******************
Events
CAUSE Political Institute
2003
Dynamic
Leadership in Challenging Times
"CALIFORNIA
CONFERENCE OF APA ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS"
Saturday,
September 6
8AM-5PM
Millennium
Biltmore Hotel
506 S. Grand
Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90071
REGISTER ONLINE
http://causeusa.org/news/2003PoliInst.htm
A full day
conference bringing together an unprecedented gathering of California's most
recognized Asian Pacific American leaders. Join us as we explore and probe the
opportunities and hurdles facing our community. Key leaders from California will
discuss the future of California. We want you to be part of this important
conference and to share in shaping our community. This is a one of a kind
conference that you would not want to miss!
If you are a
state or local elected or appointed official, we would like to recognize you at
this conference. Please take advantage of the pre-registration special.
Guest speakers and panelists include:
Phil
Angelides, State Treasurer
Jerry Brown,
Mayor of Oakland & fmr. CA Governor (Invited)
David Wu,
Congressmember
Michael
Yamaki, Secretary of Appointments, Office of Governor Gray Davis
Lon Hatamiya,
Secretary of Technology, Trade and Commerce
Judy Chu,
Carol Liu, Alan Nakanishi, and George Nakano- CA State Assemblymembers
Robert King
Fong, President, Sacramento Unified School Board
Warren
Furutani, Trustee, LA Community College Board
Allan
Hoffenblum, Publisher/Editor of California Target Book
Stewart Kwoh,
Executive Director & CEO, Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Prof.
Janelle Wong, USC Department of Political Science
8AM-
Registration
8:15AM-9AM
Breakfast
9:15AM-10:45AM Vision and Leadership for California in Time of Crisis
10:45AM-noon
Driving APA Political Leadership to the forefront of California Politics
Luncheon
Noon-2PM - Luncheon Speaker- Bill Schneider, CNN Political Analyst
2:15PM-3:30PM- Recent Political Landscape of California
3:30PM-4:45PM- Seeking Higher Office: Are You Ready?
5PM-6PM-
Reception
Participating Partners:
Asian
Business Association
Asian
Business League
Asian
Pacific American Bar Association
Asian
Pacific American Legal Center
Asian
Pacific American Legislative Staff Network
Asian
Professional Exchange
Leadership
Education for Asian Pacifics
UCLA Asian
American Studies Center
USC Asian
Pacific American Student Services
REGISTER ONLINE
http://causeusa.org/news/2003PoliInst.htm
******************
Opportunities Conference
If you have
not done so, register for the 2003 Opportunities Conference at
www.opportunitiesconference.gov. The conference is free and space is
limited, so be sure to register today!
The
Opportunities Conference is the first conference of its kind focused on
strengthening the economic development of the Asian Pacific and Hispanic
American communities. By reaching out to small business owners, non-profit
organizations, and community leaders, this innovative conference will address
the needs of the two fastest growing segments of the 21st century workforce.
Celebrating
the contributions of the nation's two largest immigrant communities, the event
will emphasize key components of economic development including minority
homeownership, job training, and understanding procurement opportunities.
Workshops will provide participants with information about small business
development, accessing capital, doing business with the government,
opportunities for faith-based and community organizations, and assistance to
limited English proficiency workers.
Opportunities for economic development will abound at this innovative conference
as we welcome leaders from the business arena and federal government to discuss
the most important issues impacting the economic growth of these two
communities. Come learn about how we can strengthen and build our communities
through education, advancement of small businesses, and growth of organizations
serving these two communities.
Conference
Speakers Include:
Secretary
Elaine L. Chao, U.S. Department of Labor
Secretary
Mel Martinez, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchison
Maria de
Lourdes (Lulu) Sobrino, Founder and CEO, Lulu's Desserts
Deputy
Administrator Melanie Sabelhaus, U.S. Small Business Administration
Assistant
Secretary Emily DeRocco, U.S. Department of Labor
Don't miss
the "Access to Capital" workshop, highlighting the many ways that your
company can raise capital through government-sponsored loans. Lead by James
Rivera, Associate Administrator for Financial Assistance at the U.S. Small
Business Administration, guests from Bank of America, Virginia Asset Financing
Company, and a micro lender from the Enterprise Development Group will explain
the process of finding out if you qualify for loans, and how to apply. These
loans can be a vital asset to your business in providing the resources necessary
for long-term growth.
Visit
www.opportunitiesconference.gov today for the most up-to-date agenda,
detailed workshop descriptions, and speaker information. We look forward to
seeing you September 24-25 in Washington, D.C.!
******************
Funding Opportunities
Funding Follows
Community-Based Healthcare
As
healthcare shifts from hospitals to community-based settings, funders are
changing their giving patterns to follow suit, the Philanthropy News Network (http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=4596)
reported July 30.
Government
agencies, foundations, and corporations are all giving more to community-based
programs. According to the report, Grant Funding for Community-Based Healthcare
Services, examples include the $20 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
Community Partnership for Older Adults program, 3M Corporation's $13.6 million
healthy communities program, and a $69 million federal program for
community-based HIV/AIDS services for low-income people.
The report
also details a project to move from theory to practice in community-based
drug-treatment programs.
The Grant
Funding for Community-Based Healthcare Services report is $89 and available
online (http://www.healthresourcesonline.com/health_grants/gfcbhc.htm).
******************
SAMHSA Proposes Grantmaking
Changes
http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/public/granttoc.htm
Grant
announcements from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) could soon fall under four general categories: service grants,
infrastructure grants, best-practices planning and implementation grants, and
service-to-science grants.
Alcoholism &
Drug Abuse Weekly reported Aug. 25 that SAMHSA is proposing to consolidate and
reorganize its grantmaking procedures, replacing up to 40 individual program
announcements with just a handful.
According to
SAMHSA, the change would make it easier for applicants to anticipate program
requirements and allow the agency to distribute funds more evenly throughout the
year.
SAMHSA is
inviting public comment on the proposal. For more information, see the agency's
website.
******************
Nonprofits Can Apply for
Humanitarian Prize
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/main.asp?id=38
Nominations
are now being accepted for the 2004 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a
$1-million award to a nonprofit that has made extraordinary contributions toward
alleviating human suffering.
Nominations
are due Nov. 1, 2003.
Nomination
packages and full details are available on the Conrad Hilton Foundation website.
******************
Foundation for Child Development Offers Fellowships for Research on Immigrant
Children
Deadline:
October 1, 2003
The Foundation for Child Development (http://www.ffcd.org/) offers
the Changing Faces of America's Children-Young Scholars Program to support a new
generation of early career scholars and to develop a better understanding of the
changing population of America's children as represented by those living in
immigrant families.
The Young
Scholars Program seeks to stimulate both fundamental and policy-relevant
research on the development, early education, and health needs of immigrant
children from birth to age ten, particularly those who are living in low-income
families, and to support young scholars from the behavioral and social sciences
or in an allied professional field to attain tenure at a college or university
in the United States.
The program
provides fellowships of up to $150,000 over three years maximum. Approximately
three or four fellowships are available for support of individual scholarship by
junior faculty. Fellowship recipients are expected to produce a book or
article(s) suitable for publication, and to articulate how their research may
potentially inform policies regarding young newcomer children.
Proposals
may include research designs for an empirical study, pilot work for a
larger-scale research project that will seek funding from other public and
private funders, or analysis of data previously collected. Research areas of
interest are limited to the following: factors (e.g., individual, familial,
cultural, neighborhood) contributing to both positive and negative outcomes for
young immigrant children in their communities and schools; individual and group
identity formation among young children from a variety of groups living in
different environments; the experiences of newcomer children in early education,
kindergarten, and elementary school programs; language development among
immigrant children; and evaluation of the impact of public policies in health
and in education that affect the life prospects of newcomer children.
To be
eligible for this program, applicants must hold a Ph.D. or its equivalent in one
of the behavioral or social sciences or in an allied professional field (e.g.,
public policy, public health, education, social work, nursing, medicine).
Scholars must have earned their Ph.D. within the ten years prior to June 30,
2003 (five years from completion of residency for M.D.s). Applicants must not
have received tenure and must hold a position as a full-time, tenure-track
faculty member of an American college or university located in the United
States.
Applicants
must be United States citizens, permanent residents, or international scholars
who are affiliated with an American academic institution during the duration of
the award. Candidates from diverse backgrounds (e.g., ethnicity, disciplines)
are encouraged to apply.
For complete
program guidelines and application procedures, see the Foundation for Child
Development Web site.
RFP Link:
http://www.ffcd.org/secondary/grntguid_our_process.htm
For
additional RFPs in Children and Youth, visit:
http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_children.jhtml
******************
Tips
Write a Winning
Grant Proposal
Clear goals and a
careful cost/benefit evaluation will help your proposal rise to the top of the
pile. Learn more from the latest Adopting Technology series.
http://www.techsoup.org/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=504
******************
Beyond the Case Statement: Your Grant Proposal
Be sure to
address training, support, and evaluation in your technology grant proposal.
http://www.techsoup.org/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=505
******************
Many Charitable Businesses Turn
Profit
http://www.communitywealth.org/
Forty-five percent of nonprofit-run businesses make a profit during their first
year of operation, and another 12 percent made money within two years, according
to a new report.
The
Chronicle of Philanthropy reported July 24 that a study commissioned by
Community Wealth Ventures -- a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Share Our
Strength -- also found that an additional 12 percent were profitable within
three years, four percent said it took four years to make money, and 14 percent
said it took five years.
For-profit ventures ran the gamut from small-budget (under $1 million annually)
to more than $5 million in annual expenditures. Of the 72 nonprofits surveyed,
33 operated local businesses, 27 operated regionally, and 11 operated
nationally.
For a
free downloadable copy of the report, "Powering Social Change: Lessons on
Community Wealth Generation for Nonprofit Sustainability," see the Community
Wealth Ventures website.
******************
Tax-Form Checkoffs Yield Little, But Popular
Giving taxpayers
the option to donate to charity is increasingly popular, even though returns are
unimpressive, the San Diego Union Tribune reported July 14.
Nationally, 41
states and the
District of Columbia
had a total of 210 checkoff boxes for charitable contributions on their tax
forms, more than double the total in 1989.
Nonprofits have
lobbied hard for the checkoffs despite the fact that just $33 million was raised
nationally via this method, out of the $240 billion total raised annually for
nonprofits.
Lawmakers have
sometimes struggled with the checkoffs, saying it is difficult to decide whether
one charity or another deserves to be on the tax form. California has capped
checkoffs at five years per charity, with groups raising less than $250,000
annually via the checkoff losing their spot on the tax form.
******************
Jobs/Internships
U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE - POSTSECONDARY INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
(http://www.osec.doc.gov/oebam/internwebsite.htm)
The Department of
Commerce (DOC) announces opportunities for both summer and academic year paid
internships for the 2003 summer and fall sessions and the 2004 spring session.
·
Interns
participate in on-site work experiences with DOC bureaus and offices in order to
integrate academic theory and workplace requirements, gain relevant skills and
knowledge, explore Federal career options, develop professional networks, and
gain a greater awareness of the role of Federal agencies.
·
Basic
eligibility requires enrollment as an undergraduate or graduate student at two
and four-year accredited educational institutions, as well as
U.S. citizenship.
·
Interns receive
stipends as well as paid round-trip transportation expenses between their
schools/homes and work locations. Assistance with temporary housing arrangements
is also provided. Most internships are in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan
area, but some assignments are available at locations around the United States,
where Commerce regional and local offices are situated.
·
Interns hosted
under the Postsecondary Internship Program are not employees of the Department
of Commerce; rather, they are affiliated with one of the four sponsoring
organizations with which the Department collaborates to recruit interns.
******************
APIWFSC Executive
Director – Job Announcement
Application Deadline:
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 by 5:00 pm PST
Organization: Asian and
Pacific
Islander
Women & Family Safety Center (APIWSC)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Reports to: Board of
Directors
Salary range:
Mid-$40,000-$50,000, DOE. Excellent benefits include retirement, medical,
dental.
Hours: 40 hours/week, some
evenings and weekends.
Classification: Full-time,
exempt position.
Summary: Provide
direction, leadership and guidance to community based agency serving primarily
the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Responsible for agency's
administration, staff development/management, fiscal development/management,
board relations and development, community relations, strategic planning and
vision, public policy advocacy, and community advocacy for survivors of domestic
and sexual violence and human trafficking. Uphold the values of the APIWFSC and
maintain accountability and integrity of the agency to the community and other
APIWFSC supporters/partners.
Major
Responsibilities:
Planning and Administration
1. Ensure that the
agency provides the highest possible quality services and that they are
culturally relevant and responsive to community needs.
2. Oversight of agency
operations in keeping with Board policies.
3. Ensure that the
agency is in compliance with all relevant federal, state and local laws.
4. Partner with Board,
staff, and volunteers to carry out the vision, mission, strategic plan, and
Board priorities.
5. Authorized to
negotiate and sign contracts on behalf of the agency.
Fund
Development and Fiscal Management
1. Develop annual budget
and oversee its implementation.
2. Responsible for
development, negotiation, and performance of grants and contracts, in
conjunction with the Resource Development Manager and Program Manager.
3. Work with the
Resource Development Manager and Board to raise sufficient funds to meet agency
goals, including major gifts solicitation, special events, Board directed
fund-raising activities, major donor campaigns, and a capital campaign at such
time as the Board considers feasible.
4. Ensure annual audit
of financial records to monitor compliance with laws, contracts and policies.
5. Oversee and take
responsibility for meeting agency compliance with grant/contract requirements,
including outcome measures, invoicing and reporting in conjunction with Resource
Development Manager and Program Manager.
Staff
Development and Management
1. Work with board,
staff, and volunteers in maintaining an empowering and supportive work
environment, which fosters leadership, open communication, and continued
critical analysis regarding root causes of violence and exploitation.
2. Oversee all aspects
of staff coordination, including hiring, supervision, evaluation, recognition
and termination of staff, volunteers and contractors.
3. Work with Personnel
Committee to develop recommendations regarding staffing levels, salaries and
benefits.
4. Promote professional
development and leadership through staff meetings and continuing education
opportunities within and outside the agency.
5. Maintain and
implement staff policies and work with Personnel Committee to update/maintain
procedures manual.
6. Ensure staff and
volunteer diversity and cross-cultural skills through appropriate hiring,
development and retention policies and activities.
Community Relations
1. Serve as the primary
agency spokesperson with media, community organizations, key stakeholders, and
the general public.
2. Develop and maintain
partnerships, collaborations and coalitions with domestic violence, sexual
assault, and human trafficking services agencies, Asian Pacific agencies,
community groups, and others that will help advance the agency's mission and
values.
3. Represent the agency
on public advocacy and collaborative groups such as, API Domestic Violence
Consortium, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Washington
State Coalition of Sexual Assault Providers, King County Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, Minority Executive Directors Coalition, National Asian
Institute on Domestic Violence, and other relevant groups.
Qualifications:
The
successful candidate must be able to demonstrate experience with the following:
· Social change
activism, critical thinking regarding the root causes of violence, values
reflecting knowledge and experience in anti-oppression work.
· Building and
mobilizing community support for an agency's mission, values, and programs.
· Leadership and
community organizing experience within the Asian and Pacific Islander community.
· Community-based
non-profit management, preferably in communities of color, including fiscal
management, personnel management, and strategic planning.
· Building coalitions,
collaborations and teams with culturally diverse groups.
· Developing and
maintaining a diverse base of public and private funding.
· Communicating
effectively with diverse individuals and organizations.
· Community relations,
public speaking, and skills as a trainer in interactive environments.
· Shelter or
transitional housing development or management.
· And understanding of
domestic and sexual violence, exploitation, human trafficking and their impacts
on communities of color and immigrants and refugees.
Preferred Qualifications:
· Bi-lingual,
bi-cultural.
· Knowledge of the
Asian Pacific community of greater
Seattle.
How
to Apply: Please
send cover letter, resume, and three (3) references.
Attention: APIWFSC Executive
Director Search Committee
Regular mail: PO Box 14047,
Seattle, WA 98114
E-mail: hrapiwfsc@apialliance.org
Fax: (206) 467-1072
Survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and/or human trafficking
encouraged to apply. Asian and Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center (APIWFSC)
is an equal opportunity employer.
No
relocation or sponsorship assistance provided.
APIWFSC Mission: Prevent violence against women through community
organizing and education; provide safe, culturally relevant services for women,
youth and children; and create housing resources for families who face domestic
and sexual violence, and victimization from human trafficking in Asian and
Pacific Islander communities.
******************
News
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
August 28, 2003
Contact: Russell Leong, Editor, Amerasia Journal, (310) 206-2892
Beyond Survival and Silence: UCLA Publishes New Voices of Vietnamese American
Generations
UCLA's Asian American Studies Center is pleased to announce the publication of
"Vietnamese Americans: Diaspora & Dimensions," a special 280-page issue of
AMERASIA JOURNAL (29:1), edited by Professor Linda Vo. Over twenty articles by a
new generation of Vietnamese and American scholars and writers examine the
Vietnamese who live in the U.S. and their complex connections to Vietnam. The
writers take different approaches to looking at the Vietnamese American
experience--including education, economics, ethnic studies, history, literature,
political science, public health, religion, and sociology.
According to Vo, a professor of Asian American Studies at UC Irvine, "Vietnam is
marked by 1,000 years of invasion by the Chinese, followed by 300 years of
French colonialism, Japanese occupation during WWII, attempts at French
recolonization, and a decade of direct U.S. intervention. In the post-war
years, Vietnam
has been shaped by countries with socialist regimes."
Writers, activists, and artists within this special AMERASIA issue address such
issues as women's health, gender relations, marriage, and culture. Articles go
beyond the "survival and silence" of the Vietnam war years and ask important
questions about changes within the Vietnamese communities in the U.S. Prof. Vo
states: "Although the majority of our population is first-generation, we can now
speak about 1.5, second, and even a third generation of Vietnamese Americans."
Each generation of Vietnamese is forging new diasporic, transnational
connections between the
U.S.
and Vietnam. The concept "diasporic" as it applies to Vietnamese outside Vietnam
includes many of the following features: territorial/political connections;
economic and trade relationships; remittances; immigrant and labor migrations;
and cultural and ethnic identification with a homeland.
For example, in her essay, Tran Ngoc Angie explores the linkages between
Vietnamese workers in the U.S. electronic industry and Vietnamese workers in the
garment industry in Vietnam. Her study compares labor conditions in factories
and homes of male and female workers. While some immigrants experience mobility,
others experience similar forms of exploitation both within
Vietnam
and in the U.S. Other articles explore transnational linkages in the Vietnamese
music industry, in literature, and in politics. In the literary section,
chaplain, artist, and poet Phuc Luu writes about his pilgrimage--from the time
his family left Saigon in 1974 to their arrival in Morgantown, West Virginia, to
his current life in Houston, Texas. His journey remains a constant struggle to
transcend te cultural trappings imposed by others, and to seek new voices in he
spiritual wilderness of America.
"Vietnamese Americans" is available for $13.00, plus $4.00 shipping and
handling; California
residents add 8.25% tax. Please make checks payable to "UC Regents" and send
payment to UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, Box
951546, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546. We also accept VISA, MASTERCARD, and
DISCOVER; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. For order
inquiries, or review copies for media or classroom use, email
thaocha@ucla.edu or call (310) 825-2968.
VIETNAMESE AMERICANS: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Linda Vo, "Vietnamese American Trajectories: Dimensions of Diaspora"
Mong-Lan, "rush hour"
Angie Tran, "Transnational Assembly Work: Vietnamese American Electronic and
Vietnamese Garment Workers"
Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde, "Making Vietnamese Music Transnational: Sounds of
Home, Resistance, and Change"
Hung Cam Thai, "The Vietnamese Double Gender Revolt: Globalizing Marriage
Options in the 21st Century"
Thien Bao-Phi, "For Us"
Karin Aguilar-San Juan, "Fields of Dreams: Place, Race, and Memory in Boston's
Vietnamese American Community"
Lan Duong, "Desire and Design: Technological Display in the Vietnamese American
Café and Karaoke Bar"
Gina Masequesmay, "Emergence of Queer Vietnamese America" Marking Histories
Vu Pham, "Antedating and Anchoring Vietnamese America: Toward a Vietnamese
American Historiography"
Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony and Anne Frank, "Archiving Histories: The Southeast
Asian Archive at University of California, Irvine"
Mariam Beevi, James C. Lam, and Michael Matsuda, "Transforming Curriculum:
Incorporating the Vietnamese American Experience into K-12 Education"
Viet Mike Ngo, "Grave Digger" and "Red, White and Blue" Facing Challenges
Tu-Uyen Nguyen, Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Sora Park Tanjasiri, and Mary Anne Foo,
"Vietnamese American Women's Health: A Community's Perspective and Report"
Christian Collet and Nadine Selden, "Separate Ways. . .Worlds Apart? The
'Generation Gap' in Vietnamese America as Seen Through The San Jose Mercury News
Poll"
Viet Le, "I sleep in your bed"
Viet Le, "Incense"
Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, "Catfish and Mandala: Triple Vision"
Brandy Lien Worrall, "Stories from Home"
Phuc Luu, "Across the Ocean of My Soul: A Personal and Spiritual Journey in
America"
Michele Janette, "Vietnamese American Literature in English, 1963-1994"
--
Don T. Nakanishi, Ph.D.
Director and Professor
UCLA Asian American Studies Center
3230 Campbell Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546
phone:310.825.2974
fax:310.206.9844
e-mail:dtn@ucla.edu
web site for Center:
www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc
******************
August
26, 2003
Vietnam: Supreme Court Should Overturn Cyber-Dissident's Conviction
Writer
is Among Three Vietnamese Honored With Hellman/Hammett Award
Vietnam's
Supreme Court should overturn the politically motivated espionage conviction of
Internet-dissident Pham Hong Son and order his release, Human Rights Watch urged
today.
Press
Release:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/08/vietnam082603.htm
******************
Traditional Asian family values investigated on BBC World Service
Asian family values and the effects of modernisation, marriage,
children and education are investigated in The Asian Family beginning 3
September.
Tony Barrell travels to
Australia,
Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan in this five part series, looking at
the role Confucianism plays in the modern day Asian family and its longevity
across the
Far East.
The journey begins in his homeland
Australia where
the stresses and strains of modern suburban life would be expected to take their
toll on old family values.
However
Australia has its
own Asian heartland in Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney, with 75% of residents
coming from overseas.
The local Vietnamese still respect the old ways and a modern young
man like Thang Ngo, one of
Australia's few
Asian politicians, has rediscovered the values of Buddhism.
In
Singapore
people are facing a different manifestation of modernity. The small island state
has a seriously declining birth rate as young women are delaying marriage and
motherhood.
Vietnam
is a country that for a long time vilified the feudal tenets of Confucius.
"The status of women continues to be undermined by his legacy,"
says Tony Barrell.
Confucius is supposed to have said that every child needs three
parents: a mother, a father and 'heaven'.
In the paddy fields and on the streets of
Hanoi it is women
who do all the hard work.
In
South Korea,
Confucianism manifests itself in the belief that education is the path to
success. Children as young as twelve go to bed at midnight having attended
after-school classes and done their homework supervised by anxious parents.
In
Japan
there is concern about the ageing population. On the Japanese island of Okinawa
people live to be older than anywhere else in the world. A woman recently
celebrated her 115th birthday there.
It is said the islanders flourish because they live a slow life and
have a diet of fish and green vegetables.
The Asian Family is a co-production between BBC World Service and
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) premier network Radio National.
Presenter Tony Barrell has been making award-winning programmes
from around the globe for ABC for the past 20 years.
Last year, he reported from
Japan and South
Korea for an earlier BBC/ABC co-production, Edge of Asia, in the run-up to the
World Cup.
Notes to Editors
The Asian Family is a series of five programmes, 23 minutes each.
The presenter is Tony Barrell and the producer is Sue Waldram.
International
Broadcast Times
West Africa: | Wed
09:06 rpt
16:06 | Thur
00:06 | Sun
09:06
Europe: | Wed
08:06 rpt
13:06,
18:06 | Thur
00:06 | Sun
09:06
E and
S Africa: | Wed
07:06 rpt
16:06 | Thur
00:06 | Sun
07:06
Middle East: | Wed
07:06 rpt
16:06 | Thur
00:06 | Sun
07:06
South Asia: | Tue
23:06 rpt Wed
05:06,
09:06, 14:06| Sat
21:06 | Sun
05:06
East Asia: | Wed
02:06 rpt
07:06,
12:06,
18:06 | Sun
01:06
Americas: | Wed
14:06 rpt 19:06 | Thur 00:06,
05:06
| Sun 21:06
Listen online
from 3 September (updated weekly on Wednesdays) at bbcworldservice.com/programmes
- choose The Asian Family from the drop down list of programmes.
BBC World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43
languages and is available on radio and online at bbcworldservice.com.
It has a global audience of 150 million listeners.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/08_august/21/ws_asian_family.shtml
******************
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.28.03/nguyen-0335.html
August 28, 2003
Power Clout:
Rising political star Madison Nguyen's future's so bright, she's gotta wear
shades.
The Visible Woman
San Jose's
Madison Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American elected to public office in
Northern California. She can't be president, but she's got big plans for her
community and her career.
By Allie Gottlieb
MADISON PHUONG
Nguyen sat quietly taking notes while the DA spoke. City Councilmember Chuck
Reed had invited Nguyen to witness the exchange between San Jose residents
distraught over the July 13 police shooting of Bich Cau Thi Tran. George
Kennedy, the elected DA who's ultimately in charge of whether to indict the
officer who killed her, had just finished telling the roughly 25 people
surrounding the conference table about the two ways he can charge someone with a
crime (police charges or a grand jury indictment), when question time arrived.
"Will there be
people of Vietnamese descent serving on the grand jury?" Nguyen asked.
Kennedy replied
that he didn't know. Jury selection is "completely random." He proceeded to
describe one jury picked to decide a case about a Mexican victim of a police
shooting--a jury on which no one was Mexican. "I'd hoped for diversity, but it
didn't work out that way," he said.
Obviously, juries
are just one place where ethnic subgroups are underrepresented. For those of
Vietnamese descent, the near absence of power in virtually every category of
public service is glaring. Especially in San Jose, the city with the largest
population of Vietnamese descendants outside Vietnam.
Vietnamese
residents, numbering nearly 79,000 in the last census, make up 8.8 percent of
San Jose's population. Less than 1 percent of the police in San Jose are
Vietnamese-Americans. The 1,408-member force includes 28 Vietnamese officers,
according to spokesperson Sgt. Steve Dixon. (Incidentally, Dixon sounded annoyed
to still be getting calls about the shooting. "We don't have a lot of comment on
that," he told my voicemail. "That happened a month ago.")
Nguyen straddles
the first- and second-generation categories. She came to the United States at
age 4 in 1979. Three years ago, Nguyen moved from Chicago, where she earned a
master's degree in social science, to San Jose. She visited school districts,
City Hall, and the county Board of Supervisors' office and noted the Vietnamese
ethnic void.
"How can we have
an equal voice if we remain a silent community?" she asks. So Nguyen ran for the
governing board of the Franklin-McKinley School District in 2002 and won, making
her the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to any position in California
and the first Vietnamese-American elected to public office in San Jose or
anywhere in Northern California. Out of the 85 Asian Americans elected to office
in the United States, Nguyen is one of four Vietnamese-Americans in California,
according to data collected by United Asian, a San Jose-based group. The other
three hold office in
Southern California.
College teacher
and sociology Ph.D. candidate Madison Nguyen impresses and concerns people for
the same reason. She breaks with a cultural mold by being politically apparent.
"I have to be very humble when I speak in front of my people," she says,
explaining that otherwise, in her youth and female gender, she'll seem arrogant
for thinking she has something worthy to say.
Of the nine
sisters and brothers in the Nguyen family, all pay attention to politics, but
Madison alone plays a part in politics. The May commencement speech she
delivered in May at Evergreen Valley College revealed an acute self-awareness.
"Growing up, I
have always been a little more outspoken than most Asian children; therefore, I
would often get labeled as a 'banana' by my Asian peers," she told the students.
"They were trying to say that I'm yellow on the outside but white on the inside.
Why? Because Asian women have always been stereotyped as submissive, fragile,
soft-spoken and whatever clichés that make us vulnerable and dependent.
Nevertheless, I have always been on the other side of that conventional
spectrum."
When she became a
U.S. citizen at around age 18, the woman formerly known as Phuong chose the
first name Madison, after James Madison, America's fourth president. "To me it's
a very sophisticated name, and I wanted to be a sophisticated person," she
explains. She wears smart, sleek slacks, a striped button-down shirt and
square-toed, black zip-up boots. Nguyen speaks clearly, deliberately and quickly
as if she knows how important it is that she be heard.
"We're fighting
for justice and equal representation," she says, referring to recent community
organizing boosted by the response to the Tran shooting. "It's sad for it to
take a tragedy like this for the community to come together and for the city to
recognize who we are."
Nguyen, who lives
in Councilmember Terry Gregory's district along with most of San Jose's poor
Vietnamese people, organized a rally after Tran's death. An estimated 250 people
showed up. "I felt like, someone's dead here, and they just barely wrote a
paragraph about it. I just wanted the story to be a little more open, to let the
public know what's going on. If that was a Hispanic woman, I would have done the
same thing," she says.
Missteps by
public officials have fueled the mistrust. Deputy District Attorney Karyn Sinunu
was pulled off the case by DA Kennedy, who said some of her comments to the
press reflected "some premature judgment of the facts."
City
Councilmembers and Mayor Ron Gonzales have been noticeably silent about the
incident. Chuck Reed is typically the only councilmember who responds to
ethnically toned issues. Indeed, he has organized meetings to bring officials
and community members together. But he defends his colleagues for not offering
opinions or really saying anything at all until the grand jury finishes its work
possibly next month.
Tran's family
hired an attorney to sue the city for wrongful death. The lawsuit also demands
that the DA make public all of the evidence in the case. But the DA responds
that the family and the public can see all the evidence when he's done with it
and the grand jury has made it public.
Mayor Gonzales
did not return calls for comment. Spokesperson David Vossbrink said, "We really
are waiting to find out what happened that day like the rest of the community."
The shooting took
place on
Taylor Street
in Councilmember Cindy Chavez's district. Chavez and the rest of the
councilmembers bothered not only Nguyen but also other political and community
observers by keeping tight-lipped about the incident.
"Disappointingly,
the mayor and most of the City Council were invisible on this issue," says SJSU
political science professor Terry Christensen.
Vietnamese-American Community Action Team director The-Vu Nguyen, a big Madison
fan who escaped South Vietnam at 13 by boat in 1979, says things are finally
changing and Madison is a symbol of that. "This is the first time that we're
standing up to get our fair share for the community," he says. For his part,
The-Vu is helping to organize meetings with community members and officials.
Councilmember
Chavez, who boasts that "Terry Gregory has an extremely close relationship with
the Vietnamese community," claims credit on behalf of Gregory and herself for
arranging one of these upcoming meetings with an eye on introducing Vietnamese
community members to the world of public service jobs.
"It's so
important for there to be hundreds of Madisons in this community, whether it's
in elected office or public service," Chavez says.
Interestingly,
Nguyen says she knew nothing of the meeting Chavez and Gregory are sponsoring,
despite having bumped into Gregory the day before. Gregory at first agreed but
later declined to discuss his response to the shooting, Nguyen's young political
career and what she represents for his district.
But word of
Nguyen as a rising star is spreading among political circles. Santa Clara County
Supervisor Jim Beall, for instance, calls her "a real up-and-comer."
Councilmember
Reed notes Nguyen's trailblazing significance. "I think they're underrepresented
in most levels of government," he says about Vietnamese-Americans. "It takes a
while before a community begins to generate leadership."
Nguyen fills out
her résumé like someone looking to the future. For example, she co-founded, with
The-Vu Nguyen, the nonprofit Vietnamese-American Center. But at this point,
Nguyen won't admit to harboring political aspirations beyond the school board
level.
"When I first
started out, I didn't get much support from the Vietnamese community, because
the concept of a female running was so new," she says. "In the Vietnamese
community, people didn't really know who I was. Financially, the Vietnamese
community is very new to the concept of giving back."
She offers
opinions about the state of the city and the country. On the DA's professing to
be open-minded and unbiased to set the tone of the Tran shooting investigation:
"He's playing the 'neutral' guy without really being neutral." On the fact that
she can never lead the country: "What the citizenship clause says to me is that
this country and the leadership of this country are not treating everyone with
the same respect. This shows me that this country is not grateful for the
countless benefits that immigrants have brought forth."
She imagines
herself in 10 years working as a professor at an area university after finishing
up her Ph.D. at UC-Santa Cruz. She says representing the school board is the
most important political position she could have because it operates on such a
local level. Her agenda includes beefing up the multicultural curriculum and
adding Vietnamese teachers to the staff. But the weight of progress on her
shoulders isn't lost on Madison Nguyen.
"I want to use
the fact that I have some clout and do something good with it. At first, a lot
of people in my community asked me why I was standing up for a cause. ... 'Why
are you doing this? Is it worth it?'" But she says that people in her community
are now warming up to her. "To come out, be this young, run against three
incumbents and win," she confidently narrates, "it really shows that they're
desperately wanting someone new, some representation."
Send a letter to
the editor about this story to
letters@metronews.com.
******************
August 19, 2003
GAP STARTS BEFORE SCHOOL
Educators Try to Close the Minority Learning Gap
By June Kronholz
Washington (Wall
Street Journal) - AT THE AZEEZE BATES Head Start Center on the ground floor of a
low-income apartment complex here, a four-year-old named Sakiya shows how to
read a book: She moves her tiny finger from left to right across a line of type,
drops down to the start of the next line when the first one ends, and turns the
page when she comes to the bottom.
Sakiya, who is
African-American and will enter kindergarten in the fall, thus has all three of
the skills that demonstrate what the U.S. Department of Education calls "print
familiarity." But nationwide, the department says, only 20% of black children
have all three prereading skills compared with 45% of whites. About a quarter of
black and Hispanic kindergartners don't have any of them.
"If children
can't do that, obviously you have to teach them," says Valerie Lee, a
sociologist of education at the University of Michigan.
In the meantime,
youngsters who have grown up with books, visits to the library and nightly story
hours with mom or dad are able to spurt ahead.
In her Supreme
Court opinion in June upholding affirmative action at the University of
Michigan, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that she and other justices "expect"
that racial preferences won't be needed 25 years from now. But the presumption
that the learning gap between whites and minorities will close by then and make
preferences unnecessary is far from a safe bet.
Education
Department data show that the gap has barely budged in two decades largely
because low-income minority children are three months behind the national
average in reading and math skills when they start kindergarten, and never catch
up. By the time they reach 12th grade, blacks and Hispanics are reading at about
the same level as white and Asian eighth graders, according to results of a
national reading test that were released last month.
So, in the
politically charged rush to close the learning gap, researchers and policy
makers are looking more closely at what goes on before youngsters even show up
for school. This fall, the Education Department expects to release the first
data from a study of nine-month-olds whom it plans to follow through first grade
to learn how the gap gets there in the first place.
All 25 governors
elected in November 2002 campaigned on promises of early childhood programs 0
close the gap, and President Bush is pushing legislation to make Head Start, the
Lyndon Johnson-era program for low-income preschoolers, more "academic." At
Azeeze Bates preschool, for example, only 15 minutes of the ll-hour day has
"teacher-directed" instruction, with the rest of the day devoted to learning
through play.
At the same time,
advances that narrowed the gap in the 1970s and early '80s are threatened. State
budget shortfalls have caused 23 states to cut back or slow the growth of their
preschool programs in the past two years, says the National Conference of State
Legislatures. Harvard's Civil Rights Project, which studies integration, says
schools are more segregated than they were three decades ago, and that
youngsters in segregated schools learn less than those in schools that are
racially and economically mixed. Social indicators like unemployment and
homelessness also are on the rise.
Family income and
parents' education account for a huge share of the learn ing gap. Only four in
10 welfare children arrive at kindergarten knowing their ABCs, compared with
seven in 10 children whose families have never been on aid. And just 9% of the
children whose mothers have less than a high-school education know what sounds a
letter stands for, compared with half the children whose mothers have a college
degree.
In her 15-minute
Azeeze Bates lesson one day recently, a teacher read off the letters f-I-a-g,
asking four youngsters to print them below a crepe paper flag they've each
pasted onto paper. All four started enthusiastically, but even after 2 years in
Head Start, just three could manage the F, and none got as far as the G. Sean
Reardon, a professor of education and sociology at Pennsylvania State
University, estimates that about 60% of the gap among young children can be
accounted for by income and education differences.
An additional 6%
is attributable to neighborhood differences such as concentrated poverty, he
says.
And the rest?
"There's tons of debate about that," he says. Much of the new kindergarten
research points to how many books youngsters own, how eager they are to learn,
how often someone reads or sings to them, how well they pay attention and how
"persistent" they are at finishing tasks.
In a study 10
years ago, researcher Paul Barton found that five factors accounted for all but
9% of the difference between high and low scorers on a national math test the
year before. The high scorers read more than two pages a day, had at least three
types of reading material at home, didn't skip school or watch much TV, and
lived in two-parent households.
Those five didn't
cause low scores, cautions Mr. Barton, who works for the Educational Testing
Service, which produces the SAT college-admissions test among many others.
Rather, he says, they showed the links between income and performance and, just
as important, how serious the family was about education.
Betty Hart, a
University of Kansas Professor of human development, and Todd Risley, a
University of Alaska psychologist, found that three-year-olds whose parents are
on welfare had an average vocabulary of 525 words, while those with parents who
held professional-level jobs knew twice as many words. More affluent parents
were far more likely to encourage their kids than were the low-income parents,
who admonished their children twice as often as they praised them, the 2-year
study found.
Michigan's Dr.
Lee calculates that black kindergartners watch five more hours of television a
week than whites; own about 40 books each, fewer than half as many as white
children; and that more than half come from one-parent homes, compared with 15%
of whites. She blames
state and local
school officials for not narrowing the gap by assigning the best teachers and
biggest budgets to schools with lots of low-income and minority children. But
she concedes that "there's no way schools can be held responsible" for the gap
that kids bring to school from home.
Starting Behind
Early-childhood
activities that researchers say contribute to the learning gap between white and
minority children:
