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After the Storm, Mr. Cao Goes to Washington  By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post
Sunday, December 14, 2008; B02
NEW ORLEANS
Each time I visit my home town, one more building has been repaired, another restaurant has reopened, another old friend has moved back. But when I was here in New Orleans last week, I saw signs of change -- actual signs around town -- in one place where they rarely appear: the heart of the Vietnamese enclaves tucked in the city and its suburbs.
At Three Happiness restaurant, where my family lingered over bo luc lac and fried bananas with honey, there was a stack of yellow flyers with Vietnamese writing urging residents to vote. On the highway, we saw bumper stickers bearing the slogan "Cao Now" rather than the more dubious "New Orleans: Proud to Crawl Home." And at the breakfast table, we talked about the powerful social and political forces that Anh "Joseph" Cao rode on Dec. 6 to become the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress.
The Vietnamese community in New Orleans and its suburbs has been a largely invisible minority in a city dominated by the racial politics of black and white. When I tell people that I'm from New Orleans, they picture the all-white krewe of Rex parading on Mardi Gras or remember Mayor C. Ray Nagin dubbing the city "chocolate" -- the only shades of New Orleans that many people recognize.
Cao notched an unlikely victory last week against Democratic political veteran Rep. William J. Jefferson, the man who won a ninth term in 2006 despite a 2005 FBI raid on his home that turned up $90,000 in his freezer. The novice politician's triumph has introduced the nation to another side of the Big Easy. He has also become a new symbol for the Republican Party -- House Minority Leader John Boehner reportedly sent out a memo that included the bad pun "The Future Is Cao" -- and delivers much-needed momentum, coming on the heels of Sen. Saxby Chambliss's runoff victory in Georgia earlier in the month.
But Cao's win is also the product of the rude political awakening in the Vietnamese community in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. For nearly three decades, we actively ignored politics. My parents, who immigrated in the 1970s, never voted, and I don't think anyone ever knocked on our door asking us to. They weren't even registered. My mother had a law degree in Vietnam, but she eschewed the profession, along with politics, once she arrived in the United States. She had seen how politics had ravaged her homeland, and like many Vietnamese immigrants, she wanted no part of it here. |
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Vietnamese Voters Share Special Tie With Mccain
[28/10/2008 - Vietnam Review]
 By Amy Taxin, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Westminster, California (AP).
Photo (KQN Images/Vietnam Review): Sen. John McCain at a rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, October 18. 2008.
John McCain's heroism during the Vietnam War and his efforts in Congress on behalf of Vietnamese refugees is being repaid in a small office wedged between a taekwondo studio and stock trading firm in the back of a strip mall.
The modest setting in the heart of the country's largest Vietnamese immigrant community is ground zero for efforts by Vietnamese-Americans to elect the Republican presidential candidate and, at the same time, increase their political influence.
The Little Saigon Outreach Center is the first presidential campaign office the California Republican Party has funded in this immigrant hub, state party spokesman Hector Barajas said. It's reflective of the reverence many in the Vietnamese community feel toward McCain.
Joan Le, 25, is a McCain volunteer who has been going door to door for the GOP nominee. The daughter of a South Vietnamese veteran who fought alongside Americans, Le left the communist nation with her family when she was 11. She's now a college student.   |
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Attorney Hopes To Become First Vietnamese In Congress
[05/12/2008 - Vietnam Review]
 Story highlights:
• Cao is running against Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson
• Jefferson faces bribery charges after $90,000 was found in his freezer
• Cao will need backing from African-American community to win election Saturday
(CNN) -- Anh "Joseph" Cao is hoping an election Saturday will make him the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress.
Anh "Joseph" Cao would be the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress if elected Saturday.
The 41-year-old Cao (pronounced Gow) is running in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District, which contains most of the city of New Orleans, against the indicted incumbent Democrat, Rep. William Jefferson.
Cao's main appeal is that he is a Republican alternative to the controversial Jefferson.
Jefferson, who has held the seat since 1991, is awaiting trial for allegedly stashing $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer. But so far, those allegations haven't kept Jefferson from seeking another term, or getting the most votes in last month's Democratic primary.
Cao, an immigration attorney who's married and has two daughters, is keenly aware of the fact that he was virtually unknown before this campaign began and has never held public office before. |
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Movie: The Leaves of Time
[17/03/2007 - Vietnam Review]
Posted by Danny Lee in Entertainment (Wednesday February 14, 2007 at 4:04 pm)
“Những Chiếc Lá Thời Gian - The Movie” retraces the steps of a Vietnamese immigrant on the bumpy road to success in America, through sweat and tears.
The cast includes first class Vietnamese actors: Quang Dũng, and Việt Trinh, with Miss Asia USA 2006 Jenny Phạm, as a special guest star. The movie is directed by Lê Cung Bắc (in Vietnam) and Bùi Quang Đạt (in the U.S.). Screenplay by Châu Thổ and Bùi Quang Đạt.
Nguyễn, the movie’s protagonist, leaves Vietnam for the U.S., with the promise to return after three years to marry his first love, Thủy. In America, Nguyễn finds himself in various difficult situations, due to his misunderstanding of the local culture and his limited language skills. Nguyễn juggles with several menial jobs trying to put aside some savings. |
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Buddhism in Vietnam
[02/06/2007 - Vietnam Review]
BS Trần Xuân Ninh
May 28, 2007
[TTVN: Ở dưới là bài trình bày của BS Trần Xuân Ninh tại Hội Nghị SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURE AND RELIGION (SSEASR) kỳ 2 tổ chức tại Bangkok, Thailand.]
It is not known exactly when Buddhism came to Vietnam. In his book Le Bouddhisme en annam des origines jusqu’au XIIIè siècle, believed to be from the 3rd century, Trần Văn Giáp asserts that Mâu Tử from China was the first person to preach Buddhism in Vietnam. Recent researchers maintain it is actually earlier (3 centuries BC), relying on stories of prehistoric heroines and personalities. As examples of Buddhism before the 3rd century, they cited Chử Đồng Tử the first Vietnamese Buddhist (under the 18th Hùng King), and assumed that Vietnam had a well-developed sangha by the time of Princess Bát Nàn and general Thiếu Hoa, heroines fighting under the Trung sisters against the Han armed forces in 39 BC. After the feat, Bát Nàn became a nun at Tien La pagoda; Thiếu Hoa was a nun before joining the Trung sisters. They also pointed to some pagodas like Lien Trì, which was built in the Hung Vuong era before 258 BC, and Truc Vien in Saison, Son Tay (100 BC). According to these researchers, Buddhism came to Vietnam directly from India and Mâu Tử (160-230) and Khương Tăng Hội (200-280), believed to be the first Buddhist preachers in Vietnam, actually studied Buddhism from Vietnam and went back to preach in China. They also based their theory on the word “bụt” Vietnamese used to call Buddha, while Phật is the Chinese word used by Huyen Trang in the 7th century translating Buddhist sutras. |
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Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double of Pham Xuan An
[20/09/2007 - Vietnam Review]
By Larry Berman
New York, HarperCollins, 2007
More than a secret agent, a reporter, a Communist, he was a friend to many people, a true internationalist and humanitarian. Historian Larry Berman's latest book, Perfect Spy, is a biography of Vietnam's greatest undercover operative, Pham Xuan An, multiply awarded as a hero of his country. It is the tale of a complicated man who risked his life to both save his country from foreign invasion and to save the lives of many people on both sides of the war.
Pham Xuan An joined the Communist Party in the 1940s because he believed in the Party's anti-imperialist ideals and its goal of uniting the country under a sovereign power. Because An enjoyed American culture, could speak English, and made friends with a number of prominent Americans, the leadership of the independence forces centered in the Communist Party approached him about taking on a special mission. |
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Accountability and Inequality in Single-Party Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam and China
[04/06/2008 - Vietnam Review]
Published: June 4, 2008
Paper Released: May 2008
Authors: Regina Abrami, Edmund Malesky, and Yu Zheng
Executive Summary:
While both China and Vietnam have experienced rapid annual growth over the past two decades, income inequality has risen more rapidly in China than in Vietnam during the same period. Structural and socio-cultural determinants fail to account for these divergent paths, as nearly every variable predicts higher inequality in Vietnam. This paper by Regina Abrami and colleagues focuses on differences in political institutions to explain these divergent paths. In so doing, it contributes to a growing body of literature describing variation in authoritarian regimes, but focuses on variation within one authoritarian regime type. Key concepts include:
Compared with China, Vietnam's institutions empower a larger group of insiders and place far more constraints on the party leadership, both through vertical checks and through semi-competitive elections. As a result, Vietnamese economic policies must consider a larger cross section of society. |
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National Geographic Traveler: Vietnam
[19/09/2007 - Vietnam Review]
Source: Barnes & Noble
Product Details
ISBN: 0792262034
ISBN-13: 9780792262039
Format: Paperback, 272pp
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Sales Rank: 58,590
Series: National Geographic Traveler Series
From the Publisher
This authoritative guide to all the major sights you'll want to see in Vietnam-and many lesser known surprises as well-leads readers from the ancient capital of Hanoi, a lovely city of parks and lakes, to the now-silent battlefields where first France and then America met defeat, to booming Ho Chi Minh City (once Saigon) and the steamy waterworld of the Mekong Delta.
Northern highlights include magnificent coastlines and tiny villages tucked away in the mountainous jungle. North-Central Vietnam echoes with wartime memories, evoked by a visit to Vietnamese tunnels or a drive along the DMZ. Historic Hue offers a centuries-old citadel and the fabled Nguyen tombs; farther south, the Central Highlands boast national parks like Cat Tien, home to rhinoceros, crocodiles, and many species of monkeys. Ho Chi Minh City offers urban sophistication: skyscraping hotels, boutiques full of Western-style goods- and the sobering Museum of Ho Chi Minh City and Reunification Palace commemorating the North's victory in 1975. |
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Obama Praised 'Searing and Timely' Book by Ayers
[22/10/2008 - Vietnam Review]
 FoxNews
October 20, 2008
Barack Obama once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by former domestic terrorist William Ayers and was mentioned by name in the book itself.
Barack Obama, who has consistently downplayed his relationship with William Ayers during his presidential campaign, once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by the former domestic terrorist and was mentioned by name in the book itself.
A blogger unearthed the Dec. 21, 1997, endorsement in the Chicago Tribune and posted photographs of the praise for Ayers' book on Zombietime.com Saturday.
Featured next to a smiling photograph of himself, then-State Senator Obama called Ayers' book, "A Kind and Just Parent: Children of the Juvenile Court," a "searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair."
The book, which details life at the Chicago Juvenile Court prison school, mentions Obama by name on page 82 when it describes Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood: |
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Vietnam: Critical Blogger Given 30 Months in Prison
[14/09/2008 - Vietnam Review]
DPA
New York, September 11, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns a Vietnamese court decision on Wednesday to imprison blogger Nguyen Van Hai, better known by his penname Dieu Cay, on charges of tax evasion.
The court in Ho Chi Minh City, in southern Vietnam, convicted Hai, 55, in a closed-door trial, sentencing him to 30 months in prison, according to news reports. He was first arrested on April 19 and held in detention for five days before authorities brought charges against him.
Hai was not allowed family visits during his five-month detention before the trial and he was not allowed to choose his own defense team, according to the Web site of the Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), an exiled pro-democracy political party. |
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