Hey peeps!

I changed my blog to http://refugeinshalom.wordpress.com/

Please visit my new cite and post your comments there!!!

-- Regina

Street Chef Gospel Singer

This is my first photo-audio production. It definitely has lots of room for improvement. Appreciate any feedback!

- Regina

A Street Chef in Harlem, Harry White hopes to bless people with his singing. But He needs to regain his trust in people first.

Davis generous with quake relief

Davis generous with quake relief

By Regina Wang/Enterprise correspondent

June 6, 2008

Members of the Chinese-American community in Davis have sprung into action to raise funds for earthquake relief in the wake of the devastating May 12 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province.

Michael Tan, an engineer at UC Davis, said he was worried when he got the news that an earthquake ad hit his hometown, but he wasn’t sure how great the damage was. Then, when he saw photos of children buried under debris and parents wailing next to the collapsed classrooms, pangs of pain jolted his heart.

"You look at those kids -- they could've been mine," Tan said.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake has claimed more than 69,127 people, with 17,918 still missing, according to the latest government figures.

And the devastation continues. Aftershocks are now hitting the affected region, and heavy rain is compounding the misery as thousands are still homeless.

NewStar Chinese School, a local organization that offers Mandarin class to children, has raised at least $10,700 from the Davis community. The school has 160 students and 90 percent is of Chinese descent.

Donations will be collected for the final time Saturday morning at the Davis Farmers’ Market in Central Park, Fourth and C streets.

The responses from the community have been heartwarming, said principal Ning Wan, whose family is originally from Sichuan. For example, Davis Fire Fighters donated $500, Wan said.

The board members of NewStar plan to use the donations to build a library or a computer lab for a school there in Sichuan.

“This is a tragedy, but I feel so good that so many people care,” Wan said. “We hope to build people’s lives there.”

Bob Jennings, a deacon at the Davis Chinese Christian Church, says he has been impressed with the Chinese government’s response to the disaster. Jennings lived in Sichuan for eight years. He remembers the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed at least 300,000 people, and said the government was unwilling to share much information or receive emergency help from other countries.

Now, 31 years later, the attitude has changed dramatically. The government even approved relief teams and accepted donations from Japan and Taiwan, two neighbors China often treats with reservations.

"They are acting responsibly this time," Jennings said of the Chinese government.

Tan and his family have attended the 400-member Davis church for 12 years. He said he knows at least two people in the congregation who are also from Sichuan. The church has raised at least $10,600 so far and will give the donations to World Visions, a Christian humanitarian organization that is now distributing tents and medical supplies in Sichuan and plans to rebuild schools and houses there.

As of May 20, authorities recorded 4,700 unclaimed children whose parents presumably died in the quake, Civil Affairs Ministry official Zhang Shifeng said at a news conference today. Tan has two teenage children, but he said if the government allows adoption, he and his wife would like to consider adopting a quake orphan.

Meanwhile, he was saddened to watch videos of grief-stricken parents crying over the bodies of their only children because of China’s One Child Policy.

"I haven't teared up for 30 years," he said, as his voice choked with emotion.

What Sichuan needs is long-term relief, said Billy Yip, a pastor at Chinese Christian Herald Crusades, a community outreach organization based in New York.

CCHC is planning to build an orphanage in Sichuan, to add to the two others it has built in China.

So far, CCHC has raised at least $575,000 from all over the United States.

"[The earthquake] came as a shock," Yip said. "Hopefully, the whole thing draws everyone together."

Yip said the openness and effectiveness of the Chinese government was "remarkable," especially its tolerance of the media coverage.

If you would like to contribute to NewStar Chinese School’s relief fund, please write a check payable to the school and send it to P.O. Box 74298, Davis, CA 95617-7429.

If you would like to donate to World Vision, go to http://worldvision.org.

A Royal Mission

A Royal Mission

Polio survivor immigrates to America, becomes activist and earns title of Ms. Wheelchair California

by Regina Wang
Enterprise Correspondent

May 9, 2008

Before the tiara of Ms. Wheelchair California was placed on her, Shannon Coe had already possessed a crownholder’s dignity and resolve. From an infant afflicted with polio in post-war Vietnam to a refugee growing up disabled and fatherless in inner-city Los Angeles, to a human rights advocate who has traveled to 41 countries, the 32-year-old has led a life that outshines the glory from any overdue crowns.

The fall of Saigon:

When Coe was 18 months old, she was diagnosed with polio. In 1976, Vietnam was in turmoil as the Northern Vietnamese Communist regime was ready to swallow the south immediately after America’s decamping. Alarmed and desperate, Southern Vietnamese, like Coe’s family, made up their mind to flee the country by any means.

Coe, back then under the family name Hy, was considered too weak to endure the journey. Her relatives suggested throwing her into a well.

Her father stood up for his 4 year-old daughter. “Maybe in America we can find cure so she can walk again,” he said, determined to carry her out of Vietnam.

At 4 a.m. Coe’s immediate family and relatives, totaling 20 people, sneaked into a crude wooden boat heading toward Thailand, where they could find refuge and possibly sponsorship to America. Meanwhile Coe’s mother was eight months pregnant with her sister.

Now, 28 years later, Coe remembers the disorienting days her family wandered on the ocean. She also remembers moment their hope surged when a Thai boat arrived to the rescue, pulling them up from the wooden boat. She peeked down and watched the deteriorating wooden boat sink into the deep water within minutes.

After spending time in refugee camps in Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, the family was sponsored to go to Switzerland, but her father turned it down, determined to go to America, where he believed the more-advanced medical training would promise his daughter a better life.

Coming to America:

Eventually the family was sponsored by a church to America. They were settled into the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles – where gang violence and inter-ethnic tensions were the norm. Coe’s father took on a menial labor job and her mother worked in a sweat shop, trying to make do with their three children in a one-bedroom apartment.

Although Coe received her first wheelchair upon her arrival in America, she was quickly sent to a special education school for children with learning and physical disabilities, segregated from the mainstream. It took the school four years to realize Coe was intellectually competent.

Yet things did not become easier when Coe left for a regular public school.

“Hey! Cripple!” a boy never failed to greet her on the way to class.

Right before she reached seven grade, her father – the man who had delivered her out of death and Vietnam – died from leukemia.

“When my father died, I came out of my shell,” Coe said, realizing she had no time to be self-conscious anymore. At age 12, she rolled up her sleeves to aim her widowed mother who spoke no English and had no experience in dealing with the American way. As the oldest daughter, Coe took on the responsibility of translating and interceding for her family.

During those arduous hours, her father’s words whispered in her ears, “Education is the key to success,” he had often reminded her. “You have to succeed in life, you have to be somebody.”

But success seemed unattainable to a struggling refugee family, to a young girl who wondered how she could claim her passion and dreams to a world that held little faith to those with disabilities.

Persistence

She is used to people staring at her, but what she cannot stand, she said, is people holding preconceived notions about her.

Growing up, when her siblings helped her up and down flights of stairs, people often watched with wonder. Coe knew many of them were simply curious, so she would answer their questions and usually, they became friends. But still, it was hard being the only disabled person in various settings.

“It would’ve been nice to have a mentor or role model,” she said.

Since she had never seen a successful professional in wheelchair, Coe remembers the doubt and fear she carried while striving her best in school because she did not know what the future held.

Neither did her relatives. They only knew that in Vietnam, disabled people were beggars. They sighed and predicted she would never get married or hold jobs.

“I need to do something to not be stuck in the box they put me in,” she said, determined to attain her aspirations.

During her junior year at UC Berkeley, Coe applied to study abroad in Hong Kong. But the education abroad office discouraged her, saying few, if any, colleges overseas were accessible to the disabled.

Coe went home and did her own research, “I wouldn’t believe there was not one single school that wouldn’t accept me because I have disability.” She called colleges after colleges – and sure enough, she found one in England, Lancaster University.

After her studies in England, she wanted to join the Peace Corps. She passed the interview with ease, but her disability and turbulent medical records – she had had surgeries to remove one lung and to install nails in her spine – made the Peace Corps reluctant to accept her.

It took her almost two years to clear her medical records, but when it came to placement, the Peace Corps discouraged her again from going to developing countries, where they believed disabled people were incapable of surviving and easy targets of robbery. After much persistence, and some legal action, they were finally convinced of her determination.

They placed her in Paraguay. For two years she organized Special Olympics projects, taught English, and gave speeches to the government.

One day her landlady told her that some idlers in the villages would hide from her when she passed by them every morning.

“They see you go to work and they feel bad just sitting around and chatting with friends,” her landlady told Coe.

And she was the only person on the team who did not get robbed.

“My friends sometimes say to me: ‘You don’t like to hear ‘No,’” Coe said with a smile. “I am not afraid of failures; I am afraid of not trying. There are so many opportunities in life. Why not take them?”

Ms. Wheelchair California

Coe knew she had a soft spot for the disabled in other parts of the world, particularly Asia. She joined a world-renown charity organization, Joni and Friends, to bring hundreds of wheelchairs to the disabled in Vietnam and Cuba. Through her volunteer work, she met her husband, Dominic Coe. It was a pleasant surprise to find out the similarities they share: she is half Vietnamese and Chinese; he’s half English and Italian. And he also lost his father when he was 13. The couple now resides in Davis.

Then at a social event, she met the previous year’s Miss Wheelchair California, Susan Rotchy, who encouraged entering the pageant. That was when she found out that Miss Wheelchair was far from being a beauty contest but “a competition based on advocacy, achievement, communication and presentation to select the most accomplished and articulate spokesperson for individuals with disabilities, ” according to the Web site.

Coe entered the pageant and was crowned the title in March.

To her, the crown shows that contrary to popular notions, having disability does not limit a person. “Women with disabilities can still be confident, capable, attractive – and we are role models to inspire others,” Coe added.

In July she is competing for Miss Wheelchair America in Maryland.

She hopes to win the title so it will help her realize her dream – bridging the disabled in America with the disabled worldwide to empower each other and improve their lives together.

Coe became a Christian during her college years at Berkley. She credited God as her source of strength and compassion.

“My faith in God has helped me realize how fortunate I am, so I can't forget where I came from,” she said. “I have decided to dedicate my life in helping those that were left behind in developing countries.”

And being a persistent person, Coe is true to her words. In May she is representing Joni and Friends to bring 200 wheelchairs to Ongole, India.

To support Shannon Coe at Ms. Wheelchair America 2009 in Maryland from July 21-27, please contact her at hyshannon@gmail.com or visit her blog http://mswheelchairca08.blogspot.com

No Dream is Too High to Reach -- A Guaynese Girl and Her American Dream

There has got to be something magical about working in the tallest building in the largest city in the United States of America. 22-year-old Vanessa Ramdat knows it has got to be the case.

Just like immigrating to America after 13 years of yearning, she knows one day her hope of becoming a model will also come true.

"I'm tall and I'm pretty," Ramdat said. "I'd like to be famous. I want to be a model."

Her 5'8" frame stood straight against hundreds of postcards and key chains. Her pearl teeth contrasted her chocolate-hued face. Her sleek long hair runs down her shoulders. If it was not for the ocean blue uniform she was wearing, Vanessa Ramdat could have been ready for her first catwalk.

Growing up her parents promised her again and again, One day you will live in America. She waited for 13 years for the day to arrive. It came true two years ago when she and her mother landed in New York from Guyana. Till this day, Ramdat's eyes still gloss when she recalls the childhood promise.

And now she gets to work at a gift shop on the 80^th floor of the Empire State Building.

Built in 1930, the Empire State Building represents America's pride and prosperity. It does not matter to Ramdat that thirty some years ago it fell off the throne as the world's tallest building and now lags behind eight countries. In her eyes, this building is pure magical.

For example, her uncle, who has lived here for 25 years, has yet had the chance to tour the building.

The best part of her job, Ramdat said, is greeting everyone around the world every day. The second best part of her job is probably working with everyone around the world. 80 percent of her co-workers are immigrants hailed from South Africa, Jamaica, China, Trinidad.

"We have fun together and we understand each other," she said. Her co-workers nicknamed her "baby" for being the youngest among the crew.

The diversity of her workforce is not unique to the Empire State Building. A little less than 50 percent of New Yorkers speak another language at home. And 37 percent of the city population is foreign-born, the 2000 Census records. The phenomenon makes the city an immediate second home for immigrants.

Ramdat's worked at Conway where she had just arrived here. Her current manager happened to shop there one day and they struck a conversation. The manager asked her if she would like to work at the building of her dream.

"I couldn't stop laughing for five minutes," Ramdat said.

Now her hourly wages have doubled to $14.75. She works 37 hours a week to pay the rent of a tiny one-bedroom apartment which she and her mother share. Her father is still in Guyana.

"It's gorgeous here. I love it," she said of the city.

Terminator is My Man

Arnold Schwarzenegger stunned the public when he announced his candidacy in 2003. And California stunned the rest of the world when it overwhelmingly picked him as its governor.

This former bodybuilder has redefined people's perceptions. Born in 1947 in Austria, Schwarzenegger probably has one of the most unlikely pasts than your average politician. He won the title of Mr. Universe at the age 20, got himself out of Austria, and became a top movie star in Hollywood.

A so-called "self-made man," Schwarzenegger said he had overcome challenges against him ever since growing up. His faltering relationship with an abusive father and a distant brother grew so sour that he did not attend their funerals. He fought against his parents' wish for him to be a policeman or a businessman. Bodybuilding, he had decided, would bring him to America and make a name for himself there. When he was exploring the dream of becoming a Hollywood star, he was told that his funky last name, jarring foreign accent, as well as abnormally-sized muscles would get him nowhere. He ended up blazing trails in many uncharted territories.

Schwarzenegger built a popular image of himself after starring in films that have defined the 80s and the 90s for most Americans, such as True Lies, Terminator, Junior and the Kindergarten Cop. In 1986 he married Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family. By 1994 he was invited to mark his prints in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Then in 2003, he announced on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno his intention to run for the California recall election.

His record of Republican views or his ties with the good old American tradition were irrelevant to the California voters who were eager to take Gray Davis out of the office. Perhaps, they thought, this 7-time Mr. Olympic champion could restore California to its leading positions in economy and technology.

He first defeated his contenders by winning 48 percent of the vote. Three years later, he triumphed again with 55.9 percent of the vote.

Time Magazine chose him as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world for four consecutive years, until this year. Many Californians are not happy with him because of his steep budget cuts, particularly in education and health care. In 2008 the budget crisis has hit $16 billion. But he refused to raise taxes to solve the situation. Consequently, many schools will be closed dosed down and teachers laid off.

Yet he was obviously burdened by the cuts. He said he chose to ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court of overturning the ban on same-sex marriage, because he wanted to focus on the budget system, according to a Sacramento Bee article.

It is hard to define Schwarzenegger and fathom his next move. Maybe his wife says the best when asked to describe him in a Time interivew:

"That's what caught my attention, believe it or not, about him—that he was irreverent, funny, free-spirited. I hadn't met anybody like that."

In my article about how two New York Jews see the "Jews against Obama" T-shirt controversy, I'm deeply grateful for my two interviewees, Martin and Shmuel. When my professor assigned us to interview a person in Manhattan and write something newsworthy out of the interview, I barged into Martin's office out of desperation and asked him if I could get his comments on the controversy as well as his perspectives on being Jewish American. Martin graciously said yes and let me phone interview him that very night.

I met Shmuel at a world-famous camera store on Ninth Avenue, B & H Photography. I approached him out of the blue, and he kindly explained to me what it meant for him to be an orthodox Jew and his perspective on the presidential race.

They could have turned down my interview requests, but instead they spent hours telling a stranger their stories. I appreciate their openness and sincerity, which not only helped me understand more about Jewish culture, but also the similarities we share as human beings. There are perhaps more we share in common -- such as connecting with people and improving the place we live in -- than the cultural and ethnic differences that often divide us.

Talking with them made my day and made my trip to New York totally worth it. I would have had no idea how diverse the Jewish community there was, and probably seen this Jewish designer's perspective as representative of all Jews.










http://www.papierdoll.net/themag/2008/05/13/fashion-designer-launched-jews-against-obama-line/

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/19/jewish_voters/

http://www.indypendent.org/2008/05/15/schmucks-against-obama/

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/21/america/jews.php

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211288137944&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a11480/News/International.html