Tag: Vietnam

Ole friends as mirrors

We finally met, at Starbucks. 3 classmates. 39 years and a huge ocean in between.

We could have just waited. Starbucks is opening up in Vietnam soon.

But there we were: the skinny, the fat and the ugly (me).

Past, present, past. Time interlacing.

No preset agenda. No chronological order, or Robert’s rules of order.

Not a multi-level recruiting session. Just a Jr-high get-together after 4 decades apart.

My daughter works at State. My son got eye problem etc..

Me? I am fine. Just can’t help observing, taking it in and connecting the dots. For instance, I don’t think the richest 1% read latest non-fiction about their own exploitation in “the Age of Greed” etc..They are too busy living it.

Or, the failure of “strategic hamlets” during the war (as revealed in the now-declassified Pentagon Papers) has unintended consequences in the rise of Vietnamese women in the manicuring industry (if you zoom out 40 years).

Lately, the only tree I see growing, is Dollar Tree.

In fact, America needs to grow money on tree.

Back to seeing ole friends. They kept looking at me, I them.

We served as mirrors to one another.

No, I don’t touch the guitar any more.

Nothing to scream about,not at this age, not at this time.

I am not Rod Stewart or Barry Manilow.

Those guys got good mileage.

Every one got their 15 minutes.

On YouTube or otherwise.

(picture of a couple kissing during the Vancouver riot went viral).

Make love, not war.

Google it, tweet it, “like it”, +1 it.

Electronic communication in abundance, yet we lost touch, almost 40 years until a high-tech friend started our Yahoo group to mend bridges.

So, via group-mail, attachment (photo), google map, 3-G mobile phone, finally, we meet over coffee and where else but Chinese buffet.

I told you, it’s the age of electronics and globalization.

We could have waited for Starbucks to come to Vietnam.

We could have just stay put.

Hold it. Build it. They will come. As they have always.

Columbus dispelled the myth that the Earth was square.

But once proven his point, he set out to claim the Earth his spoil.

Gun and steel, plus a lot of germs.

Or, the opposite, agent Orange, to defoliate and deform everyone in its path.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110617/ap_on_sc/as_vietnam_us_agent_orange

I am glad my friends are all right.

The one who was a bit on the wild side, got a daughter who did him proud.

The one who was on the quiet side, can’t wait for me to come and visit again.

I wonder how many social web I have missed out, due to war and its hidden costs.

Yes, we are alright, but the 4 decades in between have just been a big hole. So big that it could hold a 7,000-page Pentagon Papers , or a life-time of loss.

Bumpy boat ride

Stories of tourist boats that capsized, ship builder that went default on loan payment, and fishing boats got intimidated by a gigantic neighbor, kept coming out of Vietnam recently.

When you live along a coast that spans from San Diego to North of Vancouver, sea-related incidents are bound to happen. The latest dispute centered in the South China Seas is serious enough for Vietnam to start brushing up on its draft policy

and asking the US, its former enemy, to help resolve this marina tension.

One war document (the Pentagon Papers) barely got declassified, another is just about to be written. 40-year cycle.

Thomas Friedman came up with a globalization theory: any two nations who have McDonald stores open in their countries, are least likely to be involved in war (based on a classic theory of those who trade try to avoid war).

In this context, Vietnam should be asking not the US, but the McDonald corporation to start supplying burgers and fries.

I just read an AP story on rising food price in Vietnam (causing moms to go to bed hungry – since mothers put their children’s education and well-being before themselves).

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/14/v-fullstory/2265650/skyrocketing-food-prices-leave.html

Now, the country has the familiar scent of war. The scent that has barely dissipated for a new digital generation.

Then again, if you lived down those cyclical conflicts, with a desirable coast line, and a restless and hungry demographic (against a backdrop of huge neighbor full of young men- due to one-child policy, euphemism for one-male-child policy) it doesn’t take brain to see potential eruptions.

The boat ride will continue to be bumpy, at least, until McDonald starts its D-day with “you want fries with that?” .

Hungry moms can always stop by on her way to collect metal scraps (principal subject on Ms Mason’s story filed for AP). I am sure she will want to save some take-out for her hungry children at home. Any sacrifice for a better tomorrow, no matter how bumpy the ride or whose boats it is bumping against.

Moving wall

Vietnam Wall that is. Coming to the square near you.

They did not reconstruct the WWII concentration camps on wheel. But they did it with Vietnam.

And on June 13th, the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda will release the full version of the Pentagon Papers, originally commissioned by then DoD Secretary McNamara. Portion of the “white papers” was leaked to the press, so the Plumbers were formed to stop the leaks (today’s equivalence of Wiki-Plumbing). Later, their side job was to break in the Watergate (of course, where ever there is water, there is leak). I must give it to them. It was the only time in history when we saw such a  well-dressed group of Plumbers. Instead of parading the miniature version of the Watergate building, they chose the Wall instead.

I hope it bring healing to those “deer hunters”, and wipe away tears from Meryl Streep’s types, who must be in their 60’s by now.

Forever scarred and defined by that conflict, which was more internal than external: from school busing to the Great Society and “I Have A Dream” speech. After waving goodbye from Air Force One helicopter, Nixon held up a peace sign (V). Even President Johnson, in his retirement, grew long hair in his Austin ranch. Vietnam brought out the worst in us, in our leaders (a lot of swearing, from “the bitch of the war” (LBJ), to “bastards”(Ford) – after Congress had refused funding for the Vietnam evacuation, per Rumsfeld bio – to the White House wiretaping the Nixon’s campaign promising the Thieu’s government a better deal if elected.

Vietnam still teaches us lessons: Kerry and Cain on the opposing sides of the aisle, Powell’s doctrine (of overwhelming force, entry and exit, or not at all, battle-tested in the first Iraq war), and Senator Jim Webb with his Vietnam’s best writing. Journalists like Woodward and filmmakers like Oliver Stone, all got their baptism by fire.

So the moving wall is coming to town, but don’t expect it to stir up as much as the subject of Vietnam did 40 years ago.

Hell No, we won’t go. Now, living in Canada, these grown men can’t come back.

Ironically, if they decide to backpack to Vietnam from Canada, they can now tour the Cu Chi Tunnel, where their GI counterparts (tunnel rats) barely got out alive.

Vietnam Moving Wall. Haven’t we moved on, from that place of anxiety over Red Scare, to the fear of being overtaken by global competition. It’s a new era defined by creative mind, and entrepreneur, logistic and competitive advantage. It’s soft power and software. Brain over brawn, capital over labor.

It’s so iconic that Michael Jackson’s father came to Vietnam to inaugurate  Happy Land construction. He said, “my son had always wanted people to be happy”. So he pitched in, invested, and stood by it. “I’ll be there”.

During construction, perhaps they will enlist help from a few plumbers.

This time, they are asked to stay within their job description: install and up-keep the flow of water for recreational use. No wiki-plumbing or break-in please. It’s Happy Land, where adults can once again have fun, like children, with flowers in their hair.

Paradox, dilemma and irony

Paradox: doomsday for all is not coming, doomsday for one, anytime (especially when you are old).

Dilemma: too big to fail, the book then the movie (might not make it big at the box office).

Irony: got to have a job to land a job (hence, the growth of internship i.e. free  labor).

Underneath it all, we still act out our primal instincts e.g. sacrificing a virgin to appease the gods (common good) via new forms: NINJ loan, TARP and foreclosure (sub-prime borrowers are enjoying free rent before the eviction notice got nailed on the door – yet, the process flows just one way: driving people out on the streets where they were supposed to belong in the first place).

Meanwhile, debtor’s nation will soon face intense competition from China, whose agriculture population now stands at mere 10%.    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/433041d0-8568-11e0-ae32-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NHwUmam0.

Their service sector is growing and scrutinizing every loose brick in the American fortress: from refrigerators to automobiles, from helicopters to pharmaceutical research.

One interesting note from history: during a visit to Pakistan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger faked a sick leave to take a side trip to China. From there, the Cold War was practically neutralized, setting the stage for today’s multi-polar world. Recently, we saw how Pakistan was once again used as staging area for America’ s new battle ground.

Pakistan, our new dilemma (Please return the SEAL helicopter, and do not forward to the reverse engineering lab in China).

Vietnam, our new irony.

America, filled with paradoxes (loose sex and loose religion, long list of millionaires and high level of national debt, highest incarceration rate yet land of the free).

Dear readers, you got the gist. Connect the dots for yourself. Think, think, think. Apple “think different”, so they make the I-pad 2 through Hon Hai, whose subsidiary Foxconn kept having its factory blow up or employees jump the dorm’s rail. Tell me there is no modern-day sacrifice of human being to appease the gods of consumption (last year, we just wanted an I-pod, now we want an I-pad) and I will tell you to think again.

The extraordinary of daily life

If you look hard enough, you will find them: a Queen wearing Green, a show host wearing “color purple”, bidding farewell to a dream career a black, single mom couldn’t have imagined 50 years ago, or a fairy tale went awry with California Dreamer, bodybuilder that pumped more tragedy to the Kennedy clan than pumping iron.

Reports about the tsunami clean-up in Japan (10 years at least), and financial tsunami are still trickling in(bottle-necked at foreclosure proceedings.) For personal “escape”, I picked up “Last Men Out”, true story of the last Marines out of Vietnam (embassy guards). Their last day was “le jour le plus long” of my generation. ie. tragedy which brought out the best and worst in human being.

It’s ironic that they couldn’t junk helicopters fast enough to clear the aircraft carrier’s deck, while just a few years later, during the Iranian hostage crisis, the team was short of just one to pull it off.

Pundits and philosophers have pondered about outliers: how gene pool could produce extraordinary out of the hurdled mass: a Van Gogh here, an Elton John there.

All I know is that Sir John thought highly of Lady Gaga. And she of Farmville. There must be a trend worth- noticing for game developers. First generation gaming was mostly about kill-or-be-killed. Maybe gaming 2.0 will help players discover the extraordinary in the ordinary: planting tomatoes, milking a cow… For two generations now, kids (in a less-than-3-percent-agriculture environment) have grown up not knowing where milk came from.

We went to the store, and brought home a flat screen TV. From there, our real life turns to just “being there”: mummified and dumbed down. This came from a horse’s mouth, Mary Hart “we do, we do want to know what’s going on with celebrities, the high-profile ones”.

OK, so Kardashian lost a few pounds. That’s great. But Oprah didn’t stop there. She went on to build a media empire, so huge that the O in ChicagO might as well be capitalized. Now, that’s extraordinary!

It triggers the imagination. It inspires and motivates us. Perhaps we, single mom or stay-at-home dad, can rise to touch the face of God after all. If Stephen Hawking is right (that we are like computers), then let’s boot it up, I-pad as launching pad. Still, I believe the extra-ordinary in daily life.

Growing old in post 9/11 era

Younger generations are growing up digital. I grow old in post 9/11. We were bumping along, thinking the dot.com burst was the story of the Century. Then, the unthinkable happened. Brave were the men on United Flight 93. Our lives have never been the same since (collective survivor’s guilt).  An act of outright violence needed to be dealt with. It was one thing for the French to vent about McDonalisation or Disneylandisation in Paris. But it’s quite another to plot and plan an attack on American soil to bring about caliphate.

Now they know. Now we know. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The journey is still a reward. But on that journey, we bumped into all sorts of people (brave and abhorrable) . Quite an inconvenient truth. Bin Laden wasn’t the only one who got grey hair (or beard). This son of a construction tycoon would rather live in concrete than cave, not unlike other 21st-century men who now frequent spa and salon. A journalist teacher said it aptly, if only we had someone to blame for Vietnam as we had for Afghanistan.

On Sunday night, we forgot the financial bubble, the rising gas price and the drought in credits and jobs.

We got some closure, at least for the families of victims and heroes on United 93 (although dead, but they took matters into their own hands, hence, the term “victims” were deemed inappropriate).

George Harrison sang about “What is life” while his more influential band mate, died of senseless violence, “Imagine there’s no religion”. He must have seen the devastation done in the name of this God and that God, so his vision (often times through a pair of sunglasses) was without heaven (and certainly no virgins in neverland).

For me, with no sunglasses, I see life through that gaping hole of NYC ‘s two missing front teeth (courtesy of Tom Wolfe).

I see life from both sides now, from dot.com boom to housing burst.

I am growing old digitally in post 9/11 era.

Random thoughts on Earth Day

An urban restaurant “closed the loop” by planting its own vegetables on roof-top garden, using bio-waste from its kitchen. Welcome to post-industrialized environment. A gym owner powered most of his appliances using energy generated from their Stairsmasters. Finally, the emergence of sharing-a-couch and sharing-a-ride economy (rule of thumb: if sharing stuff, they must be above $100 and small enough to be shipped around).

In Cognitive Surplus, the author listed the means, the motive and the way of sharing.

We have surplus and demand since day one. We just don’t have a way to match the two.

Now we do. It’s like stores who place wet towels at the entrance, so shoppers can wipe the carts.

Same with cities who have trash cans conveniently placed on the sidewalk litter bag for dog walkers.

Take care of nature, and in turn, nature will take care of us.

One consistent element from cradle to the grave, is Mother Nature.

You might shop at a supermarket, an open market or eating out, the chain might merge or be bought out, but the produce still came from the ground, fertilized or organic.

Whether your expressed wish is to be buried or cremated, it’s the Earth which will eventually welcome us home.

My brother called me the other day while visiting our parents’ graves. He must be moved  by their side to remember his youngest brother. Earth has always been tolerant of human many attempts to cultivate it, dig a hole in it, or bomb it. Until it trembles to remind us who has the last say.

I am no animist (although back in Vietnam, people tend to brand their products using Bee – for phone, Cat- for cigarette, Tiger – for beer, Elephant – for rice; see my Vietnam brands blog), but I root for CricKet, after learning that my former boss is now working at that company. CricKet tries to do community projects besides selling phones. At some point in life, we must realize we are inter-connected. And that the Native American did have a good philosophy: nurture nature, nature nurtures you. I promise not to use water bottle or plastic bag today, and if I have to, it’s for picking up the trash with my daughter who has Earth Day off from school.

Unsung Peacemakers

In the wake of a huge catastrophe, we tend to rely on experts, in this case, geologists to lecture us on aftershocks, fault line, Pacific Ring of Fire etc…

We tend to miss the human dimension of unsung heroes, the peacemakers.

There were a Japanese crew, earthquake experts, in New Zealand trying to help out in anyway they could. Little did they know, more abrupt crises awaiting them at home.

Venturing beyond one’s border for the sakes of others, to pay forward.

That’s the mission of a peacemaker. During the Haiti quake, then Gov. of FL refused to let relief efforts to use his home state as a base of operations.

On CNN, we witnessed a Vietnamese doctor ferrying out dying victims on a private chartered plane. Actors like John Travolta also chipped in.

Those who cross the cultures (Euro-centric to Pacific Rim for instance, or in the case of our current United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon  from Korea, who has his hand full of crises) encounter both culture shock and reverse culture shock.  Those who return from war abroad also face Post-Traumatic Disorder syndrome (the Deer Hunter, Born on the Fourth of July) being misunderstood and marginalized (De Niro played a returning veteran who asked the taxi driver to keep going, pass his welcome-home party).

This week, CNN showed a short video of “soldier surprised daughter at school” in Idaho.

The 9-year-old said it was like in a dream (upon spotting her still-in-uniform Daddy

show up at school after finishing his tour of duty).

The scene has been repeated many times in American history

(children running to the tarmac greeting returning fathers – You Tube

video for Reflections of My Life by the Marmalades).

We now have a second generation – children of  Vietnam era  and nemesis i.e.- flower children – both wanting to to know what’s it like for their fathers to leave the comfort of the then-Middle class environment to engage in unpopular battles  on the other side of the world.

Even when trying hard, they could only walk a mile in their shoes, albeit as backpacking tourists.

(recently two young American females died along with many others in a tourist boat accident. )

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/vietnam-halong-bay-boat-accident-kills-11-foreigners-list-of-names-51466.html

Three and a half decades after it ended,  this war still has some legs. Last month,  Prime Minister of Australia pledged more money to support a Vietnam Memorial Center, to bring world attention to the hefty price Australians paid during this “American war” as known in Vietnam. No one said it better than John Savage, one of the four main characters in the Deer Hunter ” I don’t fit in” (back on a wheel chair , playing Bingo in a  Pittsburgh nursing home).

So once again, we rely on musicians to help us sort through our conflicting emotions. In said movie, it’s a guitar piece from the Shadows.

Blessed are the peacemakers. For they gave their lives and limps for the idea and ideal of freedom taken for granted by us here in the West.

Dylan’s time a changin!

Years ago, I rode in the back , my friend and his wife in front, and I popped “The Essential Bob Dylan” on “to knock, knock ….on heaven’s door” all the way to a Vietnam beach. On April 10th, the singer will be there in person, finally.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20043290-10391698.html

American celebrities with conscience have fascinated with Vietnam e.g. “Mr & Mrs Smiths“, De Niro, J Fonda and now Bob Dylan.

Lady, lady, lay….A lot of teach-in and sit-in to culminate in his only appearance in the land which has sparked so much division and protest (take Wisconsin and multiply by 1000).

A legend in his own right, Dylan carried his guitar to NYC, played at clubs

and became a prophet of sort to his generation. During the 80’s, Dylan and  Springsteen flirted with God and Country, in that order. “You got to serve somebody” if you are “Born in the USA“.

Now, after a gig in Vegas, his promoter booked him for modern-day Mecca: China and Taipei. Vietnam will be something of a side tour, for catharsis.

Dylan, like other musicians of his time – Neil Young for instance – nurtures a love-hate arm-length relationship with the “System”. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t,  “in, but not of it”.

The WSJ pulled a quick punch when the man was almost down (saying he couldn’t keep up the beat during his Vegas’ gig).

At 60, you are glad to stay alive (his early date died just recently).

Keep knocking on heaven’s door.

One of these days, it will open up for those who are persistent.

Meanwhile, we live on, never stop questioning while the answers remain elusive, as if  “blowing in the wind”.

I can’t help noticing a stark contrast between two iconic photos: the Woodstock’s couple wrapped in a blanket, and the lone Japanese-quake woman among the rubbles. The former had a choice to be outdoor and enjoyed a 3-day of Peace, Love and Music. The later was forced to be victim of a 8.9 earthquake.  To celebrate or lament our existence, we need artists to point us to a more transcended reality (Dylan showed up at the concert by G Harrison for victims of Bangladesh flood).  In Dylan, it’s the combination of poetic justice, lyrical poignancy and one-of-the-kind eccentricity that set him apart from other revolving-door names (Ricky who?).

Dylan and Vietnam seem to be a match made in heaven, without all the knocking. Both seemed to survive myriads of controversies and contradictions.

Both remain mystique, alluding our attempt to put people and places in a box.

Gone are these jobs!

I read today about 10 jobs that did not exist a decade ago. http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/111973/jobs-that-didnt-exist-10-years-ago

It quickly came to mind jobs that are now gone, for good:

Telephone switchboard operators

Gas station attendants (who used to wipe our windshields and check the oil)

One-hour photo clerk (Remember Robin Williams?)

Milkman, mailman, newspaper boy (fewer jobs)

Typist – (transcription)

Watch repairman

Shoe-shine boys (still working in Hanoi two years ago when I was there)

Answering service operator

Borders bookstore owner

Shoe repairman or tailor

Toll collector (some States still have them)

Translator (gone soon)

Tutor (moving online)

English teacher (robot is taking over the classroom in S Korea)

Jeopardy player (Watson won)

The time, they are a changin!  The press made a note that he wasn’t on top of his performance in Las Vegas (I did not see it at the Grammys).

Again, everything is “blowing in the wind”, including jobs from a pre-digital bygone era. Photo copy clerks should learn Search Engine Optimizing skills to get jobs in the 21st century. But then, watch out for Google algorithm.

Found this in WSJ Opinion page, which went much more in depth about the disappearance of traditional jobs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703439504576116340050218236.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0