Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: California
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At any time of the day in Saigon, you might be approached by street vendors selling lottery tickets, snacks. Even Buddhist monks hold a donation box but with fixed gaze in Zen steps i.e. barefooted on hot concrete. Self-punishment. I respect the monks. Their self-control , from strict diet to dress code. Life evolves around 8-fold…
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I jumped on the divan and sat in the middle of it, as far away from the rising water as possible. For a 3 year-old, the sight of water everywhere must be frightening. Water like what was brought in yesterday by the storm. Saigon was hit direct. Trees toppled and treasure lost. The French architect planned…
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Last night I said goodbye to a good friend. He was going back to California. We sat and listened to Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World (Vietnamese singer but if you closed your eyes you would think the black legend was there in person). I recalled a scene from Good Morning Vietnam whose subjective shot…
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A graduate of Penn State, I related well to the scenes from the Deer Hunter, set in an industrial town of Pennsylvanian. Smokestacks on the slope, familiar faces and friends and the “Welcome Home” sign for returning soldiers from a distant war. But unlike other wars before and since, this one was controversial. It showed when the main character,…
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We conjured up symbols, codes and instructions for machine to act. Now that the machine does most of the work. It’s time to play? Not necessarily, because machines get smarter. So, we have to upgrade our own software to keep up since there is no return to hunting and harvesting.From Malthusian and Moore’s law. from Bowling…
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In some cultures, people felt ashamed to put on clothes, or if they dressed at all, they would go to the middle of the house in plain view instead of the far corner (where it would draw more attention to the act of changing). Au contraire, at 24-hr fitness, I notice most of the corner…
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The New Jersey blond lost her apartment, moved West, went to Planet Hollywood to have the crown place on her now-red-hair. Our Miss USA, from California. Down turn happened for a reason. It forces us to take stocks, to reinvent and innovate. A lot of people would rather move to try new places and opportunities,…
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Years ago, I was fascinated with the California flea market. Back East, we got garage sales or moving sales. But the Bay Area markets sold vinyl albums, “flower” clothing, books and even gourmet meals on wheels. A Vietnamese family even offered sugar cane juice next to a hot-dog stand. Fast forward 20 years. A random walk…
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I attended a power breakfast this morning. Neither Presidential nor Congressional. Only elementary honor students and designated parents. Something about “the magic”. New Report System (Most improved etc… as opposed to traditional A,B,C grading). I am proud of my daughter. She exhibits all the traits of an up and coming Asian student (the model minority).…
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The Economist has a timely expose on “the Tale of two expats”. http://www.economist.com/node/17797134 It is written from a British perspective. If it were for the US, an entire section would have to be added in (given the background of Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese Internment Camp, and 80’s Yellow Peril). It’s hard for America to…
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