Asia Pacific Forum

A special online edition to kick off 2018. Featuring a new report highlighting the labor and health conditions facing Vietnamese Samsung workers by IPEN and CGFED.

A special holiday edition of Asia Pacific Forum, looking back at a year of Asian American resistance, from immigrants' rights to women's rights to saying no the Muslim ban -- plus other highlights from 2017.

As we near the end of the year based on the solar calendar, some are preparing for lunar new year, thinking about regeneration of a neighborhood, of art, and of cultural traditions.

We sit down with Mei Lum of Wing on Wo & Co and Emily Mock, the W.O.W project's second artist in residence to talk about the Store Front artist-in-residency program and shadow puppet theater as a way to connect care to transitioning to the new year.

GUESTS:

Mei Lum, Founder and Director, W.O.W Project

Emily Mock, 店面 Storefront Artist-in-Residence, The W.O.W. Project

For the past year, the basic concept of and regard for human life has been a challenge. From the international community's silence on the Ugandan slave trade in Libya, the thousands extrajudicially killed in Duterte's 'drug war' in the Philippines, to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar- the constant wrangle between reflection and response to such immediate life and death issues and the attempt to rationalize and understand such atrocities, seem to beg the question of what development and progress truly means.

As we find ourselves in a time of simultaneous reflection and rapid response, I spoke to Venuste Kubwimana, a youth activist and social entrepreneur who was one of the only living survivors in his family of the Rwandese genocide in 1994 where an estimated 1 million Rwandans were killed over the course of 100 days. The genocide has been studied at length for the colonial role in exacerbating local conflict and the international community's failure to respond. Tonight, Mr. Kubwimana discusses the new generation of Rwandan youth and creative leadership of building community through water kiosks, the politics of water, personal reflections on the Rwandan genocide, lessons to be learned, and more.

GUESTS:

Venuste Kubwimana, youth activist

The humanitarian crisis at the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh has become a global political flashpoint lately, as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya ethnic Muslim refugees have fled across the border to escape mass violence by the state and by hostile Buddhist factions. It's a horror that many describe as genocide, but which has been met by stunning indifference and cover-ups by Myanmar's supposed reform government. Human rights scholar Maung Zarni recently spoke about the crisis of the Rohingyas at a talk at Columbia University sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine. He was joined by social theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak to discuss the path forward for the refugees to provide safety, basic rights and an opportunity for full and equal citizenship.

GUESTS:

Maung Zarni, Burmese human rights activist with (Genocide) Documentation Center, The Sleuk Rith Institute

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, social scholar and human rights activist

On October 20, poet and activist Fay Chiang passed away. Chiang was a fixture in the New York Asian American arts and culture scene. To remember her and her work, we'll be sharing an excerpt of her poem, "Chinatown."

In the past year since the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, we have seen Immigration bans, racist legislation, emboldened white supremacists, attempt after attempt attempt to roll back hard earned rights of marginalized communities--some unfortunately, successful.

As we near the anniversary of the election, we reflected on the past year and the challenges in addition to the resilience born out of Asian American feminism with Julie Kim, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum NYC board member.

GUESTS:

Julie Kim, board member, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum NYC