Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Monday, November 21, 2016
Yesterday, like Today
No. 10
The WAR on Vietnam
The WAR on Vietnam
“In June 1972, Kim Phuc was pictured in a world-famous and iconic photograph from the Vietnam War. She was the naked child who was horribly burned with napalm and was running from an airborne attack. Since then, Kim has found a way to transform her suffering into good. She runs The Kim Foundation International, and she acts as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO. She has transformed into a viable, visible symbol of peace and hope. Hers is an important story of resilience, courage, and forgiveness.” - anon
"I was alive then when truth telling was more a part of American journalism than today. The pictures of war, and the body counts, and the assessments of the casualties, the battles were daily fodder, and with the many thoughtful articles, and books circulating informed decisions made for better protests. The illogic of the US government's war on Vietnam was feeble. It stood stark and naked before public scrutiny, but then, as today, a premium value placed upon the heads of countries in the way of American interests outweighed the will of the people. This is an ideology and practice long worn out, but more familiar than the efforts, and necessity of Peace Keepers." – Gregory E. Woods, Dawn Wolf Keeper of Stories 11.20.12
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
The Proposal
Michelle Suy-Sam
There are a lot of thoughts stirred in me when I catch glimpses of the lives led by Vietnamese people living in the United States. I think of the Vietnam war, its contradictions, the tragedies, the needless deaths, and the lives the US government is morally bound to take care in the aftermath of that war. By now it is the children of the Vietnamese men and women whose memories of the war are fresh living the American life. Those Vietnamese's children are now Americans and what that means is not a national topic, but it is of interest to me. As is the nature of children children try to fit in, and Vietnamese-American children are not different in that respect. So, how are they living? What is their mindset?
I often want to be privy to the discussions these young people have with their parents and their peers. Many of them don't speak their mother tongue, or know enough of their family history one could assume. I don't know. I am reaching. How do they fare in American towns and cities? What compromises were made to go to school, to make a living and get along with white and Black Americans.
There is the above picture of a Michelle Suy-Sam , who is the girlfriend of Theien Thy Huynh Nguy, squatting in front of her lover's sports car. Theien Thy Huynh Nguy (pictured below) was born in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Today she lives and works in California in retail, and has a side business in diet pills. She apparently lives comfortable. She is deep in the glamour of being an American woman with all the frills and perks. But, how is she living, and culturally how does she manage? Is she deeply invested in the white girl thing? I say that because that aspiration (being white) leads second and third generations of immigrants that way because American culture awards white women handsomely, and shits upon the images of Black women without looking back. Given a choice in American society being as close to white as possible is encouraged until a rude awakening occurs. I'd love to know more about these things. I am just curious about their coping mechanisms.
I stood next to a frightened woman, who was obviously mixed Black American and Vietnamese, once in Washington DC. I know she was a social outcast. I've met a couple of Hmong men, and learned their stories. Last night I saw a fun interview on The TALK. The Chinese action star and director, Charlie Chan, his father, at 80 years of age, admitted to him he was a spy, that Charlie's family name is Fong, and the reason his father was an embassy cook in parts of the world was because he was in hiding!
There are a lot of things the various cultures of the Asian communities experience and deal with they keep out of the public forum, and gossip columns How they've succeeded I don't know, and won't venture to guess. But, it is admirable and worthy of consideration. I firmly believe Black American's tactics for cultural liberation, and economic independence are based upon ideological falsehood. I am convinced we need to study the Japanese in depth to grasp what they did since the bombing we inflicted upon them in World War II. Our focus is wrong and off-center. Ideally, it would sound great and logical to frame our strategies and thinking on ancient African civilizations, but in reality we, Black Americans, are fixated upon identifying with White Americans. Our identity is centered upon their approval, and the journey from the slave mentality is not finished. As White Black People (Wasicun Sapa) we have to be transformed by a renewing of our minds. The fortitude of the Asian communities in our midst needs to be studied from the embrace of relationship and cooperation because the Black American community is rich in attributes that can benefit anyone keen of intellect and integrity.
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.31.13
| Michelle Suy-Sam August 15, 2013 |
There are a lot of thoughts stirred in me when I catch glimpses of the lives led by Vietnamese people living in the United States. I think of the Vietnam war, its contradictions, the tragedies, the needless deaths, and the lives the US government is morally bound to take care in the aftermath of that war. By now it is the children of the Vietnamese men and women whose memories of the war are fresh living the American life. Those Vietnamese's children are now Americans and what that means is not a national topic, but it is of interest to me. As is the nature of children children try to fit in, and Vietnamese-American children are not different in that respect. So, how are they living? What is their mindset?
I often want to be privy to the discussions these young people have with their parents and their peers. Many of them don't speak their mother tongue, or know enough of their family history one could assume. I don't know. I am reaching. How do they fare in American towns and cities? What compromises were made to go to school, to make a living and get along with white and Black Americans.
There is the above picture of a Michelle Suy-Sam , who is the girlfriend of Theien Thy Huynh Nguy, squatting in front of her lover's sports car. Theien Thy Huynh Nguy (pictured below) was born in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Today she lives and works in California in retail, and has a side business in diet pills. She apparently lives comfortable. She is deep in the glamour of being an American woman with all the frills and perks. But, how is she living, and culturally how does she manage? Is she deeply invested in the white girl thing? I say that because that aspiration (being white) leads second and third generations of immigrants that way because American culture awards white women handsomely, and shits upon the images of Black women without looking back. Given a choice in American society being as close to white as possible is encouraged until a rude awakening occurs. I'd love to know more about these things. I am just curious about their coping mechanisms.
I stood next to a frightened woman, who was obviously mixed Black American and Vietnamese, once in Washington DC. I know she was a social outcast. I've met a couple of Hmong men, and learned their stories. Last night I saw a fun interview on The TALK. The Chinese action star and director, Charlie Chan, his father, at 80 years of age, admitted to him he was a spy, that Charlie's family name is Fong, and the reason his father was an embassy cook in parts of the world was because he was in hiding!
There are a lot of things the various cultures of the Asian communities experience and deal with they keep out of the public forum, and gossip columns How they've succeeded I don't know, and won't venture to guess. But, it is admirable and worthy of consideration. I firmly believe Black American's tactics for cultural liberation, and economic independence are based upon ideological falsehood. I am convinced we need to study the Japanese in depth to grasp what they did since the bombing we inflicted upon them in World War II. Our focus is wrong and off-center. Ideally, it would sound great and logical to frame our strategies and thinking on ancient African civilizations, but in reality we, Black Americans, are fixated upon identifying with White Americans. Our identity is centered upon their approval, and the journey from the slave mentality is not finished. As White Black People (Wasicun Sapa) we have to be transformed by a renewing of our minds. The fortitude of the Asian communities in our midst needs to be studied from the embrace of relationship and cooperation because the Black American community is rich in attributes that can benefit anyone keen of intellect and integrity.
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.31.13
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| Thien Thy Huynh Nguyen October 13, 2013 |
Monday, April 21, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
A MAN TO HIS SON
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| Christine Nguyen |
LION HEART
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| Sepia woman wearing a turquoise ring. |
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
FACE IMAGE
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| I found an article in Vietnamese on Paris Hilton. How a person like this woman finds fans in a country like Vietnam is a fascinating study of contrasts, or contradictions, reconciliation, carnality, or simple lust & envy. Either one is an interesting take on the perception of social forgiveness!- Gregory E. Woods, 3.1.13 |
Mới đây, tờ The Sun của Anh đã công bố video được xem nhiều nhất trong năm 2009, theo đó những hình ảnh cô nàng thừa kế Paris Hilton tươi cười trong bồn tắm là video “ăn khách” nhất 2009 với hơn 1,5 triệu người xem trên The Sun.
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NHÀ THƠ DƯƠNG KỲ ANH:Hình ảnh phụ nữ Việt Nam đang bị ‘tầm thường hóa’Hiện nay một số Hoa hậu, người đẹp sau khi đăng quang lại chạy theo...
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Gently shared. . .
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| Vietnamese model Jenny Lai by Cương Zép |
BEING A MAN
"It is well to be good to women in the strength of our
manhood because we must sit under their hands at both ends of our
lives." - He Dog, OGLALA LAKOTA
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Kim Phuc - vietnamese child pictured burned during Vietnam war
Kim Phuc - vietnamese child pictured burned during Vietnam war 1972
Kim Phuc - vietnamese child pictured burned during Vietnam war as a woman
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