Knowledge of Asia Society/ Your pos

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: Knowledge of Asia Society/ Your posting, a sad turning point?

Dawn Star wrote:
> 
> Dawn Star wrote:
> >
> > JM, why are you promoting the Asia Society now. Have you forgotten their
> > invitation to the junta. Are you now acting as an Asia Society
> > press communication officer? Its your choice, but its not a good one.
> > Its even regrettable. Have you forgotten the Asia Society tourist trip
> > promoted by Unocal? Are you now siding with constructive engagment
> > activism of the sort promoted by the Asia Society?
> >
> > Otherwise why are you promoting this pro SPDC organisation?
> >
> > Instead, you just might sum up why they invited the foreign minister,
> > and talk to your friend David Steinberg at Georgetown University.
> >
> > It appears your priorities have shifted. This is not a good sign and you
> > should make your position clear, instead of just acting the part of a
> > mail delivery worker.
> >
> > Dont forget, the tourist trip was denounced by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who
> > clearly said neither she nor the Burmese people suffering need to be
> > taught by tourists how to improve relations in her country.
> >
> > Frankly, your posting is most disappointing and marks a sad turning
> > point in the history of your committment and fidelity. Unless I am
> > mistaken, but that is for you to set straight to the Burmanet community.
> >
> > Anyway, you know you are sending certain signals out to the Burma
> > readers? Are we to presume your predilection for spy games has turned
> > your head to slaving for foreign masters?
> >
> > Isnt it great to be in America?
> >
> > dawn star
> >
> > > 13 December 1999
> > > source:US Dept. Of State
> > >             Knowledge of Asia Seen as Vital, but Lacking in America
> > >
> > >             (Asia Society announces board to improve K-12 Asian studies) (600)
> > >             By Nadine Nigel Leavitt
> > >             Washington File Staff Writer
> > >
> > >             Washington -- Surveys of approximately 2,000 Americans last summer
> > >             reveal that 82 percent of adults and 74 percent of college-bound
> > >             students agree that knowledge of Asia will be essential to
> > > success in
> > >             the coming 21st century -- yet more than 25 percent of those
> > > surveyed
> > >             could not even identify the Pacific Ocean as the body of water
> > >             separating the United States and Asia.
> > >
> > >             Two telephone interviews sponsored by the Asia Society of 1,012
> > >             college-bound students and 810 adults across the United States in
> > >             August and September 1999 revealed that Americans are seriously
> > >             undereducated about the Asia-Pacific region. For example, less than
> > >             one in four could correctly identify Jakarta as the capital of
> > >             Indonesia despite the country's recent heavy presence in the
> > > news, and
> > >             almost half of those surveyed said Vietnam was an island. Only 5
> > >             percent of the students and 15 percent of adults correctly
> > > identified
> > >             India as the world's largest democracy.
> > >
> > >             "Knowledge about Asia will be very important for tomorrow's
> > > citizens,
> > >             who are today's students," John Kelly, Founding President of the
> > >             National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, said at the Asia
> > >             Society December 9 in announcing the establishment of the National
> > >             Commission on Asia in the Schools. "And there are problems because
> > >             they're not studying it."
> > >
> > >             "The world has changed a lot since the Second World War, and 25
> > > to 50
> > >             years is a relatively short time as school curriculums go," Kelly
> > >             added. "And they've just been slow to respond to this major new
> > >             priority."
> > >
> > >             Kelly is the Vice-Chair of The National Commission on Asia in the
> > >             Schools, which has been established to strengthen Asian Studies
> > >             programs in American elementary and secondary schools by suggesting
> > >             improvements in standards, lessons, teacher knowledge, and
> > > textbooks.
> > >             The commission is composed of 30 leading education, public
> > > policy, and
> > >             business professionals; co-chairs of the commission include North
> > >             Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., and Chang-Lin Tien, former
> > >             chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley. The Freeman
> > >             Foundation has provided an initial grant of $10 million to
> > > support the
> > >             commission and its follow-up activities, which will be led by
> > > the Asia
> > >             Society.
> > >
> > >             "We joke ... about Asia taught through the set of three Fs:
> > > Food, Fun,
> > >             Festival," said Namji Kim Steinemann, vice president of the Asia
> > >             Society's Education Division and executive director of the National
> > >             Commission on Asia in the Schools. She said the commission's goal is
> > >             to have U.S. schools "really take into consideration the change that
> > >             Asia has undergone, to look at the long history of Asia, and to
> > > get a
> > >             real sense of what Asia is today."
> > >
> > >             Steinemann said a recent Asia Society survey of common U.S.
> > > textbooks
> > >             found "there's quite a lot of problem in terms of inaccuracy, in
> > > terms
> > >             of data information, whether they are statistics or other types of
> > >             figures, to perspectives where Asia appears only in interaction with
> > >             the West."
> > >
> > >             As an example, she said the Asia Society found that one widely used
> > >             textbook covers more than 5,000 years of Asian history, including
> > >             European imperialism, in less than 55 pages. The same popular
> > >             textbook, however, devotes 270 pages to the history of Europe.
> > >
> > >             The Asia Society is a nonprofit, nonpolitical foundation set up in
> > >             1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd to build bridges of understanding
> > >             between Americans and Asians.
> > >
> > >             (Distributed by the Office of International Information
> > > Programs, U.S.
> > >             Department of State)