[UVSAblog] Rise of the Activista
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Bao Thien Ngo
Mar 5, 2008, 5:27:13 PM3/5/08
to UVSA Intercollegiate Council, UVSA Exchange, uNAVSA Core
http://blog.myspace.com/norcaluvsa
March 5, 2008
Thousands of Vietnamese Americans packed the San José City Hall chambers, with overflows leading out to the Rotunda. The air was buzzing with apprehension, and it was such an exciting feel. A few of us youths managed to get into one of the chambers and viewed the City Council meeting from projectors. The San José City Council was to decide the fate of the name that was to be given to the business district on Story Road. Most of the demonstrators that were present wanted 'Little Saigon.'
When it the Open Forum opened up for the issue of the naming debate itself, two groups went up: San Jose Voters for Democracy, who demanded government accountability, especially in regards to Madison Nguyen and her alleged backdoor dealings (i.e. Brown Act Violations), and also represented the Committee for Little Saigon by asking to settle the decision to name the district 'Little Saigon' that evening. My-Phuong Le was their spokesperson, a fellow youth who attends Stanford University. At the very least, she showed that youths can play a pivotal role for our community. There was also 'One Voice' who supported the memo to basically call for a community "Time Out". They advocated not rushing into any decisions, and that we must take the correct approach to ensure all voices are heard, as is necessary for a true democracy, and that we must not resort to dirty tactics such as slander, labeling people as pro-communists, bullying, death threats, etc. In fact, one of the elders admitted that he received a death threat on his cell phone inbox that morning when people heard he would be present that evening. The speeches brought before the community by these two groups solicited cheering and applause.
And when the Open Forum opened the floor for individual comments, hundreds of individuals spoke their opinion, most of whom spoke in favor of Little Saigon, and a handful who had other perspectives to contribute. It was a surreal feeling to hear different stories. One dentist admitted he was a busy man, and that he came out because he cared about this issue. Veterans came up to speak about having to leave their homeland to flee from communist oppression. I counted about 5 (6 including My-Phuong) youths who came up and spoke. One high school girl erupted in tears wanting the name Little Saigon in honor of the sacrifices that her parents made in coming to America. There was a teacher who asked the Councilmembers, "Please show me how to teach my kids what democracy is." There were humorous moments, when a non-Vietnamese senior opened the forum by saying, "I met a lot of very nice Vietnamese people on my way here." And that was his comment.
As much as I wanted to jump up to the podium to make a comment, suffocating from my need to show the community that youths do care, I could not for two reasons. The first reason is that the UVSA Intercollegiate Council has decided that when an official UVSA staff or councilmember speaks on an issue, that statement would be seen as representative of the entire organization. Therefore, we've adopted a policy to take a neutral stance automatically until the Council has deliberated and has come to a decision on an issue. For partisan issues, the decision requires four-fifths (80%) supermajority of the Council. The second reason for not speaking is that the Youth Forum Committee that organized the Youth Forum regarding the Vietnamese Retail Area Designation Issue in January 2008 has not completed their report, and we did not discuss whether to make our findings this report public yet. Alas, it is out of respect for the processes in place that I must hold my tongue and not adorn any paraphernalia or make any comments that would make me seem partisan, since doing so would disrespect the peers I must represent. But trust me, there were things mentioned at the Youth Forum that was never brought up by either groups who spoke at City Hall. I do feel that the youths have something to contribute to the discussion.
Meanwhile last Monday, San Francisco State University VSA held their first general meeting after being officially recognized by the school. This fulfills their requirement to be an official member of UVSA. In April, the Intercollegiate Council will consider their membership, and with it, full voting rights that goes with membership. Around the same time, it was decided that San Joaquin Delta College VSA could no longer fulfill its role as a member organization of UVSA, and their status has been placed under review in light of numerous internal problems facing their VSA. So yeah, we helped build one, and we lost one. We're 1-and-1 so far. We will look into outreaching to other non-affiliated VSAs, and some of the Councilmembers have already sought to help establish new chapters as well, including the new campus of the University of California at Merced.
One of our Councilmembers, Anh Tran, resigned to pursue her passion: to explore the possibility of creating a Youth Commission arm of the organization called Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, thereby fulfilling a need of the youths to bridge relations between our generation and the older generation. I had spoken briefly with Thomas Nguyen from that organization and we both agreed that there was a need. It's just that we needed a group of youths dedicated to that task, and I'm proud to say that Anh Tran will be the Torchbearer for this endeavor.
Speaking of building bridges, that was the theme for VASCON (Vietnamese American Student Conference) back in 2006. This year it will be held at Washington DC, and we do have a few students from Northern California who will be attending. Contact Priscilla Luong if you have more questions, but VASCON is an awesome way to connect with youths across the nation and to learn the issues affecting our community, as well as to meet the movers and shakers in our community, the kind of people who really took to heart the idea of being the change they wanted to see.
This morning I had a lunch with one of our staff, and she has agreed to look into creating a High School Outreach Committee to gather up college students and young professionals dedicated to developing our high school students and the high school VSAs. Lily Tran will be the Torchbearer for this endeavor, should anyone be interested in being part of this Committee.
Congratulations to University of Pacific VSA for holding an awesome culture show on February 22, 2008! The kids were adorable, and the show was overall entertaining and amusing.
Also, we are still maintaing the Collective Philanthropy Project campaign for VOICE to help establish anti-human trafficking resources in Southeast Asia. We're still working on an effective presentation and campaign strategy, but if anyone is interested in taking a role in this, we'd be more than happy to accept interns.
For upcoming activities, UC Berkeley VSA will be holding a forum on the Paracel & Spratly Islands issue in which China has taken unilateral military-enforced steps to asserts its claims over those islands, despite Vietnam and other countries' claims on those islands as well. The forum will be this Saturday on March 8, 2008.
UVSA will hold its first annual Olympics the following Saturday, March 15, 2008 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, co-hosted by San Francisco State University VSA. We will be putting our gameface on, so get your school cheer ready for ROLL CALL and rock the boat with different intercollegiate competitions!
If there are other activities that I haven't mentioned, I tend to focus solely on UVSA and VSA events, with non-affiliated events being mentioned only on our Commission maiiling lists.
Take care y'all! Oh yeah, I invented a new word of the week: activista, n. a community activist who makes advocacy work look sexy. Ooh yeah! (That particular comment belongs to the author of this blog and is not necessarily reflective of the opinion of UVSA. Yet.)
March 5, 2008
Thousands of Vietnamese Americans packed the San José City Hall chambers, with overflows leading out to the Rotunda. The air was buzzing with apprehension, and it was such an exciting feel. A few of us youths managed to get into one of the chambers and viewed the City Council meeting from projectors. The San José City Council was to decide the fate of the name that was to be given to the business district on Story Road. Most of the demonstrators that were present wanted 'Little Saigon.'
When it the Open Forum opened up for the issue of the naming debate itself, two groups went up: San Jose Voters for Democracy, who demanded government accountability, especially in regards to Madison Nguyen and her alleged backdoor dealings (i.e. Brown Act Violations), and also represented the Committee for Little Saigon by asking to settle the decision to name the district 'Little Saigon' that evening. My-Phuong Le was their spokesperson, a fellow youth who attends Stanford University. At the very least, she showed that youths can play a pivotal role for our community. There was also 'One Voice' who supported the memo to basically call for a community "Time Out". They advocated not rushing into any decisions, and that we must take the correct approach to ensure all voices are heard, as is necessary for a true democracy, and that we must not resort to dirty tactics such as slander, labeling people as pro-communists, bullying, death threats, etc. In fact, one of the elders admitted that he received a death threat on his cell phone inbox that morning when people heard he would be present that evening. The speeches brought before the community by these two groups solicited cheering and applause.
And when the Open Forum opened the floor for individual comments, hundreds of individuals spoke their opinion, most of whom spoke in favor of Little Saigon, and a handful who had other perspectives to contribute. It was a surreal feeling to hear different stories. One dentist admitted he was a busy man, and that he came out because he cared about this issue. Veterans came up to speak about having to leave their homeland to flee from communist oppression. I counted about 5 (6 including My-Phuong) youths who came up and spoke. One high school girl erupted in tears wanting the name Little Saigon in honor of the sacrifices that her parents made in coming to America. There was a teacher who asked the Councilmembers, "Please show me how to teach my kids what democracy is." There were humorous moments, when a non-Vietnamese senior opened the forum by saying, "I met a lot of very nice Vietnamese people on my way here." And that was his comment.
As much as I wanted to jump up to the podium to make a comment, suffocating from my need to show the community that youths do care, I could not for two reasons. The first reason is that the UVSA Intercollegiate Council has decided that when an official UVSA staff or councilmember speaks on an issue, that statement would be seen as representative of the entire organization. Therefore, we've adopted a policy to take a neutral stance automatically until the Council has deliberated and has come to a decision on an issue. For partisan issues, the decision requires four-fifths (80%) supermajority of the Council. The second reason for not speaking is that the Youth Forum Committee that organized the Youth Forum regarding the Vietnamese Retail Area Designation Issue in January 2008 has not completed their report, and we did not discuss whether to make our findings this report public yet. Alas, it is out of respect for the processes in place that I must hold my tongue and not adorn any paraphernalia or make any comments that would make me seem partisan, since doing so would disrespect the peers I must represent. But trust me, there were things mentioned at the Youth Forum that was never brought up by either groups who spoke at City Hall. I do feel that the youths have something to contribute to the discussion.
Meanwhile last Monday, San Francisco State University VSA held their first general meeting after being officially recognized by the school. This fulfills their requirement to be an official member of UVSA. In April, the Intercollegiate Council will consider their membership, and with it, full voting rights that goes with membership. Around the same time, it was decided that San Joaquin Delta College VSA could no longer fulfill its role as a member organization of UVSA, and their status has been placed under review in light of numerous internal problems facing their VSA. So yeah, we helped build one, and we lost one. We're 1-and-1 so far. We will look into outreaching to other non-affiliated VSAs, and some of the Councilmembers have already sought to help establish new chapters as well, including the new campus of the University of California at Merced.
One of our Councilmembers, Anh Tran, resigned to pursue her passion: to explore the possibility of creating a Youth Commission arm of the organization called Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, thereby fulfilling a need of the youths to bridge relations between our generation and the older generation. I had spoken briefly with Thomas Nguyen from that organization and we both agreed that there was a need. It's just that we needed a group of youths dedicated to that task, and I'm proud to say that Anh Tran will be the Torchbearer for this endeavor.
Speaking of building bridges, that was the theme for VASCON (Vietnamese American Student Conference) back in 2006. This year it will be held at Washington DC, and we do have a few students from Northern California who will be attending. Contact Priscilla Luong if you have more questions, but VASCON is an awesome way to connect with youths across the nation and to learn the issues affecting our community, as well as to meet the movers and shakers in our community, the kind of people who really took to heart the idea of being the change they wanted to see.
This morning I had a lunch with one of our staff, and she has agreed to look into creating a High School Outreach Committee to gather up college students and young professionals dedicated to developing our high school students and the high school VSAs. Lily Tran will be the Torchbearer for this endeavor, should anyone be interested in being part of this Committee.
Congratulations to University of Pacific VSA for holding an awesome culture show on February 22, 2008! The kids were adorable, and the show was overall entertaining and amusing.
Also, we are still maintaing the Collective Philanthropy Project campaign for VOICE to help establish anti-human trafficking resources in Southeast Asia. We're still working on an effective presentation and campaign strategy, but if anyone is interested in taking a role in this, we'd be more than happy to accept interns.
For upcoming activities, UC Berkeley VSA will be holding a forum on the Paracel & Spratly Islands issue in which China has taken unilateral military-enforced steps to asserts its claims over those islands, despite Vietnam and other countries' claims on those islands as well. The forum will be this Saturday on March 8, 2008.
UVSA will hold its first annual Olympics the following Saturday, March 15, 2008 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, co-hosted by San Francisco State University VSA. We will be putting our gameface on, so get your school cheer ready for ROLL CALL and rock the boat with different intercollegiate competitions!
If there are other activities that I haven't mentioned, I tend to focus solely on UVSA and VSA events, with non-affiliated events being mentioned only on our Commission maiiling lists.
Take care y'all! Oh yeah, I invented a new word of the week: activista, n. a community activist who makes advocacy work look sexy. Ooh yeah! (That particular comment belongs to the author of this blog and is not necessarily reflective of the opinion of UVSA. Yet.)
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