Once in a while tigers make international news, like the white tiger in Las Vegas that mauled illusionist Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, or the one that killed a teenager at the San Francisco Zoo. Most of the time, though, the news is about tigers being eaten by man.

The latest involves a restaurateur in Hanoi arrested for selling tiger meat. She has been arrested before and served time in jail, but the trade proves too lucrative – $1,000 per 100 grams of tiger meat — to give up, especially now that there are but a few tigers left in the wild. For poachers a tiger could fetch as much as $10,000, and its meat, organs, bones, and skin are sold in restaurants and specialty shops for 10 times the price. As the tiger population dwindles, demand for tiger is at an all-time high.

Indeed, if there is a cultural matrix in East Asia, it is the longing for what the Chinese call Ye-Wei, or “wild taste.” A decade ago, I visited Vietnam’s border with China at Lang Son. I watched as hundreds of Vietnamese carried baskets of monkeys, pangolins, snakes, and a variety of exotic birds in rattan cages. On the way back, their baskets held electric fans, water pumps, rice cookers, farm tools, TVs, VCRs, jeans and T-shirts. As one young man put it, “I can always sell forest animals to China. They buy everything we have. They have a big appetite for wild taste.”

The once ferocious tiger has been reduced to a mere commodity, to be farmed and poached, collected for its parts, and made into balms, pills, soaked in wine. Statistics on the amount of wildlife being eaten are not known, but there are some local guesses. The China Wildlife Conservation Association estimates that in Guangdong province alone, 50 tons of wild frogs, 1,000 tons of snakes, and several thousand tons of wild birds are consumed in stores and restaurants each year, not to mention badgers, bats and other mammals.

It certainly isn’t practical, but neither are our eating habits. According to Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, an acre of land can feed 10 to 100 times more people through farming than through hunting and gathering. Wild animals that haven’t already been tamed thousands of years ago, Diamond noted, will not be tamed now, because of their relatively low nutritional value compared to the time and resources necessary for domestication.

Ye-Wei is therefore a culture of nostalgia, a way of life born of necessity long ago that is taking on renewed vigor in a modern, materialistic East Asia. Viagra, after all, works better than tiger penis, but if you can afford a tiger penis you are the king of the modern jungle. Those monkeys sitting on the Vietnamese porters’ backs are there because a growing army of nouveaux riches with disposable income want them. A pound of civet cat sells for around $12, or 10 percent of an average worker’s monthly salary; monkey meat brings four times more. In Vietnam, nearly three out of four tigers are killed for Chinese medicinal purposes. A poached tiger therefore can save a poor farmer and his family from a life of destitution.

Once the tiger hunted man. Now it has become high-end gourmet food. As it is, there are far more tigers now living in parks and zoos and farms than in the wild, where fewer than 5,000 Siberian tigers live in the northern steppe and some 4,500 Bengal tigers live in the wilderness of South Asia. The captive population of 12,000 tigers in the United States is estimated to rival that of those that still live in the wild.

We burden wild animals with anthropomorphic fantasies, and slay them because we covet or fear what we think they represent. The lion is courageous, the snake is evil, the owl wise, the fox cunning and the tiger — the tiger, above all — is majestic, elegant, full of prowess and grace. It inspires awe.

Alas, the tiger’s grip on our imagination is also the force that drives it toward its own extinction.

Image by Shutterstock

“I’m afraid of dying.  It feels like I don’t have much time.  I’m afraid of dying mainly cause I’m afraid of what I’m leaving behind.”

These are the words of 23-year old Chinese American, Janet Liang, who recently uploaded a video on YouTube pleading for her audience to help save her life.  She has two months to live and find a bone marrow match.

About Janet
Janet was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), while attending at UCLA in August 2009.  She underwent 8 rounds of chemotherapy  within a year. In June 2010, she left the hospital in complete remission and began post-chemo therapy that kept her cancer-free for a year and a half.

During her healthy period, Janet finished her studies as an Education Major at UCLA and focused her passion in promoting hope and healing to other young adult cancer patients through recreational and outdoor adventures.

Unfortunately, Janet has recently relapsed with leukemia, triggering her cancer cells to become more aggressive than before.  As a result, doctors told Janet that she has only two months to live.

On January 21, 2012, Janet uploaded a video blog pleading her viewers for help.  “I need you to help me find someone out there who can save my life,” cried Janet.  “I have this April to find a match.”

In response to Janet’s video,  I uploaded a video on YouTube the following day in an attempt to spread the word about Janet’s condition.  My goal was to get people actively involved.

Three days later, Janet’s personal video was posted on Reddit–generating over 200,000 views.  The video caught many YouTube celebrities’ attentions, such as Wong Fu Productions, America’s Best Dance Crew member Victor Kim, and musicians David Choi, Kinna Grannis, and Far East Movement.  All these YouTube celebrities took to many social media outlets in hopes of spreading awareness of Janet’s conditions.  As a result, social media serves as Janet’s last hope of finding her a match.

As for me, the truth is I have never met Janet face to face.  I have however been following her on her blog before her video went viral.  As a result, the connection that both Janet and I have lies in our shared circumstances.  For instance, both Janet and I are students of the University California system.  We both have younger brothers who attend UC Davis.  We’re both from the Bay Area.  Janet is a writer and so am I.  We both take interest in humanitarian work.  And most importantly, both Janet and I are active in the Asian American community.

As a result, Janet’s video was profoundly powerful and it inspired me to spend my last quarter at UC Davis organizing the largest Bone Marrow Drive we’ve had at the campus to date.

Since last week,  I was able to contact the Asian American Donor Program (AADP), National Public Radio, and many other media stations in NorCal.  I have also coordinated with many Asian American clubs on our campus in hoping to get more Asian American to register for the bone marrow drive.  But the highlight of my week was when someone contacted me from Connecticut, willing to donate $10,000 to the drive as long as I continue to lead more future bone marrow drives around the area.

In my journey to find Janet a match, I have met many wonderful friends who shared the same desire and compassion of spreading the awareness.  It was the power of social media that helped mobilize Janet’s cause.

So Janet, first and foremost I want to thank you for being such an inspiration to many of us out here.  You taught me so much within a short amount of time.  I admire your ability to stay positive through these tough times, your wisdom, and most importantly your compassion.  I understand that your goal is to become a teacher one day.  I’m sure that day has already happened.  You taught me more than any lecture, textbook, or professor can ever teach me within the course of one week.  So thank you.

Finally, I want to end this article by urging everyone to please visit your local Bone Marrow Drive and register (especially if you’re Asian American).  All it takes is a cotton swab to the mouth to determine whether you’re a potential donor for someone like Janet.  It’s free, painless, and only 10 minutes of your time.

Visit here for local donation drive in Northern California. 

According to a recent survey by Vietnam News, “bribery at leading hospitals is an unfortunate consequence of high demand and insufficient resources.” Public hospitals are often overcrowded, while patients’ doubts about quality of services by rural providers are increasing. By slipping money-filled envelopes to doctors as well as other staff members, patients are able to skip in front of long lines, receive test results quicker, be scheduled for early surgery, or simply obtain medical advice from the health staff. This has become such an expected norm that patients do not feel comfortable  that they are receiving the utmost care unless they pass envelopes to all providers involved. For instance, in the same Vietnam News survey, one of the respondents recounted the story of her friend as follows:

A friend of mine tried to bribe a doctor just to feel safe about her treatment. When the doctor refused the money, she thought that the money might be not enough and tried to give him more. After getting a second refusal from the doctor, she felt so insecure about the treatment that she decided to switch to another hospital.

While the doctor in this story should be given credit for not accepting bribes, notice that it is the patient in the story who is propagating this unofficial practice. This could suggest that the general population may not be aware of the significance of what they are propagating. However, current data shows otherwise. According to the Vietnam Youth Integrity Survey, “although young people say they understand integrity and the negative impact of corruption, when faced with corruption in their daily lives a significant number are ready to compromise their values [...] 45% consider it acceptable to bribe their way to better hospital treatment.” It seems as though bribery has been ingrained into patients’ minds. This can be seen especially amongst Vietnamese who have recently immigrated to the United States. These new immigrants often attempt to slip envelopes to receptionists and medical assistants in the hopes of being scheduled at desired times or being able to skip the process of obtaining prior authorizations from insurance companies. (The author of this article is stating this based on its occurrence in her clinics.)

Clearly, bribery in healthcare settings should be looked down upon and deterred. Are there steps being taken? The good news is yes.

Bribery in hospitals has became such a significant issue that the Vietnamese government has began to implement a new regulation where those who bribe and those who receive bribes will be fined $730-$970 per incident. Nonetheless, there are no laws specifying the difference between bribing and showing gratitude, so patients are still presenting “thank you” envelopes to medical staff.

Another method that may be more effective and lasting would be to increase the number of hospitals and qualified medical providers in rural areas. This would alleviate the current trend of overcrowded hospitals and hence the need for patients to bribe in order to jump in front of long lines. Paired with this solution must also be long-term efforts to rebuild the trust of patients in rural doctors and in receiving quality care without feeling the need to bribe.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been living and working at Pacific Links’ reintegration shelter for trafficking survivors in northern Vietnam. There are twelve girls, ages thirteen to twenty-two, from five different minority ethnicities, currently residing there. When I boarded the flight back to Saigon, my legs were scarred with flea bites from the rural visits, my bags were heavy with miniature pineapples and northern plums, and I was weighted with stories, these girls’ stories whose wings I can feel urgently fluttering against my ribcage, trying to find their way out.

A path to stone corn to her house.

In northern Vietnam, about an hour’s drive from Lao Cai and a steep fifteen minute walk along dense rows of stone corn and narrow ledges of rice paddies, lives a Hmong girl. She is thirteen, which is old enough to have worked in the fields since her first memory, old enough to be snatched off for marriage, old enough to be sold with her mother and two sisters to China.

There are details about those four months spent in China that she will have to relive and retell over and over. These are the answers that she will have to recount to the police, the immigration officials, the social workers, the researchers, and to story seekers like myself.

I was born in the year of the mouse.

In my family, I have my mom and dad, two sisters and two brothers and a nephew we’re caring for since his mother was sold last year to China.

My uncle invited my mom and sisters to a holiday and he promised to pay for everything. So we went with him by car, and then by boat, and then again by car once we arrived in China.

I knew that we had been sold when my uncle took the money and the two men who had taken us by boat said that we could no longer go home.

I lived with my mom and younger sister for two months, then I was sold for 12,000 yuan  ($856 USD) to become the wife to a thirty-year-old man. The family cursed at me frequently in Chinese, but I could understand, even if I didn’t know all the words. They tried to force me to learn Chinese, but I would resist; I would purposefully not listen or pay attention. They told me that they couldn’t afford to pay for a wedding with a Chinese woman for their son, so they bought a Vietnamese girl instead. I went to work with them in the fields and did housework. My older sister lived nearby, since she had been sold to another man in the same neighborhood, and we would call each other as often as we could and cry together.

After four months there, I escaped with my older sister and we hired a taxi to take us to the police station, lying to the driver that we had to fill out some paperwork there, because we were afraid he would bring us back to our husbands if he knew we were running away. We spent a total of two days at the border police station, two weeks at the Vietnam migration shelter, and then we were home for 4 days before we arrivedat the Pacific Links reintegration shelter.

Then there are the details that she is not asked about, those memories that don’t make it into the notebooks of policemen or policy research interviewers.

I have fond memories of New Year’s day, when my dad would celebrate by buying a few cans of soda to place on the altar, and after the spirits had drunk, we could bring them down and drink them.

My parents bought my first pair of shoes for school, little plastic ones that cost 5000 dong (25 cents US) and I’d walk barefoot to school, then put the shoes on, and then after school, I’d walk back home barefoot. I was so afraid of wearing down those shoes.

She washes chopsticks in preparation for lunch during our visit, her white plastic shoes in the background.shoes on, and then after school, I’d walk back home barefoot. I was so afraid of wearing down those shoes.

I had a baby chick when I was young, but one day it was hopping around the house, crying -chirp chirp chirp- and my sister, who was sweeping the dirt floor, became irritated at the noise, and so she brushed it out into the field and it died. It was so small. I cried and cried.

When I was supposed to be tending to the water buffalos after school, if my parents weren’t around, I would shape the damp red earth into figurines, and pretend that my clay was a princess who lived in a castle, and I could do this for hours -meanwhile having to slap away the fleas that landed thick and dark on my legs- and if my sisters were with me, then my princess could go visit their princess in their castle.

In China, the family would turn off the television at 11pm, and I would go upstairs to my bed and sit there, awake, still, until 3 or 4 in the morning. I would think about how to escape. I would think about killing myself. Sometimes I just thought. I would ask my sister, when life and death are the same misery, then what’s the difference? But I once overheard the family talking about a dumb girl who escaped back to Vietnam, and I thought, if she’s a stupid girl and she managed to run away, then how ridiculous would it be if I couldn’t? And after that I stopped thinking about suicide and only thought of how to escape.

She is now planning on finishing her schooling while at the shelter. When asked what she wants to study, she says, anything. Everything. She is so clever that you believe her, you think everything is truly possible for her if she should want it. Her laughter is open, wide, infectiously bright, so deep that you can’t imagine her sadness.

She says, I dream of one day owning a house with two stories. Of having a lot of money so I can buy whatever I want. Of going swimming in the ocean.

Anything else?

She looks down, and then she says, softly, I dream that one day I’ll forget.

And then she begins to cry, this vibrant, shining girl who has, for the first time since you’ve met her, stopped smiling. You wrap her in a hug and you hold her for several minutes while she cries, although you can’t tell who’s crying harder.

And in a while, she’ll dry her eyes and you’ll say something to make her smile, and when she does, her wide, deep laugh bright as morning in the room, you’ll see how her laughter is fierce with courage and resistance and light.

But for now, you let her cry, her thin shoulders against your arms.

There is a thirteen-year-old Hmong girl you now know, and whose story you will tell to others, who laughs all the time, who cried over baby chicks and refused to learn Chinese, and who dreams of one day forgetting.

She took this photo while holding my bulky camera in one hand and the baby bird in her other outstretched, cupped hand.

Pacific Links Foundation is leading the counter-trafficking efforts at the borders of Vietnam by providing shelter and reintegration services, increasing access to education, and enabling new economic opportunities.

Help us stop human trafficking. Get involved. Spread the word. Support Pacific Links Foundation.

A few years ago, my father, a former naval officer in the South Vietnamese Army, developed liver cancer. The diagnosis followed decades of struggle with Hepatitis C, a viral infection he contracted through a blood transfusion during the war. A liver transplant saved his life.

More than two years since the operation, and my father’s life has been transformed from a state of “wait and see” to near normalcy, except for a daily regimen of dozens of pills. But, for Vietnamese Americans there is another legacy of the war that, like a sleeping dragon, may be starting to awaken: The possible health effects of exposure to wartime Agent Orange.

American forces sprayed 19 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides during the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1971, mostly in South Vietnam, to deny North Vietnamese soldiers cover in the country’s dense forests and jungles. Agent Orange was contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic chemical that is persistent in human tissues and the environment.

That wartime spraying has been devastating to American veterans who came into contact with the defoliant and then developed any number of a long list of illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences have linked Agent Orange/dioxin exposure to a slew of health conditions, including prostate, lung and other cancers, Parkinson’s disease and leukemia, and birth defects in the children of veterans, such as spina bifida. Many of the symptoms are only just showing up now in soldiers who served and were exposed.

But the numerous studies on American veterans of the war stand in stark contrast to what little is known about the health effects of dioxin in Vietnamese living in the United States – whether they were born here or are former residents of South Vietnam.

According to a study published in the journal Nature by Columbia University professor emeritus Jeanne Stellman, as many as 4.8 million Vietnamese civilians were exposed to the chemicals during the war. The collapse of the government of South Vietnam brought an exodus of Vietnamese to the United States, with more than 125,000 refugees resettling here after 1975. The country’s Vietnamese population now stands at more than 1.6 million, according to the last census count.

Among that group are former South Vietnamese veterans, who do not receive VA benefits, so their health status is not being tracked. The federal government has yet to conduct large-scale epidemiological studies of U.S. Vietnam veterans, and has not funded studies on their South Vietnamese counterparts.

Additionally, ARVN forces were not part of a 1985 out-of-court settlement with the chemical makers totaling $180 million. Much of that money dried up before thousands of American veterans started to become sick from Agent Orange-related illnesses. Now, as the legal and medical battles move to the children and grandchildren of Vietnam vets who are also suffering the long-term effects of the chemical war agent, Vietnamese Americans continue to be overlooked.

Sailing up and down rivers in Binh Duong province in southern Vietnam during the war, my father says he didn’t handle Agent Orange. But he does recalled seeing charred vegetation along the riverbanks, and said he knew it had been sprayed there. He says he doesn’t believe he was exposed, as he was mainly on the vessel and drank from the boat’s water supply.

But studies show the defoliant was sprayed on about 10 to 15 percent of South Vietnam in certain locations, with little spraying in urban areas. From Saigon, my father says areas outside of the city were sprayed. One in particular, Bien Hoa, just 32 kilometers north of Saigon, is a dioxin “hotspot.”

Bien Hoa is home to a former U.S. air base used for Agent Orange-spraying missions. A large spill of the herbicide occurred underground there, and the area is still contaminated. A study from 2003 found that residents were still exposed to dioxin through animal fat, from eating fish, chickens and ducks and other tainted wildlife.

Bien Hoa residents also had higher dioxin levels than their counterparts in the North, where there was no spraying, and one resident of the city was found to have the highest level of dioxin ever recorded in the country. But while their children also showed elevated dioxin levels, these studies did not address long-term health effects.

Arnold Schecter, a professor of environmental sciences at the Univ. of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas and a leading researcher on dioxin exposure in the Vietnamese American community, said no one has conducted measures of dioxin exposure levels in the population.

Political Sensitivities

Vietnamese immigrants in the United States are largely from South Vietnam, which fell to the communists in 1975. As such, many here do not want to do or say anything that gives credence to Hanoi’s claims about the health effects of Agent Orange, part of a massive campaign to win compensation for victims of the defoliant. [A lawsuit brought by Vietnam against the chemical makers in federal court in New York was dismissed in 2005, and subsequent appeals have failed.]

Yet the lack of health studies for this group comes at a time when the symptoms of wartime exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin could be surfacing.

According to a Chicago Tribune investigation, “Service-related disability payments to Vietnam veterans have surged 60 percent since 2003, reaching $13.7 billion last year, and now account for more than half of such payments the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides to veterans of all wars.” The spike in disability claims suggests that the “long dormant effects of Agent Orange [are beginning] to surface,” according to the article.

For Vietnamese immigrants in the United States, who may have had a history of toxic exposure, it is critical to have this basic and baseline public health data, especially as many go on to work in jobs here, such as nail salons and dry cleaning shops, where they are exposed to additional harmful chemicals.

Growing up, my siblings and I never knew what my father saw or did on the battlefield, what he felt when he loaded his mother, brothers and sisters, his wife and his nine-month-old daughter, and others onto a ship that he then commandeered to Subic Bay, Philippines on April 30, 1975 – the day Saigon fell. We are just starting to have those conversations.

Now, with both my parents aging, the legacy of the war is both a distant memory and a palpable reality, sometimes extending its fingers into our lives.

Ngoc Nguyen is environmental health editor and reporter for New America Media, a national nonprofit news service for ethnic media. She is reporting on the health impacts of Agent Orange/dioxin on the Vietnamese American community through a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Contact her at nnguyen@newamericamedia.org.

APIASF ANNOUNCES APPLICATION FOR 2012-2013 SCHOLARSHIP CYCLE

Scholarship Program Helps to Increase Success and Degree Attainment

Among Underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander Students

Washington, D.C., October 6, 2011-The Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), the nation’s largest nonprofit organization devoted to providing college scholarships for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), announced today that it is accepting applications for the 2012-2013 scholarship cycle. Scholarships will provide the critical scholarship support that many AAPI students need to pursue higher education and access to APIASF’s programs and services. During the 2011 – 2012 scholarship cycle, APIASF awarded more than $1.2 million to over 500 students in 43 states and students in the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and American Samoa. APIASF also welcomed its new cohort of Gates Millennium Scholars who hailed from across the country and Pacific Islands.

According to a 2010 report produced through a partnership between APIASF and the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE), there are many ethnicities within the AAPI community that have been traditionally underserved with lower than average educational attainment rates. Additionally, many are experiencing rates of poverty higher than the national average with some ranking among the lowest in the nation. The APIASF scholarship program helps address this critical need by providing direct scholarship support to hundreds of AAPI students from across the country, the U.S. Territories, and the Freely Associated States.

“There is a significant need within the AAPI community for organizations like APIASF that can provide the financial resources that students need to access higher education, the programmatic support to help them navigate the system, and the leadership development opportunities to help them successfully transition into their careers,” said APIASF President & Executive Director Neil Horikoshi. “Our goal is to see that all AAPI students have access to higher education and resources that cultivate their academic, personal and professional success regardless of their ethnicity, national origin or financial means.”

Since 2003, APIASF has provided a critical bridge to higher education by distributing more than $50 million in scholarships to deserving AAPI students through our two scholarship programs. In addition to the APIASF scholarship program, APIASF manages the Gates Millennium Scholars/Asian Pacific Islander Americans funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For details about APIASF’s scholarship programs or to apply, visit APIASF’s Web site atwww.apiasf.org. Also, follow APIASF on Facebook (www.facebook.com/apiasf) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/apiasf). Applications are due on January 13, 2012.

About APIASF

Based in Washington, D.C., the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) is the nation’s largest non-profit organization devoted solely to providing college scholarships for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Since 2003, APIASF has provided a critical bridge to higher education for APIA students across the country by distributing more than $50 million in scholarships to students. APIASF manages two scholarship programs: APIASF’s general scholarship and the Gates Millennium Scholars/Asian Pacific Islander Americans funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Cover photo from the APIASF Facebook

As such, here is a brief look at the older Vietnamese population. According to HelpAge International, approximately 10% of the Vietnamese population is at least 60 years of age, and 66% of those over 80 are women. By 2030, older adults are expected to compose over 16% of Vietnam’s population. Nearly two-thirds of these senior citizens currently live in three-generation households. This fact probably does not come as a surprise, since familial interactions are highly valued amongst Vietnamese. However, what may come as a surprise is that 43% of women and 58% of men over 70 are still part of the workforce. As a matter of fact, they are averaging about 32 hours of work per week in order to be able to help with their households’ finances instead of simply caring for grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Moreover, even though they are still economically-active, only 5% of Vietnam’s elders are healthy enough to be working.  Various surveys reveal that 95% of seniors have some type of chronic disease, such as the 54% with musculoskeletal problems and 46% with respiratory difficulties. This have led to healthcare becoming one of the key targets for the National Program for the Elderly 2011-2015. So far, some of the activities that have been initiated to address elders’ health include, teaching older farmers about blood pressure conditions, diabetes, and heart disease. There is also a program where volunteer health providers travel to rural areas to provide examinations. Unfortunately, funding as well as human resources are limited.

Thus, as both HelpAge International and the Vietnam Association of the Elderly would respond: it’s time to pay more attention to the elderly!

***

NAM EDITOR’S NOTE: Shortly after September 11, 2001, New America Media editor and author Andrew Lam received a letter from his cousin in Vietnam, posing a simple question: Is coming to America still worth the journey?  Following is Lam’s response.  This letter, originally published by Pacific News Service in 2001, has been updated by Lam, who reflects on his cousin’s question, ten years later.

Dear Cousin D.,

Is coming to America Still Worth the journey? Since 911, your question has sprung from many corners of the world, and the answers may trouble the hearts of those who once dreamed of the grandeur of America.

In a way the dust cloud from the destroyed World Trade Center a decade ago hasn’t fully settled. It continues to veil our nation’s once blue and gracious sky. To live in America these days, I’m sad to say, is to accept a new set of norms.

First and foremost is the erosion of civil liberties. Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants who toil on our land has become the new norm, and those without proper papers get swept up in wide sweeping government dragnets, and many sent to detention centers to await deportation. Never mind that they leave husbands, wives, and children behind who lead shattered lives.

Documented immigrants too face unfair treatments. Those who were found guilty of a crime – sometimes a misdemeanor offense – could render you eligible for deportation. A classic case: A construction worker peeing in the street was arrested for indecent exposure. He was sent back to Cambodia, a country he has no memories of since he fled as a little boy. He left behind a wife and several children in the United States.

But the erosion of rights is not limited only to immigrants; it extends to all citizens as well. It erodes slowly but surely at the core. Nowhere is this more obvious than at American airports, where talk of dissent, even in a casual conversation, might likely cause you to be reported. Arrests happen when someone or another mentions the word bomb, even as a joke. Even an accent can land you in jail: A South Asian man was arrested for allegedly making a terrorist threat at Chicago O’Hare airport. What did he do? He purportedly said the word “pump” to the TSA agent who heard it as “bomb.”

My real fear, however, is that it’s the country itself that has become a kind of mega-airport. With the extension of the so called Patriot Act, the U.S. government can probe deeply into private lives, as this new law gives the FBI power to obtain records without a warrant, wiretapping anyone it deems a suspect, an act that overrides the constitutional rights of citizens. In such a new America, one checks one’s tongue, one checks up on one’s neighbor, and one’s neighbor does the same.

While America once stood for freedom and democracy, it is not clear what the nation stands for these days. Abroad, two wars are being waged in the name of security but at home, that insecurity defines the general mood of the populace. In the last decades, we have condoned torture in the form of waterboarding, and we kidnap foreign citizens and call it “extraordinary rendition.”  We assassinate our enemies by using drones in the sky, and we call the killing of innocents who are caught in all of this war against terrorism “collateral damage.” It is yet another new norm – a bitter pill – that we learned to swallow.

The country is willing to override law in the name of security, and nowhere is this more atrocious than the holding of suspects at Guantanamo. These people, some who were as young as 14 when caught, remain indefinitely incarcerated, their human rights robbed without due process. These days, I fear that to be a patriotic immigrant is to love the ideals of America despite what the United States is doing in the name of patriotism and security.

And as far as I am concerned the only good patriotism is a civilized one. Blind patriotism always leads to a bloody end, and an unchecked government that functions behind a veil of secrecy should never be tolerated. For when a society hides behind the apparatus of draconian policy, one that has no check and balance, the only logical outcome is injustice and cruelty.

So is coming to America still worth the journey, you ask? Not so long ago, who would have thought to ask such a question? Once, the American Dream, or rather, the dreaming of coming to America, was like a siren’s call that caused the movement of millions from many an ancient homeland and stirred the souls of many millions more.

Alas, to reach the American shore these days is a much more difficult undertaking, with fewer ready-made promises at the horizon. People are still coming, albeit at the threat of deportation and false arrests. They come, in spite of everything, because their willpower is made of fire and steel.

You who dream of the ideal of America, you should come. The America that once inspired millions can still live on in the eye of the newcomer. And the ideals remain; those that we all aspire to, everything you and I have ever dreamed of — transparency, opportunity, due process, fair play and a promise of expansion and progress. America is where you work hard and earn respect, build a home and raise your kids, and where, with determination and a clear vision, you can rise to your highest potential. America tolerates difference, understands diversity and assumes you are innocent before proven guilty. America allows you to practice your religion, protects your privacy and encourages you to dream. It is a place where you can speak your mind and disagree with your neighbors, your politicians, even your government, without fearing violence or arrest.

So my answer: I still want you to make this difficult journey, but you must be prepared for the challenges ahead. And I’ll let you in on a secret about this American Dream you spoke so fondly of: It is you who renews it. Without you, who dreams the American dream, the country is in danger of becoming old and senile. Without your energy, we would weaken. Even if we don’t know it yet, we all desperately need to be reborn through your eyes.

Andrew Lam is author of “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora” and “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.” His collection of short stories, “Birds of Paradise” is forthcoming.

Front page image by AP Photo

“I chose to compete in the Miss National US Incorporated system because of the emphasis the organization places on service and scholarship. Next year, MNUS is teaming up with United Way. Their values are consistent with mine: creating social change, improving education, and promoting healthcare,” stated Ms. Banh.

Ms. Banh, who is currently pursuing a career in medicine, ran on the platform: American Red Cross – Community Disaster Education and First Aid.  One of the activities she engages in based on this platform was presenting lessons on emergency action steps, poisoning, caring for heat-related emergencies, choking, and wrapping a wound to approximately 400 middle school students.  Ms. Banh also spoke at a multitude of events to raise awareness and funds for the American Cancer Society’s cancer research initiative.  Her community involvement also includes guest appearing at Doodle Day for Neurofibromatosis at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.  She has prepared food in a prep kitchen and served meals to the homeless.  Moreover, she is a lifelong member of campaigns against Hepatitis B, a disease prevalent amongst the Asian American community.

“I have yet to compete in a Vietnamese American or Asian American pageant, but I would be lying if I said that my culture and heritage wasn’t largely responsible for the success that I’ve had in pageantry so far. My mom made it a point to teach me culture competency at a young age by taking me on trips to Vietnam. Knowing how to interact with people from different walks of life has been such a powerful tool to connect with people at my Miss California National US appearances,” shared Ms. Banh.

Whether or not Ms. Banh will compete in a cultural pageant is uncertain.  Nonetheless, Ms. Banh no doubt is a role model for young Vietnamese American women.  She clearly embraces the four traditional values of “Cong, Dung, Ngon, Hanh” (“Hardworking, Beautiful, Well-Spoken, Well-Behaved”).  Using her title as a soapbox, Ms. Banh will be continuing her work for community disaster education and first aid with the American Red Cross.  She will be making appearances and delivering speeches at charity events throughout California.  Yet, even though she is using her title to more easily get involved with major healthcare organizations, Ms. Banh does not flaunt her crowns at charity functions.

“To be honest, I rarely ever wear my crown at charity functions. It’s gorgeously designed and definitely an eye-catcher, but I like to run around and ‘get my hands dirty,’ if you will, when I’m volunteering. At public speaking events, I want to make sure my audience is listening to what I have to say and not being distracted by the jewels on my head. Don’t get me wrong though. I am absolutely proud to be able to wear it and I am so thankful for all the opportunities I’ve been presented because of it.”

When her reign ends next year, Ms. Banh “will still feel as though I’ve made a lasting contribution to the causes that I will always care about.”

Participation in the World Breastfeeding Week is part of a larger effort by the Vietnamese government to improve the height, strength, and nutrition of Vietnamese children.  According to Thanh Nien News, the targeted average height is 1.67 meters and 1.56 meters for Vietnamese men and women, respectively, by the year 2020.  And according to the World Health Organization (WHO), adults who were breastfed as infants were more likely to have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, less risk of becoming overweight or obese, less risk of suffering from type-2 diabetes, and more successful in IQ and academic careers amongst other benefits.

Unfortunately, the trend in Vietnam over the past decade had not been moving towards the more beneficial direction.  Exclusive breastfeeding rates in Vietnam dropped from 34% in 1998 to a mere 19% in 2010.  The world average rate is about 35%.  And according to UNICEF, “bottle-feeding of [Vietnamese] infants is still very common and on the rise and early complementary feeding also remains a big problem with some 55% of young children being given complementary food before six months of age.”  This could be due to factors, such as mothers having to return to work shortly after giving birth, an unsupportive environment from society or even their own spouses, and/or aggressive advertising campaigns from formula milk companies.

Hopefully, the attendees of the breastfeeding festivals will continue to raise awareness and spread the word on the importance of breastfeeding beyond the World Breastfeeding Week.