Lao San Francisco Event

All Mekong Circle members are invited to a banquet sponsored by the Center For Lao Studies. Members residing in the San Francisco area may wish to attend.


WHAT:
Center for Lao Studies' First Annual Banquet: Spreading Wings
Only $25 for general admission or VIP Seatings: $50/ticket or $500/table, seats 10

Tickets available on line at: www.laostudies.org

The evening will feature authentic Lao food, performances by Lao artists, presentations, and live music and dancing. The Center for Lao Studies' board members and prominent figures of the Bay Area Lao community will also take part in the banquet.

CLS' First Annual Banquet: Spreading Wings will highlight two important programs: the Summer Study Abroad in Laos (SAIL) and the Lao Oral History Archive (LOHA).

WHEN:
September 12
6pm - 12am

WHERE:
Women's Building
3543 18th St #8
San Francisco, CA 94110

WHO:
Keynote Speaker:
Torm Nompraseurt (Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN))

Special Appearances:
Amy Chanthaphavong (2009 Miss Asian America)
Lao Seri Nattasin, local Lao dancers
Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng of Refugee Nation
Ketsana, Queen of Lao pop

CONTACT:
Center for Lao Studies at banquet@laostudies.org
SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISEMENT AVAILABLE at www.laostudies.og

PLEASE HELP US PUBLICIZE THIS EVENT BY FORWARDING TO OTHERS ON YOUR MAILING LIST.
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JOIN US: Center for Lao Studies' First Annual Banquet: Spreading Wings: Saturday, September 12, 2009, 6PM-12AM | San Francisco, CA | Tickets available at www.laostudies.org
3rd LAO STUDIES CONFERENCE: July 14-16, 2010 | Khon Kaen University, Thailand | www.laostudies.org/conferences
SUMMER STUDY ABROAD IN LAOS (SAIL): June 15 - August 10 | www.laostudies.org/sail
SAILers' BLOG: www.laostudies.org/sailersblog
JOURNAL OF LAO STUDIES: www.laostudies.org/journal

ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE CENTER FOR LAO STUDIES YET? Please join us by visiting www.laostudies.org
ທ່ານໄດ້ເປັນສະມາຊິິກຂອງ ສູນລາວສຶກສາ ແລ້ວບໍ່? ເຊີນຕາມລາຍລະອຽດໄດ້ທີ່ແວບໄຊ້ທ໌ຂອງສູນຯ.
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Vinya Sysamouth, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Center for Lao Studies
65 Ninth Street | San Francisco, CA 94103 USA
Phone: +1.415.874.5578
www.laostudies.org

ດຣ. ວິນຍາ ສາຍສມຸດ | ຜູ້ອໍານວຍການ ສູນລາວສຶກສາ

Laos documentary

Watch your Television listing schedules. PBS stations across the country have begun airing "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," a feature documentary on Laos. It had its theater run last fall and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best documentary feature.

We had the occasion to watch its premier in New York City and got to talk with its co-director Thavisouk during a question-and-answer session after the show. He told us that after his family's internment at a Thai refugee camp, they were flown to the Philippines where they stayed at our center there for Indochinese refugees before they were resettled in the USA.

To witness how they survived their experience and how it compares with our own Mekong Circle Laos exodus and resettlement in the USA is to ponder how fortunate we have been.

To read a synopsis of the documentary and view the trailer, click the image above, or go to the link: http://www.pbs.org/pov/betrayal/

To find out when it airs in your local market, go to this link http://www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule/ and enter your ZIP code.


Message from Pete Fuentecilla

Operation Brotherhood in Kengkok

We are passing on two inquiries from former workers in Laos, regarding a reported 1972 incident at the village of Kengkok. If anyone has any information, you may e-mail the parties directly. Their contact information is included.

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The first request comes from MacAlan Thompson, who worked with the Refugee Relief Operations of USAID, supplying airdrops of food and other materials to the northern provinces. He used to visit OB Ban Houie Sai. During his last visit there five years ago, he reports that the OB Hospital still stood there, and that OB is well remembered. (NVA is North Vietnamese Army; IVS is International Voluntary Service).

Mac can be reached via e-mail at mactbkk@gmail.com

The report he is inquiring about has been floating on the Internet (It references NVA: North Vietnamese Army; and IVS: International Voluntary Service):

28 October 1972

That morning an NVA patrol of about a dozen men entered the village of Keng Kok - located about 35 miles east of the airport - and taken some prisoners.

There was a Filipino medical mission called Operation Brotherhood, s well as a Canadian Christian mission located there.

Back at Savannakhet we learned that 4 Canadians (2 women, then 2 men who'd gone looking for them) had been abducted by the NVA, and were last seen tied up and held in one of the houses.

An Air America helicopter from Savannakhet picked up 16 members from both missions in a rice field nearby.

Around noon the Lao Army attacked the village, set a few houses on fire, and the NVA escaped to the east.

A day or two later we heard that the bodies of the two men had been recovered, but there was still no account of what had happened to the women.

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The second information request comes from Judy Porter, who sends along a photo taken in 1973:




















She's wondering if anyone can identify those who are in the photo.

From her e-mail to Mekong Circle:

I was an Air America wife living in Udorn but doing free lance photography and writing articles for Asia Magazine in Hong Kong. I talked USAID into letting me photograph their entire project in Laos from North of Houi Sai to South of Pakse.

I did that in 1973 and while in Kengkok I heard about that terrible NVA attack and the loss of two women. I'm now Editor of the Air America Newsletter and one of my contributors came up with a story about being called to Kengkok in 1972 to rescue those who escaped the attack. I told him what I heard and we made inquiries and have learned much more. He's a good writer and will tie it all together. I thought those in the picture might offer even more.

If anyone has any information, Judy can be contacted at: JudyinanRV@aol.com