bench. A week earlier, he named Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn H. Nguyen to the District Court in Los Angeles.
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Only Gee, 50, a labor and employment litigator and past president of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Assn., lacks prior experience as a judge, although she was a clerk for an Eastern District judge after graduating from UCLA law school in 1984.
Nguyen, 44 and also a UCLA law graduate, spent several months at a Camp Pendleton refugee camp when she was a child after her family was airlifted out of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. If confirmed, she would be the nation’s first Vietnamese district judge.
Chen, 56, worked as a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union before his judicial appointment. If confirmed, he would be the only Asian American on the Northern District bench, which also lacks Latino representation among its 14 judges.
The trio of Asian American nominees, and Obama’s fourth pick U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard G. Seeborg, will be brought before the Senate for confirmation after its summer recess.
Even after the four appointments to California districts, five seats remain vacant in the state — two each in the Central and Northern districts and one in the Eastern District, which includes most of the state’s prisons.
Human Rights Activists Say Current TV Reporters Jeopardized Efforts to Help No. Korean Refugees
August 10, 2009
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With their families and supporters basking in the afterglow of their release last week by Pyongyang, the judgment and professionalism of the Current TV reporters captured on North Korean soil March 17 is being criticized on both sides of the Pacific.
Now that Americans Laura Ling and Euna Lee are free and in seclusion in their Los Angeles-area homes, South Korean human rights activists are speaking out for the first time, saying that the actions of the two Current TV reporters may have jeopardized their efforts to help refugees trying to leave North Korea.
Meanwhile, a veteran, award-winning American journalist says Current’s decision to cross into North Korea was “foolish.”
Unedited Video of Euna Lee-Laura Ling Homecoming
August 6, 2009
The kids from the Somalian Pirate Video team were calling the Epicanthus hotline all day yesterday saying they had scored on the best unedited, raw video of the Euna Lee-Laura Ling pre-dawn homecoming at Bob Hope Airport Wednesday. A CNN iReporter who goes by the name “Pixel” managed to embed herself in the hangar where gleaming white and chrome Boeing 737 carrying former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Lee and Ling taxied to a stop after its 5900-mile flight from North Korea. Watch.
By now, you all have seen edited network TV coverage of the Lee-Ling homecoming, but Pixel’s video is far more compelling. And, anyway, from the beginning Euna and Laura’s Most Excellent Adventure has been marked by a filtered flow of information, and frankly we’ve grown weary of all the carefully worded statements, cartoonish characterizations by media talking heads and withheld facts. That’s why we think Pixel’s stuff is so powerful… and refreshing.
Arrival
About 30 seconds in, Pixel’s camera picks up audio from an excited Japanese reporter’s feed. A frail-looking Euna Lee is the first to emerge from the angelic 737. She seems stunned by the crowd and applause and does what’s natural to her—she bows. You can hear a woman’s voice (Pixel’s?) pointing out that Laura Ling’s husband Iain Clayton is constantly wringing his hands as he waits the last few seconds before being reunited with his wife. (The 140-day-long ordeal seems to have affected Clayton more than anyone. The quiet and measured Beverly Hills financial analyst appears drawn and depleted.)
An Emotional Laura Ling
Bill Clinton solidifies his place in history as modern folk hero and rock star stud. Clinton’s former White House chief of staff John Podesta is the skinny dude in the dark suit on the far right. Tough-looking old guy in the short pants is the father of Michael Saldate, Euna’s husband. Everyone knows who Hana is. Joel Hyatt, the other Current TV exec on hand, stayed out of the shot frame left. Of note is that Current/Vanguard producer Mitchell Koss, who eluded capture that day in North Korea, was not seen at the airport homecoming.
Al Gore Speaks!
Mary Ling can’t keep her hands off daughter Laura. Gore mentions she’s been making a special soup to sooth Laura’s ulcer. (Mary Ling’s 24/7 efforts to win her daughter’s freedom is one of the yet untold stories of the entire incident.) Little Hana Saldate, four, reaches for mommy’s hand. Hangar homecoming ends with beautiful sunrise.
H/T Pixel (Don’t sue us, baby)
Federal Court Judge Robert M. Takasugi Passes
August 5, 2009
Federal Judge Robert M. Takasugi, the first Japanese American appointed to the federal bench, passed away earlier this week at the age of 79. He is survived by his wife Dorothy, his son Jon, and his daughter Lee.
Judge Takasugi became the first Japanese American appointed to the federal bench for the Central District of California in 1976, after serving on the Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Court benches. As both a district court judge for 33 years and an invitee of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Takasugi’s work has consistently been marked by a high degree of integrity and a commitment to equal access to justice.
A 12-year old Robert M. Takasugi and his family were uprooted from their home in Tacoma, Washington, relocated, and interned along with 130,000 other Japanese Americans pursuant to President Order 9066. Describing the ordeal as “an education to be fair” and one of many challenges he faced, Takasugi went on to receive degrees from UCLA and USC Law School. Thereafter, his commitment to equal justice took him to the streets of East Los Angeles, where he represented many indigent arrestees of the Watts Riots, East Los Angeles Riots, and other civil rights protestors in the 1960s before being appointed to the bench.
Via Angryasianman
Freed Journalists’ Emotional Homecoming
August 5, 2009
Unedited video of press conference in the frontyard of Laura Ling and Iain Clayton’s home in Studio City Aug. 5 from Mekhalo Medina’s KNBC NewsRaw site. WATCH.
“LING LING” & “WEE WEE”?—Convicted Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy knows a thing or two about being in prison. The Radio America talk show host is heard here announcing the news of Euna Lee and Laura Ling’s arrival at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank on Aug. 5 LISTEN.
h/t Disgrasian
Current TV Lifts Cone of Silence
August 5, 2009
The following statement appeared on the Current TV Web site Tuesday evening:
Current Media journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been detained in North Korea since March 17th, will be coming home on Wednesday morning with former President Bill Clinton, who is at this moment returning from North Korea having obtained their release.
We want to thank the Obama Administration for its continuous and determined efforts to achieve this outcome, and President Clinton for his willingness to undertake this mission.
All of us at Current are overjoyed at Laura and Euna’s safe return. Our hearts go out to them – and to their families – for persevering through this horrible experience.
We will have more to say in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, all our thoughts are with Laura and Euna and their families, who have shown remarkable courage and initiative for the 140 days of this ordeal.
Al Gore and Joel Hyatt
Co-Founders
Current Media
A Statement From the Freed Journalists’ Families
August 4, 2009
The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are overjoyed by the news of their pardon. We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens.
We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.
—The Lee and Ling Families
