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NOW THRU JULY
■PUBLISHER’S BLOG Celebrate that you are
By Assunta Ng
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NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Did you know that March 2022 was a milestone for us Washingtonians? If you are reading this, you might recall that you have escaped the most horrific pandemic that killed 12,497 Washingtonians, more than 790,00 people in the U.S., and over 6 million people globally.
Congratulations, you are alive.
If you had Covid-19 and recovered, you are among the 1.45 million out of 7.76 million Washingtonians who got infected. That means one in five people in our state tested positive. The Washington Post reported 52% of Americans got Covid.
That’s even more reason to celebrate and feel fortunate. We empathize with the struggles and adversities you have been going through. You have probably survived one of the worst nightmares of your life. Please don’t take this lightly. Beating Covid is monumental.
March 2020 was the most challenging and uncertain time in the 21st century. A pandemic struck—Gov. Jay Inslee ordered a shelter-in-place on March 23, 2020—the world halted, people died, lives shattered, jobs lost, and businesses closed…And you survived!
Two years later, March 2022, what a contrast! A new world has reopened—Covid-19 deaths and cases are down, vaccines abundant, mask mandates lifted, schools opened, airlines and hotels full, concerts and shows rolling out, and restaurants bustling…
You and I have experienced misery, anguish, and wretchedness for the past two years. You may not feel like celebrating, but you should. Life is short, fragile, and precious. You have only one life to live. Please don’t take your life for granted. And please don’t take for granted those who saved you. If not for our frontline workers— nurses, doctors, and medical workers—the number of deaths and tragedies could be much higher.
What we have done is major and wonderful, we fought insanity to stay strong and Covid negative during this terrible ordeal. We have survived and grown our resilience and patience for months of isolation. We hated many of the health guidelines such as masking and social distancing, but we followed them. The number of sacrifices was way too many to count or remember. But we pulled through. The number of painful changes that you and I have implemented in our daily lives over 700-plus days, may be unbearable. Amazingly, I have saved quite a few of those habits as they have transformed my life.
Celebrate that your loved ones are still with you and
Photos by Assunta Ng
The first BLM protest in Washington state was held in Chinatown on May 29, 2020
Boarded-up building in Japantown, June 2020
Owner Sam Ung with takeout orders at Phnom Penh Restaurant during the 2020 lockdown
see BLOG on 15
Seattle Westin Hotel wait staff applauded the Rotary Club of Seattle’s first in-person meeting in July 2021, after the Rotary thanked them.
Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s Celebrate Asia on March 20 welcomed big crowds Signs at SeaTac Airport 2021 Social distancing posters on Uwajimaya’s floor in 2020
An anti-Asian hate protest, organized by kids, at Hing Hay Park in 2021
Free vaccinations offered at Hing Hay Park in 2021
Hong Kong to lift flight bans, cut quarantine for arrivals
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said that the city would lift flight bans on countries including Britain and the U.S., as well as reduce quarantine time for travelers arriving in the city as coronavirus infections in its latest outbreak plateaus.
The city’s chief executive Carrie Lam announced during a March 21 press conference that a ban on flights from nine countries—Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain and the U.S.—would be lifted from April 1. A flight ban on most of these countries has been in place since January, as authorities sought to stem the outbreak of the highly transmissible omicron variant in Hong Kong.
Travelers entering the city can also quarantine for as little as seven days in quarantine hotels—down from 14 days—if they test negative for the virus on the sixth and seventh days of their quarantine. Such travelers must also be fully vaccinated and test negative for the coronavirus before entering the city.
Lam also said that plans for a citywide mass-testing exercise, which was first announced in February, would be suspended.
“The experts are of the opinion that it’s not appropriate for us to devote finite resources to the universal mass-testing,” said Lam. “The SAR government will continue to monitor the situation. When the conditions are right, we will consider whether we will be implementing the compulsory universal testing.”
see HONG KONG on 14
Now Taliban preserve Buddhas, with eye to China investment
By SAMYA KULLAB ASSOCIATED PRESS
MES AYNAK, Afghanistan (AP) — The ancient Buddha statues sit in serene meditation in the caves carved into the russet cliffs of rural Afghanistan. Hundreds of meters below lies what is believed to be the world’s largest deposit of copper.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are pinning their hopes on Beijing to turn that rich vein into revenue to salvage the cash-starved country amid crippling international sanctions.
The fighters standing guard by the rocky hillside may once have considered destroying the terracotta Buddhas. Two decades ago when the Islamic hard-line Taliban were first in power, they sparked world outrage by blowing up gigantic buddha statues in another part of the country, calling them remnants of paganism that must be purged.
But now they are intent on preserving the relics of the Mes Aynak copper mine. Doing so is key to unlocking billions in Chinese investment, said Hakumullah Mubariz, the Taliban head of security at the site.
“Protecting them is very important to us and the Chinese,” he said.
The Taliban’s spectacular reversal illustrates the powerful allure of Afghanistan’s untapped mining sector. Successive authorities have seen the country’s mineral riches, estimated to be worth $1 trillion, as the key to a prosperous future, but none have been able to develop them amid the continual war and violence. Now, multiple countries, including Iran, Russia and Turkey are looking to invest, filling the vacuum left in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.
But Beijing is the most assertive. At Mes Aynak, it could become the first major power to take on a large-scale project in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, potentially redrawing Asia’s geopolitical map.
In 2008, the previous administration of Hamid Karzai signed a 30-year contract with a Chinese joint venture called MCC to extract high-grade copper from Mes Aynak. Studies show the site holds up to 12 million tons of the mineral. But the project got tied up in logistical and contract problems, and it never got past some initial test shafts before it ground to a halt when Chinese staff left in 2014 because of continued violence.
Mere months after the Taliban seized the capital in August, consolidating their power over the country, the group’s newly installed acting Minister for Mining and Petroleum Shahbuddin Dilawar urged his staff to reengage Chinese state-run companies.
Dilawar has had two virtual meetings with MCC in the last six months, according to company and ministry officials. He urged them to return to the mine, terms unchanged from the 2008 contract.
A technical committee from MCC is due in Kabul in the coming weeks to address the remaining obstacles. Relocating the artifacts is key. But MCC is also seeking to renegotiate terms, particularly to reduce taxes and slash the contract’s 19.5% royalty rate by nearly half, the percentage owed to the government per ton of copper sold.
“Chinese companies see the current situation as ideal for them. There is a lack of international competitors and a lot of support from the government side,” said Ziad Rashidi, the ministry head of foreign relations.
China’s ambassador to Afghanistan has said talks are ongoing, but nothing more.
Acquiring rare minerals is key for Beijing to maintain its standing as a global manufacturing powerhouse.
For Afghanistan, the contract at Mes Aynak could bring in $250-300 million per year to state revenues, a 17% increase, as well as $800 million in fees over the contract’s length, according to government and company officials. That’s a significant sum as the country grapples with widespread poverty.
But there’s a catch.
At Mes Aynak, a 2,000-year-old Buddhist city sits uncomfortably alongside a potential economic engine. Afghanistan’s tumultuous modern history has gotten in the way of both exploring the archaeology and developing the mines.
Discovered in the 1960s by French geologists, the site was believed to have been an important stop along the Silk Road from the early centuries AD.
After the Soviet invasion in the late 1970s, Russians dug tunnels along the mountain to investigate the copper deposit; the cavernous bore holes are still visible. These were later used as an al-Qaida hideout, and at least one was bombed by the U.S. in 2001.
Looters then pillaged many antiquities from the site. Still, archaeologists who came in 2004 managed a partial excavation and uncovered remnants of a vast complex.
To the shock of the non-Taliban technocrats in his own ministry, Dilawar is committed to saving the site. He dismissed open-pit mining schemes that would raze the site entirely. The alternative option of underground mining was judged too pricey by MCC. The Culture Ministry has been tasked with presenting a plan to relocate the relics, most likely to the Kabul Museum.
“We have already transferred some (artifacts) to the capital, and we are working to transfer the rest, so the mining work can begin,” Dilawar told The Associated Press.
While the ministry is optimistic a deal can be reached, MCC officials are cautious.
They did not speak to the AP on record, citing sensitivities around the talks happening
In this file photograph from 2010 in Mes Aynak valley, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Buddha statues are seen inside an ancient temple. AP Photo/Dusan Vranic
‘Drive My Car’ wins Oscar award for best international film
By ANDREW DALTON
AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The emotional epic from Japan “Drive My Car” won the Academy Award for best international feature film on March 27.
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film became the fifth from Japan to win the Oscar, the first since “Departures” in 2008.
The win for the three-hour journey through grief, connection and art spawned its own mini-drama when Hamaguchi took the stage at the Dolby Theatre to accept it. He paused for applause, and the show’s director then started the music to cue him to leave the stage, but he objected.
“I’d like to thank all the members of the academy for having us here,” Hamaguchi said, then thanked the distributors of the film for bringing it to the United States.
“Just a moment,“ he said, to laughs from the audience. He then thanked his actors, “especially Toko Miura, who drove the Saab 900 beautifully in the film,“ and paused again for applause. Another musical cue followed, and Hamaguchi tried to restart yet again, but he was led off stage.
Many on social media decried what they regarded as the disrespectful treatment of the director in the moment.
With four Oscar nominations, including the first best picture nomination for a Japanese film, and several early wins in awards season that made it appear to be a best picture frontrunner, no one was surprised by the win for “Drive My Car.”
“Drive My Car“ based on a short story from novelist Haruki Murakami, centers on a theater actor, Yusuke Kafuku, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, directing a multilingual production of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Still mourning the death of his wife, Kafuku leads the cast in rehearsals where the actors sit and read their lines flatly, ingesting the language for days before acting it out.
The films of the 43-year-old Hamaguchi, who also released the anthology film “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” last year, are acclaimed around the world, but he was not widely known in Hollywood before a win for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival last year started to bring attention to “Drive My Car.
UKRAINE from 1
artisan skills training in zero waste and small batch manufacturing.
RAI’s founder and executive director, Tung-Edelman was a pharmacist for 25 years before she transitioned into her current role.
“We are nimble in using their skills for community needs by using sewing as a platform to voice concerns. We’ve made masks with VOTE and BLM (for Black Lives Matter) printed on them to combine artisan skills with advocacy, and now to show support for what’s happening in Ukraine,” Tung-Edelman said.
She added that this felt like the perfect opportunity for women who escaped from war zones arriving in Seattle to use sewing as a means of healing to start their new lives, and now they’re taking the opportunity to help refugees in Ukraine.
A few weeks ago, the team at RAI began making blue and yellow butterfly pins in support of Ukraine.
Tung-Edelman shared that the butterfly symbolizes freedom, resilience, and rebirth.
“Our goal is to sell 1,000 pins to raise money for the Ukraine Red Cross, who was one of the first agencies to go in and help with relief efforts,” she said.
“It’s extremely meaningful to have refugees helping refugees,” she added.
Tung-Edelman said that they’re not making the pins to make money. Each butterfly pin costs $10, $4 goes to the artisan that made it and $1 for the cost of materials, the rest of the proceeds go to the Ukraine Red Cross.
She mentioned that Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and several King County council members have been wearing the pins in public to show support.
In addition, local community members including Laura Clise of The Intentionalist and Aparna Rae have also been showing their support on social media by wearing their butterfly pins in support of the #StandWithUkraine movement.
“Intentionalist is proud to be among many longtime supporters of the Refugee Artisan Initiative. I had the opportunity to speak at length with Executive Director Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman about how their #StandWithUkraine butterfly pins are both a statement of solidarity and a vehicle to raise much- needed financial support. In addition to highlighting this effort through our online communication channels, we purchased pins and gifted them to fellow women business owners and community leaders with a request that they wear the pins proudly and help to spread the word,” Clise shared in an Instagram direct message.
“We want to create a movement to recognize the butterfly and show solidarity with Ukraine. This also helps our RAI artisans to use their craft and skills for this worthy cause,” Tung-Edelman said.
RAI sells the pins online individually, as well as a kit of five with threads and pins with step-by-step instructions for those who want to make them at home.
The concept for RAI started in 2016, but the nonprofit was incorporated in 2017. The organization supports a community that values and invests in refugee and immigrant women as they achieve economic independence.
“Sewing to me is a universal language. From Afghanistan to Burma, escaping genocide and the Taliban, sewing allows these women to be self-sufficient early on,” she said.
Sewing is a very familiar skill that they already possess, and she saw how her grandmother provided for her family with these rudimentary skills, so she really wanted to disrupt the concert of these women coming with deficits and wanted to focus on the assets that they came with.
“They have these amazing handcraft sewing skills that they don’t teach in school at all,” she added.
Tung-Edelman shared that they’ve become very consumer-oriented. They have the women come on board and RAI provides them a quick way to start earning income from home through a home-based hybrid model training. They teach the women through video tutorials.
In 2015, when Tung-Edelman was taking a certificate program for fashion at the University of Washington, she became friends with the instructor where they brainstormed ways to combine creating jobs for refugee women and creating a circular equitable economy with textiles.
She started collecting textiles around the city including bed sheets that were previously purchased from Amazon that couldn’t be resold. She picked those up from the warehouse in Fife and was able to teach the women at RAI to turn the bed sheets into face masks. Tung-Edelman started a GoFundMe campaign and raised money to make 1,000 masks for Kaiser Permanente in Everett. In addition, they also produced masks for bus drivers driving for the city of Seattle.
RAI currently works with 16 women refugees from Afghanistan, Burma, China, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Vietnam.
They also partner with refugee settlement offices in the greater Seattle area, such as the Refugee’s Women Alliance and others to onboard more artisans from countries like Burma and Ethiopia.
Baseerah Salim, a mother of six from Afghanistan, moved to Seattle in 2003 and joined RAI as an artisan just at the end of last summer.
Salim already knew how to sew as she used to make traditional clothing for her and her children.
Her work has been flexible as she works three to four hours a day from her home in Northgate, and it’s the exact way that she would’ve wanted to work.
“Sewing has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. I learned from my mom, and I love it. Right now, I’m so happy,” she said.
Her favorite thing to make is the scrunchie because her kids love it.
Prior to working at RAI, she worked in childcare.
Salim has sewed a variety of products including embroidered pillows, sandwich bags, face masks, scrunchies, and now the butterfly pins.
“I’m happy to help support the Ukrainian refugees because when I was about 10 or 11, I went through a similar experience that was very difficult,” she explained.
Nina can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON NOTICE TO PROPOSERS
Sealed bids will be received for KC000509, Brightwater Aeration Basin Optimization Classifying Selector; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, via the E-Procurement system, until 1pm on 4/28/2022. Late bids will not be accepted. The public bid opening will only be conducted on-line following the Bid Close Date and Time; see Section 00 10 00 for details.
There is a 15% minimum Apprentice Utilization Requirement on this contract.
There is a 20% minimum requirement for King County Certified Small Contractors and Suppliers (SCS) on this contract.
Brief Scope: The contract work includes construction of a classifying selector, replacement of the aeration diffusers, installation of actuators on the secondary scum channel gates, installation of a chemical addition system, and coordination with Owner’s Ovation programmer (Emerson).
Estimated contract price: $5,931,624
Prospective bidders can view more details at: https://kingcounty.gov/procurement/ solicitations
Complete Invitation to Bid Documents, including all project details, specifications, and contact information are available on our web page at: https://kingcounty.gov/procurement/ supplierportal
Predictions and advice for the week of April 2–8, 2022
By Sun Lee Chang
Rat—Don’t jump to conclusions based on a snippet of information. Consult a variety of sources to ensure accuracy. Dragon—Although you prefer a direct approach, a little tact could go a long way in how your message is received. Monkey—Are you stalling on something you meant to address sooner? Maybe it’s not the thing itself that you are avoiding.
Ox—Too many unfinished projects? Complete the task at hand before you look for other things to tackle. Snake—Considering joining forces with someone who was once a foe? It might actually be beneficial to you both. Rooster—If you usually do things one way, a little experimenting could yield a surprising and pleasing result.
Dog—One would not suspect it because of your calm demeanor, but you are ready to rise to the occasion.
Tiger—Though you are gifted in many areas, there are times when it is advisable to seek the advice of experts.
Rabbit —Luckily, you have the benefit of past experience, but do recognize each situation is slightly different. Horse—Before you go full speed ahead, devise a strategy to make the most efficient use of your current resources.
Goat—Laying the groundwork can be a tedious process, but important as it will be the foundation for what follows. Pig—Is opportunity knocking once again? When luck and hard work intersect, you are poised for good things.
WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN?
RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022 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, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
*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.
PACHINKO from 7
the present day—burden of racism and of not belonging, no matter where you are. The parents in the story do their best to instill good values and a sense of self and destiny into their children, but it still makes for somber stuff.
A fisherman in “Chapter One” of the series says it well, that no matter how the Koreans try to fit in, they will never be accepted by the Japanese, even while at the same time the Koreans are expected to behave as Japanese.
“Let’s enjoy our small victories while we can,” he says. “They’ll never see us as one of them.”
In addition to the family curse that Sunja’s mother, Yangjin, (In-Ji Jeong), already believes exists, the fisherman suggests that Korean children from this moment will always be cursed due to the hate they harbor in their hearts at their unjust fortune. Whether in Korea itself, Japan, or outside of Asia, such as where Sunja’s grandson, Solomon (played by Jin Ha), works for a time in a big corporation, the Korean people will never again have a home.
This message resounds true. Unfortunately, the book is full of tropes (poor girl gets pregnant by a rich married man—the entire basis of the rest of the story) and the retelling in visual form is wooden and overdone. The TV show boasts gorgeous scenery of the misty mountains and glassy ocean waters of Sunja’s hometown, yet every single scene is loaded with import as if the simplest transaction cannot take place without the weight of destiny. Even so, when something actually terrible happens, such as a murder at the hands of Japanese officials, it’s the least impactful part of the story so far, with most of the violence concealed and the officials moving like robots (maybe that’s on purpose—robot-like Japanese soldiers, slaves to imperialism?).
To be honest, that’s pretty in line with the book, which has a similar feeling of destiny constantly having a hand in everyday happenings. To be fair, the everyday life of this family is remarkable as to the extent of its harshness. Once immigrated to Japan, they live in the Korean ghetto, called Ikaino, and are subject to constant harassment on the basis of their race. To the Japanese, they are animals, dirty and irredeemable—even though their poverty and “dirtiness” is the fault of the very circumstance the Japanese have put them in. In the story, Sunja becomes connected to a yakuza of Korean blood, Hansu, her married former lover, who keeps an eye on her due to the fact that she is raising his son. Feeling as if she has to do anything to keep her family alive, and give her children better opportunities, Sunja eventually accepts Hansu’s help., but However, this leads to conflict within the family (the show mainly follows Sunja and her pastor husband Isak’s [(Steve SangHyun Noh]) son, Mosazu[ (Soji Ara]i), and his son, that third generation, Solomon).
This extra “curse” of being tied to the yakuza underworld persists through the tale. To me, it was too much a matter of principle. An ethical question in the story is does it matter how you get your money? There are super bad ways to do it, I concur, such as the implied gangsterism, yet we don’t see a lot of that—Hansu and his kin are rather courteous on screen. What we see are people making whatever living they can under an oppressive regime.
“Clean money. Dirty money. Makes no difference. Money’s money,” says pachinko parlor worker Hirota (Ko Yaesawa), which echoes Hansu’s sentiment—in bad times, get by however you must. It’s part of the title. Mosazu ends up in the pachinko business, and thrives, but since it involves gambling, pachinko is considered a seedy business. It symbolizes not only this money dilemma but the nature of life that relies partly on talent, yet largely on luck—which this family has very little.
I guess I’m over stories where one bad thing happens after another. Where the good guy dies or can never catch a break. Where the beleaguered matriarch is the heroine simply because she made it through alive. Once upon a time, these types of stories would have charmed me, and for sure, for those that celebrate the book as a masterpiece, and who will likely enjoy the TV series, it’s a type of story that teaches empathy, that teaches history, that warns against the injustice and pains of racism and war. That’s a good message for anyone that is new to it and needs to digest it still.
For me, everything about the TV show was too “precious” and the acting, by several renowned actors, did not do enough to redeem it. The slow pace—such as agonizing long moments when Hansu first sees Sunja and parallels her movement down the marketplace, just as he will parallel her life forever—was just too exaggerated. We get it. This portends something.
It’s hard to be so downhard on something that means so well and is so beautiful, visually. The major differences from the book to the TV show were also hard to take, even if that is to be expected with any adaptation. The role of Sunja’s father, Hoonie (Dae Ho Lee), for instance, while we already knew he meant the world to his family, is hugely increased. In the books, we get the impression that Sunja’s mother is ever-present in her childhood, but in the TV show, it’s Hoonie that is always there dispensing wisdom and making memories. He talks about how he will always be there to protect her, but of course you know he will not. He says that he knew he had to “grow strong to chase away the shadows of this world.” But “soon you will be strong yourself,” he tells Sunja, and “you, too, will have to prove yourself worthy.” Indeed.
Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
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