In Vietnam, during heated exchange and road rage, the worst insult one could utter to the violator is “you’re an uneducated good-for-nothing”.
Ford Vietnam seeks to change that.
It offers driver’s ed classes for free to build goodwill and sales.
Pedestrians, already on the sidewalk, are still jumped on by motorbikes
seeking creative right of way during congested hours.
Uneducated drivers!
With helmets, masks and sunglasses, everyone puts on a different persona behind the wheels. So what! Nobody recognizes you anyway.
People carry laptops, electric guitars, tennis rackets, and just about anything else on motorbikes.
In China, where automobiles have a larger share of the road, drivers were guided to wrap around a McDonald drive-in awaiting their turn at the mike.
The Industrial/Consumer Revolution seeking new converts in far away land.
Driver’s ID is the ID in the West, where teens can’t wait to turn 18.
(qualified now for DUI, Driving under the influence; whereby, the drinking had taken place way before the official qualifying age. Now, the D in DUI kicks in).
Vietnam’s young educated work force is well-disciplined,and tuned in to social media. Many outsourcing companies surface in recent years to leverage this work-force strength. Thin clients, thin users.
On the bike, you can pack three or even four. Zoom, zoom, in US military fatigue. Who says this used to be a country associated with war, like today’s Afghanistan? Percentage of high school graduates are quite high.
And I must admit, had I possessed the same discipline and drive these young people had, I would have gone places. Even now, I reexamine the environment and ethos of East and West. Giving credits where they are due.
One thing I know, in the US, one uses obscene gesture to say the equivalence of “you’re an uneducated driver”.
Thang Nguyen 555 