Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: Texas
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You can take a boy out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the boy. This happens to me, not once, but twice. Culture shock upon culture shock! until I feel numbed. I jog on the street full of motorbikes (nice people would say “Co len”, bad people would try to run me…
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Like Trinh Cong Son‘s Diem Xua, I got my own imprints of what Saigon was like. Especially on Sundays, like today. Shaded streets, short strolls and sweet smiles. Who needs all the executive shirt with designers’ emblem on it. Instead of shirt, just smile even when you are not on camera. “Cuoi len di em oi” Just…
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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…
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I clicked on the “Place Order” button, and a few days later, arrived the used paperback copy of Small is Beautiful, by E.F. Schumacher. Its tag line ” Economics as if People Mattered”. I thought I had that same yellowish copy somewhere after years of moving around. Back then, graduate students already drove small cars…
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First wave: 1975, 4 “ports of entry”: Arkansas, California, Florida and Pennsylvania. Second wave: 1978 -2008 South Westward to California and Texas. Third wave: joining everyone else during this Recession to the Lone Star State, where 8% unemployment still looks better than 12% and 10% in Florida and California, respectively. Part of the American Dream…
Thang Nguyen 555 