Nation Briefs
October 28, 2005
Mother Wants Asian Upbringing for Daughter
BELLEVUE, Wash. –– Joyce Shui says she will continue to fight to give her younger daughter a multicultural and multilingual education, after an arbitrator ruled that the 5 year old should attend full-day kindergarten, eliminating her Japanese immersion program.
Shui, a Chinese American, whose parents grew up in Japanese-ruled China, wants her daughter to be aware of their Japanese and Chinese backgrounds.
“We are multilingual. That’s our heritage,” Shui told Northwest Asian Weekly. “We need a judge who understands. The court sees [multilingual education] as ancillary. To me it is not ancillary. To me it is integral to my role as a parent. As an Asian parent, for me this is how I want to raise my daughters.”
Shui will continue to pursue the case in court, while her daughter has temporarily withdrawn from Japanese immersion education.
3 Cambodian Americans on Ballot
LOWELL, Mass. –– An unprecedented three Cambodian American candidates are on the ballot for the November 8 city election.
With the resignation of three-term Councilor Rithy Uong in July –– the first Southeast Asian candidate ever elected in the city –– there has been a remarkable surge in interest in local politics in Lowell’s Cambodian American community.
Council candidates Sambath Chey Fennell and Rady Mom likely would not have run had Uong not left the picture, said Victoria Fahlberg, director of ONE Lowell, a Massachusetts immigrant advocacy group.
Samkhann Khoeun, a former executive director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, also considered running but decided to wait.
New PSAs to Combat Housing Bias
New fair housing public service advertisements in more than 10 Asian languages are running on radio stations and in newspapers across the country.
The ads are designed to increase recognition and reporting of housing discrimination among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
“HUD estimates that one in five Asian Americans faces housing discrimination,” said Karen McGill Lawson, director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. “We hope this campaign sends a clear signal to those who discriminate, but more importantly, we want victims of discrimination to know that there is something they can do about it.”
DETAILS: Contact Lisa Haywood at (202) 466-3434, or visit www.fairhousinglaw.org/the_campaign.
U.S. Univ. Joins 15 Asian Colleges in Global Ed
ST. LOUIS –– Washington University is joining 15 Asian universities on a new global education and research program at the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.
The academy will enroll exceptional graduate and professional students from the partner schools across all graduate disciplines. About 20 scholars will begin at the academy next fall. While the first students are from Asia, the school envisions others will come from throughout much of the world.
The Asian universities participating are: Peking University in Beijing, University of Tokyo, Fudan University in Shanghai, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Yonsei University in Seoul, Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, China Agricultural University in Beijing, National University of Singapore, University of Indonesia, Seoul National University, University of Hong Kong, Korea University in Seoul, Chinese University of Hong Kong and National Taiwan University in Taipei.
Katrina Takes Toll on APA Gulf Communities
Asian Americans affected by Hurricane Katrina experienced language difficulties, limited information flow and immigration consequences, according to the advocates, lawmakers and relief workers who participated in a Sept. 29 briefing on Capitol Hill.
Louisiana was home to more than 50,000 Asian Americans. Southern Mississippi was home to about 7,000 Asian American residents. Affected communities included Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Bangladeshi and Korean Americans.
Local relief agencies called for government agencies and national relief agencies to provide more effective responses.
“Our parishioners are getting frustrated with the situation. We have challenged ourselves beyond what we could handle to support these unfortunate people,” said Reverend Joseph Vu of the Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in Houston.
Juliet Choi, staff attorney for Asian American Justice Center, highlighted economic considerations for the fishing industry, and cultural or language differences that may prevent access to FEMA benefits.
Ceremony Held for Chinese Deliveryman Killed in N.Y.
NEW YORK –– The family of restaurant deliveryman Fa Hua Chen made a sorrowful return to the murder scene after he was killed after a robbery on the building’s second floor.
Kneeling in front of an altar on the sidewalk, Chen’s widow and daughter sobbed uncontrollably. Each spoke in Chinese to the victim as part of a ceremony called Chao Du –– a service conducted only for murder victims, to ease their spirit’s transition from mortal life.
Afterward, the victim’s 24-year-old daughter delivered a message to her father in English.
“Dear daddy,” said Ting Chen, “beyond the world as we know it there is a place where we will all meet again. We will never say good-bye.”
A funeral will be held next week. There is a $13,000 reward for information. Call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.
Chao Promotes Guest Worker Program
WASHINGTON –– Labor Secretary Elaine Chao has provided a general outline of President Bush’s plan for a guest worker program.
Chao emphasized that undocumented workers accepted into the program would receive no advantages and would be required to return home after their work period ends.
“Those who come forward will not be offered an automatic pass to citizenship and should be expected to pay a substantial fine or penalty to participate in the temporary program,” she said.
Under the plan, guest workers would be able to extend a three-year work visa for another three years, but would then have to leave the country for a year to apply for a new work permit.
She said biometric, tamper-resistant cards would be issued to the workers.
Greenwich Schools Join List Offering Mandarin
GREENWICH, Conn.–– Mandarin Chinese could be taught at Greenwich High School next fall, adding the school district to a growing number in the United States to offer one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
The plan to teach Chinese would place the language with Spanish, French, German, Italian and Latin among others taught at the 2,700-student high school.
“We get calls all the time from parents who live in Greenwich and whose kids are interested in learning Chinese,” said Wen Hsu, former principal and board member of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut.
The U.S. State Department has designated Chinese as a “critical language.” Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) has proposed pending $1.3 billion for Chinese language and culture instruction in American schools.
A Time to Make Your Own Law
QUEENS, N.Y. — In a bid to let the people take the law into their own hands, Assemblyman Jimmy Meng (D- Flushing) is sponsoring a “Make Your Own Law” contest. Constituents will be writing legislation with the promise that the best proposal will be introduced as a bill in Albany.
So far, about two dozen entries have come in, dealing with issues from traffic to the environment to zoning regulations.
“There are so many people in the community who have many great ideas on how to make the community better,” said Meng.
In addition to spurring several would-be lawmakers to action, the purpose of the contest is to inspire political involvement, said Grace Meng, his daughter and office manager.
DETAILS: Only residents of 22nd Assembly District can participate. Submissions can be in any language. Deadline is Nov. 1.
Hmong Rape Problem Concerns Community
MINNEAPOLIS — Hmong leaders have begun drawing attention to the growing problem of sexual assault in the Hmong community.
Scores of Hmong girls in Minnesota — some not yet in their teens — have been raped or forced into prostitution over the past several years, and many of their attackers are gang members who go unpunished because shame keeps their victims from coming forward, the Star Tribune reported.
A Star Tribune analysis using an FBI list of Hmong surnames shows that from 1999 to June 30, 2005, 76 Hmong men and 21 Hmong teens were charged with sexually assaulting or prostituting girls in Ramsey County, home to almost 60 percent of the state’s Hmong.
Nearly all of the victims were young. Eighty-one of the 97 were charged with attacks against victims 15 and younger.
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