Dr. Betty Lee Sung:
Now we have Dean Hiroko Karan who will be presiding this session of the talk and speakers.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you, Dr. Sung. Good morning and welcome to the second part of the Asian American Leadership Conference today. My name is Hiroko Karan. I’m Dean of the School for Science, Health, and Technology at the Medgar Evers College, CUNY. The previous two sessions addressed an overview of Asian Americans/Asians in New York and the factor of 9/11 on Asian communities economically, socially, politically, educationally, and health-wise. This session addresses Healing and Rebuilding after 9/11, and we have five distinguished speakers who will address these issues. Due to the time constraint, we don’t have a Q & A session, but I would like to ask you to interact with the speakers, maybe at lunch recess.
First, I would like to introduce Honorable Betty Wu. Is she here? Ok, maybe she hasn’t arrived. Ok, then I’d like to move on to introduce Dr. Parmatma Saran, who’s our first speaker. Dr. Saran is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Baruch, CUNY. He chairs the Asian and Asian American Studies Committee at Baruch College, and is a member of the CUNY Graduate Faculty in Sociology. He has numerous books, entitled, Direct Administration in India; Asian Indian Experience in the United States; New Ethnics: Asian Indians in the United States; and Rural Leadership in the Context of India’s Modernization. Dr. Saran.
Dr. Parmatma Saran:
Thank you very much. I cannot hide my emotions. I was upstairs in my office and just a few minutes ago I got a call from my daughter, who is now a lawyer. She has passed her Barr Exam. I just wanted share that with you.
Before I start my presentation, I also wanted to tell you that it’s never easy for us, Asian Americans, or South Asians or people who are generally hyphenated. And I’ll give you a glaring example. We started the content for the establishment of what we have now, the Asian American/Asian Research Center, some six or seven years back. It started right here at Baruch. It was back and forth, yes and no, all kinds of things, and it was really not a big deal on the part of the University, but it took us six or seven years. I had frankly given up. It’s because of the persistence and strong leadership of my good friends Dr. Thomas Tam and Dr. Betty Sung that we are here today, and I want to congratulate both of them and other friends for their persistence, so that we now have this institute.
I know I have very little time, ten minutes. Under these circumstances, I would like to prepare a brief statement. My friend Tom Tam also said that he needs something for publication, so I tried to put something together. It’s very brief and I’m basically going to try to read this to you. Hopefully it will make some sense. The title of this presentation is “The South-Asian Experience Since 9/11”.
When we talk about South Asians, we generally include people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. In this presentation though, the major focus is on people from Indian origin and from Pakistani origin, and six from India and other parts of South Asia. So this is the background.
How can I forget? Yes, it was September 11th, about nine in the morning, that I received a call form a relative. He was in a rush. He simply asked me to turn on my TV. Immediately, I turned on my TV and gathered that a plane had crashed at the World Trade Center. Since I was in a rush myself, getting ready to go to the college, I thought it was an accident and turned off my TV. About 9:40, I received a call from the department secretary, telling me about the attack on the World Trade Center and the possible closure of the college for that day. I asked her to call me back if there was any more news about the closing of the college. Since I didn’t hear from her, I went to the railroad station soon after 10. I had to catch a 10:19 train. At the station, I learned that train services to Penn Station were cancelled. Since there were no other means of transportation available to the city, I returned home in frustration. As soon as I reached home, I was told that the secretary had actually called to inform that the college was actually closed. I called her back and got an idea of what was going on. Still not able to fully comprehend the situation, I turned back on the TV and practically remained glued to it for the next 10, 12, 15 days – I don’t remember.
We all remember too well what we witnessed and how it changed our lives. For me, it was one of the most difficult times I’ve had living in this country since moving here in 1967. I received calls from friends and relatives in India and elsewhere inquiring about our welfare. For the country, of course, it was a time of intense crisis. Many observers and commentators saw it as a time worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor. Needless to say, this incident has very badly affected all of us, irrespective of our race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality.
However, it has directly affected Muslims from Pakistan and India, as well as Sikhs from India and other South Asian countries. As a matter of fact, soon after 9/11, some colleagues at work asked me if everything was all right because of the growing hostility toward South Asians. Even though I happen to be Hindu from India, they were concerned about me. Luckily, I never had any personal experience of this nature, but a Sikh friend who lives in my neighborhood told me that they were a bit more alert and cautious.
By now, media reports made it clear that attacks against South Asians were not isolated cases, but there was a systematic pattern and increasingly it was becoming a matter of public concern. In my informal conversations with many Muslims and Sikh friends, it was quite clear that they lived in fear and uncertainty with a sense of humiliation and imminent threat of death. It was also widely reported by the media that South Asians were attacked in different parts of the country. Some of these attacks resulted in deaths and serious injuries.
While there has been adequate coverage by the media of these unfortunate incidences, there seems to be a lack of serious concern on the part of the policy makers and the public at large. In the eyes of the general public and some law enforcing agents, anyone who has any resemblance to those involved in the attack on the World Trade Center is a suspect and must be treated accordingly. In other words, if you are a Muslim, if you have a beard and if your name is Mohammad or Osam, you are automatically a suspect. Unfortunately, all we know is that the attackers of the World Trade Center did represent these characteristics. What is not known is that many victims of this attack were also of the same background.
We must understand that terrorism has no religion. Therefore, to equate any religion with terrorism is dead wrong. President Bush has made this point in a number of his speeches and remarks, but that’s not enough. Legislation has not been able to address this issue and educate the public. What is needed is to launch such a campaign at all levels – in our schools, colleges, neighborhoods, places of worship and other public forums. There were some teachings on our campuses and they were quite successful, with the result being better understanding among our students. We need to continue such efforts to reach out to the public at large.
There is no question that the law enforcing agents, as well as the public, must be sensitized so that they treat their fellow citizens of South Asian background with care and respect. But at the same time, the members of the South Asian communities need to realize that while their individual liberty needs to be safeguarded, what is also at stake is national security. As a matter of fact, individual liberty and national security are not alien but complimentary to each other. However, sometimes zealous and biased law enforcing agents, as well as members of the groups targeted, see it as dichotomy. We need to address this issue of individual liberty and national security in order to achieve better understanding on both sides.
We have heard many stories of interrogation and harassment of South Asians at American airports. In most cases, the reaction is that of anger, frustration and a clear sense of discrimination because of their background. While such responses are natural, I would also like to bring to attention the following article from India Abroad, which is a local weekly. It was published on May 10. The report says “Kamal Hassan Questioned at Toronto Airport”. Who is Kamal Hassan? He is a very well known actor, producer and director in India. He also happens to be a Muslim. First he was interrogated and then he was refused permission to board this flight from Toronto to Los Angeles. The actor, however, refuses to be embittered by the experience. And I quote him, “Why get all worked up over the incident? They didn’t mean to be rude. They were just doing their job, a little too zealously perhaps. We have seen what they do to a guy who looks Vietnamese in First Blood. Sylvester Stallone showed his muscles to his tormentors. I’m not Rambo. I’m an artist. I took the questioning coolly. I don’t think my interrogation was equivalent to Mahatma Gandhi’s being thrown out of the train in South Africa. This is not a human rights issue, it is a security issue. Having said that, I must say that we have to be vocal about our displeasure of such treatment.” Kamal Hassan’s message is clear. Don’t overreact because the stakes are high. What is also at stake is national security.
I hope that even those who do not agree with Kamal Hassan will do some soul searching and will see what their obligations are in times of national and international crisis. Finally, we, as a society, must learn lessons from history and not repeat mistakes we have made in the past. At the same time, members of the South Asian communities must not develop a sense of isolation and humiliation themselves. They are as American as any one else.
So the real challenge is to challenge those who not only challenge South Asians but the very spirit of America. Because the real spirit of America is progress, understanding and respect to each other. Let us take a vow to live up to these expectations. Let us resolve that we, as Americans, are equally committed to individual liberty as well as national security. Thank you.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you Dr. Saran. I have colleagues from South Asia, India or Pakistan, and they also expressed their concern when we had a meeting right after 9/11. They were very much apprehensive to take an airplane or simply to go to the airport. So I think we should all keep in mind we have to be together to deal with these kinds of issues.
The next speaker is Honorable Betty Wu. Ms. Wu is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Employment. She earned her B.A. at the University of Washington. Prior to her appointment, she held senior management positions at Bloomberg LP, and other leading global financial institutions. Ms. Wu.
Ms. Betty Wu:
Good afternoon. I just came back from a very long hour at a budget hearing with City Council members, so it gives me great pleasure to be sharing the next 15 minutes with all of you discussing how we’re going to heal and move forward after the tragic September 11th event.
As the Commissioner of the Department of Employment, I would like to thank Asian American/Asian Research Institute for inviting me to participate at the Asian American Leadership Conference. I’m pleased to be here today with so many very distinguished members of this panel to address you on the healing and rebuilding of New York City in the aftermath of September 11th.
The Asian American communities in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn are an integral part of New York City’s economy. When the commercial base of these communities decline, New York City’s economy suffers. As many of you have or will hear throughout the day, the events of September 11th had a major impact on the Asian American community. Studies have shown that Manhattan’s Chinatown businesses, the garment industry, restaurants, shopping district and tourist suffered significant revenue losses. The community’s infrastructure was severely affected. The workers experienced high levels of unemployment and underemployment. These impacts resulted in huge financial setbacks for the Asian American communities throughout the city.
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the events of that tragic day. Manhattan’s Chinatown is the neighborhood that’s ten blocks from the World Trade Center site. The community’s economic, residential life and vitality, suffered just as severely as the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero. Manhattan’s Chinatown is home to approximately 56,000 Asian residents. More than 3,800 Asians owned and operated businesses and employed over 33,600 workers in the community. In the wake of September 11th, this community infrastructure was severely impacted. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic was limited or prohibited. Public transportation to and from the area was restricted and nonexistent. Electricity and telecommunication capabilities to, from and within the area were disrupted.
Chinatown’s major economic bases are garment and manufacturing, restaurant, retail and tourism. These industries experienced declines in business as high as 100% in the week following September 11th. In the month following September 11th, business continued to decline between 30-70%, including the closing of more than 40 garment factories. Chinatown workers experienced extremely high levels of unemployment and underemployment.
The impact to Manhattan’s Chinatown reached far beyond the community’s boundaries. Most of the workers in the community commute from other boroughs, mainly Queens and Brooklyn, to work in Chinatown. Loss of wages for these workers has an economic impact in other boroughs throughout the city. Residents from other parts of the city, the Tri-State area, and the region visit family and friends in Chinatown, patronize the restaurants and shops in the neighborhood. These visitors were no longer coming to the area on a mass basis.
The New York City Department of Employment is a city workforce development agency. The city’s Department of Employment seeks to advance the city’s human services and economic development goals. The agency creates and implements customer focused work force assessment programs and services that insure all New Yorkers of employment, while simultaneous providing employers with access to a high quality work force. The New York City Department of Employment will work with our colleagues in government, will partner with the private and public communities and will partner with the private and public communities and collaborate with the non-profit sector to reach out to New Yorkers in good and difficult economic times. I’m honored to lead the New York City Department of Employment as its Commissioner, in this very important role, as we move forward and contribute to the healing and rebuilding process.
Let me outline to you some of the impact of September 11th on the Asian American community and the role of the New York City Department of Employment. I would like to share with you how the Asian American community and New Yorkers can play an important part in the city healing and rebuilding effort.
First of all, I encourage all of you to continue your unified efforts to recover and rebuild as one community. I also encourage you to work with community leaders and elected officials to voice your concerns and represent your interests. I also encourage you to seek supports, services, and financial assistance from public/private, and non-profit communities. These include job training and retraining opportunities, skills upgrade, vocational education services, job search, and job placement assistance for workers through out the New York City Department of Employment and partner organizations, in training communities. I also encourage you to use businesses, both large and small, to rebuild themselves for staff recruitment (that’s something we should encourage), placement assistance, customized training to meet their workforce needs, immediate access to skilled workers and employment retention services provided by the New York City Department of Employment and our partners in workforce development.
I also encourage businesses to participate in the city of New York’s Adopt-a-Company. Do many of you know this program? Adopt-a-Company is a public/private initiative designed to support small businesses affected by September 11th. Adopt-a-Company is a voluntary pro bono program which partners companies with small businesses recovering from losses due to September 11th. The program encourages support, or adoption of small businesses, by giving them good traffic, client referrals and other pro bono assistance. In fact, this initiative was carried out by the Department of Business Services and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. I urge you to go to www.nyc.gov and click on the Department of Business Services website, and that should give you more information.
There’s no doubt in my mind that New York City faces many challenges ahead, as we begin to rebuild this great city. In partnership with the leaders here today and throughout our communities, the Bloomberg Administration and the New York City Department of Employment are committed to helping the Asian American community rebuild from the tragic event eight months ago. As we move forward in rebuilding lower Manhattan, Chinatown and the extended Asian American communities will be an integral part to the city’s healing, rebuilding, and its rebirth.
I have every confidence, on behalf of the Bloomberg Administration, that we will include all communities as we rebuild. I whole-heartedly encourage you to take what you learn here today and throughout this conference to help raise awareness of the economic and human impact of September 11th on the Asian American community, and how we can contribute and rebuild the city for all New Yorkers. I would also urge you to speak loudly, not only in your community and your school and your neighborhood, but to raise awareness with your City Council members and your borough president about how important it is that this effort has to be city-wide. This tragedy did not just impact Chinatown. It really impacted the entire city of New York.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to speak today. I look forward to meeting all of you in the future and working with you. Thank you.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you. That was a great presentation. Our next speaker is Dr. David Cheng. Dr. Cheng is Professor and Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Baruch College, CUNY. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice. Prior to joining Baruch College, Dr. Cheng served as a senior psychologist and consultant for the New York City Police Department. Dr. Cheng.
Dr. David Cheng:
It seems like decades since I talked to you in the beginning. Can I ask you to just stand up and stretch for a minute? Stand up, stand up. I don’t want you to fall asleep on me. Ok, take a deep breath. I think we all need to take a deep breath. It’s a long day.
Dr. Tam has asked me to talk to you today about the psychological healing and rebuilding of Asian communities after 9/11. If you remember, eight months ago tomorrow (it will be the 11th), New York City, the United States and indeed the entire world were rocked by the devastation of the World Trade Center and the thousands of deaths that resulted. As we all know, the effects of the disaster continue to wreck havoc upon all of us in many ways, and the effects of the post-traumatic stress are clearly evident in our community. My focus today is not on the community at large, but rather on the specific effects on the Asian communities of New York and how we as professionals and leaders of those communities can help with the psychological well being of our fellow Asians.
Just a week ago, May 2nd, there was an article in the New York Times by Eddie Goodnow. It detailed the results of two studies on post-traumatic stress and mental health problems being experienced by New Yorkers. The first study was conducted by the New York City Board of Education, and it provided the most comprehensive look ever at the psychological impact of a major disaster on American school children. The researchers found that 13.8% of Hispanic students, 9.3% of non-Hispanic Black students, 9% of Asian students, and 8% of white students were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The second study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine was a study of a relatively small sample of adults living south of 110th Street in Manhattan. It showed that 13.8% of Hispanics (the same as the last study almost), 9.3% of the Blacks, 6.5% of Whites and only 3.2% of Asians were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I see some shaking of heads in the audience. Why is the percentage of Asian adults so low compared to the other groups? Especially when looking at the large number of Asians living close to the disaster site, who were so clearly and horribly effected, both economically and psychologically.
I have some theories which I will discuss more in depth in the afternoon workshops and I also hope to get some feedback from those of you who attend the session. Maybe you can tell me why. I’m particularly disturbed though by the low percentage, because I believe that results like these have serious implications for resources and funding in the area of mental health for Asians. I firmly believe that Asians are the most underserved population in mental health. This issue has generally been ignored for Asians are always perceived as not needing mental health services. The misconception has resulted in much misfortune and grief for our Asian communities.
I’m often reminded of the tragic student suicides on Baruch’s campus a few years ago, when 2 out of 3 were Chinese females. And some of you might remember the recent article in the New York Times Magazine on April 28th, entitled, “A Suicide at MIT,” by Deborah Sontag, which explored the suicide of Elizabeth Chin, a Korean American student. But let’s not digress too far from the issue of 9/11. We can discuss that more later, if you’re interested, in the workshop.
In general, I have found that Asians are often reluctant to seek psychotherapy, even in the face of severe mental problems. If we can identify some of the psychological features of post 9/11, and apply them to Asians and Asian Americans, we may find some clues as to how we can devise both short term and long term strategies to facilitate the healing and rebuilding process. First of all, I believe that we are all in this together. Many people experienced the attack directly. Some lost loved ones or friends, while some narrowly escaped the area before the building collapsed. Some lost jobs and were otherwise affected economically. Many of us actually witnessed the collapse from the vantage points around the city, and all of us were bombarded with incessant replays of the video footage of the tragedy. But none of us have escaped the impact.
We are inspired by the many acts of courage. We grieve with those who suffered grievous loss. We experience loss and sadness as well as other acute responses. As time goes on, our initial responses give way to other challenges. We have to get back to our jobs, our studies at school and back to our families. We also need to find ways to deal with our anger, dealing with our real and imagined insecurities and we have to deal with the new realities of additional travel precautions, and constantly identify checks and searches at public and private buildings and functions.
The Baruch Counseling Center saw a sharp increase in students seeking assistance after 9/11, particularly our international students. We saw a lot of emotional and psychosomatic reaction among the Asian students, which was rather remarkable, especially in light of the usual reluctance to seek help. A large part of this reluctance is a cultural phenomenon – often a fear of looking less competent, or a reluctance to admit failure or fear.
Our experience at Baruch is strongly indicative of the need of mental services to the Asian community and probably also indicative of the need to understand cultural differences when designing studies among multicultural populations. Short term strategies include effective leadership, public forums (like this) to discuss problems, especially emotional problems, and readily availability of mental health services and counseling to those in need.
Effective leadership is crucial in any disaster, be it natural disaster or one which is manmade. Natural disasters often require leaders who can marshal assistance to those affected and who can restore public services and order. Natural disasters are different, however, because we can often predict them by hours and sometimes even by days, and therefore we can better protect ourselves and even avoid them or mitigate their damages. While the impact of a natural disaster may be great, they do not leave so much anger, anxiety, ongoing insecurity and the bewildering need to search for an explanation.
A tragedy such as the World Trade Center creates demands and challenges that are far greater and last much longer, and require a far more demanding need for leadership. Mayor Giuliani was an excellent example of the vital role that a leader plays when an unusual tragedy strikes. Another short term strategy is the provision for public forums and other participatory processes, which enable and accelerate people’s transition through times of grief and anxiety. Here, too, the role of strong leadership is vital. An excellent example of this is provided by Baruch’s President, Ned Regan (introduced this morning) when he called a town meeting the day right after the 9/11 tragedy.
These forums are important and some of the types of topics that might be addressed in these forums are some, such as the assurance to the participants that the reactions and feelings are normal and valid and that they’re shared by others. Heightened fear of exposure to risks of all sorts, such as travel, contact with strangers, agoraphobia (the fear of public places), fear of a recurrence or an attack of another form, such as the anthrax contamination of mail. Numbness, flatness of feeling, ongoing thoughts about the disaster (like replaying the events in your head over and over again), lessened ability to concentrate on tasks or studies (I find that very common among students. They find it hard to concentrate in classes and so forth. That’s why I really salute you guys for being able to concentrate speech after speech today.), and also, physical reactions that are distracting (sometimes you get headaches or sleep disorder), since of bewilderment or having been victimized.
It is important to remember that individuals recover at their own rate and in their own way. The most helpful way of working through such a tragedy is talk. Maybe it’s biased, but that’s what I believe. Having the opportunity to say what’s on one’s mind and having the experience to be heard by others can fill a very crucial need. That’s why counseling is important and the forums are important.
Because of the difficulty in getting the Asian population to admit to having any psychological problems, let alone acknowledging the need to seek professional help, smaller or local discussion groups or forums would be very helpful. These forums should be facilitated by an outside expert or professional. They should emphasize patience and tolerance, because recovery from such an event will often be a long and ongoing process. It will be more likely like a marathon…Sort of like today – a marathon, it is long and you have to really be patient. As opposed to a sprint, where I want an answer, I get it right away and things will change right away. In the long term we have to develop strategies that will make our community, the Asian community, more resilient and better able to cope with our everyday common problems, and hence better at coping with real disasters when they occur.
We need to challenge the Asian motto of work hard, make money, and mind your own business as being short sided and limiting to both the individual and the community. We’re not suggesting that working hard is a bad ethic or that becoming economically secure is a bad goal. However, all of us need to become more informed about what is going on, what’s happening in our community – both the Asian community and the greater communities – to which we belong. We need to become more active participants in both of these communities. We need to develop leadership, not only for the benefit of the Asian community to which we belong, but also to project our influence into the greater community so that we are recognized and receive…the yellow light, I’m very nervous now…receive our share of resources within the greater community.
When choosing our leaders, we need to look for qualities such as empathy, flexibility, and the ability to work effectively in teams. A good example would be Dr. Thomas Tam or somebody who has this ability to throw a conference together like this single-handedly.
Most importantly we need to be positive and remain optimistic. I’m reminded of the Chinese fable of the lost horse. The Cantonese speakers, you will know the story, but for those that do not know the story, I was going to tell it briefly, but I don’t have time. So ask your friends or I will tell you afterwards. I have the current issue of [Dollars and Sense], a Baruch Publication. And on the cover there’s a quote that says, “In the flow of life, destruction never has the last word. Creation brings the phoenix out of the ashes every time.” In summary, a sense of community, a sense of belonging, love and support may not erase the trauma, but it will certainly facilitate the process of healing and rebuilding, and will make us a far better and stronger community in the future.
Finally I’ll leave you with one more quote, and that’s something I saw in the lobby of the China Institute here in New York. There it hangs, a simple plaque with four Chinese characters. It says, the English translation, for those of you who don’t understand Mandarin or Cantonese, “Under heaven, one family.” Thank you.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you Dr. Cheng. I’d just like to remind the audience that in addition to lunch recess, certainly you’re welcome to attend the workshops this afternoon where then you’ll have more of a chance to interact with some of the speakers from the morning sessions.
Our forth speaker is Ms. Joyce Moy. Ms. Moy is the Director of the Small Business Development Program at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY. Ms. Moy.
Ms. Joyce Moy:
I’m Joyce Moy, the Director of the Small Business Development Center at LaGuardia Community College. Our center opened at the end of October of last year. I’m the first Asian American Director of in the New York state system. There are twenty-three centers all together and I bet not many of you know that we exist. The 9/11 event brought out very, very clearly just how little many of our communities know about the resources that are out there. It also brought out how very, very unplugged we are when it comes to knowing what resources are available in general and knowing how our communities need to be reached when we talk about getting assistance out there.
When we talk about the rebuilding effort of New York, we should also be talking about a new building effort, where we create new infrastructures. The infrastructures I’m talking about are permanent, constantly updated soft infrastructures that will allow us to create the linkages necessary so that communication and mobilization of resources can flow to our communities, so that our needs and our voices can be heard. This has to be a two-way pipeline.
I was very much struck when I appeared at a hearing of the City Council, at how difficult it was for very well spoken business owners in the downtown area, to whom the organizations that were providing relief were reaching out. And I thought about how immensely difficult it would be for those of us who come out of communities, who might not be able to speak English as well, who would not have the kinds of contacts, and did not have the kind of outreach to them that these particular business owners had. We need to make sure that the government entities that disperse the information and disperse the resources know exactly what it is that we need.
I thought at the time that the census effort was being done that we were somehow going to start plugging into the system, because the census bureau did at least make an attempt to reach out to the communities to make sure that we were counted. At this point, I wonder what has happened to some of the infrastructure that was created at the time. What were we doing to preserve the connections that were made at that time? Are those connections made only with respect to the census bureau, and will they disappear because some of the staff and some of the people who were put into place to reach out to our communities are now gone? Remember much of the staff was temporary and it isn’t there now. Can we afford the time to reinvent the wheel? Can we afford the time to overcome the learning curve when the next disaster hits?
I think the answer is no. What linkages have been created with government agencies and with the private sector since 9/11, and what are we doing to make sure that those linkages are institutionalized and will continue to function when the disaster begins to wane in terms of its impact? What can we do in the interim to effectively educate those who disseminate the information, those who pass out the resources? What can we do in the interim?
Unfortunately I don’t have answers to all of these questions, but I think it is the challenge for the future. I think forums like these are wonderful steps towards making sure that that soft infrastructure is there. We need to make sure that the communication lines stay open and we don’t just address the problems, but we take action on those problems.
I invite all of you to continue the good work that you’ve done. Thank you.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you Ms. Moy. The last but not least, our fifth speaker is Ms. Angelica Tang. Ms. Tang is the Administrator of Region II of Secretary Elaine Chow of the U.S. Department of Labor, which encompasses New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Ms. Tang is the Secretary’s chief intergovernmental and constituency liaison in the region. Before joining the U.S. Department of Labor, Ms. Tang was a cabinet official under the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, appointed to head the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services. Ms. Tang.
Angelica Tang:
We’re almost regaining the lost momentum we had, so I have about ten minutes. It was a very good stretch and this has been a very long conference, but a very productive one. I hope that many of the remarks, recommendations and impact assessments will go into the larger audience and will be accomplished at some point.
There has been a lot of talk today about impact, different levels collectively on September 11th. I’d like to offer you a tidbit of that morning. At 9:00, imagine that you are pregnant, six months, and you have a one-year-old child at your feet, and your sister works on Tower Two of the World Trade Centers and a plane had just flown through the floor where she works. That was me on September 11th. It began there, but it has never stopped, as many speakers have talked about the psychological affects, and many other impacts to industry, individually as well as collectively.
When we talk about rebuilding and healing, it has to begin personally/individually and then to the larger group/collectively. My personal healing began on October 2nd, when I was appointed by the President to the U.S. Department of Labor. That gave me an opportunity to assist and take part in the recovery and assistance effort post 9/11. For three months, I was helping every day at the Chinese Community Center at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association site on Mott Street. The U.S. Department of Labor in partnership with our state partner, the State Department of Labor, had a booth to help dislocated workers learn about unemployment insurance and to learn about the job seeking services.
Over those three months, I met with, talked with, and shared tears with more than 2,000 dislocated workers. Most, like Dr. Sim talked to you about, the dislocated workers were women of the garment industries in their 40s and 50s. Today in the next couple of minutes, I’d like to share some of their personal stories, which became a statistic. Behind the numbers that we have been discussing today, those are the human faces that lost jobs, that were affected. Before we talk about recovering and rebuilding, we have made an effort today to talk about impact, and my message is that before we approach any sort of solution or recommendation, this process of examining recommendations and solutions for rebuilding has to be just as exhaustive and has to be comprehensive, focusing on an integrated approach and partnership and in capacity building amongst the community that involves many more smaller grassroots organizations.
I would like to begin to talk about how the President has promised and committed $20 billion in relief funding. That’s what, right after September 11th, the president had indicated – that he would allot at least $20 billion for the relief efforts. Then right after that, Congress has actually allocated and committed more – a total package of $40 billion, at least twenty billion of which would go to disaster services that would be around rebuilding efforts in New York. And just Wednesday, the Supplemental Committee has met again in the House, and another 5.5 billion are being projected to come in and aid New York.
Where am I going with government aid? It’s wonderful to have the aid and to have financial security, and that’s what the U.S. Department of Labor is about, to ensure workers of their economic stability in this crisis. But in a larger context, and I’m going with my comprehensive approach, it has to go beyond just aid to workers and money and relief effort financially. It has to come from the private sector, because number one, the government does not create jobs. The private sector does.
I’d like to throw in a conversation that I had with a garment worker. When we told her what was proposed to increase her 26 weeks of unemployment insurance to addition 13 weeks, I was expecting to hear some relief, “oh that’s great.” But I saw a face of indifference and her response was basically, “that’s good, I have another 13 weeks, but can you tell me, Ms. Tang, will I have a job after those 13 weeks.” That tells me that besides the funding and the aid they’re having individually, what they’re really looking for is a job. They just want their old job back.
Another worker shared a similar story when I told her that besides unemployment insurance, we also have a host of employment training services. The U.S. Department of Labor is a $53 billion agency, and even though it might sound very large, 93-97% of it goes to unemployment insurance and employment training services. I told this woman that she’d be entitled to many of our varied employment training services. She said, “well I’m 50 years old and even if you make me a super pattern maker, could you find me a job as a super pattern maker that pays $20/hour? You cant, can you?” We’re up against a much larger picture with economic depression, which requires much larger macro economic stimulant solutions.
I think it was a loss of an opportunity when the House earlier did not pass the President’s initiative for a much more aggressive stimulus to the economy, which would help us to ensure stability of workers, as well as giving aids to employers and making sure that they reinvest their capital to the businesses so that the jobs stay.
Some other government workers came in with their boss, and the boss, a garment manufacturer has a factory with over 800 workers in the city. She told me that she was there to learn about unemployment insurance and that she wanted to encourage her workers to seek assistance. But she told me that she has been advised by her accountant that if all her workers at once were to seek unemployment insurance her premium for the payroll taxes would double the next quarter, and add a significant cost to her. She told me that she would be basically crippled and forced to close down. Then what would happen to her 800 workers? They would not have a job.
I’m talking about how we really have to take a lead role in our rebuilding effort, in creating jobs, and helping to insure that the employees have the support to go on and maintain those jobs. Secondly, I think one recommendation, besides the private sector and the public sector, it’s the role of the NGOs, non-governmental organizations, which include grassroots, small community-based organizations, and faith-based groups. How can we make sure that we could build their program and administrative capacity so they could better provide services and maybe to manage grants?
Grant management is a very important infrastructure for groups that are looking to grow and provide services. Throughout those three months that I was helping with this effort at the Chinatown Community Center, I was also working with Secretary Chow, Secretary of Labor, to earmark one million dollars for a Chinatown Employment Services Grant. Those one million dollars is in addition to money that has already been earmarked. Twenty-five million from the First National Emergency Grant has already been given to New York, and an additional 32 million is coming in the second phase of the National Emergency Grant.
In that process of earmarking monies for Chinatown, we have looked for groups that are small, that have previously not received any money, but have traditionally been providing services in the community, and have been doing good work. In that process the Chinese Christian Crusade is one of them. I’m happy to share a great experience – that in just two weeks of working with a mentor, they were able to write up a proposal and to effectively receive, I believe, over $200,000 in grants for an employment training service targeting health aides.
These are just some of the stories and lessons that we’ve learned that are important. Traditionally many of the faith-based, smaller grassroots groups that have done such good work in their communities have not had the funding. The government needs to tap out and reach out to small groups like these because they are much more knowledgeable and sensitive to the needs of the community. They ought to be tapped to help in the rebuilding efforts. And to that end, the Administration of President Bush has initiated a round of smaller grants that are called Solicitation of Smaller Grants to community-based organizations and at the Department of Labor, we have a Highlight Grant that came out about two weeks ago. That’s about $50 million.
That coming out of a $53 billion department is small, but for a group that has never received any funding, that would be a big start. It would help them secure a good track record of government funding and to begin fully participating in federal programs. I urge that if any of you are interested to go to our website: www.doleta.gov, to take a look at the Solicitations for Grant applications. There is also an additional write-up and fact sheet, and I have one here if you’d like to take a look, about how to write an effective proposal. We’re not just giving the money out. We’re giving the money out to make sure that service groups can get this money and provided they actually have the capacity to write the proposal, and that in receiving the money that they would build a future for the infrastructure administratively and programmatically.
I will stop there and I would like to tell you a story about…it will be very quick, I’ll keep it under two minutes…about when I first joined public service, a colleague of mine in D.C. shared a story with me. It’s about adding value. An Asian American motto, as Dr. Cheng said, is “work hard, make money,” but “work hard, make money and leave footprints,” would be more like what I’m trying to slide towards. (The making money part would have to wait until after the government.)
All of us, I think, make some sacrifices coming to government. But good intentions are sometimes not as useful. My colleague was trying to tell me that to be useful, there was a parable of a man in a parachute. He is quickly descending from the sky. As he’s approaching the ground, he saw another man on the ground, and he yelled out to him, ‘Sir, can you tell me where, exactly, I am?’ The man said, ‘Well, you’re 350 feet above, in mid-air.’ The man in the balloon said, ‘You must work for the government.’ The man on the ground said, ‘How did you know that?’ He said, ‘Well because everything you said is technically correct, but absolutely useless!’ I am trying to be useless. That process began on October 2nd, and it also began my personal healing.
I think in order to nurture humanity, it was my personal start, but collectively we need everyone. We need a coalition that is broad, that invites community’s smaller partners, that bridges public and private sectors, that invites academia, and I think today’s conference and report has been an excellent example of that. Thank you very much.
Dr. Hiroko Karan:
Thank you Ms. Tang. This concludes this session of Healing and Rebuilding. It was a very informative presentation. Thank you all five speakers for your excellence and ambition. We’re moving right along, and I’ll hand the podium over to Mr. James Lap to preside the next session.
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