Heart of Saigon

While the Recall Team was having their coming out party and celebration on 10th Street with over 1,500 people in attendance, about 700 people showed up for a fund raising event for Miss Tim on Story Road.

While 7 elected officials and candidates took the podium and spoke defending the recall process as well as why Madison Nguyen should be recalled, at the other end of District 7, Miss Tim spoke in her soft and no-accent Vietnamese about her hopes and dreams.

Miss Tim (or Miss Heart) is a Vietnamese given name for a beautiful Swiss lady, Aline Rebeaud. In 1992, as a young art major backpacking in Vietnam, she heard a whimpering cry of a 10 years old orphan lying in hunger on an empty street of Saigon. The child was too weak to walk so she carried him to a safehouse and helped fed him. It was that moment that made her decided to further investigate the poor and homeless kids in VN and ultimately made the decision to stay to make a difference. For the last 17 years, she took in homeless kids and handicapped kids and raised them in a building she called "Masion Chance" or "House of Chance". The building is in Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam (Now known as Ho Chi Minh City). Maison Chance is a well known landmark among the Viet expatriates returning to Vietnam for visits.

When asked how many kids have she helped, she replied : "About 700 kids". Some have grown up, have jobs and have kids of their own. Tothem, Miss Tim is the mother they never had.

She is currently visiting the US for the first time to raise money to expand her Maison Chance. It was a delay visit for she was recovering from a terrible accident that almost ended her life. In San Jose, despite economic hard time, the Vietnamese-Americans responded with over $110,000 in two nights of fund raising.

In the US alone, there are about 3 dozens registered nongovernmental agencies, founded by Vietnamese-Americans, actively working in Vietnam. Each year, they contribute millions of dollars to many educational, environmental and health care projects in Vietnam.

Little Saigon Insider's Pick

According to the popular sentiment of the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose, these are the candidates of their choice. And with some of the voting districts where they are 20% of the total registered voters, the Vietnamese-Americans are the crucial swing votes all candidates are vying for.

1. Supervisor Race District 3 (Replacing the popular Pete "Co Vang" McHugh)

Dave Cortese over Otto Lee. This is a tough choice with the Little Saigon community leaders supporting Otto behind the scene. However, Cortese has been a part of the community for so long that the name recognition and goodwill will give him the edge.


2. Supervisor Race District 2

The community picks Richard Hobbs over George Shirakawa. The choice is easy for the community when Shirakawa decided to side with Madison Nguyen over the Little Saigon issue. This is a toss-up and it will be decided by voter turnout. The Vietnamese-American voters make up about 12% of the total registered voters.


3. District 8 City Council (Replacing the popular Dave Cortese)

Rose Herrera over Pat Waite. Cortese finally endorsed Herrera two weeks ago. Waite understood the sentiment of the Little Saigon issue. He is very active in the community via monetary contribution and outspoken public support for community's issues. Herrera is a political novice but she is not about the let Pat taking away the crucial swing vote without a fight. She is working with the lawyer Michael Luu to build up a support base to counter Pat's inroad into the community. Pat is hoping that the majority of the Vietnamese-Americans will vote for him and make this a close race. Nevertheless, the number is not there for Pat.

4. Milpitas City Council

Pete McHugh over Heidi Pham. This is a no brainer despite Pete's really late start in the campaign (Typical of Pete).

5. Milpitas Mayor

Bob Livengood over Heidi's new husband. This is again a no brainer since Heidi's husband is making a mockery of the Milpitas voters.

A Defacto Influence

At the unfurling of Little Saigon banners last week, political pundits could see the who's who running for the election on November 4 and beyond.

There was the usual presence of Sunnyvale Councilmember Otto Lee and San Jose City Vice Mayor Dave Cortese. Of course they both are vying votes for the county supervisor race in District 3. Supervisor Pete McHugh was there with the announcement he is running for Milpitas city council. District 8 city council candidate Pat Waite was given a commendation by the Little Saigon Foundation for his monetary contribution and support of the Little Saigon cause. His opponent, Rose Herrera, wearing her Vietnamese traditional dress " Ao dai", was also given center stage. District 2 supervisor candidate Richard Hobbs was on hand to make sure that the people know his strong support of the Vietnamese-American community. His opponent George Shirakawa decided to take the stand against the community with Madison Nguyen. Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteve also made his usual appearance.

Mayor Chuck Reed sent out email to the foundation a week in advance and informed of his presence. Last minute phone call to Reed by his young Vietnamese-American aide, Khoa Nguyen, to warn him that the area was surrounded by recall banners and tables caused a change of heart. The story as told by Khoa Nguyen to the media was that Reed was halfway to the event and then he changed his mind because he did not want to be seen with the recall crowd.

Politics as Usual In San Jose

First it was the assistant city clerk, Dennis Hawkins, who made the comment while he was being interviewed by the press. The video tape appeared on the Internet video of Vietnam Daily newspaper. Hawkins declared as matter of fact: ".... the city is considering an all mail-in ballot for the Madison Nguyen recall initiative to save money..."

Then the city clerk, Lee Price herself, appeared onVietnam Liberty TV and reinterated the same position.

The community of course was very anxious and up in arm ready to protest against such voting limitation. The term disfranchisement was throwing around in the media and a civil rights lawyer was consulted. After all, more than 7,200 recall signatures were collected even thoug the community only submitted 5,181 signatures. They surely wanted to protect their civil rights granted by the constitution.

Madison Nguyen and Mayor Chuck Reed are well known for having political tin ear but not this time. Immediately they both appeared on Que Huong Radio and declared that they had heard unfơund rumors on the voting process. The city would not deny voters the right to go to the poll to vote.

It was a smart move for thus far a series of disastrous political miscalculations by Madison Nguyen. The fact is that the city has not been very fortunate when it comes to civil rigths matter. A recent civil rights lawsuit against the city in 2003 ended up costing the taxpayers $8.2 million in settlement and an embarrasing forced resignation of the city councilman of District 7. The irony here of course is that Madison Nguyen ended up as his replacement of District 7.

The whole community is waiting for the city to reach a decision on the supposedly Brown Act violation by Councilmembers Madison Nguyen and Forrest Williams. The city supposedly will submit to the judge on October 23 their response. The community meanwhile is pressing for a full trial.

Flag Raising on Vietnam's National Day

For the first time in the history of San Francisco City Hall, the official Vietnamese flag of a yellow star on a red background was hoisted in celebration of Vietnam's National Day of September 2.


The Consulate General Le quoc Hung and representatives of SF city government was on hand for the flag raising ceremony. There were about 3 dozen people present at the ceremony. At 9:30 AM, the flag was rasied from the second floor balcony looking down the main plaza. At the ceremony, Consulate General Hung was given a certificate of recognition from Mayor Newsom declaring September 2 is " Vietnamese National Heritage Day" in San Francisco.

On Thursday 9/28/2008, the general consulate had a reception at city hall to celebrate the National Day with Vietnamese-Americans in the Bay Area.

Now on the same day the flag was raised, a group of anti-communist Vietnamese-Americans found out about it and they formally demanded the removal of the flag with a protest letter. The meeting was held at 3:30 PM in the mayor's office and the flag was removed by 4:45 PM that afternoon.

The official city's policy only allows flag of another country to fly in front of city hall no more than 1 day, in this case as a courtesy of sister city friendship between Ho chi Minh City and San Francisco.

"Punch Them in the Face"

Little Saigon Inside received this in an email chain. It is a press release by South Bay Labor Council:

On Saturday, over 250 labor and community activists gathered at the South Bay Labor Council to hit the streets, letting residents of San Jose City Council District 7 know why the recall of Madison Nguyen should be rejected.

The volunteers knocked on thousands of doors, and discovered a simple fact: overwhelmingly, local residents think recalling Madison Nguyen is a bad idea. Emphasizing Nguyen's accomplishments in office, the volunteers covered every precinct in the Council District, talking to voters in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

At the end of the day, well over 80% of respondents indicated they opposed a recall.

Labor Council Executive Officer Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins said: "To get so many volunteers out on a beautiful summer weekend demonstrates Madison's support in San Jose. And such a high percentage of opposition to the recall shows how deep her support is in the district she represents."

But the real buzz in the comunity was the quote from a woman who introduced herself as Mary, chief strategist for South Bay Labor (showed here in picture). When asked by the volunteers what to do when they come across the recall people, stragegist Mary replied without a blink:" You should punch them in the face."

There was a dead silence in the room. Noticing the Freudian slip, Lamkins took the microphone from Mary and tried to ease the tension: " She was just joking of course."