Tag: Mekong

Death-affirming culture

During lunch time at my first job (Child Welfare Bureau at Indian Town Gap, PA), we threw a football, my first.

That was supposed to be my induction into the Penn State culture the following Fall.

Here in Vietnam, at lunch time, I walk by a casket store. As equally shocking for foreigners as my first introduction to the football back then.

One culture fights every inch toward touchdown (winning is the only thing) while  the other prepared to accept human fate.

In the country side people even pre-purchase caskets to be stored  in the house like furniture, very much like Pre-paid Legal in the US (just in case).

I know this barely scratches the surface of a culture, because cosmetic-surgery is on the rise here (death denying), as modernity starts to eclipse Vietnam’s tradition( age = respect). In addition to this, people also fight for every centimeter in the street and  on the side-walk. There lies the paradox of  resigning to fate and fighting for the future. No offense, but I happened to read an USA Today Blog this morning, describing the author’s arrival to Ho Chi Minh City, and checking in to the Hyatt downtown.  She promised more adventure in Vietnam, but her first installment did not entice me . Too insulated (we checked in, traffic in all directions – has she watched the time-lapse video of traffic here before coming).

I might have noticed the same thing from that vantage point on my first trip (having lunched with a Hyatt’s Boardman out in the terrace), but now that I decide to zoom in, to satisfy my cultural curiosity .

Death is big business here: casket, candle and cremation.

(The other night, I saw a traffic accident  which confirmed this observation besides huge percentage of  male smokers). Most families have ancestor’s photos on the altar (my parents used to have theirs on the altar and now I have my parents’ on mine).

Insurance companies are prospering here. It’s interesting to see the objections people raise when buying life insurance.

Will it cover my casket?

Enough for cremation or a plot of land near the border of Cambodia?

How do my kids prove that I was dead by accident?

At lunch, I also saw a baby napping on a hammock near the casket store.

Life flows continuously here, just like anywhere else.

Except that, at lunch time, I can hardly find anyone to throw a football with. Back then, the sight of co-workers opted for sweats over siesta was a culture shock to me. Just as scooter traffic must be to the USA Today blogger.

Welcome to Vietnam. Cross the street safely. And write something worthy of your stay and your Gold-Card Reward!

Eroded confidence

Huffington is coming out with a book titled “Third World America”.

As she makes the case for America’s shrinking middle-class, I can’t help notice a striking contrast with Vietnam (Third World which wants to become America), whose nascent credit (system) and (middle) class are almost non-existent.

Yet it made the top list of World Happiness Index despite years of war and post-war hardship.

I reminded myself that I need to learn as much as possible to unlock the secret code.

Ignorance is bliss?

In the absence of plenty, everything tastes sweeter. (Hershey is coming out with a new line of chocolate made of pure cocoa from the Mekong Delta region).

I learned that simple-minded people from the country are content with enough to eat, and spend the rest of their time with and for others (similar findings here in the US purported that beyond $75,000 wage earners aren’t  that much happier, unless they found happiness in giving).

Whatever the joint formula of regional, historical and cultural factors, some possible take-aways are:

– sharing is a must (in the context of extended families and selected circle of friends)

– having  high regards for one’s self (Hanoi xe-om drivers wear a suit in Winter time). This point might seem contradictory to point number 1, but

each Vietnamese thinks he/she is better than the person next to him/her. Sharing enhances their status even more, hence point 1 reinforces point 2.

– working with a simpler definition of joy (similar to “Last Train Home” film about a Chinese country couple trying to get home to visit their children having been working in factory all year), which is relationship-oriented, and not materialistic (60+ percent of Vietnamese population still make their living in agriculture i.e. at the mercy of typhoons etc…).

Here, the US, in the aftermath of 9/11, is still trying to undo the harms done by that hideous act, by over-reacting, hence given itself into the long hand of terror (Ted Koppel‘s article in Washington Post). Meanwhile, immigrants in LA protested a recent shooting near MacArthur Park.

A quote by a Guatemalan lady in the LA Times says it all ” I told them not to come, it’s not as good as it was before, but they still come”.

I hear the Statue of Liberty say one thing (come), and the Guatemalan lady say another (don’t come).

Huffington puts her fingers on the pulse: people put all their hope in the political process back in 2008 with the choice of Obama, who himself admitted at yesterday’s press conference that he was frustrated.

We read news about workers not taking their vacation (either they couldn’t afford time from work, or just want to make sure they hold on tight to their jobs).

Meanwhile, the day I was last in Vietnam happened to be a 4-day holiday. People went sightseeing in drove, and traffic in the city was visibly thinning down.

I realize the trade-off that comes with modernity (comfort and convenience but hefty price tag) . I doubt that “happy” people in the Mekong region will stay happy, once HappyLand is fully operable in Long An, a  HCMC city outskirt. With HappyLand come unintended consequences of modernization. Most damaging is the notion that one can manufacture anything, least of which Happiness and Confidence. The former Vietnam has, the latter, the US lacks.

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body building in Saigon

I have paid my first-month membership and come back for seven days straight.

The place is tiny.  I must have timed it badly: my body peak performance coincides with peak-time traffic which weaves through the front door (bikes found their short cut artery in an alley).

So I lift while listening to Michael Jackson’s CD. I feel proud, to be among muscle men, although if you get at the truth, I am more like Charlie Chaplin at the swimming pool (who pretends to get water out of his ears, while actually stays out of the pool altogether).

So here I am, in a city of roughly 10 million. People try to get home by bikes or buses. A bike front ended a Hyundai at an intersection this morning. People exchanged some unpleasantries, and went on their way. No wasted time. Lean city. Lean people.

Back to my muscle men. The owner put up whatever pictures and posters he can get his hands on: his own when winning medals, body muscle tissues poster straight from medical book and half-naked lady (but tasteful art).

He said if I wished, he could open the door at 3AM for me.  I said it would be more likely 3PM.

When your body produces endorphin, you feel less of a need for caffeine or nicotine.  I feel refreshed now, after two weeks of reverse culture shock.

The dust, the noise and the heat. There is tension in next door Thailand and earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia. China is building a huge project in the Mekong River, which might threaten the natural down-hill flow of SEA including VN.

The bodies and muscles here will need a lot of strength and endurance to withstand all that is throwing at them. And mine in particular, will need even more since I have used to working out in an A/C gym. Now,  I learn how to sweat it out among others in this steam-bath gym. I need to pick up on that: no wasted body fat, or any fat anywhere in the city of millions. Lean bodies in motion.  No wonder westerners found Saigon a great place to shred a few pounds, with or without joining a gym.