VOL 30 NO 25 | 2011

VOL 30 NO 25 JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2011 FREE 29 YEARS YOUR VOICE

PRSRT STDU.S. Postage PaidPermit No. 746Seattle, WA

■ 412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • [email protected] • [email protected] • www.nwasianweekly.com

THE INSIDE STORY

WISE WORDS ...... from some very wise dads » P. 8

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!‘One time, my dad embarrassed me by ...’ » P. 9

NAMES IN THE NEWSWho’s doing what in the Asian community? » P. 2

COMMUNITY NEWSCambodian activist to be honored by Seattle U » P. 5

AT THE MOVIESA Thai film that won the 2010 Palme d’Or » P. 7

By Irfan ShariffNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Sam (Seng) Ung and Thomas McElroy have known each other for 15 years. They were neighbors in the same South Seattle neighbor-hood. Ung introduced himself to McElroy’s dog in Chinese. McEl-roy knew then, as his dog listened patiently to Ung, that this would be a long-lasting friendship.

Over the years, Ung, his wife, and three daughters became like family to McElroy and his wife. Although no longer neighbors, their bond has only strengthened.

In 2009, Ung and McElroy em-barked on a journey to write Ung’s memoir, “I Survived the Killing Fields: The True Life Story of a Cambodia Refugee,” which was published earlier this year.

“It was my first dream,” said Ung. Since 1980, when he arrived in Se-attle, he had wanted to write about his history so that future genera-tions would know what happened to him and other Cambodians.

“[Until] the book came out, even the kids (Ung’s daughters) had no idea what their dad had been through,” said McElroy. “You don’t talk about those things.” McElroy noticed the same thing about other Cambodian refugees.

Since 1987, Ung has been the owner of the Phnom Penh Noodle House in the International District, where he works every day, except

{see UNG cont’d on page 15}

Restaurateur shares how he survived Killing Fields in memoir

By James TabafundaNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Eating out at a discount has become even easier, thanks to cell phone technology.

A free premium offer service called Pirq will launch in the Seattle area in mid-July, according to a June 7 announcement.

It will give consumers discounts ranging from 20 to 50 percent off at such restaurants as 13 Coins, Cupcake Royale, Sip at the

{see SUN cont’d on page 15}

By Tessa SariNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Robert S. Wang is a career Foreign Service officer with more than two decades of experi-ence in the U.S. Department of State. He is the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the United States in Beijing. He is currently serving as charge d’affaires, essentially acting as the U.S. Ambassador to China since Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador, left his post at the end of April for a presidential run.

Speculation was circling as to whether Wang would be the first Chinese American to become the U.S. Ambassador to China.

{see WANG cont’d on page 13}

James Sun

Phnom Penh Noodle House owner and chef Sam Ung

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Robert WangRich Cho

Before Locke confirmation, who’s manning the fort?

By Stacy NguyenNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Last Monday, June 13, it was announced that Burmese American Rich Cho, 45, will take over as general manager (GM) of the Charlotte Bob-cats, only the third GM in its history. Cho replaces Rod Higgins, who was promoted to the position of president of basketball operations. Cho will report to famed former NBA player Michael Jordan, who is the majority owner of the team.

“He has a unique set of skills that I don’t pos-sess,” Higgins told the Charlotte Observer. “His analytical mind is a big plus for us. His legal back-ground is a big plus for us.”

{see CHO cont’d on page 12}

Ex-Blazers GM Rich Cho finds new home with the Bobcats

James Sun brings new app to big appetites

2 JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2011 asianweeklynorthwest

■ NAMES IN THE NEWS

Nominees Needed: Women of Color whose excellence has improved the health of our environment through their efforts to promote: nature and animal conservation, recycling, the use of alternative fuel sources to decrease our carbon footprint, research on climate change/global warming and other efforts that promote a healthy earth.

To nominate, send Bonnie Miller ([email protected]) the following information:

— Name of Nominee— Ethnic Background of Nominee— Name of Person Nominating— Name or Organization Supporting the Nomination— Qualifications of Nominee (additional supporting material may

be attached to the e-mail)

Honorees must be available to attend the luncheon in Seattle on Friday, September 23rd.

May 25: EDI benefit dinner raises more than $110,000

The Executive Development Institute (EDI) held its annual benefit dinner and auction, Inclusion Fusion, at Se-attle’s SODO Park. Hosts for the benefit dinner were Dr. Sandra Madrid, from the University of Washington, Jen-ette Ramos, from The Boeing Company, and Mike Sotelo, from La Plaza International. More than 250 guests partici-pated in the silent and live auctions, contributing more than $110,000 in total donations.

Emcees for the event were Javier Palmera, executive pro-ducer at Univision Seattle, and Marlee Ginter, anchor for KOMO. Laura Michalek was the featured auctioneer.

May 30: Nisei Veterans honor fallen on Memorial Day

The Nisei Veterans Committee and the Japanese Amer-ican community gathered to honor fallen heroes at the An-nual NVC Memorial Day Program at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, as they always have since 1946. WWII veteran Sam Mitsui provided the keynote address.

A local Boy Scout troop presented the Colors as 15 com-munity organizations lay wreaths at the Nisei War Me-morial, a 20-foot high granite obelisk inscribed with the names of local Japanese Americans who died in conflicts in

WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Grenada. President Obama recently signed an Act of Congress

awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the Japanese Americans who served this nation during WWII in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) and the Military Intelligence Service.

May 19: Artist Trust awards fellowships to local artists Brent Watanabe, Hengda Li, Zhi Lin, others

The Artist Trust Fellowship recognizes Washington state artists of exceptional talent. Fellowship recipients each received a cash award of $7,500.

Of 409 fellowship applicants, 16 artists were awarded

fellowships. Three of the fellows are Asian American.Brent Watanabe graduated from the University of Wash-

ington (UW) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting. His work has recently been shown at The Wing and Jack Straw New Media Gallery, among other venues.

Hengda Li graduated from Shenyang Music Institute Dance School and the Beijing Dance Academy in China, and also earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the UW.

Zhi Lin is associate professor in the School of Art at the UW, and holds degrees from the University of Delaware, the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and the China Na-tional Academy of Fine Arts.

May 20: Christine Chen, Hoan Do, and Julie Pham win awards at APA Heritage Bash

The Second Annual Verizon Wireless APA Heritage Bash was held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle. The main feature of the event was the Asian Pacific American Com-munity Roast Awards.

Speaker, corporate trainer, and author Hoan Do won best motivator, Nguoi Viet Tay Bac Managing Editor Ju-lie Pham won best innovator, and Chen Communications Principal Christine Chen won best advocate.

The event also celebrated young music and culture with performances by Kollaboration Seattle artists.

Laura Michalek leads the auction at EDI’s Inclusion Fusion benefit dinner

Award winners Hoan Do (right), Christine Chen (middle-right) and Julie Pham (middle-left) with Chen’s husband, Richard Velazquez

Sam Mitsui delivers the keynote address.

Sen. Maria Cantwell delivers a speech.

Brent Watanabe Hengda Li Zhi Lin

29 YEARS YOUR VOICE JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2011 3


■ NATIONAL NEWS

By David AguilarTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) — Minority youth spend more than half their day consuming media content, a rate that’s 4.5 hours greater than their white counterparts, according to a North-western University report released last week.

Television remains king among all youth, but among minorities who spend 13 hours per day consuming media of various types, electronic gadgets such as cell phones and iPods increasingly are the way such content gets delivered, the report found.

“Children, Media, and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Children” was touted by research-

ers as the first national study to focus exclu-sively on children’s media use by race and ethnicity.

Minority youth media consumption rates outpace those of their white counterparts by

two hours when it comes to TV and video viewership, approximately an hour for mu-sic, up to 1.5 hours for computer use, and 30 to 40 minutes for playing video games.

“In the past decade, the gap between mi-

nority and white youth’s daily media use has doubled for Blacks and quadrupled for His-panics,” said Northwestern Professor Ellen Wartella, who co-authored the study, along with former Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Vicky Rideout and Northwestern post-doctoral fellow Alexis Lauri.

Wartella acknowledged that technology is a structural part of modern society, but said the numbers suggest that young people are settling for a sedentary lifestyle and risk further exac-erbating ongoing problems such as child obe-sity. She said increased parental involvement, including limiting usage time and monitoring content, could mitigate those concerns.

{see STUDY cont’d on page 11}

Minority youth have big media appetite, according to study

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Myanmar refugees who fled military persecution and settled in America are finding new struggles with limited education and a stifling language barrier.

They’ve quietly grown to become one of Ken-tucky’s largest refugee groups.

Over the last four decades, an estimated 1.3 mil-lion refugees have fled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to escape persecution at the hands of the military, according to the United Nations.

For many, their new lives in the United States haven’t been easy. Most arrive with limited edu-cations, farming backgrounds, and a lack of work history from years in camps along the Thailand border, The Courier-Journal reported.

“We are happy to be here, but it’s difficult,” said 42-year-old Hsar Say, who fled Myanmar after participating in 1988 democracy protests. “I hope to go back someday. But I’m not sure where to go back. There is no home anymore.”

Say, who lives in south Louisville, is one of nearly 3,000 refugees who have been brought to Kentucky since 2006.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has long been an outspoken critic of the Myanmar regime and staunch advocate of sanctions designed to bring democratic change there. But he believes that’s a distant prospect.

“I’ve never spent more time on something with fewer results,” McConnell said. “I can’t envision how you bring this regime down.”

{see BURMESE cont’d on page 11}

Burmese refugees seek new lives in Kentucky

“Our study is not meant to blame parents, but it suggests that kids are very much tethered to technology at all times. To be tethered so much by technology seems to be an imbalance ... as a parent of two boys, I know it’s a wake-up call for me: All things in moderation.”

— Ellen Wartella

“We are happy to be here, but it’s difficult. I hope to go back someday. But I’m not sure where to go back. There is no home anymore.”

— Hsar Say


■ COMMUNITY NEWS

■ WORLD NEWS

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 $30 for 52 weeks of the NW Asian Weekly and

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By Louise WattTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING (AP) — China demanded that Vietnam stop “all invasive activities” after accusing it of illegally entering its waters and endangering Chinese fishermen’s lives in an escalating dispute over territory in the South China Sea.

The verbal clash with Vietnam follows a slap down of the Philippines in another area of the South China Sea, where China and a handful of countries are eyeing rich oil and gas reserves.

The disputes have marred China’s relations with its neighbors and pulled in the United States, which considers some of China’s sea claims as international waters.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued its warning to Vietnam late Thursday, hours after Vietnam said a Chinese fishing boat supported by two patrol vessels had damaged the exploration cable of a state-operated seismic survey boat off the central Vietnamese coast.

Vietnam said it was the second time China had hindered the operation of an oil and gas exploration boat in two weeks, adding that its actions were “completely premeditated” and accusing it of flaring regional tensions in the South China Sea.

Hanoi says both incidents occurred well within the 200 nautical miles guaranteed to Vietnam as an exclusive economic zone by international law.

In the statement, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Chinese fishing boat crew had instead been in waters around the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by China and Vietnam and some other Asian nations. He said the crew had merely been protecting itself after being dragged backward for more than an hour by a Vietnamese oil and gas exploration vessel — one, he said, that was “illegally working at the scene.”

“The claims made by Vietnam are complete misrepresentations of the truth. As is known to all, China has indisputable sovereignty rights over the Spratly Islands

and the waters nearby,” Hong said. “It needs to be pointed out that in illegally exploring for

oil and gas and forcing out Chinese fishing boats from the Wan’an bank of the Spratly Islands, Vietnam has seriously violated China’s sovereignty and maritime rights,” he said.

“China demands that Vietnam stop all invasive activities,” Hong said.

On Thursday, China denied an allegation by Filipino officials that Chinese forces had intruded into Philippines-claimed areas around the Spratly Islands six times since February and of firing shots at least once. Beijing said it would use violence only when attacked.

Although the tension is unlikely to escalate beyond a war of words, the conflict could draw in the United States, which worries that the disputes could hurt access to one of the world’s busiest sea lanes. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last year that the peaceful resolution of disputes over the Spratly and Paracel island chains was in the American national interest.

By Jack BroomTHE SEATTLE TIMES

SEATTLE (AP) — One of his legs ends at the knee. The other, just below it.

It’s a disquieting sight, but Tun Channa-reth, of Cambodia, sitting in a wheelchair he made himself, would not want you to turn away.

“Some people understand my English,” he told a group of Seattle University stu-dents a few days ago. “Some people under-stand my body.”

Channareth’s speech, his body, and his passion convey a simple message: that land mines, many of which were placed in wars and conflicts decades ago, continue to kill and maim thousands of men, women, and children around the globe each year.

“The suffering never stops,” said Chan-nareth, who said one of every 230 people in his country is an amputee, the bulk of their injuries caused by land mines left over from decades of civil war and incursions by foreign military.

Even today, he said, it’s estimated that as many as 5 million land mines and other un-detonated explosives remain in Cambodia alone — a country slightly smaller than the

state of Washington — many still capable of killing a child at play, or a worker in a farm or field. And even if a field is cleared of mines once, the danger can return as plastic-encased explosive devices move around in annual floods.

Channareth’s devotion to that message is the reason he was selected to travel to Norway to accept a 1997 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

It has led to visits with world leaders on several continents, including the prime minister of Japan, royalty in Spain, Cambo-dia and Belgium, the late Pope John Paul II, and a telephone conversation with former President Clinton.

And it’s why he’ll be speaking Sunday at Seattle University’s graduate commence-ment ceremony, where he will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the univer-sity.

All this attention would have been the farthest thing from his mind on that De-

cember day in 1982, when, as a 22-year-old resistance soldier — and a husband whose wife was pregnant with their first child — he stepped on a mine near the border be-tween Cambodia and Thailand.

After the blast, when he saw the mangled remains of his legs, his only emotion was despair. “I just wanted to die (I thought). ‘What can I do now? How can I support my family?’ ”

If another soldier hadn’t stopped him, Channareth said, he would have shot him-self with his own weapon.

Over the next 13 years in a Thai refu-gee camp, Channareth received vocational training and came to see that burgeoning numbers of people shared his fate. Re-turning to Cambodia, he got a job with the Jesuit Refugee Service in the city of Siem Reap, assembling and later design-ing wheelchairs, many of which go to land-mine victims.

{see CHANNARETH cont’d on page 13}

China says Vietnam put fishermen’s lives in danger

Seattle University honoring land mine survivor and activist

Tun Channareth


■ COMMUNITY CALENDARTHU 6/16

WHAT: Launch party for Ana Louie’s Holiday 2011 line and preview of Spring 2012 line. WHERE: Sodo district, 2916 Utah Ave. S., SeattleWHEN: 6–8 p.m.INFO: www.analouieapparel.com

WHAT: Celebrate the International Children’s ParkWHERE: International Children’s Park, 700 S. Lane St., SeattleWHEN: 12–5 p.m.INFO: www.friendsoficp.org

SAT 6/18

WHAT: CERDAS’ Annual Indonesian Food BazaarWHERE: Magnuson Park Ampitheatre, 7400 Sand Point Way N.E., SeattleWHEN: 12–4 p.m.INFO: [email protected], cerdasfoundation.net

WHAT: Learn about Refugees from Iraq, facilitated by Baidaa WeliWHERE: Renton Library, 100 Mill Ave. S., RentonWHEN: 11 a.m.–12 p.m.INFO: Erika Berg, [email protected], www.refugeechildren.net

WHAT: Second annual Chinatown-International District JAMFEST, featuring music and bandsWHERE: Wing Luke Asian Museum, 719 S. King St., Seattle

WHEN: 6:30–9:30 p.m.COST: $8–$25INFO: 206-623-5124 extension 119, www.wingluke.org

WHAT: Homeownership Preservation WorkshopWHERE: Korean Antioch Church, 4308 Jonas Ave. N.E., RentonWHEN: 9:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.INFO: [email protected]

WHAT: 21st Annual ACRS Walk for RiceWHERE: Seward Park, 5902 Lake Washington Blvd. S., SeattleWHEN: 8 a.m.INFO: www.walkforrice.org, www.kintera.org

TUE 6/21

WHAT: People of Color Meet and Greet with local candidatesWHERE: Amber, 2214 1st Ave., SeattleWHEN: 5–7 p.m.INFO: [email protected]

WED 6/22

WHAT: International Rescue Committee’s “Refugee Artvocacy” ExhibitWHERE: Art with a Heart Gallery, 570 1st Ave. S., SeattleWHEN: 6–8 p.m.INFO: 206-623-2105, [email protected]

WHAT: “Applause,” a soiree celebrating your impact on

women and girlsWHERE: Wing Luke Asian Museum, 719 S. King St., SeattleWHEN: 5–7:30 p.m.RSVP: by 6/18 at www.wfalliance.orgINFO: [email protected]

THRU 6/24

WHAT: ACRS Vocational ESHL Hospitality TrainingWHERE: ACRS, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., SeattleWHEN: Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m., Thursdays at 2 p.m.INFO: 206-695-7527, [email protected], acrs.org/services/employmentandtraining

FRI 6/24

WHAT: United for Japan Concert, a benefit concert for Japan Disaster ReliefWHERE: Community Church of Seattle, 3727 240th St. S.E., BothellWHEN: 7 p.m.INFO: www.united4jp.org

FRI 6/24 & SAT 6/25

WHAT: Two-day Japan benefit concert featuring YouTube music stars Megan Nicole, Josh Golden, Clara Chung, Jennifer Chung, Arden Cho, New Heights, Gowe, and Erin KimWHERE: Community Church of Seattle, 3727 240th St. S.E., BothellWHEN: 7–10 p.m.COST: $20

INFO: www.united4jp.org

MON 6/27

WHAT: The 7 Secrets of Happiness with guest presenter Sister JayantiWHERE: Sammamish High School, 100 140th Ave. S.E., BellevueWHEN: 7–9 p.m.COST: FreeRSVP: 425-861-6926INFO: www.bkwu.org/us

6/27 THRU 7/1

WHAT: Case Studies in Teaching about China and Japan, a summer institute for K-8 educatorsWHERE: University of Washington, SeattleCOST: $150INFO: jsis.washington.edu/earc

TUE ONLY, 6/27 THRU 7/9

WHAT: ACRS Light Building Maintenance TrainingWHERE: ACRS, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., SeattleWHEN: Every Tuesday at 3 p.m.INFO: 206-695-7527, [email protected], acrs.org/services/employmentandtraining

WED 6/29

WHAT: Film forum and community dialogue

WHERE: Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St., SeattleWHEN: 6:30–8:30 p.m.SUGGESTED DONATION: $15INFO: 206-722-6848 extension 114, www.tenantsunion.org

WHAT: Honoring Congressman Jim McDermottWHERE: Four Seas, 714 S. King St., SeattleWHEN: 5 p.m.COST: $50-$250RSVP: [email protected]: www.upwardstech.net/mcdermott/fundraiser

FRI 7/1

WHAT: Contemporary Indonesian Instrumental Group Simakdialog in concert with Moraine and Young Sub LeeWHERE: Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1300 1st Ave., SeattleWHEN: 8 p.m.COST: $5–$10INFO: [email protected]

EVERY TUESDAY

WHAT: ACRS Employment Program OrientationWHERE: ACRS, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., SeattleWHEN: 3–4:30 p.m.INFO: 206-695-7527, [email protected], acrs.org/services/employmentandtraining


By Andrew HamlinNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who turns 40 in July, began making fea-ture films 11 years ago in 2000. Working outside the Thai studio system, he quickly established himself as an artistic maverick, with films rich in light and spirit.

Their literal meanings sometimes re-mained ambiguous, but the distinctive vision and his endearing heart made him one of the most interesting directors on the planet.

“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Pasts Lives,” his latest film, won the Palm d’Or, the highest honor bestowed by the world-famous Cannes Film Festival. As with his previous works, mystery abounds.

But even more than his previous work, “Uncle Boonmee” feels like an emotionally cohesive whole. Its grounding in its love

for its characters, and for life, along with a stunning visual sense, compels the viewer past the enigmas within the story.

Uncle Boonmee himself (played by Thanapat Saisaymar) is a bee keeper and farmer, with land in the Thailand coun-tryside. As the film opens, he’s recovering from a serious surgery. The people around him keep telling him he’ll get better. But Uncle Boonmee does not believe them. He matter-of-factly accepts that his life will soon come to an end.

Surrounding Uncle Boonmee are his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas), Jen’s friend Roong (Kanokporn Thongaram), and Boonmee’s trusted servant Jai (Samud Kugasang). All three attend to Uncle Boon-mee and accompany him to the dinner table when he’s well enough to eat meals sitting upright. They also bring their own agendas and emotional baggage to Boonmee’s farm. Their stories sometimes threaten to over-whelm the main narrative.

A film about a dying man losing his mobility and constitution by degree might

have been dreary and confined to a bedroom. But Weerasethakul has never been a conventional filmmaker. Indeed, one early scene in the film shows Boonmee’s assistants opening every single window in his bedroom until it is flooded with sunlight. The director, aided by his cinematographers Yukontorn Ming-mongkon and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, worships light throughout the film’s length.

As Weerasethakul explained to the “Bangkok Post,” he assembled “Uncle Boonmee” into six reels, using 16 mm film, a format he learned to love during his child-hood. Each reel runs roughly 20 minutes, and he took advantage of these 20-minute markers to set off different styles of film-making.

As a result, some segments of the film look fairly realistic, and others delve deep-ly into the fantastic. Some hew to the main

■ AT THE MOVIES

Award-winning film from Thai director expertly defies conventions

A screen capture from “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Pasts Lives”

King County is requesting Proposals from qualified firms interested in providing design and services during construction for the con-solidation and relocation of King County Dis-trict Court’s Southeast Electoral District at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, Washington.

The Request for Proposals, all addenda and current document holder’s list are avail-able on the internet at http://www.kingcounty.gov/procurement. The County will not mail, ship or fax RFPs and addenda.

Interested firms must register with the County at time of download and ensure that a valid contact email address is given. Noti-fication of addenda will be sent to the regis-tered email address. Failure to register will result in the proposer not being notified of any addenda, which may result in rejection of the proposal.

The estimated value of this contract is $375,000 to $410,000. The County plans to issue one contract.

CONTRACT TITLE: Design Services for

New Court Facility at Maleng Regional Jus-tice Center

NUMBER: E00232E11PROPOSALS DUE: July 7, 2011TIME: 5:00 p.m. PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING: June 21,

2011 TIME: 2:00 p.m.LOCATION: Lydia/Catherine Room, 2nd

Floor, King County Administration Building, 500 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA.

SUMMARY OF WORK: The work will include preparing schematic design and construction documents; providing bidding, permitting and construction administration services; and preparing record drawings.

SUBCONSULTANT OPPORTUNITIES: Provided for informational purposes only, following are subconsulting opportunities that may be available on this Contract: me-chanical engineering, electrical engineering, security engineering.

CONTRACTING OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM: The King County Contracting

Opportunities Program is a public contract-ing assistance program intended to maxi-mize the participation of Small Contractors and Suppliers (SCSs) through the use of voluntary participation goals and awarding proposal evaluation points as an incentive factor in the award of King County contracts for Architectural and Engineering (A&E) and Professional services. The SCS goal for this Project is: 15% SCS-certified firm participa-tion.

QUESTIONS: Questions concerning this solicitation should be directed to Gib Myers, Contract Specialist at 206-263-9323, TTY Relay: 711. The Proposer may be requested to submit the question in writing. No verbal answers by County personnel will be binding on the County.

This information is available in alternate formats for individuals with disabilities upon advance request by calling 206-263-9400, TTY Relay: 711.

King County Request for Proposals

story line, others wander pretty far afield. The nucleus of the farm gathering, of

Uncle Boonmee, and the well-wishers with him, always comes back into focus. But the surrounding material embellishes the feel of that central story, and at the same time, adds its own resonances.

“Uncle Boonmee” may never be a hit in Weerasethakul’s native country, where his films tend to be shunned and sometimes censored. It might very well confuse West-ern viewers, too. But cinema, like all art, needs creators unafraid to ask new ques-tions and make new connections.

“Uncle Boonmee,” for those willing to brave it, poses and presents plenty of both.

“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” plays June 17 through June 30 at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Avenue in Seattle. For showtimes, prices, and directions, call 206-829-7863 or visit www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/1789.

Andrew Hamlin can be reached at [email protected].


Wise Wordsfrom

Wise Dads

“Dear Dad. Thank you for your example of service. For helping start ‘Walk for Rice’, for helping at Kay Abe’s Lord’s Table and now for educating students about the Nisei Vets. Happy Father's Day!”

— Mark Mitsui

“I taught all my kids to speak Cambodian since they were little. Today, I am proud of my daughters speaking fluent Cambodian, some Cantonese and Teochiuese. We are in a multicultural society, it's important to be multi-lingual. When someone speak bad things about you, they can't because they know you understand many languages.”

— Sam Ung, author of “I survived the killing fields” and owner of Phnom Phenh Noodles Restaurant

“My dad works like a machine, long hours for many years. How could I complain because he works much harder and longer than me.”

— Dawn Ung

“There are 24 hours ago. My theory is 8-8-8, that means 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work. What are you doing to do with the rest of the time? You serve. You give back. You help. I was the first male evening ward volunteer at Seattle Children's Hospital and I have been doing it for 47 years.”

— Phil Smart Sr., Founder of Phil Smart Mercedes Benz

“My dad taught me the value of Family Cohesiveness and community bonds. Look after your family, work together. And peace will bestowed upon you. This I have passed on to my children.”

— Raymond Leong, Architect for Indian Health Service’s Division of Engineering Services

“Our dad (and our mom) is a great role model who led us by example and encouraged all of us to be the best that we could be. He has a huge heart and is compassionate beyond words. In his own wise words, ‘Be Kind!’”

— Gloria Lung Wakayama, Kerry Lung Chew, Lori Pang, Les Lung and Teri Yoshimura

“Leave things in better shape than you found them in.”

— Eric Liu, author and civic entrepreneur

“Love your kids and make sure you tell them so (i.e. that you love them).”

— Former State Representative Kip Tokuda

“Kids don't tell their parents when they need help. Just support and encourage them, and give them whatever help they need.”

— Jimmy Mar, Director of Buttherworth-Manning-Ashmore

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ity

From left: My brother (on camel), my parents, and me

The Leong family, from left: Danielle (2011 graduate of Southern California College of Optometry), Stella (mom), Darrick (2011 graduate of University of Southern California, master’s in architecture), Raymond

(dad), and Denise (2005 graduate of Seattle University, MBA)

Herb’s children and in-laws, left to right, top to bottom: Dean Wakayama, Les Lung, Doug Pang, Ben Chew, Ross Yoshimura, Gloria Lung Wakayama, Linda Lung, Herb Tsuchiya, Lori Pang,

Kerry Lung Chew, and Teri Yoshimura

From left to right, top to bottom: Sam Ung, Kim (wife), and daughters Dawn, Diane, and Darlene

Phil Smart Sr. (left) with Phil Smart Jr.


■ HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Compiled by Stacy NguyenNORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Sometimes, dads say and do the darnedest things, and Asian dads may be the reigning champs at finding new, unusual, and creative ways of embarrassing their kids. In honor of Father’s Day, we’ve compiled a batch of stories that will hopefully make you commiserate, squirm, laugh, and celebrate dads everywhere.

The naked truthMy dad came down when my friends were over, one time,

only in his boxers. My dad was on the couch, watching television, and there was no where else for us to hang out. There were too many people to hang out just in my room.

And he’s like, “Hey guys!”And I’m like, “Dad, why are you in your boxers?”And he said, “It’s my house.”I was in high school. It was mortifying. I was like, “Are

you kidding me! There are girls coming over here!”

And my dad was like, “What? You worried?”— Eddie Kim

Pink is the new blackWhen we just came over to the U.S., I was about 14 years old.

For school, my dad bought me a girl’s bright pink back pack, because he didn’t know it was a girl’s back pack. It was just for a cheap price and we didn’t have a lot of money back then.

And of course, he made me use it.I got teased a little, but not too much because the school

I went to was mostly made up of immigrants so it almost seemed normal. I also didn’t know enough English to know what Americans kids were saying about me.

It was only a few years later that I looked back that I realize how weird it was to walk around pink back pack for a whole year!

— Johnny Bui

Lady issuesThis is gross and too much information, but I got my first

period when I was 12 years old. I hid it from my parents for

about six months because … it just seemed like the right thing to do.

I remember when my dad found out and confronted me about it. We had all of our family members over for a big dinner, cousins and everything. There were like 25 people in my house.

My dad nonchalantly walked down the stairs with an unused maxi pad. He thought he was being really secretive and quiet about it, to spare me from embarrassment.

But what he actually did was slam the pad on the dining room table in front of my whole family and in a loud stage whisper, was like, “I think you need this. There was a stain on the toilet. But don’t worry. I cleaned it for you. I think you should be more careful with your lady issues in the future.”

— Tuyet Tran

Easy breezyI invited my friends to my house to do a group project.

We were doing homework in the living room, while my

{see DAD cont’d on page 11}

‘One time, my dad embarrassed me so badly ...’

Illustrations by Stacy Nguyen/NWAW


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By Shao Zhi HurstFOR NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

I arrived, straight from China, in the Northwest on a sunny mid-September morning six years ago.

My fiancée lived in Bellevue and worked in Seattle, so while I stayed at home practicing my English, I looked around for someone to talk with. The only

neighbor who appeared not to have a full-time job, Lia, was 80 years old. I soon discovered that she led a full life.

She was a volunteer with the Overlake Service League (now known as the Bellevue LifeSpring), an organization formed to lend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in the community that are in need.

I was raised to look after my own family and not get involved in other peoples’ problems. It took a major attitude adjustment to believe that the little I could offer could mean so much to so many. I started attending meetings with Lia and soliciting donations.

I now have two children and, through them, have become involved in some Asian family groups. I recently realized that I am the only one in this group who knows about the Bellevue LifeSpring, so I have made a commitment to introduce them to our Asian community.

For the past 100 years, Bellevue LifeSpring has promoted stability during crisis for adults and children living in Bellevue by providing financial assistance and/or access to financial resources. Their services are designed to meet the real and immediate needs of community members for food, shelter, clothing, and education, as well as other basic needs.

One of their fundraising centers is on the main level of Bellevue Square, the Bellevue LifeSpring Thrift Shop. It

is a unique find in a major shopping mall. Shoppers find quality selections of new and gently used clothing and accessories for the entire family, including designer labels, fine housewares, jewelry, collectables, and books. The shop is described as a ‘boutique’ because of the superiority of the items.

If you live on the Eastside and are interested in finding out more about Bellevue LifeSpring, either to donate items to the store or to volunteer your time, please check out their website at www.bellevuelifespring.org or visit the store in person.

If you are someone who may be in need of LifeSpring’s services, the website will give you details on all the programs offered.

For more information, visit www.bellevuelifespring.org.

Shao Zhi Hurst can be reached through [email protected].

Make a difference through Bellevue LifeSpring

Shao Zhi Hurst

Publisher Ng’s blog will be back next week!

Since Father’s Day is this Sunday, we thought it was only fitting to talk about relationships — the different kinds of relationships in our lives and why they matter.

From our front page story about restaurateur-turned-author Sam Ung, we learned that he became friends with Thomas McElroy 15 years ago when Ung introduced him-self to McElroy’s dog in Chinese.

Together, over the last couple of years, the two co-wrote Ung’s memoir, which details painful memories of Ung’s experiences in the Khmer Rouge’s Killing Fields.

The journey culminated in an emotional, courageous book that will give voice to many others who experienced the same tragedy.

Who knew that something so important to the Asian community would result from a friendship between two people with significantly different backgrounds?

We were surprised and saddened when Rich Cho was fired from the Portland Trail Blazers just three weeks

ago. This week, we were again surprised, but in a good way, when Cho was hired by the Charlotte Bobcats. Ap-parently, Bobcats’ President of Basketball Operations Rod Higgins called Cho only one day after his dismiss-al because Higgins knew that other teams would want Cho’s talents.

That phone call wasn’t their first interaction. They had actually worked together earlier this year, trading forward Gerald Wallace from Charlotte to Portland for three players and two future draft picks.

The deal was something both Higgins and Cho saw as a win-win, which is not always the case in the league.

“I try to put myself in the other team’s shoes, or if I’m negotiating with an agent, I will try to put myself in the agent’s shoes and try to come out with the right solution that fits both parties,” Cho said in a recent press confer-ence.

Higgins appreciated Cho taking the high road and in

him, found a kindred spirit, though they actually have vast-ly different approaches (Higgins is a former NBA player and Cho is an analytical numbers guy).

“Anytime you talk to talented people in this league, kind of like a player, you say, ‘I would love to play with that tal-ented player,’ ” said Higgins in a recent press conference, referring to his interaction with Cho during the Wallace trade. “It is no different on an executive level.”

There’s a perception that nice guys finish last. Some peo-ple believe that to succeed in business or life, you have to be cutthroat and tear down your opponents. Some Asians, in particular, like to keep to themselves or keep a tight in-ner circle. Many don’t see the importance of networking or of being ‘people persons.’

However, Ung and Cho show that such sentiments can be detrimental to growth. Both are open to creating and maintaining good relationships.

Both are really nice guys who have finished ahead.

In life and work, relationships matter


{STUDY cont’d from page 4}

“Our study is not meant to blame parents,” Wartella said, adding that in some cases, mi-nority youth are using media to bridge the gap between themselves and a predominant-ly white culture. “But it suggests that kids are very much tethered to technology at all times. To be tethered so much by technology seems to be an imbalance ... as a parent of two boys, I know it’s a wake-up call for me: All things in moderation.”

The report analyzes by race data from the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation Generation M2 study on media use among 2,000 8- to 18-year-olds and the foundation’s 2006 Me-dia Family study on another 2,000 children from birth to 6 years old. It did not chart the type of programming youth were consum-ing, nor did it offer final conclusions.

Young people in all groups read for plea-sure 30 to 40 minutes a day, the only me-dium for which no difference was found between minority and white youth.

Other findings include: — Minority youth spend 3 hours and 7

minutes per day using mobile devices to watch TV and videos, play games, and lis-ten to music. That’s about 1.5 hours more each day than white youth.

— Traditional TV viewing remains most popular. Black and Hispanic youth consume more than three hours daily. Whites and Asians consume more than two hours daily.

— Access to TiVo, DVDs, and mobile and online viewing increase television consump-tion to 5 hours and 54 minutes for Black youth, 5 hours and 21 minutes for Hispan-ics, 4 hours and 41 minutes for Asians, and 3 hours and 36 minutes for whites.

— Black and Hispanic youth are more like-ly to have TV sets in their bedrooms (84 per-cent of Blacks, 77 percent of Hispanics com-pared to 64 percent of whites and Asians), and to have cable and premium channels available in their bedrooms (42 percent of Blacks and 28 percent of Hispanics compared to 17 per-cent of whites and 14 percent of Asians).

— 78 percent of Black youth, 67 percent of Hispanic, 58 percent of white, and 55 percent of Asian 8- to 18-year-olds say the TV is “usually” on during home meals.

— Black children under 6 are twice as likely to have a TV in their bedroom as whites, and more than twice as likely to go to sleep with the TV on.

— Asian youth spend more time in recre-ational computer use: nearly three hours a day compared to 1:49 for Hispanics, nearly 1:24 for Blacks and 1:17 for whites.

{BURMESE cont’d from page 4}

Refugee Thar Tin recently landed a job at a Louisville meatpacking plant. He ex-plained that he’d fled his homeland because Army soldiers were forcing men to labor as porters and human minesweepers. He spent nine years at the camps before coming to Louisville three years ago.

“There was no good education in Burma or in camp. Here, they have good school

and good jobs,” he said, noting his children are doing well in school. “And you don’t have to sneak out to work.”

Yet many refugees have struggled, speaking little or no English and usually lacking experience with formal schooling and structured jobs.

“They arrive happy to be where they are, and then reality sets in, they’re over-whelmed,” said Annette Ellard, a Louisville resident who became involved with the refu-

gees’ plight after a mission trip. “The reality for many of these refugees is they would like to go back home and live life in the tradi-tional way, but they don’t have that choice.”

The Louisville refugees from Myanmar have established communities at several churches, and some gather elsewhere to practice their Buddhist faith. At several south Louisville apartment complexes, groups of refugees from Burma gather to celebrate births and share traditional meals

along with tips on navigating life in the United States.

Many of those brought here say they would like to return if things were to change in Myanmar. For now, however, they remain in apartments and modest homes, quietly carving out a new life while keeping one eye on their homeland.

“If there’s no peace, I dare not go home,” Ka Waw said. “Right now, I have no hope of going back.”

The National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA) has released “Southeast Asian Voices,” a collection of sto-ries from community leaders and elders of Southeast Asian descent served by the Senior Community Service Employ-ment Program (SCSEP).

Southeast Asian Voices was compiled by Chew Com-munications of Seattle. It captures stories of 29 Southeast Asian elders and community leaders.

Bounrod Bounyavong, a Lao elder profiled in the pub-

lication says, “The executive director of Lao American Community Services called to ask if I was interested in getting some training. That is how I got involved with NAPCA. I learned how to fax, scan, e-mail, Skype, and use the computer to improve my typing and English.”

Southeast Asian Voices is the third SCSEP-related publi-cation produced by NAPCA.

In 2010, NAPCA unveiled “Senior Voices and Pacific Islander Voices,” featuring the stories of Asian Ameri-

can and Pacific Islander (AAPI) elders and the commu-nity leaders that serve them through the SCSEP pro-gram.

For a complimentary copy of “Senior Voices, Pacific Is-lander Voices,” or “Southeast Asian Voices,” contact NAP-CA SCSEP National Coordinator Kelsey Sagawa at 206-838-8174. The publications can also be viewed online at www.napca.org.

■ BRIEFLY

NAPCA releases a collection of 29 ‘Southeast Asian Voices’

{DAD cont’d from page 9}

father watched his favorite TV show in the other room. We were so serious, doing our project, when suddenly came a

sound, like somebody’s farting. We were looking each other but seemed like none of us did it.

We kept doing our homework and for the second time, that sound popped again.

One of my friends looked at me and pointed toward my father. “I think it was your father, Sam.”

“Really?” I said, trying to defend my dad. “I don’t think so.” “He did, Sam,” my other friend said, very certain. My face turned red. I was so shy at that time. I could not say or

do anything. After my friends went home, I went to my father and asked him,

“Dad, did you fart while we were doing our homework?”My father just smiled and said, “What’s wrong with farting?”

— Syamsul “Sam” Arif Galib

A case of mistaken identityWhen my dad met my brother’s roommate, he thought the guy

was Korean. So my dad asked, “Do you eat Korean food all the time at home?” My brother and his roommate were like, “What?”My brother’s roommate is actually Chinese. It turns out that my dad only assumed he was Korean because his

last name is Chee, which my dad thought was derived from ‘kim chee.’ Because, you know, that’s all there is to Korean culture.

My brother was mortified. — Betty Wang

Boys, boys, boysWhen I was younger, in high school, my dad didn’t allow me to

date. He said that I was only allowed once I was in college. Also, boys weren’t allowed to call the house. Ever. Period.

So once, a boy called the house and my dad picked up.From upstairs, I overheard him telling the boy, on the phone,

“Don’t call her again! She is not allowed to talk to boys!” He was the most popular boy in school, too.And he was just calling about homework.

— Maria Reyes

Merry Christmas! … not!My dad has a rather sadistic sense of humor. I remember when my

brother and I were younger, he was 4 and I was 8, on Christmas day, my dad got us really excited by saying, “Guess what! We’re going to Toys “R” Us and you guys can pick out anything you want!”

We were so freaking excited, oh my God. So we piled into the car and we drove to Toys “R” Us.When we got there, we saw that the parking lot was vacant. We

saw that the store was closed. And my brother and I were like, “What the heck!”

My dad was cackling in the driver’s seat, just laughing his butt off. You see, he knew it was going to be closed, because it was Christmas. He just thought it’d be fun to watch us get excited. And then disappointed.

The kicker is that he pulled the same trick the next year. And we fell for it again.

— Jody Yuan

Crab-o-phileMy father is a big fan of seafood, especially crab. One day, I had a friend coming from another city. To please our

guest, my dad went to the fish market downtown because we were going to serve our guest with a special crab dish. So my dad bought a big basket of crab.

My mom, she’s a great cook. She made crab with special ingredients and herbs. We all had dinner together with my guest.

And guess what? My dad hoarded most of the crabs! He seemed out of control and totally forgot that other people were eating, too. Oh my God, I felt embarrassed. It seemed like my guest didn’t get to eat any.

— Ahmad Alisyahbana Who bad? You bad?

A group of friends and I were designing a poster for our high school’s IT department office.

My dad came home and stood behind us, watching us work. Reading our banner, he suddenly demanded, “Who is ‘We Bad’?

Is that you!” We were stunned.And then we realized he was reading webadministration@site.

com. — Esther Wang

Oprah knows allMy first year of college, I gained the freshman 10, plus 20 pounds.

I went to school out-of-state, so when I came home, the change in my body was obvious to people who hadn’t seen me in a year.

At first, my parents didn’t say a word. I foolishly thought it was because they didn’t notice.

Then, at lunch with my dad, he suddenly leans over and goes, “Your mom and I have a fair bit of money.”

And I responded with, “Good for you?”Completely dead serious, he says something like, “I was watching

Oprah. And she had people on who got surgery because they were too fat. And I was thinking of you and how you’re a smart girl, not like your sister. But the outside doesn’t match the inside. You need to be thin for a good job and nice husband. So I talked to mom, and we decided that we will pay for surgery for you.”

My face turned super red. And I think all I said was, “Dad! Oh my God!”

And over the next year and a half, I lost the 30 pounds, to save my dad his retirement money.

— Jenny Le

Words of adviceIt was just last summer. I was 21. I was hanging out in my room

with my girlfriend and my dad arrives home from work. After a bit, he comes into my room. He looks right at me and

you know, I thought he might say hi to my girlfriend or something. Instead, he looked at me and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, “You need to get a job!”

I didn’t know what to say or do, other than just stand there and nod my head.

— Hieu Lai

Han Bui, Tessa Sari, and LiAnn Yim contributed to this article.

Stacy Nguyen can be reached at [email protected].


{CHO cont’d from page 1} “Rod’s very kind,” said Cho in an inter-view posted on the Bobcats’ website. “He was nice enough to call me the day after I got released. … I’ll just say one thing that excited me [about the team] is their com-mitment to winning. I’m just excited to be here, and I’m excited to be a Bobcat.”

“We felt that if we didn’t make a quick move, being as talented as Rich is — we didn’t want to have other teams come into the market,” said Higgins. “We were able to come to an agreement and the rest is his-tory. Now, we’re going forward.”

“One of the things that really is impor-tant is Rich’s skill set, I think it comple-ments a lot of things I do,” added Higgins. “I’m a traditional basketball guy, kind of

raised up in the game, played the game. But Rich brings a different skill set, in terms of an analytical approach, the way he sees things. I think that’s a beautiful part of any successful organization, when you have different ideas, different thought processes.”

Cho was abruptly fired from the Trail Blazers on May 23 after about 11 months as GM. This was apparently due to inter-personal chemistry problems. He was the first Asian American GM in major league sports.

Cho is a Northwest native. He was born in Myanmar and immigrated to the United States in 1968, when he was 3 years old. His family settled in Federal Way, and Cho

attended Decatur High School. He has an engineering degree from

Washington State University and a law degree from Pepperdine University Law School.

He was assistant general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics and later the Oklaho-ma City Thunder for nine seasons.

The Bobcats have the ninth, 19th, and 39th picks in the June 23 NBA draft, which Jordan has said is critical for Charlotte’s future.

Cho will act as GM for the draft.

Stacy Nguyen can be reached at [email protected].

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Thank youfor recycling

this newspaper!


■ ASTROLOGY

RATOnce you have made the decision to go, you are not one to turn back. That doesn’t mean others will remain silent on the matter.

OXThough you relish stability and security, the chance to learn something new drives you to push beyond your comfort zone.

TIGERWhile you are able to do much on your own, the results will be even more impressive if you allow more people to get involved.

RABBITTake advantage of the good conditions as they come. If you wait too long, you may lose your window of opportunity.

DRAGONThere is more than one measure of success. It all begins with what matters most to you and whether you have attained it.

SNAKEPotential doesn’t mean anything unless you do something with it. Create an environment where it is allowed to flourish.

HORSEYou bring a lot to the table, but there is room for improvement. Allowing yourself to grow and learn serves only to enhance the situation.

GOATHas someone put you in a sour mood? Reverse the trend by doing something nice for someone else.

MONKEYAre you counting on getting back what you put in? Be prepared to accept that you will not get an equal return on your contribution.

ROOSTERDo you feel like you are close, but not where you want to be? Consider that the reason might be that you have a moving target.

DOGWould you rather stay silent rather than risk rocking the boat? A few shakes could be beneficial, so don’t be afraid to speak up.

PIGWhat you consider unusual today, with time, will become routine. Just don’t expect it to happen overnight.

For the week of June 18 — June 24, 2011

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 Snake 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001Horse 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002 Goat 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 Monkey 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 Rooster 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005 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.

{CHANNARETH cont’d from page 5}

Channareth’s connection with Se-attle University dates to the summer of 2007, when Le Xuan Hy, an asso-ciate professor of psychology, went to the Siem Reap area to see its best-known attraction, the Angkor Wat Temple, and to visit the Jesuit center.

“The first thing I noticed about him was how nimble he was, even with the loss of his legs,” Hy said. “He was on fire about the help he needed to give to the people.”

Hy said Channareth was a striking blend of two identities. He was a hard worker in a simple manufacturing shop, and a knowledgeable conversa-tionalist about world events — par-ticularly as they relate to the growing

call for international bans on both land mines and cluster bombs.

After returning to Seattle, Hy told Channareth’s story to two of his fel-low SU faculty members, Quan Le, an associate professor of business and economics, and Peter Raven, director of international business programs.

Last September, Le and Raven led a group of 18 undergraduate students and MBA candidates on a “service-learning” trip to Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. In Cambodia, they planted 70 trees, met Channareth, and assembled a dozen wheelchairs.

Justin Hatley, 30, of Seattle, who made the trip in the last stages of earning his MBA, said the experi-ence was eye-opening. Like many Americans, Hatley tended to think of the Vietnam War and Cambodia’s bloody Pol Pot regime as closed chapters.

He knew land mines had been used

in the region, “but I didn’t know they were still around and that kids and adults are still walking into them.”

Le and Raven also nominated Channareth for the honorary doc-torate. SU President Stephen Sun-dborg, announcing the selection, said Channareth “has reached out with compassion in service to other land-mine victims, while working tirelessly to rid the world of these insidious weapons.”

Channareth said he appreciates the honor, but that its real value will be in the attention he hopes it might bring to his cause.

That work is far from finished, he said. Although 156 nations have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, nearly 40 have not, including the United States, Russia, and China.

Some of the SU students who traveled to Cambodia have since worked on a petition campaign call-ing on President Obama to join the anti-land-mine effort. Although the United States has financially sup-ported land-mine-removal efforts, a State Department spokesman said in 2009 that if it agreed to the ban, the United States might not be able to meet its national defense needs and protect its allies.

The zeal Channareth feels for his crusade has replaced the despair that lingered long after his injury. He and his wife now have six children, one in high school, one in college, and four who are college graduates.

At speaking engagements, he often tells his listeners to “grow the flower of peace in your heart.” A peaceful heart, he says, creates a peaceful person, which in turn would produce a peaceful family, community, county, and world.

{WANG cont’d from page 1}

But the rumors were put to rest after President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to the post.

Wang joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1984 and served abroad in big cities in Asia such as To-kyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Before serving as deputy, he was assigned to serve as economic minister counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he and his staff moni-tored implementation of China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments and assisted China in its economic reform efforts.

Wang also served as Cambodia desk officer in the Department of State during the early 1990s. He participated in U.S. government efforts that led to the introduction of UN peacekeeping forces and a historic democratic election in Cambodia.

He was the U.S. State Department’s diplomat-in-residence at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Affairs in 2005. Wang was the second diplomat-in-resi-dence, following Don Terpstra. While at UCLA, the Department of Policy Studies served as his home department.

Wang immigrated to the United States from the Philippines at age 12 with his family. His father is from Guangzhou, China, and his mother is from Beijing. Wang’s native village is in the Fujian province.

Wang earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Sci-ence in 1972 from the University of Washington (UW), graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kap-pa. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Politi-cal Science at the University of Iowa.

David Chow, who went to UW at the same time

as Wang, said, “Robert is very smart, consider-ate and organized. He is a great friend and always remember his friends. Even though he came from the Philippines, he studied Chinese on his own so he can be fluent in speaking and writing.”

Ke C. Chen, Wang’s roommate from 1971 to 1972 and an engineer for the UW, said “All of my five roommates are very smart and have made great achievements. Robert was one of the young-est and was the only nonscientist and nonengineer among the group. We have reunions in Seattle and Taiwan, and he came to a few of those.”

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Wang was an assistant professor of International Relations at Whittier College in California for seven years. He has published articles on China’s military strat-egy and educational policy reforms, as well as on recent U.S.-China trade relations.

Wang is also actively involved in some institu-tions and organizations. He was a deputy direc-tor of the American Institute in Taiwan and was a visiting fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and Interna-tional Studies.

Wang is married to Katherine Xiao.

Tessa Sari can be reached at [email protected].

“The first thing I noticed about him was how nimble he was, even with the loss of his legs. He was on fire about the help he

needed to give to the people.” — Le Xuan Hy

“Robert is very smart, considerate and organized. He is a great friend and always remember his friends. Even though he came from the Philippines, he studied Chinese on his own so he can be fluent in speaking and writing.”

— David Chow

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“Secret Asian Man” comic books are now available at the Kinokuniya bookstore in Seattle.

{UNG cont’d from page 1}

Wednesdays. The restaurant special-izes in the cuisine of Ung’s native Cambodia, Phnom Penh being its largest city and capital.

The pastUng, however, grew up in Bat-

tambang, the country’s second larg-est city, located almost 200 hundred miles northwest of Phnom Penh. His father owned a successful noodle house and raised Ung and his nine siblings in a comfortable, yet very hardworking household until 1975, when the Khmer Rouge regime took control of Cambodia.

The term Khmer refers to the main ethnic group in Cambodia, or eth-nic Cambodians. Rouge, French for “red,” connotes the Communist lean-ings of the regime. Ung and his fam-ily were of ethnic Chinese descent and a key target of the Khmer Rouge, which aimed to clear Cambodia of outsiders.

“The Khmer Rouge stopped the economy dead in its tracks in three days,” said McElroy, who was asked by Ung to help write his story. “It was a total cultural devastation.”

The book describes the process by which families and popu-lations were uprooted from their cities and villages to work the Killing Fields, where Cambodians were killed or worked to death.

“They were trying to build a truly agrarian society,” said

McElroy, who estimates that up to 3.5 million Cambodians were directly or indirectly killed by their own government.

The book“I Survived the Killing Fields” is both Ung’s and McElroy’s

first book. Ung knows several languages, but English isn’t his stron-

gest. Although coming from an educated family, Ung’s for-mal schooling was cut short because he was needed to help at his father’s restaurant.

“He was more of the street-wise brother,” said McElroy. “Street-wise people can make things happen.”

McElroy, who holds degrees in both music and computer science, put the words behind Ung’s emotions. Every Wednes-day, when the restaurant was closed, McElroy and Ung would meet to write.

The 25-month process was “also a growth experience for me,” McElroy said. “We went through 30 versions.”

The process would later take them both to Cambodia. During their meetings, McElroy would record Ung as he

remembered his past. He would then formulate those memo-ries into the story and match them, for a backdrop, with the corresponding historical events that plagued the country.

“It was hard to write. Sam would start crying, then I’d lose it,” said McElroy.

“My head is full,” Ung would tell him. Sometimes, Ung would call McElroy late at night as he remembered new de-tails.

“I feel proud about what I have done,” says Ung. “A lot of people believe that since these events are in the past, it doesn’t need to be brought up again,” said Ung. “It has passed, but it stays inside.”

Dani Morton, a volunteer and community activist from Shore-line, is glad that Ung shared his story. Morton also experienced the Killing Fields, where her fa-ther was killed.

“It was very courageous of him to write this. The majority of us are crippled,” she says. “We have the experience of not talk-ing to anyone because of fear of torture.”

Ung’s book emphasizes the level of paranoia among the Cambodians during the time. Morton believes this fear con-tinued as refugees came to the United States. Morton advocates for Cambodian American health issues at the national level.

“Because of the war, the major-ity of Cambodian Americans have tremendous hardship, both physi-cal and psychological,” she says.

The Cambodian communityThe community in Seattle ranks third in the country after

cities in California and Massachusetts. Cambodian Ameri-cans in Seattle, however, are both socially and linguistically isolated, said Morton.

“We continue to face many challenges from becoming ful-ly integrated into American society,” she said. “Even after three decades, we can’t get back up because of the experi-

ences we had.” Ung’s story is also that of living out his dream and succeed-

ing. He wants to tell the world about a country whose history is sometimes forgotten.

“The American consciousness was fixated on Vietnam, and Cambodia got kind of lost,” said McElroy. “There was aware-ness, but not enough.”

Morton also recalls an incident where she met an American professor who had never met a Cambodian before. The pro-fessor had heard about the war, but he didn’t know how badly it had affected the Cambodian people.

“His experience is similar to the rest of us,” said Morton. “With this story, we all have a responsibility to tell the world.”

“I never forget who I am and where I come from,” said Ung, who hopes his book will help others tell their stories.

“I Survived the Killing Fields” was published by S & T Publishing, a joint venture between Ung and McElroy. They hope to issue a second edition of the book that incorporates more details from Ung’s brothers, as well as an anthology of writings from other survivors.

Ung will be available for book signings at the Wing Luke Museum on June 18, July 16, Aug. 20, and he will do a read-ing on Sept. 17.

To purchase “I Survived the Killings Fields,” visit the Mar-ketplace at the Wing Luke Museum or Phnom Penh Noodle House.

Irfan Shariff can be reached at [email protected].

Sam Ung and wife, Kim, in Khao-I-Dang refugee camp in Thailand.

{SUN cont’d from page 1}

Wine Bar Restaurant, Red Mango, and Desert Fire.“We decided for strategic reasons to make sure the

app is perfect and also, that we hit it from the right angle. To do all of that, we’re launching in mid-July,” said Pirq CEO James Sun.

He hopes more first-generation Asian American restaurant owners will use Pirq to attract smartphone users to their businesses.

“They are primarily professional, working-class people who have disposable income to spend. It gives an opportunity for us to tap that group and show them Asian culture and Asian foods that they may have never known about,” said Sun, a finalist on NBC’s hit reality TV show “The Apprentice: Los Angeles” in 2007.

Focused on providing real-time restaurant deals, Pirq will be made available first to iPhone and Android users.

Sun says the idea for the service began four years ago when he wanted to help consumers find places and people easily.

He said, “Consumers should be able to get access to deals and offers when they want and when they need it.” Pirq enables them to use their cell phone to “find a quality offer nearby.”

For restaurant owners, Pirq is the first “yield-man-agement solution” that prevents a flood of bargain-minded, Groupon-like consumers from showing up at a restaurant during peak business hours. It gives res-taurant owners the flexibility to instantly offer steep discounts when there are few or even no customers.

Other industries have successfully used this solu-tion. Sun pointed out, “The airline industry has done this for over 15 years. The hotel industry has done this, but restaurants have never been able to do it.”

Pirq uses a unique Microsoft Tag inside each restaurant to authenticate the deals. When a consumer uses Pirq and enters one of over 100 participating restaurants, Sun said, “We get paid on commission. So when we send some-body in and they spend money, the vendor pays us.”

“People constantly ask themselves, ‘Where do we want to eat?’ when they’re on-the-go,” said Steve Price, president and partner of Arnie’s Restaurants Northwest, who signed up for all four of his restau-rants. “The Pirq app will help customers see what’s available at that moment and decide on the spot, which brings us business. The ability to offer deals when we want to fill tables — in real time — is exactly what restaurants need, especially in this economy.”

On the issue of restaurant owners raising menu prices to make up for the increase in sales of discounted menu items, Sun says they don’t need to. “With every deal that they do on our site and (consumers grab) on their smart-phones, they (restaurant owners) make money. They’re profitable on every level,” he pointed out.

Pirq does not function like a daily deal website, like online coupon giant Groupon, which offers discounts ranging from 50 to 90 percent off full price to its 70 million subscribers each day.

It is a complimentary deal service that does not re-quire up-front payment by credit card, a 24-hour wait-ing period to redeem, or pre-purchased coupons that may never get used.

Coupang is the largest daily deal site in South Korea, with three million members, $10 million in revenue, and 700,000 visitors per day. It posts more than 30 deals on its website each day.

“There are, at least, well over 1,000 daily deal sites. And what’s interesting about that is that’s the whole rea-son that we created Pirq,” Sun said. “We created Pirq to be the antidote to the maze and craze of daily deals.”

Pirq will expand to more locations including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. in the next 12 to 18 months.

For more information about Pirq, visit pirq.com/how_it_works.

James Tabafunda can be reached at [email protected].

“I feel proud about what I have done. A lot of people believe that since these events are in the past and it doesn’t need to be brought up again. It has passed, but it stays inside.”

— Sam Ung

“Consumers should be able to get

access to deals and offers when

they want and when they need it.”

— James Sun

VOL 30 NO 25 | 2011

Documents

Transcript of VOL 30 NO 25 | 2011