Vietnamese evacuees seek aid at Asian mall (FEMA, Red Cross say "wait")

Just when the flood of Vietnamese evacuees from Katrina started to subside, a wave of Vietnamese Rita victims showed up at a popular Asian mall in southwest Houston this week.

"We had 200 people outside our door (Tuesday) morning," said Tram Nguyen, with Boat People S.O.S., an organization that, through its office in the Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire, has led the effort to help Vietnamese evacuees. Nguyen estimates there are more than 500 Vietnamese evacuees from Rita in Houston.

Nearly 5,000 Vietnamese live in Port Arthur and Beaumont, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As with the Vietnamese Katrina victims from Louisiana and Mississippi, most work in the fishing industry.

"I went back and my whole apartment had collapsed," said Tan Cao, a fisherman from Port Arthur. Cao brought his wife and 2-year-old daughter to Houston to stay with relatives, but he worries about how he will get support, particularly medical attention for his wife, who is eight months pregnant.

FEMA has said some Rita victims will be eligible for the $2,000. A Red Cross representative said it's too early to say whether Rita victims will receive the same compensation as Katrina victims.

"We have not started handing out money yet," said Margaret O'Brien-Molina, local representative of the Red Cross.

The Red Cross excells at taking money, but they're very s-l-o-w to give to the actual victims of disaster.

This was the case in OKC after the Murrah Bombing and again after the tornados of May '99. Lots of money came in to the Red Cross, but not a lot came out.

The local Red Cross in Lubbock,TX has given $10K to a group that's helping the Katrina evacuees who are staying for good...nice, but not much when you consider they got $150K+ from United Supermarket's check-out donation drive alone.

It appears the RC prefers to funnel money to other groups and agencies rather than give directly to those in need, making them about as efficient as any run-of-the-mill federal bureaucracy.

I know many, many, many Vietnamese immigrants, and am very close personally to the big wig Vietnamese guy (the one who is the go to guy for new immigrants in town) in my city.

I have never, ever met an illegal Vietnamese immigrant. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I highly doubt that it is a significant number.

Which is actually one of the gillion reasons illegals piss me off. There is so much red tape for my Vietnamese friends when they want to bring a family member over, and it costs them so much money, but they always comply. They always follow the rules.

Amnesty for Mexicans is a slap in the face to every immigrant who follows the rules.

"It appears the RC prefers to funnel money to other groups and agencies rather than give directly to those in need,"

Making them nothing more than "United Way" like organization.

"...making them about as efficient as any run-of-the-mill federal bureaucracy."

And like the federal bureaucracy, and the UN's "Oil for Food", they gather interest from those accts, and don't roll it over back into those accts, to bring more help, to the ones that really need it. They use the money for ridiculous salaries and perks for the organizations' officers. Maybe some ex UN officials are now working for the Red Cross these days.

If you want to make donations to help people in the affective area, give:

1. to your local church's charitable organization

2. The Salvation Army

3. Samaritan's Purse (I think it is called.

Or any one of the many organizations that are doing the work, but are not getting the attention. There are not wasting charitable donations, to promote themselves.

They are, but you know what? They never complain. They just work their butts off, make enough money for all their children to go to college, and are happy to be here rather than in Viet Nam.

The guy I know fought for the South Vietnamese and was captured by the North when his first born was a few months old.

He escaped after five years in prison, was only able to get his wife out of VN (had to leave his five year old boy, who he did not even know, with his grandmother), and got on a tiny boat with other refugees.

They made it all the way to Hong Kong in that thing, eating nothing but rice.

When they got to the refugee camps there, an American soldier was going through looking for SVN POW's. They took Hanh and his wife, and debriefed Hanh. They gave him cigarettes and food, and he was so grateful.

The Americans sent Hanh and his wife to a hotel in California. It was just a little room with a bed in it, but Hanh could not believe how fortunate he was. It was clean and huge and beautiful to him. He came to Kansas because he had some friends here, and got a job as a mechanic. He put himself through college, and along the way his wife had a daughter, a son, and twins.

I met Hanh when he was a waiter at a restaurant twenty years ago. He is tiny due to malnutrition when he was growing up. Not long after I met him, a drunk driver hit their car, killing his young twins and smashing his wife's legs. He took the insurance money, and bought the restaurant at which he worked.

To this day, he owns that restaurant, as well as all of the commercial property around it, a liquor store, and about four blocks of houses that he rents out to his friends and family members. He used to live in one of those houses, but now lives in a huge beautiful house on a lake in a very exclusive neighborhood.

The reason I tell you this story is because after all the adversity this human being has faced, he is still happy, he still works his butt off, he expects the same from everyone around him, and he is an absolute inspiration to me.

My friendship with him is what makes my blood boil every time I hear of some illegal getting away with their crime. And when I hear my President say that he is going to cut these criminals a break, I just can't believe it. Hanh brings here every relative of his who wants to come. It takes a couple of years and about 10,000.00 per person, but he does it. I HATE illegals.

p.s. He was finally able to bring his oldest son here when his son was 21 years old. He spoke no English, and knew no one. Now, he speaks English, he is married with two little kids, and he is his dad's right hand man in all the businesses.

What a touching story.

My late husband fought in VietNam. Whether out of guilt for being in the war or a genuine feeling for people he'd met over there, as long as we were married, we always knew Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants; their children played with our son in our home.

My son went on to major in Asian Studies,concentrating on VietNam. He learned Vietnamese (probably a little rusty now) and was 3x voted an officer, inlcuding co-president, of the Vietnamese Students Assn at the UMichigan. The only non-Asian to do so.

I know there are some Vietnamese immigrants who have gone down the wrong path. Sadly, they tend to prey on their fellow Vietnamese and don't get a lot of press coverage.

But for the most part, the Vietnamese I've met have been hard working, clean living, good Buddhists or Catholics, and have not been a bother to anyone. I'd rather see many more of them immigrate than 1 of those who cross our southern borders.

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