i am visting vietnam for the first time in my life though i have been talking about going since i was a little girl. my dad always said next christmas we would save up enough money, and then next christmas and then the next. It's not christmas and i have not saved up enough money but i'm here because now is the time in my life when i have time to go.i have had the privilege of visiting a lot of other countries. my first trip out of the US though was to Cuba. i am not the same girl who went to Cuba at age 21, in search of a utopian example of communism to look to. i am prepared for contradictions and difficulties and figuring out what socialism means to me and to people in Vietnam today - - a subject which they are still debating.
Before i left Oakland a friend gave me an article "Former Vietnamese Prison Guard Backs McCain," Oakland Tribune. Yes, i said i was ready for contradiction but i really could not understand why this former guard, was backing McCain. McCain in my eyes is even further to the right of George W., and if he is elected i will try to contact aliens and ask them to abduct me from this planet. I wanted the article to blow away. Not that i think that this guard's opinion will have much impact on the outcome of the election and certainly the right wing vietnamese community will disregard it. Understanding is what i'm here for so i reluctantly took the article with me with the deal that i could get the sports page too.
**side note- - why on the flight from Taipei to Hanoi was there a long NBA special on the Phoenix Suns (my favorite team though we'll see now that Mike D'Antoni is gone). The universe was looking out for me though i don't know if maybe i should be upset by the state of cultural imperialism.
my trip is well organized and began with a meeting with the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange / Dioxin (VAVA). I met with Mr. Ming Y Nguyen, who is a retired officer of the Vietnam People's Army and now the coordinator of international relations for VAVA.
I asked him about the article and whether he knows the guard. "Yes, I will call him and ask him." And just like that he got on the phone and we had an answer.And the answer is . . . not that satisfying. I was hoping for mis-translation or something taken out of context. His reason: McCain previously helped with the normalization of relations between the US and Vietnam so he is hoping that if he is elected there will be a good relationship. He said he was only thinking of the relationship with Vietnam and not other countries and he doesn't know too much about other candidates.
But as for the McCain's claim that he was tortured and not given food or medicine in a timely manner this is an issue of context says Ming Y Nguyen, "You have to understand that at the time there was not enough food, the situation was very poor. A small child would only have the equivalent of one bowl of pho as the amount of meat for a whole month. I would try to ride my bicycle as fast as I could past the pho restraunt because the smell is so strong. i had no money for food and i did not want to be tempted by the smell. We did not even have access to medicine for ourselves. They bombed the hospital! We gave them things we didn't even have for ourselves as soon as we could."
And who knows torture better than the U.S. They held people in tiger cages. I will be meeting with one of the former Vietnamese prisoner who was held in the tiger cages by the US so I hope to report more on that later.
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I have a lot to post but little time to access the internet. In the past week I have already visited 6 provinces! So I will back date my entries.
ps.
my apologies to all of you who i was uable to see before i left for Vietnam. If I have something of yours that I was meaning to get back to you, i most likely still have it. I return to the bay briefly from July 29th to August 2nd and hopefully i will see you then!