Newsletter

ASIA SOCIETY WORLDWIDE HONG KONGHOUSTON LOS ANGELES MANILAMELBOURNE MUMBAINEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO SEOULSHANGHAIWASHINGTON, D.C.

500 Washington StreetSuite 350

San Francisco, CA 94111

Visit us on the web at:

www.asiasociety.org

UPCOMING PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS SPRING 2010

Meet the Author: William Vollman, Kissing the Mask. April 13, 2010

Panel Discussion: "Identity and Influence: The New Generation of Asian American Women Writers." April 22, 2010

Annual Dinner: "Building Bridges to a Shared Future." April 27, 2010

Women in Asia: Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation. May 5, 2010

Asian America Now: "The Next Generation: Asian American Stand Up Comics." May 13, 2010

Off the Menu: "Filipino Flavors." May 15-16, 2010

Off the Menu: "Wok Hey: The Art of the Stir Fry." May 29, 2010.

Conference: "Scaling Green Finance in China & the US: A Call to Action." June 3, 2010

ASIA SOCIETY annual dinner SAN FRANCISCO

SAVETHE

DATE

Building Bridges to a Shared FutureThe immense challenges facing the world today — global warming, rapid industrialization, financial crises — transcend national boundaries. This year, the Annual Dinner honors those who embody a new brand of global collaboration. Through business innovation, cultural exchange and forward thinking, these leaders have built a foundation for the United States-Asia relationship, and are preparing the next generation of leaders to overcome these global challenges. Join us as we engage some of the key policy shapers and business leaders in California who are making a difference locally, nationally, and across the globe.

Business & Policy

Honoree

Arts & Culture

Honoree

Education

Honoree

Get your tickets today! Table sponsorships also available!Log on to AsiaSociety.org or call (415) 421-8707.

Hewlett-Packard M. Arthur Gensler Feng DengGreenest Company in America Founder, Gensler Co-Founder, Northern Light Venture Capital

2 Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010

Staff

N. Bruce PickeringExecutive Director

Wendy Soone-BroderDevelopment Director

Robert BullockProgram Director

Amanda HuffmanProgram & Development Assistant

Asia SocietyGlobal

Headquarters

Northern California

500 Washington Street Suite 350

San Francisco, CA 94111 tel (415) 421-8707 fax (415) 421-2465

Advisory Board

The Honorable George P. ShultzHonorary Chairman

John S. Wadsworth, Jr.Co-Chairman and Trustee

Chong-Moon LeeCo-Chairman and Trustee

Richard C. BlumDaniel A. Carroll

Iris S. ChanCarmen ChangHoward ChaoJeff O. Clarke

David A. CoulterTimothy Dattels

Mark A. EdmundsThomas B. Gold

Mary HussC. Richard Kramlich

David W. LyonDipti B. MathurLenny Mendonca

Alex OngWilliam J. PerryGary E. Rieschel

Sanford R. RobertsonSanjiv Sanghvi

Orville H. SchellLip-Bu Tan

Kenneth P. WilcoxJay Xu

James YeeKyung H. Yoon

Charles R. KayeChairman, Asia Society

Vishakha N. DesaiPresident, Asia Society

Corporate Members GlobalAESAlcoa FoundationAmerican AirlinesBombadierBank of New York MellonEni SpAFreeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.General AtlanticGreen Stamp AmericaKPMGMorgan StanleyPfizerShui On LandSony CorporationTEDA

Corporate ContributorsConnell Bros. Company LTD.PG&ESilicon Valley BankUnion BankWells FargoWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Corporate SupporterDeloitteHSBC

Corporate DonorsBay Area CouncilCeyuanChevronLevi Strauss & CoIndus Capital PartnersSutter Hill VenturesTalent Age Associates

In Kind ContributorsBetelnut RestaurantCathay PacificComcastChina DailyGenslerGiant Horse PrintingJohn De LucaHyphen magazineK&L GatesKQEDMartinelli’s CiderParducci WinerySan Francisco Business TimesTeance Fine TeasTommy Toy’sWinery ExchangeYank Sing RestaurantAnita Zand

Program UnderwritersAutodeskBCAIARichard BlumCalifornia MagazineIris ChanChevronDeloitteHPChong-Moon LeeDipti MathurLenny MendoncaMorgan StanleyNew Enterprise AssociatesNixon Peabody LLPRichard PalmerPG&EPTW ArchitectsSan Francisco Business TimesShui On LandSouthwest AirSVB Financial GroupTECOUnited AirlinesVerizon WirelessJack WadsworthWells Fargo BankWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Associate/Student/Teacher MembersFrederick K. ChowMaya EscuderoMax HinchmanRobert Moore

Senior MembersDavid N. ArnauTerry CerratoColin ChinMary F. ConnorsWilliam P. FullerBeatrice & Richard HeggieFazlur KhanSumi KimJean M. MoseleyAnthony PanEdith PerlmanRobert ScalapinoKatherine ShotwellShao-Yuen Yuan

New Individual MembersStephen BealBruce BoydKeith M. CastoRoyee ChenTerry ChuahMolly Coye

Kenneth A. EpsteinLawrence FinneRobert GoldfarbChristopher HestAndrew HollingsworthDan KellyRegis B. KellyMichael KooWei-Tai KwokJonathan H. LembergBrian McLeodLaura NagleJoy OuDonald W. PolishukArthur E. PontauKrittibas RayMargie RogersonBrenda ShankAuria StylesJames B. TewksburyDaniel W. WineyRobin N. WonRon WongVicky M. WongAlex Zhang

Young Professionals MembersEllen E. BoccuzziFay CoadKiyoe CongerXiaoming JiaoLilinoe KekoaChristopher KelleyMaggie LiJason LiouRachel NgAnna J. Zichterman RemisVictor SiuZi Wong

Dual/Family MembersMichael BenjaminBarbara & William BullockJerry Carroll & Kate FickleAnnette ClearLap Yee & Brian ConleyKatherine & John L. KrikenAlmon E. LarshKristi M. SaitamaKaren ShintoMichael Zielenziger

Contributing MembersEleanor & Bernard W. BurkeMark ChandlerWilliam F. DagleyNiels ErichThomas B. Gold Kevin HaroffQuentin K. HillsScott Klika

DeLisa LeightonDavid W. LyonDuncan L. MattesonT.J. PempelBruce PickeringTodd K. St. SureL. L. WhitneyMee Mee Wong

Sustaining MembersCarola Barton & John SupanLouis d. BeldenGeorge Broder & Wendy Soone-BroderSumir ChadhaJeff O. ClarkeJocelyn DoeKenneth LamRichard M. RosenbergToby RosenblattLisa SpiveyIngrid Staudenmeyer

President's Circle MembersDianne Feinstein & Richard C. BlumIris S. ChanCarmen ChangHoward ChaoDavid A. CoulterJohn De LucaWilliam H. DraperMark A. EdmundsBuck GeeDaniel P. GettySyed HassanC. Richard KramlichChong-Moon LeeDipti B. MathurJohn McQuownLenny MendoncaCynthia MiyashitaJames C. MorganRobert P. MorrowHiro OgawaSuno Kay OsterweisCarolyn & Richard K. PalmerWilliam J. PerryRafat PirzadaSanford R. RobertsonSanjiv SanghviGeorge P. ShultzAlvin SmithLip-Bu TanEdward A. TortoriciJohn S. WadsworthKenneth P. WilcoxJames YeeKyung YoonMona Lisa Yuchengco

Asia Society is grateful to the following individuals and organizations for their support:

Asia Society is the leading global and pan-Asian orga-nization working to strengthen relationships and pro-mote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia.

We seek to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of policy, business, education, arts, and culture.

Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, non-profit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Wash-ington, D.C.

Asia Society is on the web at www.AsiaSociety.org.

Preparing Asians and Americans for a shared future.

I have been the Executive Director in Northern California for about seven

years, and in that time we have inau-gurated numerous program series (Sustainable Development in Asia, The Future of Democracy in Asia, Off the Menu, and others), but we have never committed to an undertaking as great as what we have started this year. Never before has ASNC created entirely new initiatives, encompassing a sustained series of programs that cross geographic and institutional boundaries. Yet within

the first two months of this year, Asia Society Northern California launched two such initiatives that will give us the ability to address selected issues to a degree of detail never before possible.

The first, the Asian Contemporary Art and Design Consortium (ACAC), will foster an appreciation for contem-porary Asian art among the public, the museum commu-nity, and various galleries and critics in Northern California. Patterned after a very successful collaboration in New York City, ACAC is a joint collaboration between the Asian Art Museum, California College of the Arts and Asia Society Northern California. You should start to see programs by the end of this calendar year that explore the richness and diver-sity of contemporary Asian art in the Bay Area. The second major launch, the Pacific Cities Sustainability

Initiative (PCSI), builds on ASNC’s extremely success-ful environmental programming over the past four years. This undertaking is a joint venture between ASNC, our sister Asia Society center in Southern California, USC’s Marshall School of Business, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities’ World Institute. PCSI, which is underwritten in part by a grant from PG&E, will consider how cities — so often seen as a primary driver of climate change — can be made greener and become the solution, not the problem. Since more than half the planet now lives in urban settings, this is one of the great imperatives of the 21st Century.

The first PCSI program, "Global Warming and the Emerging Water Crisis in California and Asia," took place in January before a packed room.

Stay tuned for more information on both of these major new Asia Society Northern California initiatives as we confront the twin challenges of energy shortages and climate change.

3Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010

ASNC Launches Two Important Initiatives

News from the Center

Bruce PickeringExecutive Director

Chairmen's CornerOne of the ingredients for Asia Society’s continued strong

growth in Northern California has been its Advisory Board. Founded in 2002, and led by the Honorary Chairmanship of The Honorable George Shultz, the Board includes many of this region’s leaders in business, policy, academia, the media, and the arts. It has provided ASNC with advice, program ideas, financial support, and outreach into the community. Two board members head our two board committees — Iris Chan heads the Development Committee, which assists our Development Director, Wendy Soone-Broder, with our fund-raising initiatives, and David Lyon leads our new Program Committee, which provides advice to Program Director Robert Bullock on public programming and events.

Membership on the board has been remarkably stable over the past eight years, but as for any other living institution, change is a fact of life. This year we bid farewell to four important members — Mona Lisa Yuchengo, Founder of Filipinas magazine, Tim Dattels, partner at TPG, Jeff Clarke, stepping down from his presidency of KQED, and Sandy Robertson of Francisco Partners, one of our original found-ing members. Each has made invaluable contributions to ASNC’s expansion.

This year, we also welcome several new members — Jay Xu, the dynamic, new director of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Alexander Ong, Executive Chef and Owner of Betelnut, one of San Francisco’s best restaurants, and Mary Huss, Publisher of the San Francisco Business Times.

A full list of ASNC’s board is on page two of the newsletter, and you can meet ASNC board members at various ASNC functions, such as our upcoming Annual Dinner on April 27.

Please be sure to join us for this year's Annual Dinner at Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco!

Our Seventh Annual Dinner, which will take place April 27, 2010 and is our largest fundraiser of the year, has gotten off to a fabulous start. We are deeply grateful to our sponsors:

LEAD SPONSORReiko & Chong-Moon LeeSusy & Jack Wadsworth

PATRON SPONSORChevron

Hewlett-PackardUnion Bank

Wells Fargo Bank

BENEFACTOR SPONSORSenator Dianne Feinstein & Richard C. Blum

Iris S. Chan & Michael Chan, M.D.PG&E

Silicon Valley BankSouthwest Airlines

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

SPONSORAsian Art MuseumCeyuan Ventures

CitiSusan Weeks & David Coulter

East West BankGenslerKPMG

Mayer Brown LLPTalent Age Associates

Verizon Wireless

CONTRIBUTORDeloitte

Parducci Wine CellarsSan Francisco Business TimesMEDIA SPONSOR WINE SPONSOR

Current as of 3/30/2010

Development News

4 Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010

News from the Center

Inside the President's Circle: Rafat Pirzada

Scaling Green Finance in China and the U.S.A CAll to ACtion

TICKETSASIA SOCIETY/SPONSOR MEMBERS $125

NONMEMBERS: $160ASNC MEMBERSHIP + ADMISSION: $140TO REGISTER, CALL (415) 421-8707 OR

VISIT ASIASOCIETY.ORG

CROSS-BOUNDARY VENTURE CAPITAL CREATIVE & EFFECTIVE FUNDING SOLUTIONS IN CHINA'S MARKETS

CREATIVE & EFFECTIVE FUNDING SOLUTIONS IN THE U.S. FUNDING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA AND THE U.S.

THURSDAY JUNE 3, 2010PG&E AUDITORIUM

77 BEALE ST.SAN FRANCISCO, CA8:30 A.M. TO 5 P.M.

PANELS:

Finance is one of the most serious and under-appre-ciated constraints on rapid green economic develop-

ment. Widespread deployment of existing technologies can achieve the goal of global emissions peaking in 2020

and keeping temperature increases below 2°C. Investment volumes need to triple in order to get there.

Join us as we explore these critical issues in June!

For this issue, we sat down with Rafat Pirzada, an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and Co-founder of Cyrus, which was acquired for over $1 billion in 2001.

Why did you choose to be an entrepre-neur?

I remember growing up in Pakistan in the early 70s, and watching televi-sion shows about the future having telephones with video capabilities. I dreamt about being involved in such a technology revolution. I am glad that I have been able to contribute to such an innovation.

What have been some of the recent trends in venture capitalism?

The venture industry has gone through some difficult times because of the eco-nomic downturn. For the firms to make money there has to be a liquidity event like when a company gets sold or goes

through an Initial Public Stock Offering (IPO). This year the expectation is that many of those companies that were clogged are now lined up for their IPOs and some of them will get acquired.

What I have been hearing from other venture capitalists is that they are get-ting very good deals on restarts — companies which have been around for several years but have reshaped their management team. Right now the hot areas of investment are green energy and social sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

What kind of technologies are being deployed in emerging markets and how may they be applicable to Asia?

In almost all countries in Asia where landlines are not built up, the tele-density (number of people who had telephones) was abysmally low, and so what happened in the last 10 years is proliferation of cell phone networks. This has really changed the paradigm of how people do busi-ness in those countries. It has also helped companies build products for next generation networks deployed overseas.

Why support Asia Society?

My interest in Asia Society has two critical aspects. One, the programs they host are a great opportunity to know more about the political events in Asia and also meet influential speakers in government and policy. Also, it's a great connector for knowing about the arts and culture of the region. Being a person of Asian origin, it’s a natural fit for me.

What can we learn about venture capi-talism from Asia, and they from us?

In a study done by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) looking at the value of companies whose founders were of Indian and Pakistani origin, on their initial liquid-ity event they were valued at over a billion dollars, which is a huge yardstick. You see this trend even with Chinese companies.

Being a Pakistani, for me even Pakistan was created in a very entrepreneurial way. If we didn’t have leaders like Jinnah, whose approach was very entre-preneurial to create brand new country, Pakistan wouldn’t have existed. What is required is that we foster that success and try to give back to the countries of our origin. In this regard Indian entrepre-neurs have been more successful.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS TO BE ANNOUNCED

5Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010

Program Highlights

Reporter walks 'thin line' between activism, journalism

Liu Jianqiang is an internationally recognized Chinese reporter who has repeatedly broken stories about the environmental crimes in China. ASNC Intern Neha Sakhuja sat down with him before his public lecture in January.

NS: You have said, “As a journalist... half of my effort is spent on considering how to get a story past the censors and the likelihood of punishment.” How does this affect your reporting?

JL: If you want to be a journalist who wants to write what is told to you, your article will be published. If you want to write something meaningful or uncover the damage China’s development is causing, you have to face censorship.

When I published my Three Gorges Dam article in 2004, I found the Three Gorges Dam Company lied to the public for many years. It did not tell the truth about the project or the promised com-

pensation to the displaced residents. They found the article bad for the image of the company and called me warning that “If you publish the article you will be the enemy of the State.” I turned off my mobile phone.

When I went ahead with publishing my story on the Tiger Leaping Gorge Dam, my editor warned me about the content of the story. I did sense the pressure he was under to stop me from revealing this information to the public. The final blow was when The Wall Street Journal did a story about me and my investigative reporting. I was fired from my job.

That’s censorship. I have to think whether a sentence may be sensitive, and I would probably have to use a soft approach. For me, the main goal is to publish it, because maybe it will make a difference. I know I might offend some groups, which is common, but I would have made others happy.

NS: How do people in China respond to your stories?

JL: When I published the story on the Tiger Leaping Gorge Dams project, it was an illegal project. The day after I published my article, one friend called Premier Wen Jiabao’s office asking him to read this story. Jiabao then ordered the project to be suspended pending a central government investigation.

The local people who would be affected by the project were not given all details about resettlement. They made hun-dreds of copies of my articles and sent them to fellow farmers who were not aware and two years later more than 10,000 local people protested against this project. The local officials lied

to the people saying no such project was planned. The affected people then mailed copies of my article to the local government. I think I can help the peo-ple and government by providing them with real information. If the government has real information, it does respond.

NS: How do you do this?

JL: Well, I can’t just publish it in the newspaper and TV. This is where the Internet is very useful. Even though the Internet is controlled by the government, it is sometimes very difficult to monitor. Lots of people even use chat rooms to get the word out. Interestingly, Chinese language is very easy for the government to censor. There are a lot of Internet policemen watching, but most of them are not very good in English, so activists use English to discuss issues.

NS: Is there a line between journalism and activism in China today?

JL: In China some pioneer NGOs are head-ed by former journalists. They know the truth and wanted to do something about it. Their influence in the media makes it easier to get their stories out to the people.

Covering environmental issues over the years, I have seen myself conflicted over my role as a journalist or an activist. It’s very difficult. I was a journalist, but now I spend more and more time on envi-ronmental protection activities. When I sit to write an article I am a journalist. When I go to the river, the dam, I have to do something about it. Not just write, but talk to people, organize meetings. Maybe there is a line, but it’s very thin.

For the complete interview, please visit asiasociety.org

Weekly Intermediate-Beginning Mandarin Class a HitIn March ASNC resumed its Mandarin class series with a

beginning-intermediate class, meeting Monday evenings.

Led by veteran Mandarin teacher Anthony Witte (Lin Laoshi), the class has been a resounding success and rollicking good time. From the moment he says "shang ke!" to the end of class, the class is laughing its way through tone exercises, pingyin, restaurant dialogues, and daily conversation practice.

Witte offers a wealth of experience. He lived in China and Taiwan for two years, worked in Chinese-language tourism and television, and has taught Chinese for over six years. However, the students, many of whom have lived in or vis-ited China, also keep the class entertaining and informative with lively anecdotes, on-the-ground language tricks, and etiquette tips.

Whether you want to brush up on business Chinese or are just learning "ni hao," you'll want to stay tuned for informa-tion on our continuing series of intermediate and first-time learners' Mandarin classes!Mandarin class students pose with teacher Anthony Witte (Second from left)

6 Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010 Program Highlights

If you’ve been hoping that China and the rest of the Asian economies can

smoothly take the reins of the world economy now that the financial crisis is over, you may have a few things to consider — the crisis is far from over, and China is not quite ready to save the international economy.

These were the overarching messages at the February 18 conference “Post-Crisis Challenges to the US-China Relationship: Symbiosis or Tension?” The conference was sponsored by Asia Society, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Silicon Valley Bank, which hosted.

Keynote speaker Stephen Roach, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, warned of the many challenges Asia will face as it takes a stronger leadership role in the world, and of the responsibility of the US to cooperate with Asia.

Chief among Roach’s concerns is

the US-Asia trade imbalance, which was created by over-consumption by Americans and under-consumption by the Chinese. While the sting of the financial crisis has lowered American consumer spending, Roach advocat-ed changes in China to encourage less saving and increased spending. However, he added that his suggested reforms such as building a social safety net would not be able to fill the gap left in the world’s economy by the receding American consumer – India and China’s current combined consumption is just one-quarter that of the US.

Boosting consumption is not the only challenge that stands between China and economic dominance; its service sector is tiny compared to India and the West, and it also struggles to bal-ance development between urban and rural areas. In addition, China is just beginning to produce a crop of business leaders. Roach argued that should China

tackle these problems, its own economy would be more sustainable and healthy, a great boon for the world economy.

Many of the panelists noted that politi-cal tensions — and political grandstand-

ing — have threatened repeatedly to endanger the US-China financial rela-tionship. Many also condemned the frequent claim by politicians that the US-China trade imbalance causes loss of American jobs, arguing that were China to step out, other low-cost coun-tries would step in.

However, despite these numerous chal-lenges to the US-China relationship, all the panelists stressed the importance of finding a way to cooperate with China and prepare its business leaders to become stewards of the world economy. Though we may have grown up as the sole superpower, it’s time to start shar-ing responsibility for the world economy, for the benefit of all.

Global financial crisis far from over, panelists warn

Keynote speaker Stephen Roach, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, speaks at the February 18 conference "Challenges to the Post-Crisis US-China Relationship: Symbiosis or Tension."

Panelists Nicholas Hope, Stanford Center for International Development, Robert Kapp, Kapp and Associates, and Stephen Roach discuss the future economic landscape in China.

Moderator Teresa Curran, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, poses a question to panel-ists Kyung Yoon, Talent Age Associates, and Sanjiv Sanghvi, Wells Fargo and Company.

The results are in for ASNC's internal eco-audit

In February, ASNC completed its internal Eco-Audit, led by intern Carlos Cajilig. Eco-Office is a Shanghai Roots & Shoots

program in which students survey office equipment, staff habits, facilities, and consumption of resources. Then, using a calculator provided by Environmental Resources Management, auditors estimate total greenhouse gas emissions, and write recommendations based on a set of improvement guidelines provided by Shanghai Roots & Shoots.

International Air travel was by far the most carbon-intensive activ-ity in the office — flights to China by staff amounted to 50 trees!

The remainder of our environmental impact score was com-posed of daily transportation, office energy use, and resource consumption. The staff did well in the areas of recycling paper, turning off appliances when not in use, and using public transportation.

However, we found energy was used inefficiently in the heat-ing and cooling system, because the office is often too hot or too cold. In addition, we discovered that a few small chang-es such as buying indoor plants for the office and changing our cleaning supplies to organic products could lessen our impact on the environment.

To offset our carbon footprint, we donated trees to Shanghai Roots & Shoots' Million Trees Campaign to plant trees in Inner Mongolia to fight desertification.

So far we have donated 41 of 66 trees to offset our footprint!Total carbon footprint: 16,415.92 pounds

7Asia Society Northern California News SPRING 2010Program Highlights

How North Korea sees itself — and usThose with high hopes for

North Korea disbanding its nuclear program at the six-par-ty talks may want to reconsider – judging from its propaganda, North Korea’s anti-American, isolationist and pro-military stance is stronger than ever, according to North Korean affairs expert B.R. Myers.

In his February 11 talk before Asia Society Northern California and World Affairs Council, Myers argued that to effectively negotiate with North Korea, we must understand the way its leaders view their country and the outside world. And the key to under-standing North Koreans’ worldview is its propaganda, which shapes not only citizens’ view of themselves and the world, but also guides the North Korean leaders’ actions.

Myers argues in his newest book The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters that North Koreans believe their race to be morally superior to other races, and that because of this they need leaders who can protect the innocence of the common people from the corrupting foreign forces. This belief is conveyed not only in pro-paganda — in his trips to North Korean refugee camps in China, Myers said the North Koreans recoiled in fear of him,

influenced by lifetimes of anti-American propaganda.

North Koreans view their leader, Kim Jong Il, as a necessary, protective, pater-nal figure, valiantly standing up to their greatest enemy: America. Ironically, this per-ception of Americans does not vary with the current state of political affairs – in

1999, when the US gave North Korea a historically large aid package, the propa-ganda machine turned out even stronger rhetoric against the US. In fact, as North Korea’s economic condition has deterio-rated in comparison to South Korea and the world at large, Myers has seen the virulence of anti-American and militaristic propaganda increase dramatically.

As Myers sees it, this stems from the North Korean regime’s struggle for legiti-macy. Prior to Kim Jung Il, Kim Il Sung was able to lead on two pillars: eco-nomic stability and military strength. But when Kim Jung Il came into power, it was no longer feasible to claim that North Korea was economically superior to South Korea; the only way to establish both himself as a legitimate leader and the country as an entity distinct from South Korea was to emphasize mili-tary prowess and race-based uniqueness above all else. In short, without America

and its ally South Korea being portrayed as “Goliath,” North Korean leaders could hardly be seen as heroic “Davids.”

For this reason, Myers said he has little hope of success from the six-party talks. Convincing Kim Jung Il to give up his nuclear arsenal would be nearly impos-sible, as it would significantly reduce his military-based legitimacy. The best hope for the talks would be to convince the regime to shift its propaganda away from emphasizing military might and hatred of foreigners, thus allowing lead-ers to make conciliatory moves with-out contradicting their message to the people, Myers said.

To Americans –– who enjoy a relative wealth of information sources — it is hard to believe that ordinary North Koreans support their leaders and love their country, but in fact, the vast major-ity does, Myers said. Although many North Koreans have access to media from the outside world, the govern-ment’s propaganda is still strikingly effective. He argued that in contrast to more consumerist cultures, where many feel they lack a larger purpose in the world, North Korean citizens feel that they have a direct role to play in their country’s fight against outside powers, giving them a sense of pride, purpose and inspiration to stay loyal — despite the discomforts of daily life.

INDOvations changing India and the worldNavi Radjou, Executive Director of the Centre for India & Global Business at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, participated in Asia Society Northern California's program titled “Indovations: Driving Global Innovations from Emerging Markets” on January 25, 2010. This interview was conducted by intern Neha Sakhuja.

NS: Is Indian innovation rele-vant to other parts of the world?

NR: Indian innovations are relevant for rest of the world for very simple reasons. If you look at the factors that lead inno-vation in India — liberty, connectivity, and diversity — all are affected by frugality. Scarcity of infrastructure, capital, and human resources are all driving a frugal mind set, which are leading to innovations that are inherently affordable, acces-sible, and sustainable by nature.

These innovations are also going to be relevant for other emerging markets like China, Brazil, and South Africa, which also face scarcity of natural resources and capital. Innovation taking place in India may even be relevant for mature markets like the US and Europe. Take for example the Nano car developed by the TATA Motors group. It's been developed for $2,500, a pretty low cost, but it is also a high-quality car. As European and American consumers become more environmentally and economically con-scious, we can expect to see a Nano rolling down the streets of San Francisco or New York very soon.

NS: What characteristics define Indian entrepreneurs?

NR: First is frugality – Indians are very parsimonious in the way they use resources. Second is inclusiveness – they think every citizen in India is a potential customer. Third is the prin-ciple of collaboration. What you see among new entrepreneurs is that they inherently partner – they understand they have to partner with local NGOs and local communities if they want to help bring the innovation to the masses. Fourth, adaptability, both in thinking and action. In a country like India, adversity surrounds you in every part of your life. So if you want to be successful in surviving in this environment, you have to be adaptive.

NS: How can innovation help India overcome social and eco-nomic challenges?

NR: The innovations you are going to see coming out of India in the coming decades are going to facilitate inclusion in bank-ing, health care, and energy. Nearly 600 million Indians today live without electricity, and the same number if not more does not have a bank account. Imagine how mobile technology can bring health care to the people in villages instead of them traveling to the cities for treatment. Similarly, mobile technol-ogy can help people in rural areas receive and transmit money.

I think the real story of India is going to be how innovations help those people who live in the rural areas and upgrade their lifestyle and living standards. That’s a fantastic story of economic uplifting at a scale no other country has seen before.

For the complete interview, please visit asiasociety.org.

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Please mail form to: Asia Society, 500 Washington Street, Suite 350, San Francisco, CA 94111 or fax to 415-421-2465. For more information, call 415-421-8707 or visit https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=9710a1

Asia Society is a nonprofit section 501(c)(3) corporation. ASIA SOCIETY and Leogryph Design are registered trademarks of Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, New York.

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