As the music sets the catwalk in motion, Ralph Lauren models appear with his latest collection. This time it goes beyond his trademark Hamptons/neo-British image. His models are strolling elegantly above the crowd in conical hats and long silk tunics slit from the waist down, worn over wide pants. With such a look, it was clear that designer Ralph Lauren had fallen under the spell of the beautiful Vietnamese ao dai.

That was a few seasons past, and the fashion world moves on to new trends to satisfy fickle consumers. However, in Viet Nam and in Vietnamese communities worldwide, the ao dai enjoys a revival that will unlikely fade with the seasons. Its renewed popularity marks a resurgence of cultural ties. A younger generation of Vietnamese are discovering its charm. Yet few question its origins. Even among cultural historians, only a small number have placed importance on the development of Vietnamese costume. Thus, documentation on the topic is rare and often vague.

The complete article is available at the following link: http://www.viettouch.com/aodai/index.htm#top

Gay and Lesbian Vietnamese Ponder Whether To Come Out
by Nguyeãn Traâm Vy
3/2002

Every year for five years, Gina Masequesmay adjusted the date on the letter to her parents. She had painstakingly written to them in Vietnamese to tell them she is a lesbian. She had her friends go over the grammar. And each year she would put the letter away again.

Masequesmay, aVietnamese woman who got her last name from her grandfather who was adopted by Indian parents, is now 33 years old and an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge. She eventually came out to her family, one by one, and is glad to have done so. Even her conservative older brother, to her happy surprise, was respectful and understanding. She thinks she is lucky, relatively speaking.

Like those of any other race or ethnicity, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Vietnamese must choose whether to be open with their families about their sexuality. The decision often isn't as simple as "in" or "out." Many tell some family members but not others. Some live with the stress of a double identity, adjusting personal facts depending on the circumstance. Others manage to "don't ask don't tell." Whatever the case, the emotional toll can be high.

The complete article is available at the following link.

Greg Elmer, Boston College (elmergr@bc.edu) and Mike Gasher, Concordia University (gashmj@vax2.concordia.ca)

Deadline for abstracts is December 15, 2002

The editors are seeking manuscripts for an edited book on American TV and Film "runaway productions" -- television programming and motion pictures that for economic reasons have, in whole or in part, left traditional centers of cultural production in the United States for foreign shores. While some might argue that the strength of the U.S. dollar has led to the growth of runaway productions, this collection will also seek to explain the phenomenon from other historical, political, economic and cultural perspectives. We are particularly interested in receiving manuscripts that discuss runaway productions as indicative of broader cultural phenomena, whether it be discussed as a case study, challenge to contemporary screen, media, or globalization theories, or as an analysis of shifting governmental policies toward revered, feared, or protected cultural industries.

We encourage a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches including, but not limited to: critical and cultural theory, cultural policy studies, textual analysis, political economy, media ethnography, audience studies, and historical analysis and critique.

Topics might include:
The Emergence of Hollywoods North/South/East/West
Analysis of National and sub-national Media Regulation and Legislation
Hollywood Trade Unions: protests, policies, and government relations
non-Hollywood labor perspectives
Analysis of TV/Film Programming: eg. The X-Files, Network television "Movies of the Week", La Femme Nikita, The Matrix, Dolores Claiborne, etc.
Regional, National, or International Case Studies
Canadian cultural industries
Globalization of Hollywood
Contracting out of Film and Television Industries

The growth of International post-production locations and studios
California Film Policy and Politics
Re-thinking theories of globalization
Location shooting
Effacing national specificity in film/TV shot locations
The production of generic landscapes

Send an extended abstract (4-5 pages approx. 1,200 words) and CV by December 15, 2002 to:

Greg Elmer, Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Boston College
215 Lyons Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA, USA 02467

Contracting out Hollywood: Runaway Productions and Foreign Location Shooting
Editors: Greg Elmer, Boston College (elmergr@bc.edu) and Mike Gasher, Concordia University (gashmj@vax2.concordia.ca)

New project to uncover young leaders
Deadline: 15 December

Asia Pacific's youth will be given a chance to have their voice heard thanks to a new initiative by the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific (RIAP) and Business Asia Magazine (with Overseas Trading).

The RIAP Emerging Voices Project aims to uncover new and emerging thought leaders in the Asia-Pacific region. The Project is asking for essay submissions from 18-25 year old citizens of any Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member country on the topic of generational change in Asia. Entrants are welcome to explore any subject within that broad topic, with some suggested themes including:

New crisis managers - managing the region's generational change;

Asia's emerging power elites: Inside Asia's politics and businessnetworks;

Making connections: navigating and negotiating culture;

Defining Asian identity: crisis of identity or identity in crisis?

pop culture, cyberspace and nationalism.

The essays need to be approximately 2000 words in length, with the two winning entries being published in a future edition of Business Asia magazine. Winners will be decided by a leading panel of media and business judges.

The two winning essayists will also receive a week-long trip to either South Korea or China. While there, the two winners will engage in interviews and meetings with leading business and government figures, all organised by RIAP and First Charlton Communications. The winners will then produce two more articles each for publication based on their trip's experiences.

RIAP is the lead international projects and multidisciplinary agency of the University of Sydney. Established in 1987, RIAP's major consultancy activities are geared towards developing international collaborative ventures that contribute to the building of institutional and human resource capacities; and promotion of network linkages between Australia and Asia Pacific region. Their services include research and strategic policy advice, training, and public affairs.

Entries for the RIAP Emerging Voices Project close on 15 December 2002. Winners will be announced in the February 2003 edition of Business Asia.

For more information, go to http://www.riap.usyd.edu.au/emergingvoices/ev.htm

THE PROJECT IS OPEN TO 18-25 YEAR OLD CITIZENS OF ANY APEC MEMBER COUNTRY. ENTRIES CLOSE ON 15 DECEMBER 2002. ALL ESSAYS MUST BE EMAILED TO: submit.emergingvoices@riap.usyd.edu.au

FOR INQUIRIES, EMAIL: inquiries.emergingvoices@riap.usyd.edu.au

Deadline Decmber 15th

Girls On Film is currently seeking submissions of film and video works for the third installment in its screening series. We are looking for challenging, unique, enlightening or just plain entertaining narrative, documentary and experimental shorts by women of color filmmakers from all around the globe.

*Submission Instructions: Submit a VHS of your short film/ video work of 30 minutes or less >(clearly labeled with name, title, length, phone number and email) and any supporting materials to:

Jennifer Jajeh
Girls On Film 1566 Grove Street #1
San Francisco, CA 94117

Please include a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope if you would like yor submission returned to you.

*For more information about the series or to join our mailing list, write to us at girlsonfilmseries@hotmail.com

HP's Microenterprise Development Program, a new grant opportunity for nonprofit micro-enterprise development agencies and programs working in underserved communities.

Through the Micro-enterprise Development Program, HP will support nonprofit agencies that have a primary focus on providing micro-enterprise development programs and services in underserved communities. Each grant award will have a total list price value of $150,000 to $300,000 in equipment, cash, services and support. In addition, recipients will receive a travel grant to participate in a symposium focused on increasing the capacity of the micro-enterprise development industry.

To learn more about the HP Microenterprise Development Program please visit http://grants.hp.com/us/programs/micro_index.html

Since 1997, the Nhip Song Book Drive has been collecting and shipping to Vietnam textbooks donated by students from the U.S. We collected over 350 books in 1997, 150 books in 1998, 150 books in 1999, and 85 books 2001. These books have covered various subjects, including biology, ecology, civil & environment, engineering, economy, sociology, medicine, and nursing. We would like to thank all of you who have contributed textbooks, as well as those (including the VSAs) who have donated funds to cover the cost of shipping the books.

We are in the process of finalizing delivery, scheduled for the Spring 2003, of books from the current book drive. These books will be delivered to Central Vietnam to the following universities: Da Nang University of Technology (300 books); College of Medicine, Hue University (200 books, 100 journals); College of Pedagogy, Hue University (100 books); and College of Economics, Hue University (50 books).

We are now launching Nhip Song Book Drive 2003-2004 and are seeking your help. Please send your books via your post office's Book Rate Service (which is cheaper than regular mail). We also appreciate your contribution towards shipping costs. Please send donations and used textbooks to:

Thang Tran
31 Timothy Dr.
West Hartford, CT 06110.

President of The Institute for Vietnamese Culture & Education: http://www.ivce.org

The Honored Guest Speaker, Kien Nguyen, is the Author of "The Unwanted" and "The Tapestries." Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once wealthy family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived amongst neighbors who treated them as pariahs, unwelcome remnants the colonial past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted. Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kien's account of his early years-from the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escape-is a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. "The Unwanted" unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life. Kien Nguyen left Vietnam in 1985 through the United States' Orderly Departure Program. After spending time at a refugee camp in the Philippines, Nguyen arrived in the United States. He now lives in New York City.

That evening, we'll also be honoring the following people: Catalyst Foundation Community Award Recipient: John A. Gappa, Senior Vice President and CFO, Universal Hospital Services, Bloomington, MN Catalyst Foundation Service Award Recipient: Julie Hessler, Vietnam Adoption Specialist, Children's Home Society of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN

Cost for the evening is $55 per person and includes the meal; register online at www.catalystfoundation.org

Corporate Sponsorships Available! Please contact us if you're interested in one of the four different Corporate Tables.

Kien Nguyen, Catalyst Foundation and HSCV share the same passion of working tirelessly to make positive change for children of Vietnam. Your generous support will enable us to continue our work in this impoverished country on behalf of the children in need. We invite you to show your support in many ways including the corporate table sponsorship, donations of Silent Auction items, donations of "in-kind" goods for the benefit dinner. ALL proceeds of the dinner will go to benefit the children of Vietnam.

Find out more about Kien Nguyen at www.theunwanted.com, Catalyst Foundation at www.catalystfoundation.org, and HSCV at www.hscv.org.

Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002 (Full story from San Francisco Chronicle)

In 1990, there was only one known case of HIV in this country of 78 million. Now, the government estimates there are 107,000 cases - - local AIDS workers say the figure is at least 200,000 -- and concedes that the number will double by 2005. The government contends that the chief source of the epidemic is heterosexual sex and points to the nation's estimated 40,000 prostitutes. But AIDS workers say that up to 70 percent of those infected are drug users, addicted to readily available heroin and methamphetamines. Regardless of the source of the epidemic, AIDS workers say Hanoi's policy of arresting sex workers and drug users under the guise of social rehabilitation only makes the problem worse... From 1997 to 1999, Hanoi spent nothing on condom distribution, according to UNAIDS. But in 1999, the state produced 104 million condoms; (however) most of them were marketed to married couples.

November 4, 2002

Hanoi: Police at a Ho Chi Minh City airport arrested two Australian girls and their older sister after investigators found 674 grams of heroin hidden in plastic containers in the girls' underwear, an official said today.

Phan Thi Ngoc Phuong, 25, and her two sisters, aged 12 and 14 - Australians of Vietnamese origin - were arrested on Saturday night at Tan Son Nhat airport as they were about to board a flight to Sydney, the airport's deputy security chief Do Xuan Toan said.

Vietnam's drug trafficking penalties are among the world's toughest. Possessing or trafficking 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms of opium is punishable by death.

Franklin - McKinley SD Governing Board

Vote For: 3

Completed Precincts: 50 of 50 Vote Count

Percentage
Madison P. Nguyen 4,462 27.9%
George Sanchez 4,393 27.4%
Susan Sandy 4,032 25.2%
Phil Renteria 3,134 19.6%

The following message has been received from UNHCR and the information the Yearbook contains may be of interest to many of you. Please access the information by contacting Bela Hovy at UNHCR at either of the following two email addresses:

"Sara Piot" PIOT@unhcr.ch
"Bela Hovy" HOVY@unhcr.ch

By Christina Toh-Pantin - REUTERS
October 30, 2002

HANOI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Mark Gillin was in the right place at the wrong time.

The 38-year-old American, a resident of Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City for nearly a decade, was having a coffee across from the International Trading Center on Tuesday shortly before 2 p.m. while awaiting a Vietnamese language lesson. Fortunately, the head of a trading firm had mistaken the time for his lesson.

"I saw smoke and smelled fumes and walked outside," the former lifeguard recalled in a phone interview with Reuters.

What he saw was the centre -- which houses a discotheque, numerous shops, a restaurant and offices of U.S. insurer American International Assurance -- on fire.

Gillin said he worked at the scene, carrying away victims for about 40 minutes, while other Vietnamese also did the same. "I think ninety percent of those people who got out were rescued by ordinary citizens," he recalls.

October 30 2002
source: smh/AFP

More than 100 people died in the fire that ravaged an office block hosting several foreign firms in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, according to a new toll published in the official media. Firefighters struggled for five hours to put out the blaze at the Saigon International Business Centre in District One, the heart of the city.

Emergency services have recovered 48 bodies so far, according to Vietnam Television (VTV) news, but Nguyen Thanh Tai, vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said the "final toll could be very high". All the bodies have been taken to military hospital No 175 for identification, he added. Six people also died from their injuries in hospital, according to local news reports in Ho Chi Minh City.

VTV said around 500 people worked in the building, which also housed many shops, and the popular Blue discotheque on the second floor. A local reporter for a state-run newspaper said more than 100 people were attending a wedding in the building.A further 59 people have been rushed to hospital, with one-third of them in a life-threatening condition, officials said. Others were treated at the scene for shock and minor injuries.

October 29, 2002

For the past month, Asian American groups have successfully protested the "Kung Fool" Halloween costume, a racist caricature of an Asian man. The manufacturer, Disguise, Inc. has instituted a voluntary recall from retailers such as Walmart and Target. However it seems some retailers are slow to react to the October 30th deadline. The Michigan-based retail chain, Meijer, has the costume available at several locations as indicated by members of our organization.

The grotesque mask is a stereotype of an Asian man; slanty-eyed, buck toothed, and wearing a headband with the Chinese character for "stupid." Though conversations with store representatives have resulted in some back peddling and promises to remove the mask, the corporation has not committed to an apology or statement addressing its continued availability.

Mam Non Executive Director, Linh Song, was told that a company memo was sent on Monday with orders to remove the mask from store shelves. As of Tuesday afternoon, several members were still able to locate the masks. Also conversations with John Zimmerman, Meijer Director of Community Relations, minimized the situation by stating that "...only two people have contacted me complaining about this." Mr. Zimmerman refused to share a copy of the memo and did not express regret for offending minority communities.

Asian American communities such as the Organization of Chinese Americans, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and the National Asian American Student Conference have stated that the Halloween costume perpetuates stereotypes. The Mam Non Organization joins them in this protest, speaking on the behalf of the Vietnamese-American and adoption community, with over 1,400 members nationwide.

"It is appalling to think that some Meijer stores have sold out of the costume and that some are still on shelves. A Midwestern corporation shouldn't be so slow in reacting to a nationwide movement or the outcry of the local Asian American community. Michigan has over 208,000 Asian American residents. Meijer should be tallying that into their total count of complaints." Linh Song, Executive Director.

More information on nationwide protests and an image of the costume can be found at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/17/BU168521.DTL

Protests can be directed to:

John Zimmerman
Meijer Director of Community Relations
zimmermj@meijer.com
616-453-6711

Friday, October 25, 2002 - Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/10/25/state0043EDT0243.DTL

PDT HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Nearly 800 Vietnamese women and children have been sold to serve as wives, maids or prostitutes in China over the past three years, a state-controlled newspaper reported Saturday.

October 25, Source DFAT/SMH

An upgrade of the $1.8 billion anti-terrorism action plan forged at the APEC summit in Shanghai in the wake of last year's September 11 attacks is expected to have further developments.

Tourists have been warned to exercise extreme caution on the popular Thai resort island of Phuket following the Bali bombings. Earlier on 9 October the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a release to US state and local law enforcement agencies, warning of potential terrorist attacks against US economic interests.

In various overseas bureaus tourists intending to visit Vietnam have been advised that they should exercise caution, particularly in commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners such as clubs, restaurants, bars, schools, places of worship, outdoor recreation events or tourist areas. Tourists in Vietnam should monitor carefully developments that might affect their safety. US authorities are unable to provide further information on specific targets, timing or method of attack but will continue to develop information about any potential security threats to US citizens. US authorities will provide information on threats to US nationals overseas on the US Department of State website at http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html

20 October VNS

The National Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi announced it is documenting oral works of literature in the Tay Nguyen, where more than 20 different ethnic groups reside and in neighbouring provinces of Binh Phuoc, Phu Yen and Ninh Thuan. The objective is to preserve the specific cultures in local languages while also translating them into Vietnamese.

The project's initial results will be presented at an international conference on Asian-European epics to be held later this month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ha Noi will also host a meeting between Vietnamese and Chinese specialists to compare the two countries' epic traditions next year, followed by an international conference in 2005 on the epics of Tay Nguyen and neighbouring countries.

http://kqed.org/fm/pacifictime/index.html

It's one of the most silent issues among Asian Americans: mental health. The war many Vietnamese experience continues to haunt them in the US: political attitudes are dividing the Vietnamese American community and performers from Viet Nam are facing strong protests in California. China, Japan and Viet Nam are countries where the rates of smokers are highest in the world. Now Tokyo is banning smoking in a few places: will this help?

You can also listen to our archival programs at http://www.kqed.org/radio/pacifictime/previous.html

Pacific Time's mission is to inform our audiences about Asia and its connections to America; it also reports on Asian American communities. For more information: http://kqed.org/fm/pacifictime/index.html

A new costume called "Kung Fool" (made by Disguise)has made a controversial debut at Party City, Wal-Mart, Spencer Gifts and several online stores, sell the costume.

The costume at Disguise's web site: http://www.disguise.com/html/product_detail.cfm?ID=1115

See Petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/target02/

This is not the first time that Target Corporation has been accused of peddling racist merchandise. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Tolerance.org project noted that Target Corporation was selling white supremacist clothing.

(http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=603). Although Target Corporation eventually pulled the clothing line, it seems that the same lack of consideration was pervasive in how Target dealt with the initial complaint.

An excerpt from my interview with Univ of Maine, Orono Prof. Ngo Vinh Long (a former Fulbright Scholar and author of "Before the Revolution") on the topic of "Vietnam Today" appears in the current (v. 34, no. 3, Sept. 2002) issue of "Critical Asian Studies" (formerly "Journal of Concerned Asian Scholars"), pp. 459-464.

Members of institutions that subscribe to Critical Asian Studies can access the online version from their campus PCs or proxy servers at: http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=3802215

The realaudio version of the interview, taped in Maine in June 2002, and broadcast July 2nd this year on KUCI (Irvine, Calif.), can be found at: http://kuci.org/~dtsang/subversity/Sv020702.ram

Viet Dinh has gone from academe to a key behind-the scenes role. Conservatives love him; others find his views constitutionally suspect.

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

TIMES STAFF WRITER
LORETTO, Pa. -- Viet Dinh is working the room. Viet Dinh, it seems, is always working a room.

The room itself isn't much, at least not by the standards of one of the rising stars of the Bush administration. A hundred or so faculty members and supporters at Saint Francis University in rural Pennsylvania are lunching in a nondescript student center to hear Dinh, advisor to U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and a point man in the war on terrorism, philosophize about how liberty and freedom can thrive even in a time of national crisis.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-viet18sep18002046(0,1887951).story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation

Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos are among the largest growing segment of Asian Pacific America. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s -- following the US invasion of South Vietnam -- Southeast Asian refugees were resettled by governmental and religious organizations throughout every region of the United States. Refugee stories are therefore unique and wide-ranging; they stretch from rural America, to the postindustrial urban center, to American prisons, to the sweatshops of the global economy. Refugee stories are also unruly. Contrary to the assimilation and reconciliation narratives that dominated the literature on Southeast Asian refugees throughout the 1990s, a deeper examination of refugee life in the United States reveals a complex array of culture and politics.

This anthology seeks to tell these unruly stories, particularly among a generation of Southeast Asians who came of age in the United States over the past two decades. Drawing upon first person biographical narrative, prose poetry, and critical essays, this anthology will tell the stories of young men and women who, as infants and children, survived war and refugee flight only to enter a new embattled terrain: racism, sexism, poverty, and anti-immigrant violence in the Unites States. But this is not an anthology of victims and survivors. It's an anthology of powerful storytellers. These stories travel far and wide, from trekking through dense rain forests on the Thai border, to the days of living in refugee camp limbo, to landing on the frozen runway at Kennedy Airport -- all in that same pair of flip flops. In the United States, new tales are woven -- stories of gang violence from the mean streets of the Bronx and Southern California to small town thug life in the Midwest. Testimonies are dispatched from numerous guerilla outposts: the garment sweatshop, the welfare state, the agricultural fields of America.

Taken together, these stories constitute the cultures of Southeast Asian refugee life in the United States.

Themes:

I. War and Displacement

II. Poor and Colored in America

III. Detention and Deportation: Southeast Asians and the New State Violence

IV. Cultures of Resistance

We are seeking personal essays, creative writings, papers, oral histories, photographs, and other original materials reflecting your experiences and thoughts on Southeast Asian life in America. Please submit drafts by September 16.

email to Tram Nguyen at tnguyen@arc.org

Or mail to:

Tram Nguyen

3781 Broadway

Oakland, CA 94606

Feel free to contact Tram or Eric Tang at etang@caaav.org with any questions.

Tram Nguyen

Editor

ColorLines Magazine

www.colorlines.com

3781 Broadway

Oakland, CA 94611

510-653-3415

510-653-3427 fax

Vietnam's Shrimp Industry

http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0209_05/p038innov.html

AQUACULTURE Sweet and Sour Shrimp - Vietnam's shrimp industry is breeding both profits and misery. Should the government promote this risky business to reduce poverty?

San Francisco, California - After a three-month search process, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) announced today the selection of Dr. Ho Luong Tran as the organization's new President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We are very excited about Dr. Ho Tran taking over the helm of the Health Forum," commented Dr. Arthur Chen, Chairperson of the APIAHF Board of Directors, "She brings with her a deep and grounded set of leadership skills with her background as a respected leader in the Asian American community, as an accomplished State public health officical.

Dr. Tran has worked with the Illinois Department of Public Health in various capacities since 1989. She has served as the Special Assistant of Asian Affairs and the Administrator of the Refugee Health Program of the Center for Minority Health for nearly a decade. During her stint as Special Assistant, Dr. Tran developed a Cultural Competency curriculum that is being implemented in both Federal and state agencies. Previous to that, Dr. Tran developed and coordinated activities of the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Plan.

Currently, Dr. Tran serves as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also serves as Chair of the Chicago Mayor's Advisory Council on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. She helped establish the Asian Health Coalition of Illinois, and once served in the Illinois Governor's Asian American Council as co-Chair. Dr. Tran is also serving her second term as President of the Vietnamese American Community in Illinois.

Names First Vietnamese American Woman Judge in California
SACRAMENTO

Governor Gray Davis today announced the appointment of Assistant United States Attorney Jacqueline H. Nguyen as a Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Ms. Nguyen is the first Vietnamese American woman to be appointed as a trial or appellate judge in California.

In July 2000, Governor Davis appointed Judge Nho Trong Nguyen (no relation to Ms. Nguyen) to the Orange County Superior Court. He was the first Vietnamese American Judge in Southern California. Ms. Nguyen, 37, of Studio City, is the Deputy Chief of the General Crimes section of the United States Attorney's office, which she joined in 1995. In addition to carrying a caseload of complex white-collar fraud matters, she is responsible for the training of new Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Ms. Nguyen previously served as a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and the Public Corruption and Government Fraud Section of the office. She also served as the Department of Defense Fraud Coordinator for the office, with responsibility for overseeing all defense fraud prosecutions in the Central District of California. Among Ms. Nguyen's noteworthy cases is United States v. Bahram Tabatabai. This prosecution, nicknamed "Operation Eastern Approach," was the first successful prosecution .

Before joining the U.S. Attorney's office, Ms.Nguyen worked from 1991 to 1994 as a litigation associate with the Los Angeles law firm of Musick, Peeler & Garrett. Ms. Nguyen is a founding member and former President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association. She also served on the Board of Governors of the Japanese American Bar Association and the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. She is a member of the Korean American Bar Association, Southern California Chinese Lawyers' Association, Vietnamese American Bar Association of Orange County, and Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Ms. Nguyen was born in Vietnam. In 1975, when she was 10 years old, her family fled to the United States as refugees after the fall of South Vietnam. Her father had been a Major in the South Vietnam Army and had worked closely with American intelligence officers during the war. For their first three months in the United States, the family lived in an Army tent at Camp Pendleton. They then moved to Los Angeles County, where they established their residence. Ms. Nguyen earned a full-tuition scholarship to Occidental College, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree.She then went on to earn her juris doctorate degree from UCLA.

By Ellen Barry, Globe Staff

As waves of Vietnamese refugees have scrambled for a foothold in a new economy, their mentally ill often lived out their days in the extreme isolation of their houses... read more at

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/metro/From_behind_closed_doors+.shtml

Special Event 17 August 2002 in Vietnam

Sai Gon 7pm, Saturday (August 17,2002) there will be a special social gathering for all our women friends in Viet Nam and any Vietnam Womens Forum members in country. To find out more or RSVP email : kieulinhvalverde@yahoo.com .

Press release United Nations Children’s Fund Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’enfance - August 2002

Large number of Vietnamese children suffer consequences of poor environmental sanitation

UNICEF expresses concern as Viet Nam marks World Environmental Day

(Hanoi - 2002) Children in Viet Nam are the greatest victims of the country’s environmental degradation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today on the occasion of World Environment Day.

According to research conducted by Thai Binh Medical College , 51.7 per cent of the Vietnamese population suffers from diseases directly related to a poor environment. These include parasitic infections, skin and eye diseases and acute respiratory infections. Children are the most affected, particularly by diarrhoeal and parasitic diseases as a consequence of poor water quality and lack of adequate sanitation facilities.

“We know that malnutrition affects a third of all Vietnamese children under the age of five.” said UNICEF’s Representative Anthony Bloomberg. “Malnutrition and diarrhoea form a vicious cycle. The organisms that cause diarrhoea harm the walls of children’s digestive system which prevents them from digesting and absorbing their food adequately, causing even greater malnutrition and undermining their immune systems.”

Only one third of Viet Nam’s rural population has access to adequate sanitation facilities. In poorer, ethnic minority areas, this number is even lower. Only 17 per cent of people who have access to sanitation know how to use their facilities hygienically.

UNICEF Viet Nam is working to improve hygiene and environmental sanitation in the poorest areas of Viet Nam. Since 1982, under its Water and Environmental Sanitation Programme, UNICEF has helped the Vietnamese Government establish Rural Water and Sanitation Centers in every province. This has resulted in the construction of tens of thousands of wells and has provided 8,5 million people with access to safe drinking water.

UNICEF has also supported the construction of thousands of sanitation facilities in rural primary schools and is working with Government and other partners to try to change people’s behaviors for safer water use and feces disposal.

****************

Worldwide, 40% of environmentally-related diseases occur in children under five, who account for only ten per cent of the world’s population, according to a report recently released by UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

****

For more information, please contact:

Damien Personnaz

Communication Chief

UNICEF Viet Nam

935-0028 (Ext. 210)

UNDP Vietnam - AVSL

NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN WOMEN’S FORUM NATIONAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP MEETING: ECONOMIC JUSTICE FORUM AND RECEPTION INVITATION - Minnesota, July 19-21, 2002

The NAPAWF National Board and the NAPAWF-MN Chapter would like to invite you to join a Pan Asian Women’s Economic Justice Forum, where national and local API women’s perspectives and strategies could be exchanged and formulated, for national and local action.

The public forum will take place on SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2002

Room 306, Folwell Hall

9 Pleasant Street, Mpls, MN 55455

U of MN East Bank Campus

4-6 PM

You are also cordially invited to be our guests at a reception at

SAWATDEE

607 Washington Avenue S.

Minneapolis, MN 55415

7-9 PM

Please join us for some good networking and good company among the API women’s common sisterhood!

Stanford professor and award-winning historian Estelle B. Freedman argues that feminism, repeatedly declared dead by the media, has never been as vibrant as it is today. 6:00 p.m., Reception | 6:30 p.m., Program | Club Office, 595 Market St, 2nd floor, San Francisco | $10 for members, $15 for non-members. www.commonwealthclub.org/inforum.html#freedman

Vietnam Airlines opens three more int'l air routes - 1 July

Since early this year, Viet Nam Airlines has opened three more direct international air routes linking Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to Tokyo, Ha Noi to Tokyo, and HCMC/Ha Noi to Moscow.

Viet Nam Airlines' new Ha Noi-Tokyo route will be officially inaugurated at the Noi Bai International Airport on June 29.

Since the Immigration & Welfare Reform Act of 1996, *all* non-citizens who are convicted of an aggravated felony are MANDATORILY DEPORTABLE regardless if they have already served prison time (this constitutes double jeopardy and violates international human rights conventions on cruel and unusual punishment!!!) Keep in mind that the INS is interpreting "aggravated felony" to include things such as check fraud, shoplifting, and other non-violent crimes. Mandatory deportation affects all immigrants and our communities.

Vietnamese & Laotian non-citizen refugees are being indefinitely detained IN PRISON until the US reaches a deportation agreement with those countries (this is double jeopardy and violates UN conventions on cruel & unusual punishment). Many Southeast Asian deportees came to the US as children and have no experience or support networks to survive back in their country of origin; others may face persecution & torture.

To find out more about the national campaign against Southeast Asian refugee deportation or sign the petition, check out http://www.searac.org

The following is a breakdown of the two characters we are searching for. Screen Actors Guild (the actors union ) has a weekly scale pay rate of $2,246.00 per week, plus overtime and per diem expense money: as well as paying for travel and living expenses while out of town. There are also residual payments paid out when the film is released internationally and for television airings. If we hire a minor, a guardian travels with the child and has travel and living expenses paid as well.

Please do not hesitate to call, if you have any questions. 212-620-4256

Elizabeth Greenberg

Associate to Avy Kaufman

Producer: Petter Borgli, Ed Pressman, Tomas Backstrom, Terrence Malick

Director: Hans Petter Moland

Writers: Sabina Murray Larry Gross & Terrence Malick

Casting Director: Avy Kaufman

Casting Associate: Elizabeth Greenberg

Casting Assistant: Jessica Daniels

Start Date: Approx. End of September

Location: South East Asia, New York and Texas

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS ONLY to:

Avy Kaufman Casting

180 Varick Street, 16th Floor

New York, N.Y. 10014

212-620-4256

CAST: NICK NOLTE

HARVEY KEITEL

*PLEASE BE SURE TO MARK FRONT OF ENVELOPE "THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY"

BINH - (25 years old) Half Vietnamese, half Caucasian. Not attractive- a real human being who's oddity could manifest itself in abnormal height, a harelip, uneven teeth, a large nose, small mouth, big ears, etc. Only an infant when the American troops withdrew from Vietnam, Binh was taken away from his Vietnamese mother as punishment for her fraternizing with the American enemy, and dumped upon his Aunt. Treated as a second class citizen, no one in the village has ever given any consideration to his misery or abandonment; consequently he is very shy, has little self-esteem, is probably a virgin, and has few hopes for change. He departs from his Vietnamese village after he is kicked out of his foster house. He leaves to find his parents and his strength on route.

TAM - (5 years old) Fully Vietnamese, he is Binh's younger half brother on his mother's side, and an attractive child. Ideally looking for 6-7 to play younger. He comes across as mature for his age. His English isn't half bad, and he is extremely knowledgable about the states. Their mother urges Binh to take Tam on his transcontinental journey to find Binh's American father in Houston with the false promise that she wiljoin them in The Beautiful Country.

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund (AEF) is offering grants to community service organizations to support their efforts to assist the APA community. The community grants would provide seed money and/or fund organizational projects that provide community service, training or assistance to the APA community. A full description is included in the attached application. Any further inquiries should be directed to Kathy Ng at kn14@cornell.edu. Applications should be sent to AEF, P.O. Box 2209, Washington, DC 20013-2209, and postmarked by July 1, 2002. Please circulate widely. Thank you.

'em*power viet sisters project proudly presents our 1st ever youth organized Community Show featuring rave dancing, songs, skits and other performances! Em*power Viet Sisters Project is a joint collaboration of Asians & Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment (API Force) and Viet Nam Women’s Forum (VWF). It is a program for low-income Viet high school girls from Oakland building female leaders working within our community for lasting social change.

Saturday, June 29

6.30 - 8.30 pm

$5 for adults/$3 for youth & students/kids under 6 free!!

all ages welcome (yummy Vietnamese food & beverages concessions)

YWCA Building

1515 Webster between 15th St. and 17th St.

Downtown Oakland

near City Center/12th St. BART

em*power viet sisters project info email:ly_huong@yahoo.com

STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS! A Rally in Support of Civil Liberties and the Rights of Immigrants will take place at the Bandstand in the Boston Common on Saturday, June 22, 2002 from 1 - 5 PM.

Featured speakers include historian Howard Zinn, Boston City Councilor Ken Oye of MIT, King Downing, coordinator of the national ACLU's Racial Profiling campaign,Merrie Najimy, head of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, as well as people with personal experience of the Red Scare of the 1950s and 60s and of the domestic "war on terrorism" today.

There will be musical performances by Charlie King & Karen Brandow, the Joint Chiefs, Lisa Doyle, Ernesto Arroyo of Critical Breakdown, Nancy Hood, Tareef Kawaf, Mic V, Mili Bermejo & Dan Greenspan, Yahanna Faith & Jay Scott, Soul Brown, Michael Borkson, Cate Levin and Bojah & the Insurrection. For more information or to get involved, call the ACLU of Massachusetts at (617) 482-3170 x 314.

The Southeast Asian Student Coalition (SASC) at the University of California, Berkeley proudly announces the completion of our first annual Summer Institute on June 22, 2002. Come show your moral support for the students, as they will present their projects and what they have learned within the past week. There will be food (provided by Thai E Sun Restaurant), music, performances and entertainment. We hope you'll join us for this exciting community event!

Reception: 11:00am-4pm

Agenda: 10am-12pm Closing Remarks

12pm-2pm High School Students' Project Presentations

2pm- 4pm Eat!

Where: The Atrium in the Cesar Chavez Student Center (next to Zellarbach Theater), UC Berkeley Campus (Off of Bancroft Way between Dana St. & Telegraph Ave.)

Full Story: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0225/ridgeway.php

Viet Dinh, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, is without question the leading figure in laying the legal fretwork for the war. Dinh graduated from Harvard Law, clerked for U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge Laurence H. Silberman and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and now teaches at Georgetown University. He was associate special counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee, which fought unsuccessfully to bring down the Clintons. Born in Vietnam in 1968, Dinh was soon separated from his father, who was sent to a post-war retraining camp. His mother took the children and escaped on a crowded raft, traveling 12 days to Malaysia, where she purposefully sank the boat and made her way to freedom. Despite having entered the U.S. as a refugee at the age of 10, Dinh has emerged as a hard-liner on the administration's 9-11 dragnet. What he says counts. Here he is in Naples, Florida, at a mid-January American Bar Association conference, setting the line on detainees. "We are reticent to provide a road map to Al Qaeda as to the progress and direction of our investigative activity," Dinh said. "We don't want to taint people as being of interest to the investigation simply because of our attention."

He added, "We will let them go if there is not enough of a predicate to hold them. But we will follow them closely, and if they so much as spit on the sidewalk, we'll arrest them. The message is that if you are a suspected terrorist you better be squeaky-clean. . . . If we can, we will keep you in jail." In the wake of September 11, some 2400 Muslim men currently sit behind bars, many on minor or no charges. The government waits for the guilty to break down and talk. For the innocent, it's their tough luck.

How did officials pick their suspects? "By the criteria Al Qaeda itself uses," he said. "Eighteen- to 35-year-old males who entered the country after the start of 2000 using passports from countries where Al Qaeda has a strong presence."

As for liberal complaints about discrimination, Dinh was blunt: "The U.S. does use racial profiling not for identification, but for investigation."

South East Asian soccer fans have been keeping a close watch on the progress of Japan, Korea and China. Despite power outages and slow internet connections, Vietnam and their neighboring countries football fans are all managing to keep their eye on the ball.

Korea made history by beating Italy to make it to the quater finals. Both Japan and Korea suprised many critics of Asian football by managing to win several games but China's success so far remains elusive. Meanwhile USA has made a suprise entry making it through to the group of death rounds.

Vietnam was once a leading force in the game and won the 1959 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. They also made the final rounds of the Asian Cup competition in 1956. A decline in form followed for some years but in recent times, they have emerged from the days of being considered an easy team to one that must be treated seriously. In the 1997 SEA Games, Vietnam stunned once Asian giants Malaysia 1-0 in a group match and advanced to eventually finish third overall after beating Indonesia in the playoff. The following year, Vietnam finished behind Singapore in the Tiger Cup final. For the background on Vietnamese Soccer in the new millennium check out www.sports.com/football/ce/multi/0,2911,3025259,00.html

Tuong Quang Luu is the second Vietnamese Australian to win a prestigious Australian national award for outstanding citizenship contributions (Tan Le is a winner of the Young Australian of the Year in 1998). Whether in his current position as Head of SBS Radio or in his previous roles as a lawyer, academic and a State Director of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the first refugee to occupy such a position, Quang has worked to promote a harmonious and cohesive society for Australia.

http://www.nadc.com.au/awards/aoty_ach.html

Nominations for 2003 start this July

http://www.nadc.com.au/awards/aoty_program.html

ROME--At 3:00 AM on Monday morning the United States stood alone among all nations of the world in blocking further discussion of the draft text of the declaration that governments will sign at the World Food Summit. What was leading the U.S. to stop the all night negotiating session? First, the U.S. wanted all references to "food as a human right" to be deleted, and second, the U.S. wanted strong language saying that genetically modified (GM) crops are a key way to end hunger. The Third World nations organized in the Group of 77 wanted mandatory language on the Right to Food, while Europe and Canada held out for the compromise of a voluntary Code of Conduct. No other nation felt strongly that GM crops should receive prominence.

"The U.S. is behaving in a reprehensible fashion," said NGO delegate Dr. Peter Rosset, co-director of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy, an American food policy think tank. "It makes me ashamed to be an American when my government stands alone in the entire world in opposing the recognition of food as a fundamental human right," he said.

Initially reported in AP, the US State Department has released their second annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Secretary of State Powell has said that starting next year, the United States will penalize countries that make no effort to halt the practice.

The report, which examined 89 countries, found that 19 are not doing enough to prevent the forced transport of humans across international borders, compared with 23 a year ago.

Five of the noncomplying countries are in the Persian Gulf region: Bahrain, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The 14 others are: Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia, Cambodia, Greece, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Russia, Sudan, Tajikistan and Turkey.

An additional 52 countries did not meet the minimum standards but made "significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance."

Those countries are Albania, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Latvia, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and Yugoslavia.

Described as complying fully with the standards are: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Britain.

How practicle and helpful the last list of countries marked as complying with trafficking laws is was not made clear enough. What is really needed is human rights protection to trafficked people inside all borders and that the report may misleading.

VNHELP volunteer staff will attend a table at the Vietnamese Resource Fair, San Jose, California in order to meet with old and new friends. Please come to chat with us. We will be at booth #41.

Event: Community Resource Fair 2002

Organized by the City of San Jose

When: Sunday, June 9th 10:00AM-3:00PM

Where: Historic Park San Jose at Kelly Park

1650 Senter Road

San Jose, CA 95112

A Vietnamese American Tai Kwon Do group from San Jose will participate in an International Tai Kwon Do Tournament in Viet Nam this summer. They will take this opportunity to tour many famous places of Viet Nam. Additionally, they plan to visit some street children centers supported by VNHELP. The organizers also have a very kind idea to sponsor six selected street children from VNHELP programs to come along with their team. This is such a rare opportunity for the well-raised street children and the Vienamese American teens to interface, learn and understand each other. VNHELP will send six of our children from three different centers to join the tour of Viet Nam.

Call Mr. Pham Thu (408) 749-4467 for more information. If you would like to sponsor some street children who join this tour, please contact VNHELP info@vnhelp.org.

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1434320p-1466980c.html For more than a year, they lived as refugees in Cambodia after escaping through dense jungle and stealing across the border from their native Vietnam. Today, when six Montagnards step off a late-night flight at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, they will begin life anew in the Triangle.

Their arrival marks the beginning of North Carolina's largest single-shot refugee resettlement in memory. In the next six weeks, 900 Montagnards will leave Cambodia and settle in the Triangle, the Triad, the Charlotte area and a handful of North Carolina towns.

When the resettlement program is complete in mid-July, the Triangle's 400-member Montagnard community will have grown by 175. North Carolina's Montagnard population, already the biggest outside Vietnam, will stand at nearly 4,000.

The International Examiner: Asian American Journal is having an open house tomorrow (Tuesday) to welcome its new editor, Nhien Nguyen. Date: Tuesday, June 4 between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. The event if free and open to the public.

Location: 622 Sourth Washington, Seattle, WA 98104 (a few doors down from Nippon Kan Theatre)

Light refreshments and snacks will be served. Call (206) 624-3925 for additional information.

Nhien is the first Vietnamese American to be the editor of the Examiner! She is an amazing writer and her many talents is a huge asset to the Asian communities. I hope you can join me in welcoming Nhien!

Since the early 1800s, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have played a vital role in the development of the United States-struggling for full citizenship, fighting prejudice, and making lasting contributions in all elements of American society. In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) is proud to announce a special site at http://www.health.org/seasonal/asianpi/ that promotes awareness and appreciation of the historical contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made in the United States.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/151/region/Vietnam_accuses_former_Sen_Ker:.shtml

Vietnam accused former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey on Friday of committing ''crimes'' in a raid on a village during the Vietnam War in which the Navy team he led killed more than a dozen unarmed civilians.

It was the first time Vietnam has publicly accused Kerrey of criminal activity. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh made the accusation in reaction to a revised account of the raid in Kerrey's new memoir. Thanh did not specify what crimes Vietnam believed Kerrey had committed.

She said families in the village had experienced ''incomparable suffering and losses'' because of the ''crimes committed by Kerrey's unit.''

''Whatever Mr. Kerrey says cannot change the truth. Mr. Kerrey himself has admitted that he was ashamed of the crimes he committed,'' she said.

The goal of the group is to build a campaign to stop the deportation of thousands of Cambodian refugee youth living in the United States.

If you would like to know more about this campaign and can support the goals of this campaign, please by email your organization name and information to:

justice@caaav.org