Not the Seine in Paris. But Rach Nhieu Loc in Saigon. She wore a cone hat. Baby tanning in the morning sun, resting in her bosom. The other hand, she checked her messages from a mobile phone.
It’s Thanksgiving in Vietnam. People have a lot to be thankful for. It’s now ranked second on Happy Country Index (the US 25th on infrastructure).
Infrastructure and Index of Happiness. By all counts, the canal stings. But people as a whole are considered happy. Many would care less for the Mayan calendar and its doom prediction.
When it gets too hot, it rains. Nature idea of a “smart” grid. GE is investing heavily in “industrial internet” (the way Bill Gates referred to in his “at the speed of thoughts”.)
People here move about at the speed of motorbikes. It barely rains and people are already in ponchos and helmets , zooming by non-stop. No delay, no second thought.
Moving forward. Day after day. Only the future. When school is out, kids pour out into the concrete sidewalks, like a disturbed beehive.
High-margin items are on display, all mobile related (I phone casing, eye glasses and sun glasses, helmets of all stripes, pull-overs and book bags).
Students from the country side try hard to accommodate themselves off campus by working at odd jobs.
I found an eatery with decent meals. Sharing a round table with strangers: meat, rice, soup and iced tea.
French-style cafes are extremely popular, serving cafe-sua-da at all times of the day.
007 is shown here too, interlaced with Twilight.
I wonder if the life style depicted in those movies ignite young people’s aspiration. The Twilight cast, red-eye aside, all look perfect when they don’t go “hunting”.
Books are confined in a dozen outlets, scattered around the city, still priced themselves out of reach of the average wage earner.
The publisher I am in talk with has a branch office behind a huge pagoda, which is located across from Vietnam’s famous Vinh Nghiem pagoda. So, it’s not just KFC and Burger King who stake out prime locations. Religious outfits do so as well.
Meanwhile, the population understands health and fitness, how they relate to happiness. A nation ranked second after only Costa Rica in Happiness can surely connect the dots.
Their diet is healthy and their movement swift.
It starts early in the morning and early in life.
I saw the evidence this morning. Mother and child. Sun bathing.
Texting and tanning.
All contribute to the formula of healthiness besides discarded Vinamilk pouches on the street.
Perhaps technology has contributed much to Vietnam’s progress. Today, if you found a bicycle moving about, it’s a rare sight. You can’t reverse history (especially in China, where automobiles are now as common as bicycles three decades ago).
You can only move forward with industrialization.
You read these lines. You know I am at an internet cafe next to my cafe-sua-da.
I do have something to be thankful for. I found a high-speed internet location.
Thang Nguyen 555 