To our overseas members (was Re: Legality)

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

[Hai: Viewpoints expressed in this message are mine and not necessarily
those of the admin board.]

Hi Anh Huy, Ninh Tran, Hung, Thomas Ngo, and others,

Thank you, anh Huy, for expressing support for VNSA. Concerning legal
issues related to VNSA, we have been prepared for that. I have seen
similar issues raised on other Vietnamese forums. So in setting up VNSA we
have taken all necessary measures to ensure that VNSA be operated within
the context of the US and Vietnamese laws. And I can assure Anh Huy and
all other VNSA members that this has been the case.

I am certainly amused to see these legal issues being raised again on
VNSA. But we do take them seriously.  Even though these issues are
irrelevant to the purposes of VNSA, we listen to all administrative issues
raised by our members, and will try to clarify them as best as possible.

I have been assigned the task of drafting an admin message clarifying
these legal issues, as well as those raised by recent disciplinary actions
taken against Anh KyAnh.  Since none of these issues are of urgent nature,
and I am having quarter-ending exams and presentations, may I ask for your
patience until toward the end of the next week, when I will have finished
this quarter and can give you all a detailed answer? Thank you very much
for your patience.

Before ending this message, I have only some remarks to make:

1) The creation of VNSA has been approved by the involved US authorities
with the understanding that (a) it will be a gathering place for
Vietnamese researchers, students, academicians, (b) it will serve as a
forum for exchanging academic and social informations among these
researchers and students, (c) it will contribute to the advancement of
Vietnamese education and sciences, and (d) it will remain non-political.

So the only point that is legally ambiguous is the inclusion of those
overseas Vietnamese who have no academic affiliations. We have gone to the
border of the US regulations, and justified the admissions of such members
as serving the advancement of Vietnamese sciences, since they contribute a
lot with their working knowledge.

The irony is that these same members whose presence on VNSA is legally
ambiguous are now raising legal issues involving VNSA :-). 

2) We have repeatedly failed in our efforts to merge with another mailing
list serving also DHS/NCS (having around 100 members). The very first
objection that list raised is the presence of overseas members on VNSA. At
the moment, they do not want a combined mailing list that also have
overseas members. We do not want to lose our overseas members (even though
the number of overseas members with no academic affiliations is well below
40 out of 210 VNSA members). So the merging attempt failed, and we lost a
chance to add some more DHS/NCH to our list. 

To summarize, we have gone to the border of the US regulations concerning
VNSA to admit overseas members; we have also rather not merge with another
DHS mailing list than to lose our overseas members. We did all this based
on the belief that we are all Vietnamese, there is no need to discriminate
again each other, that our overseas members have much to contribute, and
that with mutual respect and patience, we can all get along with each
other, and help each other, and Vietnam. 

In return, all we ask is that our overseas members show us some respect,
please do not violate VNSA rules, do not post political materials to the
list, and do not burden our already very time-consuming admin jobs with
irrelevant issues. I wonder if even this is too much to ask from some of
our overseas members. We are all Vietnamese here, can't we all get along?

Best, Hai.

On Sat, 8 Mar 1997 huy.duong@ctsu.ox.ac.uk wrote:

> Dear anh Ninh Tran,
> 
> 1) VNSA is like a special interest club. You wouldn't want to join a 
> Muslim/Jewish club and advertise bacon, would you?
> 
> 2) Trong tru+o+`ng ho+.p hi hu+~u (correct translation for
> `in the unlikely event'?) nhu+ VNSA la`m vie^.c kho^ng -du'ng
> vo+'i nguye^n ta<'c na`o -do' cua? My~, chu'ng ta kho^ng ne^n
> du`ng -die^`u na`y -de^? -de` va` ga^y kho' kha<n cho VNSA.
> Tre^n trung bi`nh thi` VNSA mang la.i ra^'t nhie^`u lo+.i i'ch
> cho ngu+o+`i Vie^.t Nam. Chu'ng ta kho^ng ne^n vi` kho^ng 
> -do^`ng y' vo+'i VNSA ma` va.ch lu+ng VNSA ra. Chu'ng ta
> ne^n quy' VNSA co^' ga<'ng giu'p i'ch cho ngu+o+`i Vie^.t tu+`
> mo^.t vi. tri' kho' ho+n cua? nhu+~ng ngu+o+`i Vie^.t ha?i
> ngoa.i chu'ng ta nhie^`u.  
> 
> Huy 
>