Stop Torture and Violence in Vietnam by Huỳnh Thục Vy

Published on Nov 18, 2014

Tôi là Huỳnh Thục Vy, một blogger bất đồng chính kiến, một người bảo vệ nhân quyền tại Việt Nam. Trong khi tôi đang chia sẻ với bạn những lời này, tra tấn và bạo lực chống lại người dân, đặc biệt là những người bất đồng chính kiến vẫn còn tiếp tục và ngày càng nghiêm trọng hơn.

Các nguyên tắc phổ quát: Tự do, Dân chủ và Nhân quyền là những thứ xa xỉ đối với người dân của chúng tôi. Nông dân bị di dời khỏi vùng đất của họ. Công nhân bị bóc lột trong các nhà máy. Những người biểu tình bị đánh đập tàn nhẫn do sự tụ tập để bày tỏ lòng yêu nước ôn hòa.

Chúng tôi thực sự muốn có dân chủ. Chúng tôi thực sự muốn được tự do. Chúng tôi thực sự muốn có nhân quyền. Những giá trị này được bảo vệ và phát huy ở đất nước các bạn, nhưng ở đất nước chúng tôi, chúng tôi phải trả một giá cao cho những điều đó.

Chúng tôi có thể bị bỏ tù vì thực hiện quyền tự do tôn giáo, ngôn luận, hội họp ôn hòa và lập hội. Các nhà chức trách không chỉ sử dụng công cụ pháp lý để bịt miệng những người bất đồng chính kiến, mà còn sử dụng bạo lực và tra tấn đối với họ.
Qua các năm, số nạn nhân bạo lực của chính quyền tăng lên nhanh chóng. Chúng tôi thường xuyên bị tấn công bạo lực bởi những tên côn đồ được hỗ trợ bởi công an và thậm chí cả công an mặc đồng phục trong đồn cảnh sát.

Tương lai của đất nước chúng tôi sẽ ra sao với bạo lực của chính quyền? Làm thế nào trẻ em của chúng tôi sẽ lớn lên khi họ thường nhìn thấy cha mẹ của chúng bị đánh đập. Chúng tôi không được hưởng cuộc sống yên bình và không thể góp phần xây dựng đất nước của chúng tôi bởi vì các cơ quan thực thi pháp luật không ngần ngại vi phạm nhân quyền một cách thô bạo.

Chúng tôi muốn nói với thế giới rằng chúng tôi chỉ thực sự muốn thực hiện các quyền cơ bản của chúng tôi.

Các bạn sẽ giúp chúng tôi? Chia sẻ video này và có những hành động để nói với các nhà chức trách Việt Nam:
Trả lại đất cho dân oan nghèo khổ!
Trả lại quyền tự do của công đoàn cho người lao động.
Trả lại quyền tự do ngôn luận cho người dân của chúng tôi!
Trả lại chùa và nhà thờ cho các tôn giáo!
Trả tự do cho các tù nhân lương tâm!
Với video này, tôi có thể yêu cầu các bạn hãy giúp chúng tôi:
Ngăn chặn bạo lực! Ngăn chặn tra tấn tại Việt Nam!

I am Huynh Thuc Vy, a dissident blogger, a human rights defender in Vietnam. While I am sharing these words with you, torture and violence against civilians, especially dissidents still continue and get more serious.

The universal principles: Freedom, Democracy and Human rights are "luxurious things to our people. Farmers are displaced from their land. Workers are exploited in factories. Protesters are brutally beaten due to their gathering to express peaceful patriotism.

We really want to enjoy Democracy. We really want to get Freedom. We really want to have Human Rights. These values are protected and promoted in your countries, but in our country, we have to pay a high price for them.
We might be imprisoned because of exercising the rights to freedom of religion, expression, peaceful assembly, and association.

The authorities not only use legal instruments to muzzle dissidents , but also use violence and torture against them. Year by year, the number of the authorities’ violent victims increases rapidly. We are frequently under violent attack by police-sponsored thugs and even by uniformed police in police stations.

How will the future of our country be with violence encouraged by the authorities? How will our children grow up when they usually see their parents beaten. We fail to enjoy peaceful lives and fail to contribute to building our country because law enforcement agencies do not hesitate to brazenly violate human rights.
We want to tell the world that we just really want to exercise our fundamental rights.

What would you to help us? Share this video and take actions to tell the Vietnamese authorities to:
Return land to poor petitioners!
Return the right to freedom of trade union to labors.
Return the right to freedom of expression to our people!
Return pagodas and churches to congregations!
Free all prisoners of conscience!
With this video, I may ask you to help us:
Stop violence! Stop torture in Vietnam!
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AYGkkyEFgU)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=511729945635419&set=vb.100003952533089&type=2&theater

11-18-2014 On a Final City Council Vote Merchants Address New Transit Impacts

Dear International Blvd. Merchants,

We did it!

At the November 18^th Oakland City Council meeting, the Council approved a resolution that included $2 million for direct assistance to businesses!

This is a giant step toward making sure that International Blvd merchants are able to survive and thrive in the new environment created by the BRT. It goes hand in hand with commitments we won from AC-Transit and City staff to make design changes based on consultations with each business along the route and to create parking solutions based on neighborhood input.  

This victory comes after three years of work and resulted from an unprecedented collaborative effort, launched by the East Bay Asian Youth Center, between merchants in three neighborhoods—Eastlake, San Antonio and Fruitvale. Congratulations to all the merchants who worked so hard for this for so long. 

Thanks also to the support we received from Allen Temple, who consistently advocated on behalf of all merchants on International Blvd. 

There is still work to be done, of course. The details of who can access the fund and how it can be used have to be worked out. Also, at the last minute Mayor-elect Libby Schaaf inserted some language into the resolution which we still need to sort out. Stay tuned for how you can help on this.

And of course, we will need to work with City staff to make sure that they follow through on their commitments to design parking solutions based on neighborhood input sessions, between now and April.

In the meantime, let’s celebrate the fact that we won $2 million—which is $2 million more than the City or AC Transit planned to provide—to directly assist businesses. Let’s thank the elected officials who stood up for us, including Council President Pat Kernighan, Councilmember at Large Rebecca Kaplan, Councilmember Larry Reid, Councilmember Desley Brooks and Councilmember Lynette McElhaney. 

At the end, four of the five Councilmembers whose districts include the BRT voted to support the existing community of businesses. These four Councilmembers have very diverse views, and very diverse constituencies, but they all united behind us on this issue, and we deeply appreciate their support.

Most of all, though, let’s celebrate the power that was created by sticking together and building relationships that emphasized our common interests as merchants and community members. This is the real victory, and it is a great foundation that we can build on.

Again, congratulations and now let’s finish the job!

Andy Nelsen                                     Xavier Sibaja

EBAYC                                             EBAYC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 17, 2014
On a Final City Council Vote Merchants Address New Transit Impacts Merchants from Eastlake, San Antonio, Frutivale, and East Oakland demand mitigations support
Oakland, CA – On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 5:30 pm, at a City Council hearing which it will likely be lengthy, merchants all along the 9.5 mile stretch of International Blvd. will pressure City Council members for them to commit to sound business mitigation plans in response to impacts caused by the new, AC-Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT.)
 A point of contention has been expressed by Councilmember Noel Gallo, who objects to direct financial assistance to those business severely impacted by a new street configuration brought by the BRT. Case in point is: the loss of over 500 parking spaces; virtually no left turns to vehicular traffic; reduction of two traffic lanes; compromised loading and access to businesses; and stations placed in new created medians.
This Tuesday, merchants will also pressure the Council for clarity of what it is offered as support. At a recent Public Works Committee Meeting, AC Transit and City staff presented a report which included “bid packages” which are the project phases and the support programs to help merchants survive construction, and the new created physical environment. Council committee members Rebecca Kaplan, and Larry Reid shared their concerns that of the almost 9 million dollars in merchant aid, “potentially” only 1 million could be used in direct financial assistance whether it be loans or grants. The rest of the funds will be used for technical assistance which was often referenced by these committee members as “advise.” Therefore, this International Blvd, merchant coalition is mobilizing to demand project conditions of approval that effectively and fairly address BRT related impacts to their businesses.
With slogans such as “A BRT for Everyone,” and “Justice for Merchants” small business owners are advocating for workable solutions, given that the project will be approved. These proposed solutions aim to help them mitigate disruption to regular business operations during, and after construction. As well, these demands include relocation assistance in case some businesses become unviable in this new street configuration.
According to AC Transit, project cost will be approximately 200 million dollars. The merchant proposals to mitigate these impacts, beyond project design changes, represent less than 5%.
BRT is planned to run 9.7 miles from Downtown Oakland to Downtown San Leandro. All along this stretch a little over 500 parking spaces will be lost; almost all left turns will be prohibited; and from 14thAvenue to 107th Ave. (7.1 miles) on International Blvd the new vehicular traffic will be on two lanes, rather than the actual 4 lanes.
1/18/14

What to see on East Lake: Buddha seems to bring tranquility to Oakland neighborhood

Updated 6:12 pm, Monday, September 15, 2014    Chip Johnson

Dan Stevenson is neither a Buddhist nor a follower of any organized religion.
The 11th Avenue resident in Oakland's Eastlake neighborhood was simply feeling hopeful in 2009 when he went to an Ace hardware store, purchased a 2-foot-high stone Buddha and installed it on a median strip in a residential area at 11th Avenue and 19th Street.
He hoped that just maybe his small gesture would bring tranquillity to a neighborhood marred by crime: dumping, graffiti, drug dealing, prostitution, robberies, aggravated assault and burglaries.
What happened next was nothing short of stunning. Area residents began to leave offerings at the base of the Buddha: flowers, food, candles. A group of Vietnamese women in prayer robes began to gather at the statue to pray.
And the neighborhood changed. People stopped dumping garbage. They stopped vandalizing walls with graffiti. And the drug dealers stopped using that area to deal. The prostitutes went away.
I asked police to check their crime statistics for the block radius around the statue, and here's what they found: Since 2012, when worshipers began showing up for daily prayers, overall year-to-date crime has dropped by 82 percent. Robbery reports went from 14 to three, aggravated assaults from five to zero, burglaries from eight to four, narcotics from three to none, and prostitution from three to none.
"I can't say what to attribute it to, but these are the numbers," a police statistician told me.
Back in 2009, when word got around that Stevenson was the person who'd installed the statue, offerings began to appear on his doorstep. It was like a scene straight out of the Clint Eastwood film "Gran Torino."
"They left a ton of fruit and Vietnamese specialty foods and candy, but there's only me and my wife, Lu, here and we can't eat all that stuff - but it's so good," said Stevenson.
"I've tried to explain to them my reasons" for placing the statue, he said. "I have nothing against it, but I don't believe what you believe!"
I don't think it matters to them.
To this day, every morning at 7, worshipers ring a chime, clang a bell and play soft music as they chant morning prayers. The original statue is now part of an elaborate shrine that includes a wooden structure standing 10 feet tall and holding religious statues, portraits, food and fruit offerings surrounded by incense-scented air.
"This used to be a huge spot for dumping stuff," said Alicia Tatum, 27, on an early morning walk with her dogs Lulu and Mya. "But over time, it's blossomed with more and more and more flowers - and they are out there every morning like clockwork."
On weekends, the worshipers include more than a dozen people: black folks, white folks, all folks, said Andy Blackwood, a neighborhood resident. Two weeks ago, a group of German tourists visited the shrine.
"The dope-dealing has stopped, the ladies of the evening have stopped," Blackwood said.
The Buddha has withstood two attempts to remove him from his watch, one criminal and one governmental. Neither has worked.
Soon after its installation, a would-be thief tried to pry the statue from its perch, but Stevenson had secured him with reinforced iron bar and "$35 worth" of a powerful epoxy - and Buddha didn't budge.
In 2012, after a resident's complaint, the city's Public Works Department tried to remove the statue but received such passionate blowback from neighbors that city officials decided to table and "study" the issue. Two years later, the administrative effort is long forgotten, and Buddha is still there.
When I went to visit the shrine, four small-framed ladies who don't speak or understand English decided I looked like a convert.
The moment I started talking, one of them politely took my pen from one hand, my notepad from the other and directed me to clasp my hands together, bow and repeat after her - so I did. When in Rome, right?
Apparently, my Buddhist chants aren't half bad either because they won some approving "oohs and aahs" from the flock - and carried me to Step 2 in the conversion process. The same woman who had grabbed my gear sat me cross-legged on a prayer rug in the street and placed a stool with a book on it before me. If nothing else, Buddha and I share the same body type - short, squat and happy. I sat there for a moment thinking that I might resemble him - and maybe that's why they seemed to like me.
I thought it might be a good opportunity to get a question in, too - and this time my spiritual guide seemed to understand.
"Next week," she replied.
Thank you very much, but I think I've already found what I was looking for.
Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column runs on Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @chjohnson.

Vina Vo (left) and Kieu Do pray at sunrise near a Buddhist shrine at 11th Avenue and East 19th Street in Oakland.

Vina Vo (left), Lien Huynh and Kieu Do pray at Buddhist shrine. Crime in the neighborhood has plunged since the shrine went up.  

From left, Kieu Do, Lien Huynh and Vina Vo pray at sunrise in front of a Buddhist altar erected at 11th Avenue and East 19th Street in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014

Vina Vo prays before a statue at the shrine, which has become an informal site for Buddhist ceremonies.

Images of Buddha are the centerpiece of an altar that grew around a single statue placed by a non- Buddhist.

Vina Vo prays at sunrise in front of a Buddhist altar erected at 11th Avenue and East 19th Street in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014

A book of mantras is open at a daily sunrise prayer session in front of a Buddhist altar erected at 11th Avenue and East 19th Street in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014.

Lien Huynh (left) and Kieu Do embrace before a prayer session at sunrise in front of a Buddhist altar erected at 11th Avenue and East 19th Street in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014


Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Buddha-seems-to-bring-tranquillity-to-Oakland-5757592.php#photo-6870052




Buddha of Oakland from Oakland North on Vimeo.

EAST LAKE MERCHANTS, EBALCY and City Council President Pat Kernighan invite you to join us in covering graffiti and cleaning the East Lake Neighborhood.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103943590503956517394/albums/6071655977779939649

Thank you Mr: Duc Van Nguyen Photographer Original Link: 

https://plus.google.com/photos/103312274481964658874/albums/6071643317561259745?authkey=CLWChLLfq92YnQE

Are you concerned about Graffiti & Illegal Dumping? 

 If so, come to the Graffiti clean up day 

 EAST LAKE MERCHANTS, 

EBALCY and City Council President Pat Kernighan invite you to join us in covering graffiti and cleaning the East Lake Neighborhood. 

 Saturday, October 18, 2014 9:00 AM TO 12:00pm 

At Clinton Park 

(Corner of 7th Ave & International Blvd.) 

 Lunch will be provided at the end of the event at Clinton Park. Wear old or worn out clothes, they’ll end up very colorful! Be part of the change! Improve our neighborhood and make it a safer environment for everyone! For questions, please contact: 

 Thu (510) 697-5849 

Xavier (213) 926-513 

Mandalyn (510) 238-7021 

Anna (510) 444-8882

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103943590503956517394/albums/6071655977779939649

Thank you for Mr Duc Van Nguyen Photographer Original Link: 

https://plus.google.com/photos/103312274481964658874/albums/6071643317561259745?authkey=CLWChLLfq92YnQE

Hong Kongese - Please help Hong Kong

Joshua Wong , spokesman #OccupyCentral" I Call you for support http://occupyhk.wesign.it/en

Live Feed Video in Hong Kong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4q8fs8gTIs#t=14386 http://hongwrong.com/occupy-central-now-on/

Beautiful Oakland's Lake Merritt drawing new residents, pushing up rents

Juan Padilla has sold ice pops from a cart he pushes around Oakland's Lake Merritt for years. He's never seen the lake like this.
"Lots of people, lots of popsicles," he said during a recent golden evening at the lake. Joggers with white earbuds and spandex sprinted by while young women sipped wine from paper cups on a blanket near a pile of bicycles. A man stopped to buy two popsicles, handing a crisp $20 to Padilla.
"Everyone is here now," said Padilla, a Fruitvale neighborhood resident who said he earned almost twice as much this summer as he did last year selling treats at the lake.
The boom around Lake Merritt is due both to the city's multimillion-dollar cleanup of the 155-acre lake and an influx of San Francisco refugees.

"In the last 18 to 24 months we've seen an influx of 20- to 35-year-olds who are moving from San Francisco because they are getting pushed out because their rents are too high," said Brandon Geraldo, a vice president at the real estate company Colliers International who specializes in Oakland's rental market. "Lake Merritt is really the driver for them."
Oakland invested nearly $200 million since 2002 into rehabilitating the lake, once a stinky, swamp pond filled with trash, bacteria and sewage. The lake is cleaner than it has been in decades and a project to connect Lake Merritt to the bay should finish early next year.
Lights twinkle around the edge of the lake at dusk, and the fog that often blankets much of San Francisco in the summer rarely reaches into Oakland. Large, elegant apartments surround the lake, and young couples and families picnic and play on its shores in greater numbers than anyone can remember.
Every few weeks, a new restaurant or bar opens along Lakeshore or Grand avenues. Crime is down. Rents are up. Way up.

Rents are way up

The average rent around Lake Merritt has risen 53 percent since 2011 to $2,398 - a larger increase than in any other neighborhood in the city, according to real estate data. The average rent in San Francisco, in comparison, is $3,229.
The changes are welcome by some longtime Oaklanders, but upsetting to others.
"This is bigger and beyond what anyone expected and it just keeps growing," said Tora Rocha, a city parks supervisor who oversees Lake Merritt. "The energy level is like nothing I have ever seen and I have been here 34 years."
But some longtime residents in rent-controlled units said they're feeling increasingly pressured by landlords to move out and make room for younger, more affluent tenants.
In the past three years, more than 200 restaurants have opened in Oakland, according to city data.
"As you start to have higher income, more affluent people come into a particular neighborhood, they're going to have certain amenities that they want - restaurants, coffee shops," said Malo Hutson, an assistant professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley who has studied gentrification in Oakland.
Crime has also fallen around the lake, said Oakland Police Capt. Rick Orozco, who oversees the Lake Merritt area.
"It used to be on weekends and even calm nights I used to get complaints about loitering and drug sales," Orozco said. "Now, in the last few months, I get calls about loud music and barbecues. It is a great problem."
Robberies in Orozoco's police district, which extends into the Fruitvale neighborhood, have fallen by 35 percent since this time last year and shootings have dropped by 32 percent.
Jen Butler, 32, who moved with her husband from San Francisco to an apartment in the Adams Point neighborhood near the lake earlier this year, said she was drawn to Lake Merritt because it offered something she couldn't find in other parts of the city.
"This is like my front yard, this is so cool," she said as she sat on a bench near the shore of the lake. "San Francisco was fun but it got expensive. It wasn't like this there."
The changes are spreading to the east side of the lake, Geraldo said, which, until recently, was more commonly associated with seedy motels, sex workers and garbage.
"East Lake, it has really transitioned over the last three years," Geraldo said. "Investors are hot and heavy to acquire property there because you're getting spillover from Adams Point."

Downside of the boom

But that worries Robbie Clark, an organizer with Causa Justa, an Oakland housing advocacy group, who grew up in Oakland and had to move out of the East Lake area after eight years because he couldn't find affordable apartments.
"You see a lot of things around the lake that are catering to folks that are coming in and not so much to the existing or long-term residents," said Clark, 33. "Those profits come at the expense of existing and long-term residents."
Clark said that while he doesn't track evictions or unfair rent increases around Lake Merritt, he was aware of at least three buildings in the area where new owners are trying to squeeze out long-term tenants so they can raise rents.
"It puts a lot of pressure on that area," Clark said.
Councilwoman Pat Kernighan, whose district includes much of Lake Merritt, said that while she was concerned about rising rents, she recognized that Lake Merritt was booming.
"I think gentrification is a two-edge sword," she said. "It does drive the cost of housing up which is not a good thing for the people that already live here, but it does bring people who can support the businesses that are here and can grow the businesses and jobs in Oakland - and Oakland does need jobs"
$2,398
Average rent near Lake Merritt
2-3 percent
Vacancy rate of Lake Merritt-area apartments
53 percent
Increase in rents since 2011
Roughly 200
Number of restaurants that have opened in Oakland since 2011
$200 million
Amount invested in improving the lake since 2002
35 percent
Drop in robberies in surrounding police district
Will Kane is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: wkane@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WillKane



Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-s-Lake-Merritt-drawing-new-residents-5752202.php

Illegal dumping of mattresses on property 118 International Blvd Oakland, Ca 94606 Lake Merritt Area

Dear City of Oakland: PWA Call Center <PWACallCenter@oaklandnet.com>

I'd like to report on the illegal dumping of mattresses on property 118 International Blvd Oakland, Ca 94606. These mattresses have been here over a month and also this particular property parking lot which is use by City of Oakland. There are hundred eyes back n forth everyday but no one using the parking lot doing anything about it. It's very sad cause the subject location also a prime Lake Merritt Area which make City of Oakland look very bad shame. Please have these haul away ASAP, thank you so much.

Map location here: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.798405,-122.256851,3a,75y,57.34h,79.99t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1slkAG7HSdaWU3C3pT6xXGGQ!2e0