A Pastor Takes on BP in New Orleans

[struggle4progress]

June 9, 2010
Rev. Vien Nguyen forged bonds in the aftermath of Katrina that are being put to good use again
By BRENTIN MOCK

... “He’s advocating on behalf of the many Vietnamese and Cambodian Americans and others who make their living shrimping and fishing,” said the president, “and I want him to know that we are going to be tireless in working to do everything we can to support the community and everybody whose livelihoods have been imperiled down in the region” ...

... At least a third of the Gulf fishers affected are Vietnamese, people who brought their fishing skills with them when escaping from their native land during the Vietnam War, and who’ve survived of these skills ever since. Nguyen, as the recognized figurehead for these workers and their families, has been facing off again with disaster-response bumblers, only this time it’s not a utility company but a corporation that fuels utility companies: BP ...

... Nguyen suggested that BP hold trainings at the church—which is more like a community center—to employ out-of-work fishers in oil clean-up. By the end of the meeting he was announcing that BP had agreed to this. Like Obama said, Father Vien gets what he wants ...

“Both communities have been willing to be in a relationship; it’s just that <the> process has needed assistance, and that was vision of Father Vien,” says Denise Graves, an African-American community organizer for the Micah Project. “He was in the middle of a black community but they weren’t having much interaction except during celebrations and when their kids went to school. He wanted to change that” ...

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/2764/a_pastor_takes_on_bp_in_new_orleans/