OneVietnam Public Launching on Juy 19

Palo Alto, CA, 10 June 2010 – Vietnamese communities worldwide will soon have a unique platform for communication and connection with OneVietnam.org. Founded by 1st and 2nd generation Vietnamese-Americans, OneVietnam is an online network that acts as a nexus between individuals, communities, and philanthropic groups serving Vietnamese communities worldwide. Its interface uses the latest in Web 2.0 technology for easy accessibility and instant connections to causes most relevant to its members. Starting June 17, those interested in reconnecting to and strengthening the community can log onto OneVietnam.org for an invitation to preview OneVietnam’s beta site.


OneVietnam came into being when a group of recent UC Berkeley and Harvard graduates perceived a growing disconnect between Vietnamese communities worldwide. Since the post 1960s Vietnamese diasporas, Vietnamese have spread out across over thirty countries around the globe. With generation gaps widening and geographic barriers present, cultural identification languishes and philanthropic organizations lose what should be a strong support system.

Using social media and Web 2.0, this group of college graduates developed OneVietnam with community, philanthropy, and online innovation in mind. Rather than creating another social network, the founders focused their network on cultivating ties between Vietnamese communities and providing an outlet for later Vietnamese future makers to get their voices heard.

OneVietnam has already managed to get the conversation flowing between individuals worldwide through its Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/OneVietnam, with 6,000 supporters and Vietnam Talking Points blog, http://talk.onevietnam.org/, with over 200 original articles.

“OneVietnam Network is in a position to transform Vietnam’s philanthropic landscape by bridging organizations and the Vietnamese expatriate community in united efforts of unprecedented scale.” – Paul Pham

About OneVietnam Network

OneVietnam Network is an online network that connects you to millions of Vietnamese around the world. Within seconds, you can discover and take part in your community through OneVietnam’s one -click, search, find, and contribute system. Sign up to preview its beta site starting June 17 at OneVietnam.org.

Dam Vinh Hung on Tour in California

Dam Vinh Hung, a very popular singer from Vietnam is doing his annual concert tour of North America and will be in Anaheim and Santa Clara  these upcoming two weeks.  His concert in  San Jose (November 2009) was a big hit.  Dam Vinh Hung has been doing worldwide concert  since 2004.  Since he is from Vietnam, the critics from the anti-communist folks in the Vietnamese-American community have claimed that he is a cultural agent of the government trying to spread communist propaganda.  As usually, there will be a contigent of demonstrators on hand for his events in both cities.   The Santa Clara police department is charging the concert organizer $15,000 for crowd control in case the demonstration becomes raucous.

Renaissance Journalism Center Awards 15 Journalists Vietnam Reporting Fellowships

According to Renaissance Journalism Center

http://www.rjcmedia.org/updates/renaissance-journalism-center-awards-15-journalists-vietnam-reporting-fellowships



San Francisco – The Renaissance Journalism Center has chosen 15 top journalists for a reporting fellowship program that will enable them to investigate the toxic legacy left in Vietnam by the use of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.


The Vietnam Reporting Project Fellowship is designed to use the power of journalism to raise public awareness about the health and environmental problems that continue to affect Vietnam and its people. During the war, the U.S. military defoliated millions of acres of forest and farmland by spraying Agent Orange. The herbicide contained dioxin, a highly toxic organic pollutant linked to cancers, diabetes, birth defects and disabilities.


“Even though the war ended 35 years ago, the toxic impact of Agent Orange lives on, damaging the lives of millions of people,” said Jon Funabiki, executive director of the Renaissance Journalism Center, which is based at San Francisco State University. “Journalists can put a human face on this all-to-forgotten tragedy and help the general public to understand the full dimensions of the problem. Unfortunately, many news organizations are so financially strapped that they can’t afford to send reporters to the scene.”


The fellows represent newspapers, television, radio and the online news sector. The group is cross-cultural and intergenerational with representatives from the mainstream, independent, Vietnamese American and college media. The reporting fellows include:


Sean Connelly, photo editor/multimedia producer, Los Angeles Times; K. Oanh Ha, reporter, KQED Public Radio; Duc Ha, editor and senior correspondent, OneViet.com; Tara Haghighi, journalism student, San Francisco State University; Catherine Karnow, independent photographer; Ed Kashi, independent photojournalist and filmmaker; Henry Liem, columnist, VTimes; Victor Merina, senior correspondent and special projects editor, Reznet; Katy Newton, video journalist, Los Angeles Times; Nguyen Qui Duc, independent radio and television journalist; Connie Schultz, columnist, The Plain Dealer; Nick Ut, photographer, Associated Press; Thuy Vu, reporter/anchor, KPIX TV; Laura Waxman, student journalist, San Francisco State University; Yumi Wilson, assistant professor of journalism, San Francisco State University.


The journalists will receive training, travel support and other resources to help them produce in-depth articles, essays and columns, television and radio reports and web-based multimedia packages. The products will be distributed by their news companies, featured on a special project website (www.vietnamreportingproject.org) and distributed to interested news outlets, including Vietnamese American media.


The Renaissance Journalism Center (www.rjcmedia.org) was created by San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department to stimulate and test promising new practices in journalism. The center also sponsors the Media Greenhouse, which offers mini-grants to community and ethnic news media outlets; and the New Media Lab & Incubator, which is incubating new nonprofit media models. The center is operated in partnership with the ZeroDivide (www.zerodivide.org).


The Vietnam Reporting Project was developed in collaboration with Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (www.aapip.org) and is funded by the Ford Foundation (www.fordfound.org).


According to the Vietnam Red Cross, an estimated 3 million Vietnamese suffer health problems linked to Agent Orange and 150,000 children have serious birth defects. About a dozen “hot spots” are contaminated by dioxin. In the U.S., Agent Orange also has been linked to serious health problems widely reported by American veterans.