Tag: Yahoo News

Admired Adults

As Yahoo News flashes Most Admired Person of the Year, I can’t help reflecting on Adults I most Admired ever.

From a teacher friend of my mom to complete strangers in heartland America, from a relief worker in the Pacific to far-away Africa, I remember them not so much for how much they were giving , but for HOW they go about giving.

The troubling thing about our century is not only there exists huge inequity, but also the ineffective venues to bridge that gap.

I had a glimpse of hope when the richest men of our age (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) went to China to take pledges (gone are the days that rich is equated with being white, and poor, color folks).

Then it has been quiet all of a sudden.

What happened to those pledges of  The Millionaire Round Table? Meanwhile, the best investment we can make as a society is school lunch program with good nutrition.

When I was growing up, there was bread subsidies distributed through my mom’s school. I can type these words today partly thanks to those surplus flour flowing our way back then.

When one is hungry, the only thing in mind is to go out and find something to eat. Heck with ethics, eco-system or e-government.

Adults just don’t get it.

And when they do, it’s too late.

The damage has been done irrecoverably.

Later in life, I tried to put myself through school, and not just one. But two Christian graduate schools. Still, my early formation had been solidified by the time I got through admission. How I viewed right and wrong, what’s cool and what’s not, and whom I can trust.

When one grew up in war-time, observing the said and the done, and how far they were apart, one quickly grasps what reality gap was all about.

I empathize with my children, with young people growing up in war, in recession and in debt.

They are the ones without representation, without lobbyist in the hall of power (maybe with the exception of Michelle Obama and her school-lunch push).

Asked any school kid today. Would you find they want to grow up to be a policy maker? To un-jam the process called gridlock and filibuster?

Japan itself has lost one generation to gaming, virtual reality and most recently Fukushima.

Meanwhile, Samsung has become the number-one global brand, surpassing Apple and Coke.

Maybe we can all use a little Korean discipline. But first, show me some models I can admire. Someone who takes the bus to work and cooks his own meal.

Then maybe I will pay attention to ethics, eco-system and e-government.

My mom’s friend whom I will never forget, came to our house on New Year’s day. Per custom, she gifted the children with lucky money (Tet).

But instead of using paper money, folded neatly inside those red envelopes like everyone else, she made me open my two hands. Then one by one, she filled them with shiny pennies until I could no longer hold them. The weight of coin currencies still impressed upon me til this day. It’s not how much or how often one should give. It’s the way we go about giving. And on reflecting about New Year and giving, I promise myself not only to give often, but to pay special attention to the way I go about giving. Make it worth their while to receive from you. As Thomas Merton says “the poor was given the rich a chance to give. Both need each other” (paraphrasing);, those who give have more options and time to go to the bank and exchange the money, in any denomination. The poor, on the receiving end, can only accept  payment without option (the homeless don’t have a home address to receive checks).  Just make sure by the time bread get to their mouths, it’s not stale. If so, it’s a poor reflection on the most admiring exchange between human being. Most Admired Adult of 2013? You, when you start giving in the most humane way.

torn between two places

Yahoo News had a piece about Diaspora, the return.

It features Mrs Nguyen Cao Ky, who is now a proud owner of a Pho restaurant in former Saigon.  She said to have spent a few months in the US, and the rest in Vietnam.

Other Viet Kieu expressed similar sentiment: “when I am here, I miss the States, and vice versa” said wife of a former Vegas casino host.

The attachment to places.

We are creatures of habits.

I found myself gravitated toward District 3 where I grew up.

I turned my head every time I passed by L’Ecole Aurore.

To lend some credibility, the article quoted Professor Hung, of the U of VA, who said what everyone had already known: the less attractive the US economy the stronger the pull of  Vietnam .

So, we have Vietnamese moving out of Hotel California. The choices are Houston or HCMC. Sociologists couldn’t have foreseen this 38 years ago.

I didn’t. We were in a state of shock!

Those of us who weren’t religious person then, became one.

Churches and synagogues welcomed the displaced.

So, my sweet guitar gently weeps.

I admitted to eating a bunch of church pot-luck dinners to get through college.

Then, upon graduation, I paid it all back by offering my ration packs to Boat People in Asia.  Whatsoever you sow, you shall reap.

I saw what people went through at seas to get to shores, to Hotel California.

Now, I met people like Mrs Ky who discussed opening up shops in VN, organizing a conference there, and perhaps buying a piece of land.

I do miss the comfort in the States e.g. clean beaches, ample parking and ubiquitous police. Over-protected in one place and under-served in the other.

Torn between two  places, feelin’ like a fool. Blame it on war, blame it on peace. But mostly, blame it on greed which brought down house of cards. As of this edit, I have read excerpt of Andrew Lam‘s latest Birds of Paradise Lost which is an expose on the theme of Diaspora of millions Viet Kieu, suffering the fate of “neither here nor there”.

The strangest moment came when songs of the 70’s got played at coffee shops in Saigon. It only accentuates a known fact: the place seems to have freezed up in time. Those music got me nostalgic for Vietnam when hearing them in the States, but then, to hear them play here in VN makes me nostalgic for time past, not the place itself. We all swim against the tide of time.  Boys-men-boys, in my case, a boy from BAN CO. Even grown men need to have some fun. It’s either biking or swimming now.  For that, you can do it anywhere.  But who you would ride with, that depends on the place. Those who went through the piercing experience of separation and exile are rarely heard nor noticed. Most force themselves to forget and move on. Others leverage new skill and contact to return, a phenomenon known as “brain re-gain”. More are coming back. Yet remain forever “outsiders”, torn between two places.

strip tease

A Canadian lady, on her insurance-paid leave for mental distress, walked into a bar. Not just any bar, but a male strip tease bar. And she posted her excursion in Facebook to share with “friends”. Among the uninvited  “friends” was the Insurance adjuster. So, her insurance checks stop coming. Reason: “we have joy, we have fun, we have seasons in the sun”, now back to work.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091121/wl_canada_afp/lifestylecanadahealthinternetfacebook_20091121190842

Yahoo News has “denial” theme today: claim denial (Canadian) to Communion denial (Kennedy).

Huge companies are probably up for another round of Stimulus . The Beast got a taste for blood. Should that be denied also?

V-shape recovery? Here is a portrait of a nation, according to Garp.

More people are “discovering” Thrift Shops. More people are buying Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Black Friday pre-sales, soft opening etc…Long Island or nation wide, Walmart doormen now have plan C, with color-coded alert taking a page from Home Land Security.

Less people on the payroll= less tax revenue=tuition increase.

Berkeley students protest , this time, not against the Law professor who argues for torture, but against the U system that seeks to turn torture closer to home: on their own students.

Instead of “Hell No, we won’t go”, it is Pink Floyd’s ” We don’t need no education”.

Some have argued for a 3-year college sysrem. Others went overseas to obtain nursing degrees (cheaper).

I personally went to Hanoi, to obtain my CELTA , a taste of Edu- tourism.

There is a growing field if one really wants to get a job: negotiating for a lower national debt in Mandarin. That’s what our Utah ex-governor was doing in China.

Or you can claim extreme stress, and wants to be depressurized in a strip bar. Just make sure you are thorough with your Facebook privacy setting. Out of fear, we settle for the lowest common denominator, and end up with triviality, and plasticity. Facebook turns Filebook full of self-incriminating evidence instead of peer recommendation.

Everything you post may be used against you in the court of law. There, you have been warned.

In social history, every time we were told to shut up, we ended up with a movement that changed history.

I can’t wait to see what’s next. But first, let me go get my Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.

P.S. I feel for California college students, among them, my daughter. Give peace and Aimy a chance.

You don’t want both Daddy and daughter “backpacking” in Vietnam, on an extended eco/edu tour, do you?

I am just being proactive, in case the US needs a bi-lingual debt negotiator after I am gone. I got a succession plan in place. Today’s freshmen are tomorrow’s congress person. Treat them right, and do not provoke them, Provost!

Ireland and India offered free education, and look at where those two countries are today.

P.S. 2 we need a new policy to protect online sharing, that way, people are less vulnerable to preying and prying. The insurance claim specialist was probably enjoying his/her moment of “gotcha!”, thinking he/she was en par with CNBC special investigation.  I hope the lady (even posed in bikini lying on the beach) gets her checks. And this time, don’t spend it all in Chippendale.