VOL 41 NO 37 | SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA

VOL 41 NO 37 SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022 FREE 40 YEARS YOUR VOICE

CID restaurants playing with fire?

PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUE

By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Photo by Assunta Ng

A fire at the building that houses Harbor City Restaurant on Sept. 1 caused an estimated $125,000 in damage and was ruled “accidental”—caused by a grease fire in the kitchen. Nobody was hurt.

But a community member who has extensive knowledge of buildings and restaurants in the Seattle Chinatown-International District (CID) said it could have been a lot worse.

And he told the Northwest Asian Weekly that “nobody is going to care until someone dies or you get multiple fires like this.” see FIRE on 16 The Seattle Fire Department responds to a Sept. 1 fire at 707 S King St.

Former gas station site will become mixed-use building

By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Bartell Drugs is closing its location in Seattle’s ChinatownInternational District (CID) at 4th Avenue South and South Jackson Street.

“I knew it was coming, given the number of robberies we had in the store,” said a Bartell’s employee who was not authorized to speak on its behalf. “But I am still sad and shocked. We have already built our relationship with customers.”

Bartell parent company Rite Aid said in a statement that the decision to close the store is based on factors including “business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability and store performance.”

Ironically, Bartell was founded on the same street, South Jackson Street, more than a century ago. In 1890, George H.

A developer will build an eight-story, 103,899 square-foot building at 701 South Jackson Street, in the Chinatown-International District (CID), with 202 residential units, according to the prospective

Photo by Assunta Ng

Image from Housing Diversity Corporation

Community reactions towards Bartell closing in Chinatown

see BARTELL on 12

■

purchaser consent decree. The site contains hazardous substances below ground, and the developer, “701 S. Jackson Partners, LLC,” has agreed to excavate the contaminated soil and monitor it in the future.

According to the website of the Washington State see SOUTH JACKSON on 10

THE INSIDE STORY

SPORTS  2 The Layup Drill

HEALTH  9 Cultural neglect makes AAPI dementia harder

COMMENTARY  11 Why us?

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

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asianweekly northwest

■ SPORTS

40 YEARS

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

The Layup Drill

By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. In this edition, we take a look at Jordan Clarkson’s summer, a new team for Jeremy Lin, and a young tennis star finds a partner.

Clarkson represents Team Philippines

NBA veteran Jordan Clarkson finally had the opportunity to play for the Philippines National Basketball team after much talk and planning.

Clarkson’s 27 points and 7 assists fell short in the Asian Games qualifier for the Summer Olympics in 2024. Team Philippines fell to Lebanon 85-81 this past August.

In addition to Clarkson, Team Philippines had Kai Sotto, the 7-foot-center that had eyed the NBA, but currently plays in the National Basketball League in Australia. Yet, it was not enough to defeat Lebanon.

Despite the loss, Clarkson was happy to finally represent the birthplace of his grandmother.

“I know all y’all looking at the bigger picture but a lot of this is for my grandmother,” Clarkson said to reporters after their loss to the Lebanese team. “Just trying to carry her name, make her proud, and still continue to this day. That’s probably the biggest reason why I still do and represent the flag and country to this day.”

Clarkson, who played last season for the Utah Jazz, indicated that international play for the Filipino National

Leylah Fernandez

Team would not be just a one and done situation. In fact, he’s talked to Jalen Green, a current member of the Houston Rockets, to play for the team at some point down the road.

“We are talking about just going out there, plotting things to do out there.” Clarkson added, “I don’t want to say too much but yeah, we just appreciate the love from the Philippines.”

Lin signs with new team

Jeremy Lin turned 34 in August and continues his

professional basketball career in China. Lin played the last two seasons with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. He announced that this fall he has signed with the Guangzhou Loong Lions.

“The journey continues! Still feel like a kid getting to live out my basketball dreams,” Lin wrote on his Instagram account. Lin attempted an NBA comeback during the 2020-2021 season and played for the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate in January 2021. see SPORTS on 6

YOUR VOICE

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

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King County moves to build park for Chinese goddess

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY When Felicity Wang went through chemotherapy earlier this year, she prayed to Mazu, a Chinese goddess of the sea. On Aug. 30, she stood before a crowd of 110 people at China Harbor Restaurant and announced a step forward in the creation of a park in King County to the living goddess.

“She’s just like Jesus,” she said.

The journey to the establishment of a park in honor of Mazu began for Wang in 2015— and still faces numerous challenges.

But Wang celebrated the designation of Sept. 9 as Mazu Day in King County and the signing of a proposed agreement between King County and the North American Mazu Cultural Exchange Association, both of which were unfurled at the event.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said the agreement will “explore the feasibility of creating” the park in King County.

Describing Mazu as a “compassionate mother figure” in traditional Chinese culture, he said, “As new Chinese immigrants traveled to new lands, they would erect structures to honor Mazu for bringing them across the sea safely.”

Turning to Wang, he added, “And many now appeal to Mazu for other blessings.” He mentioned “world peace.”

The celebration included many groups affiliated with China and a few from Taiwan,

A rendering of the proposed International Mazu Culture Park.

apparently those that favor stronger ties with China.

“Belief in Mazu is a cultural tie that

connects people of Chinese descent worldwide,” said Constantine.

King County Council Chair Claudia

Balducci reverberated the theme, saying that Mazu “symbolizes the transcendence of earthly boundaries, protecting and helping people across cultures.”

Speaking above the crowd noise and eating, as is common in such settings, she added, “We’re taking a big step in honoring our Chinese and Taiwanese communities— and really, pan-Asian communities.”

In her opening remarks, Wang said the establishment of a park “is not political, it would not belong to China or Taiwan or Japan, it is for the global community, everybody who believes in her will be there.”

Wang said in an interview she had encountered challenges along the way, since she first proposed the park, including from local park officials accusing her of trying to establish a religious site.

“But I found a document from the United Nations, that in 2009, the organization declared that Mazu was not religious, but was a cultural tradition,” she said.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mazu culture belongs to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Described as a folk tradition, rather than a religion, “belief in and commemoration of Mazu is an important cultural bond that promotes family harmony, social concord, see MAZU on 14

Japan Fest 2022 Mukai Farm & Garden on Vashon Island will host its 5th annual Japan Fest on Sept. 10 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This free community event includes Bon Odori, a summer dance for everyone, the Children’s Village, the

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nominoichi collectibles market, vendors, Taiko drumming, and, of course, food. Legendary keyboardist Philip Woo will also perform.

Japan Fest ends with a lantern labyrinth walk and a

showing of Kiki’s Delivery Service at 8 p.m. at the Vashon Theater.

See mukaifarmandgarden.org/japanfest2022 for more details. 

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SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

■ WORLD NEWS

40 YEARS

Cambodian, Japanese among winners of Magsaysay Awards

By JIM GOMEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A psychiatrist who helped fellow Cambodians recover from trauma resulting from the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule and a Japanese ophthalmologist who led an effort to treat thousands of Vietnamese villagers were among those selected for this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize.

The other winners were a Filipina pediatrician who has provided medical, legal and social help to thousands of abused children and their families, and a

Frenchman who battles plastic pollution in Indonesian rivers.

The annual awards, announced on Aug. 31, are named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, and honor “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” They are to be presented in Manila on Nov. 30.

The winners “have all challenged the invisible societal lines that cause separation and have drawn innovative and inspiring ones that build connections,” said Aurelio Montinola III, chairperson of the award foundation.

Cambodian Sotheara Chhim, 54, has led the treatment of thousands of trauma-

tized survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule and other patients in his country since becoming executive director of its Transcultural Psychosocial Organization in 2002, the Sotheara Chhim foundation said.

As a child, he was forced to work in Khmer Rouge camps for more than three years until their rule ended in 1979. He became one of Cambodia’s first psychiatrists after years of war and devoted his life to treating people, especially in

rural communities, where he said “the mental health worker should be.”

Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori, 58, was awarded the prize for training local doctors who have treated thousands of Vietnamese. He decided to Tadashi Hattori become a doctor at age 15 when he witnessed the rude treatment that his see MAGSAYSAY on 13

Ex-Malaysian first WHO director in Asia lady ordered to serve accused of racism, 10 years for graft abuse put on leave

By EILEEN NG ASSOCIATED PRESS KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former Malaysian first lady Rosmah Mansor was ordered to serve 10 years in prison after being found guilty on Sept. 1 of solicit- Former Malaysian first ing and receiving lady Rosmah Mansor bribes during her husband’s corruption-tainted administration, a week after he was imprisoned over the massive looting of the 1MDB state fund.

Rosmah was convicted on a charge of soliciting $42 million and two charges of receiving $1.5 million between 2016 and 2017 to help a company secure a project to provide solar energy panels to schools on Borneo island.

The court sentenced her to 10 years in prison on each charge, to be served concurrently, and a total fine of $217 million. She will be allowed to remain free on bail pending her appeal to higher courts.

High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Rosmah corruptly solicited bribes and received money as a reward for herself. He said her defense was a “bare denial, devoid of credible evidence.“ Earlier, Rosmah made an emotional plea from the dock, saying she was saddened and felt she wasn’t given justice. She said she had never solicited any funds or taken a single cent while she was heading charity foundations during her time as the prime minister’s wife.

She also decried as political persecution the events that led to Najib being jailed and her family being made to suffer.

“I do not even know the cost of the project.

So I am just telling the truth and nothing else but the truth,” she said. “If that’s your conclusion, I surrender to God.”

Defense lawyer Jagjit Singh later told reporters that the amount of the fine was the largest ever in Malaysia’s history. He said Rosmah was shocked and upset, and that they plan to appeal to higher courts. Under the law, each charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of five times the bribes solicited and received.

Her conviction was another blow after Najib began a 12-year prison term after losing his final appeal in one of the five graft cases against him involving the multibillion-dollar pilfering of 1MDB. Before the verdict, Judge Zaini also rejected Rosmah’s application to disqualify him after an alleged guilty judgment leaked online. Police said the leaked document was work done within the court’s research unit and was not the judgment, but Rosmah’s defense said they lost confidence the judge could be fair.

The judge said he didn’t request the research and that those were not his grounds.

He said he didn’t read the documents, had done his own research and wasn’t prejudiced against Rosmah. Malaysia’s top court earlier slammed the action of the website, run by a blogger based in England, as “a deliberate act” to smear the court’s reputation.

The same website published a document it said was the Federal Court’s guilty verdict against Najib, just before the ruling was read out in court. The court has said that the leaked document was a working draft of the ruling. The court has filed complaints with police over both leaks.

Najib and Rosmah have been hit with multiple charges of graft after the shocking ouster of his United Malays National Organization in the 2018 elections, fueled by public anger over the 1MDB scandal.

UMNO has since returned to power after defections caused the collapse of the reformist government that won the 2018 polls.

Rosmah’s trial shed light on her alleged sway in the government since her husband see ROSMAH on 14

By MARIA CHENG AP MEDICAL WRITER LONDON (AP) — The World Health O r g a n i z a t i o n ’s top director in the Western Pacific, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, has been indefinitely removed from his post, according Dr. Takeshi Kasai to internal correspondence obtained

by The Associated Press.

Kasai’s removal comes months after an AP investigation revealed that dozens of staffers accused him of racist, abusive and unethical behavior that undermined the U.N. agency’s efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in Asia.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff in the Western Pacific in an Aug. 26 email that Kasai was “on leave” without elaborating further. Tedros said Deputy Director-General, Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, will “ensure business continuity.”

Two senior WHO officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said Kasai had been put on extended administrative leave after internal

investigators substantiated some of the misconduct complaints.

In a statement, WHO said it was unknown how long Kasai would be away. The U.N. health agency said the investigation into him was continuing and that it was believed to be the first time a regional director had been relieved of their duties. Kasai did not respond to requests for comment but previously denied he used racist language or acted unprofessionally.

In January, the AP reported that more than 30 unidentified staffers sent a confidential complaint to senior WHO leadership and members of the organization’s Executive Board, alleging that Kasai had created a “toxic atmosphere” in WHO’s offices across the Western Pacific. Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”

Several WHO staffers working under Kasai said he improperly shared sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with its donations.

Days after the AP report, WHO chief see WHO on 13

YOUR VOICE

■ WORLD NEWS

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

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Earthquake kills 65, triggers landslides in southwest China BEIJING (AP) — The powerful earthquake that set off landslides and shook buildings in southwestern China killed at least 65 people and injured hundreds, state media said on Sept. 6.

At least 16 other people are missing a day after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous area in Luding county in Sichuan province, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet and is hit regularly by quakes. The temblor shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million residents are already under a COVID-19 lockdown.

Power was knocked out and buildings

damaged in the historic town of Moxi in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, where 37 people were killed. Tents were erected for more than 50,000 people being moved from homes made unsafe by the quake, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue crews pulling a woman who appeared uninjured from a collapsed home in Moxi, where many of the buildings are constructed from a mix of wood and brick.

Around 150 people were reported with varying degrees of injuries.

Another 28 people were killed in neighboring Shimian county on the

outskirts of the city of Ya'an. Another 248 people were reported as injured, mainly in Moxi, and another 12 people were reported missing.

Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a glacier and forest nature reserve.

Along with the deaths, authorities reported stones and soil falling from mountainsides, causing damage to homes and power interruptions, CCTV said. One landslide blocked a rural highway, leaving it strewn with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.

Buildings shook in Chengdu, 125 miles from the epicenter.

The earthquake and lockdown follow a heat wave and drought that led to water shortages and power cuts due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. That comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan.

The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials. 

China accuses Washington of cyberspying on university

By JOE McDONALD ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING (AP) — China accused Washington on Sept. 5 of breaking into computers at a university that U.S. officials say does military research, adding to complaints by both governments of rampant online spying against each other.

Northwestern Polytechnical University reported computer break-ins in June, the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center announced. It said the

center, working with a commercial security provider, Qihoo 360 Technology Co.,

traced the attacks to the National Security Agency but didn't say how that was done.

China and the United States are, along with Russia, regarded as global leaders in cyberwarfare research.

China accuses the United States of spying on universities, energy and internet companies and other targets. Washington accuses Beijing of stealing commercial secrets and has announced criminal charges against Chinese military officers.

The U.S. actions “seriously endanger China’s national security,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. She also accused Washington of eavesdropping on Chinese mobile phones and stealing text messages.

“China strongly condemns it,” Mao said.

“The United States should immediately stop using its advantages to steal secrets and attack other countries.”

The American Embassy in Beijing didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Security experts say the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, and the Ministry of State Security also sponsor hackers outside the government.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, in the western city of Xi’an, is on a U.S. govern-

ment “entity list” that limits its access to American technology. Washington says the university helps the PLA develop aerial and underwater drones and missile technology.

The Sept. 5 announcement accused the United States of taking information about the university’s network management and other “core technologies.” It said Chinese analysts found 41 “network attack” tools that it said were traced to the NSA. Last year, a Chinese man, Shuren Qin, was sentenced to two years in prison by a federal court in Boston after he pleaded guilty to exporting underwater and marine technology to Northwestern Polytechnical University without see CYBERSPYING on 13

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SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

40 YEARS

■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR THRU FEB 19, 2023 EXHIBIT, “WE ARE CHANGING THE TIDE: COMMUNITY POWER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE” The Wing Luke Museum, 719 S. King St., Seattle Thu-Sun, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. wingluke.org/we-are-changingthe-tide

SEP 8

WHAT LAUGHTER TELLS US: ASIAN AMERICANS, COMEDY, AND BELONGING WITH MICHELLE LIU 7 p.m.

Online event Register at https://bit.ly/3TyM6oL CID/SODO EXPANDED SHELTER COMMUNITY MEETING Hing Hay Park 5-6:30 p.m. friendsofseattlecid.com

9 2022 SCIDPDA ANNUAL FUNDRAISER: JAZZ IN THE COURTYARD 5:30 p.m.

Pacific Tower, 1200 12th Ave. S., Seattle Tickets at bit.ly/scidpdajazz

10 C-ID NIGHT MARKET FESTIVAL Seattle’s C-ID 1-9 p.m.

Sign up to be a vendor, https://bit.ly/3zi6qmu 5TH ANNUAL JAPAN FESTIVAL Mukai Farm & Garden, 18017 107th Ave. S.W., Vashon 11 a.m.-8 p.m. mukaifarmandgarden.org/ japanfest2022

11 LIVE ALOHA HAWAIIAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL Seattle Center 11 a.m.-7 p.m. seattlelivealohafestival.com

SPORTS from 2 However, he did not get called up to the main roster.

Lin’s playing time with the Ducks declined in the 20212022 season, when he averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists which was down from 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in the 2019-2020 season. He also saw less court time with the Ducks. After his contract ended in Beijing, there was speculation that he would play in Taiwan. Lin is still very popular in the birth country of his parents and every professional basketball team in Taiwan would be lucky to land Lin. But, with the announcement, Lin will continue to play in China.

FUTURE ANCIENT SOUL HEALING FESTIVAL Hing Hay Park & Donnie Chin Park 1-10 p.m. thefutureancient.org

15 BETTY LAU AND BRIEN CHOW, TRANSIT ALTERNATIVES TO SAVE THE CID 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

For zoom link, contact rotaryofseattleid@gmail.com

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JIMMY O. YANG COMEDY SHOW Moore Theatre, 1932 2nd Ave., Seattle 7 p.m.

Tickets at https://bit.ly/3Kqr6Mw

CISC’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY FRIENDSHIP GALA The Westin Bellevue, 600 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue 5:30 p.m. cisc-seattle.ejoinme. org/50thGala

OCT

19

3-9

WASHIN KAI PRESENTS, “WHAT IS HAIKU?” UW, Kane Hall 210 7-8:30 p.m.

Register at events.uw.edu/WhatisHaiku

JOIN US IN CAMBODIA TO EXPERIENCE A WEEK-LONG JOURNEY TO THE UNIQUE CAMBODIAN CULTURE maxglobalexp.org

AAPI HOMETOWN HEROES CELEBRATION Terry’s Kitchen, 5625 119th Ave. S.E., Bellevue 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

Registration at cacaseattle.org

NOV

9

WING LUKE MUSEUM HOUSE PARTY 2022 Wing Luke Museum, 719 S. King St., Seattle 7-11 p.m. wingluke.org/houseparty

A FAMILY-FRIENDLY 5K/10K, “ALASKA AIRLINES DAWG DASH,” SUPPORTS UWAA’S GENERAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND Through UW’s Iconic Seattle Campus 9 a.m.

Register at washington.edu/alumni/ dawgdash

Fernandez finds tennis partner through social media

Canadian Filipino tennis pro Leylah Fernandez is having a successful run in the mixed doubles tournament bracket of the U.S. Open. Fernandez and her partner, American Jack Sock, advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open mixed doubles bracket as of the time of this writing. The pairing of the 30-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska native and the 20-year-old Montreal, Quebec native may seem like an odd couple. In fact, it may be. Fernandez stated that her “dream mixed doubles partner” included Sock. It appears that he read that post because they paired up for the tournament.

After an impressive singles run in the U.S. Open last

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ED HILL: LIVE Here-After, The Crocodile, 2505 1st Ave., Seattle 7-8:30 p.m.

Tickets at ticketweb.com

year where she made the final, she suffered an upset loss in the second round. However, Fernandez is still playing with Sock in the U.S. Open.

“Doubles is just so fun,” Fernandez told reporters during the week. “Even though there may be fans in the stands, because there’s more players on court, there’s always a few laughs here and there.”

Perhaps the tennis odd couple will make a longer run in the tournament. Sock is a veteran standing at 6-foot-3, while Fernandez just turned 20 years old and is 5-foot-6.  Jason can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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YOUR VOICE

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

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asianweekly northwest

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40 YEARS

YOUR VOICE

■ HEALTH

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

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Cultural neglect makes AAPI dementia harder By the time her mother moved in, the 84-year-old woman was already having memory issues. So her daughter, Trang Tu, adapted her house to make it as accessible as possible. As one example, she put labels on each of the cabinets and drawers in her kitchen to indicate what they contained.

Dementia, with its loss of memories over time, is a profoundly disorienting disease, said Tu, and she was aware her mother was moving into a new physical and cognitive space—and wanted to help her.

To further ease her way, but to stimulate independence, Tu had the idea to encourage her mother to retain the independence of thought and action she always had.

So she put a simple diagram on the coffee machine, with steps, such as, “First, you take a spoonful of coffee; Second, you boil the water.”

“It was not my intent not to make her coffee in the morning, and in fact, I would have been glad to do it,” said Tu, who just turned 50.

But when her mother came out and saw the sign, she became deeply hurt and angry.

“You’re my own daughter,” she said.

“You can’t even make me a cup of coffee?”

Such moments of disconnection epitomize the failings of a system largely set up for white families, and upon which Tu was initially drawing, after educating herself in the intricacies of the disease.

The mainstream correctly indicates that a person suffering from dementia should be encouraged to be independent for as long as possible, to retain memory function. But in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) culture, this can conflict with the deepest values to care for and nurture elders.

“Mainstream practices teach that when someone has dementia, you are supposed to hold off doing as much as possible for them and let them do for themselves to the greatest extent possible in order for them to retain their brain functioning and avoid deteriorating even faster. You are supposed to let them retain as much independence as possible,” said Tu. “But in our culture, we are supposed to take care of our parents and do things for them even when they are healthy.”

Such conflicts are even more urgent since AAPI families have many more instances of caregiving.

Compared with 22% of white families that have a caregiver for an older relative, 43% of AAPI families are in Tu’s situation.

That makes it even more pressing to find solutions to such cultural conflicts that, according to Tu and others, can extend into how care is delivered and cause catastrophe.

In Tu’s case, even during the first see DEMENTIA on 15

Trang Tu with her mother, Nguyet Dang.

Photos provided by Trang Tu.

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

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SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Department of Ecology, work has already begun.

The plot of land upon which construction will take place is appraised at $3,831,400.

Housing Diversity Corporation formed the limited liability company that has contracted with the Department of Ecology to clean up and develop the site. CEO Brad Padden describes the project as a way to bring “affordable housing” to the area.

“Rents for all units will be set at levels affordable at the 40%-80% [Area Median Income] (AMI) level according to United States Department of Housing and Urban Development income levels for the Seattle Metro Area,” states the consent decree. The AMI of the CID is $33,578, according to Niche.com.

According to the consent decree, the building will include 118 one-bedroom units averaging 395 square feet, 18 small efficiency dwelling units (SEDUs) averaging 285 square feet, and 66 congregate units averaging 224 square feet. A congregate unit does not have a full kitchen, according to Padden.

Rents for each unit will be approximately $1,400 to $1,600 for one-bedrooms, $1,200 to $1,400 for SEDUs, and $800 to $1,100 for the congregate units, said Padden.

Low rents in some units will be made possible by a tax exemption from the city.

“The project will participate in the MultiFamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program to the maximum extent possible to include even more affordable options within the building,” according to the consent decree.

The MFTE program provides a tax exemption in exchange for income and rentrestricted units. It requires that 20% or 25% of the apartments in a participating building be less than market rate, providing a rent of “typically hundreds of dollars less per month,” according to Housing Seattle Now, a city initiative.

The MFTE program expires after a maximum of 12 years, meaning the tax exemption ends and developers can raise rents.

“From this perspective, you can see how these types of developments can relatively quickly transform from having one-third of units ‘affordable’ to mostly luxury apartments in about a decade,” said Matt Fowle, a doctoral student in the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, in an email.

In an interview, however, Padden said future residents could potentially find vouchers from religious organizations, for instance, to lower rents even further. He said he would also potentially work with housing providers in the CID to encourage them to develop vouchers.

But it was unclear what vouchers are specifically available, and as of press time, Padden had not responded to a follow-up question about them.

Fowle said such vouchers could conceivably come from nonprofit organizations.

Still, he said, “Many nonprofit organizations only have the resources to provide timelimited financial assistance, meaning the units would only be ‘affordable’ until the assistance runs out. Assuming the displaced residents could even afford to live in the new development with the vouchers, what will they do when they run out?”

Frank Irigon, who in 1972 led demands for low-income housing in the CID, said that transit-oriented development is one of the primary factors for the lack of low-income

Image provided by Housing Diversity Corporation.

SOUTH JACKSON from 1

Artist rendering of the proposed building on 701 South Jackson Street.

housing in the neighborhood.

Cleanup From the 1930s to the 1970s, the site was used as a service station. Underground gasoline tanks contaminated the soil. For decades, the Department of Ecology knew of the contamination, which included petroleum hydrocarbons, naphthalene, and BTEX, and exceeded the state’s standards. The contamination of the soil also extends under the street, “a portion of the right-of-way at Seventh Avenue South and South Jackson Street.”

The site, called “the Seventh Avenue Service site,” is one of approximately 14,000 sites in the state that are contaminated.

The Department of Ecology enters into binding legal agreements with “potentially liable parties or persons” to clean up the sites. The Department of Ecology provides oversight.

“Not all liable persons or parties have funding or resources to clean up sites, so a site may await cleanup for a number of years until, as in this site’s case, a prospective purchaser comes forward with a proposal to clean up and redevelop it,” said Scarlet Tang, Communications Manager, Northwest Region, Washington State Department of Ecology. “The current status of the Seventh Avenue Service site does not allow for use as housing, so a cleanup is necessary before it can be redeveloped.”

In the last two decades, the site has largely been devoid of commercial activity, according to a briefing by the Department of Ecology, except for a storage room for a retail tea shop.

Padden said the procedure for cleaning up the site would involve excavating the contaminated soil and creating an underground wall against the contaminated soil remaining under the street. A filtration system would prevent further contamination.

“The reason this project has been looked at by potential buyers for 30-plus years but has never been redeveloped is, first and foremost, due to the fact that it is contaminated.

In Washington state, the buyers of a contaminated site inherit the liabilities of the previous owners, which causes debt, equity, and insurance to become difficult if not impossible to obtain,” said Padden in a followup email. “We spent almost two years drilling and reporting on the subsurface conditions to get Ecology what they needed to provide them with a 360-degree view of the entirety of the subsurface conditions at the site.”

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The cleanup is being performed in adherence to the Model Toxics Control Act, which is very strictly enforced in Washington state, added Padden.

“Throughout the cleanup we will be monitored by licensed third party geotechnical and environmental engineers who will provide additional compliance oversight. They, in turn, will be monitored every step of the way by the Washington Department of Ecology. The engineers will be taking soil samples as we go, testing those samples at state licensed laboratories, and will be providing daily guidance to the contractors to ensure a complete cleanup, including the installation of any protective measures, all in compliance with the Cleanup Action Plan (CAP),” he said.

This is Padden’s first cleanup, he said.

Still, an outside expert said that given the many developments his company has undertaken, he would necessarily have extensive experience in confronting ecological and similar challenges.

According to the Department of Ecology, the CAP includes demolishing existing structures on the site, removing any contaminated soil within property boundaries—an estimated 6,000 cubic yards will be disposed of—and creating a covenant with the developer for longterm monitoring.

Monitoring of the site for hazardous issues will take place every five years after construction is completed.

“This is a standard compliance time period for ongoing monitoring for a site like this,” said Padden.

Next steps Later in 2022, the Department of Ecology is expected to finalize legal documents governing the project.

By sometime in the spring of 2023, 701 S. Jackson Partners, LLC is expected to complete its engineering design, secure permits, and go out for construction bids, and begin demolition and excavation.

Both are expected to be completed “within four months of start date,” according to the Department of Ecology.

Sometime later in 2023, construction is set to begin.  Comments may be submitted about the project to the Department of Ecology by emailing the site manager, Jing Song, at jing.song@ecy.wa.gov.

Mahlon can be contacted at info@nwasianweekly.com.

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

YOUR VOICE

■ COMMENTARY

asianweekly northwest

11

Matt Chan

I rode my bike to the Chinatown-International District (CID) on Labor Day. I usually go to the CID at least twice a week, but on what was a beautiful day, I found the neighborhood bustling and busy, but it was different. The sheer number of unhoused people intertwined with residents, visitors, and people who conduct business in the CID was stunning.

It isn’t uncommon to see the unhoused congregating under and around I-5 that divides our neighborhood, or around the Navigation Center in Little Saigon, or around the other four facilities that service the unhoused. What was shocking was the sheer numbers of unhoused people doing

drugs, sleeping in doorways, or just wandering the streets in every area of the neighborhood. In fact, I noticed that a tent had taken over the exercise equipment in Hing Hay Park to construct a living space.

The smell of garbage was palpable on this warm, late summer day as people all went about their business as if this were normal.

This is not normal.

Would it be normal in Laurelhurst, Magnolia, Madison Park, or Wallingford?

So why us?

Why does the CID get no respect from the local government? The latest indignity is a team effort by King County, City of Seattle, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to build a “Mega-Shelter” facility, one block from the CID next to the Historic Immigration Building. The complex would bring 500 more residents to a shelter/ RV/Tiny Homes facility in a neighborhood that already has five homeless facilities. All of this was done with little to no outreach to the community for input.

I do feel for the unhoused people in Seattle, they deserve better. What I witnessed in the CID is a

systemic failure of the government to solve our city’s most pressing need. To not only address the root cause of homelessness, but to keep the unhoused and the neighborhoods they end up in safe from those that prey on them, drug dealers, career criminals.

So why us? Why does the CID always have to bear the weight of governmental dysfunction? Time and time again, our history is tied to municipal malfeasance, be it Sound Transit, I-5 splitting the neighborhood, enforcing building codes on a community with no ability to pay for upgrades or provide help from the city, or placing a Navigation Center in one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in the city without community input.

The CID is the last truly ethnic neighborhood in Seattle and the cultural home for Asian Americans in the region.

Where are the elected leaders who are quick to campaign and use the CID for photo ops, but disappear when we need the help they promised us? The mayor did clean up 12th and Jackson, but did not solve the problem, it only moved to other locations in the CID. Now the problem of

The homeless encampment at Dearborn and 10th in Seattle.

Photo by Assunta Ng

By Matt Chan FOR NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Photo by Stacy Nguyen

Why us?

A homeless encampment in Hing Hay Park

the unhoused overrunning the neighborhood and the problems of mental health, crime, and drug addiction are systemic, normalized, and wholly unacceptable.

Where are King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, Seattle City Councilmember Tammy

Morales, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell when the CID desperately needs help? They are busy building a new homeless facility in our neighborhood without community input or assurances to provide adequate care to mitigate the harm this will cause

to the unhoused, as well as the residents and CID community.

The answer to, “Why Us?” is simple, systemic racism that this neighborhood has always been subjected to. When do we have a say? Apparently never. 

■ WORLD NEWS In flood-stricken Pakistan, rains damage archeological site

By MUNIR AHMED ASSOCIATED PRESS ISLAMABAD (AP) — In flood-stricken Pakistan where an unprecedented monsoon season has killed hundreds of people, the rains now threaten a famed archeological site dating back 4,500 years, the site’s chief official said on Sept. 6.

The ruins of Mohenjo Daro—located in southern Sindh province near the Indus River and a UNESCO World Heritage Site— are considered among the best preserved urban settlements in South Asia. They were discovered in 1922 and to this day, mystery surrounds the disappearance of its civilization, which coincided with those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The swelling waters of the Indus, a major river in this part of the world, have wreaked havoc as heavy rains and massive flooding unleashed devastation across much of Pakistan. At least 1,325 people have been killed and millions have lost their homes in the surging waters, with many experts

blaming the unusually heavy monsoon rains on climate change.

The flooding has not directly hit Mohenjo Daro but the record-breaking rains have inflicted damage on the ruins of the ancient city, said Ahsan Abbasi, the site’s curator.

“Several big walls, which were built nearly 5,000 years ago, have collapsed because of the monsoon rains,” Abbasi told The Associated Press.

He said dozens of construction workers under the supervision of archaeologists have started the repair work. Abbasi did not give an estimated cost of the damages at Mohenjo Daro.

The site’s landmark “Buddhist stupa”—a large hemispherical structure associated with worship, meditation and burial—remains intact, Abbasi said. But the downpour has damaged some outer walls and also some larger walls separating individual rooms or chambers.

Abbasi said the civilization at Mohenjo Daro, also known as “Mound of the Dead” in the local Sindhi language, built an elaborate

drainage system, which has been critical in flooding in the past.

Though the floods have touched all of Pakistan, the Sindh province has been among the worst hit.

On Sept. 5, army engineers made a second cut into an embankment at Lake Manacher, Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake, to release rising waters in hopes of saving the nearby city of Sehwan from major flooding.

The water from the lake has already inundated dozens of nearby villages, forcing hundreds of families to leave their mudbrick homes in a hurry, many fleeing in panic.

Meanwhile, rescue operations continued on Sept. 6 with troops and volunteers using helicopters and boats to get those stranded out of the flooded areas and to nearest relief camps. Tens of thousands of people are already living in such camps, and thousands more have taken shelter on roadsides on higher ground.

Ghulam Sabir, 52, from the outskirts of Sehwan, said that he left his home three days prior after authorities told them to evacuate.

“I took my family members with me and came to this ... safer place,” said Sabir, staying by the roadside where he has set up camp. He echoed complaints of several other villagers—that no government help had reached them yet.

Sabir said he did not know whether his home had collapsed or not.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif urged Pakistanis in televised remarks to generously donate to flood victims, most of whom are relying on government help to survive. Sharif has also repeatedly asked the international community to send more aid to the flood victims. He insisted that Pakistan is facing a climate-change-induced tragedy.

Multiple experts say that since 1959, Pakistan has emitted about 0.4% of heattrapping carbon dioxide, compared to 21.5% by the United States and 16.4% by China.

Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. 

12

asianweekly northwest

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

40 YEARS

■ WORLD NEWS Tokyo Olympics sponsorship scandal widens with more arrests

By YURI KAGEYAMA ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO (AP) — Bribery allegations against a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member widened on Sept. 6 as Japanese prosecutors “rearrested” Haruyuki Takahashi in a case involving suspected payments from a publisher which became a sponsor for the Games.

The latest allegations center on the $540,000 Takahashi received from Tokyobased publishing company Kadokawa, according to Tokyo District prosecutors.

The sponsorship allowed Kadokawa, which also makes films and games, to publish programs and other books related to the Tokyo Olympics.

Also arrested were two Kadokawa officials, Toshiyuki Yoshihara and Kyoji Maniwa, who allegedly deposited the money.

Takahashi has been in detention since being arrested last month on suspicion of receiving bribes from clothing manufacturer Aoki Holdings. He was formally charged Tuesday with receiving $360,000 in bribes from Aoki.

Three Aoki officials were also charged with paying bribes. The money

was deposited into a bank account of Takahashi’s company from October 2017 to March this year, in Aoki’s bid to become an Olympic sponsor and make licensed products, prosecutors said.

Aoki, which produces “recruit suits” that high school graduates wear for job interviews, was a surprise pick to dress the Japanese Olympic team when other nations had top fashion brands designing uniforms.

Kazumasa Fukami, the head of a consulting firm, was arrested on suspicion of having helped Takahashi receive the bribes.

Takahashi, a former executive at advertising firm Dentsu, had enormous clout in arranging Olympic sponsorships.

Takahashi left the Dentsu board in 2009, but continued to wield considerable influence in the advertising and event

organizing sector in Japan and headed his own company.

He has not been available for comment, but some Japanese media reports quoted Takahashi as asserting his innocence and saying the payments were for consulting services.

Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Kadokawa's chairman, who is not directly implicated in the allegations, denied his company gave any bribes, Japanese media reported.

On Sept. 5, Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of Daiko Advertising in Osaka and Tokyo as part of the investigation into Olympic corruption. There have been no arrests in the Daiko case.

The scandal is likely a setback to Japan’s ambitions in pursuing the 2030 Winter Olympics for Sapporo. Seiko Hashimoto, a lawmaker and Olympian who was in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, has promised to cooperate with the investigation.

Tokyo hosted the delayed Olympics and Paralympics with much fanfare, as well as criticism over ballooning costs, in summer 2021. The Games were postponed by a year and held with no public ticket sales because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The official price tag for last year’s Tokyo Games was $13 billion, mostly public money. 

Japan military opens probe after sex harassment complaints

By MARI YAMAGUCHI ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s defense minister said he has ordered a ministry-wide special investigation into growing reports of sexual assault after allegations of harassment were

BARTELL from 1 Bartell Sr. bought the Lake Washington Pharmacy at 2711 South Jackson Street, its first store in Seattle’s Central District.

Sam Chan, owner of Luke’s Pharmacy in Chinatown, was unaware Bartell was closing.

“Even though we have no business dealings, I feel sad about the news. I feel sad for the community’s loss. Why does it have to be this way? The closing of Chinatown businesses is just like downtown. We all see that the community is suffering. But we don’t know what to do.”

“It’s so unfortunate,” said Florette Lam, owner of Dr. Lam Sing medical clinic. “We lose a convenient spot in the neighborhood for me to buy snacks, cosmetics, and products for our daily needs. Most of our clients go to Luke’s Pharmacy, but we do have a small portion of clients who use Bartell’s service. The two pharmacy stores carry different merchandise.” She was also surprised about Bartell’s closing.

Don Blakeney, former executive of Chinatown-International District Business

brought by a former soldier.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada’s order on Sept. 6 came after a female former soldier, Rina Gonoi, came forward in late August to request a reinvestigation of an alleged assault of her by former male colleagues last year. She also said

she had received information from 146 servicemembers who said they had been harassed while on duty.

Hamada said the number of reported harassment cases has increased sharply in recent years despite efforts by the ministry to prevent them, and that it is time for a

thorough review of the problem.

“Harassment is a violation of basic human rights. It also shakes troop morale and absolutely should not happen,” Hamada said.

Improvement Area, recalled that he and others had “advocated for the developer to bring in an active-ground-floor” retail “to better serve the tens-of-thousands of commuters and residents who are in the area daily. Bartell was selected by the developer … because there were not many pharmacy options in the neighborhood at the time.”

Bartell is not only affected by robberies, but by homeless folks lying outside its storefront and the looting, vandalism, and graffiti on its glass doors. From Bartell’s corner all the way up to 12th Avenue South in Little Saigon, South Jackson Street has become a place for the homeless to congregate and sell stolen goods during the day and sleep at night.

“While drug stores offer an important community amenity, they also act like a fortress, because they are regularly being targeted by retail theft rings,” said Blakeney. “They have to fortify their exteriors and as a result, they can pull the life and activity off of a sidewalk, by blocking their windows while leaving long stretches where there are no eyes on the

street.”

Lam said the homeless problem is a major headache for many CID businesses.

She pointed out that the community has already lost Starbucks in the CID due to safety and crime concerns.

“If you are homeless, I do understand you need a roof over your head at night,” Lam said. “But you sleep and leave in the morning and not disturb peace before the businesses are open and residents awake, no one would care. And we pretend we don’t see. But if your action affects public safety, that’s not acceptable.”

“The homeless people are aware that police won’t come if you call the police,” said Chan. “Or they (police) come an hour later after the disruptive folks are gone.”

The shortage of police in the city is another challenge, Chan said.

“This city seems to be anti-police. If someone has a choice, they might not even consider joining the Seattle Police. They are in demand in other cities, including Bellevue.”

Both Chan and Blakeney said Bartell’s closure is a national trend. Major drugstore

companies like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens are rethinking their need to be so heavily represented in big cities, as well as the role online service plays.

Chan said corporations would close the less successful store “if there are two stores close to another, and one is not performing with less volume of businesses. This will reduce costs.”

The Bartell store will close on Sept. 14, and 14 workers will be reassigned to other Bartell locations, in different parts of the city. Customers have been informed to pick up their medicine by Sept 13. Presently, most of the merchandise is 50% off at the CID Bartell store.

The last time the chain closed a location was in 2019 in downtown Seattle, before Bartell was bought by Rite Aid for $95 million in 2020. At the time, the company blamed crime and regulations for the closure. 

see HARASSMENT on 16

Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

YOUR VOICE

■ ASTROLOGY

asianweekly northwest

13

Predictions and advice for the week of September 10–September 16, 2022

By Sun Lee Chang Dragon—It is important that you be as strong an advocate for yourself as you are for those you care about.

Monkey—Is your mood affecting your work this morning? Try clearing your head with some exercise and restart.

Ox—Having difficulty choosing between two very different options? You may have to think outside the box to find the best choice.

Snake—Even if the day didn’t start out exactly as you had planned, there is still time to turn it around.

Rooster—Are you privy to more information than you care to know? Consider setting some boundaries, if necessary.

Tiger—A moment of clarity should allow you to see through the excuses that have been getting in the way.

Horse—Your charming presence is in demand, but you do not have to accept every invitation that comes your way.

Dog—Before something becomes a habit that you don’t want, make a conscious choice not to repeat it.

Rabbit—You have held back a part of yourself until now, but for better or worse, that is about to change soon.

Goat—Have you been putting off something you want to do? Now is a good time to explore the possibilities.

Pig—Rather than being motivated by guilt, focus on the positive result you are trying to accomplish.

Rat—Your strengths aren’t necessarily the same as those around you. Don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd.

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.

MAGSAYSAY from 4 cancer-stricken father received in a hospital, the award foundation said.

In a 2002 visit to Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi, he was deeply moved when he saw how villagers had become blind because of an acute lack of eye specialists and treatment facilities, and started raising funds, training experts and donating equipment to local hospitals, it said.

“Even just healing one eye may make it possible for someone to attend a school or go back to work,” Hattori said. “I can’t turn my back on people who are on the verge of losing their sight just because they lack the money to pay for treatment.”

In the Philippines, where child abuse

WHO from 4 Tedros announced that an internal probe into Kasai had begun.

Several months later, however, WHO staffers alleged that Kasai was manipulating the investigation. In a letter sent to the U.N. agency’s top governing body in April, the Executive Board, the staffers wrote that Kasai had ordered senior managers to destroy any incriminating documents and instructed IT staff “to monitor emails of all the staff members.”

Kasai is a Japanese doctor who began his career in his country’s public health system before moving to WHO, where he has worked for more than 15 years.

has been a longstanding problem because of poverty, child labor and trafficking, pediatrician Bernadette Madrid, 64, drew attention by providing treatment, raising awareness and engaging policymakers and civic groups to address the issue, award officials said.

Since 1997, she has led the country’s first child protection center at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. It has served more than 27,000 children as of last year.

Madrid won the award for “her leadership in running a multisectoral, multidisciplinary effort in child protection that is admired in Asia, and her competence and compassion in devoting herself to seeing that every abused child lives in a healing, safe and nurturing society,” the

The removal of a regional director at WHO, even temporarily, is “unprecedented,” according to Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University.

“There have been a lot of bad regional directors at WHO, but I’ve never heard of action like this,” Gostin said.

Any withdrawal of support from Japan for Kasai could hasten his dismissal. A Japanese government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said they hoped WHO had conducted a fair investigation.

Kasai’s removal stands in stark contrast to WHO’s past reluc-

CYBERSPYING from 5 required licenses.

The NSA, part of the Department of Defense, is responsible for “signals intelligence,” or obtaining communications and other data.

The Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, set up in 1996 by the police department of the eastern city of Tianjin, describes itself as the Chinese agency responsible for

award foundation said.

It said Gary Bencheghib from France became a “warrior” against plastic pollution on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where his parents relocated years ago, when he discovered the extent of plastic clogging its waterways. At 14, he started a weekly beach cleanup with his sister, brother and friends in a project that led him to environmental protection advocacy.

Bencheghib, 27, later took up filmmaking in New York and produced more than a hundred videos on plastic pollution and environmental protection that millions have watched on YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms. A 2017 documentary on the polluted Citarum River in West Java helped prompt President

tance to discipline perpetrators of unethical and sometimes illegal behavior, including during the sex abuse uncovered during the Ebola outbreak in Congo from 2018-2020. More than 80 outbreak responders under WHO’s direction sexually abused vulnerable women; an AP investigation found senior WHO management was informed of multiple exploitation claims in 2019 but refused to act and even promoted one of the managers involved. No senior WHO staffers linked to the abuse have been fired.

“WHO’s reputation was shattered by those allegations,” Gostin said, calling the lack of accountability in Congo “truly

Joko Widodo’s administration to begin a seven-year rehabilitation program, award officials said.

He and his siblings have led the deployment of about 170 trash barriers in polluted rivers and plan to install hundreds more in Bali and Java.

He won the award for “his inspiring fight against marine plastic pollution . his youthful energies in combining nature, adventure, video and technology as weapons for social advocacy and his creative, risk-taking passion that is truly a shining example for the youth and the world,” the award foundation said. 

outrageous.” He welcomed the disciplinary action taken against Kasai and called for WHO to release its investigation in some form.

Gostin and other public health academics said that if WHO’s Executive Board determines that Kasai violated his contract by engaging in the racist and abusive conduct alleged, his contract could be terminated.

WHO’s own staff association urged Tedros to take action against Kasai at a meeting in June, saying that failing to do so “would be a tragic mistake,” according to a memo from the private briefing.

“If swift action is not taken ...

inspection and testing of anti-computer virus products.

A report by Qihoo 360 in 2020 said hacking tools used in attacks on Chinese companies and government agencies in 2008-19 were traced to the Central Intelligence Agency by comparing them with code in CIA tools disclosed by the Wikileaks group.

The virus center accused the NSA of carrying out other “malicious network attacks” in China but gave no details. It said 13 people involved in the attacks had been identified.

the results may be regarded as questionable at best, fixed and farcical at worst,” the staffers warned Tedros. “If (Kasai’s) wrongdoing is proven, the assumption will be that many other items were swept aside to save face.”

Before Kasai was put on leave, WHO’s Western Pacific office had planned a town hall to address “workplace culture,” including concerns about racism and abusive conduct. In an email to staff, Dr. Angela Pratt, a director in Kasai’s office, announced that the meeting had been postponed. 

The hackers targeted a “zero day,” or previously unreported, vulnerability in the school’s security, the statement said. It said the break-ins were conducted from servers in 17 countries including Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Poland, Ukraine and Colombia.

The statement described what it said were NSA software tools with names such as “Second Date” and “Drinking Tea” but didn’t say which might have been used at the university. 

14

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SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

40 YEARS

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ROSMAH from 4 took office in 2009.

Prosecutors said Rosmah wielded considerable influence due to her “overbearing nature,” even though she held no official position. Witnesses testified that a special department, called First Lady of Malaysia, was set up to handle Rosmah’s affairs.

Her former aide, who was jointly charged with Rosmah but later testified for the prosecution, told the court that many

businesspeople lobbied Rosmah for help to secure government projects. The aide testified Rosmah was feared by civil servants and requests from her department were often swiftly carried out.

The court also heard that she spent $22,300 a month to hire online propagandists to deflect criticism of her lavish lifestyle that led to her being despised by many Malaysians.

After Najib lost power, police raided family residences and seized hundreds of boxes of

MAZU from 3 and the social identity” of coastal Chinese and their descendants.

Funding for the park would come from the World Mazu Association, said Wang, with members from as far-flung places as Australia.

The temple on the island where the woman who would later be called Mazu was born, which is off the coast of Fujian Province in China, would also raise money.

The president of the Shandong Mazu Cultural Exchange Association, Zhao Qiliang, offered remarks at the event in Chinese.

Calling Mazu culture, “outstanding Chinese culture,” he said the tradition was “our spirit,” which is shared in overseas Chinese communities.

The goal of the association is “to promote culture, travel, and other activities,” he said.

The drive for the park began in 2015 when a former director of Taiwan’s unofficial representative office, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, Andy Chin, began discussions with King County about a Taiwan park,

luxurious Hermes Birkin handbags, 423 watches, 14 tiaras and other jewelry plus cash estimated at more than $246 million.

During her trial, 23 prosecution witnesses testified but only two defense witnesses were called, including Rosmah.

She told the court she was never involved in government affairs and that her former aide was a corrupt liar who had used her name to solicit bribes and pocketed the money himself.

Rosmah has also been

said Wang.

In 2016, Chin completed his term and was transferred away. Wang kept up the drive. She came to believe that dedicating the park to Mazu as an international cultural figure would make it more likely to come to pass.

When the pandemic broke out, she was forced to cease her efforts. In 2021, she assumed leadership of the Mazu Association in Seattle.

Over her protestations to local park officials that Mazu is not religious, one official responded, “If I approve this for you, since it’s the first cultural park, then India will want one, Thailand will want one,” he said.

Other rationales against the park included that parking would be an issue.

One official, she said, resented the fact that local politicians supported her plan. “‘Are you using these politicians to pressure us?’ he said,” Wang recollected.

Originally, the park was intended to be established on a space in Marymoor Park in Bellevue. But if that fails, Wang said another spot will be found.

The park will contain a statue of the goddess between 29 and 32 feet tall.

And a pavilion will contain cultural

LONGSHORE OPPORTUNITY: PORT OF SEATTLE, WA To be considered for potential processing toward status as an “Unidentified Casual” longshore worker in the Port of Seattle, WA, all public applicants must complete the Online Application at https://seattle.casualdrawingapp.net/public. The Online Application requires that each applicant provide the applicant’s first and last names, (middle name is not required but recommended if there is one), mailing address, telephone number with Area Code, month of birth, numerical day of birth and a valid email address. Incomplete applications will not be accepted. Phone calls regarding the process will not be accepted and any in-person or written applications submitted through the U.S. Postal Service will not be accepted. Applications can be submitted online beginning 8:00 a.m., PDT, on September 8, 2022. Applicants will be sent an email confirming submission of their application.

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To be eligible for consideration, public applications must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m., PDT, September 15, 2022. A sequenced list of those selected for processing will be posted for 30 days at WWW.PMANET.ORG. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, have a valid driver’s license with photograph, have no disqualifying convictions, have a sufficient knowledge of English to speak and understand written and verbal safety warnings in English, and be eligible to work in the U.S. Those selected for processing will be advised of additional requirements. Only one application per person. Anyone attempting to submit more than one application (of any type) will be disqualified.

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A TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) is required by the Department of Homeland Security to enter all marine facilities. Applicants are urged to promptly familiarize themselves with TWIC application requirements: www.tsa.gov and 1-866-347-8371 are resources (not PMA, ILWU, or the Joint Port Labor Relations Committee/JPLRC).

Submitting an application does not guarantee processing or employment in the longshore industry.

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Applicants are responsible for keeping the JPLRC advised of their current contact information. All contact information updates must be made in writing. Please send all contact information updates to: Seattle JPLRC – Casual Processing, P.O. Box 9348, Seattle, WA 98109-0348. Any disputes or claims about any aspect of this casual process are subject to the collective bargaining agreement and its grievance procedures, must be in writing and must be received by the JPLRC (Seattle JPLRC – Casual Processing Grievance, P.O. Box 9348, Seattle, WA 98109-0348) within ten (10) days of the source of the complaint. No extensions. JPLRC decisions on grievances are final and binding. PMA member companies are equal opportunity employers.

charged with laundering illegal proceeds and tax evasion linked to 1MDB in another trial that hasn’t started.

1MDB was a development fund that Najib set up after taking office.

Investigators allege more than $4.5 billion

information. The complex will be called the Mazu Compassion with Wisdom Center.

“We are willing to follow her spirit and take care of everyone like a mother takes care of her children, which can bring a better and more peaceful life to everyone,” wrote Wang in a letter to Balducci.

As part of future activities connected with the park, Wang plans tours to significant Mazu temples in Taiwan, a visit to the goddess’ birthplace, and travels to India and other sites.

According to Wang, Mazu was originally a young woman who saved fishermen. At a later age, she died in the act of performing a rescue and ascended to heaven to become a Boddhisattva.

“Mazu is believed to have lived in the tenth century on Meizhou Island, where she dedicated herself to helping her fellow townspeople, and died attempting to rescue the survivors of a shipwreck,” according to UNESCO, which states there are 5,000 temples to the deity around the world and in private homes. “Followers may implore the god for pregnancy, peace, the solution to a problem, or general well-being.”

was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through layers of bank accounts in the U.S. and other countries to finance Hollywood films and extravagant purchases that included hotels, a luxury yacht, art works and jewelry. 

This was a theme picked up by state Sen. Bob Hasegawa.

“Right now, the United States is in a very difficult situation, we are losing our way. Peace has taken a back seat to fighting and boisterous arguments,” he said in remarks at the event. “So I think it’s really timely that Mazu draws attention and blessings to the United States.

We do need to find a pathway to peace.”  Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

SOLUTION from SUDOKU on page 6.

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

YOUR VOICE DEMENTIA from 9 month, she was able to find a solution. Tu initially tried to explain what she was doing, but her mother was already at the point where conversations of such sort were difficult, if not impossible.

So she tried to be creative and find a way to bridge the conflicting cultural values.

“I took the middle road. I stayed with her, and we did it together, but I let her take the lead,” said Tu. Still, this was only one instance out of a single day that has since stretched to eight years, during which Tu has had to make adaptations for the unique personality of her mother and her culture.

Such continuous adjustments add to the exhaustion of an already inconceivable schedule of 18-hour days of caregiving.

But Tu says she is just one of millions in the same situation— and one that is growing.

AAPI are the fastest growing minority group in the country, and between 2010 and 2030, the AAPI older population will increase by 145%, according to a 2016 University of Washington (UW) study.

Disconnection As a result of cultural disconnection, providers are often unfamiliar with Vietnamese culture. They have, for instance, neglected to realize that Tu’s mother would tend to remain silent about any pain she was having rather than speak up about it, which at times impacted medical diagnoses and treatment she received. On the other hand, Vietnamese elders, lacking knowledge about dementia, have either spoken to her mother as if she were a baby, or entirely ignored her and spoken to Tu instead.

Such cultural mishaps have also prevented Tu from finding caregivers that are qualified.

“In general, it’s very hard to find a good caregiver, especially since the COVID pandemic, for numerous reasons. But if I did manage to find someone who had some training in dementia, they’d likely not speak Vietnamese nor understand our culture,” she said. “And if I prioritized finding someone who spoke Vietnamese, which I have, they would be less likely to know about dementia, let alone good practices, and would end up doing everything for her, contributing to her faster decline, which we experienced with several professional caregivers early on.”

Moreover, even for statelicensed caregivers, state training

does not require training about dementia. There is an optional certification that offers eight hours of training about dementia, which barely scratches the surface, Tu has found.

In the end, Tu found she was spending so much time training caregivers, that it was better for her mother, to do it herself.

“One of the very first things someone told me when my mom was first diagnosed and probably the most valuable advice I got was to educate myself, and that’s when I bought every book that I could,” she said.

Starting with the book, “The 36-Hour Day,” which was recommended by her mother’s first neurologist, Tu attended as many webinars and state conferences as she could that seemed relevant.

“I found that really helpful because unlike other diseases which may be more understood or more obvious, dementia’s not one of those, I found. And so I just read and soaked up everything I could and that’s where I learned about many symptoms, like the debilitating anxiety dementia can cause. So many symptoms made a lot more sense to me after I read up. Anxiety is one of them because they’re just losing their ability to be oriented in the world and losing their ability to make sense of what is around them. So what can we do as care providers?

We can’t change the memory loss, but we can help with the secondary symptoms. What can I do to help reduce her anxiety?

What can I do to help keep her oriented because that will reduce her anxiety?”

Financial considerations compound the challenges— something that many millions of others living with dementia and their families experience. In the case of Tu and her mother, “We’re in this sort of donut hole.”

After their family fled Vietnam to come to the U.S., Tu’s parents went to community college and went on to jobs with the state government, which provides her mother with some retirement income, not nearly enough to pay fully for private care, but just above the income level required for Medicaid subsidies. In caring for her mother, Tu was initially able to work outside the home and take care of her mother, but as her mother declined, Tu has had to leave other work to focus solely on her mother, living off her savings to cover expenses.

are multiple types with multiple manifestations and causes, according to Timothy Chang, a neurologist at UCLA. Alzheimer’s, which is the most common, is primarily known for memory loss. More than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with it. Vascular dementia is caused by cardiovascular issues, the same kinds that can cause heart attacks.

“It’s like you’ve had multiple tiny strokes,” said Chang. Dementia with Lewy Bodies can cause hallucinations.

Frontotemporal dementia impacts behavior and speech, with sufferers often saying or doing inappropriate things.

You can also have “mixed dementia,” where all or some of these dementia combine. These are the most common.

Besides the symptoms, one challenge is that patients and families, knowing there is at present no cure, lose hope and fail to continue seeing a neurologist, said Chang.

“But there are complications that may arise along the way,” he said. “And we’re in it for the long run.”

(In the future, gene editing techniques, such as CRISPRCas9, may yield a cure for some patients.)

One difference about AAPI families, said Chang, speaking in generalizations, is that they may have family caregivers. The positive side of this is that the patients will have solid support at home from children and even an extended family.

But a potential downfall may be that they might delay seeking medical advice or see the illness as simply a sign of growing old.

The UW study found that stigma attached to dementia among some Asian families increased shame and prevented their seeking help.

For instance, in Chinese culture, dementia was seen as a form of mental illness, which it is not. And in other cultures, it was sometimes seen as a sign of bad karma affecting the whole family.

In fact, the only family relevance is that those people with a firstdegree relative with Alzheimer’s disease (for instance, mother, father, sibling) have about a twotimes higher risk of developing the disease.

“However, many patients with a family history do not go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease,” said Chang.

Dementia and AAPI families

To treat dementia, there are medications that slow the disease.

But researchers like Aakanksha Singhvi are finding new approaches. Singhvi, who leads

Dementia itself is complicated and can be discouraging. There

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The next frontier

Aakanksha Singhvi

a lab at Fred Hutchinson, studies glial cells, which make up half the brain, but have traditionally been neglected in favor of neurons—the other half.

Glial cells perform multiple functions, including sculpting and shaping neurons as they grow from birth. They regulate food and they create the blood brain barrier that prevents the brain from succumbing to infections when the rest of the body is sick.

“They are like the gardener that trims and nourishes a rose bush,” said Singhvi—with the rose bush symbolizing the neurons.

Describing their relationship with neurons, she clasped both hands together, intertwining her fingers, and flexing them outwards. “By themselves, each half is nothing, but together, they make up a network.”

The human brain has hundreds of billions of glial cells and neurons that “are in molecular conversation” with each other. To simplify our understanding of how that happens, and to find treatments for such afflictions as dementia, Singhvi studies a certain type of worm that has only 56 glia cells and 302 neurons. By irradiating the cells with different colors of light, she and her colleagues can actually see the activities between the different types of cells taking place, which is literally observing how thinking takes place, albeit in a simpler life form.

Already, they are studying how glial cells age and believe the trimming function that they perform changes over time. This is significant for dementia, which in many cases is caused by the buildup of a certain kind of plaque in the brain.

Hope Although there will probably not be a cure in our lifetime “that will make you the same way you were before you had the disease,” said Chang, there is hope.

He predicts there will be a way to slow down the progression of the illness much more effectively than now. At the same time, more efforts are being directed to prevention. People who are prone

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asianweekly northwest

15

to dementia will be recognized more easily and therapies and activities more targeted.

At the moment, regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, keeping the mind active, for instance through learning a new language or musical instrument, are some strategies to ward off the disease.

For Tu, however, caregiving seems to become more challenging with each day.

“Probably the biggest physical caregiving challenge in her current stage of dementia is eating. She has dysphagia, which is a condition that makes swallowing difficult and gets progressively worse over time. Supporting her to eat while managing dysphagia is incredibly complex and time consuming. She takes about 10 to 20 seconds to swallow each bite, followed by a wait of 20 to 30 seconds per bite to ensure it has cleared,” said Tu. “She is at high risk for aspiration, which can cause pneumonia, because her weakened swallowing muscles and coordination mean food can easily go down her airway and into her lungs. Food residue that isn’t swallowed and gets built up in her throat above her vocal cords causes an uncomfortable gurgle that can only be cleared with strong coughing. As her coughing response has weakened, this also takes time. The bulk of her waking hours are spent feeding.”

But Tu still finds hope.

“In Asian culture, we do have this concept of debt, and it is important, but I don’t feel it’s so black and white that I’m literally paying her back,” she said, when asked if she felt she owed this to her mother. “It’s like a more general gratitude that she’s my mom, she raised me. I want to do this for her, even considering how hard it has been.”

Finding strength, even in grief, has been another outcome she perhaps never expected.

“There is another aspect for those who haven’t experienced it, there’s just kind of always an underlying level of grief. But you wake up every day and you find the joys, you find meaning. I run.

You do the day-to-day things.

But there’s never fully, at least for me, there’s never fully joy—like it was prior to this. Prior to eight years ago. And I think that’s a big part of the change. But along with that, there’s no good or bad. It’s just sort of like growth, and there are things that come out of the experience that are new. Finding new strengths and resilience. In her and in me.”  Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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asianweekly northwest

40 YEARS

SEPTEMBER 10 – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

FIRE from 1

Public safety

SFD told the Northwest Asian Weekly that the Harbor City fire also spread through the duct system and caused minor damage to the rooftop.

SFD sent a total of three ladder trucks, six engines, two aid cars, one medic unit, and one medical services officer. There were also various other command and support units.

“At Seattle Fire, we have a tiered response system, which means we will send enough units to be able to handle an incident with details reported via 911, and then scale back as necessary,” said Kristin Tinsley, SFD’s

HARASSMENT from 1 Hamada said the number of complaints of sexual, power and other forms of harassment has risen from 256 in 2016 to 2,311 last year.

In a country where gender inequality remains high, sexual harassment is often disregarded and the (hash)MeToo movement has been slow to catch on. But Japanese women have started to speak up, including some recently in the film industry.

Late last month, Gonoi submitted a petition to the Defense Ministry signed by more than 100,000 people seeking a reinvestigation of her case by a third party.

She said three senior male colleagues in a dorm at a training ground in August 2021 pressed the lower part of their bodies against her, forcing her to spread her legs, as more than 10 other male colleagues watched and laughed, but none tried to stop them. She said in a statement that she filed a case with the ministry, but

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“nobody is going to care until someone dies” Economics Photo by Assunta Ng

“Chow,” the community member, who wants to remain anonymous due to fears of getting sued, said there was such a huge response to this fire because he thinks the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) believed there was a chance the whole building could have gone up in flames. And it is a problem across the CID. Take Canton Alley, Chow said.

“Look at the vent hood coming off the building… you’ll see grease marks. Where do you think that comes from? That comes from inside the duct work when it gets hot, it melts and starts dripping off the access panel.

But nobody wants to address it.”

Perry Lee is not surprised. The retired health and environmental investigator for King County regularly told restaurant owners to clean their ventilation systems.

“There’s always a huge buildup of grease and oil that gets up to the ventilation system, especially in a lot of the Chinese restaurants where they do a lot of frying and grilling and a lot of the teriyaki Japanese restaurants.”

Lee added, “When I go and do inspections, I see grease hanging from the hood… A lot of these old places… they don’t want to put money back into the business… they don’t want to spend money.”

The Seattle Fire Department responds to the Sept. 1 fire at 707 S King St

senior communications manager. “With this incident, crews observed heavy smoke from the rooftop upon arrival, so all units were kept on scene for some time to mitigate the incident before we began to demobilize resources. Medic units stay on scene for both possible injuries to community members and also firefighters.”

Public safety is not just about “bad guys robbing and beating people up,” Chow said.

Fire safety is also a public safety issue.

He pointed out the ductwork at a restaurant, and that their ductwork goes up the side of a major street in the CID. “A few years ago, their employees had to come outside and take a break because the air flow was zero in there… it was completely packed with grease, you couldn’t get any air flow in there,” Chow said. “So what they did was, they replaced it. Instead of cleaning it once a month, they replaced it.”

Chow suggested to the owners that they should place access panels in the duct work every 10 feet so they could clean it, and he

that the investigation was not properly conducted and local prosecutors dropped the case in May. A month later she quit the army and disclosed her allegations on social media.

Gonoi said she felt her case had been quashed and she had to raise her voice because there could be more victims if she didn’t.

The ministry has begun a reinvestigation of the case.

Hamada said he has dispatched prosecutors from the Inspector General’s Office of Legal Compliance to the regional army division overseeing the unit where Gonoi served.

The ministry will also create a panel of outside experts to review measures against harassment and study the causes of the recent increase in reported cases, Hamada said.

Gonoi said she hopes the ministry will release the findings in her case and take strict disciplinary action against the alleged assailants. 

was told to mind his own business.

“They basically are building up the same problem and people don’t care,” said Chow.

Lee said the health department would tell restaurant owners that they need to clean their ventilation systems at least once a month.

Not a major violation

“Cleanliness is the least important thing to the King County Health Department,” Lee told the Northwest Asian Weekly.

Cleaning grease off the hood, or rather, not cleaning it—is not a major violation, Lee said.

“It’s a two-point violation. It’s not a critical violation.”

Dirty walls and dirty floors don’t make you sick, Lee said.

The critical or “red” violations are temperature—keeping food hot or cold— and handwashing.

The total estimated damage from the Harbor City fire was $125,000, according to the SFD. The ductwork alongside the building spans 50 to 80 feet, and cleaning just 10 feet of that ductwork, Chow said, costs at least $6,000.

“I’ve told (various public agencies)... everybody understands my concern.. And nobody is willing to say a word on it because it means basically hitting the pocketbook of every single restaurant in Chinatown.”

Racism backlash?

“What’s going to happen if all restaurants here (CID) were told, ‘You need to do this?’

All of a sudden, the media’s going to get a hold of it and people are going to claim racism,” Chow said. “Nobody wants to be called a racist.”

Chow pointed to a local TV station’s expose in the early 1990s about the dirtiest restaurants in King County, and a number of them were in Chinatown.

“Remember that? And what happened?”

Chow said, “Everybody came down on that station… so they pulled it. You can’t find it on the internet anymore, you can’t find that story because nobody wants to be called a racist.”

Harbor City Restaurant has been closed since the fire and the kitchen is being remodeled.

The restaurant will reopen next week.  Ruth can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.