If you visited my blog earlier, you might have seen this message, This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.
My blog was suspended for about 8 hours on Monday, hopefully it won’t happen again. All because of the beautiful photos that I borrowed for this post, but many photos have been replaced by my Laos Trip photos now.
Moving forward, I was surprised to see a Lao writing at the entrance of a local school, I didn’t think we’ve that many Lao students attending to earn a greeting message, but here it is.
According to the 2000 Lao-American Census, We rank number 5 and the list were,
1. California – 55,456
2. Texas – 10,114
3. Minnesota – 9,940
4. Washington – 7,974
5. North Carolina – 5,313
6. Illinois – 5,235
7. Georgia – 4,531
8. Wisconsin – 4,469
9. Oregon – 4,391
10. Tennessee – 4,214
The 2010 census is coming up, and they even have it in Lao Language on their Home Page,
I don’t know about you, but strangers asking for my personal information makes me feel uncomfortable, and I find these tips (short version) forwarded to me by my oldest sister helpful, and this might be helpful to you also. It’s hard to distinguish between real and fake these days.
The big question is – how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.
REMEMBER, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ASK, YOU REALLY ONLY NEED TO TELL THEM HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE AT YOUR ADDRESS.
Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home.. However, the Census Bureau will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
11 comments
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December 22, 2009 at 10:56 am
seeharhed
Nye – Good advices and this remind me to tell my parents also. I don’t feel comfortable giving a stranger my personal information, after one incident with identity thief.
Hhhmmm… I would think that Minnesota would be ahead of Texas, due to that fact that Minnesota have the highest Hmong population. Unless, they claim themselves not from Laos. Only 55,456 of us in California? I truly believe there are more Laotians in California then what last census said for sure. Maybe some of them didn’t wants to be count or didn’t participate on last count.
December 22, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Nye
Seeharhed, from VOA, the top states in terms of Lao-American populations according to the 2005 ACS estimates were: California (63,318), Texas (12,643), Minnesota (11,636), Washington (10,638), Iowa (6,129), North Carolina (5,854), Georgia (5,546), Tennessee (4,781), Michigan (4,735), and Florida (4,035).
For Lao people, the Texan were still ahead of Minnesota though. The Hmong came in second for Minnesota, the 2005 ACS estimates the top 10 states in terms of Hmong-American populations as follows: California (65,345), Minnesota (46,352), Wisconsin (38,814), Michigan (7,769), Colorado (4,285), North Carolina (4,172), Georgia (3,324), Missouri (1,553), Florida (1,423), and Washington (1,380).
December 22, 2009 at 10:56 am
mscinda
Those are some interesting numbers. It’s nice to see the Lao population in the U.S. growing.
Thanks for the info. I am weary of giving out any kind of personal information. Especially in an age where identity theft is so common. I live in California and was always advised to not answer our door. I have a no soliciting sticker on our door. I always advise my mom to not answer hers as well if she’s not expecting someone. Too many bad things can happen with opening your door to strangers. Hopefully we move before the next census.
Another thing that bothers me is when I see people outside of Walmart or grocery stores trying to get you to register to vote or something like that. Why would anyone give out their personal information there? I thought you could register to vote at local/state/federal government offices or get the forms online.
Btw, I’m glad you are back to blogging.
December 22, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Nye
Hi mscinda, thanks for your visit and comment. It had been the most hectic day and everything seemed to have gone wrong yesterday, but everything is back to normal now.
I think people are too trusting these days, I was guilty of that at one time, but I’ve wised up a bit, and now to the point of paranoid, but it’s all good, better safe than be sorry. I think if this is a perfect world, people coming out to the people trying to get them to vote is a good thing, as for me, I don’t like people coming to me, I like going to them. I believe this might be the first time for some of us taking part in the census as our own family.
December 22, 2009 at 9:42 pm
mozemoua
what, your blog was suspended on monday? so not cool! I would had freaked out if I came by on monday! LOL
there are a lot of Loas people here in GA, mainly southside, past atlanta.
December 23, 2009 at 1:47 am
Nye
mozemoua, one of my blogger’s friends emailed to ask what was wrong with my blog and hope it was a mistake, then I checked and sure enough it wasn’t. Then my oldest sister emailed me to ask also. I couldn’t sign in, it just said ‘account suspended’. I wish they would email me first before they do that, it must be an automate thing that it just shut down when reported. I didn’t get freak out, I thought this might be the end of my blogging. It’s funny that you don’t know how you’d react until it happened, but I’ve backup in several places.
In North Carolina, Lao people are spread out everywhere, we’ve many families in our county that made up of several small towns.
December 22, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Cambree
Wow I didn’t know your blog was out for 8 hours. The people who own the photos could have at least email you first. Then you would have taken it down nicely. Geez!
This is good info on the Census. I think they usually mail the paper to the house, and if you fill it out correctly they won’t bother contacting you.
I also believe the numbers could be under-reported. As some people just don’t like to give out personal infos. But being counted is important!
And as you mention, there are bad things happening in the world. There are scammers and cheaters, but there are also good people too. And if you radiate warmth and kindness, have peace in your soul, then your world may shine a bit brighter. At least it’s something I’ve noticed, esp during the holiday season.
December 23, 2009 at 1:35 am
Nye
Cambree, it’s my bad since it’s copyrighted material, but I guess I take the Fair Use posted at my About page too literally “FAIR USE NOTICE: Nye Noona contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner…” And a good thing that WordPress didn’t delete my blog. It was out from 3:45 am to about 11:30 am was when WordPress emailed to tell me why and he had deleted the photos. I think people react differently when they see things, and that’s why we’ve had so many killings out there, and sometimes it was just for a seat on a bus or a train, it’s the dog eat dog world that we live in right now.
The census is going to be very costly for the govn’t (and for us the taxpayers) to compile, but a good thing that they only do this once every 10 years. And thanks for reminding me of the good things out there.
December 23, 2009 at 2:44 pm
lady0fdarkness
i’m glad I didn’t see that suspended message on your page!! had I did, I would have been panicking thinking that you’re blog is gone. i’m glad it got resolved!
I also feel very honored to see our lao scripts there! We are totally stepping up.
December 23, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Nye
lady0fdarkness, they had it fixed within 3 hours after I contacted them, so it’s not bad.
Seeing the Lao scripts was a surprise to me, kind of nice though.
February 27, 2010 at 9:27 am
2010 US Census « Nye Noona
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