Thế Hệ Chúng Ta

Vietnamese Student Association Newsletter
University of California Berkeley
Fall 2007
Vol. II Issue 3
November 2007
www.calvsa.com
Thế Hệ Chúng Ta
Our Generation
Inside this Issue:
Vietnamese American woman p. 3
wins National Security Award
Terrors of the sex trade
p. 4
Fall Showcase Preview
p. 6
Gaining electoral
power by voting
By Danielle Dương
A
PHOTO BY HUAN DOAN
Tục Ngữ
proverb
Dao có mài mới sắc,
người có học mới khôn
Translation:
In order to make a knife sharp,
one must sharpen it;
In order to be wise,
one must keep learning
Did you know?
The three red stripes
on the South Vietnamese Nationalist flag
represent the three
regions of Vietnam the North, Central and
South.
VSA Member
ttention Vietnamese community!
It’s almost 2008 and your vote will
count in this coming year’s highly
contentious election season! Yeah, you heard
correctly. Your one vote does matter because
our electoral power is finally being noticed. In
August, Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton
made a visit to San Jose, one of the largest
Vietnamese communities in California, to
meet and greet with Vietnamese community
members in hopes of establishing visibility
and increasing fundraising efforts.
What does this say about the perception
of Vietnamese Americans in the eye of rising
politicians? Nation-wide,AsianAmericans are
beginning to be recognized for their electoral
power and finally gaining the political clout
that they have had for years now. In the Bay
Area alone, we have five foreign-born Asian
American mayors. Yoriko Kishimoto in Palo
Alto, Jose Esteves in Milpitas, Otto Lee in
Sunnyvale, Kris Wang
i n
Cupertino and Eileen
Kao in Saratoga.
With
serious
issues like health
care reform and
the War in Iraq,
the
Vietnamese
community
will
need to have a voice
in the national
elections. Some
(see elections on page 2)
www.mclib.org
Elections:
cont. from front page
voters are claiming that they will vote based on the issues,
and not the party. According to a Santa Clara University
Political Science Professor, the “Asian American vote is
up for grabs”. Once again, this idea is problematic in the
way it clumps all Asian ethnicities under one term and
neglects to recognize the spectrum of different voters
within the very diverse Asian population.
Overall, immigrants and refugees alike have a
high stake in local, state, and national elections.
Members of our communities are emerging as active
political participants. The younger generation has
the responsibility to maintain this growing political
conscious and make it known to the rest of the nation,
that our issues do matter, and that our votes will count.
Register to vote today with the ASUC External
Affairs Vice President Office! Come visit us on Sproul
or 2nd floor Eshleman!
Changing Thought
Lênes
By Christine Lê
Publications Chair
102 Students in Vietnamese Language
Classes were polled Oct. 24.
GRAPHIC BY LONG NGUYEN
I decided
not to write
this month but
wanted to share this
piece of art I sketched
several months ago. There
is a poem called “Soaking in the
Rain” I wrote that goes along with
this piece, which I will be performing
at Fall Showcase. So if you’re interested,
come to the show Nov. 15! See pg.6 for more.
2
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE LE
Vietnamese Student Association
University of California Berkeley
Making bombs, shaping history
By the Speaker for the Republic
VSA Member
I
t is amazing that the world’s greatest bomb-maker today
is Vietnamese. Recently, Duong Nguyet Anh, a former
citizen of Vietnam Cong Hoa, was awarded the prestigious
2007 U.S National Security Award for her efforts in creating
the thermobaric bomb for the war against terrorism. Duong
beat out other exceptional candidates like Dr. Robert O. Slater
accredited for developing a fluency foreign language program
for U.S Department of Defense and Carol Dumaine accredited
for enhancing a new think thank for CIA foreign intelligence
analysis. Duong’s journey to become one of the top U.S explosive
scientists for the U.S Naval Surface Warfare, Indian Head Division
is nothing less than the typical “American dream.”
In 1975, Duong Nguyet Anh and her family covertly fled
Vietnam and became one of the two million notorious “boat
people.” Duong came to the state of Maryland when she was 15
with “an empty hand and a bag full of broken dreams.” Her hatred
against such ideological fanaticism and reckless
hate embraced by the Vietnamese communists
inspired her to earn a dual degree in chemical
engineering and computer science.
Duong’s brother was a fighter pilot in
the Quan Luc Vietnam Cong Hoa (Army
Republic of Vietnam). Numerous times
during her childhood, Duong was
left standing by the gates waiting for
her brother to come home from the
war. He never did. Duong promised
that she would do everything and
anything in her power to ensure that
dsc.discovery.com
Car ride chats, silences
By Mai Trần
VSA Member
I went with my father to visit a friend of
his in honor of this friend’s grandson’s first
birthday. The entire car ride from the Fremont
BART station to his friend’s house was, on
my part, spent in awkward silence. In a car of
four, I was the only one not entirely fluent in
my “native” language. His friend’s daughter,
who had come to the United States at about
the same age I had, was able to converse
easily with her father and mine.
Having not been out on such an excursion
with my father in a long time, I had forgotten
about how uncomfortable it is to attempt
Vietnamese
around
native
speakers.
Certainly I’m able to get by with simple
sentences, requests, and the usual words I
use on the phone with my father during our
rare conversations, but overall I’m hopelessly
inadequate when it comes to even casual
conversation. This is not only frustrating for
me when I find myself in these situations, but
www.vatv.org
our U.S soldiers today would come home to their little sisters;
a luxury that she never got. Duong wished that the option of
war would be a last resort and only when diplomacy failed. But
Duong said “when war is inevitable and if we’re going to send
troops, we want to make sure that a lot of them will come back.
And we better equip them with the best weapons.”
After 9/11, Duong and her team of scientists were asked
to create a new bomb in an unprecedented small timeframe of
two months. The Pentagon called it the thermobaric weapon. It
was designed to destroy Osama Bin Laden’s and other terrorist’s
mountainous hideouts. The bomb collapses caves with a superhot blast and can penetrate any surface as far as 1,100 feet deep.
Any terrorists and enemy combatants that are hiding within that
range would be annihilated and incinerated in seconds.
Duong’s determination and vigor is fueled by the flames of
patriotism in her heart. When U.S Secretary of the Navy presented
Duong with the 2007 National Security Award in September,
Duong wore her traditional
Vietnamese ao dai, and in her
acceptance speech, Duong said
a little shameful. One of the topics discussed
that she was incredibly grateful
during the car ride was how important is,
for the U.S in giving her and
even in this country, to be bilingual and to
her family a second chance.
maintain your mother tongue.
The last line of her speech
With the diversity of culture in this
almost brought tears to most
country and the competitive job market,
of the audience eyes. In a firm
always looking for those who are best at
and endearing voice, Duong
pleasing and connecting to not always native
dedicated the award to the
customers, it is almost essential to be fluent
50,000 American and 200,000
in at least one language other than English.
South Vietnamese soldiers that
Though I understood the points and even
died during the Vietnam War.
agreed, I could only make soft sounds of
In retrospect, the Iraq War
assent, unable to formulate proper responses
and Vietnam War is almost a
without feeling nervous about my shoddy
mirror reflection of each other.
pronunciation and weak vocabulary.
A multilingual poll by the New
Things only got more awkward when
California Media found that
we finally reached the house and I found
up to 85 percent of Vietnamese
that all the guests were fluent in Vietnamese
Americans backed the U.S. war
and conversing primarily in that language.
in Iraq. Like Duong, many
But next year, I plan to resume my studies
South Vietnamese share similar
in Vietnamese at UC Berkeley so that I can
sentiments that we are humbled
gradually re-learn my language and be able
for U.S support and “must
to converse with those people I feel I should
respect those that are willing to
be able to identify with. Hopefully it will
die for freedom and especially
come in handy in the future, with whatever
those that are willing to die for
career I happen to pursue.
the freedom of others.”
www.calvsa.com
November 2007
3
Why two cheap beers
aren’t worth my humanity
sounds of the 60s American rock music, the desperation and poverty, the byproducts of
clinking of glass bottles, and the scurrying a booming tourist economy and a corrupt
footsteps of waitresses wiping tables for government, or we can understand the
t’s pouring again, this time raining even new guests. Amidst the ruckus, a young reality of human sex trafficking facing the
heavier than before, and we quickly woman sits on a barstool slowly sipping women and children of Vietnam.
Sex trafficking is not simply a local
become drenched despite the summer her drink and casually watching drunken
issue in Vietnam, it is not
heat. We head for the nearest cover, the travelers play billiards. She
overhang of a bar filled with neon lights is young, beautiful and He is watching her just a communist issue, it
is far beyond all of these
and advertisements for cheap beer, not a quite obviously alone.
like a predator...
It was then that we
things. It is a global issue,
bad thought considering Saigon’s humidity,
appraising her
and most importantly, it
even at one in the morning. The room is noticed an older man sitting
by the bar, grey-haired,
is a humanitarian one.
value.
filled with the
balding and even more
According to the US State
obviously out of place than
Department’s 2007 Trafficking
a young Vietnamese woman, sitting and Persons Report, “Vietnamese women
alone in a bar in the Backpacker’s and girls are trafficked to Cambodia, the
District at one in the morning. He People’s Republic of China, Thailand,
is awkwardly stealing glances at Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, the
her, his eyes momentarily fixated United Kingdom and the Czech Republic
on her short skirt and heels. He for commercial sexual exploitation.” More
is watching her like a predator, than 20,000 Vietnamese women were sold
judging her, appraising her through marriage brokers to men in Taiwan
value. This is our first encounter in the last three years alone.
with the sex trade in Vietnam,
You may be asking yourself, as members
and my friends and I cannot of VSA and the Vietnamese community at
help but wonder how we ended large, what can we do? As UC Berkeley
up in this disgusting place.
students we have an enormous number
Does this young woman of opportunities and resources at our
know that two thirds of the disposal. International organizations such
prostitutes in Vietnam have as the Unicef and the Coalition Against
HIV? She may be a prostitute, Trafficking of Women are a great place to
but is she also a sister, a start, as well as local organizations such as
daughter or even a mother the Asian Anti-Trafficking Collaboration. To
of a child? More volunteer for events or intern, you can also
i m p o r t a n t l y, get involved with VietACT (the Vietnamese
how did she end Alliance to Combat Trafficking) a grass
up here and why? roots organization directly affiliated with
We can shrug UVSA. Get educated on these issues, get
these
questions involved, and empower yourself and those
off as the result of around you to make a difference!
ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE TRAN
By Dave Trần
Guest Writer
I
VSA Voices
What do you consider is the most pressing problem in today’s world?
“Unresolvable religious conflicts.
The major wars we’ve had over
territories have ended, but the war in
the Middle East is over religion and
has been going on for millenia.”
“Kids who don’t get an equal education, because that’s where everything
starts. The inequalities ... [make it]
more difficult fo them to succeed in
the long run. ”
Travis Do
Mai Dinh
“I think it’s children and [the lack of]
educaton, and having mentors and
support in communities, especially
urban neighborhoods. ”
Helen Vo
4
Vietnamese Student Association
“The fact that there’s so much food
but it’s not being evenly distributed
among those who need it most.”
Dat Phan
University of California Berkeley
Knowledge & Prevention:
Cervical Cancer
Practice your Vietnamese/English!
Crossword Puzzle
Compiled by Cecilia Trần
The Risk: Vietnamese women
are 30 times more likely than
non-Hispanic white women to get cervical
cancer
The Cause: 99.7% of cervical cancer
cases are due to the Human Papilloma
Virus (HPV)
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that
75% of women will have at some point in
their life
The Solution: There is a vaccination
known as Gardasil that prevents the
contraction of four types of HPV, which
cause 70% of cervical cancer cases
The Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends
Gardasil for girls and women 9-26 years
of age
The vaccination comes in a series of three
shots taken over a course of 6 months:
The second shot is taken 2 months
after the first and the third shot is
taken 6 months after the first shot.
Shots can be given by a family
doctor, at the Tang Center, and by
most major healthcare facilities
Translate the English word/phrase into Vietnamese and fill in the
puzzle. Make sure to get those accents! Ask for help from friends/
family then visit www.calvsa.com for answers.
Sorry I made ANOTHER
mistake on the crossword.
1
c
ộ
3
n
b
5
4
g i ọ
c
à
6
c h í n h s á c h
ò
í
v
a
n
ề
7
l
h
8
9
t ự d o
â
r
Down
n
1. Republican
ị
2. to agree
c
3. to discuss
4. politics
h
9. Democrat
ủ
What’s in a name?
By Fong Trần
Count Me In! Campaign Coordinator
C
urrently, many UC campuses have an approximate API- Asian
Pacific Islander- population of 40+% in its undergraduate
student body. Even though this statistic is true, it is extremely
deceiving as we all know that there are many ethnicities and races
within this blanket term of API.
The Count Me Campaign is a movement throughout all of
California on UC campuses to disaggregate this umbrella term: API
on UC applications to make it more inclusive of under-represented
communities and properly collect data of
www.calvsa.com
2
đ ạ
ồ
n g
g
ý
n ó i
ý
u ậ n
l
i
s ứ
Across
2. ambassador
5. voice
6. policy
7. argue
8. freedom
admissions to UC. As these communities go underrepresented
and unrecognized, there major repercussions such as lost of
outreach programs, funding credibility, and potential rise in these
marginalize ethnicities.
This is unprecedented and long awaited for campaign follows
in the steps of the campaign for “Vietnamese/VietnameseAmerican” ethnicity to be added to the UC data in 1996, which has
made significant positive change for the number of Vietnamese
students on college campuses, more outreach programs and more
support for Vietnamese related organizations. This campaign has
the same hopes for these marginalized communities.
The 2nd proposal is to recognize the historical and cultural
differences that exist between Pacific Islanders and Asian/
Asian Americans. Furthermore, this will allow the University of
California to properly address the underrepresentation
and low retention rates of Pacific Islanders.
Lastly the 3rd proposal will ensure the continuing
financial support to outreach projects to these
underserved communities in the API communities.
All three proposals must work in conjunction of one
another to have the positive change we want for our
communities.
We must no longer have these people go
unrecognized. I urge you to support the “Count Me In”
Campaign by various forms: Sign a postcard on Sproul,
Join the Facebook Group – “Count Me In” Campaign,
and attend our Day of Action on Upper Sproul –
November 1st from 12-1. Please if you have any
questions, you may reach me at fongtran@berkeley.edu
November 2007
5
‘Autumn Heart’ displays talents, culture
By Huân Đồng & John Việt
VSA President & Culture Show Chair
The CalVSA Culture Show
is widely known for its grand
scale and in-depth exploration
of certain aspects of Vietnamese
American culture and history. In that
scope and on that level of professionalism,
there is little room to incorporate the plethora of
individual talent and creative expression that is
present in our community.
The title, “Trái Tim Mùa Thu” literally
translates to “Autumn Heart”. We chose this
name because it resonates with the love of
our Vietnamese culture, and signifies the
change – just like the change of the seasons
-- that we’re going through as individuals
and as a community in defining our cultural
identity. Of course we will always hold on
to our roots and our heritage, but in this new
setting and the season of change in our lives and in
present history, there is a fusion of what we know as
traditional and modern.
Our idea and hope for fall showcase is individual
and group expression of our Vietnamese, American,
and a fusion of both cultures. Through the Fall
Showcase, we hope to express them as freely as
possible, to expose the talents of VSA members and
of course to have fun!
The lightheartedness of Fall Showcase is
intentional in creating an atmosphere of sharing
through acts put together by VSA members
and friends, with a time set aside for an “open
mic” session at the end for anyone who may be
spontaneously inspired to come up to express
himself or herself.
So come out to the Fall Showcase on Thursday
November 15th at 7:00 pm (with a preshow at 6:30)
in 112 Wurster Hall. Look forward to a night of
singing, dancing, acting, videos, martial arts, poetry,
fashion and more as we explore our culture together
as the winds of autumn blow.
Proceeds from this event will go to the uNAVSA
(Union of North American Vietnamese Student
Associations) Collective Philanthropy Project
Vietnam Voice and also to our culture show in the
spring of 2008.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN VIET
Thế Hệ Chúng Ta staff box
Take a
Our Generation
STUDY BREAK!!!
Wanna SHARE your ideas, fart bubbles,
thought bubbles and art? Come talk to Christine Lê (she only bites those who DON’T want
to share) about your article ideas, poems,
artwork, thoughts, ANYTHING! Or email her
at levichris@gmail.com.
DESIGN/EDITOR
GRAPHICS
ILLUSTRATIONS
PHOTOS
VARIOUS
Please recycle
this newsletter.
* Labor donated by
Bay Area Alternative Press
Important VSA Dates
11.9
College Prep Day
11.13
‘Journey from the Fall’ Screening
with Director Ham Tran
11.15
Fall Showcase
12.6
Elections
12.8
Banquet
*Dates and locations are subject to change
(we will inform you of any changes)
Christine Le
Long Nguyen
Sonny Nguyen
My Pham
Maria Pham
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Le Thanh An, Anthony Bui, Brian Dao,
Huan Dong, Nam Nguyem, Speaker
for the Republic, Cecilia Tran, Mai Tran
& John Viet
Fruit of the Month
Vú Sữa (milk fruit)
Directly translated, vú sữa means “breast
milk.” This is due to the milky juice and
tender meat that is found in the center
of the fruit when it is ripe. The skin is a
shiny mix of pink and green and bitter,
therefore not usually eaten.
To eat, vu sua is cut in half, causing the
the milky juice to drip and requiring the
fruit eater to suck on the center of the
fruit. This action, along with the milky
juice gives the fruit its name, vú sữa
(“breast milk”).