******************
Events
Invitation
to Attend A Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Field Hearing
Dear
Friends:
I invite you
to attend a critical field hearing sponsored by the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus on the status of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders (the Initiative). The hearing will provide background on
the Initiative, and will review the current and future status of the
Initiative. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, January 13th from 10:00
a.m. - noon at the Santa Clara City Council Chambers, 1500 Warburton Avenue,
Santa Clara, CA.*
As you may
know, the Initiative was originally established by President Clinton's Executive
Order 13125, which also established the President's Advisory Commission on Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders (the Commission). President Bush signed an
Executive Order renewing the Initiative and Commission once, but that Executive
Order extended the Initiative and Commission only to
June 7, 2003.
The
Initiative was originally established to advise the President, through the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, on the three mandates of the Executive
Order: To develop, monitor and coordinate federal efforts to improve Asian
American and Pacific Islander participation in government programs; to foster
research and data collection for Asian American and Pacific Islander populations
and sub-populations; and to increase public and private sector and community
involvement in improving the health and well-being of Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders.
The
Commission presented an Interim Report to the President in January of 2001, and
focused on five cross-cutting issues:
* Improving
data collection, analysis and dissemination for Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders;
* Ensuring
access, especially linguistic access and cultural competence, for Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders;
* Protecting
civil rights and equal opportunity for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders;
*
Strengthening and sustaining Asian American and Pacific Islander community
capacity;
* And
recognizing and including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in federal
programs and services.
I sincerely
hope that you will make the time to come find out more and offer input about the
Initiative's progress and future direction. A distinguished panel of AAPI
community leaders, as well as representatives from the Initiative, will be
invited to give us all more insight into the plans for the direction of this
important effort. Your input is essential, as we provide important feedback to
the Administration about next steps for the Initiative.
For more
information about our hearing, you can contact Jennifer Van der Heide Escobar,
Chief of Staff, and Bob Sakaniwa, Senior Counsel at 202-225-2631; or Victoria
Tung, CAPAC Fellow, and Elizabeth Lee, Field Representative at 408-558-8085.
Thank you in
advance for participating at this critical forum.
Sincerely,
Michael M.
Honda
Chair-Elect
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
*Parking is
available in the lot east of the Council Chambers in designated visitor spaces
or undesignated spaces. Parking is also available on
Warburton
Avenue and across the street from City Hall in the Triton Museum of Art parking
lot. Please do not park in spaces reserved for City vehicles.
******************
Vietnamese
Language Classes
Vietnamese
Fundamentals is going into its 5th semester this Spring 2004:
COURSES
AVAILABLE:
- Regular
(12 weeks): for students w/ no knowledge of Vietnamese
- On
Caffeine (8 weeks): for students w/ basic command of spoken Vietnamese
WHEN:
- 1st
class:
6:20pm -
8:20pm
Tuesday,
1/27/04.
- Make up
for 1st class:
6:20pm -
8:20pm
Thursday 1/29/04.
- Classes
meet
6:20pm - 8:20pm
Tuesdays (Drills) and Thursdays (Lectures) thereafter.
WHERE/HOW:
-
Pre-register by
5pm
Monday,
1/19/04 to
attend the 1st class for free:
http://fundamentals-first.com/vietnamese/preg-html.htm
-
Vietnamese-American Community Center at:
42 Charles
Street, Dorchester, MA 02122
DETAILS:
-
Information on directions, tuition, required texts, instructors, etc.:
http://fundamentals-first.com/vietnamese
Son Vu
svu@fundamentals-first.com
******************
Southeast
Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) - Summer 2004
(http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/SEASSI/)
The Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) will offer 8-week
intensive summer Heritage language and culture classes in Khmer, Lao, Hmong and
Vietnamese. The classes will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
from June 14 to August 6, 2004.
These classes are intended for Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese university
students who grew up in North America and can speak/understand the language of
their Southeast Asian culture (to at least a minimal degree) and would like to
learn to read and write their language as well. Students with no oral or spoken
command of the language can also study at SEASSI, but would be placed in a
beginning level class with non-native speakers. Placement will be determined on
the first day of classes.
Students will have a chance to learn more about the traditions of the culture
and how to make sense of their lives and traditions in America/Canada in an
historic al context. Independent, project-oriented study opportunities will also
be available, in the context of modular instruction, so students who enter the
program at an intermediate literacy level can also have their educational needs
met and be stimulated and challenged.
The classes are taught by experienced instructors from the United States, Canada
and Southeast Asia, and make use of the latest teaching materials and methods.
All classes carry one full year of university language credit. A variety of
fellowships and tuition reductions are available. For more information, please
visit the SEASSI Heritage Program website:
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/SEASSI/heritage
Even if you've visited the above website before, please take another look, since
new photos, videos and program information ha ve recently been added for
Vietnamese, Khmer and Hmong.
Please note also these important deadlines in regard to applying for financial
aid for the program:
January 12, 2004 FLAS Fellowship Application Deadline
February 2, 2004 Heritage Language Fellowship Application Deadline
April 1, 2004 Tuition Fellowship Application Deadline
April 1, 2004 Wisconsin Bilingual Education Grant Deadline
April 1, 2004 Final SEASSI Application Deadline
For descriptions of the individual fellowships, please see:
http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/seassi/financial_aid.htm
Please circulate this information to any potentially interested parties. Thank
you.
Frank
Smith
Heritage
Language Facilitator
Southeast
Asian
Studies Summer Institute
University
of Wisconsin-Madison
******************
Funding
Opportunities
Support for
Creative Activist Recruitment Projects
General Service Foundation: Engagement Innovation Test Fund
(http://www.generalservice.org/)
The Engagement Innovation Test Fund, a collaboration of the General Service
Foundation and the Common Assets Defense Fund, supports creative efforts to
engage or recruit new members and activists in the work of public interest
organizations while educating the public about the organizations' missions. The
goal of the Fund is to test a number of member and activist recruiting
techniques from a variety of different organizations and movements and share the
lessons learned widely. Grants of between $3,000 and $6,000 are available to
nonprofit organizations that wish to undertake short-term projects of six months
or less with replicable results. Applications must be submitted via email by
January 7, 2004. Application information and forms are available on the website
listed above.
******************
Community
Support from Sempra
Sempra Energy Community Partnership Program
(http://www.sempra.com/community.htm)
The Sempra Energy Community Partnership Program supports organizations and
activities in communities where Sempra Energy employees live and work including
communities in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland,
Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. The Community Partnership
Program's areas of interest include education, the environment, business and
economic development, community and civic leadership, health and human services,
and arts and culture. Information about communities where the company has a
presence can be found at
http://www.sempra.com/community_1a1c.htm. Applications are accepted
throughout the year. Visit the above website for more information or to apply
online.
******************
Microsoft
Software Giveaways
(http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/citizenship/giving/apply/)
The Microsoft Corporation will donate computer software to support the creation
of community-based technology and learning centers that seek to bridge the
"digital divide" and fight technological illiteracy.
Nonprofits that have the necessary computer hardware to run the requested
software may apply. Groups that operate afterschool programs are encouraged to
apply.
For more information, see the
Microsoft website or contact Microsoft Corporation, Community Affairs, 1
Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052; 206-936-8185.
******************
Baltimore
Community Foundation Grants
(http://www.bcf.org/grants_ggag.html)
The
Baltimore Community Foundation is accepting letters of inquiry from local
programs in three grantmaking areas: arts and culture, children and families,
and community development.
Specifically, the foundation is interested in programs that support
disadvantaged neighborhoods, develop young leaders, and improve the health and
welfare of children and families, among other priorities.
Nonprofits in the
Baltimore
areas may apply. For more information, contact Dion Cartwright, BCF, 2 East Read
St., Baltimore, MD; 410-332-4171; e-mail:
dcartwright@bcf.org.
******************
e-Scholars
(http://www.studentjobs.gov/e-scholar.asp)
The
United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) e-Scholar website
provides all students (high school and higher), parents, and career
professionals information on different educational opportunities offered by
Federal Government departments and agencies, or partnering organizations. If you
have any questions, please read our
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) .
(http://www.studentjobs.gov/e_faqs.asp)
******************
Jobs/Internships
BARBARA
JORDAN HEALTH POLICY SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The Barbara
Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program is Now Accepting Applications for the
Summer of 2004.
Program:
The Scholars Program brings talented African American, Latino, Asian/Pacific
Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native college seniors and recent graduates
to
Washington, DC, where they work in congressional offices and learn about health
policy. The application deadline is
January 30,
2004.
Purpose:
The Kaiser Family Foundation established the Scholars Program to honor the
legacy of late U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who was a Foundation Trustee,
and to expand the pool of students of color interested in the field of health
policy.
Structure:
Through the nine-week program (June 1 - July 30, 2004), Scholars gain knowledge
about federal legislative procedure and health policy issues, while further
developing their critical thinking and leadership skills. In addition to an
internship in a congressional office, Scholars participate in seminars and site
visits to augment their knowledge of health care issues, and write and present a
health policy research paper. The program is based at
Howard
University.
Eligibility:
Eligible candidates must be
U.S.
citizens who are members of a racial/ethnic minority group and will be seniors
or recent graduates of an accredited U.S. college or university in the fall of
2004. Candidates are selected based on academic performance, demonstrated
leadership potential and interest in health policy.
Compensation:
Scholars receive approximately $5,000 in support, which includes a stipend,
daily expense allowance, airfare and lodging.
Additional
information:
Application forms and additional information about the Program are available
online at
http://www.kff.org/docs/topics/jordanscholars.html. For further information,
contact program manager Jomo Kassaye at 202.865.4827 or
jkassaye@huhosp.org.
******************
MVMA JOB
ANNOUNCEMENT
The Maryland
Vietnamese Mutual Association, Inc. (MVMA), a non-profit, educational and
community organization based in Wheaton, Maryland, is searching for a full-time
Program Manager to manage its programs and daily operations. For additional
information about MVMA please go to:
www.mdvietmutual.org.
Title:
Program Manager
Roles and
Responsibilities:
The successful candidate will manage a variety of educational programs for a
predominantly Asian American/Vietnamese American clientele. Responsibilities
will include recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, supervising, and
evaluating college interns and teaching staff; writing and assisting with
writing grants; preparing budgets, financial reports and bills; ensuring
compliance with documentation/reporting requirements; meeting with grantor
representatives.
Duties
include but are not limited to:
*
Provide leadership, supervision and management of program.
* Assist with budget development to ensure adequate funding to meet program
needs.
* Assess opportunities for and initiate new program activities.
* Identify new opportunities for funding and fundraising.
* Develop comprehensive individual donor program including prospect
identification, solicitation strategies, cultivation, stewardship and upgrading.
* Oversee database maintenance and gift acknowledgement process.
* Work in conjunction with the Membership Director to develop an annual
newsletter.
* Attend community and outreach events as requested by the Chair and Executive
Director.
* Maintain a professional working environment.
Qualifications:
* U.S. Citizen.
* Bachelor's degree or higher.
* Excellent oral, written communication and interpersonal skills.
* Strong computer skills; Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc...) and Internet
research skills.
* Organized and able to work independently with initiative and minimal
supervision.
* Ability to lead and motivate volunteers and interns; team player.
* Able to work with flexibility and maintain a sense of humor.
* Bilingual in English and Vietnamese is helpful but not required.
Compensation:
Salary commensurate with experience; paid vacation, holiday, and sick leave;
health insurance coverage.
Applicants
should e-mail, fax, or mail resume and salary history to:
Hoan Dang
hoan.dang@mdvietmutual.org
(301) 942-1257 (fax)
11501 Georgia Avenue, Suite #312
Wheaton, MD 20902
******************
Tips
Website
Offers Management Information for Leaders in Community Development
Management Information Exchange
(http://www.lcmmix.org/)
Management Information Exchange (MiX), a website dedicated to energizing and
growing the management expertise of leaders in community development, offers
community-based organizations and their staffs a free source of management
information. The website, using information drawn from the management practices
of successful community-based organizations and from the private and nonprofit
sectors, addresses such challenges as motivating people, managing change,
communicating for results, working with boards of directors, and developing high
performance management systems. Visit the above website to access the resources.
******************
Guide to
Data on Immigrants in U.S. Communities
The New
Neighbors: A User's Guide to Data on Immigrants in U.S. Communities, by Randy
Capps, Jeffrey S. Passel, Daniel Perez-Lopez and Michael Fix, is a new
publication about changing immigration patterns. Prepared by the Urban Institute
with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the guide provides an
overview of national trends in immigration and a review of data sources useful
for answering policy and research questions. Figures in the guide are based
primarily on U.S. Census 2000 data. They include the following findings:
* Immigrants
Disperse to New Growth States - The five states with the fastest growing
immigrant populations are North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Arkansas and Utah.
* Latin
Americans and Asians Predominate among the Foreign-born - Fifty-two percent of
foreign-born immigrants are from Mexico or other Latin American countries.
* More than
Half of Recent Arrivals are Limited English Proficient - Sixty percent of
immigrants who arrived during the 1990s are limited English proficient.
The Urban
Institute is a nonprofit policy research and educational organization. This and
other reports on immigration and related issues are available through the Urban
Institute Web site:
http://www.urban.org
Or contact:
The Urban
Institute
2100 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: (202) 833-7200
******************
News
Little
Saigon District Development –
San
Francisco,
CA
The opening
of the Asian Art Museum--and the anticipated arrival of 500,000 new visitors per
year to the area--represents an excellent economic development and community
revitalization opportunity for the Tenderloin. The Museum has a natural and
long-term interest in beautifying the area and making itself the centerpiece of
a destination zone of Asian arts and culture. An association with local
businesses and community organizations, in coordination with City departments,
could help the Museum to realize this goal.
We envision
a Little Saigon District featuring cuisine, public art, and cultural
programming. This area would be anchored by numerous existing Southeast Asian
eateries and retailers, and by the new Asian Art Museum. Phased in over time to
facilitate participation and ensure success, it would involve careful
coordination of marketing, signage, merchandising, and street cleaning.
The
following document outlines projects and phases that could support a Little
Saigon District--from early administrative efforts and community organizing to
more comprehensive projects involving institutional collaborations and permanent
financing mechanisms. Like any complex effort, it is a work in progress. We
encourage discussion and look forward to receiving feedback on it.
(http://www.urbansolutionssf.org/downloads/little_saigon_draft.pdf)
******************
December 18,
2003
COURT RULES ADMINISTRATION CAN'T HOLD U.S. CITIZEN AS 'ENEMY COMBATANT'
Congressional Quarterly
A three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled today that a U.S. citizen
arrested 19 months ago on suspicion of planning a terrorist act cannot be held
as an "enemy combatant" because Congress did not authorize such treatment of
citizens. By 2-1, the panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the
government cannot continue to hold Jose Padilla -- who was arrested at Chicago's
O'Hare Airport in May 2002 -- as an enemy combatant, a status under which he has
not been charged with a crime nor allowed to see a lawyer. Padilla is suspected
of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive combined with
radioactive material. "Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress, and
absent such authorization, the president does not have the power under Article
II of the Constitution to detain as an enemy combatant an American citizen
seized on American soil outside a zone of combat," the court said.
******************
December 18,
2003
End May Be Near for Swordfish Fleet
Federal
officials propose tough restrictions on West Coast commercial fishermen in an
attempt to protect sea turtles.
By Kenneth
R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer
The federal
government on Wednesday proposed shutting down the West Coast's commercial
swordfish fishing fleet, saying that too many sea turtles are being
inadvertently snagged on baited hooks in violation of the Endangered Species
Act.
The proposed regulations by the National Marine Fisheries Service come as a
federal judge in San Francisco is considering closing down the same San
Pedro-based fleet under a lawsuit by conservationists aimed at avoiding the
projected extinction of the leatherback sea turtle and arresting the decline of
other turtles.
Most of the two dozen remaining long line fishing boats were pushed out of
Hawaii a few years ago by similar restrictions adopted to protect sea turtles.
Now, this group of mostly Vietnamese American fishermen face the loss of their
livelihood if the restrictions are adopted in a 1,200-mile swath of Pacific
Ocean between Hawaii and the coast of California, Oregon and Washington.
"I will lose everything I have," said Alan Duong, who earlier this year bought a
new $1.2-million fishing boat. "I put everything I had into the boat. I borrowed
money from everyone I know, all my relatives, and we still owe the bank."
The proposed regulations, which could go into effect in March, focus exclusively
on "long lining," a fishing practice of unfurling lines of baited hooks that
stretch as far as 50 miles off the stern of boats.
Specifically, the regulations would ban setting these lines in waters near the
surface, usually within the top 100 feet, which tend to lead to more encounters
with air-breathing sea turtles.
Commercial fishermen catch nearly all of their swordfish by setting lines near
the surface, using squid as bait and marking the lines with submergible light
sticks that attract their prey. Unfortunately, this form of fishing also catches
more turtles than lines set at greater depths, as is done by fishermen looking
for tuna and other types of fish.
Using data collected by observers on board the fishing boats, federal officials
estimate that in a typical year the West Coast fleet generally sets about 1.5
million hooks a year, and inadvertently snags or entangles 174 loggerhead
turtles and 52 leatherbacks.
Federal officials expect that all of these turtles would be released alive. But
based on federal calculations, 61 loggerheads and 15 leatherbacks would die
later because of related injuries, sometimes inflicted when a turtle that has
swallowed a hook is hauled on board.
Although this is a small number of turtles, both of these species are on a sharp
decline and protected under the Endangered Species Act.
"Unfortunately, we are almost at the point where every leatherback [turtle]
matters," said Larry Crowder, a biologist at the Duke University Marine
Laboratory. Unless things change, he said, the leatherback sea turtle will
become extinct within the next 10 to 30 years.
Fishing boat captains in San Pedro say they rarely catch turtles. Furthermore,
the fishermen argue that shutting them down won't protect the turtles from
swordfish boats from Mexico, Taiwan, Korea and Japan that fish the same
international waters.
"We go out and fish side by side with the foreign boats," said Long Nguyen of
Honolulu, whose 85-foot boat is now based out of San Pedro. "They eat turtles,"
he said of his foreign competitors. "We save turtles. So how come they can fish
[with] long line [gear] and we cannot?"
Nationwide, U.S. sword-fishing boats make up less than 5% of the worldwide
fleet.
Fishing for swordfish off the West Coast is done in international waters at
least 200 miles from shore. To bring swordfish into U.S. ports, fishermen must
get permits from the federal government under the High Seas Fishing Compliance
Act.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council earlier this year recommended that the
West Coast be allowed to continue without the restrictions placed on fishermen
in Hawaii.
The recommendation prompted William T. Hogarth, the head of the National Marine
Fisheries Service, to write that the recommendations "failed to provide adequate
protection for threatened and endangered sea turtles."
The council's plan, he wrote, created a "situation, which disappoints me
greatly."
The National Marine Fisheries Service has been embroiled in a lawsuit filed by
the Turtle Island Restoration Network and other conservation groups over the
issue. Over the summer, the conservation groups won a key legal battle before
the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and are now pressing for a federal judge
in San Francisco to shut down the West Coast fleet, as was done in Hawaii in
2001.
"We want to close the loophole," said Brendan Cummings, a lawyer in the case for
the Center for Biological Diversity. "What is prohibited off Hawaii shouldn't be
allowed off of California."
Tim Price, an official with the regional office of the Fishery Service, said one
alternative solution involves changing the type of fishing hooks and switching
bait. Experiments in the Atlantic Ocean last year with this gear reduced the
catch of loggerheads by 90% and leatherbacks by 65%.
Fishing authorities in Hawaii are pushing to reopen the swordfish fishery using
the experimental gear, and some officials are pushing for this in California,
rather than a shutdown.
Crowder said the new techniques haven't been studied enough to know if they are
effective.
"I share the frustration of [domestic] fishermen," Crowder said. "If you shut
down the entire U.S. fishery, you don't solve the problem for the loggerhead and
leatherback turtles." But
if the new gear works, he said, "you can export them to other countries. You
cannot export a closure."
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-turtles18dec18,1,2673246.story)
******************
December 18,
2003
Census Report Confirms Most in
Santa Ana
Foreign-Born
Community learns what it already knew.
Study also says three other large Californian cities are among six in the
U.S. with
such majorities.
By Jennifer Mena, Times Staff Writer
Foreign-born
residents form majorities in six large U.S. cities, including Santa Ana,
Glendale and El Monte, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report issued
Wednesday.
Topping the list of cities of 100,000 people or more are Hialeah, Fla., and
Miami, with an estimated 72% and 60% of residents born abroad, respectively.
Next come
Glendale, with an estimated 54%, and Santa Ana, with 53% of its population of
337,977 coming from outside the United States. Census officials said the figures
for the two cities were statistically indistinguishable.
The report, which for the first time analyzes sample data on foreign-born
populations from the 2000 census, echoes conclusions of previous reports that
counted Santa Ana's large foreign-born population, mostly natives of Mexico, and
a smaller group from Vietnam.
In a 2002 survey, the Census Bureau estimated that 48% of Santa Ana's population
is foreign-born. The figure for 2001 was 56%. Joseph Costanzo, a census
researcher coordinator, said the study released Wednesday uses responses from
one-sixth of the 115 million American households that received the census long
form. The previous surveys involved samples as small as 750,000 respondents, he
said.
The differences in the results can most likely be attributed to differences in
sample size and do not necessarily indicate fluctuations in the foreign-born
population in Santa Ana, Costanzo said.
Other large cities with high foreign-born populations are Daly City, Calif.,
52%; El Monte, 51%; Elizabeth, N.J., 44%; Garden Grove, 43%; and Los Angeles,
41%.
The report was old news to Santa Ana officials, who have long responded to the
needs of the foreign-born by increasing the number of bilingual employees and
outreach programs to serve their needs.
"What we have found is that it makes a big difference when we have bilingual
staff in City Hall and the Police Department," said City Council member Jose
Solorio. "In the past, we could have a police officer respond to a call and
there would be a need for a translator. We've eliminated that problem."
Solorio said the city also provides written information in Spanish, Vietnamese
and Cambodian.
The Santa Ana Police Department has 180 bilingual police officers, who speak
Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Persian and constitute 51% of the force. Of
non-sworn department employees, 66% are bilingual, said Police Department
spokesman Sgt. Baltazar De La Riva.
Of the city's 1,571 employees, 43% receive extra pay for their language skills,
said Enrique Alva, director of personnel.
At the Santa Ana Unified School District, bilingual education director Howard
Bryan said that 68% of the district's students are learning English and that
most of their parents were born outside the United States. Bryan said the
district estimates about one-third of the city's adults are "under-schooled,"
and "that puts pressure on us to provide services to help parents help their
children."
The district provides or assists in offering elementary school classes for
adults, as well as high school equivalency courses and English.
"Other communities don't have this," Bryan said.
"But they don't have our population."
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-census18dec18,1,5787872.story)
******************
December 22,
2003
Civil rights leader steers group to broader
focus
PRESIDENT OF NAACP'S SAN JOSE CHAPTER REACHES OUT TO DIVERSE MINORITY GROUPS
By Katherine Corcoran
Mercury News
For many
African-Americans it was a first -- an NAACP president rejecting a plan to name
a road after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because it angered Latinos.
But for Rick
Callender, who heads the San Jose chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the decision made perfect sense. Since taking the
helm three years ago, the 33-year-old San Jose resident has tried to reach
beyond the NAACP's traditional African-American base to reflect the diversity of
Silicon Valley.
It's a move
that has brought Callender kudos for his vision and criticism about his
priorities. And it puts him at the forefront of an emerging debate about the
role of the nation's oldest and largest civil-rights group in the face of
changing demographics.
The question
looms on the horizon nationally, even in eastern and southern regions with high
numbers of African-Americans. But diversity issues weigh most heavily for the
organization in California and the West, where the black population remains
small.
``At this
point, Rick Callender is on the cutting edge in California,'' said Steven
Millner, professor of African-American Studies at San Jose State University.
``Progressive organizations, if they're going to be progressive, are going to
have to pursue these strategies with vigor.''
The NAACP
was founded in 1909 as an integrated organization to fight lynchings and other
injustices suffered by African-Americans, and has taken on discrimination claims
and causes from people of all races and colors.
But it
remains an overwhelmingly African-American organization at a time when the
Latino and Asian populations are growing much faster than blacks. State and
national NAACP leaders agree that the organization's membership should become
more diverse, even as it enjoys a remarkable comeback from an era of scandal and
mismanagement a decade ago.
Forefront of
diversity
Any efforts
they've made, however, have paled in comparison to those in San Jose, where
Callender has built one of the most diverse memberships and advisory boards in
the country. His efforts have led some NAACP members to warn against branching
out too much.
``We cannot
permit the focus to not be on helping black people to catch up, but we
welcome everyone who wants to be part of the movement,'' said the Rev. Amos
Brown, head of the San Francisco NAACP and a national board member.
Those who
know Enrico ``Rick'' Callender don't find it a stretch that in a disagreement
between blacks and Latinos, he would come down on the side of Latinos. Since
becoming NAACP president in early 2001, he has taken on issues confronting all
ethnic groups, including the controversial police shooting of Bich Cau Thi Tran,
a Vietnamese woman, and preventing hate crimes in San Jose schools against
students who are Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent.
In recent
months, Callender also launched an NAACP investigation into the county Social
Services Agency, following complaints that the agency was wrongfully removing
children from many Latino families, as well as from African-American homes.
He has
increased NAACP membership from about 1,000 to 2,500, and the group has gone
from nearly all black to 72 percent African-American, with 10 percent Asian, 10
percent white and 8 percent Latino membership. Nearly half of the members of his
advisory board are not African-American. He said people are surprised to walk
into the NAACP office and see it staffed with Asian-Americans.
Diverse
board
``We have
the most diverse board in California,'' said Callender, son of a black activist
and a Panamanian immigrant, whose name is pronounced ``ky-YEN-der'' in Spanish.
``The same thing I ask of the corporations, to reflect the community, we should
do as well.''
But some
local NAACP members say they find themselves at odds with his positions, saying
they run counter to traditional African-American concerns.
Ken Stewart,
who is African-American, spearheaded the effort to rename King Road in East San
Jose for the slain civil rights leader, only to withdraw the proposal because
the mostly Latino residents argued that the road symbolizes the Chicano movement
of the 1960s.
Callender
helped kill the name change, Stewart said, by opposing it publicly in the
Mercury News rather than with Stewart directly.
But
Callender, who said he talked to Stewart before contacting the newspaper, said
he couldn't support a proposal that split blacks and Latinos.
``I've
received a lot of support from African-Americans thanking me for preventing this
from becoming a rift,'' he said.
Callender
also opposed a proposal from a group of black leaders this year requesting that
the county Human Relations Commission condemn the use of the word ``nigger,''
citing instead a national NAACP resolution condemning all racial epithets as
equally offensive.
``He's not
connected with our community anymore,'' said Dawn Spears, an African-American,
who says she won't renew her San Jose NAACP membership, electing instead to join
only the national organization. ``He's diluting what little power there is'' for
blacks, who are only 3.5 percent of San Jose's population, Stewart added.
But
supporters say Callender's work fits with the original mission of the NAACP. In
California, state NAACP President Alice Huffman defended American Indians in
then-gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger's attack on Indian gaming,
and said she is using her seat on Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's Commission for One
California to reach out to Latinos.
When Spears
questioned Callender's position on King Road to the state organization, Huffman
told her the NAACP needs to consider both blacks and Latinos as its
constituents.
If there's
an issue on the table between the two groups, Huffman said in an interview, ``I
trust my local leader to make the right decision, not the `black' decision.''
Maintain
core membership
No one,
including Callender, sees the NAACP abandoning African-Americans as its core
members. But the pressure toward diversity only stands to increase here and
across the country. The NAACP's Miami branch, which has a white leader, is
working to recruit blacks from Caribbean and Latin-American countries, despite
tensions between those immigrant groups and African-Americans.
National
Board Chairman Julian Bond, a venerable civil rights leader from the 1950s and
1960s, notes his organization has always worked in tandem with other civil
rights groups, and the national office last summer told branches along the route
of the Immigrant Freedom Ride to support the marchers in any way they could.
Still, he
applauds Callender's efforts as a model for the future of the NAACP.
``I fervidly
wish it would become more racially and ethnically diverse,'' Bond said. ``We
believe colored people come in all colors.''
Contact
Katherine Corcoran at
kcorcoran@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5330.
(http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/7548214.htm)
(www.sanjosenaacp.org)
******************
December 21,
2003
Medical
mission to
Vietnam
SAN JOSE
PHYSICIANS RETURN TO GIVE CARE
By Ben Stocking
Mercury News
Vietnam
Bureau
DA BAN, Vietnam
- The San Jose
doctors rolled into this village where people scavenge through a garbage dump,
drink foul water and feel sick much of the time.
About 300
people were lined up outside the local clinic, and they practically knocked the
doors down when they saw the O'Connor Hospital team arrive with stethoscopes,
blood-pressure cuffs and bags of free medicine.
``You
rolling up your sleeves yet, you guys?'' Kiet Ha, a hospital administrator,
asked his colleagues as the crowd came into view.
Like
thousands of overseas Vietnamese before them, the O'Connor doctors had come back
to do good works in the country they fled after the war.
Each of
these Viet kieu, as they are known in Vietnam, has lived the
up-by-the-bootstraps immigrant success story. After leaving Vietnam in sadness
and confusion in their youth, they crammed into crowded apartments in the United
States, toiled in menial jobs, worked their way through medical school and
eventually built thriving private practices.
A bit more
American than Vietnamese now, the doctors are something in between. And the
deeper they sink roots in their new country, the more they yearn to reconnect
with their homeland.
Earlier this
month, they visited Da Ban and two other villages in southern Vietnam that have
medical clinics run by the Daughters of Charity, a worldwide order of Roman
Catholic nuns that runs O'Connor. And they laid the groundwork for a more
enduring contribution: financing a clinic to help prevent the spread of HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS, which is raising alarm among Vietnamese health
officials.
Hard work,
bad water
In Da Ban,
as in large swaths of
Vietnam,
most villagers make a living doing back-breaking work: harvesting rice. Or they
sift through garbage at the huge dump nearby, looking for anything they might
recycle or sell.
After a
lifetime of stooping in rice paddies and carrying 40-pound baskets of grain on
their heads, many suffer from neck and back injuries. And the nearest safe water
supply is three miles away, so people often don't have time to retrieve it or
haul it home. They sometimes use the mucky, pale green water available nearby --
runoff from the rice and farm fields.
Many of
their ailments arise from a combination of hard work and unsafe drinking water.
(The O'Connor doctors are seeking $5,000 to help the village drill a well to
provide clean water.)
The
patients, who had been lining up since 6 a.m. on a cool, sunny day, shuffled in
with a host of maladies. There was a young woman who had a large tumor
protruding from behind her ear and an old man with a strange fungus creeping
across his bald spot, which he had dyed blue with a homemade remedy. There were
listless children with scabs on their bodies and a 50-year-old woman with
ovarian cancer.
``I have one
year left to live,'' she said. ``Do you have any money to help my four
children?''
Many of the
patients had scratches and bruises on their skin, which they had scraped in an
effort to ``let out the bad wind'' -- a folk belief that illness can literally
escape through one's flesh.
It would be
a long day for Dr. Thang Tran, a 38-year-old internist; Dr. Minh Quang Thai, 46,
a family practitioner; Dr. John Lien, 44, a cardiologist; and Dr. Vu Viet Van,
30, an infectious-disease specialist from Ho Chi Minh City who helped coordinate
the trip.
Besides the
four-member O'Connor team, doctors and dentists from Ho Chi Minh City had come
to help out. The day would be punctuated by the shrieks of children having
rotten teeth yanked out.
The doctors
worked quickly and efficiently, taking patient histories, inspecting eyes and
ears, listening to lungs and heartbeats. They furiously wrote prescriptions for
antibiotics, skin creams and pain medications to treat the headaches, rashes and
allergies that afflict so many people here.
Care
unaffordable
``The people
are basically overworked and underfed,'' said Phuong Binh, 44, a sister with the
Daughters of Charity, which runs an elementary school and an acupuncture clinic
in Da Ban to help people cope with chronic pain.
Seeking
solace from a lifetime of drudgery, many of the town's 3,800 residents pack the
Catholic church next door to the clinic every Sunday, where the local priest
conducts three Masses to accommodate them.
Medical care
in Vietnam is far less advanced -- and less expensive -- than it is in the West.
But the residents here, many of whom earn just half Vietnam's annual average
income of $420, still can't afford it.
The San Jose
team had brought $50,000 worth of medical supplies and medications collected
from O'Connor, local doctors and the St. Louise Regional Medical Center based in
Gilroy.
A team of
Vietnamese pharmacists quickly counted out pills, sealed them in plastic bags
and doled them out to the patients, some of whom tried to push their way through
the door, worried that the supplies might run out.
When the day
ended, eight hours after it began, the doctors had treated 500 people. An
exhausted Lien delivered his diagnosis of health care in Da Ban: ``It's poor.''
The elderly,
carrying a lifetime of aches and pains, looked much older than they were; the
children, stunted by malnutrition, looked much younger.
``They look
so worn out,'' Lien said. ``I saw one 40-year-old who looked like he was 60.''
The doctors
were gratified to provide so much direct care, unburdened by the reams of
paperwork required by HMOs back home. But they knew their work would provide
only fleeting benefits.
``They're
bleeding, they're wounded, but we're giving them a Band-Aid,'' said Tran.
The next
day, the doctors traveled to Cu Chi, an hour's drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
There, they hoped to make a more enduring contribution at the Mai Hoa AIDS
hospice run by the Daughters of Charity.
Since it
opened two years ago, the sisters have cared for 124 people. Some of them were
reunited with their families before dying; 71 have died here. The longest stay
was a year; the shortest, three hours.
Cremated
remains are kept in ceramic urns on glass-enclosed shelves, each bearing a
picture, name, birthday and date of death.
On a recent
day there were 12 patients in the clinic, including a 5-year-old boy with a
twisted body who can no longer see or hear. Nearby, a 4-year-old boy, AIDS-free,
waited for his mother to die.
Her body had
wasted away to virtually nothing. Her husband, a heroin addict, had infected
her. She assumed he ran away and killed himself when he found out he was sick.
Sick and
desperate
She was
sitting outside with a 22-year-old woman named Phuong, whose face was covered
with scabs from Kaposi's sarcoma, an ailment that often afflicts AIDS patients
in Vietnam, where patients don't generally enjoy the benefits of the expensive
medication ``cocktails'' that have prolonged the lives of their counterparts in
the United States.
When she was
17, Phuong started working as a ``bar girl'' in Ho Chi Minh City, selling drinks
and sex to her customers. A year later, she was HIV-positive.
She kept
working for three years after that, urging her customers to use condoms but not
turning away the business if they said no. She would tell them she had the AIDS
virus, but about four customers a week would sleep with her anyway. She said
they figured she didn't really have AIDS and was just trying to make them wear a
condom, which they refused to do.
``I didn't
think it would happen to me,'' said Phuong, who now weighs just 60 pounds.
Sister Thue
Linh, who runs the hospice, said her staff of five nuns was overwhelmed caring
for the 12 patients who live here, all of whom have been rejected by their
families. ``The sisters have to hold their hands in the last hours of their
lives,'' she said.
The O'Connor
team is talking to Sister Linh about how to make a longer-term contribution.
They could raise money for the hospice and use it to hire more staff. They might
open a clinic next door and hire doctors to focus on testing and preventive
work.
The team has
returned to
San Jose,
but its work in
Vietnam will
continue. The Sisters of Mercy operate a foundation that might help. O'Connor
might contribute.
``I'm so
depressed,'' Tran said after his conversation with Phuong. ``But I feel a sense
of urgency.''
Contact Ben
Stocking at
bstocking@mercurynews.com.
(http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/7544119.htm)
******************
December 21,
2003
The World in
Houston
Area's
diversity represented
By EDWARD
HEGSTROM
Houston
Chronicle
The
transformation of Sharpstown is nearly complete.
Over the
past 20 years, the 6,800-home planned community in southwest Houston made a
remarkable demographic shift from all-American suburb to international hub. Yet
the political representation remained as frozen in the past as the time capsule
that developer Frank Sharp buried in the cornerstone of Sharpstown Mall nearly
50 years ago.
A region
that had become the city's most ethnically diverse, Sharpstown and the rest of
southwest Houston continued to elect city councilmen who were, in the words of
former city planner Jerry Wood, "older, white and mildly Republican."
Along comes
Masrur Javed "M.J." Khan. The Pakistani-American won election to the City
Council from the district representing Sharpstown earlier this month, becoming
not only the council's first Muslim but also the first who came of age in
another country, speaking another language.
In this, he
represents his district.
Nearly half
the people in southwest
Houston's
District F were born in another country, a far greater percentage than any other
district in the city (even the heavily Hispanic east and north ends have fewer
immigrants). If
Houston
had such a thing as a disenfranchisement index, District F would win it on
almost every scale except poverty. A third of its residents are not citizens,
and more than a fourth of its adults speak little or no English.
People who
don't speak English are less likely to vote, and people who aren't citizens lack
the right. For years, Anglos, currently at just 18 percent of the district's
population, continued to hold power. (The district is 43 percent Hispanic, 22
percent African and African-American and 15 percent Asian.)
In a
conversation nearly two years ago, Metropolitan Organization activist Joe Higgs
noted the difficulty of getting immigrants involved in Houston politics,
particularly in areas like southwest Houston. He cited Alief Super Neighborhoods
and the Sharpstown Civic Association as Anglo-dominant groups that set the
political agenda in the area.
The last two
city councilmen from District F came up from being board members of the
Sharpstown Civic Association. Khan's opponent, Terry McConn, would have been the
third.
Sharpstown
Civic Association President Candice Alexander believes Anglos in the area are
more civically active because they are older and better established.
"The young
people aren't unhappy enough to get involved," she said, adding that Sharpstown
residents are "darn proud" of the area's diversity.
Not long
after developer Sharp drained the rice fields and started putting up homes for
middle-class white families near the corner of U.S. 59 and Bellaire in the
1950s, the Sharpstown Civic Association was formed to maintain the beauty of the
area by policing the deed restrictions -- a task it still performs.
Modern
visitors are likely to pass right by Sharpstown's old suburban neighborhoods,
awed by the sprawl of newer Asian businesses occupying the malls there and in
the rest of southwest
Houston.
The region houses at least five mosques, three Hindu temples, one Sikh temple
and uncounted African, Korean and Vietnamese churches, by Khan's tally.
He knows
because he visited most of these places of worship in his campaign. His outreach
to the ethnic communities was tireless. He produced campaign literature in four
languages -- English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese.
"It was not
really one campaign, it was several campaigns," Khan says. One for Anglos, one
for African-Americans, one for Hispanics and one for each of the ethnic
communities.
Khan is not
entirely proud of this. He sees it as one of his goals to bring a pluralistic
unity to the area, including elderly Anglos. His efforts could have implications
beyond southwest
Houston.
"District F
today is what
Houston
will be in a couple decades," Khan predicts. "It is what America will be in
about 70 years or so."
E-mail
Edward Hegstrom at
edward.hegstrom@chron.com.
(http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2313708)
******************
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.
Visit us at
www.ncvaonline.org.
