The International Insider » english

Eurotrip: Swiss Style

Adam Levine and Carolina Jiminez and Sean Fisher — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:04:49 +0000

With part one of the exchange finished, 17 eager students, along with English teacher Ms. Heather Prevosti, Spanish teacher Ms. Violetta Suroweic, and Math teacher, Ms. Ho-Ling Lo, embarked on their journey to Winterthur, Switzerland.

Similar to the school’s past two exchanges, students on this exchange lived with a host Swiss student and his/her family while touring the country, shadowing them while in school, and getting to know their host families.

“I wanted to see life from another perspective,” said junior Vanessa Kreytak.

The flight took off at 6:50 PM from Newark International Airport. After seven tiring hours on the plane, students couldn’t wait to land in Switzerland. The Americans arrived at 6:00 in the morning, where they were greeted by three Swiss students and one teacher from our host school, Kantonsshule Im Lee.

Students and teachers were taken to school where they were greeted by the Swiss principal and offered lunch.

“Their school food is so much better than our food; they actually have chefs working,” said junior Glenn Kugelman.

After the “official” welcome, the school day was over and the American students were free to go home and spend the weekend with their host students.

Some students had the pleasure to travel during the weekend, going as far as Bern, the capital of Switzerland and Rome, Italy.

On Monday, students arrived at school bright and early to start sightseeing. At first, the students went on a walking tour of the town where the Swiss hosts lived, followed by free time to shop and eat.

During the afternoon, the students were given the opportunity to tour the historic Kyburg Castle.

Tuesday was the day the students were able to see the Rhein falls. Students walked along the sight seeing paths taking many pictures with the falls as the background.

“One of my favorite students was traveling with the students, we had a lot of fun touring the cities and meeting the other [Swiss] students in their school and how they interact. I feel our students truly experienced the culture,” said Ms. Suroweic.

The Americans were set to attend school all day Wednesday. The Swiss hosts were all in the same classes, so the Americans weren’t separated. Our students attended classes such as Biology, Literature, and Calculus. This was also the day where the Principal of Kantonsshule Im Lee gave the students a fond farewell as well as a small gift. Each student received a Swiss army knife that was in the form of a credit card.

On Thursday, the American students, accompanied by their Swiss friends, traveled to Zurich where they went sightseeing around the town and finished up their last minute souvenir shopping.

That Friday marked the day of departure back to the United States. Our travelers had a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany before reaching there much wanted homes here in the United States. With each student’s family waiting and the crowd giving our students a round of applause as they exited the customs area. Each student couldn’t help but agree that this trip was anything but unforgettable.

Sophomores Get to Know Health

Celeste Chow and Jamie Miller — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Here at our school bake sales and junk food are forbidden for health reasons but yet students are not taught healthy eating habits. Health class is not taught here or at many New York City schools.

Since health class is not offered, the SPARK, Ms. Hattie Slaughter, at our school decided to incorporates health into advisory. SPARK is a program that offers individual and group assistance on positive alternatives. Even though Ms. Slaughter teaches the sophomore advisories with regular health lessons, it is not the same as having an actual health class.

According the Department of Education, health class is not mandated for students to take as a specific class, which is why we learn health class through advisory.

Health class should be mandated to take because having health class through other classes is not always beneficial. By not having a specific class dedicated to health it is not guaranteed that you will have a health lesson everyday and it is important for students to learn about health.

“Health class is to inform students on their mental and physical health and to teach good eating and exercise habits. It is also to teach the importance of health. By teaching health poor nutrition, and drug and alcohol awareness are prevented,” said Ms. Slaughter.

According to Ms Pastena only one health credit is required to graduate, so the lessons that would be taught in a traditional health class are taught throughout the four years of advisory.

“Learning about health class in advisory is important because we get to learn about how to live a longer healthy life and the bad effects of drugs,” said sophomore Ashley Heyne.

Ms. Slaughter is not always available to teach health lessons, which is why health should be part of our curriculum. Without a health class students don’t learn proper things they need to know for their everyday teen life.

The few Advisors who are teaching about health are helping their students to become more aware of their bodies. Ms. Orlando’s advisory is currently focusing on alcoholism and drug abuse.

“I think it’s important for students to learn about health because it helps them become aware of their bodies, as well as the poor influences in society,” said English teacher Melissa Orlando.

According to Ms. Pepe, health is an important subject that covers everything from nutrition to issues that teens face in today. It may help students to talk about topics that they may not be able to discuss with their parents or friends. It also can help in knowing the facts on certain subjects instead of guessing.

Kaplan’s Gone?

Laurel Haim and Rosa Carucci — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:21:00 +0000

“It’s very difficult for me to leave, but it can be difficult to get a sabbatical, and this is the first time I have been approved,” explained Journalism adviser Nancy Kaplan to her students as she told them about her sabbatical leave.

As of January 31st, one of our schools founding teachers, Mrs. Nancy Kaplan will be taking a study sabbatical leave for one semester and will return in September of 2010.

Teachers that have taught for seven consecutive years are eligible for a sabbatical leave. During study sabbatical, teachers chose to return to a college or university and take graduate level classes in their licensed subject. They must take eight credits, and the teachers have to pay for their own courses. The Department of Education must approve of these classes before they are taken, and while on the leave, teachers on receive 70 percent of their pay.

“I’m taking a sabbatical so I can recharge my batteries and teach for many more years before I retire,” said Mrs. Kaplan.

Mrs. Kaplan will be attending Brooklyn College where she will be take three classes: Comparative Ethnic Literature, The Short Story, and Faulkner.

“I wanted to take journalism classes, but my sabbatical might not have been approved since my teaching license is English and History. I hope to sit in on some journalism classes at Brooklyn College, though,” said Mrs. Kaplan.

If the course work a teacher applies for is not rigorous enough or if they teach in a shortage area, they can be denied sabbatical leave.

Normally, when the teacher contract is renegotiated, sabbatical leaves are always discussed.

The NYC DOE would like to omit sabbatical leaves from the teacher contract. However, the United Federation of Teachers is always supporting sabbaticals.

“The DOE wants to remove sabbatical leaves to save money, but it’s not going to happen in the future,” said UFT representative Jim Sherlock.

Although she will be busy with her schoolwork at Brooklyn College, Mrs. Kaplan still plans to help her students and the newspaper whenever she is available.

“I’m only over the bridge and an email or a phone call away if The Insider staff and my students need me,” continued Kaplan.

“I know that along with me, the entire staff and faculty wish Mrs. Kaplan a wonderful and productive sabbatical. We will all miss her, her creativity, her passion, and her dedication to our students and our school, and look forward to her return,” said Principal Ms. Aimee Horowitz.

Also making her leave easier is the recent grant Mrs. Kaplan won. Mrs. Kaplan is the 2010 Middle Atlantic States Region winner of the Bob Costas Award for the Teaching of Writing given by the College Board every year.

“It’s a relief knowing the journalism fund will have plenty of money this year and next,” said Mrs. Kaplan.

Temporarily replacing her will be Mr. Frank Duffy. Mr. Duffy will be teaching Ms. Kaplan’s English classes as well as running the school newspaper.

Students Take Part in Their Own Memoir

Matea Kulusic — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:19:44 +0000

Everyone has a story. It’s what makes a person different from everyone else; it’s their identity. In 2003, a program called “StoryCorps” was started, where people can go and record their stories and preserve them at the Library of Congress. Eight students from our school have volunteered as part of the memoir project in their English classes to record their stories.

“We decided as a department to read memoirs this year, but we wanted the students to choose which memoir to read. So we gave them a list, and they selected and formed book clubs, which met weekly to analyze the plot,” said English teacher Mrs. Nancy Kaplan.

The students also wrote their own stories detailing their own experiences and life stories. According to Kaplan, the purpose of starting this memoir project is to read and write about one’s life.

The students paired up, and recorded their stories in a booth in downtown Manhattan.

“By listening and connecting with each other, it makes the experience of sharing stories a lot more enjoyable than if people went one at a time to record. That is why we encourage people to go into the recording booth and record their stories together,” said Lucy Zhou from the communications department at StoryCorps.

After the recording, the people at StoryCorps choose which stories they will broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition and the rest are sent to the Library of Congress to be preserved.

This project allows every one who shares their story a part to be a part of our nation’s history. This project makes people more than just a silent nameless face in the crowd, it gives them a voice. This is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind.

“The mission of StoryCorps is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our time. As a public service, we try to offer the interview experience to as many people as possible in order to showcase the richness and diversity of the American people,” said Zhou.

In a way, this enhances our democracy by giving everyone a voice and a chance to be a part of our nation’s history. It is truly amazing to know that by doing something as simple as going into a recording booth can make our stories become a part of our nation’s history and something for future generations to remember us by.

The eight volunteers are: Elliot Santiago, Paul Casella, Amber Figerio, Christopher Frank, Brianna Recinos, Alex Lopes, Djenne Jean-Louis, and Radwa Achmed. The first four students are recording their stories on Jan. 16, 2010, and the rest are recording on Jan. 30, 2010 in Manhattan.

Will Power is the Solution

Jayme — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:53:28 +0000

It’s been a little less than eight hours since Emely Funes’s school day “ended”. Hopping on the 44 to get home, she stares at her book bag longingly as she walks inside, knowing she has tons of work to do inside her house, not just inside her book bag. Heaving a heavy sigh, she lugs the bag upstairs amidst her siblings’ screams. A couple hours later, she drags herself downstairs for dinner, most of her work complete, too tired to do anything more than eat, shower, and go to bed.

She, like most students, is too tired to read and write just for fun. And that’s not a good thing.

Now I know what you may be thinking. But she already read and wrote, at least if she did her homework. That’s true enough, but I’m not talking about reading and writing for school work. I’m talking about doing it for non-academic purposes – personal and fun purposes.

According to www.mychild.co.uk 85 percent of a child’s learning comes from outside school and school work, and that includes reading and writing not just books, but magazines, short novels, poems, comic books, manga, and fanfiction.

“I can’t read the books I want to read because I’ve already got an assigned book to read, and it’s hard to read even that,” said sophomore Jaclyn Appelgate.

“Decrease the amount of homework,” said sophomore Emely Funes. “Teachers say ‘we have a lot of work to do too, you know’, and I understand, but it really starts with the work they give us first.”

Though less homework would be a nice solution, we all know it isn’t possible.

The only solution that is realistic, in my opinion, is pure will-power. Instead of complaining about it and doing nothing, we should make time for it.

“Anything is possible. It’s just a matter of will power and intent,” said graduate John Harden.

If we want to have time to do something other than school work, then we have to have the intent to make time.

“We all do a lot of work: students, teachers, and administrators,” said English teacher Heather Prevosti. “Sometimes we allow our work to overwhelm us. We have to create a space for work and a space for play. There should be balance in our lives, and the only person who can ensure that healthy balance is each of us.”

Making a schedule and having it include some leisure time when you can do whatever you want can help reduce some stress too. Have the schedule include the dreaded “bed time”. Eight hours of sleep can help more than you think, and may even help your grades.

DIY In The Forgotten Borough

Rob Keller — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:46:59 +0000

Somewhere on Staten Island, there is a guy in a chicken suit being attacked with foam noodles while The Richmond Knights are playing. The feeling of controlled chaos is in the air as a crowd surfer is passed around the room, in praise of dNo from Curious Volume, who’s wailing away on his Les Paul. It’s a typical show at Dock Street.

Many successful musical acts, such as the Wu Tang Clan and Twisted Sister, have roots in Staten Island. KISS frontman Gene Simmons has an English Degree from Richmond College, now known as the College of Staten Island.
On Staten Island, the scene is split up by musical genre, each with its own following. The main scenes are Punk/Hardcore, Metal, and Indie.

The Indie scene features mostly Pop Rock bands and solo artists but also includes world music ensembles and is the largest and most diverse scene on the Island.

Artists such as Ingrid Michaelson and Cymbals Eat Guitars have gained national attention. Michaelson’s music has been featured on Scrubs, Greys Anatomy, and One Tree Hill. Also, Michaelson has toured with Jason Mraz and collaborated with Sarah Bareillies.

While many of the bands on this scene have an adult following, there are many young and talented Indie bands on Staten Island such as Spread the Rumor and everynightdrive.

“In my opinion, Spread the Rumor is one of the island’s best bands. They have a unique sound that sets them apart from the rest. They are a dedicated group of musicians and that shows during their live performances”, said Nick Massa, a senior at New Dorp High School.

The Punk/Hardcore scene was prominent from the 1980′s to the early 2000′s, but today, it’s a shell of its former self. While clubs such as Dock Street once averaged about 200 people on a Friday night, shows are currently averaging about 25 people at a single show, including the bands.

“The main reason for the decline of the Staten Island Punk Scene is the lack of venues willing to book Punk bands. I’ve been kicked out of The Cup for moshing. It’s ridiculous that kids are being punished for dancing.” said senior Luke Opulski.

However, bands such as Kids Carry Germs, Racing Exit 13, and Curious Volume have begun to attract fans from outside of the punk community. But this doesn’t make up for the loss of Punk’s rich culture and heritage.
“I hate to admit it, but Punk Rock is dying”, continued Opulski.

If Punk Rock is not heavy enough for you, check out the Metal scene, which is split between the older Heavy Metal bands and the younger Metalcore scene. The older scene is comprised of mostly forty-year-old men reminiscing about the eighties at L‘amour. Most of the bands on this scene are cover bands, and there are too many to list.
The Metalcore scene is thriving; most shows are able to completely fill clubs such as Dock Street and The Cup. Bands on the scene include Impartial Dismemberment, Preaching to the Converted and He Among Us. National acts such as Shai Halud and Endwell have played at Dock Street.

“Most of the bands on the scene are pretty good. I haven’t been to a show in awhile, but the younger bands usually aren’t as good. However, the more seasoned bands that play later in the show are amazing”, said sophomore Karis Robichaud.

The Punk and Metalcore scenes are bound by Hardcore; so many Hardcore fans listen to both Punk Rock and Metal. Hardcore Punk bands such as Kids Carry Germs and Racing Exit 13 have shared stages with Metalcore acts Preaching to the Converted and Impartial Dismemberment. The unified hardcore scene is saving Punk Rock and Metal from extinction.

Staten Island has such a vibrant music scene, so it’s almost a crime that many teens are infatuated with Pop music where the Grammy belongs to the computer, not the artist. So, instead of wasting a Friday night listening to the stereotypical DJ spin Flo Rida or Kid Cudi, go to a local show and experience the culture right next door.

Journalism Students Explore the Media

Adam Levine and Adetola Adeosun — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:42:26 +0000

Adam Levine | The Insider

Back in the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln was beginning his presidential campaign. At the time, biased newspapers were extremely common. A reporter from The New York Herald once wrote that Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech was “unmitigated trash, interlarded with coarse and clumsy jokes.”

On November 4, 2009, Journalism teacher Mrs. Nancy Kaplan took ten staff members to view the Lincoln Exhibit at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan to learn how the press influenced society, and consider whether the media still has an influence today.

Northern newspapers, such as The New York Tribune favored Lincoln while southern newspapers like The Ch

arleston Mercury were totally against him. “ It depended on which part of the country you were from as to how Lincoln was viewed in the press. Obviously, the abolitionist newspapers and the pro-Union papers were favorable to him,” said history teacher Ms. Karolynn Mangiero.

Biased newspapers and headlines were used during the 1800s as an attempt to sway people to one political side.

Today biased front pages and headlines are not only rare, but also unethical. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become more popular than newspapers, thus making them the biased newspapers of our generation.

“Oddly enough, people aren’t really all that shocked for the most part. A lot of people who come through the exhibit express the feeling that a lot of bias still exists in the media today. It’s just more subtle now,” said docent Jennifer Lagasse.

During Lincoln’s time, newspapers were seen as a source for news and a way to share information about local happenings with people. Nowadays, some newspapers have become geared towards whose dating whom and the latest celebrity’s public misconduct.

“Today I believe newspapers are about sensationalization and manipulating individuals so they can make large sums of money. For example, the headlines in New York’s daily newspapers have been filled with Tiger Woods’ domestic issues rather than the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or any of the major social and economic issues facing the nation,” said Ms. Mangiero. “This also says a lot about us as news readers. We are more concerned with gossip than real issues.”

Journalists In Washington D.C. – Students go to the JEA Convention

Brenda Gonzalez and Sean Fisher — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:14:24 +0000

JEA Executive Director Linda Drake and
NSPA Executive Director Logan Aimone open The JEA Convention.
Fresh from a Journalism Convention, students have brought back new knowledge to our newsroom and soon to you. The new information and knowledge will bring our news publication, as well as our new online edition, to a greater and more professional publication.

As six journalism students attended a Journalism Education Association (JEA) sponsored conference in Washington D.C., they attended various seminars corresponding to their departments and their interests. The seminars, held by speakers and representatives from their respective fields in journalism, explained and aided the students in their quest for knowledge.

Multimedia Session

It seems that the biggest hype these days is the Internet. As the years go by, videos as well as podcasts and flash has become a large part of your experience online, including news reports as well as entertainment.

These forms of communication are known as multimedia. People can experience the news from an even greater, personal, and meaningful perspective.

For example, if you read a story about a person’s job dressing as a mascot on the side of a highway, a reader can get the general gist of the story. By utilizing multimedia, allows us to see the person, hear an interview with them and experience them at work.

Lit. Mag Session

Love our literary magazine? Dominate photos, art work, and captive headlines, the focus of “Expanding Literary Magazines” guarantees graphic success. Dominate photos and artwork, eye candy, tell stories without text. A photo should be a shared moment between reader and photographer, it should have Center Visual Impact, CVI.

Artwork too, is also essential to any magazine. It instantly grabs attention and admirers.

Headlines, visually designed, are the final key. A dominate photo captures a reader’s gaze, but a great headline pulls them futher in.

So, what about text? It’s least important. Literary magazines are all about the visual images that support the text.

Networking Session

Journalist or not, we’ve all been playing the game, the networking game. Greg Cooper, speaker at “The Importance of Networking” suggests we’ve been playing ever since we entered school.

In fifty minutes he outlined six steps for building networking: comprehension, contests, workshops, peer interaction, student publication and internships, but three are most useful. Most of us are stuck at step one, comprehension, with peer interaction and internships soon after.

Networking means asking questions and staying alert, in order to understand – or comprehend. Likewise peer interaction; hanging out with friends is key to networking.

Peer interaction involves approaching people and taking risks. Start by meeting twenty people, writing down their names, remembering their faces. Being around people is crucial to networking.

Internships, a third type of networking and the last of the six-step process, is required of all our students. Getting an internship involves both comprehension and peer interaction. Finding an internship all comes down to whom you know.

Now that you know the basics of the very basics, go play the game. There’s no way to lose.

Lead Session

Good reporters catch readers’ attention fast, or their articles are dead before they’ve begun. At “Inventive Ledes to Indulge Readers,” student reporters practiced packing information into quick, interesting sentences.

After bolded headlines, subheaders, photos and captions, an article’s fate rests in its first few lines. This lead, or “lede” in journalism jargon, can follow different forms. Some surefire Dos and Don’ts apply to all.

Seminar hosts read out scenarios and set the timer: ten minutes later, audience participants shares the ledes they’d written. Candy bars were awarded, critique offered, lessons learned. Journalists gained a crash course in those faux-pas that annoy, insult and bore readers – and learned to write what really matters.

Photography Session

Have you ever seen a photograph in National Geographic or Sports Illustrated and wondered how they captured it?

Breakfast with professional Mark Gail, and breakout sessions “Pictures Speak 1000 Words” and “Photo Phabulous” provided a plethora of possiblities for better photos.

To capture a great photo, a photographer needs to show up at least an hour ahead of time to find the right position. Where a photographer sets up can result in either a posed piece, or an emotional one that will sell the story.

Edmund Kwong, speaker for “Pictures Worth 1000 Words,” gave advice about angles and perspective and suggested that eye level photos don’t catch readers the way action photos do. He suggested a photo should always cause an emotional response.

In “Photo Phabulous” Kathy Harbiger and Amy Morgan taught patience is a virture. The best photos result from spending time with the subject. Watching movement and anticipating synchronizationas of dancers or football players takes time.

Great photos have viewers feel emotions and send a great message for one moment in time.

Students Read, Review and Reflect in Advisory

Helen Bekhit — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:09:27 +0000

Students in Ms. Mangiero’s advisory reviewing for upcoming tests.

As Staten Islanders know, most high schools have special programs in which students excel in pursuing their future goals. At our school teachers and students go above and beyond the typical learning approach in Advisory.

Not only does this class help students focus on what they are having trouble with, but it gives them confidence to succeed because of the focus and mission of each fifty-minute class.

Advisory is a fifty-minute class that meets every day to address community service hours and the social and academic needs of each student.

The focus each day may be different in each advisory, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays all students are engaged in independent reading.

During the other three days students work together in subject groups to discuss skills, discuss social and academic issues and challenges with their advisor and the other students in the advisory, and plan and complete community service work, since every student must complete 120 hours of community service to graduate.

“First, advisory is a place for a small group of students to grow academically and personally with the guarantee that every student is well known by at least one adult in the building.

Advisory helps facilitate service learning projects so students can be involved with college preparation and planning. It also helps students adjust socially to high school throughout a portfolio process each year.

Our school is the first school to have the advisory program in Staten Island. Even new schools that are being opened are creating advisory programs.

Research shows that when students have a stronger connection with the faculty and students they have a better advantage to graduate,” said principal Aimee Horowtiz

Still to some people this class may seem like a great way to relax students take advantage of the fact that they are only graded as pass or fail.

Depending on the advisor, the tone set, and the amount of students in the class, the work done shows whether or not the class is effective. Students sometimes take advantage of the teacher, not realizing what a bit of hard work could do for them.

“I guess at the beginning things weren’t that great because I was just a freshman and the school was still only a baby in its second year of life, but now I really appreciate it [advisory] because of all my advisor has done for me, especially helping out with SAT prep, College Now classes, and my ACT practice tests,” said senior Stav Vaknin.

Seeing students succeed in school is what brings joy to lots of teachers. Not only does advisory make a student feel great about getting good grades, but it makes the teacher feel good as well.

“Advisory is a great class for students; it helps them develop personally as well as academically. With this small group of students, it is easier to grow a better and more sophisticated global view on today’s economy and society,” said math teacher Ms. Vendra.

So, take advisory seriously, it could mean the difference in your high school experience.

A New Era of Tolerance

Jayme Farbowitz and Nicole Margolies — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:34:53 +0000

This weekend, pride parades in Hong Kong, China and Taipei, Taiwan kick off what many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) Asians hope will be a new era of tolerance.

Events like Taipei’s “Love Out Loud” parade October 31, the largest in Asia with a turnout last year of 18,000, are milestones in a continent where homosexuality can still be illegal.

“It is a platform from which to not only pressure legislators to push for LGBT rights, but also a venue to change the public’s consciousness and views about homosexuality,” said Oscar Atadero to Fridae Magazine when asked about his role in organizing the first gay pride march in Asia in 1994.

The social awareness raised by pride parades is a force in stopping the denial, ignorance and brutality against the LGBT community.

“You are what you are,” said sophomore Leorie Beriguete.

In some places progress has been made. Last month Indonesia overturned legislation that would have permitted public whipping, stoning and imprisonment of homosexuals and adulterers in the Banda Aceh province.

Aceh, known for the devastation it endured from the 2005 tsunami, is semi autonomous from the central government located in Jakarta. Aceh’s 69-seat house unanimously passed the legislation on September 14, but the local government then sent it to the Supreme Court for review; on September 22 the legislation was revoked.

This July India’s Delhi high court amended Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial law instated 149 years ago by the British, because its description of same sex relationships as “unnatural offenses against the order of nature” violated fundamental rights to personal liberty (Article 21 of India’s constitution), equality (Article 14) and prohibition of discrimination (Article 15). Until this, homosexual acts were punishable with a 10 year prison sentence.

Most Asian countries, however, retain such laws.

Despite many references to homosexuality in ancient art and literature, homosexuals in Asia today have been withheld civil rights, abused or killed in a culture that often denies their existence.

China only ceased to consider homosexuality a disease in 2001, a move the US made in 1973, although it has a cultural legacy of homosexuality dating to 1027 BC in the stories of Mizu Xia, Pan Zhang, and Lord Yang, classic tales of love written during China’s Zhou period.

The Hwarang, elected leaders of a military group during Korea’s Silla Dynasty (BC 57- AD 953), celebrated same-sex love in vernacular poetry such as that found in the Sam-Guk-Yu-Sa. Yet, in 2002 when the Lesbian and Gay Alliance against Discrimination, the Lawyers for a Democratic society and Exzone.com sued the Korean government after its Information and Communications Ethic Committee classified homosexuality under “obscenity and perversion” in its “Criteria for Indecent Internet Sites,” the court took cue from 1997’s Youth Protection Act classifying “homosexual love” as “harmful to youth” – and ruled that freedom of speech and expression were not applicable regarding homosexuality.

“That’s ridiculous. They’re exactly the same thing,” said junior Talissa Rosario. “There’s no difference between gay sex and straight sex.”

In 2003 the Korean National Human Rights Protection Committee advised Korea’s Youth Protection Committee to amend the 1997 Youth Protection Act, removing anti-gay language, which had been the basis of the ruling in Exzone vs Korea.

Singapore is not as progressive. Its Media Development Authority fined a cable station $15,000 for showing a gay couple and their adopted child after consulting with the Programme Advisory Committee for English Programs, which agreed in a statement on its website “that a gay relationship should not be presented as an acceptable family unit.”

“We have to realize everyone has the same feelings; We have to care more for one another,” said Youth Development Worker Mrs. Hattie Slaughter, who has worked in every high school in Staten Island.

According to Fridae magazine’s article “Oscar speeches censored in 53 Asian countries?” on April 25, “… the words ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ in Milk writer Dustin Lance Black and actor Sean Penn’s Oscar speeches have been muted out during the recorded broadcasts.”

Accepting an invitation from university leader Lee C. Bollinger to speak at Columbia University. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s official statement on the execution of gays in the Islamic Republic (some 2,000 in 2008) was that “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals.”

But there are, and LGBT Asians, whose existences are denied, are victims of hate crimes. “There have been killings documented in Iraq and other parts of Asia. The Human Rights Watch is an excellent group on that,” said Mr. Kevin Cassidy, executive manager of communications and external relations for the UN’s International Labor Organization.

The UN proposed a gay-rights declaration in December, but it is still in limbo. Non-signatories were south Asians, and surprisingly, the United States under the Bush Administration – the only Western government that refused. In a quick turnaround, the Obama Administration is reversing this position.

LGBT rights are far from settled. The president of the United Nations, Ali Abdussalam Treki, opened its 64th General Assembly and responded to calls for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality but stated that, “As a Muslim, I am not in favor of it …. It is not accepted by the majority of countries. My opinion is not in favor of this matter at all . . . And there are some countries that allow that, thinking it is a kind of democracy . . . I think it is not.”