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VOL 36 NO 28
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
FREE 35 YEARS YOUR VOICE
Are safe heroin injection sites really safe? By Stacy Nguyen NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY “It’s just the whole idea of having a socalled safe injection site [for heroin] doesn’t make sense to me,” said Bellevue resident Kan Qiu. “I’m a first generation immigrant from China. It’s ingrained in our culture, that we don’t touch drugs. In China, we have a vivid history of the Opium Wars. [They] made China weak. The whole nation was weak. That was because the drug was legal and readily available. That was a recipe to destroy Asia. Heroin abuse should focus on treatment, rather than on a facility for [drug users]. It’s addiction. Addiction is like — if you provide the facility, the addiction will go on. And also, it causes a bunch of additional social problems like [increased] crime rates, drug dealing. You know, drug dealers would love a magnet of a consumption site because they would know where to sell the drug. They’d just camp outside the facility. [This is] the wrong message to send to our next generation. Totally wrong approach.” On March 1, 2016, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, Renton Mayor Denis Law, and see INJECTION SITES on 12
‘Bubbly kid’ fatally shot by deputy hours before graduation
Outdoors enthusiasts travel cross-country to promote diversity in public lands
By CHRISTINE WILLMSEN THE SEATTLE TIMES
see LE on 16
Photo by Tim Gruver/NWAW
SEATTLE (AP) — When Tommy Le’s photo appeared in the screen during the slideshow fellow graduates cheered and hollered. The 20-year-old and about 45 fellow students had just graduated from Career Link, an alternative high-school completion program at South Seattle College. But they also didn’t understand why the wide-smiling, cheerful Le wasn’t at the June 14 celebration, and missing a high point in his life. They were unaware that Le had been shot and killed by a King County sheriff ’s deputy hours earlier. Tommy Le Ambreen Tariq (left) and husband, Nader Janeel stand in front of their travel trailer at Seattle Center.
By Tim Gruver NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
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Ambreen Tariq was just 8 years old when she traveled halfway across the world to the United States from India. The daughter of immigrant parents who both worked two jobs to make ends meet, Tariq grew up all across the country as a part of what she calls
a road trip family that developed a mutual love of the outdoors with their daughter. That love led Tariq to start Brown People Camping, a social media campaign aimed at promoting greater diversity in outdoor recreation. Together with her husband, Nader Jameel, Tariq partnered with Airstream Travel see TRAVEL on 13
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35 YEARS
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
■ NAMES IN THE NEWS The University of Washington (UW) announced on June 29 that Anind K. Dey has been named dean of the Information School. Dey comes to the UW from Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science. His appointment is subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents. Anind K. Dey Dey has also held positions at Intel Research in Berkeley from 2001 to 2004, and at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2002 to 2005. Dey earned his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Simon Fraser University in Canada. He holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. ■
Yin launches campaign
candidates for Bellevue City Council Steve Fricke and Jared Nieuwenhuis. The event was emceed by Nelson Yong. This is Yin’s third attempt at running for office. He has previously run for Lieutenant Governor of Washington and a U.S. Senate seat.■
Ravishing INSPI Talk
Photo provided by Menka Soni
New dean of the UW’s Information School
Photo by Stacy Nguyen/NWAW
On June 20, Phillip Yin launched his campaign for Bellevue City Council, position 5, at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Bellevue. Yin was joined by dozens of supporters and he spoke about his plans for the future of Bellevue, if he is elected. Yin is running against Janice Zahn, who is also Chinese American. Speakers at the event also included Bellevue City Councilmembers Conrad Lee and Kevin Wallace, and
courts as an expert witness in Chinese culture on several occasions. ■
New Bharti Kirchner novel
Tana Anderson (center) with Mrs. India WA 2016 Priyanka Yadav (right) and Molly George.
On June 16, Ravishing Women hosted its Ravishing INSPI Talk in Redmond, where a panel discussed how marital status dictates the way women are treated in our society. Meenal Darak, Miss India Seattle 2016, and Ajeta Singhal, Miss India WA 2015, shared their stories and the setbacks they faced. Ravishing Women is a nonprofit organization with the mission to inspire, appreciate, and empower women to realize their potential and transform their dreams into reality. It is also the organizer for Miss India WA beauty pageant and plans to launch the first-ever Miss Asia WA this year. ■ Phillip Yin launched his campaign for Bellevue City Council on June 20.
Alan Lai (back) with CISC staffers.
CISC director retires
Alan Lai, director of CISC’s Crime Victim Services, retired at the end of June after 18 years of service. Staff, former staff, and board members held a farewell luncheon to thank Lai for his contributions. Lai will continue his part-time job as a Certified Court interpreter in Cantonese and Mandarin. He specializes in immigration-related translation and translation of legal documents into English. He has also been qualified by
Bharti Kirchner
Bharti Kirchner’s seventh novel, Season of Sacrifice: A Maya Mallick Mystery, will be published in hardcover in September 2017. First in the series, set in Seattle, it tells the story of a young, brilliant, and dedicated scientist of Asian American origin, who dies in a violent street protest, leaving behind her questions for a new sleuth to solve. Kirchner’s work has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Marathi, Thai, and other languages. Her first novel, Shiva Dancing, was chosen by Seattle Weekly to be among the top 18 books by Seattle authors in the last 25 years. ■
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YOUR VOICE
■ COMMUNITY NEWS
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
3
Hing Hay Park Expansion Navigation opens Center discord
Photo by Assunta Ng/NWAW
continues
By Staff NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Hing Hay Park
By Staff NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY The Hing Hay Park Expansion, at the corner of 6th Avenue South and South King Street, in Seattle’s Chinatown International District, opened on June 29. The park has doubled in size and serves as an important community gathering place for the neighborhood. The new park design includes a cultural performance space, with custom integrated seating that punctuates the terraces and provides micro-stages.
Activity areas for all community members to enjoy include ping pong tables, seating, exercise machines, and shade trees. Additional features include planted terraces, lighting, necessary utilities, and sidewalk improvements with ADA accessibility through the park. The design of the park is the result of a series of community outreach meetings, input from local organizations, and Friends of Hing Hay Park. ■ Staff can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
Dozens of seniors, who attended a June 29 meeting to discuss the new Navigation Center in Little Saigon, called it a waste of time. The community members were hoping to engage city officials. But some in attendance called the event a celebratory soft opening instead. The Seattle Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) President-elect Joseph Lachman wrote on Facebook, “The city government lied. This was not a community meeting to
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address our concerns and have meaningful engagement. It was only to celebrate the opening of the Navigation Center and the steamrolling of the Vietnamese community. I am deeply disgusted with the City of Seattle’s treatment of Little Saigon in the planning of the Navigation Center.” Attendees instead heard remarks from Daniel Malone, the executive director of Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) — which will operate the center. DESC has announced that it will begin accepting people on July 12.
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JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
35 YEARS
■ NATIONAL NEWS
Doctor has no idea why he’d be hospital shooter’s target By COLLEEN LONG ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam (upper right)
NEW YORK (AP) — A doctor who appears to have been the target of a former physician who started shooting at a
hospital, killing one person and injuring six, said he has no idea why he would have been singled out. Dr. Kamran Ahmed told the New York Post he wasn’t the only one Dr. Henry Bello had a problem with. However, “he never argued with me,” Ahmed said. “I don’t know why he put my name.” A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Bello arrived at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx on June 30 with an assault rifle, which was bought in upstate New York about a week earlier, hidden under his lab coat and asked for a doctor he blamed for his having to resign, but the doctor wasn’t there at the time. The law enforcement official wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Ahmed, who specializes in the early detection and treatment of dementia, said Bello “had a problem with almost everybody, so I’m not the only one. That’s why they fired him, because so many people complained.” Authorities said Bello went to the 16th and 17th floors and started shooting anyway, killing Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee
Hundreds outside courthouse as abduction suspect has hearing By MICHAEL TARM ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of people gathered outside a federal courthouse on July 3 as the suspect in the kidnapping of a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois made his first appearance since beYingying Zhang ing arrested last week. During the nine-minute hearing, 28-year-old Brendt Christensen acknowledged to the judge that he understood his rights, but did not say anything else. U.S. Magistrate Eric Long ordered Christensen held without bond in the kidnapping of Yingying Zhang. Authorities say facts in the case indicate the 26-year-old Zhang is dead, although her body hasn’t been found. Long ordered Christensen to return to the court in Urbana on June 28 to determine bond. A preliminary hearing was set for July 14, but that would be waived if a grand jury returns an indictment before then. The federal kidnapping charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to a U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reported that about 45 people attended the hearing the morning of July 3, with another crowd in the courthouse lobby and yet more people across the street, many chanting “Justice for Yingying.” After the hearing, Christensen’s attorney Evan Bruno said he has talked to Christensen a few times, but that “this case is very young and we haven’t had a really full opportunity to develop everything yet.”
Bruno asked the public to “be patient, to keep an open mind, wait till the evidence comes in.” He described his client as a “very intelligent guy” who has no criminal history. “He has a speeding ticket, I think, but that’s about it,” Bruno said. Bruno added that Christensen is married, but that he and his wife do not have any children, according to the newspaper. He said Christensen, who recently earned a master’s degree in physics from the University of Illinois, is not employed but has been looking for a job. Zhang, who received her master’s degree in environmental engineering in China last year and hoped to eventually land a professorship and help her family financially, went missing on June 9. Her father traveled from China to Illinois in June for the search. Authorities announced that they believed she was abducted after viewing surveillance video showing her climbing into a vehicle. Authorities charged Christensen on June 30 after federal agents heard him tell someone that he’d kidnapped Zhang and held her against her will. Authorities say Zhang was trying to hurry to an apartment to sign a lease and had been unsuccessful in flagging down a bus when a car stopped. The video shows a woman authorities have said is Zhang climb into the vehicle in Urbana, 140 miles southwest of Chicago. Since then, details have emerged about Christensen and the events leading up to Zhang’s disappearance. According to authorities, a website that see ABDUCTION on 11
Tam, who, like him, was a family medicine doctor. Hospital officials said that Tam normally worked in one of the hospital’s satellite clinics and was covering a shift in the main hospital as a favor to someone else. “It makes you think that anything can happen to anybody,” said Tam’s neighbor Alena Khaim, who saw Tam’s sister outside the home night of June 30 overcome with grief, shaking and unable to walk. “She was such a sweet girl. You would never think something like that would happen, but it happened.” Before the shooting, Bello sent an email to the Daily News, blaming colleagues he said forced him to resign two years earlier. “This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine,” the email said. “First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.” Bello’s former co-workers described a man who was see SHOOTING on 11
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KING COUNTY NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed bids will be received for C01161C17, SE David Powell Rd – Downstream, SE Fish Hatchery Rd; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, 3rd Floor, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, until 1:30 PM on July 11, 2017. Late bids will not be accepted. Brief Scope This project provides for the roadway and riverbank slope repairs of SE David Powell Road (Preston-Fall City Road SE to one mile southeast) and SE Fish Hatchery Road (Between SE 49th Street and the Plumb Boat Launch) in King County by clearing and grubbing, roadway excavation, surfacing, paving with HMA, constructing a rock buttress wall, constructing a geogrid structural earth wall, structure excavation, drainage, erosion control, seeding and mulching, beam guardrail and anchors, road closure signing, temporary traffic control, and other work, all in accordance with the attached Plans, these Special Provisions, the Standard Specifications, the KCRDCS, and the APWA/WSDOT Standard Plans for Road, Bridge, and Municipal Construction. Complete Invitation to Bid Documents, including all project details, specifications, and contact information are available on our web page at: https://procurement. kingcounty.gov/procurement_ovr/default.aspx
asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
■ WORLD NEWS
5
Toilet charity’s plan for Trumpnamed Indian village blocked By VAISHNAVEE SHARMA ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW DELHI (AP) — Local officials are blocking a toilet-building charity’s effort to rename a north Indian village after U.S. President Donald Trump, the group said. District officials did not immediately return calls for comment, but were quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency as saying the renaming effort was just a fundraising stunt for the charity. Residents of the dusty village of Maroda worried they wouldn’t receive free toilets if they abandoned the new name “Trump Sulabh Village,” the charity said. But it assured them that it would continue its campaign to build commodes for each home. “As long as they let us, we’re going to keep this work going,” said Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak. None of the funding is coming from Trump or the U.S., but Pathak said he hoped the renaming attempt would bring attention to their efforts to improve sanitation across India. Some 60 percent of India’s 1.25 billion people still defecate in the open.
India launches new single nationwide tax By ASHOK SHARMA ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament held a special midnight session on June 30 to introduce a new single nationwide tax, replacing a complicated mix of state and federal taxes that will change the cost of nearly everything people buy. India’s president and the prime minister pressed a button heralding the major overhaul of the taxation system — known as the the single Goods and Services Tax — from July 1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a speech that the new system would eliminate 500 types of taxes in favor of one tax across the country, a catalyst that would remove trade imbalance Prime Minister Narendra Modi and promote exports. “GST is a simple, transparent system which prevents generation of black money and curbs corruption. The system gives opportunity to honesty and people who do honest business,” he said. The main opposition Congress and some other parties boycotted the midnight ceremony, arguing that nearly 7 million traders needed more time to prepare for the new system as they would be required to file tax returns every month. The opposition, however, supported the new tax system. India’s Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian was confident of resolving see TAX on 11
Pathak said authorities in the surrounding district of Mewat objected to the charity’s plan to rename the village as part of a plan to make it the first in the state of Haryana to be free of open defecation. “The real issue is that the area had already been declared opendefecation free,” though a survey by the charity found that only 40 of the village’s 160 homes had toilets, Pathak said. “When we brought attention to the lack of toilets,” he said, “they asked us to remove the signs” declaring its new name as Trump Sulabh Village. Most of the villagers who attended a renaming ceremony on June 23 said they did not know who Trump was, but were happy to take on his name if it came with a free toilet. “Every morning we would go out toward the jungle, or just find any place to sit and do our business,” said villager Hasina, a 45-year-old housewife who like many in India uses only one name. A new toilet, she said, “is going to be more convenient for us. It is definitely good.” The Hindi-language word “sulabh” means “accessible” and describes the simple pit toilets the charity builds for free. ■
Chinese parents alarmed by miniature crossbow craze BEIJING (AP) — Powerful minicrossbows that shoot toothpicks and needles are the new must-have toy for schoolkids across China — and a nightmare for concerned parents and school officials. Several cities including Shenzhen and Qingdao have reportedly banned sales of the palm-sized contraptions, which sell for about $1 and are powerful enough to puncture soda cans, apples and cardboard, depending on the projectile. The fad appears to have sprung out of the southwest city of Chengdu but quickly spread to China’s east coast and even across the border to Hong Kong. In the Chinese territory of Macau, police
issued a warning last month that using the crossbows might constitute a criminal offense. Although there have not yet been
widespread reports of serious injuries, parents across China have raised concerns with schools, with many circulating petitions on social media in support of a nationwide ban. “People getting blinded will become commonplace, must ban!” said one user on the messaging forum hupu.com while another asked: “What was the inventor of this thing thinking?” Taobao and JD.com, China’s two most popular e-commerce sites, have responded in recent days by blocking sales. Searches for “crossbow” or “toothpick crossbow” now return empty. ■
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6
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
35 YEARS
■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR JULY 6
PUBLIX HOTEL: GREAT STATE BURGER GRAND OPENING 504 5th Ave., Seattle 6 p.m.
7 LOCAL EVENT WITH AUTHOR LISA KO OF, “THE LEAVERS” Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle 7 p.m. michael@algonquin.com 212-614-5639
7&8 JYUN JYUN AND MISSTANGQ BRING TO SEATTLE A TESTAMENT OF TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND CULTURAL INTERCHANGE July 7 at Duwamish Waterway Park, 7900 10th Ave. S., Seattle July 8 at Cal Anderson Park 1635 11th Ave., Seattle 8:30 p.m. Free and family-friendly
7–9 KOBE-KON 2017 Everett Mall, 1402 S.E. Everett Mall Way, Everett 11 a.m. kobekon.com
8
14-19 years old wingluke.org/youthcan Deadline to apply is June 30
7TH ANNUAL SAMOA CULTURAL DAY Clover Park High Harry Lang Stadium 8 a.m. 253-383-3900 apcc96.org NATSU MATSURI OUTDOOR SUMMER FESTIVAL Uwajimaya, 600 5th Ave. S., Seattle 11 a.m.
8&9 JAPAN FAIR 2017 Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. 6th St., Bellevue 7/8, 11 a.m. 7/9, 10 a.m. Free japanfairus.org
9 ASIAN ARTS LEADERS RESPOND TO MADAME BUTTERFLY SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle 2 p.m. seattleopera.org COMMUNITY MEETING, “WHAT WILL OUR CID LOOK LIKE?” Bush-Asia Center, Seattle 2 p.m.
10–28 DEVELOP YOUR ARTISTRY THROUGH YOUTHCAN, “FIND YOUR VOICE” Wing Luke Museum 12 p.m.
NAVIGATION from 3 The proposal to build the shelter was put on hold at the end of April, after it angered local community advocates. Local Vietnamese Americans, many of whom own business in Little Saigon, said news of the center’s opening in
12
15 & 16
THROUGH AUGUST 31
SUMMER AT SAM RETURNS Olympic Sculpture Park Every Thursday and Saturday visitsam.org/summer
13 TAP-SEA PRESENTS: WINE TASTING SOCIAL Fika House Kafe, 298 106th Ave. N.E., Bellevue 5 p.m. impactflow.com
14 & 15 42ND ANNUAL PIG ROAST HOSTED BY INTERIMCDA Danny Woo Community Garden, 620 S. Main St., Seattle 6 p.m. on July 14 12 p.m. on July 15 dannywoogarden.org
15 NWAW’S TRASHION FASHION SHOW Northwest Asian Weekly office 412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle 1:30 p.m. nwasianweekly.com ANNUAL CANDIDATES FORUM FOR MAYORAL RACE Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle
Little Saigon came as a surprise, and they criticized the mayor’s office for lack of communication and community outreach. The Navigation Center Community Task Force issued a statement earlier last week questioning the decision by the City and DESC to open the Navigation Center without the
and Vicinity, 1528 Valentine Place S., Seattle 10 a.m. 206-902-6830
MCDONALD’S PRESENTS DRAGON FEST 2017 Seattle’s Chinatown-International District 6 p.m. 2017 SEATTLE BON ODORI 1427 S. Main St., Seattle 4 p.m.
18 WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED TOWN HALL Nisei Vets Hall, 1212 S. King St., Seattle 5 p.m.
30 3RD MAJOR READING OF ACT’S WORLD PREMIERE, “TALE OF THE HEIKE” ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle 1:30 p.m. acttheatre.org/heike _____________________________
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community’s submission of the Response Plan, as had previously been agreed upon. Staff can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
View the solution on page 14
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The only weekly English-language newspaper serving Washington’s Asian community. The NW Asian Weekly has one simple goal: “To empower the Asian community.” The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any advertisement, letter or article. Subscriptions cost $40 for 52 weeks of the NW Asian Weekly and $30 for 52 weeks of the Seattle Chinese Post. The NW Asian Weekly owns the copyright for all its content. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reprinted without permission. 412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 info@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com
asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
■ AT THE MOVIES
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
7
“okja”
A quirky, morality tale involving a girl and her super-pig
By Eric Card NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Okja is huge. She looks like a hybrid between a pig, hippopotamus, and elephant, and maybe a few other things. She poops in every which direction, with fiery speed. She is tender, smart, and altruistic, but clumsy, aggressive, and driven by pure instinct,
flatulating at any given time. She is an amalgamation of a lot of things, and she’s the perfect representation when it comes to the genre-defying, tonal approach to the film, named after its main subject, “Okja.” Written and directed by Bong Joon-Ho (“Snowpiercer” and “The Host”) of South Korea, Okja is described as a “superpig,” a new breed discovered by global
corporation Mirando, that can help to solve the worldwide hunger epidemic, at least according to CEO Lucy Mirando (played by Tilda Swinton). As part of its marketing campaign, they have bred 26 super-pigs to be raised in farms across the world. After 10 years, the biggest and best super-pig will be announced and celebrated to further promote the project to fight world hunger. Skip 10 years ahead, and we are taken to a remote and beautiful mountainside in South Korea. This is where Okja is first introduced, alongside 14-year-old Mija (played by Ahn Seo Hyun) and her grandpa. It is clear from the onset that Mija and Okja have a special relationship that goes beyond the mundane interactions of a farmer and farm animal. They forage for food together, nap together, and look out for each other in times of danger. Furthermore, Mija seemingly has the ability to communicate to Okja by whispering into her ear. Their peaceful life is suddenly interrupted by the employees of Mirando, who soon after arriving announce Okja as the winner of the super-pig competition, taking Okja away to be revealed to the public in New York.
That’s when the floodgates open. The pacing picks up quickly. The tone is unexpectedly shifted. Peripheral characters start to become caricatures, some to the extreme. The musical choices often times contradict what we see on the screen, at times giving it a vaudeville flavor. Even the genre starts to feel ever-evolving. There’s a little bit of everything: drama, action, comedy, science fiction, and even a little horror. It’s lighthearted and uplifting, yet somber and disturbing. In her quest to follow, rescue, and reunite with Okja, Mija is caught in a crossfire between two groups: Mirando, the greedy, capitalistic corporation, and the Animal Liberation Front, an organization that helps to free captured animals and expose companies like Mirando of its cruel and unethical practices to the general public. While the film unsubtly displays the aftermath of human consumption, it admirably does a fair job of poking fun at both groups through satire and physical humor. see OKJA on 16
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35 YEARS
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
■ ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Teenage boy from Mumbai slum dances way to NY ballet school By MANISH MEHTA ASSOCIATED PRESS MUMBAI, India (AP) — The son of a welder from this city’s slums had a dream few Indians dared to dream — to dance with the New York City Ballet. In a few months, that dream may be a little bit closer as 15-year-old Amiruddin Shah begins four years of training at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. “I never thought I would become a ballet dancer,” Shah said, though he knew from the age of 6 that he loved to move with music. “India is not on the ballet map, and I want to take India to an even higher level.” Shah began studying ballet less than three years ago when Israeli-American instructor Yehuda Maor was invited by the Danceworx Academy to teach in India — a country with no special ballet academies. Maor happened to catch Shah doing cartwheels and backflips as part of the Danceworx jazz and contemporary dance program for underprivileged students. “I had no idea about ballet,” Shah recalled. He had been dancing freestyle whenever he got the chance — sometimes he was invited to weddings to perform, sometimes he just goofed around with friends. Maor was impressed with how Shah moved and asked to see the bottom of Shah’s feet. He discovered the boy had perfect arches for ballet and urged him to train.
Within 2 1/2 years, Shah had nailed his pointe, pirouette and arabesque, “which is unheard of,” Maor said. “I knew I had found a diamond in a pile of rocks,” said the teacher, acknowledging that his pupil now “needs to be challenged” by more teachers. Maor bought Shah ballet shoes and dance clothes and helped him and another young dancer, 21-year-old Manish Chauhan, win scholarships in June to New York’s Joffrey Ballet School. But they could not secure U.S. visas in time. Shah and Chauhan were then offered scholarships at the Oregon Ballet Theater starting in December. Shah attended for three months, while Chauhan is still training in Portland. Now, Shah is trying to raise funds for four years of travel and tuition with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. They have enough for his first year, beginning in August, but have set up a website to accept donations for three more years in the U.S. Shah said he is eager to stay in a dormitory and “be in a proper ballet school.” “I am so excited, but slightly scared, too,” said Shah, who speaks basic English but used Hindi in an interview with The Associated Press. “How would I interact with people? New York is very crowded.” One day, he hopes to be a principal dancer in the New York Ballet. And eventually, he said, “I want to teach other children who cannot afford to pay for dance.” ■
Amiruddin Shah
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■ TECHNOLOGY
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JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
9
China propels rise of electric ultra-high-performance cars By JOE McDONALD AP BUSINESS WRITER BEIJING (AP) — Want an insanely fast ride with zero emissions? Startup NIO has the car: An electric two-seater with muscular European lines and a top speed of 195 miles per hour. The catch: The EP9 costs nearly $1.5 million. NIO, a Chinese-Western hybrid with bases in Shanghai, London and Silicon Valley, created it to showcase the company’s technology and had no sales plans. But it is taking orders for “bespoke vehicles” after hearing from buyers ready to pay the eye-popping price. “We are actually pleasantly surprised how much interest we are getting,” said the CEO of NIO’s U.S. unit, Padmasree Warrior, a veteran of Cisco and Motorola. NIO is part of a wave of fledgling automakers — all backed at least in part by Chinese investors — that are propelling the electric vehicle industry’s latest trend: ultrahigh-performance cars. Manufacturers including Detroit Electric, Qiantu Motor, Thunder Power and NEVS aim to compete with Europe, Detroit and Japan by offering top speeds over 150 mph and features including carbon fiber bodies and web-linked navigation and entertainment. The ventures mix U.S. and European technology with Chinese money and manufacturing, reflecting this country’s rise as a market and investor for an industry where Beijing wants a leading role. Communist leaders see electric vehicles as a way to clear China’s smog-choked cities and as an engine for economic development. “We really haven’t seen non-Chinese companies get into
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this super-technology market,” said Chris Robinson, who follows the industry for Lux Research. NIO’s backers include Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, operator of the popular WeChat messaging service; computer maker Lenovo Group, a Singapore
government-owned investment fund and U.S.-based IDG Capital, TPG and Hillhouse Capital. Some brands are following the strategy of Tesla Inc., see NIO on 13
July 15 & 16
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asianweekly northwest
10
35 YEARS
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
OPINION
■ PUBLISHER’S BLOG
Why the $15 minimum wage law doesn’t help low-wage workers The verdict is in for Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law — it has produced the opposite effect for low-wage workers. The recent University of Washington (UW) report on wage loss for low-income workers resulting from the new wage law, displeases Mayor Ed Murray, and he even hired another research team to discredit the findings. The UW report doesn’t surprise me a bit that low-wage workers are suffering from lost hours and lost wages. I don’t need a study to tell me the consequences of the gradual increase of the $15 minimum wage law. Despite pleas in 2014 from the International District (ID) and small business owners, most officials turned a deaf ear. Murray met with ID merchants and business owners they shouldn’t be alarmed because the City was implementing the new wage gradually. “You (businesses) have three years to do it,” Murray said after he proposed it, and the Seattle City Council passed the ordinance. Would three years guarantee that immigrant businesses could increase their profits to absorb the wage increase? What if the business is struggling like our newspaper operation, and every year our income drops precipitously like Snoqualmie Falls? Although
Photo by George Liu/NWAW
By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Mayor Ed Murray addresses owners of small businesses at the New Hong Kong Restaurant on April 15, 2014 to discuss impacts of the proposed $15/hour minimum wage.
our goal is not to make lots of money, we need to make enough in order to pay our bills on time, and have a rainy fund. And for ID restaurants that are just barely making it without any prospect of improving profits (due to the language and cultural barriers), how do you expect them to turn things around? Three years wouldn’t change anything for many of the disadvantaged businesses. “I’d like to know where the money is coming from?” asked one Asian businessman at a Seattle City Council hearing held at Rainier Beach High School on the proposed
law in 2014. But no one had an answer. It’s not like the city has set aside a pot to help ethnic businesses for sudden expenses. The city does provide generous grants to nonprofit organizations, though. Tam Nguyen, owner of Tamarind Tree Restaurant, said at another council hearing in 2014 in the ID, “Some immigrant businesses are happy making just $50,000 a year.” That amount, although small, is good enough for an immigrant family business to make a living and provide jobs for their family. But the small net profit would be tough for the business to
survive. Again, no officials listened. The Mayor and the Council assumed that businesses would adapt and manage after a while. My office is in the heart of over 100 restaurants and grocery stores. And I frequently dine in mainstream restaurants. I can tell you things are not as rosy as the officials would like to be.
Make every hour count
There is no magic formula for small businesses especially mom and pops — just common sense to survive. If a small business can’t balance its books, the obvious thing is to cut costs. Labor is one of the top expenses, and cutting workers’ hours is the quickest solution. Quite a few downtown restaurants now close between 2 to 5 p.m. to save money not only in labor costs, but other operational items. Never before have business owners paid such close attention to their employees’ hours. Make every hour count — absolutely no slack in between. I was a waitress during my college days. I know what it means for the working class. For instance, during slow hours, the wait staff might clean the countertop and the entrance door, or take a little break. Now, there is no see BLOG on 15
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JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
11
OPINION
■ COMMENTARY By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
Haole Five-0
I don’t watch very much TV. But one of the few shows I watched was “Hawaii Five-O,” which should now be renamed “Haole Five-0.” Two Asian actors — Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park — will not be back for the eighth season of the CBS police drama, which is scheduled to return in September. Both have been a part of the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot since its inception, with Kim playing Chin Ho Kelly and Park playing Kono Kalakaua, cousins on the special police task force. CBS gave no explanation for the actors’ decisions. Variety reports that both Park and Kim were making 10 to 15 percent less than the show’s two other main characters, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, and were seeking equal pay. However, neither was able to reach a satisfactory deal with CBS. Executive Producer Peter Lenkov said in a statement, “I will never forget meeting Daniel while still writing the pilot and being certain there was no other actor who I’d want to play Chin Ho Kelly.” About Park, Lenkov said, “Grace’s
presence gave ‘Hawaii Five-O’ a beauty and serenity to each episode. She was the consummate collaborator, helping build her character from day one. They will always be ohana to us, we will miss them and we wish them both all the best.” Funny how producers use the term ohana to describe the stars, yet they couldn’t cough up the money. How does it
■ LETTERS
make sense to have a show about Hawaii — the nation’s only majority Asian state — without Asian actors in the main roles? And what about Loughlin and Caan? They could stand in solidarity with their castmates a la Big Bang Theory and Friends — and demand they all get paid equally, even if it means taking a pay cut. Apparently the producers are already looking for an Asian American actor to replace Park, probably so they can say they are not racist and save money. They probably won’t pay an unknown Asian actor the same as they did Park. Or maybe Emma Stone is available. If CBS isn’t going to be smart enough to keep Kim and Park, they might as well make the next season the last. I don’t see how you can have Hawaii Five-O without Chin Ho and Kono. And honestly, the whiny bromance banter between McGarrett and Dano is getting old. I hope the show’s ratings follow Kim and Park out the door. ■ Ruth can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.
Reader urges lawmakers for more Alzheimer’s help
Reader reacts to SCV reunion story
Dear Editor,
I was thrilled to learn that there was a reunion of the great folks who produced the KRABFM Seattle Chinese Voice. I only wished I had known they were going to have such an event — I would have loved to crash their party, especially to see Cecilia Fung. The program started way before I got to KRAB, and continued until the end. I was the station manager of KRAB between 1978 and 1980.
More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. This means that in 2016, these caregivers provided an estimated 18.2 billion hours of care valued at over $230 billion. While this is done out of love, compassion, and a sense of family duty, caregiving can be emotionally, physically, and financially draining. At this time, the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act (S. 1028) has been moving through the Senate with bipartisan support. The RAISE Family Caregivers Act would provide much needed
ABDUCTION from 4 hosted an “Abduction 101” forum linked Christensen to the kidnapping of Zhang. The federal complaint says Christensen’s phone was used April 19 to visit that website, FetLife.com, including to view threads titled “Perfect abduction fantasy” and “planning a kidnapping.” FetLife describes itself as “the Social
support to our nation’s caregivers. Endorsed by the Alzheimer’s Association, it would facilitate the creation of a national strategy to address the many issues facing caregivers, including education and training, long-term services and supports, and financial stability and security. Thank you, Senator Patty Murray for voting for RAISE Act in committee. Please help me in urging Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Pramila Jayapal to lend their support for this legislation as it moves forward in Congress. Very truly yours, — John Moritsugu, Ph.D.
Network for the BDSM, Fetish & Kinky Community,” stressing in online policy statements that it is a place for consenting adults to trade advice and images of themselves, and to arrange to meet. The acronym BDSM stands for bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism. Users provide their ages, genders and roles they wish to play, but otherwise remain anonymous. ■
SHOOTING from 4 aggressive, loud and threatening. Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them. “All the time he was a problem,” said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the
I was the only woman and person of color to manage the station, and I took particular pride in the fact that there were programs in a number of languages including Chinese and Spanish. Chuck Reinsch deserves great credit for digitizing the KRAB Archives, a true labor of love. Thanks for a great story. — Sharon Maeda
dismissal. Bello died from a self-inflicted gunshot. The six injured people were hospitalized. Detectives searched the Bronx home where Bello was most recently living and found the box where the gun came from. They later determined it was bought at a gun shop in Schenectady on June 20. ■
KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON NOTICE TO PROPOSERS Proposals will be received for E00483E17, Architectural and Engineering Services for the Jameson/ArcWeld Buildings Replacement Project; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, 3rd Floor, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, until 12:00 PM on August 1, 2017. Total Estimated Price for Phase 1: $600,000 Total Estimated Price for all Phases: $2,000,000 There is a 20% minimum requirement for King County Certified Small
Contractor and Supplier (SCS) firms on this contract. All solicitation documents are published at: https://procurement. kingcounty.gov/procurement_ovr/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fprocurement_ ovr%2fdefault.aspx Contact: Ruth Williamson, 206-263-9333, ruth.williamson@kingcounty. gov
asianweekly northwest
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JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
INJECTION SITES from 1 Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus announced that they put together a task force of experts, the Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force, to recommend immediate actions needed to confront the growing heroin and prescription opiate epidemic. According to King County, more people in the county enter into detox for heroin than they do alcohol. 2014 saw 156 heroin-related deaths, the highest in 20 years. The County website states that substance abuse is one of the root causes of homelessness. Drug overdose is the leading cause of death among people who are homeless. Additionally, treatment for addiction in King County has not kept up with the increase in heroin and prescription opiate addiction — about 150 people seeking treatment are on a waitlist each day, and many end up receiving treatment in expensive settings like hospitals and jails. The Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force comprises about 40 stakeholders, which include medical providers, members of law enforcement, educators, legal experts, and active heroin/opioid users, and met over a period of six months (March–September 2016). The task force submitted a report of recommendations to be implemented and rolled out in 2017. The recommendations are three-tiered, broken up into primary prevention (building public awareness, implementing secure medicine return, implementing earlier intervention and better screening practices in middle and high schools), treatment (implementing on-demand treatment, increasing medication-assisted treatment, removing barriers to treatment), and health services (using naloxone to reverse active overdoses, establishing two pilot Community Health Engagement Locations [CHELs]). It’s the very last component of these recommendations that have stirred up substantial controversy. CHELs are also known as supervised injection sites, safe injection sites, or drug consumption facilities — sites where heroin users can safely come in to inject the drug with clean needles. The site does not supply heroin and will work in conjunction with local law enforcement. The King County CHELs would be the firsts in the United States, though Insite in Vancouver, Canada was the first legal supervised drug injection site in North America, founded in 2003. Bothell City Councilmember Joshua Freed filed Initiative 27, an ordinance that would prohibit local governments and other organizations from establishing drug consumption sites in King County and prevent the public financing of these sites. In order for the initiative to be on the November ballot, 55,000 signatures (that is, 10 percent of total votes cast for King County Executive in the last election) need to be collected in support of the initiative by July 31. This goal will likely be met. As of the end of June, more than 42,000 signatures have been collected. “We’re well on our way,” said Freed. “We have overwhelming support [for I-27], but the government in Seattle seems to be really disconnected from the population that elected them. We want to focus on treatment as well as stopping the prescription drugs that lead addicts to heroin … That’s the heart of this matter.” According to the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, 57 percent of people who currently use heroin were previously dependent on prescription opioids.
The racial divide of heroin
“In our [Asian] society, we rely on personal accountability,” Qiu said. “Each individual needs to be accountable to our own choices. Everyday you make your choices, and there are consequences for that. By removing accountability, you destroy the value [of our community].” Figures related to heroin deaths in the Asian and Asian American population are actually too small to calculate percentage increase, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). However, it should be noted that heroin deaths have increased within the white population the most in between 2010 and 2014 (at 267 percent), according to the CDC. (The Black population saw a 213 percent increase in the same time period, Latino population 137 percent, Native population 236 percent.) In 2015, the Atlantic ran a feature comparing and contrasting public response to the current heroin epidemic versus previous drug epidemics (such as the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic and the 1960s heroin epidemic, both viewed as within Black populations) titled, “How White Users Made Heroin a Public-Health Problem.” The feature pointed out that when the user population is perceived as primarily people of color, the response is to demonize and punish. When the user population is perceived as white, the tendency is oriented toward treatment. Vancouver’s current opioid epidemic, the scope of which unfortunately eclipses that of King County, has roots in its Chinatown. According to The Province, Vancouver opium entrepreneur Yip Sang had at least 13 factories in 1888. Natural opium is secreted from poppies and contain many alkaloids, of which codeine and morphine are most used. When some
of the opium alkaloids undergo a chemical reaction to make a drug more powerful and faster acting, the result is heroin, which changes to morphine when it goes into the body. Opium was a revenue source for the government at the time and brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars to British Columbia ports between 1874 and 1899. It was reported that the clientele for opium became increasingly white, nearly half. However, by 1908, under a tide of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and pressure from the United States, Canada passed the Opiate Act, which outlawed the possession and importation of opium. Law enforcement at the time targeted Chinese, who were jailed, fined, and often deported, according to the Province. A 2015 study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America, “Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites,” found that the racial and class demographics surrounding the current heroin epidemic may be attributed to the fact that doctors have historically under-prescribed prescription pain medications to Black people, believing them to be biologically more paintolerant. This is an unsubstantiated belief. The study did not find the same racial/ethnic bias regarding pain with Latinos, but still found evidence that Latino patients were prescribed medication less often than white patients, both for physical and mental ailments. On its website, the county task force stated that it considered equity and social justice in its recommendations, using the county’s racial impact statement framework. “The task force will not seek to advance recommendations that can be expected to widen racial or ethnic disparities in health, healthcare, other services and support, income, or justice system involvement,” stated the website.
Fighting to keep injection sites away
Qiu is a small business owner and father to three boys, ages 6, 15, and 19, and he is one of the most active volunteers for I-27, gathering signatures to meet that 55,000 goal — particularly from Eastside residents of Asian descent. Keith Schipper, campaign manager for Safe King County, the engine behind I-27, told the Northwest Asian Weekly in an email in early June that nearly 40 percent of petition requesters on their website are from Korean and Chinese communities. “Asians particularly care about the next generation,” said Qiu. “[For instance,] they [will] spend a lot of money sending kids to piano lessons. Asians heavily invest in the next generation [in terms of] education. The last thing we want [our kids to be affected by is] drugs. We don’t want to send the wrong message to the kids. From our perception, the moment you touch high potency drugs — it’s basically like, there are [going to be] consequences. [And] by providing injection sites, you are giving people this false impression of fewer consequences. And that’s a problem.”
A case for CHELs
Twelve years ago on New Year’s Day, 2005, Gregg Finegood died of a heroin overdose. He was a college graduate with a good career. His father called Gregg’s only sibling, Brad, to tell him the news. At the time, Brad was already several years deep in his career in the addiction field. “I can say from my own personal experience that when I first found out about [CHELs], I also said, ‘Heck no,’ ” said Brad Finegood. “I had a brother who died of a drug overdose, [so] why would I do something that would encourage someone’s use? [But then,] the more I learned about [CHELs], the more I learned that this is not at all encouraging people to use. This is about people who are using, and who are using in a very vulnerable way — and that vulnerable way can lead to their death. But there can be an alternative, and that alternative is just, ‘Hey, come indoors so you’re not vulnerable.’” Finegood is assistant division director and a prevention and treatment coordinator for mental health, chemical abuse and dependency services at King County’s department of community and human services. He is also co-chair of the Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force. Finegood says that CHELs will actually clean up public spaces and reduce healthcare costs away from already overextended emergency rooms. He said that worldwide, there are hundreds of CHELs and there has never been an overdose death in any facility. “People will stop using in the park and going in the public restrooms. Businesses do not have to deal with overdose in the bathroom. They do not have to deal with needles. Baristas do not have to be first responders. So [CHELs] basically takes people, brings them to a facility so that my kid or anyone else’s kid do not have to stumble upon an overdose in public.” “I know that there are people who are opposed to this (CHELs) [because of addiction experiences with] family members,” Finegood added. “At the time, I might not have wanted my brother to go to a facility like that. But now that I think about it, any facility that would keep him alive — I would want that. And this is part of the reason I feel really mission-driven. Every person out there who dies is someone’s kid, someone’s brother, someone’s friend — someone that someone else cares about. We have to do anything we can do
35 YEARS to keep people alive enough to engage them in treatment.” While Freed is against CHELs, he is in support of the kind of treatment that the county task force did propose as part of its list of recommendations. “Our goal is that people aren’t dying from this,” said Freed. “From my research, we see [medication-assisted treatment] as effective, so buprenorphine would take away the mental desire for the drug. [We need] more than just a methadone clinic that gives you a pill a day or two a day. We need people to get into cognitive behavioral therapy. … We need to get them into treatment. If we truly have the goal of helping people, we need programs that will help them do that.” The county task force recommended medication-assisted treatment (MAT) that includes opioid treatment programs, which combine cognitive behavioral therapy and medications to treat substance use disorders. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, MAT treatment improves patient survival, increases retention in treatment, decreases illicit opiate use, and more. The task force also recommended a “buprenorphine first” model of care. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist — partially negating the effects of opioids. According to the National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment, buprenorphine treatment may suppress symptoms of opioid withdrawal, decrease cravings, reduce illicit use, and help patients stay in treatment. According to Finegood and the task force, CHELs would be an extension of existing services as well as a component of a holistic, comprehensive approach to confronting the heroin epidemic. Finegood points out that CHELs are only a small portion of the entire whole, and they are only tailored to a very small group of people — those who are currently causing a lot of harm to themselves and aren’t yet ready for treatment. “We want treatment for everyone,” said Finegood. “The problem is not everyone is willing to access treatment [at a given moment]. That small portion of people that do not want to access treatment — it’s really important that we keep them alive. Because eventually, they will want to get better.” “There’s a lot of attention being directed toward safe-consumption facilities,” said Dr. Maria Yang, medical director of King County’s behavioral health and recovery division and also staff psychiatrist at King County Correctional Facility. “I want to highlight that so much more energy and resources are being put toward prevention and treatment. And most communities we talk to — who’s going to disagree with prevention?”
Cultural stigma
Yang earned her undergraduate and medical degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and Davis School of Medicine, respectively. She did her psychiatry residency at the University of Washington School of Medicine and two fellowships at New York University School of Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “Psychiatry as it’s practiced in the U.S. is a very Western phenomenon. … I think there has been conflict between that and Eastern ideals. I’m the daughter of [Chinese] immigrant parents. I’m very familiar with the idea of, ‘There’s no such thing [as mental illness]. You’re just being weak. Maybe we need to instill more discipline in you.’ I have family members with — they weren’t using drugs, but they became very ill and impaired. It’s not fair for these people in our culture to suffer in silence, and also to not have a resource to go to, one that can’t speak to them in their language.” “[Asians and Asian Americans] comprise a relatively small minority in the country and even in this state,” said Yang. “How many people (Asians, Asian Americans) are even using IV (intravenous) drugs — it’s hard to collect this data. Some of it has to do with small numbers, and some of it has to do with cultural shame. The answer is that we don’t know how many people in Asian communities are using substances — heroin or otherwise. [However,] because we don’t have information, people assume that we are not using.” According to the CDC, one in five teens experiment with prescription drugs. According to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 95 percent of parents believe their child has never taken a prescription drug for a reason other than its intended use. “Ultimately though … how unfair is it that, just because you came from a Chinese background, if you happen to become a user, you become exiled from your community?” said Yang. “There’s an assumption that people who choose to go [to CHELs] don’t feel shame or a lack of dignity — but for someone to go there, you have to face all the looks from people,” Yang added. “No one wants to do that. They want to live the life they deserve to live. People who have substance abuse issues can’t lead the life they live because their substance use stands in the way of that. This (CHELs) is just an option to help engage those individuals to move along the path again to treatment. Most of our energy is going toward prevention and treatment.” For more information about I-27 or to download a petition, visit safekingcounty.org. For more information about the county task force, visit goo.gl/dKTMPm. Stacy Nguyen can be reached at stacy@nwasianweekly.com.
asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
■ ASTROLOGY
13
Predictions and advice for the week of July 8–July 14, 2017 By Sun Lee Chang
Rat — If your current route is blocked, then reaching your destination hinges on whether you find an alternate way to get there.
Dragon — Don’t settle for good enough. Obtaining your dream depends on whether or not you keep going forward.
Monkey — Avoid dredging up the past if your aim is let bygones be bygones. Once healed, old wounds should be left alone.
Ox — Pushing too hard on one side could cause an imbalance on the other. Some calibration may be required on your part.
Snake — To the extent that your choices reflect who you are, strive to choose for the person that you want to be.
Tiger — A sticky situation should not be treated lightly. Tread carefully so that you do not get caught up in the mess.
Horse — Although the setting isn’t what you had in mind, there are things that can be done to personalize it to your taste.
Rooster — A sour countenance is unlikely to attract what you want. Conversely, a welcoming demeanor is probably going to yield more favorable results.
Rabbit — Instead of jumping straight into the action, consider your next move as it could have lasting effects.
Goat — Stop making the same mistake again. Once you do, there will be a pleasant outcome waiting for you.
Dog — Don’t allow your eagerness to try something new to abandon that which could be quite valuable to you. Pig — A common aim brings together an eclectic group. Let your individual strengths bolster the ability of the group as a whole.
What’s your animal sign? Rat 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 Ox 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 Tiger 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 Rabbit 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 Dragon 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 Snake 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 Horse 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 Goat 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 Monkey 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 Rooster 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 Dog 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 Pig 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007
*The year ends on the first new moon of the following year. For those born in January and February, please take care when determining your sign.
NIO from 9 which debuted with an eye-catching roadster to establish a premium image before launching lower-priced models. The instant torque and acceleration of electric cars make them natural performance vehicles. Detroit Electric, a revival of a pioneering U.S. electric car brand founded in 1907, launched a sports car venture this year with a Chinese battery maker and the government of Yixing, west of Shanghai. For a base price of $135,000, the company promises zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph. The first seven of 100 cars ordered by European dealers have been delivered, according to its chairman and CEO, Albert Lam, a former Lotus chief executive. He said the company aims to release an SUV in 2018 and wants to have a four-vehicle lineup by 2020. “Our target is to be the first Chinese-based vehicle company to sell worldwide,” said Lam. Thunder Power, led by Hong Kong entrepreneur Wellen Sham, has a similarly multinational plan for a sport sedan due out in late 2018. The company is building a factory in southern China and plans a second in Spain. Engineering work is being handled by Italy’s Dallara Automobili, which helped develop Bugatti’s Veyron, the fastest street-legal car with a top speed of 255 mph. Thunder Power promises a top speed of 155 mph. The company says its competitive edge will be a battery that can go up to 400 miles on one charge, or almost double the 200 to 250 miles of current high-end electrics. Beijing’s backing has helped to make China the biggest electric vehicle market at a time of uncertainty about the scale of support for the industry from Washington and European
TRAVEL from 1 Trailers for a week-long trek across the Pacific Northwest from June 29 through July 6. Their trip took them from Mount Rainier and Olympic National Park to holding a Korean barbecue at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park — all with the aim of showing what’s out there for people of color to explore. “We see so many different types of people from all walks of life,” Tariq said. “I want to see that in the outdoors. We want it to be inclusive and reflect truly American identities.” According to The Outdoor Foundation’s 2017 report, over 48 percent of Americans participated in at least one outdoor activity in 2016 and 70 percent of participants were white. For Tariq, Seattle is the kind of place that embodies all of the qualities she wants to see in American cities. “[Seattle’s] diversity, culture, and landscape truly, truly represents the
governments. Sales in China of plug-in and hybrid vehicles in the first quarter of this year totaled 55,929, versus 44,876 for the United States. The Cabinet hopes to have 100,000 public charging stations and 800,000 private stations operating by the end of this year. Regulators are pressing manufacturers to speed up development with a proposal to require that electrics account for at least 8 percent of each brand’s production by next year. To raise its profile, the electric vehicle industry launched its own racing circuit, dubbed Formula E, in 2014 with batterypowered Formula One-style cars and events in China, Europe, the United States and Mexico. Still, no matter how appealing they are, there aren’t enough buyers to support so many high-performance brands, said Lux’s Robinson. He noted Ferrari or Lamborghini might sell only 15 of their fastest vehicles, which are treated as marketing tools and even at prices above $1 million fail to make a profit. Manufacturers wanting to move into lower priced segments face a crowded market, he said. “Really, not all of them are going to make it,” said Robinson. Despite that, the newcomers express confidence they can take market share from established rivals. NIO’s Warrior points to the transition from cellphones to smartphones, in which industry leaders were displaced by upstarts. “We are in the beginning of a race. We are all at the same starting position,” said Christopher Nicoll, marketing director for Thunder Power. Detroit Electric’s Lam said his financial plan calls for each car to be sold at a profit by 2019. “We are not from the internet world,” he said. “We know how important it is for a car company to make money.” Other Chinese tech companies including internet search
spirit of America,” Tariq said. “There’s such a richness and culture, especially with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. I feel like that’s truly representative of the beauty of diversity and how it enriches all of our lives.” According to Tariq, making the outdoors a normal part of life for anyone is key to broadening the scope of how outdoor recreation is marketed to people of color. “I rarely see any outdoor advertisements that I can look at and identify with a person,” Tariq said. “So if I have no desire to try outdoor recreation and I don’t see it in marketing, I don’t see it in advertisements, what motivation do I have to really seek it out? I think there’s a great responsibility that outdoor retailers bear.” That responsibility should not just extend to people of color. Many white families, Tariq argues, are just as interested in walking hiking trails alone. “I think brand marketing is not just attracting customers, it’s also about enriching the experience of the customers you have, whether they’re people of color
engine operator Baidu Inc. and LeEco, an online video service, are working on electric and self-driving vehicles. Most have research centers in Silicon Valley or Europe. “China isn’t necessarily a technological leader. They are a production leader,” said Robinson. “A lot of the more advanced electric vehicle, power train and other technology research is going on in Europe and the United States.” Chinese city governments are forging partnerships with automakers in hopes of becoming manufacturing centers. That helped Detroit Electric carry out its plans after other investors were uncertain, Lam said. He said the company picked Yixing after talking with four cities. “We were invited to come to China,” said Lam. The most prominent homegrown competitor is Qiantu Motor, led by a former executive of a state-owned automaker. Qiantu says its K50, on sale next year, will deliver a top speed of 125 mph and go 185 miles on one charge. NEVS is developing a sedan to be made in China based on technology acquired from defunct Swedish automaker Saab. Its owners include National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd., a Chinese developer of renewable energy technology, the government of the eastern city of Tianjin and State Research Information Technology Co., owned by the Chinese Cabinet. NIO developed the EP9 to promote its technology for selfdriving vehicles. The first, a seven-seat SUV, is due to be released in China in 2018. The company worried buyers saw electrics as a “little toy car.” It wants to “break that mold and say that an electric car can be a serious performance car,” said Warrior. NIO says a self-driving version of the EP9 hit 160 mph in February on an Austin, Texas, test track. “We made seven, thinking it was essentially for a collector,” said Warrior. “Now there is increased interest. People actually want to buy this car.” ■
or not,” Tariq said. “So many white people reach out to me and tell me they are just as uncomfortable, they’re just as offended at the lack of diversity in the outdoors. It’s important to them the way they’re raising their children to see people of color on the trails.” Outdoor recreation is a privilege that neither Tariq or Jameel take for granted. While the two do not have children, Jameel, a medical student at George Washington University, and Tariq, a recent law school graduate, spent a mere two days on their honeymoon. Their trip this summer was a means of catching up on lost time. Born and raised in Ohio, the outdoors was little more than a soccer field to Jameel. Seeing the great outdoors for himself with his wife was much more rewarding than he could have imagined. “Going on these classic hikes has been pretty rewarding,” Jameel said. “To go on a hike that we’ve researched, we’ve read about, but to actually walk those trails and be on those steps, to remember the feeling you felt when you first saw those photos,
and be like, ‘Oh, these photos didn’t do it justice.’ It’s empowering.” The couple enjoy their trips as a way of testing their limits, from dealing with windswept tents to properly stocking their food supplies. “We make more mistakes than we do things right,” Tariq said. “And there’s something exciting in that.” The two share distinctly different opinions when it comes to things like packing gear or how to travel, but Tariq said that makes their trips all the more interesting. “When we approach the outdoors, our personalities come with us,” Tariq said. “It’s really incredible and important to celebrate what people value and how they experience the outdoors.” ■ You can follow Tariq and Jameel’s adventures at brownpeoplecamping.com and @brownpeoplecamping on Instagram. Tim can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
asianweekly northwest
14
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
TAX from 5 teething problems of the implementation in a month or two. “There will be some hurdles initially. But we will be able to remove them in 1-2 months,” Subramanian told reporters. A day earlier, at a crowded New Delhi market plastered with posters announcing massive sales, shoppers were vacuuming up household gadgets and high-end electronics in the last days before India’s new sales tax takes effect. In the Lajpat Nagar market, Nafees Ahmad scoured the stores for a new airconditioner and LED television set with his wife and teenage son in tow. “Our TV is fine. We did want to buy a new one, just not this soon,” he said with a smile as he checked prices at the Electronics Paradise store. “But when the GST is applied everything will cost more so we decided to just go ahead and buy it now,” he said, referring to the Goods and Services Tax. He may even splurge on a new oven and a few other items if the prices were low enough, he added.
35 YEARS
India has debated such a tax for over a decade. While economists mostly agree a single, nationwide tax will streamline business, there are concerns about how an economy as unwieldy as India’s will transition to a system that involves filing monthly tax returns online. The government published lists last month of how almost every item, from toothbrushes to automobiles, will be taxed at rates of 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent or 28 percent. Businesses were ordered in January to adopt or upgrade cash registers and computers so they could comply with the changes before they took effect. It was hard for Indian shoppers to know what the cost of almost anything will be because prices vary by brand and the current taxes varied from state to state. Refrigerators and air conditioners were among items likely to cost much more; they’ll be taxed at the top rate of 28 percent while the highest tax applied in any of India’s states now is 23 percent. Even at large multi-brand retail stores like Electronics Paradise store managers are uncertain about how
things will unfold as they transition to the completely untested system. The massive sales preceding the deadline benefit both buyers and sellers. Shoppers get bargains, and retailers avoid incurring fresh taxes on old inventories. “We want to clear our stocks and bring our inventories to zero so that we don’t have to pay new taxes on existing goods,” said Anuranjan Thakur, manager of the Electronics Paradise store in Lajpat Nagar. Over the last week Thakur said that sales at his store had increased five-fold. “From 40-50 invoices a day we are up to 250 a day. Footfalls on weekdays are like the weekend.” The store that usually shuts at 9 p.m. has been staying open until 11 p.m. every night this week. “This is just like Diwali sales,” he said. The Hindu festival of Diwali, dedicated to the goddess of wealth, is a weeklong shopping frenzy. But not every shopper went home with the goodies their hearts desired. Office worker Muzaffar Ahmed took
off half a day to shop for a washing machine and refrigerator with his wife and twin toddler boys. But by late evening on June 29, he hadn’t found anything. “Everything is sold out. We’re too late,” he said as he looked at the last few washing machines on display. ■
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asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
15
“I grew up with Asians, Jews, and Blacks at Garfield High School. I recently got into the Golden Hall of Fame at Garfield, joining many Asian inductees. The Northwest Asian Weekly has been a community voice, informing any reader of what transpires in the local Asian community, as well as national and international issues involved in the Asian community. Consistently, it covers other people of color from City Hall to people of influence and power in our state. I appreciate being involved in events organized by the Asian Weekly. [The events] are relevant, timely, and lending a voice to those who don’t have one. It also highlights women often not being heard.” — Eddie Rye, community leader “I keep up with the International District (ID) through the Asian Weekly. The ID is a model for Blacks who are going to have to emulate if we want to have an economic-powerful community. It’s inspiring, and hopefully we can do something similar. The Asian Weekly has been focused on the best interests of the Asian community for the past 35 years. Every community should have its own newspaper like the Asian Weekly.” — Charlie James, community organizer for the African community for 50 years
The only weekly English-edition newspaper serving the Asian community in the state of Washington for 35 years.
BLOG from 10 break. We call it the split shift. You have a threehour lunch shift and another three-hour dinner shift. In between, you can go home if you live close by or you sign out and hang around in the neighborhood till 5 p.m. I chose the split shift for summer jobs because those hours produced the maximum amount of income when the restaurant was at its busiest hours. But it offered no life at all other than working. You are on your feet when you walk into the restaurant for the rush hour, and sign off as soon as business slows down a little. What is supposed to be a regular eight-hour shift for Seattle’s wait staff, has now turned into a stressful five or six-hour day with less pay.
Work harder, earn less
Mainstream restaurants have passed on the wage increase to customers by raising prices and adding a service charge. ID restaurants have a reputation for great food at a reasonable price. While many mainstream restaurants raised their prices from 10 to 20 percent, ID restaurants couldn’t do that. Their clientele is price-conscious. With high labor costs in Seattle, it’s tough to make money. Before the new wage law, the majority of the ID restaurants opened seven days a week. Now, a few owners open only six days. That one-day closing means loss of income for a business, for owners and employees. Why? Exhaustion. Health reasons. With the shortage of staff, the owners have to do the jobs of workers with cut hours. They badly need to take a day off to recuperate.
Shortage of labor
Even mainstream restaurants don’t have enough wait staff during their busy hours, and service goes downhill. Recently, I was dining in a section close to the bar in a Pike Place Market restaurant. Normally, a waiter would serve us. Now, it’s part of the bartender’s job. He was practically running at times to serve everyone. A young fellow, he could take the heat. However, when an older gentleman served us on another occasion, it was hard for him to keep up.
20 percent service charge
It is typical to see a 20 percent service charge when you dine at many downtown restaurants. That’s the wage increase being passed on to you. That’s a lot of money for some. But as a former waitress, I sometimes made a lot more than a 20 percent tip because I was superb at pleasing my customers. Some waitresses complain that they used to make
Send in your thoughts to editor@nwasianweekly.com. Join us for our 35th Anniversary Celebration dinner on Oct. 21 at China Harbor restaurant. For tickets, please go to http://35nwawf.bpt.me, or email rsvp@nwasianweekly.com, or call 206-2230623. To sponsor the event, contact Assunta Ng at assunta@nwasianweekly.com. For more info, visit nwasianweekly.com/35years.
more money before the new law. It’s about psychology. Some customers are pissed that you actually charge a mandatory tip. Sometimes, that fixed fee discourages many to give more. Two weeks ago, I was dining in a Lake Union restaurant with more than 20 friends. Because it said “20 percent service charge” on the check, my friend shouted to us, “No need to give tips, it’s already covered.” My husband may be the only one among my friends to give more, and I made sure he did. Maybe it’s because I used to be a waitress and I appreciate how hard it is. The waitress deserved more because it was a big group, and she volunteered to produce separate checks. That’s labor-intensive.
Service charge goes to?
Assume the tips will go to the wait staff, but there is no guarantee. Who knows? Could the restaurant also pocket some of the tip money to cover labor costs? Once, I was in a five-star hotel in Hong Kong, dining in its restaurant. I was curious about the line service charge on the bill. “Does the service charge go to you? I asked the waitress. “Madam, you are the first one to ever ask the question,” she replied. “Not a penny goes to us. But I know many customers think it does.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some Seattle restaurants take this measure.
The impact
Since the new law, I have seen the fall of downtown restaurants around 6th Avenue and the whole Westlake Mall food court disappeared. However, ID businesses never really close, they just change hands. One business’ failure is another’s opportunity. Buying and selling restaurants is easy in the Chinese community. All they need to do is place a small advertisement in the Seattle Chinese Post’s classified section. Sellers can recover some of their investment and take a necessary break. In six months or a year, another restaurant venture may be on the horizon in another town. One of the businesses that sold in 2015 because of the new wage law was Lam’s Seafood, an Asian grocery store. Former owner Yen Lam said it’s stressful and tough to run a business in Seattle. She opposed the $15 wage law and a union blacklisted her store at the time. And there are those who are forced to go “under the table” — staff members asking for cash and not reporting it on their taxes. “I’d rather sell my business than go under the table,” Lam said. Tam Nguyen, owner of Tamarind Tree Restaurant, said there are people in the
community who pay cash to their staff and there are also those who prefer to get paid that way. If you get paid in cash, you are making less, he said, because the employer would likely pay less. The wage law also affects young people who want to have full-time jobs. My friend’s daughter is a chef. She had a hard time finding full-time employment in Seattle. At one point, she worked three part-time jobs in odd hours, from one end of town to another. It took her a year to land a full-time job in Bellevue and not Seattle although she prefers to work in Seattle, where she lives. Not all the businesses cut their staff hours. I-Muin Liu, owner of Eastern Café and Oasis said, “I have to constantly reinvent the business. I add beer and wine so they (staff )
can be busy to sell other things.” For businesses looking to expand, Taylor Hoang, owner of five Pho Cyclo Restaurants said, “Not in Seattle.” She is looking at the Eastside — Redmond or Kirkland. Perhaps, Seattle would be passed over as the ideal town for new Asian restaurants if you see the percentage of growth of Asian eateries on the Eastside. Explosive. Since 2014, friends have been raving about a new Asian dining place with good food, opening every month. What we Seattleites have missed besides the lost wages and hours of low-wage workers! Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.
asianweekly northwest
16
35 YEARS
JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2017
LE from 1 Around midnight, three deputies were summoned by several 911 calls about a man with a sharp object, maybe a knife, threatening people in the 13600 block of Third Avenue South in Burien. One homeowner told dispatchers he had fired his handgun into the ground, hoping to scare off the man — later identified as Le. When Le continued to approach, the homeowner fled back inside his house. Le, who was barefoot, then pounded on the door and stabbed it, screaming he was “the Creator,” according to the King County Sheriff ’s Office. Deputies confronted Le, who refused commands to drop “what they thought was a knife,” said sheriff ’s spokeswoman Sgt. Cindi West. Two deputies fired their Tasers, with one of them hitting Le. But it had no effect, she said. When Le reportedly moved toward deputies, a deputy shot him three times. He died at Harborview Medical Center. It wasn’t until more than a week later that the Sheriff ’s Office reported Le had a pen, not a knife, in his hand when he was shot. The Sheriff ’s Office said a search of the Burien home Le shared with other people turned up knives and detectives were trying to determine whether one was used in the earlier attacks. The shooting is under investigation by the sheriff ’s Major Crimes Unit. Teachers, family and friends are still grappling with news of Le’s death and how uncharacteristic it was for the young man to threaten anyone, let alone be involved in an altercation. They said he had shown no signs of mental illness or violence. He didn’t have a criminal record.
Teachers describe Le as a “goofy, little guy,” who was “always smiling.” When fellow graduate Nafisa Mohamednur, 19, learned of his death, she thought people had the wrong person. “He’s a bubbly kid,” she said. “He’s an easy person to talk to about anything.” Sunny Le, Le’s father, questions whether law enforcement handled the situation properly. “I’m so angry,” he said, referring to the fact that his son, who weighed about 100 pounds, was only carrying a pen when he was shot by a deputy. “I want to know what happened to my son.” Tommy Le was buoyant the afternoon before his death. Ten hours before he died, Le received a B on his final exam in modern history, earning enough credits to graduate, said Curt Peterson, Career Link director and one of Le’s teachers. “It was a high point for him,” Peterson said about the last time he saw Le. “He was bouncing off the walls in a good way.” He picked up his cap and gown, ready for the next day’s graduation ceremony. Peterson had watched Le grow from the time he enrolled in the program in July 2015. On his application, Le wrote that he dropped out of Evergreen High School in White Center because the classes were too large and difficult. Peterson said his death doesn’t makes sense. “In a school that works entirely with dropouts, we get interesting kids,” Peterson said. “I could tell you 100 people I would have imagined this happening to before him . If we had a discipline file on Tommy it would be completely empty. He was the sweetest kid in the world. He didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body.” Le worked part time in the kitchen at Macau Casino in
Tukwila. He wanted to go to South Seattle College after getting his high-school diploma, said Sunny Le, 42. What changed between the time Le picked up his cap and gown and his encounter with deputies is still a mystery. Sunny Le said a sheriff ’s detective told him Le may have been drunk that night. West said Le may have taken drugs, based on the young man’s behavior and a statement from one of his friends. Toxicology reports are pending from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. The one area of Le’s life that was unstable was his housing. He also sometimes had trouble with attendance, said Molly Ward, a director and teacher at Career Link. “He had come a long way and he got it turned around, so that makes it even harder,” Ward said. “He didn’t always speak up in class, but when he did it was a thoughtful, different perspective in art class.” He occasionally wrote about living out of a backpack and sleeping on benches and in parks in a journal for an English class, she recalled. Le had recently found housing with a friend and was living within a block of where the shooting occurred. His father said Le moved out of the family home six months ago because he wanted his freedom. He disagreed that his son was ever homeless. And if that was the case, he said, his son could have always come home to live with his grandmother and him. Le had two half-brothers and a half-sister. Sunny Le saw his son two weeks before his death when he dropped some food off for him at the Burien home. There was a memorial service for him June 20 at a Seattle funeral home. “I miss everything about him,” Sunny Le said. ■
OKJA from 7
The film is certainly ambitious, as it juggles a multitude of topics. While the film keeps its main focus on Mija and her innocent and unconditional love for Okja, it also tackles themes of corporate greed, the ethics of meat consumption, animal cruelty, muddled intentions of activists, and loss of innocence. When considering all of this, “Okja” can certainly feel messy and uneven, perhaps even preachy and overstuffed. However, in the end, the film balances the humor and drama tremendously. Considering the subject at hand, “Okja” never feels too vulgar, nor does it take it too lightly with its playful digs. The tonal shifts are handled with care, even though they can naturally feel unhinged at times. In a film industry saturated with reboots, sequels, and superhero movies with very little to say, “Okja” is a breath of fresh air. The film has lots to say, and does so in an original, thoughtful, and, most importantly, entertaining way. Okja looks, sounds, and acts like nothing you’ve seen before, and the film itself follows suit. “Okja” is available for streaming on Netflix. Eric Card can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
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