ASA 02
5/18/13
In
the article, “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on Vietnamese Diaspora” Andrew Eds
Lam discusses the good guys siege that happened on April 4th 1991.
Four Vietnamese young men held forty-one people hostage inside the good guys
electronics store in Sacramento. There demands were to be given a “helicopter
to fly to Thailand and fight the Viet Cong, $4 million, four bulletproof vests
and forty pieces of one-thousand-year-old ginseng root.” The way media, TV
reporters and authorities portrayed this siege was a combination of arrogance
and confusion. They didn’t take into consideration the Vietnamese historical
background of the situation. Although the actions of these men are not
justified, the understanding of their mindset is a reflection of the problems
in Vietnamese society.
Many
Vietnamese immigrants are refugees. The second wave of immigrants was people
who were “traumatized by reeducation camps, cannibalism, rape, robbery,” and
more. The Diaspora of Vietnamese
people in American also contribute to the situation they are put in. Knowing
this, it's not surprising that these men who held people hostage come from
dysfunctional backgrounds. However what is surprising to me is that this
happened in Sacramento, not to far from where I live now. It further proved how
real these problems are and how they are affecting the Asian American
community.
Question: What are we as a community doing to help refuges
and their children improve their lives and are the programs that are out there
actually helping?
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