Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

  • All to the payload

    Nothing goes to waste. Neither a minute nor an experience, good or bad.

    This is not pre-destination. It is how our brain stores and evolves. Millions of calculation, prediction, reflection and reinvention.

    Like technology which evolves, so do we. We made a mistake. We did it again. Then we learned. Both David Brooks and Jeremy Rifkin talked about Empathic Civilization and how men have come to relate emotionally.

    We (men) were taught at an early age to hunt, to conquer and move on.

    e.g. the All-terrain man (NYT Magazine March 20-2013)

    If we failed, shake it off with whiskey and move on.

    Tough guys don’t dance, or buy-in to empathy, emotional intelligence or group therapy.

    Yet studies like the Grant Study found that men do learn from mistakes and adjust in due course.

    Partly because the nature of warfare has changed (from hard to software), partly because of women have moved further in the workplace (which gave birth to a bunch of stay-at-home dads).

    Whatever the reasons, we do see a generation of sensitive men emerge (or titles like “The End of Men”.

    Men who use I-pod, I-phone and I-pad.

    Men who drive electric cars (which Tom Wolfe calls the Elf, in his latest Back-to-Blood novel). Men who could be President (Clinton) or just be big-dog supporter of our currently re-elected President.

    Not much ego there. Just collaboration across the aisle and across the ocean.

    We are living in interesting times: Outgoing Chinese President, and incumbent US  President.

    We wouldn’t hear comments as back in Watergate days “I would run over my grandmother for the job” (Chuck Colson).

    Now, it’s 2012. The world is tweeting, sharing, Liking, posting, commenting and crowdsourcing.

    Utopia? Not quite.

    But much better. More empathic a civilization. The late stage of evolution. Grown men do drink milk. Wear tight pants, and do yoga. Yes, I know how you feel. Nothing goes to waste. Those hours of watching and feeding the kids.

    It’s well worth it. The bonding at bed-time reading. We have become role-models. For me, I hope my generational “curse” stops here. (unlike the final scene in Exorcist where the young priest, tormented so much he had to take his own life to end the never-ending downward spiral).

    I hope for my girls a much better life than mine.

    Nothing goes to waste. We transmit those DNA strands and a few variables of our own. It happens to be the first stage of empathic men, last stage of Alpha male.

    God bless Aimy and Maily.

  • Least resistance

    Organizations and people in them tend to take this path.

    Status quo. Business as usual. The comfort of routine. The predictable, mechanical rhythm. Makes the world go round. Until we drop out. One person at a time. Dust comes to dust. But the morgue still sends the bills. Please pay by a certain date, or else, interests will be applied. Routine red tape again.

    Beyond death, even our own, the system goes on, to claim its next subject (victim), from birth to burial, from cradle to the grave. Have you noticed that we all got wrapped in those institutional blankets when we first arrived, and the same when we exit. They may even wrap a wrist band around us for ID. Try to enjoy sunshine, because the beginning and the end, are all lighted by fluorescent lights.

    Path of least resistance. Fight not against the system. Especially Health care.

    When you need its services, you are not in a bargaining position. We saw the shake up of the banking system over the last few years. Those shiny lobbies and marble floors, silk ties and slick suits. They jut paid the fine, and moved on . Now, it’s business as usual.

    Shake not the system. Follow the path of least resistance. Start here, end there.

    We have always done it this way. Get back to the bottom of the totem pole.

    Shake not the pole.  We just pay lip services like “the more the merrier”, but the reality is Earth’s 7 billion are not welcome. We are not resource-rich enough to welcome all (you would think with the vast expanse we call the United States, people would do away with Up Stairs Down Stairs, as in crowded Britain. Yet, still “no room in the inn”, and the map got divided into Red States and Blue States. Geography of the mind, more than of the map.) Tighten the border and the security. Status quo reigns. Until death claims one at a time. Just read the NYT‘s obituary page. You’ll see. When faced with the fork along the way, take the road less travel, not the path of least resistance.

  • People, Problems and Politics

    In that order.

    You just need to navigate the permutation and potential.

    Great things are accomplished by and through people.

    Yet at the same time, it’s people who drive us crazy.

    When a big group with more EGO than ECO, we have faction and division.

    Cliques and classes.

    In India, an “untouchable” family finally had it. Their daughter got raped by the village powerful. And it did not stop there. They even bragged about it. Words got around back to the father.  Shamed and humiliated, the mother took it to court. Twice the shame, in hope of one right.

    Now, that’s people, problems and politics.

    At work, we don’t have such an extreme (not at the magnitude of Penn State).

    But part of the process is to let leadership rise. People can be taught to collaborate by example.

    The power of someone in the organization acting for the common good (without any one watching, or claiming credits).

    At some point in our lives, we learn to trust ourselves. That no matter how bad, we only have one life to live, sharing it with the people not of our own choosing (family and co-workers – especially during the Recession). Hence, make the best of it.

    Bigger picture. One Earth . One ozone layer above and one oil resource underneath. Be “earthful” i.e. mindful of late-stage Earth. We have been on steroid. We have been “Lances”. Now is the time to take stocks. Get rid of the water bottles. Start using hand-wash towels. String out a clothes line (solar energy instead of machine dryer). Maybe even hand wash our sneakers.

    Come one. Park the car at the other end of the parking lot and start walking to the gym.

    Brain storm on the refrigerator’s door to see how many ways our families can save by conservation (I saw a kid pick up soda cans tonight, with parental participation. Outta  girl!).

    Of all the holidays, Halloween is such a waste (costume worn once).

    Fourth of July as well. We keep shooting up and burning our hard-earned money for a politics we don’t even support (I know this is harsh and unsubstantiated. But look, the way the country is heading, we might as well be partitioned in two).

    People, problems and politics. Can’t do with them, can’t do without them. Before 1984 (Personal Computer), we had spent most of our time talking and working with people. After 1984, we sit in front of the screen (all sizes), and interact with a machine. “It says here, you are not in the system” (what system? the clerk did not even input a ticket I have tried three times to pay for).

    Not sure we have sacrificed people skills for computer skills. But society hasn’t progressed for the better as a result of faster data processing. We still have homeless people (perhaps more with high foreclosure rates), our educational standing has slipped, and we are not even up there in Competitive and Happy Index as a Super Power should. Go figure. Google it for yourself.

  • Un-Detroiting

    While video recording and taking photos (time lapse) of our Electric Vehicle Tech session, I couldn’t help thinking about Detroit.

    You see, these students have sat through 10 weeks of theory. Now they have a go at “degutting” the Internal Combustion Engine, to essentially make a “glider” (shell) for Electric components. The intended end-product is an All-Electric Vehicle, with zero emission (Bye Bye Sandy).

    It’s not far-fetched or idealistic. Just realistic and achievable, right in front of my eyes.

    When there is a will, there is a way.

    More than a century of Detroit, of Fordism, and oil addiction.

    Now at least someone somewhere is trying to jerk the chain, or even cutting it.  UnDetroiting.

    Of course we need to take the economics of this into consideration.

    Is it pie in the sky? Does it have a good chance of getting broad-base support?

    While the I-pod is reduced to the size of a match box, we still can’t drive a carbon-fiber EV which costs less and leaves less carbon footprint.

    Of course, we need recharging infrastructure. Of course, battery companies better not file bankruptcy etc..

    I just saw something in the making.

    I can’t figure it out.

    What it is, ain’t exactly clear.

    But with $5.00 per gallon on the West Coast, and Sandy on the East Coast, I think the idea of Electric Vehicle needs a relook.

    As long as we get from point A to point B, why does it matter that the “mouse is black or white?”.

    Technology changes all the time and is supposed to serve not enslave people.

    But we have worshipped at the altar of the neon god we made (Sound of Silence).

    No wonder we are subjected to OPEC and MidEast fluctuation  even when only 1/3rd of our supplies are from there. I am glad other energy sources and new-found ways are taking a larger shares of energy wealth. It’s in the head, in the heart and out there in space.

    Whatever we need to survive (including being nice to one another) is available. Just a matter of coordinating and negotiating.

    For a moment, the sky was the limit. If we hadn’t sent them home at the end of the day, many students would have stayed to finish “un-Detroting” the car. It is to show, when people are convinced and are together, they can achieve great things.

  • Expired Empires

    The Distributed Model has enabled the Rise of the Rest.

    Capital, talent and market flow where the chips may fall. Apple courting China, China Africa, Japan Rest of Asia etc…

    Everyone is out on the dancing floor.

    Dance anyone?

    The combinations are endless. Permutation and exponential.

    Hard and soft powers, hard and soft currencies.

    Exert that influence. Assert that strength. Differentiate.

    Nations, like people, will have their 15-minutes of fame.

    Advertisement section (like ones in the Economist) paints beautiful, picturesque locations, from Japan to Jamaica.

    In reality, no one wants to remember Fukushima and Sandy.

    Amnesia and amnesty.

    Shelters from the storm.

    America got its own set of problems e.g. FOR LEASE and FORECLOSURE.

    There was a sign in Los Angeles that says it all. It was NOW HIRING, but the W has been whited out to be read: NO_  HIRING.

    I got all sorts of CV’s (binders full of men). I feel the weak pulse of a declining empire.

    We have squandered the opportunities this side of the Cold War (the US fared much better on this side of World Wars). Peace time problems e.g. Petro State (Dutch disease) to Penn State (low morale).

    Meanwhile, the C in BRIC keeps growing stronger by the day. Scrapped metal scavenging, refined and remade into finished products, which got shipped back. In the process, this turns America into a Third-World nation by industrial standard.

    China on the hunt for raw material, for petro, for talent, for know-how, for creativity. It has Soviet, US and Japan lessons to learn from. And it has Hong Kong and Taiwan as matchmakers. When a Taiwanese University came to Alhambra, CA to recruit students, we know the Rest is Rising.

    And this foreshadows an expired Empire. Wake up Ivy League. Start at Little League. Math, Science, and English. 10,000 hours.

  • White fence to White House

    In-your-face campaign slogans. Last-minute push. Local, State and National level. Voter drive in full drive.

    From Alfred Smith (Catholic) to Kennedy (Catholic) onto Romney (Mormon). Religion on the fringe, now got NYT full-page endorsement by Billy Graham.

    I thought the Reverend was supposed to play neutral, and be wise-man to Presidents, Red or Blue.

    It’s great to see the two sides going at it. There is hope that the best man will emerge.

    Once again, the world waits and watches. This every-four-year balloon-filled ballroom celebration called Election Victory (With every successive presidency, things tend to get more lavish and costly, despite the Recession and huge Unemployment figures).

    Last time, young voters turned out to assert  “Yes We Can”. This time, Utah is no longer content with staying inside the Tabernacle. They want to move from the White Fence to the White House.

    Then the last frontier is for women to occupy it (no punt intended for the use of verb).

    We then have to come up with a new term for First Husband.

    Sensitive men, supportive men, statesmen.

    My grandchildren generation perhaps. Maybe one-two punch: an Asian woman in the White House.

    Already held Department of Labor and Energy, Asian American have been on the rise.

    I saw various choices for local leadership where I live.

    Hispanic women are also on the rise. How about that for demographic shift.

    The ping-pong match has been along party line: Kennedy-Nixon, Carter-Reagan,  Gore-Bush.

    What has been more subtle is the rise of the rest, right here in America.

    First people came, FOB. Then they acculturated i.e. Language, culture, commerce, sports, arts and perhaps, politics.

    The idea of Americanism lives on, although its expression changes. More nuances (Iraqi and Syrian refugees).

    Yes, people put on T-shirts, even cheering for their alma-matters’ or their kids’ team.

    But to harness the drive and ambition, the energy and expectations of millions who left the known for the unknown called America, we need to expound the formula (Bill of Rights) and adapt it to new context and constituency.

    Already voting is in multi-lingual.

    Already voting is by scanning.

    But what about those who don’t show up.

    Why?

    They must have heard about the idea of America, of freedom of expression and election.

    Perhaps they are too busy mending the white fence to worry about who is moving in or out of the White House.

    Perhaps they need to be taken care of, to be listened to. Perhaps they need to be taken into consideration and counted in as valuable national assets. After all, to raise a child in the US costs about $200,000. How is that for national treasures and future promises that keeps America competitive. You don’t need Kotler of Harvard to tell you we are slipping, and if not corrected, on a downward trajectory. The rise of the rest means people might not decide to come at all. It needs both pull and push factors for one to leave the known for the unknown. Nowadays, the choice is not a clear-cut.

    In fact, tourists from Paris and elsewhere were told to leave behind their belonging and make a run from Sandy, the storm.

    That storm swept through both the White House and any white fence on its path. Glad it’s only a few days to drop the importance for the urgent, white fence for the White House.

     

  • Pressing on

    There are days when nothing seemed to go your way.

    Just have to press on.

    Then there are days when things converge, in perfect storm with positive results.

    Just have to press on.

    Things, people and places.

    They are what/who they are.

    Can’t bend them to our liking, for our preferences.

    Just have to learn to work around the inevitable.

    Just have to press on.

    Some of us grow mature as a result of wrestling with what the prayer of serenity called “that which cannot be changed”.

    Just have to press on.

    Others among us still want to find new challenges to wrestle with. Good for them.

    Just take a look at Sandy. Then learn a thing or two about our environment, how it is to be treated.

    With fear and trepidation.

    I enjoy jogging in the park. The lush green, the shades just angling right around 5 o’clock.

    I am sure the ducks and squirrels do too.

    After all, it’s their homes as much as ours.

    We all share in the abundance of clean air and fresh water.

    Preserve it. Conserve it.

    Just have to press on.

    A nation is respected when its citizens respect the commons.

    Visitors to any country will adopt and adapt to how the locals behave.

    NYC after Sandy will need a lot of reparation.

    Just have to press on.

    Let this year’s count-down, be one of the best.

    May the elected President see his best term ever.

    Just have to press on. To face whatever is ahead. Opportunity likes to dance with those already on the dance floor (Jackson Brown).

    Just have to keep on dancing. Until the music stops. Has it ever?

  • On being a conduit

    Yesterday, I was at a funeral service . My friend’s Dad passed away.

    We are all conduits of common grace.

    Paying forward. Hold that door that has just been opened for you.

    A guy I know ran into his English teacher at that funeral after 30 years apart

    while I guy I met also found me online after 31 years.

    Paying forward.

    I am just a conduit and a memory keeper.

    Learn to recognize the signs, the warnings and the blessings.

    People come in all sizes and shapes.

    Sometimes, the meanest dude happens to be the nicest dad.

    Attending someone else’s funeral reminds me of my Dad’s.

    We all remember our Dads as towering figures. Nothing could go wrong with them.

    Protectors and providers.

    But mine had such a temper.

    Yet he was nice and kind to me.

    He was a conduit to teach me about right and wrong, about standing up for what you thought was right (against the bully for instance).

    The last years of his life, he walked every morning, for miles.

    All Dads died, leaving behind worn tennis shoes.

    My Dad’s shoes were oversized.  So we gave them away.

    I would never have thought I would someday wear sneakers besides when jogging. Until now.

    At least, I am back to jogging in the park.

    Nice lush green park.

    Common grace (green living for the homeless and the homie).

    I wonder how many of us wake up in the morning, logging on and being appreciative of broadband availability.

    The Maker has been patient. By giving us an extension on life, He inadvertently gets across his point: time (long or short) is in my hand.

    So being a conduit of paying forward only counts in my and your lifetime. In God‘s timetable, it’s the same, forward or backward. The act of giving and receiving are pro forma, at man’s level. In bigger picture, time and space, past and future belong to the Higher Up. Thinking of death, of life and being a conduit humbles me. Pass it on. Hold the door.  A smile. Acknowledge a kid. Say “Hi” to passer-by. Surprise them. Be a conduit of common grace. Rain on the field of the good and the evil. Internet for all, dictators and agitators. God’s grace is man’s dilemma.

  • Learning by failing

    NYT Opinion Page wants to debate about being informed vs being educated.

    With the dcline of Newsweek, readers have moved on to Google News (ironically, today celebrates National Print Day) and other mobile content.

    Short bursts: Obama won the debate. The Giants got chemistry.

    We will someday think that a tweet, 140 characters, is too long.

    Just like the 2-minute  microwave oven wait (used to shorten boiling time down to 2 minutes from 5).

    That’s how quick our brain evolves

    Yet there is no substitute for trying and failing.

    Those lessons stuck around longer, since they are more personal.

    Time we could have spent with our kids.

    Money we could have invested in an art course that could help turn passion into profit etc… Yet, we only have regrets to show for.

    In business, we missed a few steps: being too late to market, or too early.

    Committing too few resources to a gigantic task (thinking we were exceptions to the rule such as Valley of Death, burnt rates etc…).

    Failing begets failing.

    We all hide our weakness and failure.

    The culture of celeb and cinema extolls IMAGE (of heroism and hedonism).

    We are supposed to be cool, hip and always on point.

    In life, it’s only one take. Action and cut. And that’s a wrap.

    Those who rehearsed more will get  it righ the first time.

    Either way, no pain no gain.

    We rehearse i.e. fumbling through, learning a new angle , a new way to interpret the script.

    Life has its own script for us: put in the hours, get something back. Spend wisely and save for rainy days.

    That script is universal.

    Yet we keep having to relearn it. Mostly, by failing to adhere to it.

    But then, whose life is it that doesn’t stray from the track? McGovern of S Dakota?

    Bush of Austin, TX? or Arnold in Hollywood.  Everyone seems to have a book out. All learned by doing, by failing. The WSJ titled McGovern “Bested by Nixon“.

    Will your life and mine be remembered by one defining failure? Then why do we need a whole book? Save a tree.  Just tweet, something like: I THOUGHT I WAS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE. I WAS NOT. HARD EARNED LESSONS.

    Now go celebrate National Print Day. Read about others’ struggles and striving. How they handled their own failures.

    Maybe we can learn by their failing besides our own.

  • Insights from the inside

    This could also be titled “Full Circle”.

    We act out that which triggered us from the inside. Stored up commands.

    Encoded instructions (like our own software version if you will).

    Years ago, we fled by barge.  FOB. Then when we reached safety, inside secured camp  boundaries, we started to fight our ways to survival: each man to his own. An extended family that fled together ended splitting up into four units: college-bound, work-bound and American-style nuclear family and my mom, left all by herself, a retired school teacher with no taker (sponsorship).

    I was completely crushed due to my helplessness: a few months before that, we had already left our house and my Dad. Then my Mom (knowing that she got mess hall pass and a bunk bed to sleep in did not ease my pain).

    That’s how dramatic the script was: I was detonated into adulthood with everything (country, culture and cocoon ) disintegrated all around me.

    No warning, no orientation. In fact, I missed the pre-registration period when various student organizations recruit incoming freshmen.

    No fraternity, no fellowship.

    Years later I volunteered to be back at those camps in the South china Seas. Even then, I did not recognize that deep motivation  of ” no man left behind.”

    This marine-like motto came from no where. I continued to come back the second time a year later upon graduation from grad school.

    It’s a trajectory unavoidable.

    The insights came much later. Like yesterday. All of a sudden, the past resurfaced and revealed itself to me. Ah ha.

    One guy found me after 31 years. Full circle. I helped him, he now helps me.

    Then I realized why I came to help him: I couldn’t have done it for my mom in the early years.

    As soon as I could, I did, even for strangers I had yet to meet.

    An act of atonement.

    Guilt and shame.

    How do I live down after the break down.

    Now, with distance and time in between, I could connect those dots.

    No man left behind.

    That’s what makes us who we are: social beings. Yes, we should love ourselves.

    But we should not forget those two commandments: Love God and your neighbors.

    These actions are not mutually exclusive. Try it, and you will find there are plenty left for  yourself. You see, love is not finite. In fact, the more you use it, the faster it replenished itself. Infinitely. I don’t know much about life, how long it lasts, what does it really mean etc… but I know a thing or two about love, or the lack of it. Especially, when it shows up and plays catch up with you. It hurts. It was real. It exists. Like yesterday, suddenly, this insight came uninvited but got me teary. Then, I was freed.