Saw a photo of a Vietnamese family of four (with children age 2 and 3) getting off the airport in Des Moines, IA back in 1979. The mother’s carry-on was a straw basket, popular with housewives to/fro wet market.
Traveling light. Or perhaps that’s all they had – after the Thai pirates had done their vetting at seas, then thieving at camps and finally vetted by UNHCR, I am sure. America is once again opened (Ft Lee, Ft Bliss) to receiving the newest displaced.
The immigration waves…WWII (with Cuban and Hungarian in between), VN ( refugees and subsequent Boat People – like that family of four), and finally with Ethiopian, Syrian and now Afghanistan all desperate to get in-shore.
The great Displacement…survive, adapt and thrive…rinse and repeat; to take one’s place at the lowest rung of caste system (like working as a janitor at night).
The totem pole. Then an internship (work for credits)…then a job offer ( in my case, I had to go home for mom).
Very slippery slope…to the top, then once there, we turn cocky and complacent, like losing 2 Billion dollars in one day ( Archego’s Bill Hwang….) or resigned like Cuomo this morning. In America, you can’t even stay put in one place, albeit lowest. They will promote you to the next rung, making room for new comers (less experience, less paid or non-paid interns).
Those who progressed to mid-level, private or public sector, are not familiar with finesses and nuances (learn from Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio), of playing for time, of playing safe ( both sides of the fence) and of playing politics. This validates Drucker’s principle of “being promoted to the level of incompetency”.
Anglo-Size one’s first names, but keep the last (just in case: Andrew Yang, John Yang)…for the uphill climb.
Then Kabul. Then refugees and displaced waves make their way to the front burner: the great replacement. All of a sudden, misery becomes fashionable again (newsworthy). Then we display what has been hidden all these decades….Operation Frequent Wind, VOLAG’s and vetting process. All dusted off. Like an old maid nobody wants, tucked in the closet corner for years, only to be asked out front with lights and camera on.
The pain is still raw, unhealed (listen to Scott Simon on NPR, Sunday 7-min long interview with the author of Rendez-Vous…Thuan Le).
We empathised with her (first shopping trip for backpack and tennis shoes – Bata – I assume – was actually for evacuation).
It’s as if nobody wants to hear about others’ loss and pain (which means rehashing America’s blunder in the Far East). We want to see the kiss in Times Square (after WWII) – between a sailor and a nurse, both in uniform.
We preserve our selective memory, of what’s honourable and not shameful, exemplary and not despicable. That tendency did us a disservice: we repeat the mistakes, the blundering and the despair. For one who verbalises, either in public or via viral sharing, we’ve got a tons of silent sufferers (tip of the iceberg).
That family of four who resettled in Des Moines, the author whose book is coming out and promoted via NPR (she earns her post as an Editor at USA Today), all got their baptism by fire.
It’s those who haven’t reached amnesia-age or retirement age, playing both sides of the fence e.g. taking Biden’s money but rooting for DJT, just for an example (or to put on a banner of anti-vexers, but quietly took two jabs, in wait for the third). We have a term for it: hypocrisy. Then those who are anti-immigrant, anti-this, anti-that….the degree of hypocrisy just happened to be shielded by their masked accomplishment (democracy gave them a start, meritocracy booting them out)…
In America or anywhere else, people reward good deeds and punish wrongdoing. It’s during turbulent times, that we are like deers facing an oncoming headlight: don’t know how to react, who to blame and what course of action is optimal. Then, being out of practice (in the art of being selfless and compassionate), we withdraw into our own shelves, placing self-interests and survival above all else. That’s when we find out we are neither saints nor sinners.
We’re people, fearful and selfish. We like public services (the warmth of the fireplace) but refuse to pay a dime for it (without having to haul wood). ” Before enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water”..not much meritocracy there. The only choice for displaced or replaced people, is to do time, willingly or grudgingly. Then make rooms for others, younger and more eager to run after the C-17 built for 150, but loaded and landed with 823.
I wonder how many were in that plane which landed in Des Moines April 29 of 79. But however many, four were quite eager from the look of it.
Thang Nguyen 555 