Jo Koy is a Filipino American and one of the funniest comedians that I have seen. I’ve watched him on the show “Showtime at the Apollo”, Dave Chappelle Show, VH1’s “I Love the 80’s” and “I Love the New Millenium”. He has always left me crying laughing at his jokes and from his facial expressions alone. Tonight, January 4th at 10PM EST on the Comedy Central, he will be doing a one hour stand up comedy show called, ” Jo Koy Don’t Make Him Angry”. Be sure to tune in and enjoy some bone, cracking, laughing fun!
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Over the years I have seen all kinds of musical talents from different parts of the country and the world. I love the ones that bring something new or something old with a fresh twist on it, not straying too much from the origin. One day I came across a guy on a website that was a music artist. He was very different from the average music artists in that he performed without any background music. The music was actually coming from within him. He himself was actually a musical instrument. I was amazed at his talent. He has fresh sounds, you can see the energy popping off of him, and he is fierce. His name is Jason Tom, a beat boxer from Honolulu, Hawaii. I asked him if I could feature him in one of my blogs on this site. He was very shy and he agreed. Here follows his story.
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A few days ago I dropped by my local Block Buster store craving for an action packed movie. I went through the aisles till my eyes finally laid on a movie called The Rebel. The name in itself attracted me to it. It was from Dragon Dynasty and I have not been disappointed by any movies that I have watched from the company. So I decided that I would take this movie home and give it a try.
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In watching many Asian film, I have learned the names of many of their actors that have become my favorites and household names. The “best actor of the year” list that I have composed were based on some of the most prestigious and/or popular film award festivals in each country listed for the male categories, although there are dozens of Asian film festivals out there. I have also added a few comments of my own about the actors.
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Immigrants who come to this country sometimes go through harrowing experiences as in the case with Hiu Lui Ng, an engineer, who died after a year in custody this past August at Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. He left behind a wife and two young sons. He was repaid with his pursuit of a green card with abuse and suffering from extreme anguish while pleading for help that never came. The confusion and pain he went through was unimaginable. His wife is teaming up with the American Civil Liberties Union in a civil lawsuit. As a result of Mr. Hiu Lui Ng’s death, the Wyatt Detention Facility will no longer be used to hold immigrants. I hope that Ms. Ng gets the justice that is due to her although it cannot bring her dear husband back.

Please read the article about this injustice here: Hui Lui Ng

President-Elect Barack Obama is staying true to his word and is creating a much diversified cabinet. On December 6 of this year, Obama named General Eric K. Shinseki as his Veterans Affairs Secretary. He is the first Asian-American to hold this post. Obama feels that Gen. Shinseki’s calculations were right during the time he served the Bush administration in regards to the troop size in Iraq at that time. The Bush administration ignored Gen. Shinseki’s concerns and forced him from his post.

Obama has chosen and is choosing cabinet members that are more than competent for the job and with qualifications that are greatly remarkable such as General Eric K. Shinseki that will benefit our country now and in the long run.

Please view the ABC News article on this wonderful news here: Shinseki to Be Named VA Secretary

During the days of November 18-21 my school, Fayetteville State University, held the event “China On The Screen” A Chinese Movie Week. We were shown four films: Shanghai Dream, Still Life, The Drifter, and The World in the language lab in our univesity. I attended all screenings and enjoyed the movies. My favorite was Shanghai Dream. The organizers of the film week were FSU faculty and staff. They included my Chinese language professor, Dr. Hongbing Zhang, Dr. Yali Li, Director of our Language Lab, and Yikang Bai who assists Dr. Li in the lab and teaches Chinese language. Dr. Li worked very hard to ensure that the films shown ran smoothly and she was a wonderful hostess during Chinese Movie Week. I spoke with Dr. Zhang a little about the background of China On the Screen.
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We now have the new President Elect Barack Obama. I believe that with his victory, our victory, we will see a change to come in this country that has been unforeseen. He is already making waves around the world in regards to equal treatment among the races. For example in France crowds of people were yelling at the top of their lungs “OUI NOUS POUVONS!” Which translates as, “YES WE CAN!” France is now looking very closely at their own poor race relations in their country and they want to do something about it more than ever before.

I am looking forward to such changes in our own country, the United States of America. There are still thousands of cases of blatant discrimination that so many minorities experience at their homes, at stores, or in their places of work. Institutionalized racism is very dangerous in that many times it is very hard to prove and that there is also nothing worse than someone keeping you down on the totem pole due to your race, ethnicity, or nationality making you starve economically. I really have great hopes that President Elect Obama and his administration will not only bring about tidal waves of change for race relations, but also economic, education, and many other types of change that we are thirsting for in the America of the 21^st century.
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This election year was one of the most exciting election years that we have had for more than a decade, some said in history. Many people were busy watching or directly participating in the election by phone banking and canvassing. I had the pleasure of speaking to James Yee about what happened on the night of the election in his neck of the woods. Here follows what he shared with me:
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One day I was browsing the web and I was reading up on some Asian American issues. Somehow I came across a link to a film festival in San Francisco. It was called the SFIAAFF which stands for the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival. I also knew of some people in a Facebook groups and some Asian American message boards that were buzzing about it. I read up on it and decided on a spur of the moment to attend it.
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