Yoshiura cut

"Unfortunately Brisbane has not renewed the rookie listing for young Japanese-Australian Sean Yoshiura. The history of dropped rookies means it seems unlikely that the 19 year old will be picked up by another AFL club in the near future, and will have to prove himself at state league level to get another AFL chance.

Yoshiura, who was born and initially raised in Japan, was rookie listed at the end of 2009. Ideally he would have become a role model for Asian-Australian players and indeed internationals such as those playing in AFL Japan."

Source

Funeral company in court over claim of racial discrimination

The biggest player in the Australian funeral industry has been accused of racial discrimination over a secret business strategy targeting the lucrative Asian-Australian market.

InvoCare Australia, which owns more than 20 funeral service chains including White Lady, Guardian and Simplicity Funerals, faces a claim in the Federal Magistrates Court from a client manager, Theresa Le.

Ms Le, who is of Vietnamese background, says InvoCare instructed her not to employ Asian staff in the company's cemetery and crematoriums arm because this might hinder the work of its special ''multicultural unit''.

Court documents show InvoCare employs a special team of consultants, the multicultural unit, to ''market to certain cultural communities''.

The company says the unit was established 15 years ago and exists only to service families from non-English speaking backgrounds where a relationship already exists. But Ms Le said InvoCare had a special deal with the unit that gave it virtually exclusive access to Asian clients and potential clients.

She said the arrangement included an instruction to general staff to stay away from these clients in some circumstances and an unofficial directive to avoid hiring Asian staff because they might impinge on the unit's territory.

''I tried to employ a consultant who happened to be of Asian background,'' Ms Le told the Herald. ''We were ready to go - had her medical check done - but then my boss at the time told me to stop. He didn't give me an explanation, then finally told me that he'd been told not to employ her because she was Asian. ''Three months later we hired a Westerner to the position.''

In her application Ms Le said the company advised her not to attend social and cultural events within the Asian community.

When she complained about the company's practices and refused its attempts to move her to the multicultural unit - downgrading her from manager to consultant - Ms Le said senior managers made life difficult for her to force her to leave.

InvoCare strenuously denied Ms Le's claims, in terms of its business strategies and behaviour towards her. ''[We] strongly believe that we have no case to answer as our business strategies, practices and how we have dealt with Ms Le are entirely appropriate,'' said the communications manager, Karl Wolfenden.

''We have established policies and procedures for the handling of complaints such as Ms Le's. Despite being directed to follow those procedures on numerous occasions, Ms Le chose not to do so. It appears Ms Le has difficulty accepting InvoCare's legitimate business strategies and how it conducts its businesses to ensure our high customer service standards are maintained.''

Source

Valerie Khoo SMH Column

For those who are interested, Valerie has a column in the SMH where she writes about enterprise and small to medium-sized business related topics. 

You can read her online articles at http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/blog/enterprise

Valerie also started up the Sydney Writers Centre (I think I've posted an article on it previously) which provides short courses on all types of writing.  You can see her talking about her business here In Her Shoes:Valerie Khoo.

Love the AA accent :)

Asian Australian Writers Festival 2011- any takers?

I think the time is ripe for some sort of AA event and by that I don't mean jiggling around in your ethnic dress, although you're more than welcome to (the general rule being: the less cloth and more cuts, the better).  Originally I was thinking of a general Asian Australian Festival but ended up concluding that this event was way too broad.

Perhaps it would be better to start off with a smaller, cosier event, still with a large target audience though.

The type of event that came to my mind straight away is a writers festival, because if there's something our "community" churns out a lot of, it's writers.  So here's my rough outline for such an event.  I'll also forward some parts of this message to various AA writers to see what their comments are and to gauge their interest levels.

Location
Sydney and Melbourne have the largest number of Asians so it's a no-brainer that the first event ought to be in one of these cities to maximise target audience.  In addition, I think that most writers are based in these cities or close by, and it would be convenient to travel to the event.  Accommodation would not be much of a problem.

Venue
A venue with a main hall and one presentation/lecture room should suffice.  The presentation room would be used for talks while the hall would have stalls setup to display the books of the writers, and be a place where they can talk with fans, autograph books etc.

Time and Date
Whole day
Possibly around a festive season or towards the end of the year in Oct/Nov.  Possibly piggyback onto another event.

Invitees
Here's my list of invitees, of course it's only a guide.  A few of them have released new books recently or will be doing so soon, so it will be a good platform to promote their books and connect with fans.

Shaun Tan
Alice Pung
Nam Le
Cindy Pan
Tom Cho
Benjamin Law

Auto/Bios
Anh Do
Natalie Hooker (LJ Hooker Bio due out late 2010)

Children's writers
Gabrielle Wang
Oliver Phommavanh
Chris Cheng

Upcoming Writers/"Indie" writers
many.

AA Personalities
One or two for a bit of zing
Any contestant from Masterchef
Luke Nguyen
Anyone with a book to flog
etc

Of course not all writers will be able to make it, possibly due to the following reasons
1) Conflicting schedules
2) May find it a hassle to go to an event if it's in another city
3) New to AA brand or may not want to associate with it so openly

Really, six prominent writers are all we need to make the first event a success.

Comps
- Door prizes
- Writing Comp

Costs
- Hire the venue
- Equipment
- Tables for stalls
- Advertising
- Website setup
- Presentation/posters
- Food
- Sponsors

Free entry

Volunteers

Talk Topics
Open for discussion

Feedback
Ask attendees to fillout feedback forms

Advertising Methods
- Website
- Word of mouth
- Facebook, Twitter
- Local newspaper
- Ethnic newspapers
- SBS radio
- Various Asian organisations (Chung Wah etc)
- Publishers
- Blogs

Anyway, I'll edit this post into some sort of email and send it to various writers.   If you have any comments then feel free to post below or email to me.  I don't have access to blogger/facebook/twitter and I can only post via email atm (I can't even edit posts).

Know Your Asian Australians: Jimmy Pham

This week I spoke to Jimmy Pham, who started KOTO, Know One Teach One, from scratch to help disadvantaged youths gain access to accomodation and training to improve their own lives.

Who are you?

I'm KOTO founder and KOTO International CEO. Above all, I'm big brother of the street and disadvantaged youth that KOTO supports.

What do you do?

As KOTO, we provide street and disadvantaged youth with free hospitality and English training along with life skills development. In addition, we provide safe and secure accommodation, thorough health checks, counseling, uniforms, career counseling, meals everyday and a monthly traineeship allowance.

We have a training centre and restaurant in Hanoi, and a training centre in HCMC, with a restaurant to open in the coming months.

I manage the KOTO International team which provides support for KOTO Hanoi and KOTO Saigon in terms of sponsorship, fundraising, branding and communications. I also work to promote KOTO worldwide and hope to establish KOTO in another part of the world.

What made you go on this path?

I was born in Vietnam but grew up in Australia, and when I came back to Vietnam as an adult I was shocked by the poverty and hopelessness facing the street children in my country. Their lives were also endangered by a lot of risks when working in the streets including drugs, prostitution and crime. They needed the opportunity to change their lives. I started by giving hand-outs, but then realized the best way to help them is to give them an opportunity to learn skills so they can stand on their own two feet and break the poverty cycle. I then left my job in the travel industry and started the small sandwich shop with 9 street kids. The restaurant was later followed by a training center. Since then KOTO has grown into a 200-trainee capacity, multi-location, internationally accredited (by Box Hill Institute of TAFE) hospitality program.

What's your background?

I was born in Saigon in 1972 to a Vietnamese mother and Korean father. We left Vietnam in 1974 and migrated to Australia in 1980 where we began a new life in Sydney. I was working in the travel industry previously, and didn't have any hospitality experience when I started KOTO.

"Be proud to be both Australian and Asian "

What makes you laugh?

People who need to be accepted purely from the outside

What's one thing you couldn't live without?

Spending time with trainees, past and present and hearing how happy they are.

What was the last book/movie that you read/saw?

Mao's Last Dancer

What's one thing about yourself most people wouldn't know?

A softy person on the inside and easy to cry

What do you think is the biggest issue affecting Asian Australians?

Continue to fight for acceptance and equity

Who's one of your favourite Asian Australians and why?

My mother who sacrifices tirelessly for the family and for her children.

What's your favourite memory about growing up Asian in Australia?

Going to festivals at occasions such as Lunar Tet, Full Moon Festival, and family gatherings on these occasions

What advice would you give to young Asian Australians at achieving their goals?

Understand your heritage and be proud of your heritage. Be proud to be both Australian and Asian

What can we do to support KOTO?

There's a variety of ways to support KOTO including making monthly donations, donating from our wish list, sponsoring a KOTO trainee and volunteering. We have fundraising events in Australia every year so you can join. The easiest way is to start spreading the words about KOTO

KOTO has been operating for over 10 years and has 300 graduates; why do you think the model has been so successful in changing people's lives?

We provide hospitality and English training along with life skills, as we want graduates to be well-rounded people. Our training program is a combination of theory and practice. The important part of what we do is to provide a family and nurturing environment where they feel safe, happy and cared for and where they can develop into young confident adults.

KOTO restaurant in Hanoi has over 150 customers daily; why do you think people enjoy the restaurant?

Good food and service, but also a friendly atmosphere of trainees who want to make the experience enjoyable for our customers

What's next for KOTO?

We hope to replicate the model in other countries. Wherever there is abandonment, neglect and abuse, we will be there.

Thanks to Jimmy and his team at KOTO for their help. Keep up the good work!

Also, an article about KOTO from CNN from 2007. 

Click here to read other interviews in the Know Your Asian Australians series

The Lost Thing short film

This film's floating about in various festivals but if you haven't heard about it, you can check out the trailer here at the official website or below.  It's based on a book by Shaun Tan.  It will be released by Madman on DVD on the 10th of November.

14th Japanese Film Festival @JapanFilmFest

Just a heads up for those in Melbs and Sydney, the Japanese Film Festival will be held in November and December.  They're still updating their site with film and other details.  Japanese Film Festival on twitter. More info soon.

Bringing to you an abundance of Australian premieres, special guests and fantastic prizes to be won, the 14th Japanese Film Festival promises to be nothing short of spectacular.

Plan ahead! 2010’s Japanese Film Festival dates are:

SYDNEY
22 – 28 November Event Cinemas, George Street

MELBOURNE
2 – 7 December ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square

Australia and Me - Teresa Thoi, QLDs first serving Viet Policewoman

Quite interesting stories to watch, I'll post the other episodes in a later post.

Teresa Thoi

This episode of Australia & Me delves into the extraordinary life of Queensland's first serving Vietnamese Policewoman, Teresa Thoi.

Born in a small village in Vietnam, Thoi and her family braved the seas in the early 80's for the promise of a new future in Australia. Thoi was just 10 years old when they arrived in Cairns.

It is clear that the assimilation process has left a prominent mark on Thoi's psyche. Although Thoi completed a business degree and returned to Vietnam to further her language skills, it was a chance meeting with a serving police officer that led her to pursue a career in the Australian Police Force.

Thoi is now a Sergeant working in the 'Asian Specialist Unit' in Brisbane. She admits that her role has given her a chance to give back to the Queensland community which embraced her family. She now helps other immigrants who are experiencing what she went through.

"What's rewarding is I can use my own language skills being Vietnamese. I have helped a lot of my community members."

This is truly a remarkable story of how the immigration process can unfold.

(via PerilMag)

Couples book a perfect date with destiny

Kat Chong and David Tran believe they have secured the perfect wedding date.

The couple from the Sydney suburb of Parramatta will tie the knot next Sunday: the 10th day of the 10th month of 2010.

They visited a numerologist who said getting married on October 10 would ensure a happy life together.

"In Chinese culture, numbers can be very important," Mr Tran, 28, said.

Miss Chong, 24, said: "We hadn't realised it was such a big day, and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to get a dress."

Only two other dates this century remain in which the day, month and year will be the same: 11-11-2011 and 12-12-2012.

A spokeswoman for Australian Marriage Celebrants Incorporated, Ann Dally, said there was an unusually high number of weddings booked for next Sunday.

Ms Dally said some celebrants in her organisation had been turning couples away. "A lot of celebrants might only get one wedding a week or one wedding a month but all our members are booked out for this date. I have actually had to turn away about 10 couples."

Source

Cambodian Australian carries much more than the hopes of a nation

Weightlifter Vannara Be impresses Indian ladies at the athletes village.

HIS uncle was a boat person, a refugee from Pol Pot's reign of terror. His father was an immigrant who bent his back dawn to dusk picking grapes to provide his family with a future. Now Commonwealth Games weightlifter Vannara Be has become the first Cambodian-born athlete to represent Australia.

So how does he feel?

"Surprised actually," he said after being presented to the media. "I didn't know until someone just told me."

But if Victoria-based Be was vague about his standing in Australian sporting history, he has total clarity about his own family history and the terrible affect the Pol Pot regime had upon it.

"My aunty and uncle were murdered, my grandmother lost an eye," the 22 year-old said. "They say she cried so much when she lost her children that it just disappeared."

In the early 1980s, Be's uncle managed to flee Cambodia for Thailand, then got on a boat to Australia. By 1996 he had become a citizen and on a trip home to Phnom Penh urged Be's uncle to join him in the new country.

"Dad came out on a short-term visa. My aunty was working on a vineyard in the Yarra Valley and dad tagged along and worked with her. When it came time for him to leave, the lady who owned the farm asked him to stay. He said he couldn't leave his family behind so she did all the work to get us all to Australia. It was all because my father had worked so hard."

Just four years old when he arrived in Australia, Be proved he too was a hard worker, helping his parents pick grapes and carrying them in crates from an early age.

"Maybe that's where I got my strength from. Who knows?"

While the source of his talent is a mystery - there is no culture of weightlifting in Cambodia although Be's three sisters have all taken up the sport - there is no question about his earliest motivation.

"I took it up because playing sport meant you could get time off school," he said. "If you were in a competition you could get a whole day off."

The turning point of his career came when the family gained permanent residency last year.

"Before that we were always wondering if we would have to go back to Cambodia," he said. "I had no real goal because I didn't know what my future was. I'd only train once or twice a week. Then when we knew we would be staying I got serious."

Competing in the 62kg class, Be has a best lift of 115kg in snatch and 138kg in the clean and jerk.

While none of his family will be in Delhi, he knows they will be watching him compete on television.

"My mother is so proud, she is ringing me every day," he said.

Source

Early Halloween Treat for Queenie Chan fans

Queenie Chan has released a short horror story called Elevator and is is available at Bento Comics. She has a few other stories on that site too.

Also, a movie version of the Dreaming has been announced and to coincide with this, a volume of the Dreaming has been released which includes "eight new color pages, five figure illustrations, as well as a new short story and an interview with Queenie".

Vote for AAs in Yahoo Talent Comp

Check out the following AAs getting their groove on for the chance to win 5000 big ones.  Click on the pics below to see their dance vids and don't forget to vote for your fave.

Ivan Tan

How long have you been practicing your skill/trick for?
3 or 4 years. I started off by breaking on the streets because I had nowhere else to dance. I knew I was getting somewhere when random people started throwing spare change at me.

How often do you train and what does it involve?
I'm always dancing, just ask anyone who knows me. Even at the supermarket, I'd shuffle down the aisle to get the milk and moonwalk back to my trolley. It drives my girlfriend crazy. I don't think breakdance/bboying involves anything other than a desire to express yourself (except maybe some cardboard on the floor if you want to practice backspins).

What has been your greatest achievement involving your skill/trick?
I've been in a few battles now (even won an inter-uni battle once), but I consider my greatest achievement is being able to pass on my knowledge of this art - the same way it was passed onto me.

What will you do if you win the $5,000?
I'd give half to my bro. He's been diagnosed with a condition that forced him to leave his job (that he loved - he's a designer), so that he could rest and concentrate on getting better. His medical bills are piling up and he doesn't have a source of income anymore. I'm sure he'll appreciate some financial ease. As for the other half, I'll probably surprise my girlfriend with something nice and then say, "See, I told you breakdance is awesome!"

Jono Wong

How long have you been practicing your skill/trick for?
I've been tricking for about 6-7 years now. I originally was a gymnast and had been competing for 8 years, but I just got to a stage where I wanted somthing different and less structually stiff. So I retired and started Capoeira in search of the crazy tricks that i had seen on a few videos, but I didnt get to train them much and mainly learned the martial arts, music and cultural side of Capoeira.

Then I met Morgan Flook at our local Gymnastics Adult Class and he was already training some of the things I wanted to learn, so we started training together, teaching and learning from each other - destined friends and training rivals. At the time the sport wasnt called tricking, we were just coppying all the Capoeira, Wushu, Sports Karate, Taekwondo and breakdancing moves that we were downloading off the internet. In about 2006, we found out the sport was called tricking, but it made little difference, we just kept training and filming and making "samplers" of our footage. We decided to call ourselves "Team E" and we were a pretty big hit in the Global tricking scene seeing as we were one of the first big tricking teams in australia to release a tricking sampler. From then on, we just kept training and innovating and now we are in the present!

How often do you train and what does it involve?
I try to train 2-3 times a week. My friends and I will train in the Manly Warringah Gymnastics Club where I work or at the Castle Hill RSL Gymnastics Center where we work on all the combo's and tricks that we have been striving to achieve. There are so many different variations and combinations of tricks already so there is always somthing to work on, yet there is still room for new and inovative tricks which is what I like to devote my time to.

What has been your greatest achievement involving your skill/trick?
Attempting and Landing the E-Flip Gyro at this years 2010 Australian Tricks Gathering was definately the greatest moment I have experienced with this trick as there is always so much anticipation and energy at Tricking Gatherings. Seeing as there were Trickers from Sweden, the UK and NZ at the gathering as well, it made the scene even more epic!

What will you do if you win the $5,000?
The 5K will probably be spent on a down payment for a Swedish Air Trampoline that we can use for our classes, students and personal use :D

Imagine the largest, bounciest jumping castle you have ever been on then multiply it by a thousand!!! perfect for flipping around on! and way safer than a trampoline cause you dont get launched in funny directions at all :P