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.

Tag: Foxconn

  • disposable people

    Industrial society once allowed to run its full course leaves behind many casualties: pollution, typhoons, unemployment and crime. Kids with early exposure to the I pad and I phone, turn near-sighted if not bi-focal. Adults with easy access to porn (free or paid) found real organic relationship something of a burden if not boredom. Back…

  • The build-up

    It’s like a can of worms, once opened, can never be put back. Yet, that’s what makes us human: from A to B, we insist that a straight line is not the shortest. We have to factor in free will. Even God respects that (by not forcing us to move quickly through Foxconn-like assembly line). Our…

  • Heart and Soul

    The intangible qualities. We can only recognize them when we see them. How can we put a measure on that which makes us human i.e. mortal yet full of life versus a machine whose sole existence is to carry out instructions and perform repetitive tasks without getting bored (the sad thing is when the machine gets…

  • The Routine

    Instinctively, we follow the path of least resistance (park in the shade, grab the nearest item on the shelves…). Marketers make it their mission to study this, the same way scientists experiment with reflexive rats in the lab.. Nike even filmed the Standford team, trained barefooted, to see the landing and movement of their feet. Creatures of…

  • Nature as reminder

    Scientists just found out that Earth is much older than previously thought. It certainly has a way to maintain itself.  Remember Tsunami and Fukushima? or the Louisiana oil spill and Katrina? At the time, we thought we couldn’t bear the grunt, but one by one, they are now behind us. Same thing with this summer ‘s drought and…

  • Machine run

    When I logged in, it’s auto-filled. The Machine says, “if it’s routine, let me handle it”. It’s permeating: embedded in the chip, in the code and in the company. This morning, I saw a group of photographers with long-lense cameras, shooting what appeared to be a lotus (Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Orange County, CA).  At least,…

  • Inching back to life

    When we face a critical juncture on the road, we need to be decisive. A liberal arts training doesn’t hurt either. Even when two people arrived at the same conclusion, liberal art thinkers insist that between A and B, a straight line might not be the best alternative. Just the shortest. As nature would agree, it favors…

  • supply chain dilemma

    First they outsourced to lower the cost of, let’s say, an I phone. The guy (Chinese farm-to-factory worker) if not jumped out of the window from a Foxconn‘s dorm, wished he had because there was no way he could afford one. Even his counterparts in NYC had to get in line just to hand carry the same…