East-West Center in the News

(2011-10-05) “It’s intense to see it all here. She died young so she never really had a chance to have a home,” says SoetoroNg, who was in town for the opening reception last weekend. “She envisioned a retirement that involved having people over, good food, good storytelling, being able to conjure from all her adventures. While much of it is lost, to see it all here together is a great gift to me. It is such an emotional experience for me.”

... “It resonates so much with me,” says Schuster, who spent two years gathering artifacts for the exhibit. “I love that nothing here is really valuable. She valued what people did for a living. The tools, when you see it all together with her photographs, she just showed such a love of process, that respect for human effort. It’s apparent in the totality of her work.”

... “She also saw it as a feminine cause. Aside from blacksmithing, most of the handicrafts were made by women,” says Soetoro-Ng. “It gave them a sense of empowerment in their own lives and in the lives of their children. She championed cottage industries, even while challenging the thinking of other anthropologists.”

(2011-10-07) Professor Peter Petri, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and economics professor at Brandeis University specialises in Asia-Pacific economics, has consulted for APEC and was the chair of the APEC Studies Centre. He expects "some engagement" of outside groups, but says: "My guess is that [APEC] will make some effort to listen and it will be very difficult to integrate things that are very far away from the concrete agenda APEC is trying to pursue."

"APEC will be dealing at levels of detail and issues that are very different from the ones that people might be interested in pursuing."

"[APEC] really is an effort to build a community among people from different countries in lots of different areas. It may be not a bad place for NGO concerns to be raised although how much immediate response they will get, that's hard to tell."

He describes APEC as having the capacity to build "international communities" at many levels beyond economics and trade policies. "I don't think that's necessarily mutually exclusive with also trying to build stronger communities with national and local levels," he adds.

(2011-10-20) Panetta most likely want to speak with Japanese leaders about the feasibility and affordability of the current plan, which is under fire by several powerful U.S. senators, said Denny Roy, an expert on Asian military affairs.

... "It's not that Secretary Panetta has reached any conclusions and will be pushing for a particular outcome," Roy said. "I have no reason to think that has happened yet. But it's very likely that he will want to hear, in a face-to-face meeting, what the views of the Japan government are on the issue."

(2011-10-28) (Online access by subscription only. The Pacific Business News is also available in the RIS Periodicals Room).

In Honolulu, seven positions have been eliminated and six employees will see a reduction in hours, East-West Center spokeswoman Karen Knudsen said. The center now has 143 full-time and 35 part-time employees.

... Knudsen said the center, located on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus, will continue to have visiting fellows, a program that she said does not rely on federal funding.

... Despite the reduction in federal funding, East-West Center President Charles Morrison said the center will remain committed to strong programs and outreach efforts.

"The center continues to strengthen its nonappropriated funding and partnership-relationships and will continue to have a robust program promoting U.S.-Asia-Pacific relationships in future years," Morrison told PBN in a statement.