Cold War
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When I read up on Relay (grocery delivery), I can’t help admiring the tenacity and tag line (Think Outside of the Bag). After all, the article did mention dot.com bust (Webvan). Something about our shopping habit, running errand etc… despite the high gas price. It’s a disconnect we allow ourselves to fall into: think hard…
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Since her debut, Skeeter Davis with her hit “The End of the World” has etched in our collective memory. Since then, we have gone through a series of doomsday threats: ICBM‘s, fate of the Earth, hot and Cold War, now Doomsday 2012). In Murakami’s latest 1Q84, our principal female character, who once was a Personal Trainer,…
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Unlike America where suffering is well hidden behind locked doors, here in Vietnam, it is in your face: lottery ticket sellers. They could be an under-age child, a blind man, or the worst case, a young man who dragged himself (both feet paralyzed) along an extremely crowded street peddling tickets. Even the Cu Chi tunnel,…
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Some of us who still remember the Cold War remember how easy things were: black and white. Everything else “Third World.” Now, the Third World has emerged. Hence, we live in a multi-polar world. More complicated world. More are at stake. People wheel and deal. Purchasing parity has become less of a parity. Trading up and trading…
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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…
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It would have been stuff taken from” The spy who came in from the cold.” For three months now, I have lived in the alley behind the local police station. My big brother would have fainted just to learn about it. He is a pharmacist, retiring, but still goes to work per diem. He was…
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The first advice was from Jobs, a college drop-out, in his commencement speech. The second, recently, was the gist of a NYT op-ed by Brooks. Those are mantels of would-be entrepreneurs. Where else can you find people who are willing to sleep (if at all) in sleeping bags and code for days on end, with no prospect of a pay…
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50 years ago, you would have been chased out of the pub had you painted these scenarios: the US can’t wait to open off-shored manufacturing centers, Gaga as a mermaid on wheelchair, and 90% of the population will shop at Wal-Mart, stocked with 99% Made-in-China merchandise. Dude, in the 60’s, we were living the American…
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The news of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky passed away brought back a long time passing. In my youth, the sound of hovering helicopters was as common as street vendors’ chants. On the war’s last day, ambassador, flag, ground-keepers, pilots and anything that moved, tried to get out to International Waters . Buses, barges and yes, choppers. Lone…
Thang Nguyen 555 