What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS monitors the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese-, Korean-, Arabic-language news media as well as English-language newcomer and native-born ethnic press published and/or distributed widely in California. "Gleanings from the Ethnic Media" is a regular weekly column compiled by Emil Guillermo, host of "NCM: New California Media TV" (seen on PBS station KCSM-TV60 in the Bay Area); assisted by Pacific News Service and the NCM Network. Just as the alternative news media connected the disaffected populations in the 1960s, so in the 1990s the ethnic media connects the new ethnic majority communities of California -- to one another and to the larger public forum.

LITTLETON: The ethnic media was as startled as the rest of the world by the killings at Columbine High School. The World Journal (San Francisco) editorialized about the uncaring parents of the two student killers. "They're not worthy of any compassion; they have to bear a lot of the responsibility," the paper wrote. "The two youngsters prepared their assault in places at home which were in full view of everybody. It is absolutely incredible that someone who lived in the same house every day with these boys could not have known what was going on.

"Or maybe the parents closed their eyes, preferring not to think of what could happen. All they were interested in were their own concerns. Deep down they didn't care about their children's existence.

"The parents of one of the killers were particularly wealthy. They lived in an up-scale house, drove a BMW and led very comfortable lives. How could a kid in such a family have gone to such extremes as to kill others and then himself? What was it in him that made him so indifferent to human life?"

The China Press (San Francisco) concludes: "What happened in this quiet Colorado small town can occur anywhere else in America. Indeed what can we do when the seeds of hate crimes start growing in a violent culture?"

WORLD TRADE CLUE: Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S, did not mince words at the spring meeting of the San Francisco World Trade Center, saying "Mainland China should become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as soon as possible." (Sing Tao, San Francisco)

The ambassador said he was authorized by Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng to welcome everybody to China -- first as friends, second to make money.

In an interview, the ambassador told reporters that the membership process should be speeded up. "If China doesn't get in it will be bad for the U.S., bad for the WTO, and the WTO can't any longer call itself a 'world' trade organization."

SPIRALING INTO KOSOVO: "In Kosovo, has America Entered The Abyss?" asks the Final Call in an editorial. "With the fall of the Soviet bloc, capitalism quickly went to work to create a new enemy, a new international bogey man, a new threat to democracy. That enemy became 'fundamentalist Islam'," the newspaper writes. "So it seems strange that President Clinton now is considering whether to risk the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers by introducing them as ground troops in Kosovo to protect the lives of Albanian Muslims.

"American involvement in the attempt to put down Slobodan Milosovic's maniacal vision of a Muslim-free Kosovo has as much to do with protecting Muslims as J Edgar Hoover's surveillance of Black organizations had to do with keeping them free from corruption.

"America's involvement in Yugoslavia is an attempt to extend American and western hegemony and to further weaken the influence of the former Soviet bloc," the paper concluded.

FOSTER PROTEST: Black social workers and community activists charge that African-American children in the foster care system are being overlooked while millions of dollars stream to white controlled institutions, according to the Sun Reporter (San Francisco).

Black children are over-represented in the foster care system, because too often they are the victims of households that have been ravaged by drugs, poverty, and domestic violence.

Black group homes, community based and capable of instilling children with cultural awareness and pride, are often seen by African American social workers as solid options for troubled black children. However, black group homes are frequently overlooked and under funded.

FREE THE CHURCHES: In Geneva, site of the U.N. conference for Human Rights, activists from the Vietnamese community abroad are launching fierce attacks at the Communist-led government, the Viet Nam Daily (San Jose, Ca.) reported.

A U.N. report asserts that Vietnamese regime has violated religious freedoms and calls for significant changes in the criminal code. Hanoi recently released a new executive decree on religious activities, but according to the Daily "It only reinstates basic principles that have been applied in the Vietnamese Communist regime for more than 40 years."

The most important issue concerns church properties. The new decree does nothing to return religious buildings confiscated on a "compulsory volunteer" basis in North Vietnam in 1954, and in South Vietnam in 1975. The major religions in Vietnam include Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao Buddhist, Cao Dai, and Islamic faiths.

FREE THE PRISONERS: Representative Oz Lofgren, D-Santa Clara has sent a letter to the Vietnamese government asking it to release Professor Nguyen The Gian, a well-known geologist and activist according to Vietnam Daily (San Jose, Ca.). Co-signers are Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Tom Davis.

Gian has been imprisoned for some months for speaking out regarding human rights and democracy in Vietnam. The letter ask the Hanoi government to respect the International Human Rights charter that it has signed.

FILIPINO FUNDRAISER: A man wanted in the U.S. for making illegal contributions to President Clinton and other Democrats, is now in the Philippines and may not be extraditable, according to a report in the Philippine News (San Francisco).

Mark Jimenez, a wealthy computer executive and reportedly Florida's largest Democratic donor in 1996, was indicted last month for conspiracy, fraud, tax evasion and making and concealing illegal contributions. The Philippine government confirms Jimenez is in the country, and that he is a friend of Philippine President Joseph Estrada.

While the FBI plans a formal request for extradition, Estrada's Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said for extradition to be binding, the crime would have to be recognized by the two countries. "I'm not certain that (making illegal campaign contributions) in the Philippines would be a criminal act."

Jimenez is believed to have donated to Estrada's campaign.