Re: Nhin mo^.t phi'a

["Khanhtran N. Phan" <kphan@engin.umich.edu>]

On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, Ninh Tran wrote:

> Xin ca'c ba'c nguo^.i la.i mo^.t ti'. Va` thu+? xe't coi ta.i sao ngu+o+i   
> Vie^.t chu'ng ta bi. ke? kha'c coi
> thu+o+`ng (a big Zero). Ca' nha^n rie^ng le?, to^i nghi~, ngu+o+i Vie^.t   
> co' the^? sa'nh vo+'i ba^'t ky` ai.
> Nhu+ng la` mo^.t ta^.p the^?, mo^.t da^n to^.c,  ngu+o+i Vie^.t dda~   
> ddo'ng gop gi` chu+a cho va(n minh
> nha^n loa.i.
> 
> Co' mo^.t ca^u no'i cu?a ngu+o+i ba.n My~ la`m to^i suy nghi: Yes, you   
> have four thousand years of civilization, but you haven't changed since   
> four thousand years ago!!!
> 
	I totally agree with anh Ninh about what he brought up... 
Individually, Vnamese might have been successful in some aspects of life, 
but collectively, "we" haven't had any profound impacts, any 
contributions (more or less) to the human cilvilization as a country, as 
a culture. 
	One of the reasons I think that plays an important 
role is the fact that our country had been undergoing ceaseless 
self-protection against foreign invasions thru out those 4000 years of 
development. This might account for the statement above:  " Yes, you
have four thousand years of civilization, but you haven't changed since 
four thousand years ago!!!"..... because we built something, some bloody 
"people" came and destroy everything... the damages outweighed the 
developments and this accumulatively led to a Vietnam country used to be 
known as "under-development".
	The second thing that I've been noticing is the division between 
regions in the country. Essentially this makes it hard for all Vietnameses 
in Vietnam to put their heads and hearts together to pull up the 
staggering economy. As I remember correctly, several years ago, when the 
Vietnam soccer team was scheduled to have training in Hanoi before an Asian 
Regional Cup, some people in Saigon raised the question why it wasn't 
Saigon but Hanoi.... things like that would never pull "us" together, in 
fact, it pushes the gap farther and farther..... I understand this is 
also a consequence of the recent war..... and I'm glad to see that the 
gap is actually shrinking considerably....
	Another thing has to do with Viet personality or characteristic 
(sentiment)..... This is a point I learned from a speech when I was 
still back in VN. The speaker exampled: To "quiet" a Japanese kid, 
throw him some tools or books; to "quiet" an American kid, let him play 
video game; and to "quiet" a Viet kid, "throw" him another kid. Why? as I 
was explained, because they will fight each other until they exhaust and 
fall sleep.....  Well, this is, as we all know, not completely true and 
not good to know. The point the speaker tried to get across is that Viets 
don't have "solitarity", they can't stand to see other Viets succeed, 
they bad-mouth if their friends become well-known with the intention to 
ruin the fame 'cause they simply can't stand it. At the first glance, 
this sounds like competion, but unfortunately, this is the so-called 
"UNHEALTHY"  competion. People compete to both get better, Viets compete 
to ruin each other....big difference.....
	To really put our heads and hearts together to help Vietnam, we 
have to overcome the second and the third "pitfalls"...... those are 
things we have control on and can make changes to... To me, the long-term 
process that helps erasing the "bad image", the "big Zero" involves 
building a COMMOND GOAL for all Viets. That ULTIMATE COMMON GOAL is simply 
"THE DETERMINATION AND PASSION TO WORK TOGETHER TO PULL UP OUR COUNTRY 
ECONOMY" = VIETNAM FIRST, US (not usa) SECOND PRIORITY. Only when Vietnam 
has some recognition in the ECONOMICAL world can we speak to others with 
"big brother" tone......
	Thank you for bearing with me with this poorly worded 
philosophy, but honestly they come from my heart and come from a Viet who 
wants to help Vietnam but incapable of doing anything. That's why I try 
to bring to your attention and hope that constructively we can do something..

Tra^n
from U. of Michigan