Tag: Hanoi Hilton

Learning as motivator

From papyrus to paper, from microfiche to microphone, we use technology for knowledge transfer.

Learning is a great motivator. Once started it never stops (in my death-bed, I probably still ask the attending nurse what all those charts mean, and why not this and that).

Don’t believe in learning curve (as if once you got over it, you own it. There will always be pace learning i.e. know, forget, know again as if for the first time).

Politicians on their first term barely learn how to get back from the underground of the Capitol or stay out of SE part of town (I heard it is now quite gentrified).

Coursera has been a great success. It harnesses technology to extend learning to the mass. Technology as slaves, not masters.

Lift them up, not put them down. I enjoy reading about the Indian IT and call center folks enjoy their night out at a disco, Chinese tourists flocking the streets of Paris or Vietnamese students coming to CAL State. Let them come. With traveling comes learning. With learning people are more open-minded.

Here in Vietnam, cable TV shows Hollywood car chase, guns blazing etc… With exposure  comes the exercise of choices.

Tolstoy doesn’t believe in true freedom of choice (free will vs predestination).

Still, the urge to learn, to discover, to connect and to advance one’s self is innate

The only difference between acquiring information online vs at Ivy League institutions is the socialization of knowledge. Upper-class kids would meet and marry (imperial alliance model) one another, hence perpetuating the ruling class.

But in those far-away lands (Timbuktu), with internet, who can stop a genius from acquiring information about protons, neutrons and electrons. Physics is physics. International grad students might stick out like a sore thumb given their speech and dress code (formal).

I saw kids in the Mekong Delta riding bikes, then crossing a river on ferry to get to school. And that’s on a sunny day. When it rains, I don’t see how they can get to school in dry uniforms (one heart-broken story last year. A boat full of students sunk and students never made it to school).

Learning as motivator.

Then, shoes and broadband. Thomas Friedman, author of the World is Flat, had similar ideas in the NYT today.

Learning as motivator.

The things they carry. Turn those swords into plowshares.

Angel of Death into Angel of Learning, Agent Orange into Agent of Change.

Broadband for rural, broadband against ruin.

Nobody can stop a man from learning. Not even in the confine of a prison.

Senator McCain was detained for a while in Hanoi Hilton. He now sits on Senate committees. Tell me he did not learn a thing or two while being detained.

Learning takes many forms and takes place when least  expected (even from the bottom).

To learn one must first be humble and teachable. One must be motivated even on a ferry-boat or one’s death-bed.

Yesterday’s Tet

Tonight is New Year‘s Eve (Giao Thua) here in Vietnam.

Senator McCain and Lieberman are also here on their SEA trip.

But many years ago, McCain probably heard the sound of firecrackers. Tonight, there won’t be firecrackers, but everything should happen just as it has for centuries: visit ancestor’s graves or ash stored next to a church or a temple), wash one’s scooter, do one’s  hair and nail, clean the house, and set up the household altar (the Jews could relate to this since they observe Pass Over just as strictly).

Retail stores even gave their mannequins a change of clothes.

Supermarkets cleared out inventories and flower vendors are holding fire sales.

If I can turn back the clock, I would be the one shining the bronze set for the altar, get the confiture tray  and watermelon seeds in the middle of the coffee table.

Red (lucky) envelopes are also stuffed with brand new money.

A friend of my mother, also a teacher, made an indelible impression which has stayed with me for years. Instead of gifting me big denomination paper money, she had me hold out my hands to receive two-handfuls of shiny coins. The act of giving is more important than the gift itself.

Great Uncle, always seen with a beret, would be the first to show up on New Year’s day. His name was Mai, which was the same as our flower of choice.

My brother, a few days before, tried to get a date with his eventual first wife. Two couples and a young boy (me) packed into a Simcar.

At that Flower Festival, we got separated. I immediately with a red balloon, found my way back to and then stood on top of the Simcar.

Needless to say, we are now drifted apart and it would be silly for me to hold up a red balloon every time I want to be found.  To me, Yesterday’s Tet was just as warm and full of memory as it is now.

It’s an occasion to make concessions, to reconcile and to move forward.

New Year’s Eve doesn’t just usher in another calendar year. In fact, the year gets renamed and rebranded (Year of the Dragon).

By the time the next cycle comes around in twelve years, I hope we are all still here, looking back to this one as Yesterday’s Tet.

We will still be laughing, and crying at the same time, for some of us won’t probably be around. Yet Tet goes on, like a line in Reflections of my Life “the changing, of moon light, to sun light, reflections of my life”.

That song was played while Senator McCain was in Hanoi Hilton.

It is no longer known among the next generation of music lovers.

But to those who paid a dear price during the time when Vietnam was synonymous to war, the line between life and death was undeniably thin.

I hope the Senator find a new Vietnam, full of noise, except for firecrackers and firearms. It’s more peaceful now, and just as joyous as ever.

With Tet, I don’t have to exercise selective memory that much. It is happening again, just like a long-lost friend, showing up predictably with set habits and hobbies. Yesterday’s Tet or tomorrow’s: same.

Saigon heat

Rain and heat, the yin and yan of Saigon.

I saw sugar donuts on sale, so I thought of my niece who used to love those melted brown sugar donuts. I tried one. It chipped away my tooth, which happened to be the base  for neighbouring crown. So I had to plant back all three. Costly donuts in Dakao!

Last night, I saw hundreds of bikers circling the block. People said, No, this was just a dry run. The race will be on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the McCain carrier is docking in China Beach these days.

I can’t help notice the irony of naming an USS carrier the McCain.

The presidential aspirant was once incarcerated in Hanoi Hilton, cell bound.

Now, the carrier bore his name is free to roam the seven seas, least of which South China Seas.

There is a certain attraction here in Vietnam.

High-end tourist resorts in old Hoi An (featured in Huffington Post). Hanoi celebrates its 1000th year. Hello Vietnam video (Bonjour Vietnam).

WEC, APEC, VN even took turn as one of the UN security council members etc… And recent visit by Madam Secretary all paint a picture of a newly integrated Vietnam. Internet users and mobile phone users grow fast, up there in the top ten. A conference on open source, software testing and automation, strategic venture funds etc…all paint a brighter picture on this new Vietnam wall, one which is not black on marble, but on white canvas. The future is what you make of it.

Math anybody? English then? Everybody wants to travel to Singapore.

Makes me curious as well. The distance from Saigon to Singapore is quite reachable and even affordable. But for Saigon to morph into the like of Singapore, everyone here agrees, takes decades, not years.

It is no surprise that former leader of Singapore is often invited over as consultant. How do you do it? tell us.

The secret sauce which made Vietnam what it is today varies. It depends on who you ask. Some say the country needs not forget the years of hardship before Renovation (85). Others might argue otherwise.

All I know, like the weather here, and the pace of tourism, it comes and goes.

Merchants and Middle-men stay on. Build your brand, invest here, sell that to survive the down turn.

I notice revenue pressures at every turn: from A/C offices to open-air beer stalls. People pour Heineken first, then ask for the main course order later.

Same way they ride their bikes on narrow streets, away from noise, dust, stress, heat and congestion on the street. And surely, the young bikers on Saturday night can’t wait to try out their newly paved race track as well.

It’s good to be young and restless. It’s better to harness that energy to good use. It’s not Saigon that needs to learn from Singapore, but it’s young Saigonese that need role models, not Rebels without a cause (Marlon Brando).

The consensus has yet been reached. Many young people want to go the Korean way. And none want to imitate their neighbor to the North.

Among Vietnam’s former nemeses, it’s the US  that got away clean and clear.

It got docking rights at China Beach these days, and I am sure the USS McCain naval officers are more than welcome to stay in any hotel of their choice. Unbound. And if they can afford the “platform” resort in Hoi An, all the more better. Huffington Post recommends it.