• In the health field, CSUEB VSA is organizing a bone marrow drive.
• CSUEB VSA is also organizing a Vietnamese Singing Contest auditions, so they really need help spreading the word out.
  
• Congratulations to the new officers of UOP VSA which just held their elections.
• Cal VSA is selling tickets to their culture show on April 19, entitled Petals in the Wind. The show explores the lives of four Vietnamese women and how it was transformed during the Vietnam War.
• UC Davis VSA will be holding its 21st annual Bike-a-Thon to raise funds for VOICE on April 26.
• SFSU VSA is now a full-fledged member of UVSA!
• VietWill will be present to protest China’s treatment of Vietnamese fishermen in the South China seas (what we call the Eastern Sea) at the Olympic Torch procession in San Francisco on April 9.
  

I woke up from a nap, heavy from the UVSA Olympics we had the Saturday prior, in front of my laptop with notes and papers scattered across the table of various UVSA-related things. My friend messages me over the Internet to watch the video of Barack Obama’s "A More Perfect Union" speech. Towards the end Obama said, "And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election."

Recognition. Sometimes that is what we the youths are looking for. Just recognition for our deeds and efforts. The jarring letter we received weeks ago who questioned what youths have done to serve the Vietnamese community still ruminates in my mind. Maybe that is why I am a writer; there are too many untold stories of our struggles as youths, unnoticed by our parents and grandparents. Ever since I began to regularly talk to my mother about the service work that I do, things have been better between us -- there were no longer questions as to why I stayed up late all the time (well, school too, of course).

A week ago weather reports from all over the Internet were forecasting that thunderstorms were to hit San Francisco on Saturday, March 15th, the day our Olympics would happen. What was particularly encouraging was comments mounting on our website of individuals tossing their fear aside, enthused at the possibility of playing in the rain and mudpits. Both fortunately and unfortunately, we were rewarded with near-perfect weather that day, bringing in close to 150 attendees!

Olympic Results and Thank You

Although issues began to accumulate over time, the one thing I had hoped from before the Olympics began, was that spark of indomitable spirit.

"There is in this world no such force as the force of a man determined to rise. The human soul cannot be chained," W.E.B. DuBois once said. Indomitable spirit is that part of a person which makes them unique, that part of a person which provides hope, strength and courage to get up and face each day with a smile. Indomitable spirit is perseverance on a long term basis. And during that day, hundreds of youths pushed their limits, strengthened their bonds, cheered their heart out.

We will need that indomitable spirit in the times ahead of us.

I promised my friend I would write about the economy. With forecasts of a recession impacting our country, and severe budget cuts within the government. I have started to hear reports of Vietnamese organizations around me losing funding, having their programming cut. Several events that have become the cornerstone in our community for years, have been cancelled. And sponsors from the financial industry which my VSAs once relied on have gone belly-up, forcing a considerable number within the Vietnamese community to undergo job retraining. For the first time ever, I awoke to the grave concern of where the community was heading. "Can you help us with funding?" a few have asked me. "Do you have any leads?" There were many questions as to what we needed to do in this community to set priorities, to maximize impact, and to strategize in procuring and sustaining resources. But who could answer these questions?

A friend called me up last night about the Vietnamese immigrants who stood to be deported beginning this Saturday, and why our community have not mobilized around this issue with as much concern as other things in the community. I could not answer that question adequately. But what I have started to do was to collect contacts and information pertaining to this issue, when it became clear that no one was doing so, and making it available for public benefit. A week ago, Huy and I arrived at a meeting with other advocacy organizations and Congressional aides to Mike Honda to ascertain what was already being done, what basically amounted to as warning the community. The efforts of Congressional representatives, spearheaded by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, to delay the deportation date did not become widespread public knowledge. The two of us began drafting up a petition and information resources to support this Congressional effort, but with only a few days before the deadline, we may need to consider a long-term fight on this issue. The issue is complex, and has implications for a substantial portion of the Vietnamese community. According to US Census, an estimated 18% of the Vietnamese community are non-citizens. If they commit an aggravated felony (the definition of which is questionable), they could stand to be deported back to Vietnam. How can this not be a cause for concern?

UVSA Deportation Committee

Among other issues, UVSA just recently published its report from the Youth Forum that discussed the Vietnamese Naming of the San Jose Retail District. The good news is that there has been a compromise, so Little Saigon advocates can put up signs provided that they are privately funded. Therefore the report is rather a moot point on this issue. However, what it underscores is a prevailing need for youths to connect with others.

There is a need for Vietnamese youths to connect with the older generation. There is a need for Vietnamese youths to connect with other communities, not just the Vietnamese. And perhaps what was important to them in this issue, was to see role models who served the Vietnamese community who would lead the way for our future. Perhaps this explains their conflict over supporting a recall for Madison Nguyen. She was supposed to be our role model.

January 2008 UVSA Youth Forum Report

But I wish for you to read the letter on the third page of the report by a 17-year-old student who attended our forum. She writes, "I find it extremely important for the youth community to help the Vietnamese community figure out their issues. I really believe that UVSA should take the initiative of this. I am not saying that UVSA is doing nothing. I know that UVSA is holding a Yogurt event in late January to help VOICE. I am stating that UVSA should take action about the issues of OUR community. We should be helping the community we live in FIRST, rather than overseas."

Perhaps she has some sensibility. During the Paracel & Spratly Island Forum at UC Berkley, I told Ailien, a member of the group VietWill who looking to protect Vietnam from Chinese military aggression concerning these islands, "We need you to be the torchbearer; there are so few of us working on so many issues." And with failing organizations and a falling economy, our ability to address these issues become harder.

On Sunday, however, I attended a workshop that discussed Vietnamese philosophy and the origins of our Vietnamese identity. Most people know our origin myth. Au Co, the fairy princess, gives birth to an egg sac from which 100 children hatched. Lac Long Quan, the dragon lord, discussed with Au Co one day that they were too different, and both agreed to take half of the children, Au Co to the mountains and Lac Long Quan to the sea. But there was a term that piqued my interest. We are familiar with the term "Hung Vuong", or the Hung kings that gave rise to the Hong Bang dynasty, but there is mention of the term "Lac Vuong", or the Lac kings, obviously a reference to Lac Long Quan’s children. It was then I had a rather interesting interpretation of the myth: Au Co’s 50 children going to the mountains could represented the 50 kings that operated at a "federal" level, and Lac Long Quan’s 50 children going to the sea represented the kings that operated at the local level. One may think of this as 50 senators (Hung Vuong) and 50 governors (Lac Vuong). Although there is no proof that this was how our ancestors were politically organized, it’s compelling to think that that is how our community is organized in a collective leadership fashion. It somewhat mirrors how UVSA is organized, with an Intercollegiate Council of representatives from each school operating at the regional level, and each VSA having its own President overseeing campus affairs.

Another interesting point (and unfortunately I am not doing justice by highlighting snippets from the presentation) is the agricultural origins of Vietnamese civilization. There are numerous maxims that mention our philosophical notion of being in harmony with our environment because of our agricultural roots. The concept of dùng-du+o+~ng is the equivalent sustainable development. Even though we are far removed from our days as being farmers, to resolve the issues within our community is no different than tending to the fields and caring for the crops. Except the fields in this case is the Vietnamese community, and the crops are leaders. What we need is a way to grow a crop of new leaders that can creatively and collectively tackle the challenges of our society in the new century.

With the upcoming April 30 Commemoration and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I wanted to see how we can move forward, what is necessary to reorganize our disparate efforts and to make every drop count, and every action with a purpose that pushes forward a greater plan.

Long live our indomitable spirit!

"Our community can't simply just focus on fighting communism and not think about health care, education, gang intervention, and other issues. If we could galvanize the community over the naming of the business district in San Jose, why couldn't we do the same on other issues?" My friend asks.

"But you have to realize that to the Vietnamese community who left Vietnam, which at the time was full of problems where getting shot was not uncommon and people got jailed for no reason, coming to America is a blessing. All the things you ask for, like health care, education, and what not, they don't ask for more because they are content with what they have right now. It's just on issues concerning fighting communism, that's all they are asking for." My other friend counters.

And so that was the seen of two gladiators intellectually duking it out. And at the end of dinner, one offers the other an extra bowl of soup. They may not have started off on the same footing, but they understood the concerns of each other, and at the end of the day, it was okay to disagree; they were just focusing on different issues.

Earlier that evening we attended the Spratly & Paracel Islands Forum hosted by Cal VSA covered the complex problem. The panelists agreed that the first step to approaching this problem is to bring awareness on the innocent civilians that were being shot by Chinese military in the region, despite the memorandum of understanding that any action in this region should be done in a peaceful manner. The first step was to first address the humanitarian issue of protecting the lives of the poor, unarmed fishermen. That was the initial calling. I realized then that the few people in our community qualified to organize these kinds of campaigns were probably already in that room.

Earlier that day I went to a meeting with ACWP Youth Mentorship Program coordinator Tracy Duong along with my protégée, Lily Tran, to check up on their program to see how they fared. It seemed they were short on young project managers. This isn't a problem unique to this organization. Everyone is looking for a good manager and leader.

If there is a pervasive leadership shortage problem in the community, where does it come from? Are we not producing sufficient numbers of youth leaders? Or are they venturing out into unknown areas without our knowledge? Perhaps both?

And so I decided to begin penning down my thoughts once and for all on an idea I had. I hold a rather Spartan view of leadership development (my middle school mascot was the Spartans, and my college mascot is also the Spartans), i.e. begin training leaders from birth. The three of us discussed what were the necessary components of a young Vietnamese leader. Here's a list of skills to have, although it is still being refined:

1. Having a Sense of Heritage & Identity - Knowledge of one's history and culture, and being comfortable in navigating one's multiple identities

2. Fluency in the Vietnamese Language - Would be very nice to speak the language and be able to connect with monolingual speakers

3. Consciousness of Community Issues - To be able to know the important problems in our community

4. Management & Leadership Skills - To complete projects and be able to organize new projects and campaigns as necessary, and to guide different people to see the same end goal

5. Community Resource Sustainability - Know how to leverage existing resources and programs, and to properly manage and grow these resources

6. Peer Networking - To know and involve peers, to be comfortable in meeting new people, and to keep everyone aware of each other's efforts

7. Open-minded Coalition-building - To be able to work with non-Vietnamese communities, and to form useful alliances where working by ourselves is insufficient to get things done

8. Career-minded - To have a career in order to be a member of the community once you pass on the leadership torch onto someone else

9. Being a Mentor - To actually train the next leader to replace you.

Now, we knew that there was no organization that addressed all 9 points, and ones that do exist address several of these points to varying degrees. What do I mean by varying degrees? Well let's pick the skill of coalition-building. Some Vietnamese youths know how to build coalitions with other Vietnamese organizations. Some know how to build coalitions with Asian Pacific American organizations, or People of Color, or with mainstream organizations. How many Vietnamese youths do you know have built coalitions in all of these areas? I know a few who work with APA organizations and do not touch Vietnamese organizations with a ten-foot pole. I know those who work well in mainstream communities but have no experience in working with ethnic minorities. My philosophy is, even though it's not very feasible to master all areas, still, the more the merrier. Like the black belt who gains a higher rank over time, those who devote themselves to the mastery of leadership will become better in these things.

So what do we do if there's no organization to address all 9 points? Do we make another organization? Nah, that will take too long. We build a consortium, which is an association of organizations. I had to explain this concept to Tracy and Lily who were unfamiliar with this style of organizing. UVSA is can be thought of as a coalition of VSAs. Consortiums are coalitions, except that it's a type of coalition that exists for a very specific reason. It does not exist for the sake of unity, but for a very clear mission or need. In our case, the need is for Vietnamese Youth Leadership Development. I know several organizations that address some parts of Vietnamese youth leadership development, but these organizations are not running in sync with one another; everyone is doing their own thing hoping to grow and encompass all 9 areas someday. No, that's impossible; no organization will be able to grow and master all 9 areas. But a consortium can take the best of all worlds, and we can encourage youths to go through affiliated programs to learn a little bit of everything.

I'm entertaining the idea of organizing our next UVSA Summit around this theme and inviting community-based organizations to discuss this problem. It could coincide with our constituent mandate to organize a Parent Empowerment Workshop. I love feeding two birds with one bread (as opposed to killing two birds with one stone). Yes, I know my peers are making fun of me, pointing out that each bird gets less food. :-P