NCVA REPORTER - September 9, 2004

In this NCVA Reporter:

Events

• National Congress of Vietnamese Americans 18^th Annual Convention – Sept 10-12, 2004
• U.S. Department of Labor – 2004 Opportunity Conference – Oct 12, 2004
• Vietnamese Professionals Society, North American Conference - Oct 23-24, 2004

Funding Opportunities

• Nestle Very Best in Youth Program Youth Awards
• Funds for Progressive Social Change

Jobs/Internships

• VACN Program Manager
• Communication & Development Director, Asian Community Development Corporation

News

• Vietnamese refugees rescued from Cambodia (Associated Press)
• A fast game, a quick exit, but plenty to savor (Mercury News)
• Linguists see link between income level, speaking a second language (Orange County Register)
• Indefensible Kerry is still sacrificing the freedom of the Vietnamese (The New York Sun)
• Vietnam’s shadows are with us to this day. What’s going on? (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Honorees Named for NAVASA’s Annual Recognition Banquet (Press Release)

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EVENTS

NATIONAL CONGRESS OF VIETNAMESE AMERICANS

Eighteenth National Annual Convention

George Mason University Metro Campus, Arlington, Virginia

September 10-12, 2004

PROGRAM

Friday, September 10, 2004

6:30 p.m.      PRE-CONFERENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Saturday, September 11, 2004

8:30 a.m.      Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m.      OPENING CEREMONY

9:30 a.m.      GENERAL SESSION I

                   Opening Remarks by Mr. NGUYEN MAU TRINH

                   Chairman, National Board of Directors, NCVA

                   Activities Report by Mr. HUNG NGUYEN

                   President, Executive Board, NCVA

10:00 a.m.     Presentation 1:

“Vietnam Developments: The T2-T4 Scandal and Resolution 36” - Mr. NGUYEN NGOC BICH, former Director, Vietnamese Service, Radio Free Asia)

11:00 a.m.     Presentation 2:

                   “Vietnamese Americans in the U.S.: The Young Ones in the Face of New

Developments” - Mr. DANIEL HOANG, Vietnamese Youth on the March Network

12:00 noon    LUNCH

Remarks by Messrs. BUI DIEM, LINH QUANG VIEN, LE VAN BA, DINH MANH HUNG, NGUYEN CAO QUYEN

1:30 p.m.      GENERAL SESSION II - Presentation 3:

“Vietnamese-American Relations and Related Issues” - Prof. NGUYEN MANH HUNG, Indochina Center, GMU

2:15 p.m.      Presentation 4:

“Prospects for the Vietnamese Economy” - Prof. NGUYEN QUOC KHAI, Vietnam Democracy Forum

3:00 p.m.      Presentation 5:

                   “Vietnamese Americans and the Presidential Election of 2004”

                   The Democrats’ Viewpoint by Mr. DANG PHAM

                   The Republican Perspective by Mrs. MARY CHI RAY

4:00 p.m.      Presentation 6:

“Vietnamese American Media Facing New Challenges” - Mr. NGHI HUYNH, Publisher-Editor of AAPRESS, Minnesotan English weekly, and ex-VP, Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)

4:30 p.m.      Presentation 7:

“Issues of Concern to Vietnamese American Women” - Mrs. JACKIE BONG WRIGHT, Vietnamese American Voters Association (VAVA)

5:00 p.m.      ADJOURNMENT

Sunday, September 12, 2004

9:00 a.m.      GENERAL SESSION III

                   Election of NCVA Board of Directors, 2004-2006 term

                   Election of NCVA Executive Board, 2004-2006 term

10:00 a.m.     Summary of Proceedings and Adoption of NCVA 2004 Resolution

11:00 a.m.     Formulation of Policies for the 2004-2006 term 

12:00 noon    ADJOURNMENT

www.ncvaonline.org

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

2004 OPPORTUNITY CONFERENCE

October 12, 2004

Washington, D.C.

Once again, under the leadership of Secretary Elaine L. Chao, the U.S. Department of Labor will host an Opportunity Conference, building partnerships with the nation's two largest immigrant communities, Asian and Hispanic Americans. This conference will focus on a range of topics concerning the economic development of the Asian Pacific and Hispanic American communities, the two fastest-growing segments of the 21^st Century Workforce. This conference seeks to address their needs for continued success. The Opportunity Conference will emphasize key components of economic development, including access to capital and job training, and also feature workshops on understanding federal procurement opportunities and addressing the needs of workers with limited English proficiency, among other issues.

For more information on this FREE conference, log on to www.opportunityconference.gov. We hope to see you on October 12.

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VIETNAMESE PROFESSIONALS SOCIETY

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE 2004

PRESS RELEASE

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA – The Vietnamese Professionals Society is organizing the North American Conference 2004 that will take place October 23^rd and 24^th 2004 in Santa Ana, California. This year’s theme is “Roles of Vietnamese Professionals – Global and Local Perspectives”. As the title implies, the conference will showcase the diversity of professional fields that Vietnamese Americans are working in as well as educate them on all aspects of development that is currently taking place in Vietnam.  It is our hope to promote a greater sense of civic participation by getting Vietnamese Americans to lend their expertise in a variety of local and global contribution.

Among the topics presented will be Education in US, Science/Technology, Journalism, Charity, International Criminal Court, Vietnamese History, Politics, Vietnamese Americans in Film, Vietnamese Americans in Public Service and Vietnam’s Current Economy.

Speakers to the conference will be Vietnamese professionals in US and around the world and will be posted on the conference website soon.

Dates:                    Saturday, October 23rd - Sunday, October 24th 2004

Location:                Doubletree Hotel Santa Ana/Orange County

201 East MacArthur Blvd., Santa Ana, CA 92707

Conference fee:       Non-member - $130

Member - $100

Student - $50

Hotel Cost     $70

Contact                  Tanya Hoang, Public Relations: tanyahoang@hotmail.com

Xuan Vu, Co-Conference Chair:  714-305-7395

Minh T. Nguyen, Co-Conference Chair: south_ca@hcgvn.org

Hosting Chapter:      Vietnamese Professionals Society – Southern California Chapter

Website:                 http://www.vps.org/bm2004

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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

NESTLE YOUTH AWARDS
Nestle Very Best In Youth Program

The Nestlé Very Best In Youth Program, co-sponsored by Nestlé and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), honors young people who have made reading a priority and, in the process, have made tangible contributions to the quality of life in their communities. Youth nominated for the award should have strong backgrounds in citizenship, school, community involvement, and reading and must be legal residents of the U.S. between 10 and 18 years of age. Each winner will be featured in a special publication, honored at a ceremony in Los Angeles, and will receive a certificate of appreciation. Nestlé will also donate $1,000 in the name of each winner to the charity of his/her choice. Applications are due by November 1, 2004.

(http://www.rif.org/what/eventscontests/verybestinyouth/default.mspx)

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FUNDS FOR PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL CHANGE

Ben & Jerry’s Foundation

The Ben & Jerry's Foundation provides support to nonprofit, grassroots organizations throughout the United States that facilitate progressive social change by addressing the underlying conditions of societal and environmental problems. Support is provided for projects that lead to societal, institutional, and/or environmental change; address the root causes of social or environmental problems; lead to new ways of thinking and acting; help improve an unjust or destructive situation by empowering constituents; facilitate leadership development and strengthen self-empowerment efforts of the disenfranchised; and support movement building and collective action. Letters of inquiry are accepted year-round. The next deadline for invited proposals is November 1, 2004.

(http://www.benjerry.com/foundation/)

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JOBS/INTERNSHIPS

VACN PROGRAM MANAGER

VACN is a 501 (c) (3) Non-profit Community Media Outreach Organization which provides full coverage news on community activities and highlights the accomplishments and contributions of Vietnamese Americans in the US. VACN also focuses on how messages to our younger generations will provide the right directions to instill integrity and maintain high values of the Vietnamese culture in the new way of life.

Salary range: $32K - $35K depending on qualifications, years of experience, and past achievements; plus benefits.

Essential Responsibilities:

-   Meet with syndicators, advise on program acquisition. Work closely with news, creative services, and sales to manage some of our most important community projects

-   Exhibit broad technical knowledge related to broadcasting and public broadcasting

-   Organize, lead and direct more than two major fundraising campaigns

-   Develop long-term budget strategy for the organization

-   Develop funding to sustain and expand services and programs

-   Identify, understand and resolve institutional and organizational barriers to change

-   Weekly report to the Executive Director of VACN, and coordinate with the Program Director of PALMA.

-   Prepare monthly activities and outcomes reports for VACN

-   Prepare BPSOS quarterly reports and Underwriting program reports

-   Understand future trends and their impact on the organization's operations

-   Identify organizational changes required to keep the organization financially viable and relevant in the community.

-   Develop and improve the key skills of staff members by working directly with them, modeling the right behaviors, and assisting staff members in their professional development.

-   Coordinate fund development for PALMA partners and publicize PALMA in the community

Goals:

-   Inspire and build up team spirit and commitment in organization

-   All products will be delivered on time and on budget.

-   All proposed program outcomes will be met or exceeded.

-   VACN’s activities will achieve high visibility in the public and among service agencies

-   Will improve the standards of excellence in service delivery and operational

-   Develop strong working relationships both within the university and with those who might participate in supporting VACN’s and PALMA’s mission.

-  Demonstrate a successful track record of leading organizations to financial self-sufficiency

Requirements:

Bachelor's Degree in management, business administration, finance or equivalent experience. At least 2 years of experience in public broadcasting. Must have strong communication skills and ability to handle multitasks and work under deadlines. Fluency in English is required. Must be both a self-starter and a team player. Must be able to commit some Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays to conduct training workshops, meet with community members, and present information on radio and television programs. Have an ability to forge strong working relationships with others and a capacity for engaging confidence and trust among employees, prospects and donors.

Locations: Falls Church, VA

If you are interested in applying for the above position, please send your resume to:

VACN

Nhan Vo, Executive Committee Chairman

301 Buttry Rd.

Gaithersburg, MD 20877

(301) 257 – 8496

www.vatv.org

VACN is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in the hiring or promotion of employees by reason of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. We are engaged in a continuing effort to seek out prospective applicants for employment with our organization. We earnestly solicit your assistance in obtaining employees.

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ASIAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT – September 2004

TITLE:                    Communication and Development Director

REPORTS TO:          Executive Director

Organizational Background

The Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) is committed to developing opportunity and justice in all Asian American communities throughout Greater Boston.  We accomplish this by creating high quality affordable rental and owner housing, educating communities and individuals, developing and sustaining leadership, creating innovative programs and services for economic growth and empowerment, and engaging our membership in creating an economically, socially, environmentally and culturally just and sustainable future for all.

Since our founding in 1987, ACDC has matured into one of the leading community development agencies for the Asian community in all of New England.  ACDC’s successful track record of creating high quality, multifamily affordable housing for the community is one of our key strategies for securing our community’s future.  Having developed over $100 million of housing in Chinatown, our portfolio of new family housing, consisting of the Oak Terrace Apartments and the Metropolitan mixed-use development, is among the largest in all of central Boston, and is home to more than 800 residents.  ACDC’s accomplishments over the past 17 years also include assisting over 300 families through our Comprehensive Homeownership Program, developing the innovative multimedia Chinatown Heritage Trail, assisting over 1,000 individuals through our annual Job and Job Training Fair, helping dozens of small business succeed, and cultivating a new generation of community leaders.

We anticipate that the next three to five years will be an exciting and busy time as we plan to develop 300-500 new units of housing, roll out a national pilot of our innovative Speakeasy project that provides linguistic access by and for community members, assist 75 families to become new homeowners, expand our operational reach by working in and with suburban Asian communities, and organize Chinatown to identify and control opportunities for growth on the 12 acres of “new” land being created in and around Chinatown as part of major highway realignment.  For more information about ACDC, its mission and programs, please see our website at www.asiancdc.org.

Job Description

The Communication and Development Director will lead the external communication and fundraising operations of this dynamic, complex and creative nonprofit, and mobilize other staff and board members in all aspects of the organization’s fundraising, marketing, communications strategy and event planning. A member of the senior staff and reporting to the Executive Director, the Communication and Development Director will oversee, coordinate, and manage all aspects of fundraising and external communications.  The Director will also have an important role in our programs as we integrate a communications strategy into each of our projects.  ACDC has an established track record generating operating support from a wide variety of private and public sources of funding.

We are seeking a leader to develop and institutionalize the core capacities and tools required for a professional and sustainable communication and resource development operation.  As ACDC approaches an exciting period of increased real estate and community development activity, the new Director will have the opportunity to help fund and establish new programs and capacities and expand upon existing ones in order to meet the organization’s resource needs going forward.  Specific responsibilities in the dual role of communication and fundraising include, but are not limited to the following:

Fundraising

*        Create and implement plans to generate revenue for established operations, new programs and projects; develop both an annual and multi-year fundraising plans.

*        Oversee development of all written fundraising materials, including grant proposals, appeal letters, funding reports, etc.

*        Prepare reports for Board meetings.  Make presentations at Board Meetings.

*        Establish an individual donor program that may include planned giving and major gift components; identify, cultivate and solicit donors.

*        With Executive Director, guide and assist board members in carrying out their fundraising responsibilities.

*        Manage relationship with donors, including individuals, foundations and corporations.

*        Oversee fundraising operations, including grant research, proposal writing and submission process, reporting, and acknowledgements; support other senior staff in their grant writing efforts

*        Maintaining grant files, including correspondence, general information, proposals, and reports

*        Design and execute annual fundraising events (e.g. Spring Banquet and annual golf tournament), and other special events and individual donor drives.

Communication

*        Manage marketing and communication functions for ACDC, including newsletters, annual report, web site, email listserv, printed collateral and marketing materials, and media and public relations.

*        Work with staff to identify and promote issues of relevance to ACDC’s programs and to highlight ACDC accomplishments through press releases, press events, op-ed pieces, articles in professional publications and trade journals, etc.

*        Maintain relationships with reporters and other media outlets; maintain media and press files.

*        Provide strategic input to other staff regarding communications and public relations aspects of ACDC projects.

Qualifications

*        Minimum 3 years experience in nonprofit development and/or media communications

*        Demonstrated success in fundraising and meeting fundraising goals.

*        Excellent oral, written communication and interpersonal skills.

*        Ability to lead and motivate volunteers and staff.  Team player.

*        Knowledge of philanthropic resources and funding community in Greater Boston.

*        Experience in public relations, especially with the media.

*        Experience with planning and implementing fundraising events that raise money and build community.

*        Experience working in a multi-cultural setting.

*        Excellent research and analytical skills.

*        Computer literacy, knowledge of database software, and web-based research.

*        Able to work independently, with flexibility, and maintain a sense of humor.

*        Knowledge of Asian, especially Chinese, languages and cultures helpful but not required.

*        Bachelor's degree or higher education preferred.

Compensation

Salary commensurate with experience.  ACDC offers generous health and dental benefits, excellent vacation and professional development allowances, flexible work hours, as well as a 403(B) retirement savings program.

Start Date

Position will remain open until filled; we are seeking to hire someone immediately.

Submission

Interested individuals should submit cover letter, résumé, and salary history/requirements to: personnel@asiancdc.org; or mail to: Personnel Search, Asian CDC, 888 Washington Street, Suite 102, Boston, MA 02111.

Asian Community Development Corporation is an equal opportunity employer.

Jeremy Liu, Director of Community Programs

Asian Community Development Corporation

888 Washington Street, Suite 102

Boston, MA 02111

telephone: (617) 482-2380 x204

fax: (617) 482-3056

www.asiancdc.org

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NEWS

August 12, 2004

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES RESCUED FROM CAMBODIA

By Miranda Leitsinger

Associated Press Writer

KORNG VILLAGE, Cambodia -- The Vietnamese hill tribespeople filed out of Cambodia's rain-soaked jungle in torn flip flops and dirty clothes, carrying the few possessions they took after fleeing persecution in their homeland.

The 21 Montagnards, as various hilltribe groups are collectively known, were among some 200 rescued by U.N. refugee workers and Cambodian authorities in mid-July after spending months hiding in the country's remote, mountainous northeast.

"I decided to flee ... because life in Vietnam is so bad," a rice farmer said as he tended to his sick daughter at a hospital in the border province of Ratannakiri. "We do not have land. We are under pressure because we are minorities." Like others he asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

Many Montagnards fled Vietnam's Central Highlands in April, following mass demonstrations against religious repression and land confiscation during which security forces clashed with protesters. Human rights groups say at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded; authorities maintain two died.

A father of five from Vietnam's Gia Lai province said he joined 2,000 people in the protests after the government denied him work on a rubber plantation.

"During the demonstration, the authorities shot four of us. We were so scared when we heard the sound of shooting," the 32-year-old said. Afterward, "They came looking for us at our home. Then we ran away."

The rice farmer, also from Gia Lai, participated in those protests and similar ones in 2001 - which led to an exodus of more than 1,000 Montagnards to Cambodia after a government crackdown.

He acted after his land was taken by the government in 1997 and he was pressured to work on a rubber plantation earning a wage so low he couldn't support his family.

Problems in the Central Highlands date back decades.

Many Montagnards, mainly members of Protestant Christian denominations distrusted by Vietnam, were U.S. allies during the Vietnam War. A number were resettled in the United States at war's end in 1975.

Since then, the government has moved in tens of thousands of Vietnamese lowlanders to the area to run coffee and rubber plantations, forcing Montagnards off their ancestral land.

Some of the 200 rescued Montagnards had been hiding in Cambodia's jungle before the April protests - at least one for up to two years, said Cathy Shin, a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees officer.

"It was quite moving to actually see ... the desperation of people coming out of the forest," Shin said.

Sara Colm, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said they'd been documenting abuses in the Highlands going back to the 2001 protests and before.

Hanoi has accused the U.S.-based Montagnard Foundation with instigating the unrest. The group's head is a former guerrilla leader allied with the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Some of the 200 Montagnards hiding in the Cambodian jungle got help from members of related minorities living in Ratannakiri who alerted human rights groups to the refugees' plight.

Rescuing the Montagnards was complicated by the position of the Cambodian government, which had described them as economic migrants. It has reportedly deported more than 100 Montagnards since April.

Following criticism, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he would let the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reopen offices in two border provinces to Montagnard asylum-seekers.

The 200 rescued from the jungle will be assessed for possible resettlement - many of the 1,000 refugees from the 2001 protests were sent to the United States. They're now staying at a U.N. shelter in Phnom Penh.

"I want the international community to help our Montagnards to find liberty. We really want liberty," the rice farmer said.

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On the Net: UNHCR: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org

(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Cambodia+Vietnam+Refugees)

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August 15, 2004

A FAST GAME, A QUICK EXIT, BUT PLENTY TO SAVOR

By Mark Purdy
Mercury News Staff Columnist

ATHENS, Greece - Khoa Nguyen waited four years. Four years, for his big chance. He traveled so far, from San Jose to Greece, to proudly wear the United States uniform. Then, in less than 30 minutes, Nguyen was gone from the Olympics. Finished. Done.

``It's over so fast,'' Nguyen said in frustration, pacing a hallway beneath Galatsi Olympic Hall, a spiffy new 6,500-seat arena. ``You train so hard, and it's over so quickly.''

If Nguyen were a gymnast or a swimmer, his heartbreak would have been all over satellite television. But not even NBC's umpty-whatever channels of coverage caught his agony Saturday afternoon.

When your game is table tennis, the worldwide pathos is not quite as intense. Probably that's because no other sport at these Games can be played in your Uncle Harold's rec room.

In table tennis, the longest Olympic journey begins with a single ping. Nguyen didn't even make it to pong. He lost his first-round match to a lower-rated Australian player named William Henzell, who won the best-of-seven match in five games. In table tennis, that's a quasi-rout.

So what?

So Nguyen feels the exact same emotions that the losers in gymnastics and swimming feel.

``He's really disappointed,'' said Nguyen's wife, Pauline, who watched from the stands with the couple's two young daughters. ``He has worked so hard. Every point that he lost, I felt so bad for him.''

It's funny what can happen at the Olympics. You go to the table tennis competition figuring that this will be an easy mark, that you can just sit back and write a few jokes and go home. For instance, Nguyen is the No. 294 player in the world. Know what you call the players ranked 347th through 362nd? The Schwartz family reunion.

Then the problem arises. You sit and watch the competition. You meet the athletes. And as often happens with unfamiliar Olympic sports, you get sucked into the whole package.

It turns out that Nguyen, who fled Vietnam with his parents as a youth, is a really nice 37-year-old guy who lives in our city's Evergreen neighborhood and trains at his parents' backyard pingpong palace in Santa Clara. And he was basically trying to accomplish the impossible.

At the highest levels of table tennis, the competitors are full-time professionals who earn six-figure prize money on a tournament circuit based primarily in Europe. By contrast, Nguyen is a full-time computer engineer for Neoforma, a South Bay software firm that did a very patriotic thing. One day after work, Nguyen was playing a pickup basketball game with the company's CEO, Bob Zollars, in the parking lot. They began talking about Nguyen's pingpong ambitions.

Nguyen explained how tough it was to stay on top of his game while working so many hours at Neoforma. Said he needed to go to Europe and enter a couple of tournaments to get sharp. Said the U.S. Olympic Committee would not give him any subsidy, because of his Silicon Valley salary.

On the spot, Zollars offered Nguyen three months of paid leave to prepare for the 2004 Games. Not only that, Zollars told him to save his expense receipts from the European events. To pay back the favor, the grateful Nguyen hoped to hang in there with the pros and reach the third or fourth round of the Olympic tournament.

For a short while, victory seemed possible. Nguyen and his Australian opponent, the 211th-ranked Henzell, split the first two games. The two had never met, so they were feeling out each other's tactics. And that is when the professional background of Henzell, who plays the European circuit, began to show.

Henzell is only 21, but he is already a cagey veteran. When he was 14 his parents sent him to Sweden, wanting him to receive the best table tennis instruction while facing the best competition.

On the pro circuit, Henzell faces hundreds of players. He learns to adjust on the fly every week. He quickly diagnosed that Nguyen's strength was his backhand return, and that his weakness was a very returnable serve without much spin.

``If you hit that serve back soft,'' Henzell said, ``he just goes for the kill and puts it away every time. So you have to get aggressive on every return. And that's what I did.''

Only in the fifth game, as Nguyen was facing elimination, did he finally discover what worked against Henzell's return strategy: a strong, take-no-prisoners backhand. He took a 9-7 lead, but lost the last four points and the match.

``If I had gotten it to 10-7, it would have been all over, but I couldn't get there,'' Nguyen said.

He laughed, trying not to cry.

``After all this . . . it's ridiculous,'' Nguyen said.

You could almost read his mind. He worried that he had let down his family, his friends, his company. But then a wonderful scene occurred. Walking down the hallway came Kien Quoc Doan, the first Vietnamese table tennis player ever to qualify for the Olympics. They began talking. They learned they were born in the same town, Nha Trang. A friend took a picture of them together.

This seemed to cheer up Nguyen a bit, and he even hinted that a run at the 2008 Games was a possibility. After a shower, Nguyen walked upstairs to receive hugs from Pauline, 7-year-old Khamille and 5-year-old Khassidy.

``Daddy, can we go now?'' Khamille asked.

Yes, they could. After four years, they could go home. Much too soon.

Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5092.

(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/9406940.htm)

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August 16, 2004

LINGUISTS SEE LINK BETWEEN INCOME LEVEL, SPEAKING A SECOND LANGUAGE

By Gwendolyn Driscoll

Orange County Register

COWAN HEIGHTS, Calif. - If money talked, it would speak 26 languages in Cowan Heights, Calif.

On just one road of this affluent suburb - Deerhaven - a curving cul-de-sac of spacious homes tucked behind well-manicured gardens - it is possible to hear French, German, Japanese and Farsi. Gus Toubia, 40, a Deerhaven resident who speaks French and Arabic, counts as neighbors an Indian, an Iranian, a German, a Japanese couple and a South American.

"Now that I think about it, I'm surrounded by people from all over the world," Toubia mused, as he strolled down Deerhaven and into nearby Peters Canyon Regional Park. From a vantage point high on a hill he stopped to survey the hundreds of Cowan Heights homes that dot the adjacent irrigated slopes.

"Diversity doesn't stand out here. Not anymore."

Traditionally a bastion of the affluent, the established and the mostly white, this swatch of pricey real estate set in the hills above Tustin was recently found to be one of the most "linguistically diverse" areas of Orange County, second only to Irvine in numbers of languages spoken. According to the Modern Language Association, 26 different languages, including Tagalog, Spanish, Farsi and Chinese, can be heard in the leafy Cowan Heights neighborhood.

Using 2000 census data, the New York-based MLA created a graphic based on what languages Americans use in their homes.

The "language map" that emerged found that only the most remote and rural areas of the country remain exclusively English-speaking.

Californians are the most linguistically skilled - 39.48 percent of us speak another language besides English, compared with about 18 percent nationally.

In Orange County, this linguistic bounty may show something else: the changing complexion of American wealth.

"(Wealth) is not a pure-white phenomena anymore," said Dr. Lingxin Hao, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who has studied income and ethnicity trends. "You can see already now it's changing for certain ethnic groups."

Income levels rose across the board for immigrant groups in the late 1990s as a strong economy became "the tide that lifts all boats," according to Dr. Deborah Reed, an economist with the Public Policy Institute of California.

The most recent census data indicated that long-established or highly educated ethnic groups, including Iranians, Chinese and Indians, were among the nation's highest income earners, often equaling - and in the case of the Chinese - surpassing white household income.

Nearly one-third of Cowan Heights residents speak a foreign language in the home, with Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog among the most used. Twenty percent are foreign born. The average income tops $100,000, the average home costs $900,000, and the not-so-average "estate" can sell for up to $5 million. Sixty percent of Cowan Heights residents are in management positions.

Irvine, with its high international student population, scored highest in terms of linguistic diversity: 29 languages are spoken within its 55 square-mile area.

Orange County in general is one of the nation's most linguistically diverse counties: Four out of every 10 residents speak a language other than English at home. In total, at least 39 different languages are spoken throughout the county, ranging from the large language groups such as Spanish (spoken by 25 percent of the population) and Vietnamese (5 percent) to the practically non-existent, like Acjachemen.

The greatest variety of languages is found in some of Orange County's more prosperous places.

The median annual household income in Irvine, for instance, was $13,000 higher in 1999 than the county median of $58,820, according to census numbers.

Less affluent neighborhoods, conversely, tend to speak fewer languages. Much of Santa Ana is primarily Spanish-speaking and largely middle or lower income.

"There tends to be a direct correlation between not (speaking) English or not having a high income and choosing to live in an enclave area," said Reed.

Immigrant success stories tightly correspond to prior levels of education and experience, with higher-income immigrants tending to congregate in areas where their expertise is needed, such as Silicon Valley, or where established communities exist to receive them, such as Buena Park.

"You are seeing a very specific type of immigrant that's going (to Orange County)," Reed noted. "It seems like Orange County is particularly attracting high-end immigrants."

Changing patterns of wealth and ethnicity may be an inevitable response to Orange County's dramatic transformation from a majority white population in the early 1990s to a place in which nonwhites account for 49 percent of all residents.

The consequent rise in income of certain ethnic groups is not a matter of luck or chance but "a matter of probabilities," said David Dolson, a consultant for the California Department of Education.

The news comes as no surprise to Cowan Heights residents such as Toubia, who came to the United States from Lebanon 28 years ago to study engineering at UCLA and stayed to found TMX Engineering, his Santa Ana-based manufacturing company.

Toubia upgraded from a 3,200 square-foot house - "a little small for my standards" - to his current 6,200 square-foot Cowan Heights house with a tennis court and a flagstone swimming pool curved around an artificial waterfall.

He speaks Arabic at home with his two children, who also practice Spanish with their nanny, and last winter was able to use his French on a family vacation to Belgium and France.

"The misconception is that the bulk of immigrants come from Mexico and that these people are destitute," said Toubia. "But that's not true in the rest of the world. We come here, we get an education, we do well in life, and now we want to live it."

(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/9413634.htm)

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August 26, 2004

INDEFENSIBLE KERRY IS STILL SACRIFICING THE FREEDOM OF THE VIETNAMESE

By Edward Morrissey

The New York Sun

Senator Kerry has taken to pleading for a return to debate on current issues and more relevant qualifications for the presidency in a bid to bury the debate on his Vietnam record, which at one time was all Mr. Kerry would discuss on the stump.

Speaking in New York, Mr. Kerry told a crowd that all the Bush campaign had was fear, while he wanted to talk about how he could outperform President Bush in areas such as foreign policy. So let’s talk foreign policy, as practiced right here at home, by Mr. Kerry.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bradley Clanton of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz in Jackson, Miss. and Washington, D. C. Mr. Clanton represents several Vietnamese-Americans who came to America as refugees of the communists in their native land.

Some of his clients have names that students of the era would recognize, such as Bui Diem, former ambassador to America from the Saigon government. This group of Vietnamese refugees filed a lawsuit against the University of Massachusetts Boston and the William Joiner Center, one of its research centers, due to irregularities in its awarding of fellowships for researching the Vietnamese diaspora.

Their case — and I stress it has not been concluded — is that the Joiner Center failed to follow the protocols outlined in its research grant when selecting candidates for the Rockefeller Foundation fellowships offered for the grant. Among other actions, the center allegedly failed to publish notices of the grant’s availability until just before the deadline for applications expired, failed to advertise in any of the required scholarly journals that targeted the American Vietnamese community, and in general made it almost impossible for the scholars of that community to know about the paying jobs in time.

The effect of this failure is to keep Vietnamese who immigrated to America as adults in the diaspora from taking part in the program, as younger members of academia already had some access to the grant information up front.

Why? Because the Joiner Center and UMass already had scholars in mind to study the forced migration of the South Vietnamese people. And half of those scholars came from the People’s Republic of Viet Nam — the same communists who tortured and massacred the refugees into fleeing Vietnam in the first place, after the fall of Saigon.

The other two fellows are an American-born, 25-year-old person of Vietnamese ancestry and a Caucasian listed in the complaint as “under 40.”

This is akin to hiring Khmer Rouge officials to study the Cambodian killing fields. It’s intellectually indefensible, on several grounds. First off, the “scholars” that one gets from a totalitarian government are hardly free thinkers; the Vietnamese would not approve researchers who weren’t prepared to toe the party line.

Furthermore, if any of them suddenly got a bad case of truth telling, their families would certainly suffer the consequences, and in Vietnam, that means the re-education camps that killed hundreds of thousands of people over the past 30 years. The biggest problem is that the current government in Hanoi has a great deal of interest in ensuring that any such research points away from their atrocities in the final product. They would only approve those researchers who understand that need, which renders the entire exercise unreliable.

So Vietnamese-Americans over 40 got passed over by UMass-Boston and the Joiner Center on behalf of two Vietnamese communists with an axe to grind. They started protesting the university’s management of the research grant in June 2000 and throughout the summer and fall, finally filing suit on several grounds on October 27, 2000.

When the protest hit the local press, it provoked a negative reaction in Boston. The controversy made the Joiner Center management uncomfortable, and they decided they needed political cover from as high up as they could get it. This is where Mr. Kerry made his appearance in this case.

Mr. Kerry wrote a letter, dated September 27, 2000, to the director of the Joiner Center, Kevin Bowen, in order to praise both his research and his selection of scholars for fellowships. This is the final paragraph in Mr. Kerry’s letter to Mr. Bowen supporting the hiring of communist nationals from Vietnam over hiring Americans who escaped and survived the persecution of the government which these two “scholars” represent:

“I commend and extend my welcome and congratulations to the initial group of fellows selected. Choosing two established and accomplished scholars from Vietnam and two emerging scholars from the United States assures a diversity of views and combines fresh perspectives with time-tested observation. It is essential and critical that a project of this magnitude regarding a phenomenon as sweeping as the Vietnamese diaspora consider candidates from all countries, political backgrounds and cultural orientations to achieve free and unencumbered inquiry. Only through such a free and thorough inquiry and a generous sharing of findings will the cause of the Vietnamese people be advanced.”

It may be impossible to find more fatuous thinking in such a short paragraph anywhere else. Before dissecting Mr. Kerry’s intellectual failings, let’s be clear about his intent. He made it clear that he understood that half of the fellowships went to communist nationals in a study that purported to research a refugee catastrophe their government initiated.

Implicit in this letter is Mr. Kerry’s contention that any dissent erupting from this choice would be invalid. This letter is no mere boilerplate salutation for a constituent. Mr. Kerry knew the situation and gave his blessing to Mr. Bowen’s handling of it.

Now, looking at the actual reasoning behind this letter, one can safely state that Mr. Kerry has no concept of totalitarianism. The intervening years between 1971 and 2000 taught him nothing. He presumes that communist “scholars” have academic freedom.

Mr. Kerry lauds the diversity of views they bring to the research but fails to recognize the lock-step mentality of a single-party system, and one that caused the deaths of as many as 750, 000 of its men, women, and children in concentration camps or on the run from its oppression.

He repeats the same tired moral relativism he did in his radical days of 1971 when he presumes that the diversity of “political backgrounds and cultural orientations” will ensure that truth results from the inquiry, even though by 2000 the world understood that totalitarian regimes and truth coexist on rare and usually coincidental occasions.

Mr. Kerry’s reasoning reveals much more about his philosophy, and this isn’t just the radical youth that Mr. Kerry uses to excuse his activities at the end of the war. This letter was written less than four years ago. Mr. Kerry defended communist nationals in the Senate in 1971, and 29 years later continued to do so, not to mention defending Mr. Bowen’s outsourcing of jobs to a country known for its sweatshops.

This uncomprehending naïveté does not befit the office of president even in times of peace and prosperity, and recalls the more ludicrous exploits of the Carter presidency. In a time of war against Islamo-fascist aggression, such unseriousness will get us killed.

Copyright 2002 - 2004 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights reserved.

(http://www.nysun.com/article/855)

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August 30, 2004

COMMENTARY
Vietnam's shadows are with us to this day. What's going on?

Steven Winn

San Francisco Chronicle

Midway through "What's Going On? -- California and the Vietnam Era" at the Oakland Museum of California, visitors are invited to take a seat in a DC-8. A small cross section of the airplane has been installed in the exhibit space to invoke the charter flights that took soldiers, volunteers, government officials and refugees out of Vietnam.

"We flew into darkness, and we started approaching the coast of California," says Jan Wollet, a World Airways flight attendant, on the show's audio guide. Wollet is describing the first, unauthorized "Babylift" flight. That operation eventually transported thousands of war orphans, ailing children, Amerasian offspring and others given up for adoption. Wollet remembers securing the cabin as some of the older children began chanting, "America! America!"

It was a brilliantly clear night over the Golden Gate. "Every single star in the heavens" was out. And then, as Wollet recalls the plane looping over the bay and turning back toward Oakland to land, her voice chokes. "Oh, God," she manages, "it was so spectacular."

Several minutes later in the audio guide, Kim Eshenman reads a letter written by her Vietnamese birth mother to a Catholic nun. "Please find someone to give baby Lan for me," wrote Me Win Ti Yao. "I will be indebted to you forever. And please think of me and Thieu as dead." Eshenman, who was adopted and raised in Orange County and later searched for but never found her birth mother in Vietnam, is overcome by tears before she finishes the letter. "For my baby," her mother sent this wish: "I hope she will find lots of good luck."

It is a strange and powerful sensation to sit in those bright red airplane seats today, with their old-fashioned reclining mechanism and ash- coated trays in the armrests, and listen to these stories. Vietnam is the narrative that never ended. For veterans and refugees, film directors and presidential candidates, the war remains charged like no other with potent ambiguities and unresolved pain. Almost every tale that's told about it has, in a way, a present-tense component.

What did or didn't happen on John Kerry's Swift boat, 35 years ago, isn't just another political football in the current campaign. It's emblematic of the impossible riddle of that war, the unfinished mosaic of distant fact, revisionist history, fury, pride and shame.

To some voters, especially younger ones, the Swift boat controversy may seem like so much dredging up of ancient history. But even at a generation's distance, the heat and light of Vietnam refuse to fade. "What's Going On?", which generated its own turbulence even before it opened, arrives just as the reverberant Vietnam dance musical, "Movin' Out," ends a long run at the Golden Gate Theatre. Next month, in a revival sure to be viewed through the current prism of Iraq, the essential Vietnam War documentary "Hearts & Minds" opens at the Castro Theatre.

Decades after the war's end, pieces of the Vietnam mosaic continue to be fitted and rearranged. Last year's dedication of a 12-foot bronze sculpture at the Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster, Orange County, near that city's substantial Little Saigon district, demonstrates the point. As the world's first public memorial to the South Vietnamese soldiers, it both concludes and reopens another multilayered issue.

Writing in the "What's Going On?" catalog of essays and photographs that accompanies the new Oakland show, Khuyen Vu Nguyen discusses the erasure of South Vietnam from the "cartography of memory." Not only has the Republic of South Vietnam ceased to exist, except as a history book footnote, she argues, but its memory has been systematically repressed from the American conscience. What Nguyen sees as a Freudian act of collective forgetting may have been instrumental in healing the psychic scars of American veterans.

"Operating within the restrictive framework of cold war politics and postwar guilt," she writes, "American social and intellectual discourse over the nature of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam generally neglected South Vietnam in its narratives. It is usually agreed that the corrupt and oppressive nature of the government made its defeat inevitable."

Paradoxically, as Nguyen points out, the long-delayed and hotly contested Westminster memorial required the South Vietnamese themselves to "screen out" details inconvenient to their own version of events. Thus women, Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian and other Southeast Asian soldiers are omitted.

"Everyone wants to think there is only one truth about Vietnam," says Charles Wollenberg, who co-edited the catalog. "But there are multiple truths."

Oakland Museum officials re-learned that lesson firsthand and close up. Controversy about the Vietnam show surfaced months before it opened, when a staff researcher of Vietnamese descent who was critical of the exhibition's content was dismissed after writing a memo to that effect last fall. Among other things, Mimi Nguyen objected to the inadequate portrayal of the Vietnamese experience in California. Museum officials said personnel issues were an internal matter and have declined to discuss Nguyen's dismissal.

In the wake of that controversy, the title of the show was changed, from "Next Stop Vietnam: California and the Nation Transformed" to "What's Going On? -- California and the Vietnam Era," and a community advisory board was assembled. But last month, another museum researcher of Vietnamese descent, Ben Tran, resigned, claiming the changes to the original concept had only been cosmetic.

Curator Marica A. Eymann offered a game smile as she stood near the entrance to the show recently. "We wanted a tug and pull," she said. "Everyone has something to say about Vietnam." One remark that lodged in Eymann's mind came from a veteran she interviewed, who described a collective "grieving process" for the war. For all the Hollywood movies, novels and poetry on the subject that have poured forth, Eymann added, "I'm not sure we've ever had the wake."

In "Movin' Out," the stirring, flawed dance theater piece about Vietnam that ended an eight-week run yesterday at the Golden Gate, the show's creator and choreographer Twyla Tharp made one heroic attempt. In its valiant fusion of styles and forms - story ballet and jitterbug, Billy Joel songs and soaring romance -- the show seeks to turn the war's implosive contradictions into heart-wrenching art.

The dialogue-free action concerns three young men who go off to war together and what happens to them in Vietnam and to two young women back on the home front. One of the soldiers is killed; the other two return psychologically mangled.

In an inspired scene at the end of Act 1, Tharp uses the symbolic power of stage space and the convulsive grace of her dancers to condense the special agonies of Vietnam. The scene opens with a stylized military funeral for James, attended by his grieving fiancee, Judy. As the soldiers in the honor guard turn and march downstage, they're joined by the returning vets Tony and Eddie.

So a funeral becomes a homecoming, and the homecoming a kind of mourning. Darkness and light, desolation and hope, decisive endings and uncertain beginnings -- all of it is contained and compressed together here. Here, in a few fluid and furiously danced minutes, Tharp captures a kind of sweeping panorama of the war and what it left behind.

Whirling pirouettes and spins recur throughout the show's choreography. They create a supple, interior language that can express everything from the languid pre-war innocence of a pretty girl to the chaos of combat to the self- consuming rage of a vet who's out of step with himself and everything around him. In his frantic second-act solos, Eddie (danced by the astonishing Ron Todorowski, alternating with Cody Green in the role) spins as if to corkscrew himself down through the stage floor and into some private oblivion, his elbows locked and fists raised as he goes. It is a terrible and terribly thrilling thing to watch. Transmuted into art, the entropy of Vietnam delivers a powerful jolt. Here, in a freshly expressed, intensely human way, is the war's incalculable damage, its whirling aftermath.

In the end, with a synthetically upbeat ending, "Movin' Out" goes off the rails. It is, after all, a Broadway show, and Broadway shows are obliged to send people home happy. What Tharp achieves within such limitations, however, leaves a vivid imprint.

Peter Davis, director of the remarkable 1974 documentary "Hearts & Minds, " faced no such constraints. Working with assured breadth and acuity, he created a compelling first draft of freshly lived history. Today, 30 years later, it plays with a solemn sense of inevitability. "Hearts & Minds," winner of the 1975 Academy Award for best documentary, opens at the Castro on Sept. 24.

The film is a dextrous balance of war footage, portraits of combatants and Vietnamese civilians and interviews with such key figures as Gen. William Westmoreland, Daniel Ellsberg and Clark Clifford. With his keen attention to the telling fact and nuance and judicious juxtapositions, Davis indicts the architects of American policy without ever stridently condemning. Detail after detail registers like tumblers on a combination lock falling into place.

A rueful Clifford, Lyndon Johnson's reluctant Secretary of Defense, recalls America's post-World War II confidence that "we could control the future of the world." Westmoreland, filmed beside a placid lake, repeats his infamous assertion that "the Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner." That's followed by a scene of unnervingly sustained anguished, as a grieving Vietnamese woman is hauled screaming from a freshly dug grave.

A freed American prisoner of war tells a group of New Jersey elementary schoolchildren that "the people over there (in Vietnam) have made a mess out of everything." Picking through the rubble of his fields, a North Vietnamese farmer retreats from the camera and says over his shoulder, "First they bomb as much as they please. Then they film." Davis' ironies are at once artful and remorseless. Everyone -- even the filmmaker/observer, was in some way blighted by this war.

In a section of the film devoted to the war protests at home, Davis interviews a woman at Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. "Certainly a mature person can say they made a mistake. Why can't a government?"

That line, like others in the film, is sure to get a sardonic cheer at the Castro. However strained or specious the historical parallels, Vietnam invokes Iraq in 2004. It's another war marked by disputed origins, contentious foreign policy and troubling outcomes. Because the country has been here before, and so recently, the shadows of Vietnam continue to fall in particularly ominous ways.

"What remembering citizen has ever completely believed a president since Lyndon Johnson assured us almost nightly that we were winning in Vietnam?" asked Davis in a piece written for the Nation 25 years after "Hearts & Minds" won its Oscar. That was in 2000, before George W. Bush's election, before Sept. 11, before the weapons of mass destruction path into Iraq.

Arranged as a time-line thread, the Oakland Museum show leads through the Vietnam War chronologically, from its Cold War bomb shelter artifacts to a post-war epilogue of poetry book jackets and war toys from the 1980s. Along the way, "What's Going On?" stresses the high-contrast experience in California -- the Free Speech Movement played off against the rise of Ronald Reagan, the centrality of the state to both the munitions industry and the antiwar movement.

But the show doesn't really offer a historical corrective or re- accounting of Vietnam's importance to California and the country. That much is factually apparent: Some 260,000 Californians served in Vietnam, according to John F. Burn's catalog essay; 5,800 of them died. The impact of the Vietnamese diaspora, as Andrew Lam writes, is enormous and evolving; the 2000 census found a Vietnamese population of about 500,000 in California.

Instead, with its Life magazine covers and neatly folded P.O.W. pajamas, hand-written protest letters to Dow Chemicals ("When you stop making napalm we will start using bathroom cleaner") and portrait of an ardent Jane Fonda and long-haired vet Jon Voigt as her wheelchair-bound war vet lover on a "Coming Home" movie poster, the show reflects the war's web of overlapping storylines. The controversy about the content and balance of the exhibition confirms the complexity of any Vietnam narrative. So will the responses of visitors bound to be unsettled or aggrieved by inclusions, exclusions, emphases and perceived agendas.

But the essence of "What's Going On?" -- of the Vietnam War's perpetually active residue in the culture, for that matter -- can't be found in the objects arranged and labeled in vitrines and wall displays. It's in the voices of people who were there, who lived and died through it, who suffered and go on living the war. Vietnam is our most absorbing oral history.

Here's Bonnie Baird, on the audio guide, remembering the day her older brother was killed. She was in school in San Jose: "My teacher had come to me and said the principal wants to see you. I was in my sixth-grade class, Miss Dooley's class." A neighbor was waiting in the principal's office. "And I knew, " Baird continues. "Somebody was dead.

"And I remember after that feeling really uncomfortable with everybody because everybody was always saying, you know, 'Sorry about your brother.' I didn't know what to say so I remember saying, 'It's OK, you know, it's OK.' But it wasn't OK. And it would never be OK. For 35 years, it wasn't OK. That day, my whole life changed, you know."

What’s Going On? — California and The Vietnam Era: The show continues through Feb. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak streets, Oakland. Tickets: $13. Call (510)238-2200 or visit www.museumca.org.

Hearts & Minds: The documentary opens Sept. 24 the Castro Theatre, San Francisco. Call (415) 621-6120 or visit www.thecastrotheatre.com.

E-mail Steven Winn at swinn@sfchronicle.com.

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/30/DDGBB8FRDI1.DTL)

Related article in New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/national/07museum.html)

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For Immediate Release

Friday, September 3, 2004

Contact: Karen Willard

301-587-2781 / Karen.Willard@navasa.org

HONOREES NAMED FOR NAVASA’S ANNUAL RECOGNITION BANQUET

Washington D.C.—The National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA) proudly announces honorees to be acknowledged at its annual Recognition Banquet to be held on October 2, 2004, along with NAVASA’s National Conference in Houston, Texas. The Recognition Banquet, with its focus on honoring pioneers and emerging leaders, complements the theme of this year’s national conference, “Building a Community of Leaders.” To be recognized are ten recipients of NAVASA’s National Young Community Leaders Recognition (NYCLR) award and three honorees – Mr. Duc Duong, Mr. Hua Ngo, and Dr. Nguyen Van Hanh.

NAVASA is proud to honor Dr. Nguyen Van Hanh, the first Vietnamese American appointed by U.S. President as Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, with the 2004 “Leadership Award.” This year’s “Humanitarian Award” will go to Mr. Hua Ngo, Founder & President, H & N Foods International, who has made countless contributions to education and health programs both in the United States and Vietnam. Additionally, Mr. Duc Hong Duong, Chairman of NAVASA’s Board of Directors (1996 – 2004), will be honored with the “Lifetime Service Award” for his invaluable contributions to and tireless championship of Vietnamese American and refugee communities.

The Keynote Speaker will be Ms. Huong Tran Nguyen, recipient of the 1994 National Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from Walt Disney American Teacher Awards. Ms. Huong, highlighting the importance of NAVASA’s focus on leadership development, states, “To build a ‘community of leaders,’ it is imperative that a strong and committed partnership between parents, teachers, and the community be established based on a commonly agreed set of goals in order to ensure the success of our nation’s best resources: our future generation. Schools alone can no longer meet the ever-changing demands of a technologically advancing nation and the increasing expectations of the American public. It is, therefore, incumbent upon every citizen to join the education community in the development of young potential leaders of tomorrow. Exciting new and promising possibilities await us all.”

The Recognition Banquet will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 2, 2004, at the Kim Son Restaurant, 300 Milam Street in Houston, Texas. Chosen to be the Mistress and Master of Ceremony are Ms. Elena Thuy Tran and Mr. Nam-Loc Nguyen, Director of Immigration & Refugee Department at Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Entertainment will be provided by the “Crystal Band”, magician “the Magic Duc,” songwriter and singer Nguyen Duc Quang, poet Du Tu Le, and singers Tieu Muoi, Tran Lang Minh and Nga Mi.

For more information on the recognition banquet and national conference registration, please visit our website at www.navasa.org.

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NAVASA is a national advocacy agency currently comprised of 37 ethnic community-based organizations. Since its incorporation in 1995 as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, NAVASA has promoted economic self-sufficiency and active citizenship for Vietnamese-Americans through full participation in the socio-political system. Located in metropolitan Washington D.C., NAVASA is fully committed to assisting its affiliate organizations to address the civic, economic, linguistic, and social needs facing community members in their specific localities.

NAVASA

1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 310, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tel: 301/587-2781* Fax: 301-587-2783

Email: navasa@navasa.org

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About NCVA
Founded in 1986, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community advocacy organization working to advance the cause of Vietnamese Americans in a plural but united America – e pluribus unum – by participating actively and fully as civic minded citizens engaged in the areas of education, culture and civil liberties.