“AARP understands that while all Americans 50+ share the same goals of aging with dignity and peace of mind, each of the communities in our lives offers unique opportunities and contributions toward helping us get there,” said Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, executive vice president for multicultural markets and engagement at AARP. “David understands how the experiences and contributions of AARP and the aging Asian-American community are relevant to each other, and we’re excited welcome him to our team.”

Kim joins AARP from Washington-based public affairs firm The Raben Group, where as a principal he provided strategic counsel in the areas of reputation management, multicultural marketing and communications to global corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations.

In 2010, Kim completed a three-year appointment as chief of staff at the United States Mint, the world’s largest mint and the oldest agency in Federal government. During his appointment, Kim led a 15-member agency-wide branding team that created the Mint’s first brand platform, logo and brand standards manual since the inception of the Mint in 1792. The Mint branding initiative received top recognition as one of the five best repositioned brands by the 2011 REBRAND 100 Global Awards. It was the...

If you think your new camera phone is hot, just wait until you see the next generation of cell phones.

Do you have a 5 mega pixel camera built into your cell phone, combined with a TV tuner and an MP3? We reported that back in 2004.

Many believe that the new camera/video/TV tuner/MP3 phones now coming on to the market just in time for the holidays, are just the beginning of a new explosion of wireless technologies currently changing the U.S.

Asian markets such as Korea and Japan are leading the way. China has already reached over 400 million mobile subscribers creating massive opportunities for distributing content and applications.

The impact of wireless technologies and digital media is dramatically changing how content is distributed from music, movies, television, to gaming. Your cell phone, home entertainment center, personal computer, car, home, and kitchen appliances are just a few of your everyday things that will be changing peoples lifestyles.

On September 11, members of the mobile entertainment industry will be meeting in Los Angeles to share ideas, collaborate and partner at the twelfth semi-annual Mobile Entertainment Summit.

A highlight of this Summit is the North American appearance by Mr. Xie Feng, a top executive from China Mobile, China's largest mobile carrier.

"With the growing popularity of wireless games, downloadable ring tones and streaming media, wireless and mobile technology is literally changing the face of entertainment," said Michael Stroud,...

Asian American Voter Turnout High on Election Day, but Many Face Problems at Polls

(New York, NY) Asian Americans, especially new citizens and first-time voters, turned out to vote in record numbers today, but many encountered barriers at polling places, ranging from inadequate language assistance, improper requests for identification, and missing names on voter rolls.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) dispatched over 1,400 attorneys, law students and community volunteers to over 130 polling places in 11 states with large Asian American populations, who recorded voter complaints and conducted a nonpartisan multilingual exit poll.

AALDEF executive director Margaret Fung said, "Asian Americans faced the same long lines, delays and poll worker confusion over ID requirements as other voters, but their problems were compounded by the lack of language assistance and occasional hostility toward new citizen voters."

AALDEF received hundreds of complaints from Asian American voters on their telephone hotline, 800-966-5946, and from their volunteer poll monitors in 11 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. The preliminary list of voting incidents:

NAMES OF REGISTERED ASIAN AMERICANS NOT ON VOTER ROLLS
In NYC, over 200,000 New Yorkers registered in the last two weeks before the Oct. 10 deadline; there were two voter lists at several election districts,...

 Business and Heartbreak

By Marilyn Tam

“Violence is what happens when we don’t know what to do with our heartbreak… learn how to allow your heart to break open to embrace the lessons with compassion, not broken into sharp shards that hurt others as well as yourself”

-                     Parker J Palmer, author, educator, and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal. 

Dr. Palmer directed the above quotation at leadership and democracy, but I think it applies to how you should manage your business and life too. Violence in business and life thankfully does not usually degenerate into physical force, but the above concept is instructive in how we deal with all our challenges. 

When we have a life or business challenge, do we narrow our focus to how we can get out of the immediate circumstance, or do we expand our vision and strategy to learn how we can improve the results for this and other situations?

With a challenge is looming in front of us, it is easy to fall back into a reflexive mode. We want to make the problem go away immediately, but a decision made in haste or from anger is less than ideal. The flight or fight instinct is activated and to respond aggressively or retreat without full consideration of the options, often prove to be worse than the initial situation. 

Many years ago when I was Vice President of Nike Apparel & Accessories, we were faced with a severe...

Save Our Chinatown Committee Celebrates Court Victory 

Riverside, California

March 28, 2012

News Release
Save Our Chinatown Committee

After nearly 3 ½ years of legal proceedings, the 4th Appellate District court has invalidated the approval of an office building project that threatened to destroy Riverside’s historic Chinatown.  “We look forward to providing the City guidance during this process,” says Save Our Chinatown Committee (SOCC) Chair, M. Rosalind Sagara. “Together, we can find a way to protect the archaeological remains of Riverside’s historic Chinatown and we believe the best way of doing this is by developing a historic park at the site.” 

The ruling, issued on March 21st, centered on the environmental impact report (EIR) and whether or not it complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state regulations protecting historic sites threatened with demolition. 

A panel of three judges invalidated the EIR and the subsequent approval of the project having found that the City failed to consider reasonable alternatives to the proposed building plans and location.  Also, it was decided that the EIR contained insufficient analysis for the City to consider accurately the environmental and cultural impacts of the proposed development. The Court of Appeal’s decision will cancel any construction permits issued based on that EIR.  Any new EIR will require additional public review.  

The...