Teen from Vietnam grows up in Pasco and thrives

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By Amy Anthony, Times Correspondent
In Print: Saturday, November 27, 2010

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 Huy Truong, seen here as a boy with his parents and cousin at the family’s coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City, moved to the United States in 1993 and graduated from Gulf High School.”]

[Courtesy of Huy Truong (1985)

As a teenager, Huy Truong remembers checking every piece of mail that arrived, hoping for good news from the U.S. Embassy.

 

His family had scraped by since the end of the Vietnam War, when Truong’s father was shipped off to a “reeducation camp” because he had worked with the American forces. The father returned a decade later, and the family opened a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City — a challenging business to sustain in a communist country that rationed sugar.

His parents knew Truong and his brother had limited futures in Vietnam. In order to attend college, students must pass a rigorous exam similar to the SAT — but part of the points needed to pass are based on the student’s family background.

“If a student’s family members fought on the American side during the war, a student needed more points to pass,” Truong said.

So when the family had the chance to apply to immigrate to the United States in 1991, they eagerly began the application process that would involve interviews, medical exams and years of waiting for that letter from the U.S. Embassy.

“We were very excited,” Truong said. “My parents knew it would be an opportunity for my brother and me.”

And in 1993, opportunity brought the family to Pasco County.

Huy Truong, his wife, Thuyha Pham, and their daughter, Kaitlyn Truong now live in Orlando.”]

[Courtesy of Huy Truong

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Truong was 19 when the family moved to the United States, joining an uncle in Holiday. Their journey to Tampa International Airport took them through Bangkok and New York City.

“It was my first time seeing the modernized world,” Truong recalled of his layover in Bangkok. “It was my first time seeing sliding doors. I walked back and forth for I don’t know how long until a security guard told me to leave the door alone.”

After five months in Holiday, the family got their own place in New Port Richey. Truong got a job as a dishwasher at Leverock’s seafood restaurant. Although he could not speak or read English very well, Truong had always been good at math and he tested into the 11th grade. He graduated from Gulf High School after taking summer classes and working with a guidance counselor to transfer course credits from Vietnam.

He enrolled at St. Petersburg College to improve his English skills, then was accepted to the University of South Florida, where he majored in computer engineering because he “fell in love with computers.”

“I wanted to be a mathematician, but then I took summer classes and a classmate who was very kind taught me how to use computers,” Truong said.

He graduated from USF in August 1998 with a 3.96 GPA — “one B,” Truong lamented with a laugh.

That fall he went to a career fair and left his resume with a representative from Lockheed Martin. The company called back the next day.

“I guess my GPA impressed them,” he joked.

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Lockheed Martin hired Truong as a software engineer for its Orlando office, where his work ethic inspired his colleagues.

“He impressed us from the first day,” said Debra Palmer, vice president of enterprise logistics solutions at Lockheed Martin. “His energy level is infectious.”

Within his first year, Truong was nominated for the Galaxy Award, Lockheed Martin’s most prestigious honor.

“There was a fancy (awards) dinner at Disney,” Palmer recalled. “I was there waiting for Huy, and finally he came in, buttoning his shirt. When I asked where he was, he said he couldn’t leave work because there was an important test.

“This is a perfect example of Huy,” she said. “He took his tuxedo with him to the lab.”

Truong won the award that night.

• • •

Now 36, Truong lives in Orlando and is still at Lockheed Martin, working on the classified Cyber Test Range Program, a virtual network that researchers will use to test and improve the security of computer systems. He hopes to someday teach community college, recalling how formative that time was for him as a student.

“Coming to the U.S. has allowed me to pursue my goals,” Truong said, “and I want to help others pursue theirs.”

In 2000, Truong was selected to work on his first classified program, a position that required him to become a U.S. citizen. Truong was excited at the prospect. His colleagues were excited, too.

“The day I told Deb (Palmer) about my citizenship, she came to the lab with about 20 people,” Truong said. “They had a giant cake and it was a big celebration. It means so much to me that my citizenship means so much to others.”

His high school sweetheart in Vietnam, Thuyha Pham, also joined him in America.

The couple had remained in touch over the years, and after he graduated from college, Truong returned to Vietnam to visit her.

“I arrived around 11 p.m. and I went to see her first thing,” Truong recalled. “She was surprised and crying. I knew at that moment I wanted to marry her and that nobody else would love me as much as she did.”

The couple wed in 1999 and had their daughter, Kaitlyn, two months ago.

And because his little girl will grow up in America, Truong said, “I know she will have a better life.”
[Last modified: Nov 26, 2010 09:03 PM]

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Lao power plant pays 34 million dollars to relocate 700 families

Monsters and Critics.com

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Vientiane – A Lao-European hydropower company has allocated 34 million dollars to relocate 700 families affected by its dam site in south-eastern Laos, media reports said Wednesday.

Theun-Hinboun Power Company has already resettled 410 families from seven villages near its dam site on the Gnouang River in Khammouane province, south-east Laos, the Vientiane Times reported.

‘We will start resettlement of the remaining five villages (313 families) by February and will finish in April or May,’ said Surapha Viravong, deputy site manager of the project’s social and environmental division.

The 34 million dollars will be spent on house construction and land clearance for farming for the relocated families, in line with an agreement made between the investors and the government.

Laos, a mountainous, land-locked country that is rich in water resources, has already built 14 hydro-electric dams and plans to construct another 20 by the year 2020.

The dams pose serious threats to the environment and people’s livelihoods, forcing projects to include compensation clauses and assure sustainable practices in their agreements with the Lao government.

Theun-Hinboun, which already has one hydropower plant in Borikhamxay province, is building an expansion project in Khammouane.

The Khammouane plant, which is 50 per cent complete, will begin commercial operation in July 2012.

The company is 60-per-cent owned by the state-run Electricite du Laos, with Norway’s Statkraft SF and GMS Lao holding 20 per cent each.

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Vietnam-Laos war veterans meet again in Laos

VOVNews.vn

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Lao war veterans held a cultural exchange with more than 721 former Vietnamese volunteer soldiers on November 26 to mark the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence and the 450th anniversary of Vientiane.

A large number of overseas Vietnamese and representatives from the Vietnamese Community in Laos, the Vietnamese embassy and various agencies and Lao organisations participated in the meeting.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos, Ta Minh Chau expressed his gratitude to the Lao people for their sacrifices, courage and determination that has strengthened the special traditional relationship between the two countries.

The delegation also presented 20 gifts to the families of beneficiaries and visited many historical, relic sites in Laos and the place where the late President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in Thailand.

This was the first pilgrimage by of the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to revisit their former battlefields in Laos, and was supported by thousands of people in both countries. A second will take place later from December 19-26.

Before leaving for Laos, the delegation lit incense and made offerings at the Hanoi Monument for Fallen Soldiers, visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and donated VND50 million and 2 tonnes of goods to flood victims in the central region.

Amphetamines growing drug threat in Asia: UN report

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(AFP)

Methamphetamine, known as meth, is replacing traditional plant-based narcotics in Asia

VIENNA — Synthetic drugs are replacing traditional plant-based narcotics such as heroin and opium across Asia, a United Nations report has warned.

Amphetamine-type stimulants were widely used in East and South-East Asia in 2009 and were being produced in almost every country in the region, the report said — with methamphetamine, known as meth, especially popular.

The drugs are a “critical emerging threat to the region”, said the report released Thursday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Myanmar is the region’s main source of methamphetamines, with clandestine laboratories operating in its troubled eastern border regions using materials smuggled from China and Thailand, the report said.

But international organised crime groups have also increased their involvement with the regional drugs trade.

Amphetamine-type drugs (ATS) were manufactured in all but three countries in the region in 2009 and were in the top three drugs of use in every country.

“The increased manufacture and use of ATS is a worrying trend and a growing health challenge for the region,” UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov said.

“While overall development levels in many countries are climbing, and the lives of millions are improving, the spread of ATS use is a sad — and unnecessary — situation and one which must be tackled with immediate urgency.”

Also on the rise was the use of ketamine, a drug used in human and veterinary medicine but also used recreationally as a cheaper alternative to drugs such as ecstasy.

In 2009, 6.9 tons of ketamine were seized in east and southeast Asia, up from 6.3 tons the previous year and about 85 percent of the global total, said the report.

In Hong Kong ketamine had now become the primary drug of use.

Drug treatment services in many parts of the region were unable to keep up with the new trend for synthetic drugs, said the agency.

“Most drug treatment services in the region are still aimed at users of heroin, opium and cannabis despite this shift toward ATS use,” said a UNODC statement.

Between 3.4 million and 20.7 million people in the region had used amphetamines in the past year, said the report, out of 14 million to 53 million global users.

International organised crime groups were increasingly involved with the regional drugs trade, the report said, especially those from Iran and West Africa.

Lab-based drugs, distributed as pills, powder or crystals, escaped the traditional constraints of plant-based crops, which are dependent on geography and climate, said UNODC policy analysis director Sandeep Chawla in a statement.

“By being able to produce ATS in their basements and backyards, criminals are presented with new opportunities which must be denied,” she said.

“This means that there is no long trafficking route along which law enforcement can intercept the drugs… ATS thus pose very different challenges for law enforcement.”

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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Ecstasy and Methamphetamine first choice of drugs in East and South Asia

Cached:  http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2010/November/ecstasy-and-methamphetamine-first-choice-of-drugs-in-east-and-south-asia.html?ref=fs2

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Français/French

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25 November 2010 – According to the latest report from UNODC, amphetamine-type stimulants – or ATS drugs – in particular methamphetamine, are now ranked in the top three most popular drugs of choice in East and South-East Asia displacing the use of traditionally used drugs such as heroin, opium or even cannabis.

The report, ” Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and Other Drugs: Asia and the Pacific“, points toward ATS as a critical emerging threat to the region on health and law enforcement levels, with between 3.4 million and 20.7 million people in East and South-East Asia alone having used amphetamines in the past year – a sizeable portion of the estimated 14 million to 53 million global users.

Speaking on the spread of ATS and the marked implications for health and welfare, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, noted: “The increased manufacture and use of ATS is a worrying trend and a growing health challenge for the region. While overall development levels in many countries are climbing, and the lives of millions are improving, the spread of ATS use is a sad – and unnecessary – situation and one which must be tackled with immediate urgency.”

In addition to the health threat posed by ATS, the spread of these drugs has also been linked to organized crime in the region. In South Asia for instance, the large licit chemical and pharmaceutical industries offer organized criminal groups an attractive base from where to manufacture and market ATS and unlike plant-based crops that are dependent on factors including climate and geography, ATS drugs can be produced in clandestine laboratories using easily obtainable ingredients and formulas. This ease of establishing facilities has been witnessed with the movement of these locations from traditional production areas such as Western Europe to the more lucrative markets in the developing world.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Tokyo, Sandeep Chawla, Director of Policy Analysis and Public Affairs at UNODC stated: “By being able to produce ATS in their basements and backyards, criminals are presented with new opportunities which must be denied. While the production and consumption centres of traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine are often separated by large geographical distances, synthetic drugs can be manufactured almost literally in the kitchens of users. This means that there is no long trafficking route along which law enforcement can intercept the drugs. ATS thus pose very different challenges for law enforcement”.

Developed under the UNODC Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, the report highlights the spread of ATS, looking at amphetamine, methamphetamine, methcathinone, and ecstasy-group substances. One particularly worrying trend highlighted in this year’s report – and an example of the evolving health and law enforcement challenges – is the continued growth in the use and trafficking of ketamine in East and South-East Asia. As a cheaper alternative to drugs such as ecstasy, and with wide availability due to its medical uses, the growth in this drug is a disturbing movement and one which must be dealt with urgently. In 2009, 6.9 metric tons of ketamine were seized in the region, up from 6.3 metric tons the previous year, and with about 85 percent of global seizures being made in East and South-East Asia in 2009, ketamine is an example of the rapid expansion of ATS in the region.

Sadly, as is far-too-often the case, improved prosperity in an area is often followed by the growth of drugs in that particular market. As East and South-East Asia’s increased wealth and accelerated movement of persons, trade and goods continues to lift millions out of poverty, it is regrettable to see the expansion of criminal, drug-focused organizations and the resultant increases in the production, trafficking and use of ATS and other drugs.

Related Information:

• Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and Other Drugs: Asia and the Pacific (pdf)
• UN Report on Drug Trafficking Trends in Asia (pdf)