Tuesday, May 06, 2008
I was partially involved in this newly-found organization called VietWill that was co-founded by a bunch of Vietnamese UC Berkeley alumni. Its mission is to bring awareness to China’s aggression against Vietnam in plight of the Paracel and Spratly Islands (also known as the Hoang Sa/Truong Sa) controversy. In short, they are a collection of islands in the South China Sea that has been claimed by China, Vietnam, Taiwan as well as the Philippines. The dispute over the islands dates back as far as ancient times with the references to these islands in each countries’ respective history and culture (if you drive around in Saigon, you can even find two streets named Hoang Sa and Truong Sa in district 1). In a battle in 1974, China seized control of the south part of then-owned Paracel Island from Vietnam and did the same 1988 for 6 of the Spratly Island with many casualties on the Vietnamese side.
However, the controversy erupted last year with China making illegal claims on 80% of South China Sea, capturing Vietnamese fishermen, sinking their fishing boats, fining them $15,000 each, or sometimes even injuring or killing Vietnamese fishermen that have been making a living on the sea for their entire lives. These event sparked wide-spread demonstrations within the Vietnamese overseas community, but more importantly also from large groups in the Vietnamese youth community in Vietnam who cry out for the Vietnamese government’s complete lack of intervention in this issue.
So on April 9th, 2008, I find myself joining the VietWill group in front of AT&T park in San Francisco awaiting the torch relay from Beijing, passing out flyers, brochures and T-shirts to bring awareness to this issue and demand for a stop of China’s aggression against Vietnamese fishermen. While some of my Chinese friends disagreed with me on this aspect, I was also there to show my support for the people in Tibet and Burma. However, we were outnumbered by the sea of Chinese supporters that were brought in on buses from as far as Los Angeles. At any rate, the city of San Francisco pulled a prank on us and in a not-so-surprise move, when the torch relay was relocated to the other side of the city, easily avoiding the crowds of demonstrators as well as supporters. Nevertheless, I am glad that I participated in the event in San Francisco, and remind myself that I live in a region of the world where I can voice my opinion without fear of any retribution.
Fast forward to April 29th 2008 (last week to be exact). The Olympic torch relay is slated here for Vietnam in its final city before returning to China. A series of bloggers in Vietnam have called for a mass demonstration on this day, so I find myself in the streets of Saigon, Vietnam, roaming around with my camera near the sites of the planned demonstrations. With uniformed and plain-cloths police very well present in district 1, I was bit concerned whether my excuse of “just being a tourist here and happen to take pictures of demonstration” would sell, given my membership to Viet Tan, the detention and interrogation of three other Viet Tan members as well as the deportation out of Vietnam of another Vietnamese American protester who I met up in San Francisco. Unfortunately, after hours of waiting at the planned site in Saigon, the demonstration did not materialize here.
I found out afterwards, that 1000 miles away, some 150 people including democracy activists, aggrieved farmers and families of fishermen from Thanh Hoa province that were killed by the Chinese navy on the Eastern sea, gathered in front of Dong Xuan market in Hanoi protesting against Chinese aggression and invasion of the Spratly and Paracel islands. Only 15 minutes later, more than 300 security police rushed in to snatch slogans; tearing down banners; twisting arms and bashing people in the protest.
In the meantime, I make my way towards the torch relay opening ceremony site near the opera house and like in San Francisco, find myself vastly outnumbered by a sea of Chinese supporters. I tried initiating contacts with several of them, but they neither spoke English nor Vietnamese, making me question again whether these are locals or were flown in from China. I see Chinese organizers do the crowd control, as well as cheerleading. Knowing that I probably won’t find any demonstrations by Vietnamese locals in this area, I quickly drive back to my hotel to upload the pictures and videos captured so far, only to return to the ceremony site to just have missed the torch run by. Ah well, I wasn’t here for the torch itself anyways.
Looking back at these two events, I have several thoughts. To the supporters of the Olympics, I say that I respect your opinion, enthusiasm and support of the Olympics. It’s your right to voice your opinion as much as it is mine to point out that China’s bid to the Olympics a decade ago was made with promises of showing progress towards human rights. The Olympics was already politicized then. In San Francisco I was being yelled at by some extremist as “losers.” Frankly, when China forbids foreign reporters to report freely from Tibet (let alone even enter Tibet), or when anyone provides a militia made of children with weapons and support, we are all losers in this game.
However, what’s more interesting to note is that San Francisco and Saigon differed greatly in how it tolerated the demonstration. In San Francisco, demonstrations were planned in advance and highly-publicized, the freedom to voice your opinion was celebrated, and enthusiasm for the upcoming protests went high among community activists. Yet, in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government itself prohibited all demonstrations, and warned that any protest will be dealt with “harshly.” The demonstrators in Hanoi must have had a lot of courage to speak out—heck, I was concerned about my safety just taking pictures of policemen. A week prior the event, a prominent Vietnamese blogger calling for a protest was already put under house arrest and detained. Now, does the Vietnamese government stand for its people or for the Chinese?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Warning – the next paragraphs are a bit graphic, and I don’t recommend reading this if you are about to get Lasik eye surgery—you’ll be better off not reading this prior the operation.
So, I had my Lasik eye surgery done last Friday, and it was scary as hell. The operation itself was actually very short—I think the time between laying down on the operating table, and getting up was maybe like 8 minutes or so, but the fact that you are fully-wake and seeing every move the surgeon is doing to your eyes ain’t a pleasant experience.
For those who don’t know, during Lasik eye surgery the ophthalmologist is cutting into your cornea to create a thin flap, then opens up the flap, and shoots a Laser beam into your eye to evaporate some tissue which results in a reforming corneal stroma. The flap is then repositioned by the surgeon and off you go seeing clearer due to the reformed cornea.
Well, the laser part of this operation isn’t a problem. It’s really just like someone shining a light into your eye, and the process was only 10 seconds per eye anyways. However, it’s the process of cutting your cornea and repositioning the flap that is very uncomfortable and downright scary.
First, the surgeon attaches a clamp to your eye that holds your eye lids to prevent you from closing your eyes. He then puts some eye drops that act as a local anesthetic and numbs the area (though you could still feel everything). Now comes the scary part, when he uses some kind of mechanical device to cut the flap in my eye. That device makes that commonly-known drilling sound you are already accustomed to from your dentist visits. You could then actually see the surgeon move the device over your eye from right to left for your right eye (or left to right for your left eye) like a lawnmower. Seriously! During this process you can actually see the world around you start becoming blurry along the path that the device leaves behind. At some point, you also lose parts of your vision. Next, you are asked to look at the red dot (though it was just a blurry red area for me, and I am like “where’s the red dot?!”). A blue laser shoots into your eye for ten seconds (which neither was painful nor unpleasant). Then, to reposition the flap, the surgeon uses some kind of knife-look-alike and pokes into my eye. He then puts a small fan near my eye to it dry out, and before you realize the operation was already over before it has begun.
As mentioned, the operation itself is pretty quick—maybe like 1-2 minutes . The first eye wasn’t much a problem, because I didn’t really know what to expect and was just surprised along the way. However, as the surgeon moves on to my left eye, I knew exactly what was ahead of me, and I was scared like sh*t!
Nevertheless, I survived the operation. It was painless and quick—just very uncomfortable and something I’d rather not do again. After the operation, I was able to see much clearer already without glasses, but a lot of things were still very blurry. After the operation, I had my friend Bao T. Ngo drive me home, and after taking a sleeping pill, and slept all the way until the next morning.
As I woke up the following day I noticed that things are still a bit blurry, so I start to worry and try to remember if they told me whether that’s normal or not. At any rate, I started the routine of putting inflammatory and anti-biotic eye drops into my eyes every 2-4 hours, and drive myself back to medical center for the post-op check-up, during which they concluded that my flaps look all nice and where they are supposed to be, and that my eyes are still swollen (as expected) and that this correlates with my blurry vision (which was also expected). My eyes still feel a bit itchy, but my weekend just went on as though nothing has happened--did schoolwork and readings, worked on the computer, drove myself to a birthday dinner and played bowling with friends.
It’s has now been 2 ½ days since the operation, and my vision ain’t exactly 20/20 just yet, as my eyes are still swollen, but I am already going around without glasses (well, I did have to buy and use sunglasses though). My vision is improving every day though, and I expect that by the end of the next week, I should be seeing pretty clearly (and probably 20/20). I still have to do eye drops at set intervals for the next two weeks, so that’s a bit of a hassle and have to skip out on my weekly volleyball and racquetball for a while, but come April I’ll be worry free and join the millions of patients who don’t regret having Lasik eye surgery done.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Note by Minh: The following is a “guest post“ by a fellow community activists' wife. Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, whom I had worked before on pro-democracy work, has been detained in Vietnam among with other young Vietnamese activists of my age. To this date, they remain detained in Vietnam without a fair charge and family visit, and I ask for your help in lobbying the US government to step to intervene in this cause.
Minh T. Nguyen.
Elk Grove, March 6, 2008
To: Religious leaders,
Vietnamese Organizations in US and abroad,
All media,
As of today, March 6, 2008, the Vietnamese government has held my husband, Dr Nguyen Quoc Quan, for exactly 110 days without charge and without family visit. When the US Consulate in Saigon was last able to see him in prison, the Vietnamese government cut down the visitation time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. They also forbid letters to and from our family to be delivered despite our multiple requests. They cut off the conversation when the US Consulate representative asked my husband about access to newspapers in prison; they then iterated that only questions on his health are permitted. I believe the Vietnamese government actions are intended to terrorize and to intimidate my husband.
To fend off that pressure, I had written to the US ambassador asking him to intervene with the Vietnamese government to let me accompany the US consulate during their scheduled March visitation with my husband. The US embassy has replied that my request was forwarded to Vietnamese authorities. I then went ahead and bought my plane ticket but on Feb. 29, the Vietnamse vice consul in San Francisco, Ms Phuong Tran, called and without explanation indicated they had canceled my visa and requested that I return the visa they already issued.
My children and I are very disappointed and concerned because of these events. We worry for my husband who must endure the psychological intimidation in prison and we are terribly upset with the actions of the Vietnamese government. I’m writing this letter to ask all Vietnamese communities and news organizations around the world to please help me and my children by writing, faxing or emailing the US representatives listed below to thank them for their support of my family and to ask for their continued assistance to allow me to visit my husband in prison in Vietnam.
By raising your voice now, you’d show the support of the Vietnamese community for democracy activists like my husband, and pressure the Vietnamese authorities to free my husband as well as other activists. Moreover, your voice would be of comfort to me and my children during this difficult and lonely time.
Thank you very much
Ngô Mai Huong
The following US representatives have supported my family in the past. Please phone, fax or email their office to thank them for their support and ask them to intervene on my behalf so I can travel to Vietnam to visit my husband.
------
Dear ….
Thank you for your effort to help gain the release of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, a pro-democracy activist currently detained by Vietnamese authorities. Please continue to provide assistance to Dr. Quan's wife, Ms Huong Ngo, in her quest to travel to Vietnam to visit her husband. Again, my appreciation for your support of Dr. Quan and his family.
Sign your name
Address
Phone
Congressman Dan Lungren
Phone: (916) 859-9906
Fax: (916) 859-9976, (202) 226-1298
Email: https://forms.house.gov/lungren/forms/email.shtml
Senator Barbara Boxer
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Fax: (202) 224-0454
Email: https://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Phone: (415) 393-0707
Fax: (415) 393-0710
Email: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez
Phone: (714) 621-0102
Fax: (714) 621-0401, (202) 225-5859
Email: http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=17
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren
Phone: (408) 271-8700
Fax: (408) 271-8713, (202) 225-3336
Congressman Ed Royce
Phone - (714) 992-8081
Fax - (714) 992-1668, Fax - (202) 226-0335
Congresswoman Doris Matusi
Phone: (202) 225-7163
Fax: (202) 225-0566
Email: http://matsui.house.gov/email.asp
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
This blog entry has been long overdue, but upon returning from my trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month, I did not get a chance to write down my reflection on the Fifth International Vietnamese Youth Conference due to school and work, but here it goes.
This conference in perspective
I have been very actively involved with the Lenduong International Vietnamese Youth Network ever since I attended and participated in the organization of the Third International Vietnamese Youth Conference in San Diego, CA, USA in 2003. It was that conference that has sparked my enthusiasm and activism with the Vietnamese youth community and really stretched my creativity and productivity to my limits. One could say that it was that conference that has really brought the best out of me and shaped the community person that I am today. However, it was a conference where I was so darn busy organizing, that I never really got to attend the workshops and experience it from an attendee’s perspective. So, in 2005 with much anticipation I attended the fourth conference in Sydney, Australia as an attendee, enjoyed doing so and had a fair share of experience being in front of the stage.
Well, for the Fifth International Vietnamese Youth Conference (Dai Hoi 5, or DH5 in short) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month, I returned backstage, and boy, has that been a thrill ride. The following are some thoughts that I have on the conference, though note that I am writing this from an organizer’s point of perspective. As with DH3, I did not get a chance in attending too many workshops and was mainly busy running around doing IT stuff.
Overcoming a logistical challenge
We knew from the get-go that DH5 was a logistical challenge. From all conference so far, this was the conference with the least amount of ground-support (none to be exact), as there wasn’t a Vietnamese community that we could tap into. Organizing a conference of this scale though (some 270 attendees from 17 different countries) with a core team that was around 20 people spread across three continents was extremely challenging to say that least. From the many international conference calls, to the complexities of distributing the technical equipment and DH5 paraphernalia among volunteers’ pieces of luggage on our trip to Malaysia, to providing the international press with news and articles and doing live interviews despite a time difference of 15 hours, to finding local stores to buy last-minute items and the difficulties dealing with 3-4 types of power adaptors since we brought printers and 5 projectors from the US, Europe and Australia, were just a few of the many complications we all had to deal with. Needless to say, all of us ran on very little sleep during those three days, and it amazes me that in the end, we managed to execute on our plans without much hiccup or deviations. I am very proud to have been part of this team and can’t wait to rejoin them for the next project. I must commend Quoc, Gia, Duy and Trinh for being the supercore team that landed on foreign soil a month prior to layout the groundwork for us. Kudos to them!
Vietnamese youths from Vietnam
Of course, the decision to move the location of the fifth conference to Asia is to be close to the country that this conference is all about: Vietnam. While it was risky decision given the lack of experience and support operating on foreign soil that we knew little about, it was all worth it. Some 25 Vietnamese exchange students in Asia attended the conference, from which 16 came directly from Vietnam. I am absolutely delighted to see them actively participating in the conference and to defy the fear of possible repercussions by the to Vietnamese government. Yes, this conference has political content, and with its theme of “Building Civil Society – Grassroot Efforts for Democracy” it was a risk for students and youths from Vietnam to attend the conference. In fact, the Vietnamese government even contacted the Malaysian government and asked to shut us down on the basis that we were a “terrorist group”, but with much diplomacy and support from local politicians and representatives in the US, Europe and Australia we managed to win the Malaysian’s benefit of the doubt to let us organize this conference, despite some threats of shutting us down all the way to the hours preceding the conference. I was happy to see that the Vietnamese youths from Vietnam were very active and didn’t shy away from voicing their opinions and oftentimes giving us a better perspective while answering the questions about civil society in Vietnam.
Notable content about grassroots activism
As mentioned, I did not get a chance attending many workshops, but there were some key moments that stood out to me. For one, like with DH4 in Sydney, we managed to bring a notable voice from Vietnam through a live conference call/interview with the audience in Kuala Lumpur. Dieu Cay is a famous youth blogger in Vietnam who has voiced his opinion on the Hoang Sa/Truong Sa controversy and having him speak directly from Vietnam was bold statement of the new generation. Having Premesh Chandran, a CEO of a Malaysian news media organization, talk about grassroots approaches to free expression in the face of internet censorship was uplifting, and having Ms Chee Siok Chin from the Singapore Democratic Party present a grassroots video on “The Flame of Democracy” made me think of what a cool video this could be if we were to join forces with other activists yearning for change in their country. I am glad that I had Ham Tran’s permission to show “Journey from the Fall” to a small audience that hasn’t seen it yet, and I absolutely loved the documentary “Bringing Down a Dictator” that captured the grassroots efforts of the youths that brought an end to Serbia’s dictatorship in complete non-violent struggle. It’s the Civil Rights Movement for our generation, and I was very inspired by it. Unfortunately I did not manage to attend the workshop on “Dialogue among Vietnamese Youths”, which I’ve been told was one heated and well-attended workshop.
The Vietnamese Migrant Workers
The fight for Vietnamese migrant workers and mail-order brides is a hot topic in the Vietnamese community, but I often hear or use the term “Vietnamese migrant workers” without ever having really met one—until Kuala Lumpur this year. Conference chair Quoc was at a local market a few weeks prior the conference when he overheard some Vietnamese conversations exchanged by two people. Turns out that those were two Vietnamese migrant workers who were there buying the ingredients for the restaurant that they worked at. When Quoc reached out to them and asked to meet the remaining migrant workers to hear their story, they were at first very skeptical of Quoc’s seemingly altruistic behavior. In the words of one of them they “weren’t sure whether Quoc was a good or a bad person” as they have invited him over to meet the remaining migrant workers a few days later. Over the next several weeks, Quoc, Gia and other core team members started build trust and friendships with them, but more importantly empowered them on their quest to ask for better treatment by their employers. Our team helped them to start organizing themselves, and asked them to unify with other groups of Vietnamese migrant workers on the other side of the city, in preparation for a strike to demand fair pay and proper rights that they were already planning (poorly). The core team has forever changed their perspective and allowed them to realize the lobbying power that they have if they only talk with a unifying voice, and the coincidental timing of this incident along with DH5 and one of its workshop on “Building a Labor Movement of the People” was just right. I was happy to hear that Quoc managed to invite some of them to attend the conference as well, and was very humbled when we all visited the place that all of them share in the outskirts of the city after the conference. It was an empty place with no furniture, so we spread our dinner preparation out on the floor, and reflected over dinner on our short friendship and their future. Tears were shed, as we left this group of migrant workers who left Vietnam in hope for a better future and to support their family, but only to face legal difficulties and harsh conditions with little hope for financial success. Similar to my many trips to Vietnam, I find myself leaving the migrant worker’s empty place only wishing to have done more.
Kuala Lumpur - the city
While DH5 was one amazing experience for me, Kuala Lumpur and the Petronas Towers in particular was the other amazing experience. I have always been fascinated by Kuala Lumpur for the longest time. As a skyscraper enthusiast, I have been following the development of the Petronas Towers and have already seen many pictures of these towers that were once the tallest buildings in the world. But to actually be there and looking up the towers is an experience one can’t capture in words. The symmetry of the buildings and its absolutely-perfect shiny skin of the metal as it reflects under the spotlights at night bring the chills down my body despite the warm and humid air at night. Heck, look at the pictures I took below--those were unmodified/un-photoshopped pictures of the Petronas Towers! That’s how freaking awesome it looks for real to the naked eye!
I really like KL (as people call it there)-- it’s a metropolis of a city and a clash of Eastern and Western cultures. I found it totally cool to see Islamic, Buddhist, Christian beliefs being practiced so openly and intermixed with no apparent apprehension or intolerance.
Nostalgia
I look back and realize that while those three days were extremely tough and challenging, I already miss it so much. It has only been a little bit less than two months since this international gathering, but nostalgia already hits as write this blog entry. I genuinely miss DH5: the people, the attendees, the old friends I was able to see again, and the new friendships I have made. I miss going down to the fancy food court that looked like an Ikea-showroom with all the fancy furniture there and trying out all the Asian specialties with other staff members. I recount the many times people asked me for a power adapter, promising me to return it upon use, but really seeing it going into lala-land. I remember the one day where we lost internet in our condo, and all of us moved into the Coffee Bean down the street to work from there for the entire day. I remember walking into my fancy room at the 5-star hotel only to see the entire bed and floor covered with DH5 bags and registration packages that Duyen and PT have carefully laid out. Of course, the after-party and the after-after-party were also memorable experiences that make me smile (fortunately I didn’t get that as drunk as I did at DH4).
Multimedia
Time to look at some pictures and videos, shall we? Below is a list of official DH5 pictures and videos that I have uploaded so far (still more to come, I will update this blog entry appropriately). For this conference, I produced three new slideshows (Opening Ceremony, Welcome to Malaysia and Closing Ceremony), and I am very proud of the 3-screen Opening Ceremony slideshow, since I haven’t done a 3-screen slideshow since uNAVSA 2004. It would have been cooler if the left screen wasn’t delayed by a second, but ah well. I blame it on Duyen, heehee.
As with many events, it’s always the slideshow that gets cut the last minute when we run out of time, so the closing ceremony slideshow wasn’t actually shown during the closing ceremony, even though I locked myself up in a room for 4 hours to get that done, but here it is for your viewing pleasure.
I hope you enjoy the videos and pictures, and hope to see you all again at DH6 – location and time completely unknown at this point. Until then, let the grassroots efforts for a civil society in Vietnam begin.
Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dh5malaysia/
Friday, January 3rd
Parade of Flags / National Anthems
http://www.vimeo.com/598610
Welcome Message from US Rep. Loretta Sanchez
http://www.vimeo.com/468312
Welcome to Malaysia Video
http://www.vimeo.com/468316
Opening Remarks - Quoc Phan
http://www.vimeo.com/598649
US Delegation Speech - Phong Ly
http://www.vimeo.com/600365
Australian Delegation Speech - Tien Nguyen
http://www.vimeo.com/600449
Australian VSA Promotion Clip
http://www.vimeo.com/600488
Nail Dance
http://www.vimeo.com/599216
Fashion Show
http://www.vimeo.com/660888
Fashion Show (Alternate Version)
http://www.vimeo.com/662251
Angel - Do Khoa
http://www.vimeo.com/661138
Traditional Dance - Australian Delegation
http://www.vimeo.com/600604
Traditional Dance - Australian Delegation (Alternate Version)
http://www.vimeo.com/662176
Song - Thien Than Trong Bong Toi
http://www.vimeo.com/600704
Song - Thien Than Trong Bong Toi (Alternate Version)
http://www.vimeo.com/661935
Saturday, January 4th
Welcome Speech - Quoc Phan
http://www.vimeo.com/614535
Keynote Address - Patrick Brown
http://www.vimeo.com/604354
Opening Ceremony Slideshow (Main Screen)
http://www.vimeo.com/470858
Opening Ceremony Slideshow (Left Screen)
http://www.vimeo.com/598591
Opening Ceremony Slideshow (Right Screen)
http://www.vimeo.com/598653
Opening Ceremony Slideshow (Live View)
http://www.vimeo.com/614463
Scavenger Hunt Slideshow
http://www.vimeo.com/598561
From Dictatorship to Democracy - Chee Siok Chin
http://www.vimeo.com/661586
Flame of Democracy
http://www.vimeo.com/662251
Anh Oi T-Shirt Contest
http://www.vimeo.com/598573
Wind of Change - European Delegation
http://www.vimeo.com/632314
Cho Ð?ng Bào Tôi - Father Peter Nguyen Van Hung
http://www.vimeo.com/646116
Ngày ? Noi Ðâu - Father Peter Nguyen Van Hung
http://www.vimeo.com/646146
D?y Mà Ði - Father Peter Nguyen Van Hung
http://www.vimeo.com/646188
Sunday, January 6th
Summary and Reflection - Bich Tram
http://www.vimeo.com/646269
Closing Ceremony Slideshow
http://www.vimeo.com/473698
Closing Ceremony - Singing on Stage
http://www.vimeo.com/598477
Thursday, February 21, 2008
If you are observing a noticable delay when sending out emails via Yahoo Mail Plus SMTP servers, and wondering whether you're alone, fear not. You are not alone. Fear though that this apparently has been an issue for almost two weeks with no ETA, and no public acknowledgement by Yahoo! other than a semi-official blog entry.
I've had this problem since February 15th, and my delays has been sporadic anywhere from 15 minutes to 12 hours (but mostly they are in the 5-6 hours range). I can understand if there is some exceptional outage or temporary hiccup, but what's frustrating is the lack of Yahoo! official communication on this, either in a public statement or at least in email to Mail Plus customers like us (who actually pay $20-30 year to have this service). It took me several days just to realize that some important emails actually have been delayed (and in today's business world, you can imagine how costly this can be).
The only semi-official communication by Yahoo! has been this blog entry:
http://ymailupdates.com/blog/2008/02/19/email-delays-through-smtp-servers
and a recorded voicemail on their hotline.
A plethora of other Yahoo! users have confirmed this issue here too:
http://www.romeyinfc.com/2008/02/19/yahoo-mail-smtp-troubles/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Amit6osJnTlsEkkA9ehl.wTsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080220055837AAlyslS
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvrvCijBWlwu_t3XYdcPDlfsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080220090405AAtgX0H
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtVQtAjxBs7QS9gEH2uQzcbsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080220114639AAdeO3r
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhRxN.3kDt57anIuu6ugcr3sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080220144809AA2LNsW
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlJXEBtdEPsE2FkgysSSoaHsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080221060812AA80myS
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au0rh8Vz2XvebLJQCTtcBibty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080221065033AAww8Fk
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuLkay39oUDbFZm4B2Csok_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080218222756AAQ6KaC
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoGMEHmUiuSDpQFNdQLWlhXty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080216073650AAjuPrz
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
WESTMINSTER (Cổ Ngưu) -- Một đại hội thanh niên sinh viên Việt Nam với các tham dự viên từ toàn cầu sẽ diễn ra tại Mã Lai vào đầu năm 2008, nhằm thúc đẩy các nỗ lực dân chủ hóa tại quê nhà. Được biết Đại Hội với chủ đề: Xã Hội Dân Sự, Dân Chủ từ sức mạnh quần chúng.
Chúng tôi tiếp xúc với Kỹ Sư Nguyễn Trí Minh tại quán Zen Restaurant trên đường Bolsa, chuyên viên lo về Kỹ Thuật Đại Hội và là thành viên trong Ban Tổ Chức. Anh cho biết: Đại Hội Tổ chức vào các ngày 4, 5, 6 tháng 1 năm 2008 tại Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur Mã Lai, với thành viên tham dự từ các nơi trên Thế Giới như Hoa Kỳ có 66 ngưới, Úc 90 người, Pháp 24 người, Na Uy 14 người, Anh 7 người, Đức 6 người Việt Nam 36 người, các nước khác như Thái Lan, Nhật, Canada, Bỉ, Đan Mạch, New Zealand, Singgapor, Thụy sĩ 29 người.
Anh cho biết Đại Hội kỳ nầy sẽ thảo luận những đề tài đề ra như: xây dựng phong trào lao công quần chúng. Báo chí quần chúng trước sự kiểm duyệt. Xây dựng lãnh đạo Việt Nam tuổi trẻ. Từ độc tài đến dân chủ. Tạo khả năng cho quần chúng qua các tổ chức Cộng Đồng. Đối thoại với tuổi trẻ Việt Nam trong nước. Tuổi trẻ với vấn đề về Hoàng Sa, trường Sa và nhiều đề tài linh tinh khác với công cuộc đấu tranh cho tự do dân chủ và Nhân Quyền.
Qúi đồng hương muốn theo dõi diễn tiến Đại Hội hãy vào:www.malaysia2008.net
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
2007 must have been my record year of travel. I always tell people that I really don’t live in Mountain View, California as I am never really here on weekends. Frankly, I am probably out of town more often than in town—mostly for personal trips. My best friend (who happens to live in San Francisco) is already used to the fact that we never see each other, and I find myself conference-calling into my “local” school team meeting at Carnegie Mellon West more often than I would like to. Ah well, here’s a compilation of places I’ve been to just this year alone:
- New York City, New York (six times, mainly only 3-day trips—gosh, I love that city!)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (twice!)
- Gelsenkirchen, Germany (twice—one time even just for a weekend)
- Berlin, Germany (for a few days)
- Seattle/Redmond, Washington (for a few days on business)
- Vancouver, Canada (for a day prior my business trip to Seattle)
- Rome, Italy (for almost a week)
- Venice, Italy (for a few days)
- Dublin, Ireland (for a single day as a stop-over to Europe)
I’ve already lost count of the many trips to Orange County (of which there are probably more than a dozen), and to top off the year, I’ll be flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this weekend—yay! As for 2008, we are already talking about a trip to Asia (we’re looking into Tokyo at this point) and for 2009, I am already eyeing Dubai. Ah.. sigh, so much travel, but I am loving it!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Microsoft released the Windows Vista Vietnamese Language Interface Pack (LIP) last month, and I finally got some time take a screenshot to blog about it. I installed it a few weeks ago, and I think it's pretty cool!! I am now running Windows permanently in Vietnamese so I can learn Vietnamese. The hardest part is to use the search functionality in the Control Panel, because you can’t type in "services" to find the NT services—you have to know the Vietnamese word for it (which quite frankly I still don’t know, haha).
Another funny thing is that if you right-click on a webpage and choose "View Source", … well that’s translated as "Xem Nguồn"... hm... isn’t "Nguồn" more used as "roots"? Finding my roots? And what’s up with the random capitalization of Vietnamese words all over the place?
Anyways, if you are running Windows Vista, you can download and install the Vietnamese LIP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0E21EB7B-E01A-4FCC-B7F1-30E419DA7F5B&displaylang=vi
Have fun.... or shall we say.... Có sự vui đùa!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
So, on October 12th 2007, the new Vietnamese TV Talk show "The Viet Connection" invited me on their show to talk about the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking (VietACT). At first, I thought this was going to be an interview on VietACT only, but somehow we drifted a way and talked also a lot about the Vietnamese community (from Lenduong's International Vietnamese Youth Conference to the Union of Vietnamese Student Association of North America to Journey from the Fall) and about myself (more than I wanted to). Thanks Hang and Ly Pham for the interview.
BTW, the video-loading on vietconnection.com takes a while, so you be patient.
Friday, November 30, 2007
and while you're at it, visit www.malaysia2008.net for more information on the conference or www.nhamagazine.com for the magazine.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
For those who have known me through the years or follow my blog know that I have been pretty involved in the Vietnamese community ever since college. I have worked tirelessly for causes that I personally believe in, to shape the Vietnamese youth community and impact the democracy movement in Vietnam. What most people don’t know until recently though, is that I have been a member of the Viet Tan Party for the past four, almost five years, and I have only recently come out publicly. In contrast to the negative press the Vietnamese government has been smearing about Viet Tan, I can attest that Viet Tan is an organization that tries to establish democracy through peaceful means. Having closely worked with Viet Tan members from around the world, I can only say that I am humbled by the work that my fellow activists are doing. The leaders that I have met, the visions that they have, the work that they do, that sacrifices they have done, are all things that continue to inspire me to do the work that I do. It’s hard to describe in words the immense admiration I have for the individuals in this organization (even before I joined Viet Tan and found out that they are actually members as well), and it is with great pride that I take part in this organization—long before we even went public.
It is therefore with great disturbance and worry that I found out that three members of Viet Tan, American citizens Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, and Mr Truong Van Ba and French citizen and journalist Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh Van have been arrested and detained in Saigon, last Saturday, November 17th 2007 along with Vietnamese citizens Nguyen The Vu, Nguyen Trong Khiem, Nguyen Viet Trung and Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi. Their crime? Meeting in Saigon to discuss peaceful means to promote democracy in Vietnam.
I work, meet and see these three VT members all the time—in fact, Mr. Ba has been gracious enough to host us in Hawaii on my last family trip there. Their arrest and Vietnam’s ignorance of the rule of the law and dignity is something that disappoints, but not surprises me. The arrests of all individuals were not officially confirmed by the Vietnamese government until almost a week later. What’s troubling is that the Nguyen The Vu, Nguyen Trong Khiem and Nguyen Viet Trung brothers are all my age (except for 18-year old Khiem). If I have not made it on that fisherman boat in 1979, would I find myself behind bars for promoting democracy--that is for simply being the person that I am? Fortunately, the arrest has been widely covered by the Western press including the BBC and TIME Magazine, and many organizations including Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders as well as key Western governments are condemning these violations of human rights and are stepping up to ask for an immediate release. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese government is starting its own smear campaign of fabricating stories of Viet Tan members smuggling firearms into the country for terrorism purposes, and it’s sickening to see that despite the advent of the internet, a regime controlling all media in the country can still portrait a picture of their liking regardless of any relevance for truth.
What can you do?
I am glad you ask, because there’s plenty that you can do:
- Please spread the word about this incident. It’s when incidents like these are reported, broadcasted and inquired about, when the Vietnamese government can’t so easily make these innocent people “disappear”
- Sign the petition on www.freethemnow.net and ask your contacts to sign them. We are already in contact with the different US, Thai and French embassies, and a massive support from the Vietnamese overseas community would help bring urgency to this issue
- Call your local government representative to ask this issue to be discussed and raised. It’s easy as going to congress.org, typing in your zip code, calling your representative and asking this issue to be put on the table--something to the sort of “I am ___ residing in ___ with zip code ___ and I am deeply concerned about the arrests of US citizens Dr Nguyen Quoc Quan, Mr Truong Van Ba in Vietnam. As your constituent I request this issue to be raised in Congress and appreciate your support in expediting their release. Thank you.”
All I ask of you are these three simple steps. It only takes a few minutes, and this is the least that we can do. It has now been more than 11 days since the arrest with no word of release. There are lot more things that we can do, so keep an eye on www.freethemnow.net. Until I can rejoice to see my friends again, we have to do everything we can for them and not turn a blind eye, because it’s by sheer turn of luck that we find ourselves here safe and sound, while they find themselves behind bars and cut off from access to society. Should we not do what they would have done for us, if it was us who would be in Vietnam at this moment? Your call… and don’t disappoint me.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
On November 17, 2007, Vietnamese security police detained members and supporters of Viet Tan in Saigon. Those arrested and taken away included:
Viet Tan members
• Dr. Nguyen, Quoc Quan, American citizen
• Ms. Nguyen, Thi Thanh Van, French citizen
• Mr. Truong, Leon (Van Ba), American citizen
Other individuals
• Mr. Nguyen, The Vu, Vietnamese citizen
• Mr. Nguyen, The Khiem, Vietnamese citizen
• Mr. Khunmi, Somsak, Thai citizen
With the exception of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan whose place of detention is currently unknown, all the individuals were arrested at a residence on Ton That Hiep street, ward 13, district 11, Saigon. They were taken initially to the public security office in district 10 and then reportedly to the main detention center inSaigon.
Before their arrest, they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change. Specifically, they aspired to publicize information on successful nonviolent struggles from around the world and to use these lessons to help empower the Vietnamese people.
While it has been over 48 hours since the arrests, the families of the local residents and the embassies of the non-Vietnamese citizens have yet to be notified. Viet Tan expresses our deep concern for the safety of these six individuals. Clearly, communist Vietnam lacks the most basic judicial system and opportunity for a fair and open trial.
Information on the arrested
| |
Nguyen Quoc Quan |
• Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, born 1953, was a high-school teacher in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. He emigrated to the United States in 1981 and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He specialized in research on Machine Translation from English to Vietnamese. A co-founder of the Vietnamese Professionals Society, he is married with two children and a resident of Sacramento, California.
| |
Nguyen Thi Thanh Van |
•
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, born 1956, was a university student in France and settled there after the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975. She is active in the overseas Vietnamese-language media, having served on the editorial staff of the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Vietnam Democracy).Under the pen name Thanh Thao, she is a key correspondent for Radio Chan Troi Moi, Viet Tan’s nightly broadcast inside Vietnam. She is married and a resident of Paris, France.
| |
Truong Leon (Van Ba) |
• Mr. Truong Van Ba, born 1953, emigrated to the United States in 1979. He operated a food catering truck while devoting most of his time as a community activist. He has two children living in the United States and two grown children in Vietnam. He is a resident of Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Mr. Nguyen The Vu, born 1977, is a citizen of Vietnam and employed as a sales executive. The arrest on November 17, 2007 occurred at his home in district 11, Saigon. He is married.
• Mr. Nguyen The Khiem, born 1989, is a citizen of Vietnam and college student. He is the younger brother of Nguyen The Vu and was arrested for sharing the same residence in Saigon.
• Mr. Somsak Khunmi, born 1949, is a Thai citizen residing in Ubon, Thailand.
While these individuals may have different backgrounds and reside in different countries, they are Vietnamese patriots who share a common dream to establish democracy and reform the country. Their activities and those of all Viet Tan members center on principles of nonviolent struggle to mobilize the power of the people against a dictatorship that uses violence as a means of suppression.
In the face of these arrests, Viet Tan calls on:
• Vietnamese inside and outside the country, in the spirit of unity and shared goal, to pressure the communist government to cease the acts of repression, terror, and imprisonment against peaceful democracy activists from inside and outside the country.
• The Vietnamese communist government to honor international covenants and immediately provide to the embassies and families of the arrested their exact whereabouts and condition.
• The Vietnamese communist government to respect the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially freedom of speech, and immediately release all the above individuals as their only activity was to peacefully express their support for freedom and democracy.
• The American, French and Thai embassies to request the Vietnamese authorities to provide information on the whereabouts and personal safety of the respective nationals of these countries, and to visit these nationals while they are in jail to ensure their safety and well-being.
For the last two decades, Viet Tan has faced countless challenges. Committed to establishing democracy and reforming the country, our members are resolute before this most recent challenge. Viet Tan will continue to be an active participant in Vietnam’s democracy movement and to work for the freedom of all political prisoners in Vietnam.
Contact:
Duy Hoang +1 (202) 470-1678
Chi Dang +1 (408) 228-4892
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Minh T. Nguyen's Mandelbrot Explorer is an application that allows you to zoom into the Mandelbrot set fractal at an arbitrary level. Simply select an area to zoom in, and use the back button to backtrace or restart button to start from the beginning. If you don't see the fractal above, please install the freely-available Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 plug-in (available for most popular browsers) using this link (the above link won't work). Note that this application is very power-hungry, so a fast computer is recommended.
Academic details: The Mandelbrot fractal is generated by drawing the set of complex numbers c on a complex plane, where the value of the function f(z) = z * z + c applied iteratively on itself is unbounded. In other words, if you pick a complex number c and an initial value of z being c, and apply the above function over and over again, you’ll see that the absolute value of the running result always remains bounded below 2 or suddenly shoots up towards infinity after a certain number of iterations. Well if the latter happens, you draw the complex number on the plane with a certain color that is reflective of how many iterations it took for the function to escape. But anyways, before mathematicians are lynching me for such a rude definition, you’re probably better off reading a formal description of the Mandelbrot set over at Wikipedia.
Technical details: This application was coded with the Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Refresh and is hosted via Microsoft Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live. The Mandelbrot generation algorithm is very loosely based on Marc Boizeau's implementation of using complex number classes and operator overloading, while the coloring of the complex points outside of the Mandelbrot set is borrowed from Pierre Leclercq's implementation. Since Silverlight does not support setting pixels in a bitmap, this Mandelbrot Explorer is setting tiny rectangles instead to mimic the same behavior, though some optimization have been made to reduce the number of UIElements drawn on the Canvas by recognizing neighboring pixels of the same color and drawing them all as a single rectangle. Since the Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Refresh does not yet support marshalling the execution of code from the background thread to the UI thread (the "Invalid Cross-Thread access" exception), I had to resort to the empty timeline trick to display the progress status. The full source code for this Mandelbrot Explorer will be posted in the near future.
Personal details: So, why does the world need yet another Mandelbrot fractal generator? It doesn't. There are tons of them out there, with far more snappier UI and superior performance, but I wanted to create one to get my hands dirty with Silverlight. When .NET was still in its early stages, I coded the Sierpinski Triangle fractal to get my hands dirty with GDI+. When Silverlight came out recently, I first wanted to convert my WPF-based Sudoku 3D browser application to Silverlight, but as it turns out Silverlight does not have support for 3D geometry, so I ended up doing the Mandelbrot fractal instead. I've always been intrigued by the mother of all fractals anyways, and always wanted to learn and understand the mathematics behind it, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Epic Vietnamese American saga arrives on DVD October 30, 2007
NEW YORK, NY October 17, 2007 – ImaginAsian Home Entertainment, Genius Products and Fire in the Lake present one of the most acclaimed Vietnamese American films, Journey From The Fall, on DVD on October 30, 2007. Ham Tran’s critically acclaimed epic Vietnamese American saga is presented as a special edition double disc and priced to own for $24.99 SRP.
Journey From The Fall was an official selection of both the Sundance and the Pusan Film Festivals and won 16 awards at 20 festivals around the world. The film was inspired by the true stories of Vietnamese refugees who fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, and those who were forced to stay behind. Journey From The Fall follows one family’s struggle for freedom.
“We are proud to be working with ImaginAsian for the release of Journey From The Fall on DVD,” said Tran. “It’s very gratifying to see that both ImaginAsian and Genius share my understanding of the importance of including the behind-the-scenes footage which showcases the heartbreaking, yet significant stories of the true survivors.”
An epic written in fire, mud, despair and hope includes a stellar cast which includes starring Kieu Chinh (The Joy Luck Club) and Long Nguyen (Heaven and Earth) and was directed by Ham Tran.
Special Edition Double Disc Features:
“The Making of Journey from the Fall” (38 min)
Roundtable discussion with cast & crew (135 min.)
Deleted Scene and Alternate Ending
Original Theatrical Trailer and TV spot
Cast & Crew Bios
BASICS
Price: $24.99
Street Date: October 30, 2007
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R for some violence
Language: Vietnamese/English
Subtitles: English/Vietnamese
Running time: 135 minutes
Audio: 5.1
Thursday, October 18, 2007
So, I really enjoy web development. I still remember the very first time I was exposed to the internet at a computer fair, while I was studying abroad in the United States during my high school years. The guy at the fair was showing off the internet to attendees, and all I thought was “why, gee, that’s so neat. It’s as easy as browsing through a Windows help file” – and with that grew my interest in web development. To finance my way through college, I started working at this Dilbert-like dot com business designing and creating websites for small businesses. That was still in the days of “if you build a website selling X – they will come.” (where X can be replaced with any word you can find in the dictionary). Upon graduating from Berkeley in 2001, my first job was with a printer driver company, but my focus was a web portal, including some 3D rendering of printers using VRML (how cool was that). My second job was focusing on library web portals with some heavy DHTML scripting. When I joined Expedia.com I was doing heavy web development of course, and I was originally hired by Microsoft to do web-based work for the TV. Though my focus at work has broadened a lot to cover many areas, my passion still remains with user interfaces. So, it’s of no surprise that combined with my other passion for community work, I spend a lot of time volunteering to create websites for non-profits or other organizations that I believe in or support. With that, I present to you a list of selected websites that I have designed/written/maintained in the past. It’s a surprise to me that some of them are still around. Consider it my Mini-portfolio. No, I am not for hire, and yes, I am fully aware that I need to take a graphic design class some day to complement my technical skills.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Traveling: So, I’ve been flying around a lot—and I mean a lot. Just two weekends ago, I flew up to Seattle on a business trip, and PT met up with me there, so for the weekend we drove to Vancouver, went up Grousse Mountain, checked out Robson Square and so on. Then, last weekend, I left work on Thursday evening to fly via San Francisco->Los Angeles->London->Duesseldorf to attend one of my best friends’ wedding in my hometown Gelsenkirchen in Germany, only to leave again on Sunday on a Duesseldorf->London->New York City flight, had dinner with PT and Trinity Infinity at Times Square, only to return back to work on Monday morning via a non-stop from New York to San Francisco. Yup, you’ve read it right—I’ve spent a single 3-day weekend in Germany and New York, and next weekend I’ll be in NYC again!
Career decisions: Being in the Valley, it’s quite normal to get emails and phone calls from recruiters from other high-tech companies all the time trying to hire you. I’ve come to gotten used to this and even have a “no-thank-you-I-am-not-interested”-email template/phone script that I use. However, this month I received phone calls from two CEOs of two very successful and well-known Fortune 1000 companies (these are household names) asking me to join their new start-up that putting together. I originally declined, as I generally don’t like the idea of working for startups, but this one was slightly different, as I actually believed in their leadership skills. However, in the end, we chose not to pursue this avenue further, as I convinced them that my skill set wasn’t what they were looking for exactly. This couldn’t have come at worse time anyways, as I am still in school.
School: Alright, so school this semester ain’t too hot. The content of my current class as well as the main teacher’s teaching style is quite boring and unexciting (a first in my Carnegie Mellon academic experience so far!), so I am counting the days until I can start the next class. However, check out who’s on the front cover of our new brochure:
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Yup, I am going to the Fifth International Vietnamese Youth Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in January 2008, and I hope you folks will join me! I'll blog more about it later, but for now check out the flash-based e-card that I created as well as a recent TV interview I did on Song Viet TV about this conference:
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Sau khi xem màn dương ảnh tại buổi lễ chiều nay, chúng tôi được nhắc nhở một lần nữa về sự hy sinh anh dũng của các chiến hữu tiên phong, những người đã dấn thân trên con đường đấu tranh, từ những ngày đầu thành lập Việt Nam Canh Tân Cách Mạng Đảng. Tôi thấy mình rất vinh dự được tham gia vào đảng Việt Tân từ 4 năm qua, được bước đi trên con đường mà các chiến hữu tiên phong đã hy sinh để vạch ra cho thế hệ chúng tôi ngày hôm nay. Con đường đó, chúng tôi sẽ tiếp tục dấn bước và để lại cho các thế hệ mai sau. Trên con đường này, mục đích tối hậu vẫn là canh tân đất nước. Tuy nhiên, phương tiện đấu tranh có thể khác đi, cho thích hợp với các thay đổi của tình hình hiện nay. Ngày hôm nay, chúng ta cần đấu tranh bằng cách làm việc với các tổ chức phi chính phủ, bằng cách vận động chính giới Hoa Kỳ và quốc tế, và nhiều phương thức bất bạo động khác để đem lại tự do cho VN.
Thế hệ chúng ta không những có trách nhiệm canh tân đất nước, nhưng chúng ta lớn lên trong tự do và được hấp thụ văn hóa và giáo dục tự do, chúng ta đ