Bolsavik.com

A raid of massage parlors in Georgia’s Bibb County last week resulted in the arrest of 13 women, of whom 6 have identifiable Vietnamese names, accused of prostitution, reported the (Macon, Georgia) Telegraph here.

As reported by the paper, the Macon Police Department and Bibb County Sheriff’s Department jointly conducted the investigation where undercover sheriff deputies visited the massage parlors and were offered sex services. The people under arrest are charged with solicitation of prostitution and masturbation for hire. The parlor’s owners were charged with keeping a place of prostitution.

In one instance, a deputy was “propositioned for masturbation and sex at a cost of $120,” reported the Telegraph.

The operation covered 8 massage parlors, of which four have owners and/or workers with Vietnamese names being arrested:

— Paradise Spa: Bui Thi Le, 53 (pictured), charged with keeping a house of prostitution, and Michelle Nguyen, 57, charged with solicitation of prostitution and masturbation for hire. “Le was previously arrested in 2002 for prostitution and keeping a house of prostitution,” says the Telegraph.

(more…)

Never before has the Bolsavik witnessed a Viet author cause such excitement among his fellow scribes. Within the space of 2 days, half a dozen people separately asked the Bolsavik if he’s going to Los Angeles this Sunday for 29-year-old author Nam Le’s (pictured) book signing and reading of his collection of short stories “The Boat.”

Maybe part of the excitement is because it’s been a while since a book by a Viet author came out. (Self-publications by “authors” with more money than they deserve don’t count.)

But that quantitative aspect doesn’t explain it all. There must be something to the book’s literary value that caused noises about this book signing to come from such diverse quarters as Mariam B. Lam, literature and film studies professor at UC Riverside; Anhdao Do, spoken word artist, Las Vegas magician and editor of the Vietnamese literature web site Damau.org; Quang X. Pham, conservative Republican, decorated Marine veteran, author, and CEO of a biotech company; Ky-Phong Tran, the liberal self-described “not liberal or conservative, just open-minded” award-winning journalist for Nguoi Viet 2 and publisher of Asian American Poetry and Writing; etc. Not to mention the Bolsavik’s brother, who like his brother before him doesn’t get excited easily.

Quang X. Pham, on the other hand, got so excited he gushed, “Nam Le’s remarkable collection of short stories has a very good chance of getting short listed for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction next April … absolutely the best fiction writing I’ve read in a long time.” That probably qualifies as hyperbole, but maybe by only just.

Nam Le will be appearing here:
(more…)

If things seem a little quiet around here, it’s because everything’s overshadowed by the gathering of Vietnamese-Americans in Houston to protest the visit to the U.S. by a real card-carrying communist — Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

A former communist security officer, Nguyen Tan Dung is making his third visit to the U.S. since becoming the head of the government. Previously, he had come to the U.S. as a Vice-Premier. (It’s during one of those visits that he had met with Nguoi Viet’s late publisher Yen Do and photos from one such meeting is now basis for Ky Ngo et al.’s claim that Nguoi Viet has always been communist. Click here.)

Anyway, so Dung went to Houston to inaugurate a second Consulate General of Vietnam. An official presence of the representatives of the communist government in the heart of the third-largest Vietnamese enclave obviously was not appreciated by the community of refugees who had risked life and limb fleeing communism. (more…)

Whether or not you’ve ever participated in group painting project, you’ll love Circle Painting — and it’s coming to the Wells Fargo’s new branch in Westminster tonight, at the bank’s VIP reception, beginning at 6:30pm.

The Bolsavik has no idea if the event is open to the public. Anyway, the Bolsavik’s point is not the new Wells Fargo branch, but circle painting.

Circle Painting (web site here) is a project started by Vietnamese-American artist Hiep Nguyen (Vietnamese: Nguyen Cao Hiep). It began in Da Lat, Vietnam several years ago and has since travelled the globe, including several stops in Little Saigon. Last year, kids in VAALA’s arts class had their own circle painting (top picture).

The concept of Circle Painting is deceptively simple: Take a huge, mural-sized canvas, several pots of paint, and everyone draws circles. Pick your own color - or mix them if you want to - and just draw circles. Or hearts if you want. Or circles with sun rays. Whatever.

(more…)

A Sudanese refugee, laden with an alcohol problem and two previous drunk-driving convictions, received a sentence of 6 to 15 years in prison for causing an accident in Grand Rapids, Michigan that killed 6-year-old Andy Nguyen.

The Bolsavik previously reported on this case here and here.

The sentencing of Mayen Biar Diing (pictured right) did not go smoothly, report the Grand Rapids Press here and WOOD-TV here. When Diing first appeared for sentencing yesterday, the Probation Department only calculated the sentencing guidelines for the lesser charge operating while intoxicated causing serious injury, earning him merely 20 months in prison. (more…)

A former president of the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California (in Vietnamese: Tong Hoi Sinh Vien) was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for acts of rape and child molestation that took place when he was a student activist. Huy Ngoc Nguyen’s victims were 17 and 13 years old. A third victim also testified but he was not prosecuted for that crime because the statute of limitations had run.

In his UVSA days Huy was a friend of the Bolsavik’s. Those were the days when the community was solidly unified. There were no factions, Van Tran was just starting his political career and nobody had any reason to oppose him. Janet Nguyen was nowhere. Trung Nguyen was still controversy-free as an engineer with interests in Vietnamese culture. The UVSA was a well-regarded community group and was not yet the super powerful entity that it is now thanks to the hugely successful Tet Festival.

After graduation, Huy opened a printing plant in Little Saigon. He continued to support community causes. A student literary group, being short of a place to meet, was given the use of the back of his office. Huy even set up living quarters for a 60-year-old homeless artist. After Huy’s arrest, his wife - also a former student activist - continued operating the printing plant and loyal friends continued to bring their businesses there.

(more…)

No good deed shall go unpunished. Cindy McCain, wife of presumptive Repulican presidential nominee John McCain, was in Vietnam last week on a charity trip to support Operation Smile. The anti-communist listservs lit up with accusations that she’s pro-commie.

In the picture above (by the AP’s Chitose Suzuki, who’s been in Vietnam for years and has made friends with loads of Vietnamese photojournalists), Cindy went to visit an Operation Smile mission in Nha Trang, at the Khanh Hoa provicial general hospital where she met with Le Thi Phuoc and her father Le Van Tan. In 1997, Cindy McCain helped Phuoc come to Phoenix, Arizona for surgery to repair her facial deformity.

Operation Smile, based in Norfolk, Virginia, is a not-for-profit medical service organization that provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide. A number of Vietnamese-American physicians and surgeons who have worked with Operation Smile in the communist country have been critized as well.

The humanitarian nature of Cindy’s trip didn’t save her from the wrath of the right-wingers. And we’re not just talking about the fringe anti-communists. Some of the harshest words came from some of the central figures in those listservs. The screen cap to the right (click to enlarge), for example, is of an email sent by Matthew Tran, a prolific and very popular contributor to the several email groups. The highlighted part translates to: (more…)

The Human Rights Action Center, as part of its campaign for Burma/Myanmar, recently unveiled a web commercial directed by Timothy Linh Bui and starring the hot-hot-hot Tila Tequila (pictured, screencap from the video). And if you don’t know this already: Tila is Vietnamese.

The Bolsavik previously published Timothy’s casting call here. Don’t say Bolsavik never helps you with women problems.

The series of web commercials was the brainchild of Jack Healy, former executive director of Amnesty International. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the massive and deadly human rights abuses currently happening in Myanmar.

“Myanmar” is the official name of the former Burma, that country where the River Kwai of the bridge fame is located. Because Myanmar is the name given by the right-wing military dictatorship, however, all human rights groups (and the U.S. government) stick to “Burma.”

Want to know more about human rights abuses in Myanmar/Burma? Tila will teach you. Watch the commercial at the end of this posting.

(more…)

The Vietnamese shopping center in Bakersfield dubbed “Little Saigon”  was foreclosed on earlier this month, reported the Bakersfield Californian here. The photo of Little Saigon Plaza, right, is taken from the paper’s web site.

This is the second foreclosure effected on San Jose developer William Lee, a Vietnamese with non-Vietnamese spelling for his name. Another of Lee’s project, V Heritage Plaza, also in Bakersfield, was foreclosed on June 4.

(more…)

In a story about the New York Asian Film Festival here, the N.Y. Post quoted what must be the ultimate compliment for “The Rebel” (Vietnamese: Dong Mau Anh Hung), a historical action film shot in Vietnam by a group of Vietnamese-American filmmakers.

Set in the 1920’s, the film features some Viet James Bond in a cat-and-mouse game between the anti-French resistance fighters and ambitious Vietnamese police agents bent on climbing up the colonial forces’ ladder at any cost.

Written and directed by Orange County-based Charlie Nguyen (Vietnamese name: Nguyen Chanh Truc, hence the usage by the Post below), the film stars Dustin Nguyen (of 21 Jump Street’s Officer Harry Truman Ioki fame; pictured backstage below, at left), Charlie’s brother Johnny Tri Nguyen (flying in the top photo), and Vietnamese-Norwegian beauty Ngo Thanh Van (with Dustin). Click here for the trailer on YouTube.

In the film, the anti-French resistance fighters make extensive use of Vovinam, a deadly Vietnamese martial arts still extensively practiced.

(more…)