Cambodian New Year Celebration in Rhode Island

Cambodian New Year Announcement in Rhode Island

Cambodian New Year celebration by SRP-Rhode Island

Press Release

Providence, United States of America
February 7, BE2555/AD2012

The Sam Rainsy Party-Rhode Island/Fall River (SRP-RI/FR) has an honor to inform you, members, media, compatriots and members of the public that SRP-RI/FR will organize a traditionally annual Khmer New Year Celebration, year of the Dragon B.E.2556, A.D.2012, at the Portuguese Club, 20 Second Avenue, Cranston, Rhode Island, on Saturday the 1st Waning Moon of Citta B.E.2555, April 7, A.D.2012. There will be two phases of celebration: Morning Program 8:30AM – 2:00PM Traditional Buddhist ceremony. Evening Program 6:00PM – 12:00Midnight New Year Party Celebration, dancing with live band.

This release is an open invitation to you, members, compatriots and the public.

SRP-RI/FR is a chapter of the Sam Rainsy Party-North America that supports the parent Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the genuine democratic and second largest political party in the Kingdom of Cambodia .

Proceeds to benefit the Sam Rainsy Party in advancing Cambodia to establish a clear policy on protecting national territories, to become a true democratic country, independent court, independent electoral system, respect human and religious rights, eliminate all forms of corruption and provide adequate jobs.

Contact Information:

Sarath Say 401.374.7993, Praser Pel 401.588.0595, Puthy Iech 401.461.0224, Saroeun Phann 401.286.8721, or E-mail: srpri@yahoo.com.

Khmer New Year Celebration Invitation in Cranston, Rhode Island

A Public Announcement:

Khmer New Year Celebration Invitation

The 2555 Khmer New Year Celebration Invitation Organized by the

Sam Rainsy Party-Rhode Island/Fall River.

Date: Saturday April 16, BE2554, AD2011

Location: Portuguese Club, 20 Second Avenue, Cranston, RI

Open to the public, everyone is welcomed.

Proceeds to benefit the Sam Rainsy Party in advancing Cambodia to establish a clear policy on protecting national territories, to become a true democratic country, independent court, independent electoral system, and respect human rights.

SRP-RI/FR is a chapter of the Sam Rainsy Party-North America that supports the parent Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the genuine democratic and second largest political party in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Contact Information: Praser Pel 401.588.0595, Sarath Say 401.374.7993, Ken S. Oung 401.595.6786, Puthy Iech 401.461.0224, Saroeun Phann 401.286.8721, or E-mail: srpri@yahoo.com.

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kScGf1ohpjw

This has been a community and public announcement of Templenews TV.

Should have any further inquiries, please contact an appropriate channel, individuals, telephone numbers, and email address provided above.

Templenews TV

Website - http://www.templenews.org

SRP Rhode Island's Khmer New Year Celebration Announcement

Obituary for Ven. Mey Ros, abbot of Wat Dhammikaram in Providence, Rhode Island, USA

The Venerable Mey Ros, age 86, abbot of Wat Dhammikaram in Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, passed away on Sunday 6th Waxing Moon of Maggasira, B.E.2554, December 12, A.D.2010 Year of the Tiger.

His Body will be transported to Wat Dhammikaram on Thursday Dec. 16, 2010 for the Buddhist monks, his family, and devotees to conduct daily chanting for Him. Then on Sunday Dec. 19, a procession of His Body to the Carpenter Jenks Funeral Home in West Warwick, Rhode Island for religious cremation.

Wat Dhammikaram is the first Khmer Buddhist temple to establish in the United States by His Holiness Samdech Maha Ghosanda and its first abbot in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Today Providence Khmer community has three Buddhist temples. 

Diversity spotlight: Thida Kol’s had a real impact on the Cambodian community

Kol’s become the go-to person in all situations. (The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo)

Sunday, August 29, 2010
By Steph McKenna
Providence Journal staff writer (Rhode Island, USA)

Twenty-two years ago when Thida Kol, 56, began working as a secretary at the Socio Economic Development Center for Southeast Asians in Providence, she had no idea that she would have an enormous impact on the Cambodian community.

But she became the go-to person, the community’s rock who can be counted on in a moment’s notice, in all situations.

“She has a huge heart,” says Anthony Layton, associate director of SEDC. “She is an inspiration to all of us.”

As a Cambodian caseworker, Thida helps elderly clients find housing. In cases where an elderly person is alone, she tries to find another person in similar circumstances so they can share an apartment.

“I find them a place and then find household goods they need,” she says.

“I try to do the best I can to help people in the community who need services.”

Immigrants and refugees need to apply for green cards and talk to immigration lawyers. Thida accompanies them, serves as translator and helps fill out forms.

She takes clients to medical appointments and is the link between doctor and patient.

“SEDC is the only place they trust,” she says, “especially clients who are here alone.”

Thirty years ago, Thida, her husband and three small stepchildren fled Cambodia and the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime.

“They killed my father. My mom died of starvation.”

The family lived for several months in Khao I Dang, a refugee camp along the Cambodian-Thai border, before leaving for Rhode Island where they settled with help from the International Institute of Rhode Island.

Thida enrolled in a program at the Community College of Rhode Island and eventually worked as a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph Hospital. But when she heard from a friend that SEDC was looking for a Cambodian worker, she applied for the job.

One of the few Cambodian community members who had been educated in Khmer, Thida is often asked to do written translations. “I’m the oldest in this office and they ask me first,” she says. “I went to school and know the Khmer language. Some others who are younger did not have the chance to learn because the Khmer Rouge closed the schools.”

“People who came 20 years ago and still don’t speak English rely on SEDC.” She says some don’t even trust their own children to translate official letters, fearing that they will make a mistake that could result in problems.”

There are Meals on Wheels lunches three times a week at SEDC. Thida says that before the meal clients stop by her office with letters to translate, or to ask her to make phone calls.

“Most of my clients know my cell phone number. They can call me anytime.”

And they do call. It could be an emergency situation or just a lonely person who needs to talk.

“If I’m helping people, I feel good. They treat me like I’m their family. They are like my family.”

smckenna@projo.com

Public Screening of Who Killed Chea Vichea?

NEWS RELEASE
July 31, 2009

PUBLIC SCREENING OF WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA?
AT RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Loud Mouth Films is proud to present the first U.S. festival screening of Who Killed Chea Vichea? in Providence, Rhode Island.

Who Killed Chea Vichea? will be screened at 5:20 PM on Friday, Aug 7, at the Columbus Theatre Arts Center, 270 Broadway, Providence, along with the short films In Their Boots: Broken Promise by Abe Greenwald, and Open Air by Shira-Lee Shalit.

Filmed over five years in Cambodia, Who Killed Chea Vichea? is a one-hour documentary thriller about the assassination of Cambodia's top labor leader and the police plot to frame two innocent men. Cambodia is one of the world's largest garment producers and exports some $2 billion worth of garments to the U.S. each year.

On a sunny morning in 2004, two men on a motorbike pulled up at a Phnom Penh newsstand. One of them stepped off, walked over to Chea Vichea, the president of the garment workers union, and calmly shot him in the head and in the heart. Who Killed Chea Vichea? takes us from the dusty streets and slums of Phnom Penh to remote villages, through courtrooms, brothels, factories and gambling dens. It is an unprecedented film about the inner workings of one of the world's most corrupt states.

Produced by Providence native Rich Garella and directed by Bradley Cox, the film was named one of Amnesty International's top ten "Movies That Matter." It is a co-production of Independent Television Services and WGBH Boston.

"There's a large Cambodian community in Providence, and we're going to do our best to reach out to them," Garella said. The festival has already agreed to donate a block of tickets to Providence organization of Cambodian youth.

Contact:

Loud Mouth Films: info@loudmouthfilms.net

Festival and ticket info:

RI International Film Festival: http://riff.bside.com/2009/films/whokilledcheavichea_riff2009

Film website:

Who Killed Chea Vichea? official site: http://www.whokilledcheavichea.com

On FaceBook:

Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76083065273
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=100857517875

BACKGROUND AND FILM SYNOPSIS

By 2004, Cambodia was becoming one of the world's largest garment exporters. Foreign-owned factories employed hundreds of thousands of desperate young women who flooded in from the countryside. The country quickly became dependent on garment exports. Its biggest customer was, and is, the United States.

Vichea, the president of Cambodia's free trade union, slept on a straw mat in the union office and didn't collect a salary. Despite beatings and death threats, he rallied the workers as they fought for wage increases, improved working conditions and an end to forced overtime, and often won. He gained an international reputation in the labor movement, and Cambodia gained a reputation as a model country for worker's rights.

But inside Cambodia, the lesson of the Khmer Rouge regime, and of the regimes before and after it, is well known. Ally oneself with power--or face the consequences.

WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA? is about the killing of one man and the slow silencing of an entire nation. It is about how a small elite keeps an iron grip on power through the use of its police, its army, its manipulation of the courts and its most effective tool: fear. And it is about how hope survives against incredible odds.
--
Loud Mouth Films
Philadelphia/Bangkok
http://www.whokilledcheavichea.com

The gangs of Providence [inclduing Cambodian gangs]

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Once he killed; now he’s back as peacemaker

Sareth Kim was slashed on his 7th birthday. Imprisoned for killing at 17, he’s back on the street, trying to settle disputes among rival gangs.

Friday, February 8, 2008
The Providence Journal (Providence, Rhode Island, USA)

PROVIDENCE — Sareth “Tony” Kim, a founding member of the Providence Street Boys gang, had killed a man.

At the time, he was still a teenager, but his life had been in a downward spiral for the better part of a decade.

Kim sat in his prison cell and wondered about his infant daughter. He also wondered why his so-called friends for life in the gang didn’t bother to visit or write him at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Really, he thought, why continue to live life as a gang member?

“Everything is drama,” he said. “It’s all about putting other people down. It’s so negative.”

He had made peace with rival gang members from the Oriental Rascals and Laos Pride. He had also earned his GED — high school graduation equivalent degree — and took classes in anger management and developing life skills.

Today, Kim, 32, is a free man and father of three who lives a productive life as a senior streetworker for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence on the city’s South Side. He uses his experiences as a former gang member to resolve disputes between rival gangs and keep kids out of trouble. He helps them stay in school and find jobs.

“They know that I’ve been through it,” he said. “The main thing is that they trust me. They can come to me for anything.”

Kim was part of the gang culture back in the early ’90s, when it first took hold in the city’s West End and South Side. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, the first son of a family that had escaped the killing fields of Cambodia. His childhood in Providence was entrenched in violence that he experienced or witnessed as a first generation immigrant. He quickly learned that it was safer to hang with a gang than to be “punked” by other gangs or ethnic groups.

“I was just full of anger,” he said. “I decided that I would rather victimize someone else than be a victim.”

Kim was just 7 when he had his first bad experience on the street. It was his birthday, Jan. 1, 1983, and his mother, Savoeun, who worked long hours in a factory, gave him $5. He was excited about the prospect of buying goodies at a corner store on Elmwood Avenue, a short walk from the family’s apartment.

Kim bought candy and stuffed the change in his pants pocket. As he left, a man approached and grabbed his candy. Then, he reached into the boy’s pockets and stole his change.

“Let me see your hand!” the robber yelled.

Kim extended his hand and the guy sliced his palm. He ran home dripping blood on the newly fallen snow.

A year or two later, the Kim family bought a house on Waverly Street in the West End. Tony Kim remembered seeing a man shot outside his home and hobbling toward Cranston Street with a gunshot wound. Once he reached Cranston Street, a car pulled up and a barrage of gunfire finished him off.

There was no escape from the bloodshed.

One afternoon, a few years later, Kim was heading home from Samuel Bridgham Middle School. He and his friends were planning to play volleyball in the park near the Messer Street firehouse.

Suddenly, a wild shootout broke out between the Asian Boyz and Tiny Raskal Gang.

Bullets were flying and several gang members were hit. Kim saw one man get shot in the head, and he thought, “This is the world that I have to accept and live in.”

Kim said the Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals both wanted him to join their gangs. He was hanging out with the gang members on a daily basis and one of his best friends was part of the Asian Boyz.

One day, several of the gang members asked Kim whether he wanted to join them on a trip to Minnesota. He was thrilled with the possibility of taking a vacation to a faraway place. Since he had arrived in Rhode Island when he was 3, Kim had never left the state.

Now, this group of older teenage boys wanted to include him in a getaway trip. Kim, who had little adult supervision, agreed to go.

“I never told my parents anything,” he said. “My dad worked two jobs all through my childhood, and my mom worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. I’d hardly see my parents. They worked hard, but they missed out on my childhood.”

Kim joined about 8 to 10 other Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals and they took two cars to Minnesota. Halfway there, Kim learned that the gang members were plotting a home invasion of a Cambodian gambling operation.

In Minnesota, they stayed in an apartment and someone delivered a bag with about 30 handguns and shotguns. Kim said two of the gang members argued over a handgun. One of them grabbed the gun and jokingly pointed it at him and another gang member. Then, he loaded a bullet into the gun and spun the chamber. He placed the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.

The explosion of the report was deafening. Kim’s friend had blown his brains out. The gang members got rid of the guns and the police arrived. The home invasion never went down, and the Rhode Island boys headed home.

“I came back traumatized again,” he said.

Kim decided to turn his back on the Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals. He told them that he was done with the gang life. He was a freshman at Central High School, but he was skipping more classes than he was attending. He was constantly getting into fights and getting suspended.

Kim spent most days hanging out with friends in the attic of a house. They would head out and steal bikes in Warwick and Cranston. One day, a group of Oriental Rascals burst into the attic and warned them against forming their own gang. Kim said they had no intention of forming a gang until the Oriental Rascals confronted them.

In response, they formed the Providence Street Boys. They set out and desecrated all the Oriental Rascals graffiti in the West End. In no time, scores of young people across the city wanted to join the new gang. Most of the gang members were Cambodian and Laotian.

The gang members had no great master plan. They hung out, played volleyball and basketball and watched one another’s backs.

About six months later, the Providence Street Boys were involved in a large rumble with the Oriental Rascals at the public park off Messer Street. The newcomers outnumbered the Oriental Rascals and won the battle.

Tony Kim and the Providence Street Boys had become a force on the streets of the city.

A few weeks later, though, the Laotian boys broke away from the Providence Street Boys and formed their own gang — Laos Pride.

A few weeks before Christmas and his 18th birthday, Kim’s world came crashing down.

On the afternoon of Dec. 9, 1993, the police received a report that a man driving a van had been shot and killed on Waverly Street. The day before, Kim’s older sister had been raped by the van driver, Samang Pha, 27, of Providence.

Tony Kim and five of the Providence Street Boys decided to take justice into their own hands.

They had planned on abducting the man at gunpoint and bringing him to the basement of Kim’s house at 48-50 Waverly St. But during the confrontation, Kim’s .357-magnum handgun discharged, sending a bullet into Pha’s face. Kim told police that he intended to wound — not kill — Pha.

Kim pleaded no contest to manslaughter and received a 30-year sentence —10 years to serve and 20 years suspended. The other five gang members also were arrested and spent time in the state Training School or the ACI.

Kim spent about four years in prison before, on his first attempt, he was paroled. He feels fortunate that he is able to work for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence and give back to the same streets where he wasted his adolescence. He worries about young people who seem more impressed than ever with the gang lifestyle.

“It’s more accepted,” he said. “Now, it’s more of a trend. Everybody wants to be a gangster.”

Teny Gross, executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, said that Kim’s ethnic background and experiences as a gang leader are critical in resolving disputes.

He said Kim has placed himself in harm’s way on many occasions, and he likened his role in the community to that of a soldier in Iraq.

“He has a strong passion for his community,” Gross said. “He is doing something that we should all be grateful for.”