Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: Asia
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Forbes recently printed a McKinsey report about the coming consumer society in Vietnam. In other words, we will soon see La Vache qui rit in supermarkets along side real cows which are still allowed to roam free in the country side. Vietnam 2040 will very much resemble US 1950, when the going was good: chicken in…
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Yahoo News had a piece about Diaspora, the return. It features Mrs Nguyen Cao Ky, who is now a proud owner of a Pho restaurant in former Saigon. She said to have spent a few months in the US, and the rest in Vietnam. Other Viet Kieu expressed similar sentiment: “when I am here, I…
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You can feel it. The energy, aspiration and action. I haven’t seen an idle person here in Saigon. Even people with great disabilities crawl on their hands and knees, through rough and uneven gutters to sell lottery tickets or variety of snacks. Everybody is proud of their native son: Ngo Bao Chau, math genius. The country is…
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I am back to the land where people work animals into daily speech: – strong as an ox – wrinkle as a monkey – dumb as a cow. Everything gets used more than once (recycled): plastic bags, banana leaves. In Understanding Vietnam ( through literature) published by Berkeley Press, the author, after surveying many well-known pieces, came to see that…
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Easy to propel forward. Easy to stop and stand still. No fear of falling (gravity) and no incentive to pedal forward (inertia). The blessing and curse of a stimulus-dependent economy. To move forward, one needs to fight both gravity and inertia. An extra wheel offers the illusion that things are stable and safe. But it…
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Two articles on Bloomberg Business Week. One on Clicking with co-workers (productivity increase) and the other, Vietnam is finally ready for foreign investment ( with a question mark at the end). The former article is based on a study that people who work and play together make a great team. The other, since its neighbors…
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China is dreaming up its own Silicon Valley. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127742250&ft=1&f=1017 Its young are flocking NE universities in the summer, learning about American culture and history. While in San Jose, they visit Tech Museum. Are ideas and innovation moving offshore? I was told to “follow the money”. Does anyone know what time it is? Doesn’t anyone even…
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Young population. Lots of noise and headsets. Night clubs and bars open every single night of the week. And let’s not forget those Karaoke stores, coffee shops and sidewalk beer stalls. Certainly not Sound of Silence here. My morning starts with greetings from those neighbor’s roosters. From there on, it will only get louder: bike’s…
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Working for the man, every night and day… big wheel keeps on turnin, River boat dining provides another view of Saigon Water front. Hotel Majestic, Sheraton and Sun Wah guests look at you (dining on the river boat), while you look at them. Tourists are still coming in drove and enjoying a night out. From…
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It’s Kitchen God day in Asia. Super Bowl weekend here in Miami. And the DOW is down across the board. Oh when the Saints oh marching in…. People were guessing, just like Mr Watson, that maybe the world can make use of a few computers, or move to digitization perhaps 15-20% of current load. Well…
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