Re: Viets sentiments: Cha(.t dda^`u Kopa'ny

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

On Fri, 18 Apr 1997, Aiviet Nguyen wrote:

> 
> I would like to continue the task of Viets sentiments. Let us " Tro^ng 
> ngu+o+`i la.i nho+' dde^'n ta"
...
> 
>   Sau tha^'t ba.i na`y, vua Istva'n tha^'y ddu+o+.c ra(`ng Hungari kho^ng 
> the^? tie^'p tu.c con ddu+o+`ng na`y ne^'u kho^ng muo^'n die^.t vong. Kopa'ny
> va` dda so^' ca'c ky. si~ thi` muo^'n ru+a? thu`. Ho. cho ra(`ng 
> Wutenberg kho^ng pha?i la` ddo^'i thu?. Thu+.c ra va^'n dde^` kho^ng 
> pha?i la` o+? Wutenberg ma` mo^.t nha` nuo+'c kho^ng the^? duy tri` tre^n 
> ne^`n ta?ng mo^.t ca'ch so^'ng nhu+ va^.y va` pha?i nhanh cho'ng la^.p 
> hie^'n pha'p va` quo^'c gia. Kopa'ny vo+'i ha`o quang chie^'n tra^.n cu?a 
> o^ng la` mo^.t ca?n tro+? cho su+. hi`nh tha`nh quo^'c gia Hungari ma(.c du`
> o^ng la` anh hu`ng cu?a da^n to^.c Hungari va` go'p pha^`n la`m da^n 
> to^.c na`y tro+? ne^n hu`ng ma.nh. Vua Istva'n dda~ cho mo+`i Kopa'ny va`o
> va` cha(.t dda^`u .
> 
>   Cho dde^'n nay Cha(.t dda^`u Kopa'ny co`n la` tha`nh ngu+~ Hungari chi? 
> vie^.c hu?y bo? mo^.t nie^`m tu+. ha`o tha^`n tu+o+.ng lo^~i tho+`i dde^?
> hu+o+'ng to+'i mo^.t tu+o+ng lai vu+~ng be^`n ho+n.
> 
>   Chu'ng ta co' gi` nhu+ va^.y cha(ng ?

Anh AiViet, your Kopany story reminded me of the "Braveheart" film, which
told a chunk of Scotland history in which almost the same thing happened,
"Braveheart" was sacrified by the Scotland Lords partly out of consideration
for the future of Scotland, a future that should be built not only on fierce
nationalism, but on necessary practical compromises as well. 

Your story and your comments are ambiguous. Let me make a quick attempt 
at clarifying them.

1) If you are saying there are a lot of old Viet sentiments that helped
built a Vietnamese nation as the one we have today, but that have become
outdated and unsuitable for the task of building a modern prosperous 
Vietnam; and if you are saying that we should recognize and change such 
sentiments, then I agree with you.

Just take for example the strong Vietnamese pride, Vietnamese nationalism.
The fierce pride that the Vietnamese have was certainly a good thing.  In the
face of many foreign invaders and influences in the past, without such pride
and strong Vietnamese nationalism Vietnam would have not existed today. 

But today, as Vietnam gradually opens to the world and embarked on the road
of modernisation, as Vietnamese get to know the world more and more, this
pride has turned into a strange mixture of unjustified inferiority and
superiority complexes that hinders the development of the nation. You can 
see the manifested symptoms of these complexes in many places, You can 
hear complaints that Vietnamese are very much tight-fisted with each 
other, but very generous with Westerners; that Vietnamese workers are 
unreliable because they nodded to the work lessons as if they understood 
everything and will do as told, but then go ahead and do things as they 
see "fit"; that we are unwilling to learn valuable lessons from  neighbors
far more advanced than us in modernisation, but are considered by us as 
inferiors; that we think we can do many complex things just by ourselves, 
etc.

2) If you are trying to say something politics, or ideology-related, then 
there is the question of whether we have Kopa'ny, and if we have one, if 
we have an Istvan. But such questions and discussions are clearly outside 
the scope of VNSA, and so won't be allowed here.

Hai.