Alright, this will be the last Vietnamese Buzz I’ll be writing. I realize that I just don’t find the time to write this, because there’s just so much going on, and my life as a full-time worker and full-time student ain’t pretty. Seriously, there’s so much going on in the Vietnamese community in the past three months, and this Vietnamese Buzz has been long overdue.
Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Truyet’s visit to the United States
Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Truyet came to an official visit on the US’s invitation in June this year, but received a second-rate welcome. Administration officials downgraded the summit and refused a state dinner due to renewed concerns about Hanoi’s recent and ongoing human rights violation. What’s really cool was that the White House initiated talks with key members of the Vietnamese American community to hear our opinion on this issue. In particular, the White House invited four notable Vietnamese American activists, including Vietnam Reform Party chairman Diem Do to the Oval Office and discussed this issue prior Nguyen Minh Truyet’s visit. This was widely welcomed by the Vietnamese American community.
Mass Protest in Vietnam
Dominating the Vietnamese overseas news for months now was the farmer’s protests of unprecedented scale in Vietnam followed by the police suppression of those protests. To make a long story short, several hundreds of farmers from a dozen provinces have gathered in Saigon in front of the National Assembly buildings since the third week of June to protesting the government’s unfair land seizures. The demands to speak to government officials have not been answered. Supported by religions groups and Vietnamese overseas, some 500-1000 protesters staged this protest for 27 days—the longest-running protest Vietnam has seen for years. It ended when Vietnamese police in riot gear entered the scene, fired tear gas, detained some 100-200 people into buses to unknown locations, creating international concerns about Hanoi’s growing crackdown on its own citizens.
Human Trafficking Conference in Little Saigon, California
In May of last year, some 20 local community organizations collaborated and hosted the first Human Trafficking Conference on Vietnam in Washington, DC. The second conference will be co-organized by the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking (VietACT), the Viet Nam Human Rights Network, and the Vietnamese American Bar Association. The conference will take place August 24th and 25th at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel in Anaheim, CA. Be there or be square.
Fifth International Vietnamese Youth Conference (DH5) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2008
Alright, if you have read my past entries and essays about this conference, I assume you already know what this is about, but in case you haven’t heard about it yet: the Fifth International Vietnamese Youth Conference will take place this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from January 4th - 6th 2008. With a strong emphasis on non-government organizations as well as Vietnamese students from Vietnam and the collaboration work that we can do for Vietnamese community I am excited to go back to Asia again. Heck, I’ve always wanted to visit Kuala Lumpur for the longest time now, so this is a perfect opportunity to go up those Petronas Twin Towers. Be there or be square.
Leonard Nimoy will play Mr. Spock in Star Trek XI
To the positive surprise of many fans, JJ Abrams, the director of the next Star Trek movie announced at Comic Con in San Diego that Leonard Nimoy, now 77, will return to recast his role as the legendary Mr. Spock in the upcoming Star Trek XI movie one more time. Wait.. this has nothing to do with Vietnam. Stop, Minh, stop.
The End of the Vietnamese Buzz
Haha, I write this title as if people are actually reading the Vietnamese Buzz—but hey, if you do, just subscribe to this Vietnam Watch Blog, which is just a collection of English-based news articles relating to Vietnam. I hope you enjoyed reading some of the last Vietnamese Buzzes. So long.
Past Vietnamese Buzz entries: May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 October 2006 September 2006 July 2006 June 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006