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| You know how in the movie HOOK, Peter Pan as played by Robin Williams returns to Neverland but doesn't remember a damn thing because he grew up after he left? Doesn't matter, just humor me. In the past few months there have been times where I felt as if I was stuck in a rut and as if my life were headed towards a dead end. Simply because the road was curving and I couldn't see where I was headed. But more recently people from my past - cast members from previous adventures - have resurfaced in my life after my forgetting they even existed.
This has caused me in effect to "remember neverland" and realize that my life has been much richer than I give myself credit for. That, and the fact that I'm befriending more random people than I have been previously has confirmed for me that indeed, beyond the mountains are more mountains, and that any rut we find ourselves in are always self-created. The rut comes from not opening our eyes to fully see the possibilities out there.
Here's to possibilities.
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| Precious reader, how are you? I realize it's been some time before I've written. And before you ask - I'm well and I've been busy. Thus the lack of recorded public introspection on my part. But today was relaxing, and so I shall indulge myself in a rant. What did I do today, you may ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing of any importance. It was spectacular.
Saturday night I had some friends from the Pacific Northwest drop by to visit. They flew out at 8am, so we stayed up and shot the breeze all night long. So I woke up today around 3pm, and since the day was pretty much shot, I decided to partake in one of my favorite things to do - I went out and watched 4 movies in a row. Yup. Entered the theater at 5:30pm, left at 1am. Saw Ocean's 13, Fantastic Four, Live Free or Die Hard, and Evan Almighty. Surprisingly, my favorite of the bunch was Live Free or Die Hard. Just sitting down and vegging is a luxury that I don't seem to have these days, as I'm always either traveling or catching up on the things that I left unattended while I was traveling.
Most recently I just did a few weeks in Australia, and then after a few days at I home, I headed to Washington, DC to protest Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet meeting with President Bush. That was a poorly planned trip on my part, as I bought my ticket last minute and had to stay through Monday while I was done with my business on Friday. So essentially I was stuck in DC for 3 more days without housing. And the DC hotel rate is approximately $200 a night! Luckily however, I caught wind that after the DC protest everyone was going to go to NYC for a UN culture parade to be part of the Vietnamese delegation. So I hitched a ride up to NYC and bummed around there for a few days and then took a greyhound bus back to DC to fly out.
Highlights from the trip, I was very glad to be able to see Tram before she left for her summer in London. It was nice to visit Lisa in her new city. Although I didn't actually get to go out to see her neighborhood in Queens... next time Lisa. And I made a lovely new friend out there as well. Good trip overall.
Okay, I started this entry a bit ago but now it's 4:30 am and I'm getting a bit drowsy, so more later...
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| In the course of our lives, out of pureness of heart or sheer naiveté, we often tell ourselves that there are certain self-defined absolutes that we will never change about ourselves. Principles we will never compromise. Beliefs that will never falter. Passions that shall never cool. Despite countless others who have gone before whose principles have been compromised, whose beliefs have faltered, and whose passions have eventually cooled, we tell ourselves, "No, not me." But we do take the experiences of others into account and steel ourselves against what we anticipate might sway us from our intended path... only to find that doubt is a mistress that will not be denied and ultimately entices us through means that we would never expect.
Perhaps it is just part of the sad reality that is the human condition. But I prefer to think of it as part of the trials that every hero must pass on his (or her) journey. Whatever the case may be, for me, it has begun.
I only hope that when this is all over, I shall still be able to recognize myself despite the battle scars.
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| By Nguyễn Hoàng Lân
The month of April is typically a somber one for the
Vietnamese community, as April 30th marks the anniversary of the
Fall of Saigon. This year in particular
however, for a number of Vietnamese people who oppose one-party rule in Vietnam, April
brings with it a reason to celebrate.
That reason is the one year anniversary of the “Manifesto of Freedom and
Democracy for Vietnam in 2006”, dated April 8, 2006 and signed by 118 people
from all walks of life living within Vietnam.
The manifesto itself is a fairly measured statement that criticizes the
current communist regime and calls for political change in Vietnam –
specifically the establishment of a multi-party system with three independent
branches of government – without elaborating on how such change might be
achieved other stating that the “method of this fight is peace and
non-violence.”
But the significance of this document does not lie in its
content but rather in the fact that it was a public call for change, an open
challenge made by a sizeable number of individuals living under the
totalitarian regime that they seek to end.
As if that were not enough however, the overseas Vietnamese media and a
number of anti-communist organizations seized upon the manifesto’s publication
and over-hyped it, elevating the declaration signed by 118 people to the level
of a full-blown, cohesive, and organized pro-democracy movement. For increased dramatic effect, the overseas
Vietnamese media dubbed the manifesto’s signers as “Bloc 8406”, named for the
date of their manifesto (ignoring the group’s self-chosen name of “Group 118”). Efforts to play up “Bloc 8406” by the
overseas Vietnamese community have paid off, as in the months following its
debut even western media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal began to cover the happenings of “Bloc 8406”,
ironically lending even more credibility to the group in the eyes of the
overseas Vietnamese community, especially that of the youth.
While under most normal circumstances I would consider any
event that lends momentum and attracts more attention to the cause of political
freedom for Vietnam
to be a positive thing, my desire for increased buzz in this area falls short
of artificially creating that buzz just so we can trick ourselves into feeling
as if progress is being made. Don’t get
me wrong – I applaud the spirit in which the 8406 Manifesto was written – but I
find myself reluctant to endorse a manifesto that fails to outline a path of
action to achieve its lofty goals and I refuse to stand behind an organization
that does not actually exist.
As a longtime believer in the fight to bring freedom and
democracy to Vietnam, I
understand that terms like “anti-communist” or “freedom-fighter” are no longer as
clear cut as they were during the Cold War era, when supporting democracy in Vietnam meant
overthrowing the government and reclaiming it for the people. Today, fighting for freedom can mean any
number of things, from trying to establish a civil society in Vietnam that will
grow beyond the government’s control, to partnering with the current government
in hopes of reforming it over time, to well… overthrowing the government and
reclaiming it for the people.
Given the variety of differing opinions on how democracy
might be established and freedom won in Vietnam, it is especially important
for those who wish to lead the charge to be clear in their intent and as specific
as possible in their methodology.
Likewise, it is even more important for the general public to do their
research, to learn the differences in philosophies that are out there, and to
not throw their support behind just any and every individual or group that makes
wide-sweeping general statements, however pleasant to the ear. The devil, as they say, is in the
details.
In the case of “Bloc 8406”, their manifesto was a public statement
calling for change that was signed by 118 people living in Vietnam and has
since been supported by thousands more worldwide. It was not a manifesto announcing the
creation of some organization or cohesive bloc, as many wishing to hype the
pro-democracy movement in Vietnam
would have you believe. Ultimately, it
is a document that makes very general statements that are easy to agree
with. But to assume that the supporters
of such a broad declaration would continue to agree on any more specific point
would be to assume too much.
Browsing the list of 118 people who signed the manifesto,
close followers of the pro-democracy struggle will recognize some of the names
- longstanding Vietnamese dissidents, writers, former as well as current
communist party members. Most likely
however, the majority of the names will remain unfamiliar. While some will point to this diversity to
claim the widespread appeal of democracy in Vietnam, I look at that same
diversity and understand that it would be impossible for such a diverse group
to come to the consensus needed to form any “Bloc” tight enough to truly be a
threat to the current totalitarian regime.
Indeed, in the past year many signatory members of “Bloc
8406” have written essays or issued statements that are in direct contradiction
to the opinions of other fellow “Bloc-members.”
But until the general public – particularly the Vietnamese youth – make
more of an effort to follow these happenings with as much eagerness as they
follow, say the NCAA college basketball championships, whether or not Sanjaya
finally got voted off American Idol,
or who made it another week on Dancing
With the Stars, then they will remain ill prepared to shoulder the burden
of continuing the fight for freedom and democracy in Vietnam.
My point here is not to belittle the significance of the
8406 manifesto but rather to put its significance in perspective and to debunk
the irresponsible transformation of the disjointed Group 118 into the seemingly
formidable “Bloc 8406.” While everyone
can agree that Vietnam
needs democracy, the path to establishing that democracy and how to ensure its
authenticity is very much in dispute.
Until the so-called “Bloc 8406” or any other individual, party, or
organization presents a clear vision for the future of Vietnam and elaborates
on how to get there, I will refrain from jumping on the 8406 bandwagon. To not shop around and research the options
out there to make an informed decision would be quite frankly…
undemocratic. | | |
| Throughout my life, whenever I´ve sat amongst a group of Vietnamese adults, inevitably, someone has always made a reference to some character in a Chinese adventure novel. Quach Tinh. Hoang Duoc Su. Hoang Dung. Duong Qua. Kim Mao Su Vuong. Kieu Phong. etc... And then everyone´s eyes kind of get excited and they have this detailed discussion that is completely beyond me. Because in the 50s, a man by the name of Kim Dung wrote these daily short stories for some Chinese newspaper. Series would last up to 3 years. Eventually these stories were translated into Vietnamese and also printed on Vietnamese newspapers. And practically everyone in the nation read them. So theses stories, by default, have become a big part of the Vietnamese collective memory. For those of you who don´t know, in Kim Dung´s novels and similar adventure stories by other Chinese authors entail never-changing characters (akin to say a Charles Dickens´character) who go off on epic journies and ultimately protect their nation from foreign forces. Everyone in these books have kung-fu and traits that make them memorable. Even today, I know a lot of my Vietnamese peers have watched the movies growing up. I did not, however I did see bits and pieces here and there when my aunts and uncles watched them when they had first come over from Vietnam. But I did not retain enough to take away anything meaningful from the stories. So it happened though, some years ago, that I was talking to Dr. Ninh when he delved into a discourse on a character one of Kim Dung´s novels. I was intruigued, but I told him that I had not read any of these novels or seen the movies and so was unfamiliar with what he was talking about. He told me that in order to understand life, I must make an effort to read Kim Dung´s novels. A bit skeptic, but trusting of his opinion, I ordered 7 or so sets of Kim Dung´s novels. And since 2005, I´ve been slowly reading through them. As of this trip, I just finished reading the last volume of "Than Dieu Dai Hiep" (Each set has about 4 or 5 volumes approximately 700 pages each). This is the 2nd installment of Kim Dung´s trilogy, and because I started reading the 3rd installment first, today I´m done with the trilogy. And I have to say, I am quite impressed. I really wish Victoria or Kim were here so I could have a discussion with them, because they´re the only two people I know who fancy these kind of stories. While I´m not certain that one must read Kim Dung´s novels in order to understand life, I will say that reading them will better help one master his or her own life. Because the philosophy in these books is just amazing. It´s not preachy like say Ayn Rand, but observant readers will take away more than just an entertaining story. Kim Dung´s characters are charicatures of people we all meet in real life. While they are flawed and taken to the extreme, we all know someone who can fit the description of certain characters. The lesson to take is that... okay a teacher just came into the lab and told us he´s starting a class so I have to go. More later. haha. | | |
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