Tag: Washington DC

Isolation, interaction and interpretation

One person to himself.

One or more chatting, arguing, agreeing.

Then, a multi-lingual gathering, with or without a headset, with a bilingual person in the middle, trying to transport the weight behind loaded words. In Chinese Zodiac, Jackie Chan tried to smooth out intercultural tension by giving an opposite translation from the intended message.

We also remember the scene from The Great Escape, where after each failed attempt, Steve McQueen, the King of cool, would be put back in isolation (at least fellow inmates still keep his glove and baseball for him).

When you send out a signal, a text or any form of communication without getting any feedback, you are in isolation. It could drive one into despair.

Marconi kept building taller towers near the seas, and sending out ship-to-shore signals in the hope that he could compensate for the curvy horizon.

In Cast Away, Tom Hanks couldn’t deliver his message in the box (fed ex), or the bottle.

Somewhere out there, there is someone waiting to receive your signals.

Blogging has started to fill this empty space.

A guy posted a picture of the Northeast, the gathering storm, or a nice trail.

I share his cold, and his wintry isolation.

Tet in Vietnam is warmer and with a lot more activities.

Tet in Orange County Little Saigon is wet and isolating.

And far away in Vietnamese communities such as Louisiana, Washington DC or Washington State, I suspect it’s even wetter and more isolating.

Yet people send out messages, through Mai branches (equivalence of Christmas pine trees) and red-lucky envelopes (equivalence of red stockings). It says “we are here, the new American with our tradition very much like the early Americans with theirs”.

So there are some interaction between the two cultures, East and West, the Lunar calendar vs the Solar.

Those who live and breathe between two worlds are lucky.

It is as though we barely cleaned up after one celebration before we start another. Once the cat is out of the bag, there is no end to it.

Now it’s no longer the turkey and carvings, it’s the Green bean cake and pickled onion.

The only shared sweet element between the old American native and the Vietnamese is sweet potatoes and boiled corn.

I start getting mouth-watered. So counting down to Tet 2013, 45 years since Tet 68.

The American public was more familiar with that shocking turn of event, and perhaps, decisive turning point of the war. You won’t find army flak jackets on the streets of Saigon as back then. You will find something very similar to the Rose Parade, except it’s stationary on blocked streets. And music is in the air, with ao dai floating and flirting . Take a picture, take a look. Be not isolated. Come out and interact, even if you need help from an interpreter.

Isolation, interaction and interpretation.

Census in our mind

1976. Washington D.C. Belt-bottom pants and boom-boxes. The city was predominantly black.

2011 Washington D.C. Gentrified, half-black and half others.And that’s just one stat in the 2010 data.

Asian population in Arizona, Texas and elsewhere like Philadelphia should surprise any demographer.

While America went to war in Europe, European ended up at America’s shores. Then America went to wars in Korea and Vietnam. Asians ended up here in the US. “I see living people” (to paraphase “the Sixth Sense”) i.e. Iraqis, Afghans and Syrians in the US in next Census count.

More mosques and more tolerance, by osmosis.

Take KIA as an example. It is claiming the spot where Toyota and Honda Civic used to be: affordable, aesthetic and long on warranty.

We no longer discuss “Is America ready for a Catholic (or black) President”, we discuss “Is America ready for a Mormon President“.

This is to show how Bin Laden and  cohorts have become irrelevant. America has always been a moving target (no punt intended). My recommendation is that we should take the Census every five years. A decade is now too long to update policies. It’s ironic that after 9/11, we increased the amount of surveillance cameras by the millions. But those images were served up for security reason only, instead of for change management (as of this edit, this move served us well in the Boston Marathon apprehension).

Back to census in our mind. We have a mental map as opposed to the true map out there.

It’s called prejudging. We look for what eventually reinforce  what is already in our mind (a priori).

Texas is Marlboro country. Arizona, cactus. Las Vegas, casinos (- the Echelon). New York, well, high rises – Twin Towers.

Chicago, w/ Sears tower. California, gold rush?.

Often times, we refuse to absorb and adjust new information. So, Washington D.C. is all black. Chicago all Polish. And the White House, always “white”. The question to be asked is, what year was your census taken? or what century? Many backpackers travel to Vietnam were surprised to see new high rises and a Hard Rock Cafe. Naturally, the reaction is to follow “Lonely Planet” guide, to spend a day underground in Cu Chi tunnel and stay around “pho Tay” (backpacker’s quarter). This was like having an American compound in Baghdad, insulated from the real action. Just close the drapes, and open the old census in your mind, if that suits you. The next time you venture out into the open, be on the look-out for a Chinese debt collector who might serve you a notice. Back in 1971, the US economy was roughly 5 times bigger than China’s, and we laughed at Korean or Japanese-made cars. Now we can’t even afford a KIA Optima. Let’s see what your FICO score is, so we can put you in the right vehicle TODAY  i.e. Nano or Cherry (Indian and Chinese, respectively).

Delayed recriprocity

The National Cherry Blossom Parade in the Nation’s Capital.  Washington Monument with cherry blossom in the foreground: picture perfect.

Newly arrived immigrants learned that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French (who coincidentally lead the Libyan incursion this time), and cherry trees, gifts from the government of Japan (twice, before and after WWII).

And so it goes, like the world map sold here, always with the US in the middle as hub of the global world. Everybody came from somewhere else. Hence, the US is involved in everyone’s affairs, often at the exclusion and expenses of its own e.g. (loan to Libyan Central Bank, no tax to GE and a lot of aid to Pakistan, cash to Afghans). Incidentally, it’s Lady Bird who planted those cherry trees the second time around, while her husband was complaining about his forced choice for a war abroad (Vietnam) over his pet project (Great Society) at home.

This time, Washington is more careful when asked by the French to join in a foreign incursion. Limited engagement, and no boots on the ground (Lybia).

Everyone feels like there are two stories competing: Japan’s radiation level and French-led Libya‘s no-fly zone (two huge stories which drove Terry Jones completely mad for attention! I’m gonna burn more Korans if you don’t send a camera crew).

This Saturday, as the nation celebrates Spring time (kids on daddy’s shoulders for a better view of high-school cheer leaders etc…_), let’s be reminded that long ago, the mayor of Tokyo was extending a nice gesture by sending a lasting State-to-State gift to adorn this nation.

My first impression of Washington was formed from those pictures of the Cherry Blossom Parade, including that shot of cherry branches in the foreground with the monument in the background. It’s enduring and eternal (nature’s intangible beauty vs man’s concrete monument).

Now, it’s Japan that needs Washington to reciprocate as it failed to contain its nuclear power plants. There isn’t enough room to store contaminated water. So the Pacific once again becomes dumping ground for oil. Mother Nature takes it all in. And every Spring, she shows us once again the rhythm of life – Spring eternal. Without knowing its future, Japan by a small gesture, initiated a virtuous cycle. I am sure leaders in Washington won’t forget to help victims of the quake as they enjoy the Parade adorned by and centered around those trees , gifts from quakeland. If you can lend money to Libya, you can certainly spare some change for the elderly who are now in line to get instant noodle at high-school-turned-refugee-shelters in Sendai. Delayed reciprocity.