[Vnbiz] Welcome brother Tran Ba Thien into VNBIZ

Thu Apr 12 08:32:05 PDT 2007

Dear anh Thien,

Your name sounds really familiar to me - Have you ever taken part in any
YMCA Vietnam activities?

-nhung

From: vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com [mailto:vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com]
On Behalf Of Tran Ba Thien
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:53 PM
To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
Subject: Re: [Vnbiz] Welcome brother Tran Ba Thien into VNBIZ

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am Tra:'n bC! thia;n

I am working in the field of disability in vietnam as a sociologist with
disability study and as a community developer with some projects for people
with disability in VN.

I have worked as social workers for people with disability PWD since 1992.
First I came to Trung Tam Bao Tro assistant center for PWD then trained PWD
skills. Later, I became community developer for them. Since 2001, I have
collaborated with Grace Mishler, MA of Social work from US and have done
some studies on disability. From the experiences, I have my comment for
brother Hoanh's question

In English now, PWD prefer the word "disability". It means that the people
don't lose all like unabled people but they have got some types of
impairment and cannot use some functions. By the interpreting, you can see
everybody is not perfect. Everybody cannot do all then some parts of them
cannot be used. it means that everybody is disabled. PWD also explain that
there is no unabled person but unabled society. 

For example, when a blind person bump at a traffic light, why? most of us
explain that because of his/her blindness. But it's not a correct answer. I
have a blind friend. Near his house there is a electric pole. they built it
20 years ago. He never bumps at the pole but many people in his alley have
ever bumped at it. Today, they explain that because of friendly environment.
The blind man knows where the pole at in his home area. Then he knows how to
avoid it. if every pole along streets have been built upper 2 cm higher then
normal level of side walks, blind walkers will recognize the poles then will
avoid it successfully.

problem of PWD comes from the way that people have designed the society.
They have designed it for non disabled people then the designs excludes PWD.
the discrimination is the main reason for why PWD in English speaking
country don't like the word handicap. they said the history of the word
handicap has involved with many bad attitudesagainst PWD. They don't like to
be called as cripple, mute etc. Please see my attached file by Mike oliver.

Second, in Vietnamese, long ago they called phe61 nha6n, ta65t nguye62n,
ta2n ta65t and etc. Since 1990, many Vietnamese have tried to transform new
social awareness of PWD. The politic language needs to be changed too. last
June, 2006, From a conference about khuye61t ta65t and ta2n ta65t in Ha Noi,
most of participants agreed to use Khuyet tat instead of Tan tat. Then now
in formal and in official language we use khuyet tat.i have some newspaper
articles about the subject. Please see attachment.

This mailing list focuses on business and economic issues. I'd like to learn
form all of you. your ideas will be very helpful for my community
development study and projects. 

best luck,

Tran Ba Thien
tranbathien at gmail.com

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Tran Dinh Hoanh <mailto:tdhoanh at gmail.com>  

To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net 

Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 1:03 AM

Subject: [Vnbiz] Welcome brother Tran Ba Thien into VNBIZ

[ Vietnam Business Forum ]

  _____  

Dear CACC,

Please join to welcome brother Tra^`n Ba' Thie^.n into our VNBIZ family.

Brother Thien <tranbathien at gmail.com> is in the last year of the chuong
trinh tai chuc sociology at University of Social Science and Humanities of
HCMC.  He is also a member of the Southeast Asia Study Association, and
works the Center for Community Development, 31 Ngo Gia Tu, HCMC as an expert
on disabilities.  He also manages the largest forums on disabilities in
Vietnam, that is the SMCC and NKTVN forums. 

That is great, anh Thien.  Welcome in.  Looks like your home is close to the
home where I grew up, in Cu Xa Kien Thiet, in front of Nha Tho Ba Chuong.
Now my brother lives there.  Anyway, it is good to know that you are working
with the disabled, along with sister Thuy Lien.  Please keep us informed and
educated about the disabled. 

You can start telling me what is the right term to use: is that "disabled"
or "handicapped" or what?  I know in Vietnam we say Nguoi khuyet tat.  In
the US, for a while there was some argument about the right term to use.  I
am not sure what the outcome of that argument is.  If you know the answer,
please let us know.  If you don't, I will do an Internet search when I have
some free time. 

In any event, welcome in.  And please feel free to share your heart and mind
with us.

Great day, brother Thien and all.

Hoanh

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC 

  _____  

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