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Rouge ideology with Western ideals.3 In addition to intellectuals, any Cambodian military personnel th ught to have ties to the US and their allies were targets. My grandfather fell into the latter category and the US government provided an opportunity to leave the country full stop. After a long journey my family arrived at Camp Pendleton, San Diego along with many other refugees. This first wave of refugees were relatively young, well-educated professional people whose former occupations and skills — as well as their experiences with Americans during the war years — helped them adapt to American society. Still, programs were put in place that would help them transition from being refugees to being upstanding American citizens. I know firsthand what being an upstanding American citizen looks like from watching my mother. Although there was help there for the purpose of aiding in the transition, welfare was only an option for her once in her life, and to this day she still wears her acceptance of this “charity” as badge of shame. I could draw upon many other instances where my family felt embarrassed to get help and worked extra overtime to make sure we weren’t, as my mother puts it, “look down upon”[sic]. In all fairness to my mother, I understand I too can be implicated in the disingenuous practice of bootstrapping. Now that I feel I have brought us up to speed on a minor history,4 let’s discuss Lowell, Massachusetts and a few words from President Carter. Lowell Massachusetts In 1979, thousands of Cambodians fled to the Thai border after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. President Carter, in the spirit of his human rights campaign, signed a refugee act that increased immigration quotas for mainland Southeast Asian people displaced by the war.5 Out of this context the word “quota” is a term most generally used when a company or business is trying to maximize or reach a certain economic benchmark. Why Lowell, Massachusetts? Well, Lowell was considered the cradle of the industrial revolution and in 2010 was the home of the largest population of Cambodians outside of Long Beach, CA. I don’t subscribe to a conspiracy theory of US warmongering as a way to furnish the post-industrial American economy with cheap labor.6 But it is clear 3. Generality confirmed by many as myth, but acted out in truth 4. I say minor because when people ask where I am from they usually have never heard of the county. This leads me to believe that what happened there is of little consequence to the rest of the world 5. Aihwa Ong, Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship and the New America (Berkeley: University of California, 2003), 82 6. But, I do
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D a r e t o W a s t e Yo u r L i f e !
enough from looking at the refugee training Cambodians received prior to arriving in Lowell, reflected the official perception that regardless of their former backgrounds, the majority of Southeast Asian refugees were going to be members of the working poor in the United States.7 The refugee, although naturalized and granted the same rights as the citizen of the host country “they are,” unfortunately still tends to be treated as marginalized and uncertain of their role in a host country.8 Economically speaking, the ability to speculate on future profits is crucial to how credit functions. Enclaves and diaspora are ways in which refugees commune but also free themselves of the burden to accept another man’s world. Enclaves provide a retreat from debt to a host country. Beyond a metaphorical separation, lending within and between others in your distant family is common among Cambodians. There is a term for this but I am not able to remember it right now.9 In this sense, enclaves can be small sovereign countries. Donut stores and manifest destiny, gambling debt, diaspora… Meet Tony Ngoy, Los Angeles donut shop mogul. Born Bun Tek Ngoy he was raised in a rural village near Cambodia's border with Thailand. He was Chinese Cambodian, part of a despised underclass in Cambodia that prided themselves on their drive. This is demonstrated in their emphasis on the ethnic Chinese disidentification with the Cambodian nationality.10 Their descendants fled from Chinese warlords to Cambodia to make a better life for themselves and excelled at about any business endeavor that came their way. Striving for success was in Tony Ngoy’s blood. Tony and his family, like mine, became refugees to the US in 1975. Straight away, Tony found work in the US. Working at a gas station across the street from a donut shop, Tony would watch the people coming and going across the street. The entrepreneurial side of Tony told him there was money to be made in donuts. One day while enjoying a Youtiao, a deep fried Chinese savory bread shaped like an eclair grown in the wild, Tony had a great idea: open more shops and lease them to other newly arriving second wave Cambodian refugees. This is how his empire began. 7. Ong, Buddha Is Hiding, 82 8. Ibid., 5 9. I will have to ask my mother at some point 10. Maman, personal communication. I asked her why my mechanic had both Chinese and Cambodian signage on his business. I also asked this to my mechanic. He stated “I am not Cambodian I am Chinese, I just lived in Cambodia.” my thinking, “then why have the Cambodian writing?” This inquiry made me wonder what or why he felt he had to distinguish himself. All of his mechanics are Cambodian, he spoke Cambodian and had the disposition of a Cambodian. Turns out, as my mother elucidated, it had everything to do with not forgetting where his parents’ parents came from. They fled from China and they were really proud of that