More "Cabinetry": Judy Chu Energes as Solis Confirmed

The AP reported this afternoon that the Senate has confirmed California Congresswoman Hilda Solis as President Barack Obama's labor secretary by a 80-17 vote after a protracted partisan battle.

Her confirmation at the last clears the way for the field of her potential replacements to start the jockeying and earnest, including Judy Chu, who currently serves as State Board of Equalization Chairwoman. Although Chu has the support of the Asian American Action Fund, APAs for Progress PAC, and the L.A. County Federation of Labor, she is seen as having a potentially uphill climb against state Sen. Gil Cedillo in a heavily Latino district.

The delays and souring California budget news led Gautam Dutta to speculate on the AAAF blog that a special election being considered in California might be in Chu's favor. If statewide special elections were held in May or June, Dutta observes, it would make financial sense for the state to defer settling the matter of Solis' replacement to coincide with them, saving what Dutta says is nearly $1 million. Chu's Asian-American supporters are hopeful that she would benefit from having the longer time to campaign.

A recent release by APAs for Progress PAC announced that it had gathered funding for the launch of its new Glen S. Fukushima Campaign Fellowship, which would be used to fund the deployment of a Fellow to Chu's campaign if Solis was confirmed.

WA Gov. Gary Locke Obama Pick For Commerce

The AP reports that Gary Locke -- the Chinese-American former Governor of Washington state -- is president Obama's new pic for the Secretary of Commerce. If confirmed, it would make Locke the second Asian American to head the Department of Commerce, following President Clinton's appointment of Norman Mineta in 2000. The Locke nomination, is expected to be formally announced tomorrow, would be the third nomination President Obama has made for the position.

NYC IAAC Contemporary Indian Art exhibit opening

INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL, INC.

in collaboration with

DOWD GALLERY

is delighted to present

IAAC ERASING BORDERS 2009
EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ART OF THE DIASPORA

OPENING RECEPTION

Sunday, March 1st 2009 2-5pm

DOWD GALLERY CORTLAND NY, Special Guest: Consul General of India Prabhu Dayal

Participating artists: Niyeti Chadha Kannal, Nandini Chirimar, Khalil Chishtee, Neil Chowdhury ,
Pritika Chowdhry, Anjali Deshmukh, Anujan Ezhikode, Indira Freitas Johnson, Asha Ganpat, Ina Kaur,
Adil Mansuri, Divya Mehra, Samanta Mehta Batra, Indrani Nayar Gall, Jagdish Prabhu, Antonio Puri,
Alka Raghuram, Gautam Rao, Amin Rehman, Tara Sabharwal, Pallavi Sharma, Preet Srivastava,
Mumtaz Hussain, Reeta Gidwani Karmarkar, Haresh Lalvani, Alakananda Mukerji, Veru Narula,
Prince Varughese Thomas

Curated by Vijay Kumar

About Dowd Gallery & Directions
State University of New York College at Cortland,
Dowd Fine Arts Center, Room 162 Cortland, New York 13045
Andrew Mount Gallery Director Phone (607) 753-4218

Exhibition Dates Feb 27 - April 30 There will be several public programs and events related to this exhibition, The exhibition will travel to other venues immediately after the Dowd Gallery.

Please see schedule for details.

The Indo-American Arts Council is a 501 ©3 not-for-profit arts organization passionately dedicated to promoting, showcasing and building an awareness of South Asian artists in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts and folk arts. For information please visit www.iaac.us

Indo-American Arts Council Inc. 517East 87th St, Suite 1B, New York, NY 10128. Phone: 212 594 3685
Email: admin@iaac.us. Web: www.iaac.us

The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma coming to Michigan

March 13 and 14, 2009
Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
University Musical Society

So did you find Yo-Yo Ma taking pictures with his cell phone in the zoomable inauguration photo from Gigapan.org circulating in emails? The email says that the photo is a composite of over 200 shots and “Bonus points if you find Yo-Yo Ma taking pictures with his cell phone.”

He couldn’t play at the inauguration because of the bitter cold that day, but you can come see him in concert at the famed Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Cold in Michigan? Nah…). Buy your tickets early as the concert is expected to sell out.

“Yo-Yo Ma is part modern Marco Polo, an explorer of cultures far beyond his own; part musical missionary, eager to share ideas and make vital connections between peoples.” (Chicago Tribune) Founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, the Silk Road Project has been a catalyst for a new kind of conversation, opening avenues of inter-cultural communication and collaborative thinking. For about 2,000 years the Silk Road was the main conduit for the spread and exchange of goods, ideas, religions, and culture, connecting people from Asia to the Mediterranean. The collective is drawn from internationally renowned musicians interested in exploring the relationships between tradition and innovation in music from the East and West. “When I started the Silk Road Project,” says Yo-Yo Ma, whose 25 years of touring influenced his view and understanding of the world, “I began to understand the geographical and musical connections between all of these incredible cultures — all these ‘other’ classical musics, the Persian classical music, the Indian classical music, and so on. I got a sense that at one time these connections were much closer, and over time that certain things got split off and developed independently.” After last season’s stunning solo recital, Yo-Yo Ma returns with two different performances featuring artists from the Silk Road Ensemble. Two different programs featuring Yo-Yo Ma, with specific artists to be announced.

Check out ums.org to learn more about the instruments used by the Silk Road Ensemble, to see an interview with Yo-Yo Ma, and more!

Kodo comes to Michigan

Kodo
Friday, February 13, 2009, 8 pm
Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
University Musical Society

The first time I saw Kodo perform was at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley in the mid-eighties, trying (hopelessly) to impress a handsome Japanese graduate student. I soon forgot the graduate student sitting next to me as I was taken in by the power and the rhythm of the drumming. And OH! Those muscles! That was one of the first international tours of Kodo, when the drummers were still actually fishermen. I remember the MC, a young Asian American woman, whooping it up over an 87-year-old grandpa’s incredible muscles. I have since become a fan of San Jose Taiko, and the newer younger styles of California Taiko, but I still see Kodo whenever I can.

In ancient Japan, the taiko drum was a symbol of the rural community, and it is said that the limits of the village were defined not by geography, but by the furthest distance from which the taiko could be heard. With its “One Earth” tour, Kodo brings the sound of the taiko to people around the globe, transcending barriers of language and custom and reminding all of our membership in that much larger community, the world. “In this age of exploding populations and lightning-fast communication, it is more important than ever that these diverse cultures learn to recognize and accept each other so that all may share our increasingly shrinking planet in harmony,” according to Kodo’s primary philosophy. The Japanese characters of the company’s name convey two meanings: “heartbeat,” the primal source of all rhythm, and “children of the drum,” a reflection of Kodo’s desire to play their drums simply, with the heart of a child.

The ensemble makes its first University Musical Society appearance since 2005.

Release: Aratani Nikkeijin Scholarship for Japanese Americans

Keio Academy of New York is pleased to announce a new scholarship program for Japanese - American students, the ARATANI FOUNDATION NIKKEIJIN - SCHOLARSHIP. This scholarship was made possible through a generous gift from Mr. George Aratani, a Japanese-American businessman and philanthropist, and the founder of the Mikasa Corporation, Kenwood Corporation, and various trading companies. In this article, I would like to relate how this scholarship was established.

The idea for the scholarship came from Mr. Aratani's personal experience as a heritage language learner. He was born in 1917 in Gardena, California and moved to Santa Maria where he completed high school. His father, a first generation nikkei*, told him to study in Japan and Mr. Aratani went to Tokyo in 1935. After 10 months, his Japanese had made such excellent progress that he entered Keio University, where he cultivated a life-long friendship with many Japanese people including the late Dr. Shinzo Koizumi, a distinguished scholar and former president of the University. When Mr. Aratani returned to California to transfer to Stanford, his father was pleased at his son's progress and exclaimed, "Oh, Nihongo ga umaku natta na (Your Japanese has improved a lot!)."

Throughout his trying experience in the concentration camp during World War II and his service in the US military, Mr. Aratani always appreciated his opportunity to study in Japan. Therefore, he has been extremely active in contributing to the social welfare of the nikkei community, the preservation and passing on of Japanese cultural heritage, and the promotion of friendship between the United States and Japan . In April 2008, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Japanese government for his contributions.

Keio Academy of New York (KANY) was established in NY State in 1990 by Keio University as its 5th affiliated high school. Our mission is to educate future leaders in the global society by emphasizing bilingual and bicultural educational curriculum. While our school traditionally attracts many students from the international Japanese business community, we are trying to diversify our students' cultural background. KANY hopes to invite the best and brightest Japanese-American students who are willing to master Japanese as their heritage language.

As the only Japanese high school in the United States, Keio Academy has been trying to reach out and contribute to local and Japanese-American communities. In this regard, we have contacted Ambassador Sakurai of the Japanese Consulate in New York as he has been actively promoting heritage language and culture study. The Ambassador expressed his support and appreciation for our plan. We think it is socially meaningful to enhance the chances for Japanese-Americans to learn their heritage language and culture. It will also diversify the student body at Keio Academy and the scholarship recipients will make a big impact on our students in favorable ways. When I met Mr. Aratani last March and told him of the scholarship plan, he was especially pleased that the opportunity is intended for high school students. I strongly hope that those Japanese-American students who wish to learn their ancestors' language and culture will become a true bridge between the United States and Japan.

Successful applicants will be admitted to Keio Academy of New York as 9th or 10th graders and their first full year of tuition and their admission fee will be waived.

For information or inquiries regarding qualifications or the application process, please visit our website or contact us by email or by FAX at (914-694-4830). Please ask for the Admissions Office, Attn. Ms. Matsuki. The published deadline is February 27, 2009.


-Sumio Sakomura
Headmaster of Keio Academy of New York
(February 1, 2009)

*nikkei = of Japanese ancestry

Sumio Sakomura, Headmaster of Keio Academy of New York and Professor at Keio University, Department of Law (English Education), was born in Oita Prefecture in 1948 and moved to Yamaguchi Prefecture at age five. He attended International Christian University and after earning his Bachelors degree in 1970 and Masters degree three years later, he became a full time instructor at the Department of Law, Keio University. In 2002, he established the Keio Foreign Language Research and Education Center

Philadelphia Event: Creating Community 2/27/09

As their inaugural event, Philadelphia’s newly reconstituted Mayor's Commission on Asian American Affairs will present “Creating Community: The Legacy of the Vincent Chin Case”.

In celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year and Black History Month, the Commission will host a screening of the documentary, Vincent Who?, followed by remarks from the film’s producer, Curtis Chin, and a panel of civil rights experts. This panel will include Tsiwen Law, Esq. (co- founder of the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association), Umbreen Bhatt, Esq. (Staff Attorney, ACLU), Dr. Marie Amey-Taylor (Director, Human Resources, Learning & Development Division, Temple University, a recognized leader in diversity and cross-cultural relations) and Will Gonzalez, Esq. who is the Executive Director of Ceiba, a coalition of Latino community based organizations, former director of the Police Barrio Relations Project.

In addition to the Commission, this event will be co-hosted by a multi-ethnic coalition of community, arts and culture and professional organizations, including the Philadelphia Chapter of APA for Progress, the Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs, Art Sanctuary, Asian Arts Initiative, APABA-PA, AAPIP, the Welcoming Center, Philadelphia Asian American Film & Filmmakers (partial list-more organizations being added).

The purpose of the event is to open dialogue about race relations and to raise awareness about issues of tolerance in the Asian American and broader communities.

“Creating Community” will be held on Friday, February 27, 2009, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., at City Hall, in Conversation Hall Room.

Chicago Day of Remembrance Event

COMMEMORATING THE JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT DURING WORLD WAR II

February 15, 2009
Chicago History Museum
1601 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL
2 p.m.

An event commemorating the World War II internment of Japanese Americans will be held at the Chicago History Museum on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 2pm*.

This Day of Remembrance is annually sponsored by major organizations in the Japanese American community in Chicago. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the forcible internment of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II. The Day of Remembrance program will recognize former internees who testified about their experiences before a federal commission hearing held in Chicago in 1981. The program will feature the recollection of these individuals, a new video on the hearings and a panel of young people who will reflect on this history.

The Day of Remembrance is sponsored by the Japanese American Citizens League, Japanese American Service Committee and the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society. Free admission and open to the public.

AALDEF Exit Poll Results Confirm Growing APIA Voter Clout

APIAVOTE: AALDEF EXIT POLL RESULTS CONFIRMS GROWING INFLUENCE

OF ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS

First-Time Voters Voted Overwhelmingly for President-Elect Barack Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) today hailed the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund's (AALDEF) exit poll results as strong evidence of the growing strength of the Asian American vote.

The responses of nearly 17,000 Asian American voters in 11 states showed that they voted for Barack Obama by more than a 3 to 1 margin, and supported other Democratic candidates, making the differences in key contested states in the historic November 2008 presidential elections.

"The differences we make may be marginal compared to other constituency groups, but we are talking about a presidential race where the margins truly mattered," said Eunsook Lee, APIAVote board co-chair. "When we are mobilized, we can determine a race, whether local, state, or national. We applaud AALDEF's efforts to capture the phenomenon of Asian American voters, and encourage media outlets and polling experts to work with us in ensuring that we are accurately represented in sampling and exit polling."

"AALDEF results indicate that AAPI voter turnout can determine whether or not a candidate wins or loses. The growing strength and increased participation of Asian Americans is evident in this exit poll," said Vida Benavides, APIAVote executive director. "These results also show that political parties can do much more in outreaching to our AAPI community needs, which are not very much different from other communities' needs. We commend the political parties for their efforts, and will continue to be a resource to political parties so that they can more fully engage AAPIs in the political process.

The nonpartisan exit poll also found that 58% of Asian Americans were registered Democrats, while 26% were not enrolled in any political party, and 14% of Asian Americans were registered Republicans.

While non-random and conducted in precincts with significant AAPI populations, the AALDEF sample is representative of the national Asian American population. Significant findings include the following:

• Nearly one third of Asian Americans surveyed were first-time voters.

• 87% of respondents who were born in the U.S. voted for Obama.

• Four out of five Asian Americans are foreign-born citizens.

• One out of three respondents had limited English proficiency.

• Asian Americans shared common political interests across sub-ethnic lines.

• The longer the citizenship tenure of Asian Americans, the higher their rates of voting for Obama.

• All subethnic groups voted for Obama, with the exception of Vietnamese voters.

APIAVote is a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the electoral and public policy processes at the national, state and local levels. APIAVote does not endorse parties or candidates. Please visit www.apiavote.org for more information.

More about the AALDEF Exit Poll:

The 2008 multilingual exit poll provides a unique snapshot of the voter preferences of Asian Americans at 113 poll sites in 9 cities in 11 states with large Asian American populations: New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, DC. AALDEF has conducted exit polls of Asian American voters in every major election since 1988. The AALDEF exit poll collected information about the party enrollment, English proficiency and issue preferences of first-time voters, foreign-born voters, women voters, and young voters.

AALDEF worked with 60 co-sponsoring organizations (including APIAVote) to mobilize 1,500 attorneys, law students and community volunteers to conduct the multilingual exit poll and to monitor polling places for incidents of voter discrimination. Please visit www.aaldef.org for more information.

Amerasia and AAPI Nexus Journals Go Online

Good news for researchers in this release by UCLA:

Los Angeles-The UCLA Asian American Studies Center has launched an internet site for its two academic journals, Amerasia and AAPI Nexus. Starting November 2008, subscribers will be able to access Amerasia Journal and AAPI Nexus articles online.Both journals are recognized core publications in Asian American Studies.

Since its inception in 1971, Amerasia has been the leading interdisciplinary journal in the field. "Amerasia Journal," states Ethnic Studies Professor Yen Le Espiritu (University of California, San Diego), "continues to be an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and the broader community interested in issues affecting Asian Americans.""Amerasia articles contain information and perspectives difficult or impossible to locate elsewhere," adds Serials Review. "This journal is highly recommended for all academic collections and for large public libraries." The searchable, full-text database enables subscribing institutions and researchers access to over thirty-five years of Amerasia articles.

Amerasia's online database features over 900 articles on topics ranging from diaspora and empire, U.S.-Asia relations, and religion to legal/political/civil rights issues, sexuality and queer studies, and multiracial Asians. Library Journal has thus described Amerasia as "a scholarly journal which considers almost every aspect on the role of the Asian Americans" and "an absolute must for universities." In 2003, the Center launched AAPI Nexus Journal: Policy, Practice & Community, the most cutting-edge journal focusing on applied social science research for and on the diverse and growing Asian American and Pacific Islander community. AAPI Nexus draws from professional schools, applied social science scholars, and practitioners, with the explicit goal of reinvigorating Asian American Studies' traditional mission of serving communities and generating practical research."AAPI Nexus Journal is the nation's trusted voice for Asian American and Pacific Islander public policy debates, community-based research, and action-orientated advocacy," said Lisa Hasegawa, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development.The AAPI Nexus database includes articles covering civil rights, health, and art and cultural institutions from an Asian American perspective. In addition to research and resource articles, AAPI Nexus also features practitioner essays, where professionals and community leaders draw from their experiences to offer discussions and strategies regarding policy issues facing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

The new online databases for Amerasia Journal and AAPI Nexus are valuable resources for libraries and research institutions. Access to the databases will be included as part of a new or renewed yearly subscription. The subscription prices are as follows:

o Amerasia Journal - $445 for institutions; $99.99 for individuals
o AAPI Nexus - $175 for institutions, $35 for individuals

For more information or to place subscription orders, please contact Ying Ming Tu, Distribution Manager, AASC Press, at (310) 825-2968 or aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu. or see: http://www.aasc.ucla.edu

Asian American Village Post-Election Debriefings

Added to the Village our "Post-Election 2008 Asian-Pacific American Round-up," a series of quick capsules debriefing the elections from throughout the Asian-Pacific American community. Who voted for whom? Who turned out and who didn't? Which Asian American candidates won and lost their races? What are the final words from the winners and losers among the candidates' outreach teams? Which Asian Americans will be in the presidential transition team?

The jury's still out on an awful lot of results in-community, but this is where the editors will be posting the capsules as they come in.

Editorials: Hapa Obama and Diversity; Florida's Shame

There is much to be celebrated on the momentous occasion of Barack Obama's election as the first non-white (or "half-white, half-black") Commander in Chief. As the editors were working on our elections debriefing yesterday and this morning, though, we found a mix of both good and bad in-comunity news that will be updated on the Village with snippets posted here on the Asian American Village blog.

The first blend of good and bad news from election night comes AALDEF - the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which coordinated its largest multipartner, multilingual poll monitoring and exit survey campaign to date. AALDEF's findings this year were that turnout by Asian American voters was up, with still-fuzzy but record numbers of us showing up at the polls, including many new citizens and first-timers. The bad news, perhaps unsurprisingly, is that "many encountered barriers at polling places, ranging from inadequate language assistance, improper requests for identification, and missing names on voter rolls". Taking the long-range view, AALDEF has announced that the toll-free, multilingual voter problem report hotline will be kept active to allow community members to continue reporting any election day obstacles or irregularities.

So, did we live up to our much-vaunted promise as an "awakening giant" able to powerfully and disproportionately affect the outcome? Exactly how many of us showed up and how did we vote? Well, no doubt media pollers and political strategists will be teasing that out for a long time to come. At least one early claim, from The Nation, found that in addition to our record turnout, Asian Americans continued our collective leftward trend to support Obama by 63%, joining a number of other demographic "majorities":

Obama's many majorities are, in some, the measures of a unity not seen in some
time. Obama won with overwhelming support from African Americans (96 percent), Jews (77 percent), gays and lesbians (71 percent), first-time voters (68
percent), Latinos (67 percent), Asians (63 percent), voters under 30 (66
percent), union members (59 percent) and women (55 percent). But, in key
battleground states, the Democrat was taking one in 10 votes cast by
Republicans, one in five cast by conservatives, one in three cast by evangelical
Christians.

This "coalition of diverse majorities" is a line of exploration we also took in an IMDiversity editorial, Barack Obama, Diversity and the New Real America, providing our reflections on the relationship between unity and diversity in light of Obama's victory strategy.

But what is also clear is that with coalition-building around a central common goal come compromises. As Florida's Shame and the Limits of Change observes, Obama's coalition was enough to "turn Florida blue" on Tuesday, but his coattails appeared to be limited.

As far as Asian Americans are concerned, "'change' in Florida looks to have been a case of 'two steps forward, one step back,'" as the majority of voters in that actively opted for discrimination on a couple of ballot initatives. A mere 47.9% of the state's voters bothered to support the repeal of an outdated, unenforceable, "Yellow Peril-era" amendment to the state constitution, one of a series of Asian Land Laws created specifically to prohibit Asians from buying land or real estate. Let's say that again: A majority of voting Floridians actively decided to maintain the last last vestiges of the Asian land laws, enshrined in their constitution.

More election debriefing posts will follow as we work our way through the pile. Meanwhile, though, maybe rethink that planned vacation to Disneyworld this winter...

Follow-Up: AALDEF Asian Language Voter Help, Protection Today

In addition to the previous post from APIAVote, this last-minute re-announcement from AALDEF is worthy of noting, keeping with you, and sharing with limited-English friends and acquaintances. -- THE EDITORS

ASIAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND TO POLL 15,000 ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS
AND DOCUMENT VOTING PROBLEMS IN 11 STATES ON ELECTION DAY
* * *
Multilingual Voter Hotline: 800-966-5946
* * *

New York City...The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a 34-year old national civil rights organization, announced that it will dispatch over 1,300 attorneys, law students and community volunteers to 11 states to document voter problems in the November 4th elections. AALDEF will also conduct a nonpartisan multilingual exit poll in 12 languages to get a snapshot of Asian American voting preferences, in light of the surge in newly-registered voters and expected high turnout in this Presidential election.

Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director, said: “We want to ensure that all eligible Asian Americans can participate in the electoral process and have their votes counted in this critical Presidential election.”

She said that AALDEF plans to poll 15,000 Asian American voters on Election Day in 11 states with large Asian American populations: New York, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

POLL MONITORING
AALDEF will monitor over 130 poll sites for compliance with the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act. These polling places are in areas with large numbers of newly-registered Asian American voters; jurisdictions in which Asian-language assistance is provided; and sites where Asian Americans have reported voting barriers or intimidation in recent elections. Volunteer attorneys will check to see whether Asian-language voting assistance has been provided (such as ballots, interpreters, signs and voting materials), whether voter identification requirements are implemented in a non-discriminatory manner, and whether provisional ballots are offered to voters whose names are not in voter lists. Attorneys will also monitor settlements in recent lawsuits against New York, Boston, and Philadelphia for past violations of the Voting Rights Act.

Glenn D. Magpantay, AALDEF staff attorney, said, “In the 2006 midterm elections, Asian Americans had to overcome numerous obstacles to exercise their right to vote. AALDEF volunteers identified mistranslated ballots, interpreter shortages that led to Asian American voters being turned away, and poll workers who made hostile and racist remarks about Asian American voters. AALDEF will guard against the disenfranchisement of new citizens and limited English proficient voters.”

MULTILINGUAL EXIT POLL
AALDEF will conduct a nonpartisan exit poll of Asian American voters in 12 languages: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Tagalog, Khmer, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, and Gujarati. Voters will be asked their preferences in the Presidential and local races, top reasons for their choices, party affiliations, whether they are first-time voters, use of Asian-language voting assistance, and specific problems encountered at the polls. The AALDEF exit poll reveals vital information about Asian American voting patterns that is often overlooked in mainstream voter surveys. In the 2004 Presidential election, AALDEF polled 10,789 Asian American voters in 8 states--the largest poll of its kind in the nation. AALDEF has conducted exit polls of Asian American voters in every major election since 1988, noting the steadily increasing numbers of new citizen and first-time voters.

MULTILINGUAL VOTER HOTLINE: 800-966-5946
Multilingual volunteers will be at poll sites to take complaints from voters about election irregularities and other barriers to voting. Voters can also report Election Day problems to AALDEF’s toll-free Election Day Hotline at 800-966-5946, or by e-mail at votingcomplaints@aaldef.org.

ELECTION PROTECTION WEB CAMPAIGN: http://www.aaldef.org/vote2008
AALDEF has launched a new web campaign with tools to encourage voter participation and to recruit volunteers across the country to serve as nonpartisan voting rights monitors in AALDEF's Asian American Election Protection Project. They include a new Asian American Election Protection homepage, http://www.aaldef.org/vote2008; videos on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/user/aaldef, and a new Facebook group: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23872961251. AALDEF's new election blog, http://aaldef.blogspot.com, will also be updated with reports of voter problems and the preliminary results of AALDEF's multilingual exit poll.

AALDEF voting rights coordinator Bryan Lee said: "AALDEF will be expanding all of these new web services with more information about our Asian American Election Protection project on Election Day and beyond."

AALDEF is partnering with 57 national and local groups to mobilize volunteer attorneys, law students, college students and community activists on Election Day:

National Co-Sponsors:
Asian Pacific Islander American Vote
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Korean Amer. Service and Educ. Consortium
North American South Asian Bar Association
Organization of Chinese Americans
South Asian Americans Leading Together

Legal Co-Sponsors:
AU Wash. College of Law, Human Rights Clinic - DC
Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago - IL
Asian American Bar Association of New York
Asian American Lawyers Association of MA
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Greater DC
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of PA
Asian Pacific American Lawyers Assoc. of NJ
Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center – DC
Greater Boston Legal Services: Asian Outreach Unit
Indian American Bar Association of IL
Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater NY
South Asian Bar Association of DC
South Asian Bar Association of New Jersey
South Asian Bar Association of New York
South Asian Bar Association of Michigan
U. Penn. School of Law, Public Interest Office
Temple U. School of Law, Public Interest Office - PA

Local Co-Sponsors:
ACCESS - MI
Asian American LEAD - DC
Asian American Society of Central Virginia
Asian Community Development Corporation of Boston-MA
Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition – MA
Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia - PA
Conference for Asian Pacific American Leadership – DC
Chinatown Voter Education Alliance – NY
Chinese American Voters Association – NY
Chinese Progressive Association – MA
Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia
Committee of 70 - PA
Filipino American Human Services Inc. – NY
Hunter College/CUNY, Asian American Studies Program
Korean American Coalition – DC
Korean American Voters’ Council of NY/NJ
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center - IL
Korean Community Service Center of Greater DC
Maryland Vietnamese American Mutual Association – MD
Mass VOTE - MA
National Association of Korean Americans - DC
One Lowell - MA
Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation - PA
Sikh Coalition – NY
South Asian Youth Action! – NY
U. Maryland Asian American Studies Program
Vietnamese-American Initiative for Development - MD
Vietnamese American Mutual Association - MD
Vietnamese American Young Leaders Assoc. of New Orleans - LA
YKASEC:Empowering Korean American Communities–NY
# # #

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a national organization that
protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education and
organizing. AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

Last Word from APIAVote to Help Voting Today

The editors have been working on posting the IMDiversity.com Election Night Results and Protection section, whittling down the crazy array of info out there to compile live coverage streams, a shortlist of places to locate coverage, as well as a detailed section of resources (some ethnic- or language-specific) for identifying, reporting, and getting assistance confronting any voter intimidation, obstruction or other problems today.

Meanwhile, we are posting this succinct, helpful eleventh-hour reminder sheet from the noble folks at the non-patrisan, non-profit APIAVote.org.

FROM APIAVOTE:

As we count down the final hours of this historic election, our board members and staff of APIAVote are urging you to vote if you have not already voted. The action doesn't stop there, the following are three things you can do to increase the voice of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders tomorrow:

1.Bring your friends/family/colleagues with you to the polls.
2.Go through your phone book and call/text your family and friends to go to the polls.
3.Forward this email as a reminder to your family and friends.

Before you vote, keep in mind the following:

1.Double check your polling place before you vote: http://maps.google.com/vote.
2.You are allowed to call or bring a friend with you into the polling booth.
3.You may vote by provisional ballot if your name is not found on the voter records.
4.You may ask for assistance from a poll worker if you have any questions or problems.
5.If you have any problems voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

APIAVote's partners are in 14 states working hard for last-minute pushes to get the AAPI vote out as well as protect the voters through election monitoring and exit polling. Over the past several months, APIAVote partners have sent out educational mailers to 100,000 AAPI voters, have knocked on 10,000 AAPI household doors and counting, have had 85,000 live conversations, and robo-called 70,000 AAPI households.

APIAVote partners in conjunction with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) are at AAPI-heavy polling sites to make sure AAPIs are given a fair chance to vote. In addition, APIAVote and its partners are working with AALDEF conducting exit polls.

The election of our lifetime is happening TODAY, and we are asking you one more time to extend yourselves by urging your friends, neighbors, and colleague to invest in the future of our country by casting your ballots. Our children's futures stand on the outcome of today's election, and you can take part in determining this outcome.

Our coalition partners and organizers have energized our communities to get out the vote, and the thousands of voters we have contacted daily is a testament of our community's electoral growth. We are very excited about the results of hundreds of volunteers who were able to register voters, educate voters, and today will push hard to get our AAPI voters to the polls. Your active participation by voting TODAY will keep our AAPI community and especially our leaders accountable to the democratic process, which is both a right and a privilege that must be nurtured and protected.

Together, our vision, our voice, and our votes will make the difference. Remember, "no vote, no grumble."

-Vida Benavides, Executive Director on behalf of the APIAVote family

Features focus on Vietnamese Support for McCain

This morning's Weekend Edition Sunday program on National Public Radio aired a segment exploring how the national trend of Asian Americans leaning heavily for Barack Obama is being bucked by large portions of the Vietnamese American community. While most national Asian American organziations and the largest proportions of polled APAs from diverse ethnic groups and regions are continuing their leftward trend in 2008, Vietnamese Americans have collectively remained Senator McCain's most stalwart supporters among Asian Americans.

Reporting from Little Saigon in Orange County, Ca., NPR interviews supporters explaining a strong connection they feel for the candidate, in lagre measure out of respect for his serving years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Online audio for this story will be available at approx. 12:00 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, as more detailed coverage by the Associated Press' Amy Taxin observes, the "special tie" many Vietnamese Americans feel for McCain has carried over from his time in Southeast Asia to his service in Congress. McCain's subsequent "efforts in Congress on behalf of Vietnamese refugees is being repaid" Taxin writes, in her report from a campaign office in a strip mall in Westminster, which she describes as "ground zero for efforts by Vietnamese-Americans to elect the Republican presidential candidate and, at the same time, increase their political influence."

On the Vietland website, a commentary attributed to Shandon Phan suggests that this sense of connection is not lost even on younger Vietnamese Americans, who may be at a generational remove from the war.

"As young Vietnamese Americans, some of us grew up listening to our parents
tell us bedtime stories of the war...Some may call it a burden, but we take
pride in treasuring that part of our history," Phan writes.

This recognition of the community's history carries a feeling of obligation and gratitude for many voters.

"As Vietnamese Americans who believe that Senator John McCain is uniquely
qualified to lead our nation, we have been handed an unprecedented opportunity
to express our gratitude for his sacrifices. Recognizing this opportunity also
demands us to act," Phan says.

A number of commentators are also watching the Vietnamese American vote closely this Tuesday, seeing it as significant not only for McCain in particular, but also as an indicator of the community's clout. In recent years, much has been written and forecast about the rapidly swelling political influence of Asian American voters overall, and of the growing California Vietnamese community in particular.

However, California's VietAms faced some bracing setbacks in the 2006 elections. As Andrew Lam of New America Media observed, the midterms left Vietnamese Americans "mulling a poor showing byVietnamese American candidates" and "asking why only three out of 18 Vietnamese candidates from California [all incumbents] won their races for city, state and national offices...What happened to the growing political clout of the state's Vietnamese community?"

The community suffered the further blow of scandal, as a scare-letter campaign targeting Latinos dogged O.C. congressional candidate Tan Nguyen well after losing his election effort, and gave rise to a stigma that seemed to unfairly mark the wider community and its candidates. Even though the state AG cleared Nguyen of intending to intimidate voters, the feds charged him with attempting to impede the investigation itself. Nguyen was indicted by a federal grand jury on an obstruction-of-justice charge just last month, and on Oct. 14 entered a not-guilty plea in advance of his December trial, according to the Orange Country Register.

All of these setbacks may be only so many "growing pains," however, as Andrew Lam wrote in his midterms follow-up, "Big Politics in Little Saigon". In the event of a McCain victory on Tuesday, the profile of Vietnamese Americans as a voting bloc could be raised considerably. This would likely position the community to have an important role within the Republican Party, which has otherwise seen a continuing mass-abandonment by other Asian American ethnic groups over several cycles now. As such, it could play also be positioned to play a large role in representing the wider Asian American community itself.

Reminder: MIAAC Film Festival NYC - Nov. 5-9

MAHINDRA INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL (MIAAC) FILM FESTIVAL
NOVEMBER 5-9, 2008

Planning to be in New York on November 5 and hung over from the elections?

The full MIACC Film Festival schedule is published, with chock-a-block programming at venues throughout the NYC area after an apparently huge red carpet opening event followed by the NY premeire of Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth.

Film buffs -- be there or be square!

Follow-up: SAALT Webinar Recorded Online

For those who missed the SAALT Webinar mentioned in our previouis post, no worries: South Asian Americans Leading Together has made its audio/video presentation available for viewing at your own pace here.

Response: Attack on JA Woman in WI

This came in this week:

Anonymous has left a comment on your post: "Japanese American Woman, 58, Beaten While Canvassing in Wisconsin":

I feel bad for her, but she needs to know people are upset on both sides and she
has to take that risk when she goes canvassing in an area she's not familiar
with. she took the chance to root for Obama and has to be aware that that's part
of the territory;, there are many, including myself that don't trust Obama; and
I'm an Asian Pacific ; I also don't believe McCain is a racist at all; he and
his wife have adopted kids of different races, has Obama thought of adopting a
white disadvantaged European child if he's truly not racist himself.

The editors struggled with the decision of whether or not leave up this comment, recently posted to our item about the assault on Nancy Takehara earlier this month. We were sorry but unsurprised that the poster opted to remain "Anonymous". Finally, we determined to leave the post up, even though we fully and forcefully disagree with its logic and sentiments. But we have always tried to create a forum for our readers conducive to frank dialogue about Asian American community concerns, even when we don't share every view or, as in this case, when we oppose them.

Anonymous' logic aptly illustrates what we believe has gone so very wrong in the home stretch of this 2008 presidential campaign, where race is the elephant in the room that no one seems to want to address in the complexity it deserves.

We reject the argument that being physically assaulted is "part of the territory," to be an expected byproduct of "rooting" for a particular candidate. It stinks of "blaming the victim," similar to those who say a woman who is raped "brought it on herself" by being outside at night or dressing attractively. It is disgraceful.

We further refute the notion that violence should be an acceptable -- much less expected -- condition of civic engagement in a civilized society. Citizens should not have to endure assault for their political views, and for participating as citizens in the most important activity that is at the very root of what makes us Americans. This should be beneath us as a country, but apparently it's not in this most tense campaign fraught with racial anxiety.

We also don't understand the logic that views and dismisses this attack based upon John McCain's views about race, one way or the other. The fact of the McCain family's transracial adoption seems a singularly odd litmus test for determining racism; it's rather like people who say "I can't be a racist because I have a Black friend" (or "an Oriental wife"). More baffling still is implying that someone else might be a racist by virtue of having not-adopted a child (of any race).

More to the point, whether or not McCain has adopted an Asian child, or Obama has Asian brothers and sisters, is surely the most superficial possible way of judging their characters and trustworthiness as leaders, and it is also utterly irrelevant to the question at hand. The issue is not John McCain's racism or lack thereof; the issue is the attacker's sentiments, and the ugly, divisive rhetoric that drives them.

What did the attacker mean when he reportedly started screaming that the canvassers were "not his people," grabbed Takehara by the hair and began pounding on the back of her head? Let us venture a guess.

What Asian American has not had the experience of being challenged as foreign, different, alien, not belonging, not deserving, not "real American" enough. Or of people expressing surprise that you speak English, or grilling you about "where are you really from?" Who has not been told to "go back" where we came from?

In the same way that ex-Virginia George Allen sought to deride a Virginia-born, Indian American man at a campaign rally by referring to him as "macaca" and "welcom[ing] him to the 'real world' of Virginia and America," politicians try to score cheap points, stirring outrage among the mob, by casting Asians as essential foreigners. It was true in the late 1800s and remains true today.

And it will remain true as long as Asian Americans -- like "Anonymous" -- continue to kow-tow and make excuses for those who attack us.

See or respond to Anonymous' comment at the bottom of the Takehara posting here.

SAALT Webinar on South Asians and Election 2008

This notice came in from SAALT.org. As we've recently written elsewhere, the non-profit, non-partisan South Asian Americans Leading Together has emerged as one of the most vibrant, active and impressive national Asian-Pacific American organizations around, of any focus, with a ton of great programming going on this year.

SAALT has issued a release announcing a Pre-Elections Webinar on October 30th, with a call-in teleconference and online component that anyone can join. SAALT is doing a grat job, and the editors can't recommend them highly enough. Anyone interested in a serious, nonpartisan discussion of policy issues facing the diverse South Asian American commuity should consider participating. Here are the details:

When: Thursday, October 30th at 2pm EST/1pm CST/11am PST
(The Webinar should last an hour and 15 minutes)

Why: South Asian political involvement has been on the rise over the past decade, and the run-up to the November 2008 elections shows that South Asians have been increasingly engaged in the presidential campaigns, voter mobilization efforts, and bids for state and national office. What could South Asian voter turnout look like? What does South Asian involvement in the 2008 elections signify in terms of the community's political maturity?

• Who: South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), with special guests who will provide observations on South Asian political involvement, including:
• Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College; author of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World
• Karthick Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Riverside; principal investigator on the first large-scale national survey of Asian American politics (2008)
• Ali Najmi, Desis Vote (New York)
• South Asian Progressive Action Collective (Chicago)
• Seema Agnani, Chhaya CDC (New York)

To attend, you must register by Thursday, October 30th at 10am EST:

1. Please click the following link or copy into your browser:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/684743079

2. You will then be asked to register for the webinar. After you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email from the webinar service which has a link; a call-in number; and a conference call-in code.

3. At the appointed time for the webinar (Thursday, October 30th at 2PM EST/1PM CST/12PM PST), please click the link provided in the confirmation email and call the dial-in number listed. When prompted on the call, enter the call-in code from the email. The computer-based portion may take a few moments to load so we ask you to go through this step at least ten minutes before the start of the webinar.

4. To ask questions during the webinar, simply type them into the "Questions and Answers" box on the right-hand side of the webinar interface on your computer screen. If you cannot attend the online visual portion of the webinar, you can still listen in to the audio portion by calling in to 616.883.8055 and entering 426-588-202 as the code.

Questions? Please contact SAALT at saalt@saalt.org.

Diwali Less Sweet in a Hard Year

A good pair of item from National Public Radio this morning reports on how recent bombings cast a pall over India's Diwali celebrations, with a terrific follow-up commentary bringing it home by New America Media editor and occasional featured contributor on Asian American Village, Sandip Roy.

In his audio commentary, Diwali Better Minus The Fireworks, Roy recalls celebrations of years past, both in India and in San Francisco, and how the fear of violence had cast a shadow them at times.

Adding to the gloom of this year's celebrations, a commentary on Reuters reports, is the shaky economic condition of the stock market.

"Diwali, the festival of lights, is here but do we see a pall of gloom with the
BSE Sensex crashing more than 50 percent since January 2008? Things have
come to such a pass that some people have simply stopped looking at their
portfolios. They think it’s too late now to cut losses."

Meanwhile, reports Gavin Rabinowitz of the Associated Press, it's another sign of the times that mithai -- the sticky sweet treats that are a traditional highlight of the festival of lights -- are also losing their allure.

In his article posted in the Asian American Village AP News Headlines section, Rabinowitz examines a heightened waist consciousness in an India whose "economy [is] booming, and its people's waistlines expanding."

"[Mithai] have long been central to this Hindu festival of lights -- sweet,
fudgy goodies rich with cardamon, pistachio and saffron, often coated with an
ethereal foil of pure silver. They are eagerly eaten, given as gifts, offered to
the gods. [But] increasingly, the nation's growing urban middle class wants
holiday presents that better reflect newfound wealth. And an explosion of
obesity and related health conditions has many Indians -- some 35 million of
whom are diabetic -- thinking twice about treats."

It's hard not salivate, though, over the accompanying sidebar recipe for Pista Badam Mithai (Pistachio Almond Sweets). The recipe, adapted from Tarla Dalal's Mithai, features a relatively modest dosage of honey, and promises a preparation time of 15 minutes start to finish.

A little sweetness may be just the thing to momentarily lift the spirits after what's been an anxious year everywhere.