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.

EMBRACING BRACEROS: As a response to critics who say the Mexican government isn't doing enough to protect its citizens abroad, new talks are underway between the U.S. and Mexico on legally employing Mexican labor in regional markets throughout the U.S., reports La Opinion (Los Angeles).

Rosario Green, Mexico's foreign relations minister: "It's very important that we confront the problem of migration -- which is a global problem -- with innovative schemes." Green pointed to cotton and citrus as two agricultural sectors that will employ Mexican workers once they are legally contracted.

GLOBAL SMUGGLERS: Cigarette smuggling is a major problem in Germany, and the most important smugglers are Vietnamese immigrants (CaliToday, San Jose, Ca.). Recently, two Vietnamese -- both workers sent to East Germany during the Cold War who had filed for asylum -- were found shot to death in the cities of Honow and Weissensee.

Crackdowns have pushed the sellers of smuggled (tax-free) cigarettes underground. The gangs are small but well run, and deliver to established bars and clubs, making it more difficult for police to catch them.

BHOPAL -- WORSE AND WORSE: Nearly 15 years after the Bhopal disaster, when a gas leak at the Union Carbide plant killed some 8,000 people within three days, survivors are worse off than they were before the disaster according to a report in India West (San Leandro, Ca.).

Citing Satinath Sarangi, manager of a trust set up to help the victims, the paper claims an additional 8,000 have died in the 15 years since the blast. Respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, cancer, and gynecological disorders are all on the increase among those exposed, Sarangri said at a talk sponsored by the San Francisco Health Dept. Many of those who worked as day laborers before the accident are now not healthy enough to continue working. The Sambhavna Trust does not accept corporate donations, but welcomes donations from individuals and can be reached through Pesticide Action Network, 49 Powell, Suite 500, San Francisco 94102.

ASIAN POLITICS IN U.S.: "Friends of Song," a San Francisco-Bay Area fan club for Taiwanese presidential candidate Chu-yu Song, pledged to continue working hard for him despite a recent poll that shows him with less than 30% of popular support in Taiwan (World Journal, San Francisco). A spokesperson for the club explained that Song's fall was for the most part a response to the fact that the ruling party, KMT, had unleashed its powerful political machine and vote-buying tactics against him. The club will focus efforts to help the candidate on the Internet because it is widely used by Taiwanese immigrants.

MARCOSES BEHIND EXTRADITION EFFORT?: Imelda Marcos and her family may be the key forces behind attempts to extradite Mark Jimenez back to the U.S., reports the Manila Bulletin (San Francisco).

Jimenez, indicted for conspiracy, tax evasion, mail fraud and illegal contributions to Democratic party campaigns, is in the Philippines fighting extradition. He is said to be in the inner circle of current President Joseph Estrada, but sources close to the President said the Marcoses have employed lobbyists to pursue Jimenez's extradition.

According to the Bulletin, these sources claim that the Marcoses were angered when Jimenez acted as a broker in a Hong Kong company's takeover of Philippine Long Distance Co. which the Marcoses believe is part of their family's wealth.

PROTESTING ART: Vietnamese Americans in Orange County are upset over an art exhibition featuring a Vietnamese woman wearing a North Vietnamese army uniform, reports Thoi Bao (San Jose). The portrait, called "Metal Woman," is on loan from Hanoi, and some 200 protesters consider it propaganda.

The museum committee met with Vietnamese community leaders and agreed to take that painting down, but changed its mind at the last minute, hours before the exhibition opened.

NO FOREIGN VOTE: The 10 million Mexican nationals living in California and elsewhere away from home who are eligible to vote may have lost any chance to cast a ballot in the next national elections according to La Opinion (Los Angeles).

Mexico's ruling party, the PRI, has rejected the idea and refused to discuss it in the Senate, where the PRI has an absolute majority. "The general feeling about PRI's position is that it wants to deter progress," said legislator Jose Luis Gutierrez.

KOREAN LENS ON KOREAN AMERICANS: Journalists in Korea tend to have a negative view of Korean Americans, according to a study conducted by Communication Professor Sung-Hyung Lee of Appalachian State University, Tennessee (Korea Times, Los Angeles).

The study of 108 experienced journalists found 44.4 percent with negative views about Korean Americans, 30 percent with positive views and 20.6 percent had neutral views.

Asked for the "first thing that comes to mind," when thinking about Korean Americans, 27 answered "fugitives from Korea" and "crooks," 14 answered "Americanized and forgetting about their own heritage."

In the past, Lee has asked mainstream U.S. journalists their opinions on Korea, North and South. Of 99 journalists holding positions of Executive Editor or higher, 39.9 percent gave negative answers about South Korea and its people, 32.5 percent were positive, and 27.6 percent neutral. But 86.6 percent expressed negative feelings toward North Korea, only 3 percent were positive, 12.4 were neutral.