Norm Writes
  • Home
  • Who in the World
  • Blog
  • Postcards
  • Why I write

A Wicced surprise

5/27/2017

0 Comments

 
I knew I was coming back to Cambodia to visit, and my airline tickets were booked months in advance. But I kept it a total secret so I could surprise my homie there, Kalvin “Wicced” Hang, who I hadn’t seen in about a year and a half.
 
So I did set it up with one of our mutual friends, Johnny, who made sure Wicced would be in a certain bar after work.

When I ninja’d (is that a word?) in behind him and pretended to bump into him, the look of surprise on his face was priceless. I had my tuk tuk driver film the encounter. 


Picture
Wicced was like a little brother to me when I was living in Cambodia, and has a pretty unique story, as he’s one of the original Deportees, or “The 300” as they sometimes call them.
 
Right after 9/11 (like HOURS after), the U.S. government started cleaning out the jails and prisons and deporting Asian Americans under the auspices of national security. Thousands of guys (and some girls, too) were handcuffed and put on a plane with little or no notice, flown to Southeast Asia with air marshals guarding them, and abandoned in the airport.
 
These prisoners were of Filipino, Laotian, Vietnamese, and especially Cambodian (Khmer), origins. When it comes to Wicced and the rest of the Khmer deportees, they have an interesting background.
 
As Cambodia was devastated by the Vietnam Conflict (the U.S. “unofficially” dropped millions of pounds of bombs on the Cambodian countryside to deter Vietcong supply lines, as well as planting millions of landmines in the ground there), hundreds of thousands fled the country. That trickle of humanity became a flood during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge.

Most of them ended up in refugee camps in Thailand, some of them living there for decades despite the fact that the Khmer Rouge was defeated in 1978. But the refugee camps were full until 1992, when the United Nations came into Cambodia and stabilized the political climate. People re-entered Cambodia, walking into the bombed out and empty ghost towns where they grew up.

Picture
When they were living in the camps, the lucky ones could get paperwork and a ticket to the U.S., or Canada, etc. They entered the country legally and lived with Green Cards – which means they were (and still are) permanent resident aliens.
 
Wicced was born in one of those refugee camps, and came over with a Green Card, too. So did all of the deportees, spending their formative childhood years living in the U.S. When they were deported to Cambodia, most of them had never even stepped foot inside that country.
 
They were left to their own devices, with no money, no jobs, and most of them didn’t speak the language or have family to take care of them. Despite what you might think, the officials and police at the airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia didn’t welcome them with open arms, and instantly they had people trying to shake them down for money or else they’d be thrown in an immigration prison for an indeterminate amount of time. So they’d often just have to make a break for the exit, running from the police and only safe when they hit the street.
 
But things didn’t get easier from there. As Wicced has told me, many of the guys ended up on the streets, and some resorted to crime just so they could eat, or started doing drugs to ease the pain and confusion of their new situation. After all, they were separated from the families – many of them removed from their wives, girlfriends, and children back home – and could never go back.

“About half of us made it,” Wicced says as he explains that many of the guys got simple jobs and worked their way up, assimilated to the culture, and made a new life in Cambodia.  “And half didn’t.”

Picture
Despite all odds, some of the guys, like Wicced, became respected community leaders, both in the Khmer business community (he has a good job with the Phnom Penh Post, the largest newspaper in Cambodia). Others channel their raw and rare experiences into poetry, art, nationalism (like Khmer Loves Khmer) and even open up charities to help their brothers and sisters (Tiny Toones). 
 
Now, thanks to Wicced and many other forefathers of the Deportee community in Cambodia, new arrivals are met at the airport, with advice, resources, money, a place to stay, and a chance at getting a simple job and transitioning into modern Khmer society. That chance is invaluable.
 
He’s also the definition of loyal – probably to a fault. Wicced is the guy you call at 4 a.m. if something is going down. He’s incapable of forgetting his roots, abandoning his people like society cast them aside.

But now in his 30s and a lot wiser than his hot-headed gangbanging days, he also has cautious hopes for a different future, something he alludes to more and more in our private conversations over the years.

Wicced works tirelessly to advocate for his community of deportees. That’s a major role, as every year, thousands more are sent over from the U.S. So he represents his people at international refugee workshops, human rights conferences, angles with the media, writes letters to U.S. politicians and cozies up to the Khmer elite and cocktail parties, all trying to affect change.


Picture
Whether in a business suit or on the street, tattoos and scars carefully covered or proudly on display, Wicced plays the modern day Moses, championing to bring his people home.
 
But don’t get it twisted – a lot of these guys were bad dudes doing bad things. But they were living legally in the U.S. with Green Cards, and joined gangs just like everyone else in their violent, disenfranchised neighborhoods. There was no lawful and legal explanation for their deportation; and there still isn’t.
 
In prison, they were always outnumbered, and had to be viciously fierce and. Their prison tattoos still stand out, even since they’ve been adorned with new, fresh ink in Cambodia. They came from pretty rough places like Long Beach, California, Stockton, California, Philadelphia, PA, and Lowell, Mass. – all tight knit Khmer communities to this day.
 
They were Crips, Bloods, and a whole lot of other gangs and sets I know nothing about, but they had to squash all of that once they got to Cambodia. They needed each other to survive, now, as it was literally them against the world.  Sometimes, when they’re at their functions or parties and drinking (which is almost any day that ends with “y”), those beefs and hostilities from the planet of American they used to live arise. But it always gets worked out with help of their elders (who are only in their 30s) and respected leaders. It has to be, because they can’t afford to be divided.

Picture
But they’re still pressured by families (Wicced is married to a U.S. woman and they have two beautiful little girls, but all three live stateside now), friends, and their former gangs back home, often dragged into conflicts a world away. So the Deportees find themselves in an impossible situation, straddling both worlds but trying not to get pulled apart. Their plight is one of the most complex human conditions I can imagine, 
 
And the world has taken notice (other than the U.S.), with increasing attention paid to their cause. In fact, just when I was leaving Cambodia after my relaxed an enjoyable 10-day stay, the Cambodian government announced that they would refuse any more deportees from the U.S., essentially shutting the door on more Khmer-American refugees.
 
It was a trivial back-page piece of news for most of us, but a seismic shift in the geography of possibilities for Deportees like Wicced.  
 
Respect. And safe travels, little brother.
 
 -Norm

​P.S. Here is a BBC article on the plight of the Deportees, and one by the New York Times.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed


      Receive a digital postcard from Norm every month:

    Yes, I want a postcard!

    Don't miss Norm's new book,
    The Queens of Dragon Town!

    See More

    Norm Schriever

    Norm Schriever is a best-selling author, expat, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. He travels the globe, telling the stories of the people he finds, and hopes to make the world a little bit better place with his words.   

    Norm is a professional blogger, digital marketer for smart brands around the world,  and writes for the Huffington Post, Hotels.com, and others.

    Check out South of Normal his Amazon.com best-selling book about life as an expat in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

    Cambodia's School of Hope explores education and empowerment in impoverished Cambodia, with 100% of sales going to that school.

    The Book Marketing Bible provides 99 essential strategies for authors and marketers.

    Pushups in the Prayer Room, is a wild, irreverent memoir about a year backpacking around the world.  

    Follow Norm on Twitter @NormSchriever or email any time to say hi!

    Categories

    All
    Advice For Writers
    Amazon
    American Exceptionalism
    Anthropology
    Asia
    Backpack
    Basketball
    Best Seller Lists
    Blogging
    Book-marketing
    Book Review
    Book Reviews
    Cambodia
    Charity
    Child-poverty
    Cloud 9
    Communications
    Costa Rica
    Crazy-asia
    Culture
    Dumaguete
    Education
    Environment
    Ethics In Writing
    Expatriate
    Favorite Song
    Festivals
    Fraternity
    Funny
    Future
    Geography
    Give A Photo
    Giveaway
    Giving Back
    Health
    Heroes
    History
    Hugo Chavez
    Human Rights
    Humor
    India
    Islands
    Itunes
    Laugh
    Maps
    Marijuana
    Martial Arts
    Memoir
    Music
    Nature
    Nicaragua
    Non Violence
    Non-violence
    Ocean
    One Love
    One-love
    Our World
    Philanthropy
    Philippines
    Population
    Positive
    Positivity
    Postcard
    Poverty
    Pura Vida
    Pushups In The Prayer Room
    Race
    Reviews
    Safety
    San Juan Del Sur
    Science
    Screenplay
    Self Publish
    Siargao
    Social Media
    Southeast-asia
    South Of Normal
    Speech
    Sri Lanka
    Story
    Surf
    Surfing
    Tamarindo
    Thailand
    The Philippines
    The-queens-of-dragon-town
    Tourism
    Travel
    United Nations
    Venezuela
    Work From The Beach
    World Health
    Writers Forum
    Writing
    Writing Forum
    Writing Your First Book

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

Norm Schriever

Email:     hi@NormSchriever.com