Name Change

It costs about $800 to change one’s name here in the US e.g. on social security , driver’s license and passport.

One might prefer something that has global sounding: Villa, Gaga, Shakira.

Between YouTube, Facebook and World Cup, we enjoy an unprecedented confluence of technology and globalization.

And the common denominators are football scores and music scores.

For a brief moment our world is united.

(this morning, at the gym, a stranger I was talking to couldn’t recall Argentina, who played opposite Brazil. Thanks to World Cup, we could strike small talks).

We kid ourselves into thinking that we will be forever young, and glorious .

These sport idols represent our aspiration i.e. fame and fortune. I know parents want what’s best for their children.

What they don’t know is the specifics on how their expectations fan out e.g. doctors, dentists etc.. (no one wants to dream their children grow up to be a secretary. It just happens that it is increasingly a less desirable occupation due to automation).

And as Friedman keeps reminding his children at night :”if you don’t get up early, and study hard, kids from China and India will take your jobs”.

They are already here, excelling in many aspects that involved a tool or an instrument (Yo-Yo, Lang Lang).

The elementary school I attended in Saigon was L’ecole Aurore. It’s been renamed twice, just to end up with its original translation “Rang Dong.”

Many of the French colonial street names aren’t that lucky

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/05/world/la-fg-vietnam-names-20100705

And life goes on in Shanghai, Saigon or Singapore. One street vendor FOB replaces another on that same spot.

Even banks change their names. Keep the sign shops busy. Call it unbranding or what not. Same script, different actors.

Isn’t it the same in Las Vegas, Sunset Boulevard and 42nd St! Like Friedman, I told my girls to study hard or else kids from BRIC nations will take their jobs.

They may even change their names to land an interviews. I named mine Aimy and Maily. That way, they can go back and forth between the Vietnamese world and the Anglo one. Hope they don’t spend $800 someday to switch to Gaga or Shakira. I prefer Paris if it comes to that . Might as well be bold!