Tag: Mekong Delta

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.

Noel decoration

In front of Eden mall, Saigon, Christmas ornaments are on display. People here love to come and take pictures. It’s a tradition.

It’s their annual pilgrim, blending East and West (Noel decorationas prelude to Tet’s celebration).

Sidewalks still uneven. Tourists still trip over loosed bricks.  Yet they keep coming.

The other boulevard (Ham Nghi) with Old Market (Cho Cu) steps up to the plate, serving as a de facto alley to Le Loi, now upscaled.

Ham Nghi see all the buses, the technical school and retail shops for the natives. Le Loi, tourists.

The tale of two boulevards, born of the same period, but serving two different constituencies.

If I were a backpacker, Saigon to me would be a maze of alleys, of cheap beer and beds, knock-off goods at Ben Thanh Market and pirated CD copies. Backpackers would go on day tours to Cu Chi and Mekong Delta. Then I would never know how the rest of Saigon live and love.

A stone throw away, people hang out along the stinky canal (Nhieu Loc).

Exercise crowd early morning, and beer crowd late afternoon.

Both backpackers and natives could live on a few dollars a day. But the two shall never meet.

Different expectations, different outcomes.

One just passes through (taking in the smell and sensation), the other stays put (dropping off and picking kids up at school).

Then somehow, the week before Noel and Tet, they both conjoin, in front of a Nativity display, those pine trees and ornaments, with empty boxes underneath, but more guarded than bank vaults.

Then both tourists and natives would smile for the cameras.  Smile to record the worried faces (will next year be a better one).

The Sad Hymn is played on air, and the line sticks in one’s head “Noel nam nao chung minh co nhau” (Last Christmas we were together, but not this year).

I had a friend who died last year right after Christmas. I still remember that Noel was his last.

Sad Hymn. He used to play in the lobby of the Hyatt, just around the corner from those bustling decoration. This year, some pianist is taking up that spot, that gig, to blanket the place with classy “ambience”. Outside, throngs of tourists and natives continue to burn gasoline, cruising by to see those flashing lights. And Sad Hymn is played again and again (just like Silent Night in the States), but no one pauses to remember an old friend.

Funny how the same decoration could trigger different responses from people, regardless where they are from. We are all passing by year after year after circling the Colonial French Round-about in front of Eden Mall.

Saigon Jazz

It reminded me of the scene from Woodstock: long-hair kids, guitar, tatoo and scooters. All converged in an alley. Parking was a problem. I asked neighbors to pitch in: it’s a wake for a musician friend who had recently passed away.

His students came from My Tho, those with eye-sights and those without. They jammed, they celebrated, they sang.

Come Together….right now.

My friend, the host, wore red shoes and brown hat. He jammed too. A lot.

After all, he has done so with the SF Jazz band.

Someone got to get those blind musicians some food. There you go, buddies. Want some beer?

So we went on: band after band.

A mini-Woodstock, minus the mud.

I learned about my deceased friend by experiencing his music legacy.

My friend had reflected on his life before he passed away in a hospice: his friends (who were present last night) and his students (who were playing then) were nearest to his heart.

I have never been prouder.

We played together when we were in 7th grade.

The passage of time tore us apart but meeting him before his death helped fill that gap.

He was alert and caring.

I blogged about him in Long’s Last Christmas.

But last night, at Jazz night in Saigon, he “reincarnated” through younger versions of himself.

You want to be rejuvenated, then that’s the place to be.

I am a believer in the healing power of music.

Last night, I learned one more thing: it helped the blind express themselves much better than those of us with sights.

I wish you were there. I wish to hear those blind musicians again, soon. I miss them already.

Slippery Saigon

Someone told me that the rainy season here would end soon.

Yet it is raining still. Outdoor activities like kung-fu class, xe-om, beer stalls all ceased.

I seeked shelters .

The trick to walk safely here is to step firmly with one foot into the sidewalk, not at its edge (which slopes down to facilitate water draining).

Yet the middle of the sidewalk  was often “occupied” by street vendors most evenings.

The last choice is to walk in the street where scooters in all directions fighting for right of way.

Rain or shine, the internet cafe are full: kids playing Chinese chess , soccer and Thumbelina online.

I found a restaurant that caters to Northern taste: boiled pork, shrimp sauce and stuffed tofu.

I miss mom’s cooking.

The owner paced back and forth trying to put his grandson to sleep (on his shoulder).

I remember my old baby sitter, who let me piggyback to and from kindergarten.

I wonder how many favors one accumulated in a lifetime.

And how many favors one gives back ( Karma currency imbalance).

We all need bail-outs at times and we all “occupy” at some point.

Meanwhile, I  read about the Obama’s latest injunction to use foreign aid resources to further human rights’ causes e.g. gay rights around the world.

It’s one thing to finally “don’t ask don’t tell” in the US.

It’s quite another to open US embassies and USAID facilities to be “gay sanctuaries” around the world.

Tall order indeed!

Has anyone briefed him about cross-cultural differences? about Cultural Relativity and Taboos around the world?

People barely got used to using “OK” (condoms) here, much less advancing “don’t ask don’t tell”.

For more than three weeks now, I have been out of one bubble just to enter another.

Here, in Vietnam, people are in constant motion; multi-taskers in the US would feel right at home (people riding scooters in busy traffic with one hand while talking on the phone and smoking).

On my first few trips here, I saw accidents that claimed lives. Lately, it has been less frequent.

Infact, phones are no longer the most sought after, nor are English classes (which are increasingly commoditized ).

Home Karaoke systems perhaps reach saturation point, just like chat room at internet cafes.

Indeed my IT guy and I couldn’t find phone cables (for fax and wireline phones).

Apparently telecom VN has gone completely mobile.

The working class meanwhile are trying to stretch their hard-earned money

(get paid, get a few dresses).

With holidays fast approaching, workers in China and Vietnam are scrambling for the last train home.

Saigon, though still slippery, will then be emptied of migrant workers.

“The Sad Hymn” (Bai Thanh Ca Buon) will be played way past Christmas.

Booze and beer will be consumed till the last drop. Caution: slippery when wet.

Nobody discussed “Occupy” here. We are 100 percenters, sharing the burden and hopefully the beer.

Why not while it lasts! Its famous movie star has just died of a stroke at age 54. His declared wish: someday to return to Vietnam,

and find acting gig among his peers. He has just felt short of that last wish. One of his screen appearances was in “We were soldiers“.

It’s slippery still in Saigon. I will sign off now before treading carefully home, or else, I end up in “We were alive”.

Modernity and memory

A “xe om” (scooter taxi) guy mentioned a city (Lai Thieu?) where one can find all the abandoned carriages (horse or cow).

Hearing that, I flashed back to those early days when I accompanied my grandmother on her monthly trip to receive pension.

We took a bus, and Lambretta . I always got treated to a good lunch, a special bonding. It made me feel needed albeit just a kid.

At Ben Thanh Central Market, we could still find horse carriages leisurely move about in sparse traffic.

Speaking of the here and now. Vietnam finished some “white elephant” projects recently (Can Tho Bridge, Thu Thiem underwater bridge, Da nang Dragon bridge).

For those people whose livelihood depended on ferrying passengers, modern bridges spelled the end of their earnings.

When Henry Ford tied together two motorbikes to make a four-wheeler, horse carriage operators assumed that his invention would fail (too much smoke and noise, a disruption and distraction).

Yet we all know what has happened since.

A whole industry went down the tube: saddle makers, horse shoes, horse breeding and carriage builders.

In fact, in England, taxis still keep the old sitting arrangement (where two rows of passengers facing each other).

Nostalgia.

Lost cause and lost era.

Many residents of Thu Thiem perhaps feel elated but also puzzled by this change.

People stopped in the middle of the tunnel to take souvenir photos???

Modern memory.

We leave behind our digital fingerprints and carbon footprints.

Future archivists will excavate and learn about our “elementary” approaches to using the Web.

Our kids will look back to find our social graphs quite rudimentary.

What do you mean you only post a class picture on Facebook?

Video chat that can only see your face under poor lighting condition?

Families living across the continent can’t get together over Thanksgiving dinner online?

(MCI commercial was about just that, back in 1993).

Modernity, by definition, never stops reinventing itself.

I will never find horse carriages in the city, but out in the country, cities like Da Lat , tourists can still ride a horse carriage as they do with cyclo today in District 1. Modernity or memory? I miss my grandma already despite the age gap and generational gap.

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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Sustainable Vietnam

The leadership of World Economic Forum met in Vietnam a few years back.

Concerned parties already discussed Green Vietnam.

http://www.good.is/post/how-vietnam-is-going-green/

These days, if you are late into the Industrial game, at least you can leap-frog in thought leadership and learned from others’ mistakes (China is overtaking Japan as number 2 economy, but it faces Hon Hai‘s workers’ suicides among other things).

China and India got a head start in development, but as the Olympics in Beijing went underway- with pollution – everybody realized that you can’t have a strong eco-nomy without a healthy eco-sphere.

Vietnam could use bamboo as a symbol of sustained economic development.

The plant is sturdy although not strong as an oak.

And it’s green. Soothing and self-sustaining.

I have been to Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Vung Tau, Da Lat and Mekong Delta.

What I saw was lush green (although hot).

And I kept thinking of my mom who used to save paper.

People in Vietnam and Thailand use green leaves to wrap sticky rice.

Everything is recycled. And mother Nature is truly respected in this animistic-turns-materialistic culture.

Eco-tourism should be factored in to balance out luxury tourism (high-culture French cuisine? Ou est Catharine Deneuvre?)

A blessing in disguise, Vietnam’s weakness (slow development) might be used as its strength (eco-tourism spin).

Besides, it could boast 5th place in the SEA happiness index (just like Costa Rica of the South America hemisphere).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10650464

Recently discovered world’s largest cave has been a lure. These kinds of attraction can differentiate Vietnam from its neighboring Thailand and Cambodia. Or else, it’s a lonely planet for those “Me too” destinations Westerners can’t tell one from the other.