Lots of things happening in the Vietnamese community lately, so here's a two months catch up.
Bill Gates in Vietnam
The buzz was in Vietnam end of April, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates visited Vietnam for the very first time where he was met with cheering crowds and a welcome usually reserved for rock stars. Bill, speaking at the University of Hanoi, says that Vietnam has a huge potential to be ‘a miracle economy’, and especially after reading “The World is Flat”, I can’t agree with him more. A few months earlier, chip company Intel made a big announcement that they are going to build a $300 million chip plant just outside of Saigon. Exciting times for Vietnam’s economy!
Phu and Yen Khanh’s Wedding of the Century
What the? Since when do we include personal wedding in the Vietnamese Buzz? But boy, the buzz-o-meter was off the hook, because anyone and everyone who ever worked in the Vietnamese Southern California community knows Phu Nguyen as the innovator of UVSA and the yearly Tet Festival (not to mention the youngest president of the Vietnamese SoCal community) and Yen Khanh as the graceful master-mistress of ceremony of all the events down there. It’s the community couple that everyone’s talking about and with a wedding of 1000 guests at the beautiful Hyatt in Huntington Beach, you were living behind the moon if you haven’t heard about PYK’s wedding (or are not involved in the Vietnamese community, but that’s okay, don’t feel bad, grin). Check out the slideshow. Congrats to these Vietnamese community activists and leaders, both of whom I have great respect for.
Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam controversy in Westminster, CA
Everyone’s talking about, a lot of people are agitated, many are disappointed, lots of finger-pointing, so here’s the scoop: in February of this year, an independent execute search firm was hired by the Westminster School Board to search for a new superintendent for the school district. Dr. Nguyen-Lam Kim-Oanh whom I had the pleasure to invite to the VPS Conference 2004, is a long-time student advisor, professor, community leader and educator, was named Little Saigon’s Person of the Year. She was among the Top 7 people during the final “rounds” and was finally hired in a school board vote of 4-1 with much celebration. Many educators and community activists welcomed that decision, for she last worked as an associate director and senior professional development specialist for the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at Cal State Long Beach and was also a trustee for the Garden Grove Unified School District.
Well, the controversy started, when a week later, Board members Judy Ahrens and Jim Reed reversed their decision in a closed-door meeting and the new vote of 3-2 rescinded the hiring of Dr. Nguyen-Lam as the new superintendent without publicly citing any reasons. Naturally, the Vietnamese and Hispanic community are outraged, as the 10,000-student Westminster district consists of 39% Latino and 35% Asian students. The Vietnamese and Hispanic community cry out “racism”, board members cry out being “disgusted for being accused of racism”. Petition letters, faxes to the school board, yahoogroups are already going off the hook this past week, but I recommend everyone to go to the press conference on Friday, June 9th at 9am at Westminster School District Headquarters, 14121 Cedarwood Avenue, Westminster, CA 92683 to inform yourself and find out what we all can constructively do about this issue.
VietACT in the TIP Report
Each year, the US State Department releases the much-read “Trafficking in Persons” Report, documenting the state of human trafficking in the almost 150 countries. Well, Condi and her gang just released the 2006 report yesterday. Vietnam remained this year as a tier 2 country, which means that it “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.” The TIP report cites the Vietnamese brides and migrant workers that are often trafficked to Taiwan (which also is on tier 2). Now, the cool thing for us, is that VietACT’s pictures from our “Not for Sale” poster campaign were used in this report (see pages 264, 267, 270 and 275). In addition, Father Nguyen Van Hung, one of the founding members of VietACT was also mentioned as a hero in the anti-human trafficking campaign; check out pictures from the Southern California Walk Against Trafficking. Who says grassgroots efforts don't make a difference?
uNAVSA-3 in San Jose, CA
It started in 2004 in Boston, went over to Chicago in 2005 and next month, the annual Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations Conference is going to take place here in San Jose, CA. Yes, time sure flies, as I still recall Phu Nguyen's “hey, how cool would it be if we were to unify all VSAs together into one organization and put on a yearly national conference” intial talks as it was yesterday. Well, fellas, it’s round 3, and you don’t want to miss this opportunity to meet the shakers of the young Vietnamese youth population. Rumor has it that two energetic Brokeback Mountain fishing buddies are pioneering this conference. Look what they got for you already: housing at the nice Crown Plaza for only $75 for three nights, almost up to 15% discounts on selected airlines, free bus ride from Southern California, early bird registration of ONLY $80 until this Saturday and get this: people from outside of California are getting a $50 off rebate (and no, no rebate forms necessary!). uNAVSA-3 is going to be a four day event of workshops, talks, networking, taking actions and loads of fun. So, go register now, and I’ll personally welcome you to my home town.
That's all from me at the Vietnamese Buzz.
Past Vietnamese Buzz entries: April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006