Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Author: Thang Nguyen 555
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The cake was a red-white-blue one. The gift (pitched in by everyone in the Bureau of Child Welfare, Indian Town Gap, PA) was a College Dictionary. And the birthday boy: me. Time: 35 years ago, exactly. Cast: John, Bureau chief, Mary Ann Pinskey, Greg, Steve and three others in a make-shift operation. Mission: trying to…
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Nothing wild about them at all. Just three aged musicians on a slow night. All need glasses in a half-lit Texan style steak house. I joined them in between sets. None drank alcoholic beverages, so I ordered a Seven Up on the band. The bar looked depressing, not smoked filled as in Casablanca. A Luxembourg…
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This is part three of my motion trilogy in Vietnam: people in motion, things in motion, and now house in motion. My friend carefully explained that builders would dig underneath the foundation, then seek to maneuver the multi-storied unit meters away. Quite a herculean effort! The long ride to District 7 to visit my friend…
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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. http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-08-05-forddriving05_ST_N.htm?csp=34money&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomMoney-TopStories+%28Money+-+Top+Stories%29 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…
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The Bud‘s Bus is here. Clumsily made its turn around tight street corners, where beer drinkers sat on baby-size stools, surrounding a hot-pot or sea food grill. I saw the Budweiser chariot and horses at the Super Bowl in Miami. And now, the brand appears here on the opposite side of the world. Still, someone…
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Amidst traffic and smog, a black/yellow butterfly dances its way through the intersection, bouncing from motor bike to motor bike. I shouldn’t have paid too much attention to the creature. I need to worry about my safety. But it struck me as odd. All concrete in the city with only few trees left in old…
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A couch floats down the river right pass Bong Bridge a while ago. As of this edit, there was a “hot” clip about police trying to stop a girl from jumping to her death on another bridge. Vietnam still has to battle with forces of nature, (typhoon Utor) and economic pressures (bad debt). Here, before…
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I don’t need an alarm clock here near Cau Bong (bridge). Motorbike traffic started at 6AM and won’t settle until way past midnight. Street vendors of all stripes. And door to door lottery ticket sellers every five minutes. My mode of transportation is “xe om”, in the back of a scooter pay-per-trip. When it is…
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It’s the classic Colombo approach i.e. one foot out, one foot in, head turn around and deliver “elevator speech” once more. Best effort. Lost-sales close encompasses all other closing techniques. It is meant to be the close of last resort, in the midst of rejection. Sales pros should work this eventuality into their pre-sales planning.…
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I would hold the door for the person behind me as always. I would call people whom I have avoided and face those dark alleys once petrified. I would lay down my guards, strip off my veneers, and empathize with others. I would clean up my desk, make my bed and re-arrange my shoes. One…
Thang Nguyen 555 