a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartland
February 16, 2010 at 4:06 pm · Filed under Indian community reporting, reporting on the ethnic elderly
They made a new life, a life unlike the one before. Was it better? Hard to say. But they kept their roots. They tried to pass them on, too.
And now in their later years where do they go? Where is their home? Where are their roots?
And what do they pass on to their children?
This is one of the many stories to be told about the ethnic elderly. And here is a good example of one telling from New America Media.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f96efd5bba8a30ba0d2861525459197f
We will talk about this at our upcoming session on reporting on the ethnic elderly on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Let me know if you can make it.
saludos,
Steve
February 15, 2010 at 10:31 am · Filed under Asian immigrants, reporting on mental health, reporting on the ethnic elderly
What are the stories we need to tell?
One of them is about becoming a citizen despite their age and despite the challenges they face.
Here is a story from a Seattle newspaper, carried by New America Media that tells this story. If there are any stories you have done like this, I would gladly add them here.
saludos,
Steve
Stories of Hard-Won Citizenship
IExaminer, News report, Vivian Luu, Posted: Feb 07, 2010 
Tran Tran is 75 years-old. He lives in Renton and enjoys shopping and visiting with friends in the Phuc Loc Tho mini-mall in Seattle.
Tran emigrated from Vietnam in 2002 after his son sponsored him, but didn’t become a U.S. citizen until Jan. 5. Tran had been trying to become an American for three years.
“I feel liberated, free,” Tran said. He was a telegraph operator for the U.S. military, but speaks very little English. We conversed in Vietnamese.
This is a feeling shared by many other Asian immigrants who come from hardship and, like Tran, seek solace in the United States. Obtaining citizenship means freedom from oppressive governments and a chance to start over.
More people are seeking U.S. citizenship than ever. More than 744,000 people were naturalized last year while just over a century ago, fewer than 8,000 people had that privilege, according to the US federal Web site.
Tran tried fleeing to the United States with his son in the early 90s. As father and son ran toward a small boat that would take them away, his son, Quoc, made it onto the boat. Tran was caught and imprisoned for two months.
“Quoc was young,” Tran said. “He was faster. He got away.”
It is no surprise, then, why he was determined to become an American. He took the naturalization exam in 2007 and failed. His application was rejected when he tried again because of speculation his roommate was a family member.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bc024f9390fae1ddb470145d48f2323c
February 14, 2010 at 5:00 pm · Filed under reporting on the ethnic elderly
Here’s a good reminder of how important reporting on the elderly is for the ethnic news media.
These are projects that will be carried out by many different kinds of publications produced by immigrant or black or Latino publications at a fellowship held by New America Media.
These are the kinds of stories will be talk about our own briefing on Tuesday Feb. 23 at the office of Age Options in Oak Park. Folks from the AARP will also take part. If you signed up, there’s room. Let me know if you are coming.
Steve Franklin, steve@newstips.org, 312 369 6400
These are the projects:
New America Media is proud to present the Ethnic Elders: Today and Tomorrow Fellows for 2010
The New America Media 2010 Ethnic Elders Fellowship is sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies.
Lotus Chau, Sing Tao Daily New York, New York, NY.
Project: A three-part series in Chinese and English translation on major challenges for Chinese and other Asian elders, including being exploited by Chinese casino companies, which all but entrap them on Casino buses; being increasingly isolated home alone because their children cannot care for them; and the stresses caused when elder reach the language barrier.
Maricar Hampton, Reporter, Philippine News, Laurel, MD.
Project: Major article on how the large influx of nurses and other health care workers from the Philippines are coping and how they may be affecting the quality of care in a range of U.S. long-term care settings.
Karen Holish, Contributing Writer/Editor, News from Indian Country, Minneapolis, MN.
Project: A magazine length report for national distribution on the scourge of diabetes among the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and others causing older Native Americans to die before their time.
Kausar Javaid, Washington Bureau Chief, Pakistan Post Weekly Newspaper, Alexandria, VA.
Project: Two-part series in Urdu and English translation on economic, health and family-conflict challenges of older Pakistani immigrants.
Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News and Feet in Two Worlds, New York, NY.
Project: an in-depth news feature in Polish and English on how Polish elders are weathering the effects of the recession and the role of government service organizations in helping them face todays touch choices.
Araceli Martínez Ortega, Northern California Correspondent, La Opinión, (Los Angeles) Sacramento Bureau.
Project: Investigative article in Spanish and English translation on Latino elders facing poverty in the recession, often having to break from tradition and enter nursing homes because their children are under stress to make ends meet
Julie Pham, Publisher/Producer, Nguoi Viet Tay Bac/Northwest Vietnamese News, Seattle, WA.
Project: Series of articles examining euthanasia in three ethnic communities in Washington, only one of two states to legalize physician assisted suicide. The articles will also be published translated into Spanish in El Mundo and into Somali in Runta, as well as in English.
Rebecca Rivas, Staff Reporter/Web video Producer, St. Louis American Newspaper, St. Louis, MO.
Project: A three-part series on housing challenges for older African American seeking affordable senior living and often running into de factor redlining that aims to ignore or discourage them from moving in. This series will continue an investigation Rivas began last year.
DeVaun Sanders, Contributor, PhxSoul.com, Phoenix, AZ.
Project: Three-part series on assimilation challenges for Somali and other African immigrants in Arizona, struggles of African American, and how African immigrants and African Americans relate to one another.
M. Kay Siblani, Executive Editor, The Arab American News, Dearborn, MI.
Project: A major article in Arabic and English editions aimed at informing the nations largest Arab community about the difficulties of older Arabs and their families in Post-9/11 America, ranging from health care disparities to caregiving to financial challenges in the recession.
Sunita Sohrabji , Staff Reporter, India West, San Leandro, CA
Project: An investigative article in English about the army of elderly women from India services as nannies and domestics in prosperous Silicon Valley, often under brutish conditions
Abu Taher, Editor, Bangla Patrika, New York, NY.
Project: Two-part series on struggles of older Bangladeshi immigrants to the United States. The articles will be published in Bangla and English translation.
Nahmyo Thomas, Contributor, RedWoodAge.com/Newswire21.org, San Francisco, CA.
Project: Three-part series on the impact of poor environmental living conditions on the health and welfare of ethnic elders.
February 12, 2010 at 4:36 pm · Filed under economic and consumer reporting
They seem like lotteries where you just can’t lose. They offer you money here and now. Money when you need it.
Your tax money.
But it is money for folks who have little and who will have to pay extra to the get money coming to them.
You surely have seen them advertised. In the parlance of the credit industry, they are called refund anticipation loans or RALs, and their most common customers are low-income folks, who use them to get returns due them since they earned so little.
As a newly released report from the Woodstock Institute points out:
They typically reduce the amount of money coming back to the taxpayer by 10 percent.
They are offered by tax preparers in cooperation with banks and payday loan operations as well.
The interest rates nationally can range as high as 140 percent and that does not include heavy fees for tax preparation and same day payments.
Low-income black taxpayers showed the highest percentage use in Illinois, according to the most recent statistics as analyzed by the Woodstock Institute. Similarly usage was high among low-income Latinos.
So, here’s a story waiting to be written. Go to their website for more data:
http://www.woodstockinst.org....and while you are there also check out their report on the failure of the government’s effort to stop the drain of mortgage foreclosures.
The good news from the report is that the low-income and mostly black and Latino communities that suffered heavy rates of foreclosure showed declines in 2009 in their home losses. But the reality, as the report suggests, is that the mortgages have largely dried up for these community. Again, a story that needs to be followed.
Let me know if you do any reporting on this. And if you want to brainstorm on how to do so, I’m around to help.
Stephen
February 11, 2010 at 4:30 pm · Filed under black news media, community radio we listen to
So you are driving or flipping the dial. You click on WVON and this is what you hear: black Chicago talking, thinking, laughing, wondering, sharing. Black Chicago alive as can be.
It’s what ethnic radio does so well. It connects, translates, and transforms.
Here’s is a piece about it from In These Times. Read the whole story and you will appreciate what ethnic radio can and should do.
On Air With Black America
Chicago’s only black-owned talk radio station gives voice to a complex people still struggling to be heard.
Callers’ mistrust of white America is deep; some of it can be attributed to many listeners’ familial links to the South and its tradition of overt and and brutal racism.
Good evening, you’re talking to Salim Muwakkil on 1690 WVON. What’s on your mind?” I ask.
“The election of Barack Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to black people in America,” the caller snarls. “He’s a perfect Trojan Horse for American imperialism and corporate control. What do you think?”
That kind of question is typical fare on The Salim Muwakkil Show, broadcast every Saturday night by Chicago’s only black-owned radio station. These days, one year after the nation’s first black president took office, callers make it clear that African-Americans are divided sharply on Obama’s performance.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5443/
Also, thanks to the Garfield-Lawndale Voice I know that the Regal Theatre is open again. And thanks too to Lou Ransom for his column in the Defender for his take on what happened with the election for the Cook County President’s job.
If you come across other stories that you want to pass on like these, let me know.
Stephen
January 14, 2010 at 9:20 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories
the next six stories you will read here are very special. They are the stories of how six immigrant communities here are dealing with the U.S. Census.
What makes them so different?
It’s the bond that you will see that links them.
This work is the result of a unique collaboration of six Chicago area ethnic news media Read the rest of this entry »
January 14, 2010 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories
By Jessica Allen | January 14th, 2010
The Indo-American Center just off Devon Avenue has been ready for the 2010 U.S. Census for months, not wanting to overlook any opportunity to get the attention of the area’s large Indian community. When the census forms are mailed in March, they hope the area will be properly counted. Read the rest of this entry »
January 14, 2010 at 9:01 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories
By Zoe Jennings | January 14th, 2010
It is seven o’clock on a Thursday evening at St. Francis the Catholic Worker in Uptown, and tonight, Filipino food – an aluminum container of spring rolls and big metal pots of white rice and noodles – fills a table in the dining room. Myrla Baldonado sits on a stool in the main room. She is talking about toxic waste left at American military sites in the Philippines, and she passes out cards drawn by Crizel Jane Valencia, a little girl who died from leukemia attributed to the waste. Read the rest of this entry »
January 14, 2010 at 8:59 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories
By Jessica Abels, Raphaelle Neyton and Shasha Zou | January 14th, 2010
In the U.S. Census’ most recent American Community Survey, it is estimated that 51,972 people of Arab descent currently live in the greater Chicago areas of Cook, DuPage and Lake County. Another estimate, provided by the Advisory Council on Arab Affairs to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, puts the number of Arabs at 150,000 in the metro Chicago area. A Zogby International study suggests the number is actually 182,000. Read the rest of this entry »
January 14, 2010 at 8:56 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories
By Kate Endeley and Clara Lingle | January 14th, 2010
The level of participation by the Korean community in the 2010 U.S. Census may well be influenced by a new law in the Republic of Korea that for the first time allows Korean citizens living abroad to vote in national elections at home. Read the rest of this entry »
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They made a new life, a life unlike the one before. Was it better? Hard to say. But they kept their roots. They tried to pass them on, too.
