It's astonishing to understand that the Hmong community allows 18 old men to control and decide how we should communicate and think. Us, being the younger generation who study and learned through the American education system; we have to shut up and listen to these 18 members decide what is best for us.
We allow these old farts with little to no education to advise our problems/issues and life. These 18 counsel member have no knowledge of American History. What they understand is the ways of the Hmong traditions and how they can apply that to American rules and regulations.
The 18 counsel members don't represent 18 hmong clans. They represent greed; they exploit the hmong culture and profit through the hmong ignorance. The Hmong community is very secretive. Hmongs like to keep their problems within their community/family. The reason for 18 counsil is to have Hmongs report abuse and dysfunctional activity. 18 counsil is just another filter to block these activities from ever going "public." Hmongs dont like losing face so they will always keep things hush-hush. 18 counsil helps them with doing that. Hmong 18 counsel are the best "Sweet talkers" - what I mean by sweet talk is they sugar coat everything. Manipulating and using calm, soft words to bring a temparory solutions to the problem but never solving it.
They present themselves as being fair to the hmong community but yet give no respect to hmong women. They will not allow a woman to represent them as a counsel member. These are barriers that needs to be address but will not because they feel the need to control and supress our community. Instead of creating an "organization" to help the hmong community, what 18 counsel does is create another "barrier." Especially hmong women and children, they are the ones suffering.