The lost children of Laos: Advocating for liberation of detained Hmong youth

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Worn fabrics and remnants of personal belongings hang from the ceiling bars, impeding the flow of sunshine through tiny windows. The mixed, stagnating stench of food, urine, human waste, and unwashed bodies permeates the air of the cramped living space where people have to eat, toilet, and sleep. Small and fragile silhouettes peer through the light wondering what lies beyond the bars, guards, and locks. For hundreds, this is childhood. Instead of waking in a bed of their own, the children wake stiff and sore from a rough, blanketless night’s sleep. Continue Reading

Hmong tutor program provides students with an alternative

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Being able to read and comprehend her social studies homework is only a small part of the reason 10th-grader Kao Vang wants to learn English faster. A Hmong refugee from Thailand, Vang and 15,000 others like her arrived in the United States beginning in 2004, 5,000 of them making a home in Minnesota, and 1,000 in Hennepin County. Learning English not only means doing better on homework, but helping her parents, who do not speak English, Vang said. Vang received help with English and homework Sunday evening by taking part in the Hmong tutoring program provided by the Hmong Minnesota Student Association student group and the University’s Center for Urban & Regional Affairs. The 20 junior high and high school students involved in the program live in north Minneapolis but attend the Hopkins School District. Continue Reading

Obama or McCain: You decide

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June 3, 2008—I got the opportunity to attend the presumptive Democratic Nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s victory speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases.About 17,000 people witnessed this historic moment with the first black American to win a major political party endorsement. “This is the greatest moment of my life,” excitedly said Hlee Vang, an Obama supporter. Continue Reading

Hmong language endangered?

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According to an article published by World Language magazine, a Chinese state media reported that “China’s fourth-largest ethnic minority, the Miao (known as the Hmong in the rest of Southeast Asia), Continue Reading