A federal grand jury in Honolulu indicted Mordechai Orian, president of Global Horizons Manpower Inc. and five of his associates for labor coercion of about 400 Thai farm workers.

A federal judge ruled that Orian, who turned himself in to the FBI in Honolulu, could be released to his Malibu home until his trial, provided that he post a $1-million bond and wear electronic monitoring. His trial is in November.

Jorge Guzman of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urged the public to report any suspicions about human trafficking to law enforcement. He also praised the Thai Community Development Center for raising awareness about the problem.

By Stepfanie Aguilar

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide is the third highest cause of death among the 15-to-24 age group in America. Recent studies have also shown that API students in particular are at high risk. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that APIs are more likely to commit suicide than the average American.

As part of a model minority, API students often face immense pressure from their families, peers, and society to succeed both in and outside of school. At the same time, their reluctance to talk about their failures and doubts may cause many who have depression to suffer alone. Jenny Liu, a fourth year economics major at UCLA and winner of the 2010 Jerry Greenspan Student Voice Award, an annual award designed to encourage dialogue about mental health on campuses and reduce the stigma surrounding emotional disorders, was one such student.

Liu suffered from depression starting from her freshman year in college and encountered firsthand the stigma surrounding the illness, encapsulated by the first time she considered seeking help from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), a counsel- ing center at UCLA that offers students psychological services.

“I remember walking back and forth in front of the building and debating whether or not to go in,” said Liu. “But I never did it because it was a scary feeling and embarrassing. I felt like it was just a phase and something I was going through and could get over it.”

For many APIs, being silent when it comes to confronting depression and other mental health issues may be related to how they were raised.

“Our families pressure us to do really well and we’re perfectionists so we’re not used to dealing with failing or things going wrong. When it does happen, especially in college, we (may) get depressed and not tell anyone about it,” Liu said. “Being Chinese and talking to other Asian people, people like to talk about their accomplishments…rather than reveal their insecurities or the problems they might have. Seeing a counselor has a bad connotation; (people think) ‘Oh she’s not doing that well.’ ”

The pressure that results from the desire to live up to the model minority ideal is a theme that was explored in this year’s Chinese American Culture Night (CACN), which took place on May 1 in Royce Hall. Put on by the Association of Chinese Americans, CACN focused primarily on exploring gang violence and mental health issues in the Asian American community, particularly on the overachiever mentality and suicide. The production included a screening of an interview with a CAPS counselor, who discussed suicide in relation to the model minority idea and its impact on Asian American students.

According to the counselor, the idea that all Asian Americans do well in school, do well in work, and have few social problems is often ingrained within the culture itself.

Among API females, body image is often an issue as well, putting API women at even greater risk for suicide and depression. API women ages 15 to 24 lead in the highest suicide rate amongst all ethnic groups, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Liu discussed her battle with an eating disorder along with depression in her award-winning essay for the Greenspan award.

“A lot of Asian girls are really skinny and there’s the pressure to (adhere to) the image of being the petite Asian girl. And if you don’t have that you just feel really down and low,” Liu said.

While depression, suicide, and eating disorders are often considered taboo topics for many college students, opening up the discussion about mental health has helped many stu- dents begin the recovery process. Awards such as the Jerry Greenspan Student Voice Award for Mental Health encour- age students to reach out to their peers and raise awareness of mental health problems on campus. As part of her contest entry, Liu submitted pieces of her art.“I try to open up the conversation about mental health in my paintings…one of (them) has a picture of a girl confined within a measuring tape just to show how being really skinny isn’t healthy at all,” Liu said.

Liu is also an events director for Active Minds, a student organization at UCLA dedicated to promoting awareness about mental health and reducing the stigma of mental illness on the college campus. Some of Liu’s paintings were recently displayed in “A Piece of Mind,” an art exhibit organized by Active Minds that encouraged students to submit poetry and artwork in order to speak out about mental health.

“I just thought for me, drawing was a really good out- let to express my mental health problems and feelings. If I couldn’t talk about it, drawing was my source of therapy, and I wanted other students to do the same. Maybe they couldn’t speak out because they were too nervous, but if they had another way to express themselves, then it’s good and healthy,” Liu said. “It’ll be good to let students see that people can be successful in doing what they do while dealing with a mental health issue.”

By Shirley Mak

Coming to UCLA has definitely challenged and broadened my critical consciousness of the world and the communities surrounding me. After learning the stories of many AB540 students and their unjust struggles, I was baffled by how long this issue has been prolonged. It was then that I realized that it all boiled down to one question: Should education be a right or a privilege? Unlike many people who view the DREAM Act as an immigration reform bill, I view this issue as an education crisis, in which various students are denied the rights to the benefits of higher education. It is an education crisis when students have to resort to
“under the table” jobs after receiving their hard-earned degrees in higher education. It is a sad moment when a high school student sees her education as having little relevance to her own life because she knows that she cannot work the “system” to her advantage in the future. It is deeply troubling for me to see the rest of the student population going about their lives and enjoying their documentation privileges without any awareness or social responsibility for others who cannot drive, travel, or receive federal student aid. It sickens my stomach to see the current sentiment of Arizona’s SB1070 upheld, which legalizes racial profiling and fires English teachers who have accents. The education crisis becomes painfully ironic when we mandate two years of foreign language education for UC applications while, at the same time, hearing the echoes of “It’s America, speak English!”
In light of the recent deaths of undocumented student activists Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix, I ask students to con- sider the role of immigrants in achieving higher education. Both Tran and Felix were UCLA graduates attending Brown University and Columbia University, respectively. Despite the lack of financial aid available to them due to their statuses, they worked earnestly to fund their tuitions. They helped found an advocacy and support group for undocumented students, created media documentaries, and testified their stories to Congress, our campus and beyond to shed light on their circumstances. Their fight was a fight for educational access.
I strongly urge students – especially API students – to reflect on our privileges as students and to understand this issue through the lens of an education battle. No matter how you feel about immigration reform, it is still important to acknowledge that many students did not have a say in their undocumented status. I myself could have easily fallen into the AB540 student category and had not known it. So could you, or the people that you know. In these difficult times, assuming your social responsibility and educating yourself about the DREAM Act is crucial.

By Tuyen Bui

Taishanese, a Chinese dialect derived from and similar to Cantonese, came from Southern China in the Guangdong province. It had dominated the streets of Chinatown, as most of the Chinese who had immigrated to the U.S. since the end of the 19^th century originated from Taishan.

In the 1960s, the sounds of Chinatown shifted to Cantonese, when immigration reforms lifted restrictions on immigration. Cantonese speakers then dominated the neighborhoods of Chinatown, emigrating from Hong Kong and mainland China.

However, I have noticed that the sounds of Chinatown have changed. From Taishanese and Cantonese to Mandarin, the shift is noticeable.

Chinese-American communities are partly to blame for the shift, as the communities have realigned. The Mandarin-speaking community is becoming more dominant as more Chinese from other parts of mainland China and Taiwan have immigrated to the U.S. predominantly since the 1990s.

Recent immigrants are gaining economic and political clout, said Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College.

Mandarin, the official and national language of China, is becoming more dominant in the streets of Chinatowns everywhere, nationally and internationally.

Parents are now pushing their children to learn Mandarin, even if their native language is Cantonese. As China is becoming a rising leader in the world, it is seen as more advantageous to learn Mandarin than Cantonese.

The shift is also evident in the schools, where Mandarin classes are beginning to be offered more than Cantonese classes. Parents would rather have their children learn Mandarin, even if it means they cannot communicate with their own relatives in their native language.

The shift in the language is a challenge to older people who only speak Cantonese, unless they learn Mandarin or English to coincide with the cultural shift.

Cantonese and Mandarin share the same written language and the same written characters, but when spoken, the pronunciations are different.

The possibility that Mandarin may eclipse Cantonese as the dominant language in Chinatowns across the nation and the world is high. As Cantonese had eclipsed Taishanese in the past, Mandarin may do the same. The sounds of Chinatown are ever changing.

By Karen Lee

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans to internment camps. During the time that these camps were being built, Japanese Americans were held at assembly centers like Santa Anita beginning in March of 1942. 19,000 Japanese Americans were held at Santa Anita in barracks or converted horses stalls. The Army covered Santa Anita’s parking lot with rows of identical barracks and camp was divided into seven districts. Each person was given an Army bed, blanket, and straw tick. In these conditions, the racetrack was also surrounded by barbed wire and residents were not allowed to have any Japanese literature. By September 1942, residents were relocated to different assembly centers and Santa Anita camp was empty by the end of the month. The racetrack then turned into an Army training camp.

The Arcadia Historical Museum details Santa Anita’s history in an exhibit called “Only What We Could Carry: The Santa Anita Assembly Center.” The show includes photos, stories, and other artifacts opening November 10 through January 16. On November 14, there will be an opening reception for the exhibit beginning at 11AM.

UCLA alumni Matthew Nguyen was able to find a match when cooperating with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches last quarter. He is now recovering after the recent transplant.

Now it is Janet Liang’s turn to find her match, who was diagnosed with leukemia this August. She is a fifth-year International Developmental Studies student currently going through chemotherapy that might last only up until May. Her family has been assisting this week’s bone marrow drive in hopes of finding a matching donor soon and to increase possible future donors for other patients.

“Coming from a Chinese background, Liang statistically has only a 7 percent of finding a donor, she said. For a person of Caucasian heritage, the chances are close to 80 percent, she added.” -Daily Bruin

Not pretty good, right? Let’s raise the percentage. Let’s raise it for other ethnicities too. I challenge you. So what are you waiting for? Go register!

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9S8ktcM5xE

For more information:

Daily Bruin article on Janet Liang

Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M)

By Stepfanie Aguilar

When the term F.O.B. was first coined in the 1980s, it was used as a racist and derogatory term to describe a person with an ethnically diverse background, specifically to those who had recently immigrated to the U.S. from another country.

F.O.B., which stands for “Fresh Off the Boat,” was a term to stereotype immigrants and those of “foreign” descent. It was also used to describe those who had not yet assimilated to American culture.

However, the term has taken on a vastly different connotation, one that is endearing and tongue-in-cheek. Those of us with immigrant parents can now embrace our differences in culture and language, and can now feel proud of our roots and what makes us different from everyone else.

The term F.O.B. has transformed into the term “fob,” which is a term to describe something, essentially, “super-Asian.” The pronunciation has also changed, from pronouncing the letters as an acronym to pronouncing it as an actual word. With the change in pronunciation, the meaning has also evolved.

The websites mymomisafob.com and mydadisafob.com are filled with humorous photos, messages, and sayings that are dedicated to “fobby” moms and dads. The entries can be submitted by anyone, and the websites have garnered popularity and attention from within the Asian American community.

The websites were established in October of 2008 by Serena Wu, a recent graduate of U.C. Berkeley, and Teresa Wu, a senior at U.C. San Diego.

Defending the term “fob,” Teresa Wu has said:

We think our moms and dads are awesome; we’re not embarrassed by them. Maybe they can’t speak perfect English, but the things they do are so lovable that we just want to share them.

The websites are a way of showing off pride in your fobby parents, and for relating to one another the humorous and endearing things that parents say and do; Asian Americans growing up with immigrant parents can share their stories and express their affections and bond over their experiences with their fobby yet lovable parents.

By: Karen Lee

Vice Mayor Ignacio De La Fuente states, “Right now we have absolutely no controls or regulations over nail salons, which have proliferated and, I think, become a problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oakland has 1,000 of them.” Pamela Drake, director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District, adds “A neighborhood shopping district only works if it serves the neighborhood. A proliferation of nail salons is not serving the neighborhood.

The city also wants to crackdown on health and safety hazards as workers often suffer from respiratory and reproductive problems because of the toxic chemicals in nail polish, polish remover and cleaning supplies. Meanwhile, the nail salon owners want to assist with the writing of regulations that would be implemented. They hope the new rules are not too burdensome and that Vietnamese immigrant workers are adequately informed.

Dana Paredes, organizing director of Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, reminds us that “Nail salons are the cornerstone of the Vietnamese community. People are already feeling pinched by the economy. Workers don’t want to have to choose between their health and a paycheck.”

A customer of the nail salons, Michelle Robinson, tells the San Francisco Chronicle, “It’s tranquil. It’s relaxing. And they work with integrity. There’s so much competition, they’ve raised the bar. Why would you go anywhere else? It’s not the same. You’re wasting your money.” For now, the nail salons will continue their business as the issue has been referred to the Planning Commission and will return to the council in a few months.

by Tran Le

Federal prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against prominent Hmong community leader Vang Pao. The original charges were from the summer of 2007 relating to a plot to violent overthrow the government of Laos.

Arrests were conducted when it was claimed many of the defendants had immediate plans to travel to Thailand to execute the plot against the communist regime. As charges against Vang Pao have been dropped, two new defendants have been charged in a new indictment. The twelve other defendants named in the new indictment are charged with violating the Neutrality Act and scheming to overthrow a government at peace with the United States.

In each court appearance Pao made, supporters rallied outside the federal courthouse in Sacramento. There was much protest from the Hmong community, Vietnam War veterans, and some members of Congress over Pao’s indictment. An editorial in the New York Sun states that “it is hard to recall a prosecution as misguided as that which was brought against the general whose army, in league with the Central Intelligence Agency, played a heroic role in the fight against the communists during the long war in Indochina.”

When Vang Pao was originally arrested, the Sun wrote, “He is a freedom fighter who will tower over any courtroom into which he is brought.” There is substantial support for Vang Pao as shown by the thousands of Hmong who came out in numbers across the country from Sacramento to Minnesota. In an LA Times article Vang Pao’s youngest son stated “His supporters can’t wait to see him to celebrate this momentous occasion.”

by: Tran Le