IN THE SOUTH

Inclusion of Vietnamese on Fishing Panel a Milestone

The establishment of an eight-state shrimp industry coalition that will seek ways to promote wild-caught Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic shrimp took a historic turn when two Vietnamese American men were named to sit on its board.

The men are Gary Nguyen, a Lafourche Parish dock owner, and Calvin Nguyen, a New Orleans member of a Vietnamese fishing family. Both described their decision to accept seats on the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s board of directors on Oct. 22 as a “very big step” for the organization and for themselves.

Inclusion of Vietnamese Americans in a U.S. commercial-fishing trade organization is something fishermen interviewed Oct. 23 said might have been impossible a decade ago, because the history between Asian and other fishermen has been tainted with instances of discrimination and even violence.

George Barisich, co-chair of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, who has fought battles for years against turtle-excluder devices and other issues important to shrimpers, said he has been trying for years to include Vietnamese in his efforts.

“Right now, the Vietnamese are 45 to 80 percent of the industry in some areas,” Barisich said. “They are a major portion of the U.S. fleet, and until now they have not been politically involved or helping to fight the battles others have put up, such as turtle-excluder devices. This is an opportunity to open that door.”

Both Nguyens have said that their participation on the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s board is motivated by a desire to aid the industry they are a part of, in Louisiana and other states.

“This is a hard time, and we all have to get together,” Gary Nguyen said in an interview after the board meeting.

One issue facing American shrimpers is low shrimp prices, caused in part by Vietnam’s exports of frozen, pond-raised shrimp to the United States.

Neither of the Vietnamese American representatives wished to discuss the issue of trade. Both said some specifics of the Southern Shrimp Association discussion would be relayed to community elders for consideration and deliberation, indicative of the respect elders hold in the Vietnamese culture.

Tuan Tran, a teacher in Seattle who operates a website that seeks to provide education on Vietnamese culture and history, said the two Louisiana men are in an uneasy position.

Global trade, Tran argues, has been good for Vietnam and, as a result, for relatives of Vietnamese Americans, allowing them a better standard of living.

“I don’t think it is a fair thing to use members of the Vietnamese community against Vietnam,” Tran said. “This organization sounds politically motivated against free trade. The Vietnamese fishermen are being used. It is a dirty tactic.”

— The Associated Press

BREAKING GROUND

New University of Hawai‘i Medical School Launched

Officials broke ground Oct. 24 for a new University of Hawai‘i Medical School in Kaka‘ako, heralding it as a catalyst for the bioscience industry and a rare example of community-wide cooperation.

“What’s happening here is not just the dedication and groundbreaking of a new medical school,” said Gov. Ben Cayetano, “but the start of a research center that’s going to provide Hawai‘i with the kind of jobs we don’t have enough of — highly skilled jobs.”

He noted that when the University of Hawai‘i was struggling with budget cuts in the 1990s, “the No. 1 target on the hit list was the medical school.” But Cayetano said he balked at plans to shut it down.

Instead, the community rallied around a vision of a new medical school as a cornerstone for a bioscience park and waterfront redevelopment. Roughly 60 percent of the practicing physicians in the state are graduates of the medical school or its residency program.

“This is more than a medical school,” UH Medical School Dean Edwin Cadman said, before picking up a 6-foot Hawaiian o’o digging stick to turn dirt at the site. “This is about the revitalization of Kaka‘ako and nurturing a new industry for Hawai‘i.”

The first phase of the $300 million project will include facilities for the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the Pacific Biomedical Research Center. Later phases call for possible relocation of the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i and development of the biotechnology park.

The 10-acre site is located in Kaka‘ako, near the Children’s Discovery Center and Kaka‘ako Waterfront Park. Both major landowners, Kamehameha Schools and General Growth Properties, Inc., are committed to developing the area as a bioscience park, Cayetano said.

Half of the $300 million cost is being covered by state revenue bonds and funds from the tobacco settlement. University President Evan Dobelle has committed to finding the remaining $150 million in private support.

The project is supposed to create 600 construction jobs, and about 1,100 permanent jobs once it is complete in 2005.

“I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen this kind of cooperation among all segments of the community,” said state Rep. Ed Case, who represents the university’s Manoa district and is now running for Congress. “It’s a tremendous demonstration of what can be possible.”

— A.P.

POST-INTERNMENT

Former Internees Asked to Help Plan National Monument

The National Park Service is looking for former Japanese American internees and their descendants to give input on the development of the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Jerome, Idaho.

About 7,000 of the 13,000 people who were forced to relocate to the center during World War II were from Seattle, and 2,500 were from Portland, Ore., said Anna Tamura, a Park Service official from Seattle. Many returned to their hometowns after they were released.

“These people in general feel a sense of recognition, that their hardships have been commemorated in a way through this national monument,” said Tamura, whose own grandparents and mother were interned there. “Most people want to see the story is accurately told. In what form that happens is still up for discussion.”

The Park Service has scheduled nine meetings next month throughout Idaho, Washington and Oregon to help launch work on a management plan for the site east of Jerome. The internment camp was also called Hunt Camp.

President Clinton designated 73 acres of the 33,000-acre Hunt Camp site as a national monument in the closing days of his administration.

Local residents will also help determine the monument’s future, Tamura said.

— A.P.

Compiled by Neela Banerjee.