Here are some simple but often overlooked things we are already doing to be more eco-friendly and have been doing for centuries. Others could really learn a few things from us on how to further prevent global warming.
1. Car pooling
Hmong people are known for riding in small cars with more passengers than seat belts. Can you just picture your entire family getting out of a Honda Civic?
2. Pack our own lunch in a bamboo container
Although this practice has been somewhat replaced with plastic containers, its important to note that the bamboo containers are a lot safer and culturally more appealing than plastic tupperware.
3. Park far away from destination and walk halfway there
Having a good sense of direction helps, and for Hmong people, it’s usually landmarks that are the giveaways for traveling (like that rock at the corner, or the tree stump on the side road). Who needs a gigantic paper map or a battery hungry gps system?
4. Fill up our own bottles with tap water
That’s what you call reusing!
5. Grow herbs, vegetables and fruits in our own backyard
Not only have our grandmas and ma’s been doing this, but we’ve sort of picked up on the trend…
6. Raise our own meat
If your neighbor has ever caught you trying to catch that chicken that escaped from its coop, then this applies to you! Just remember to keep them quiet and out of the neighbors bushes…
7. Prepare our own food from scratch
Killing your own cow emits less of a carbon footprint. Just uh, don’t do it in your backyard or basement (read more about the impact of eating red meat here).
8. Hunt for our own meet
It’s a fact, Hmong people love hunting for deer and fishing for fish because we get to cook it for ourself and our family later.
9. Pass down old clothing to younger siblings
This is nothing new people! That shirt your little brother is wearing was something you got 6 years ago and it’s perfectly ok.
10. Use old clothes as rags for cleaning up
No more reason for buying tissue and napkins if you use the rags laying around the house to clean up and washup.
By Mai Hlee Xiong, Editor-in-Chief, 18XEEM
Thank you for visiting 18XEEM.com. This article may come to some of you as a surprise.
You may have heard that in 2008 I was the victim of a cyber stalker who defamed me on the internet. After months of investigation, the Warren Police Department and the Macomb County Prosecutor determined through forensic evidence that the culprit behind this criminal activity is a man named Nhia Lee, who also goes by the name of “Tyler” or “Tong Chai”.
I have not taken steps to sue Mr. Lee or anyone in this matter. However, using my web knowledge I was able to help the Warren Police in their investigation to determine that Mr. Lee was hiding behind a computer, anonymously cyber stalking and harassing me. I have asked law enforcement to ensure that he be prosecuted and, if found guilty, that he be punished to the fullest extent of the law for his actions. Nhia Lee is charged with one count of a two-year felony by the state of Michigan, in Macomb County, the cybercrime of “Unlawful Posting of a Message” case no 09-. Mr. Lee has publicly admitted to committing the malicious acts that constitute this crime. As of March, 2, 2009, he is released on bail for $15,000. He currently resides in Shelby Township, Michigan.
Nhia Lee has alleged that he was a beauty pageant “organizer” who was trying to do a good deed by posting on the internet a video compilation that included images of a video of a nude woman that he alleged was me, Mai Hlee Xiong. As a former Miss Lao Hmong – Wisconsin (2004-2005) [click here to read an article that I wrote for 18XEEM about my pageant experiences], such an allegation and widespread dissemination of derogatory material about me is very hurtful. Yet I have had no contact from any pageant officials, organizations, or individuals asking me or demanding that I be stripped of my crown, title, or prize. Nor have I accused any community group, organization or individual other than Mr. Lee of instigating and defaming me.
Nhia Lee has never been an “organizer” of any beauty pageant. He was once a male pageant contestant [where he actually got 2nd place and threatened to sue the judges for not making him the winner!], as well as an emcee in the singing competition portion of the Hmong Michigan New Year 2007. His sister, Nee Lee, won the crown of Miss Hmong Michigan pageant 2007 (I was the runner-up that year). In fact, Mr. Lee was heavily involved in promoting his sister’s participation in the pageant.
After the pageant ended, Mr. Lee began to cyber stalk me on different media channels including MySpace for several months prior to the actual criminal incident. He collected and took personal photos of me and information on my personal life and even posted video clips of me and other former pageant contestants performing in public venues on YouTube without our knowledge or permission. He then made immature comments about each of us and mocking our abilities. In addition, Mr. Lee anonymously created a false profile in order to become my MySpace friend, using a fake name and photo of someone named “Jeffrey”. He also used my own photos and profile information to create a false profile of me. He pretended to be me and messaged my real friends in inappropriate ways and requested to be friends with strangers as if he were me. I have logs and logs of consecutive days where he visited my MySpace page and my website, HleeX.com, daily, during normal and odd hours like 2, 3 in the morning (if you are visiting this website, you should know that your information has been logged and documented as well).
Since this terrible incident, I have received numerous Google searches such as “pornstar Hlee Xiong”, “Hlee XXXiong”. I am telling you personally now, that is not the person that I am. I do not portray myself as such, and this is an insult to my family and to me. I have retained numerous documents showing page views and hits coming from Mr. Lee’s home IP address in Shelby Township, and his specific MySpace ID to prove that it was him who was cyber stalking me and sending out harassing and malicious emails to me and others.
Mr. Lee used photos that he lifted from my MySpace page and hand crafted a slideshow compilation of me and my family to create a false impression and defame my reputation. He created a YouTube account “TheHmongTruth” and uploaded the slideshow with an accompanying song called “Apologize” by Timbaland and One Republic, suggesting in the chorus that it was “too late to apologize”. Mr. Lee then used an anonymous email account that he specifically created for the purpose of widespread posting of the defamatory material under the name “thehmongtruth@yahoo.com”. He sent the material to multiple recipients who were close family, friends, and colleagues of me, including messages such as “Quit being a fake a$$ whore!” “pictahs” “uh oh….Wat ur excuse be now?” A friend of mine told this anonymous person to stop and reveal his true identity. Mr. Lee responded: “U is prolly a SlUt h3o like yo frend Mizz XXXiong! She aint no innocenT no mo huh? lol!”
Mr. Lee’s false and defamatory emails and postings were sent far and wide, to close family and friends of mine, to a pageant official, to dozens of Michigan State University students (where he attended school), as well as to several mailing lists that contain many more addresses. Finally, the material was then distributed virally on numerous discussion boards and online blogs by some recipients.
These materials were posted and sent throughout the same time my mother was still recovering from brain surgery at the hospital. During this time, my family and I were still grieving for my mother’s life while she fought to survive the effects of two aneurysms. And with Nhia Lee’s visual image and noise embedded in my mind, forever instilled in me, it made my life a living hell. I will never forget the chilling feeling that crossed my mind over this for as long as I live. I was frozen but shaken all at the same time. This experience is forever embedded into my mind and has caused me intense emotional upset.
I live my life by a moral standard, and that is to treat others the way you would expect them to treat you. I live my life to serve others and make others happy while putting my own happiness last. I am content, knowing that I can bring happiness to others. My success is my family’s success, and my success is shared in my community. Never have I had cruel intentions towards others. I am, the ‘girl with the smile, who always goes the extra mile’. I like to believe that there are good people in this world who strive to do good things. I used to believe that doing good things will yield good returns. And so I tried to do good things in my life for others. But now, I often wonder why bad things happen to good people?
A beloved uncle of mine once told me: “Use your intelligence to do good things in this world, not to do bad things to harm others”. And a famous Hmong saying goes, if Hmong do not love Hmong, who will love the Hmong? When I found out the truth from the Warren Police that it was a fellow Hmong American Nhia Lee who harassed and cyber-stalked me for months under the alias “TheHmongTruth” I was deeply hurt knowing that this cruel person came from my own community. I was always taught that we should stand together, support each other, and love each other, because ‘we are like one family’ and we stem from the same tree. There is no good reason why Nhia Lee would do what he did to me. I have never given him any reason to treat me in a hostile manner. There are no words to describe all the feelings that I have internally. Nhia Lee violated and invaded my privacy. He harmed the only family I have. My community has suffered greatly and felt betrayed by Nhia Lee and his family’s senseless acts and animosity.
Before I went to the police I asked Nhia Lee directly if he did it. I was willing to accept an apology if he would cease doing it. But he denied it, belittled me for it, and recruited his family in perpetrating his lie. Now that he has admitted to be the perpetrator behind TheHmongTruth@yahoo.com it is clear that he has brought the same onto his family and community.
As the victim of an awful cyber stalking crime, I have decided to come forward from here on out to let people know that they do not have to suffer cyber stalking silently and can fight back against online defamation by cowards who hide behind false identities on the internet. Because of the terrible experience that I went through and am still going through today, I have set up a resource website to help create awareness of the crime, and to provide a forum for people who use social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to assist them in preventing cyber stalking.
So please visit WWW.QUITSTALKINGME.COM to find out more.
An interview with Vong Lee, aka “Knowstalgic” from the duo group Delicious Venom, a young, emerging Hip-Hop rapper with strong ties to his history and culture. Delicious Venom is known for their unique lyrics about social and cultural issues in songs such as “30 Year Secret” and “Genocide in Laos”.
What is Delicious Venom?
Delicious Venom –the cure for venom is venom, it kinda cancels out poison. Growing up in a venomous neighborhood, it’s like, now that we know what was going on; we know the right route, we’re coming back as the positive venom to cancel out the bad venom. That’s why we called ourselves — my older brother Tou Saiko and me, Delicious Venom
Where were you born?
I was born in providence Rhode Island, my brother was born in a refugee camp; we came here around 1979. I have another brother who was born a year before me, and my sister, who was born after me, in Syracuse. They are the total opposites of me and Tou. As far as personalities go, the things we are into, are different, but we get along pretty well.
Where did you grow up?
We lived in New York for about 10 years, and then we moved here to St, Paul, MN. In New York, we lived in Syracuse, the forgotten city, all of these abandoned homes, no one cared about, it was just a crumbling city, lots of corruption, we didn’t realize how bad it was when we were little, until now.
Why Hmong history & Hip Hop?
For me, first of all, Hip Hop has such a huge influence on pretty much the whole globe, but a lot of people are misinformed as to what it is: Hip Hop is like a culture that started out in pretty much, the poorest neighborhoods, in New York City, where everyone was oppressed. The type of neighborhood we grew up in, that was pretty much the only type of music that hit home with me, you can listen to music about being mad or being sad, but Hip Hop, you know they talk about things that are happening currently, in the neighborhoods.
What’s a typical day like for you?
Pretty busy, tonight we have a show at Concordia University, afterwards it’s straight to the Turf Club and then Saturday we’ll be performing at the Lucy’s Moonlight Sports Bar. In between all that I got all these other things goin’ on like school, and trying to get this job [he's fumbling to find an important document].
What’s your plan for the future?
I really want to teach Hmong History and Hip Hop history one day, at first I wanted to do it inside of a school, but I don’t know, I guess we’ll see if there’s any where else I can teach it.
Who were some of your friends growing up?
In New York, the only Hmong people we knew were our cousins, mostly my dad’s side. My mom’s side lived in MN. Everyone else was just white, or black, Latino kids. Back then I didn’t really know how to differentiate races, some of them were just my friends, I didn’t really see them as black, white or significantly different from me, they were just my friends, it didn’t matter. Now I’m more aware of the differences.
How did your family, particularly your parent’s feel about you and your brother rapping?
They weren’t really supportive at first. They used to tease us a lot, like my dad would always imitate us, there is a song from the 80s called, Whip it. He would always say that line “It’s not to late to whip it, whip it good” to us over and over every time he heard us rapping. It was pretty funny.
Who wrote 30 Year Secret?
My brother Tou, Doua, a guest rapper, and me. We each wrote our own verses. The inspiration was from a group from Minnesota called H3 (Hmong Hlub Hmong). At that time, they were going around doing rallies and informing the community about the situation in Laos, ongoing war with the communist Laos and the Hmong people living in the jungle, the genocides of some of the Hmong victims. They opened a lot of eyes, including ours. They were doing a candle light vigil where they showed video footages of what was going on in Laos. It inspired us to do something about it. If this is really happening, people need to know. This can’t be just be pushed aside. We were trying to think of a way as to how we could make other people see the problems going on, without hurting anyone or doing
anything violent. What could we do with our abilities? We looked at each other and said, “Alright we’re all musicians, artists, and there is a big Hmong artist community in the country. We’re all disconnected from each other, but how about we do a collaboration of all Hmong artists out there, and let’s get together and write songs about the situation, raise awareness; get people to start talking about it.”
So we worked with H3, and got them to donate DVD’s so we could do a callout, to artists who wanted to help with the project, and anyone who was interested, we mailed them each a DVD of the presentation, a documentary of what was going on in Laos, to educate them, and hopefully inspire them. We did that, then in MN, we did a lot of promoting, telling people about it, pretty much, it came together a lot better than we ever imagined. This became known as the H Project.
What did you want people to take back from listening to your music?
When I was writing, it was just mainly to spark up a conversation, move somebody, to make them angry, sad or just to feel somethin’ about it, you know… hopefully, it will lead them to something good.
What were some reactions?
People really responded well to the song, some even came up to us and told us that they cried listening to it.
What kind of feeling does that give you?
It makes me feel good because it lets me know that, we still do, there is still Hmong people out there who care about Hmong people. It makes me realize how close we really are even though we are all far apart. It gives me a great feeling that there’s still hope
out there.
When was the first performance?
In 1999, when I was 17 and Tou was 21. Our first performance was infront of a Hmong audience at a party in MN. It was kinda crazy. We were doing all these crazy things on stage and I think we kinda scared ‘em. A lot of our songs, when we first started out we didn’t have a studio, a mic or speakers, or anything, we started performing before we ever had any equipment. Our first song was just a performance song; we never recorded it. We always rapped on the mic live. We had a friend who did shows, and he liked our style, so he wanted us to go out there, and so the majority of our songs became performance songs. A lot of it is about social issues, reflecting our feelings, and the way we feel about life, and how we grew up.
Who usually comes to the shows?
The majority is the younger generation, but we have a pretty good number of older generation that show up as well. We had a performance in WI and it was pretty much just senior citizens, and they really felt for our music, and praised us in the end. We don’t have a limit to our audience because even if they don’t like it, maybe they can respect or like it for what it is.
Do you write poetry?
We started writing poetry before we started rapping, when I was in 4th or 5th grade, and my brother was in Junior High.
What influenced you?
It was my brother, when he started getting into it, I was getting into it.
Why did you pick Hip-Hop and Rapping over Country, Rock or Hmong music?
Well, my brother and I are definitely working towards writing Hmong music. What happened during the Vietnam War, devastated our parents. Basically, they thought their lives were done, everything that had worked for was gone. So, when we came here to America and they had heard that this was the land of opportunity and you won’t make it if you don’t know English, they taught us the basics of Hmong, just enough to understand people and communicate, and then rest was just English. Even in preschool, they had these books where they sat down with us, played tapes while we read along with the tapes. So they got us on a good start with English. Even in our English classes, we were kinda ahead of the American kids, and so that’s why our English is such a big part of our music. It’s been a big part of us growing up.
How do you spend your weekends besides performing?
I try to hang out with my friends but I barely ever see them, almost every time we have a date set to hang out, I always say I wanna go but usually something always comes up. It’s more like catching up days, everything I pushed back during the week, I just catch up on it, like homework, but the majority of it has to do with music; organizing shows, there’s always so much stuff going on with our music. If we ever say we have nothing to do, we’re lying. Because we have all these shows that are pending, a lot of things we still have to do as far as getting things done.
Where are these shows at usually?
Everywhere. Clubs, community centers, bars, school, elementary, middle, high school, universities, everywhere you can think of. We don’t have a specific audience that we target, we make our music, and if you want us to be there, we’ll perform infront of any type of audience, any race, age. Basically,anyone who wants to listen.
Who else is a musician in your family?
My older brother Sy and my Dad used to be in a band called Demix. They used to play at Hmong parties, weddings, New Years. They were a really popular band; a lot of people requested them. This was way before we started rapping. It was fun, but not something that really influenced us to be in the music scene. It wasn’t our thing, but we liked it.
What do you think the future hold for you?
You know, [sigh] every couple of days, I sit here and ask me that same question. I really don’t have a def answer. I really want music to be a big part of my life. But there are so many other things I want to do in life, I do know that music will always be a part of it, just figuring out how big of a part it will be in my life, is the hard thing. If we get signed with a huge deal then we’ll def pursue music all the way, but until then, I want to keep workin’ on my other goals like learning as much as I can about the Hmong history, push as much as I can in every direction, until it takes off.
Do you want to travel somewhere?
Traveling is def on our agenda, especially Laos and Thailand. We’ve discussed performing there. We’d love to do that. There really is no limit as to where we will perform.
Do you think you’ll ever get married?
Laughs. Well. [Pause] Well, I’m def not in a rush to get married, but if I find someone, like me, and our lives are compatible, and our personalities click, and, you know [pause] everything works out then, yeah. I’m not saying this isn’t ever gonna happen.
This article was published in the July 2007 issue of 18XEEM
Center for Hmong Arts and Talent’s (CHAT) 7th Annual Hmong Arts & Music Festival is being held on Saturday, August 16, 2008 at the Western Sculpture Park on Marion Street in Saint Paul.
The Festival is a celebration of culture for all ages and has become a tradition of sorts for the neighborhood and for the growing Hmong community in the Twin Cities. Last year, there was an estimated 3,000 people that attended. We only anticipate even more people this year.
“Where do the Hmong come from?” “Do the Hmong have a country of their own?” These are questions that are commonly asked of Hmong people. And, although the curiosity in these questions have a legitimate innocence to them, this notion of whether or not there is a Hmongland raises questions regarding how Hmong people are perceived both by Hmong and non-Hmong people. How does a population without a recognized country identify itself? How do residents of a displaced community respond to definition inside and outside of the community? These questions force an inward exploration of identity and worth for many Hmong and a world of wonderment for non-Hmong.
CHAT asks artists to consider these questions and to share how they imagine what HMONGLAND would be like. CHAT invites the community to witness HMONGLAND at the 7th Annual Hmong Arts and Music Festival on August 16, 2008.
HMONGLAND will be a celebration of the arts with original paintings and sculptures in the Visual Gallery, dance and musical performances on the Main Stage, live art and theatre, a showcase of artwork by youth at the Art Saves Us Tent, a cake decorating contest with Cakes By Fhoua, games, vendors, resources and food! Come as an artist, patron, vendor, enthusiast, tourist or resource – it’s a good time for all ages.
For more information, please contact: Kathy Mouacheupao at 651-603-6971 or kathy@aboutchat.org
CHAT is a non-profit organization with the mission to nurture and develop Hmong artists to enhance the community.
Is there an event that you would like for us to attend? Please use our submission form to tell us about it!
Look for our fun photo wall at the next event!
18XEEM will be represented at these events:
Music is Prophecy
Myth Night Club
St. Paul, MN
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
CHAT’s 7th Annual Hmong Art and Music Festival: “HMONGLAND”
Western Sculpture Park
St. Paul, MN
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Subscribe to read about the guys behind Dance & Dreams, and join us on July 5th, 2008, for their biggest event of the summer @ Myth in St. Paul, MN. Featuring: DJ Overgold, DJ Journey, DJ Scooby, DJ Skyy, Future, DJ Hottboy. Click here to subscribe.
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