Vietnamese Americans Use Their Media as Katrina Lifeline
Pacific News Service, News Feature, Andrew Lam, Posted: Sep 09, 2005
Editor's Note: The Vietnamese American community relies heavily on their own mass media in times of crisis, and the Katrina hurricane accentuates how indispensable it is.
SAN FRANCISCO--When the levee broke in New Orleans and water rose to his knees at the Lavang Church in Versailles, a small town outside of New Orleans, Father Vien Nguyen reached for the phone. He did not call CNN or 911. Instead, he called Saigon Television Broadcasting Network to report that dozens of elderly Vietnamese were taking shelter in his church and to ask for help.
At a time when America was wringing its hands, wondering why government did too little and too late to help hurricane Katrina's victims, Vietnamese Americans affected by the disaster -- there were some 55,000 who lived in the areas hardest hit by the hurricane -- looked first and foremost to their own.
Within a few hours, the story was headline news in the Vietnamese American media, and Vietnamese communities across the United States were immediately mobilized to give help. Calls were made to the Red Cross, other emergency services as well as local politicians. National Public Radio got hold of the story when a resourceful woman named Trang Nguyen spammed news organizations and politicians in Washington, D.C. The priest and his congregation were rescued a couple days later.
Heading for Houston a few days after Katrina made landfall, Danny Nguyen did not listen to the local public radio station but instead turned his dial to 900-AM, Saigon Radio KREH in Houston. Nguyen and his family were directed by the broadcaster to go to Hong Kong City Mall instead of the Astrodome. At the mall, they were greeted by Vietnamese American volunteers and various Vietnamese religious groups in Houston, which took them in.
Thuy Vu, co-anchor of Saigon Radio in Houston, observes that the Vietnamese community often responds faster to calls for emergency help than the government. "We can reach out immediately and directly because we are closely connected. Of course, in time, government agencies and large organizations are absolutely indispensable."
Central to their outreach capacity are their own mass media. Nguoi Viet, the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the United States, for instance, has a Web page dedicated to helping locate victims and relatives of those in areas affected by Katrina.
Groups like Viet Heritage Society, United Vietnamese Americans and the National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies are coordinating relief efforts. They bring donations to victims from all over the country, using their websites to raise funds and release the latest news about Vietnamese victims.
"After the tsunami in Asia, we raised funds too, even though Vietnamese were not affected here or in Vietnam. But this one -- this is so much closer to home," says Kathleen Bui, editor of Viet Tide and owner of Little Saigon Radio in Orange County, California. Bui is flying to Louisiana to bring money and donations from "Little Saigon."
If the 30-year-old community of 1.3 million is known for political in-fighting and bitter disagreement over politics in Vietnam, everyone now seems to agree on one thing -- Vietnamese Americans who have once more become refugees need all the help they can get, and help is what they will get.
But collective generosity will only go so far. Some 20,000 Vietnamese American refugees in Houston and 10,000 in Dallas are seeking shelter. More are streaming in.
"The situation in Hong Kong Mall is just escalating out of our control. We will be opening an annex office down the hall from our current one because it's so overwhelming," says Ha Hoa Dang, a member of Boat People SOS, which was originally formed to help refugees in Southeast Asia.
"Mainstream relief agencies are refusing to come to the mall to deliver their services," says Dang. "While the donations from the community and the volunteers have been coming in, they're nowhere near the rate of the mainstream. We are using the resources as soon as they come in, in hopes that they will be replenished the following day. We need the appropriate state agencies and relief organizations to protect this equally disenfranchised community."
Despite the limits of their own resources, Vietnamese Americans have their media for immediate lifesavers. Viet Bao newspaper was the only one who reported news of 70 Vietnamese fishermen feared dead in two small towns called Baras and Empire in Louisiana.
"The entire area is now under water," the paper reported of Empire. "The church, which is central there, can only be seen with its cross poking out of the water." No mainstream newspapers or television programs seem to have noticed.
Lam is the author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," due in October 2005 from Heyday Books.
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America: Welcome to the Third World
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