[angkor]

"Sticking together cuts them off from government aid"????

Huh.

Vietnamese-Americans have been making a massive and generous effort to help their fellows affected by Katrina.

[hillary's_fat_a**]

some Asian representatives worry the community may be trying to do too much on its own

Jesse must be shaking his head in disbelief ...

[Huber]

Let me see if I understand. So the problem is that the Vietnamese are being too self sufficient and so we need to work out a strategy to make them more dependent? Why don't we force them into public schools? We'll have this self-sufficiency problem licked in a generation!

/sarcasm

[Sometimes A River]

How DARE they help themselves?!?

They need to act like the others and demand demand demand.

[combat_boots]

"While conceding that it is a sensitive topic, some Vietnamese leaders say their community is reluctant to seek help at the Astrodome in part because of a history of racial tensions between Vietnamese and blacks.

The Vietnamese perceive the Astrodome and convention center as being shelters for blacks, said Thang, the Boat People S.O.S. head."

Bears repeating.

[MissAmericanPie]

Awww, it hurts not to be needed.

[MizSterious]

Maybe they'd rather not take government aid. Nothing at all wrong with that. I applaud them for working together to rebuild.

[Blzbba]

How can there be any Vietnamese evacuees? I thought that 100% of the displaced people were black, and hated by Bush??

[johniegrad]

Nguyen Dinh Thang, the head of Boat People S.O.S

It's a Thang thang.

[DoughtyOne]

I don't know how you folks missed the real story here!

This is irrefuteable evidence that President Bush hates the Vietnamese...

LMAO

You know what, these folks are a real credit to their culture. I for one salute them for trying to do this on their own. At some point though I hope they do reach out to the government and get some help. Just because they have the right ethic, I don't want them to be penalized (in effect) for not having accessed services that are intended to help during this awful period in time.

[Unmarked Package]

I note that the source of this article is a writer for the Houston Chronicle. Sadly, along with so many other large city newspapers, the Houston Chronicle is a dinosaur, leftist news organization that is consistently anti-conservative, anti-military, anti-Christian and pro big government. The editors and staff rarely represent the viewpoint of the majority of Houston area residents and never represent fairly the viewpoint of conservatives.

The liberal bias exhibited by the Houston Chronicle has caused local talk radio (KSEV AM 700) to encourage listeners to cancel their subscriptions (several thousand canceled). An alternative Internet news blog was created to counter the bias of the Houston Chronicle, Lone Star Times.com, which was originally named Chronically Biased.com

It is usually safe to assume that if the Houston Chronicle criticizes a group or its behavior, the group should be congratulated. This is also true in this particular case in my opinion.

I applaud the independent and hard working spirit of the Vietnamese residents in the Gulf Coast region and especially in our Houston community.

[Lucky2]

Maybe those in Houston need to take a closer look at these proud people who are used to making it on their own instead of accepting gov. handouts! Use the Vietnamese as a good example of how to survive!

[Lucky2]

Maybe those in Houston need to take a closer look at these proud people who are used to making it on their own instead of accepting gov. handouts! Use the Vietnamese as a good example of how to survive!

[ncountylee]

"The problem is, because the Vietnamese are not in the shelters, they are not receiving assistance"

How dare they be self reliant and solve their own problems.

[Dane]

With Vietnamese evacuees continuing to pour into Houston, some Asian representatives worry the community may be trying to do too much on its own.

The first sentence of this "article" says it all.

The liberals are having dry heaves that people can take care of themselves.

[TXnMA]

Send some of them to Northeast Texas. There is a good business opportunity here: we haven't been able to find a good Vietnamese or Thai reataurant within 100 miles of Atlanta, TX.

[Dick Vomer]

they're smart to avoid becoming like another minority group that depends on the government aid..... Wow did you see all the Vietnamese looting...I mean they are a REAL MINORITY in New Orleans..

They really went after the "man"...

Bwahahhahahahaha... African-Americans must be so proud of the leadership they've chosen .....they sure don't want to get uppity like Clarence Thomas, Condeleeza Rice, or Colin Powell.... or they'll get slammed for "acting white".

Nope, better to eat off the Democratic masters table scraps and keep your head down, play the legal 'race card" to shakedown somebody for money. Cause if you open a business, work hard for a living or join the Armed Forces you're just "acting white" and not "fighting the powers that be!".

[M0sby]

This is so typical of the Vietnamese that I know here in WA STATE.
A LOT of our funding for school programs such as:
Title 1 and
LAP

are dependent on the FREE AND REDUCED school lunch count.
However, the Vietnamese and other Asian groups will NOT (for the most part) sign up for any assistance.

As a result, we have reduced funding for these programs.
At the beginning of each school year, school officials are CONSTANTLY trying to get families to apply for these programs so that we will qualify for the right amount of funding for Title 1 and LAP.

It is truly disturbing, to see officials TRYING to get people to apply for programs that they don't WANT!

Side note: I used to have acrylic nails (fake fingernails)...my nail lady Tiny (obviously NOT her given name) was the hardest working person I have ever met.
She and her husband work around 80 hours EACH WEEK and are so grateful for the opportunity.
I would always shake my head, as I thought about JUST HOW lazy I am...and how I need to appreciate my country as much as they do...

In my old neighborhood, if an Asian person moved in, we would all think, "Oh well, there is another house where the yard will look better than mine"...:-)

Smart kids too...at our local high school, most of the honor roll is Asian.

[Oatka]

"It used to be Louisiana, but now we call it Lousy-ana," said Thanh . . ."

This guy is assimilating fast - he's already talking American slang - meanwhile, the ebonics crowd . . .

I worked at Camp Pendleton when the first boatloads of Viets came over. They might as well have been Martians - they looked different, spoke a foreign language, worshipped a different god, had a different culture and different tastes in food.

Seven years later, their kids are class Valedictorians, run circles around the U.S. kids in school** and have set up mom and pop shops everywhere. I know there are some problems with the usual 10%, but like the earlier Cubans, these "newbies" are the kind of immigrants we need.

**U.S. college kids would look to see who signed up for a class. If there were too many Viets, they opted for another, "easier" class.

[NeoCaveman]

"Doing to much on their own"????

That just makes them real Americans. God bless them.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

How dare you rotten people take care of your own, you are making another (un named) minority look bad. Signed JJ, AS, CL, et all the usual race baiting suspects.