[Don Det, 4/11/23] After 20 days in Don Det, I'll leave tomorrow for Pakse. I've just booked a $9 room, with AC! for ten days. Hotel owner is Vietnamese, and there are pho and banh mi joints nearby. There's an outside chance I'll return to Vietnam via Attapeu. My great uncle,
Apr 12, 2023·edited Apr 12, 2023Liked by Linh Dinh
Damn, Linh. Don't let the melancholia overcome you, or your talent. There is a saying, "People are scum." In some sense it is true...but human beings are also capable of astonishing feats of kindness and generosity. You've seen it yourself! You've lived it!
There supposedly was a lecture given by Dr. Richard Day in 1969 that pretty accurately describes today. Only one guy from the audience has spoken up and made it public as far as I can find unless the story was manufactured elsewhere. If the plan was in place in 1969 they sure didn't seem to alter it much, as all one has to do is pay attention to what is going on here in the America, Canada, and elsewhere to see that it is possible that in 1969 some folks knew what 2023 would be like.
To me almost all of this has already happened or is happening with the main goal of reducing the population.
There is a power, a force or a group of men organizing and redirecting change
* Everything is in place and nobody can stop us now
* Redirecting the purpose of sex; sex without reproduction and reproduction without sex
* Sex education as a tool of World Government
* Tax funded abortion as population control
* Anything goes - Homosexuality to be encouraged
* Families to diminish in importance
* Euthanasia and the "Demise Pill"
* Limiting access to affordable medical care makes eliminating elderly easier
* Planning the control over medicine
* Elimination of private doctors
* Introducing new difficult to diagnose and untreatable diseases
* Suppressing cancer cures as a means of population control
* Inducing heart attacks as a form of assassination
* Blending all religions... The old religions will have to go
* Changing the Bible through revision of key words
* The churches will help us
* Restructuring education as a tool of indoctrination
* Controlling who has access to information
* Some books would just disappear from the libraries
* The encouragement of drug abuse to create a jungle atmosphere
* Alcohol abuse
* The need for more jails and using hospitals as jails
I have heard most of the nine songs at Datta Banana Leaf so often I don’t even have them on my playlists any more. But I had completely forgotten “Hazard” by Richard Marx—I used to love that song, and can’t even remember the last time I heard it. I queued it up, and it’s just as good as I remembered, maybe because unlike the others, they haven’t quite worn it out yet. I don’t know that I would want to hear it every night, though.
If that 1950s writer was correct about it being considered “ill-bred and irreligious in Laos to work more than is necessary,” I guess some of the behavior Leana and Tony described shouldn’t be all that surprising. But I’ll bet it’s probably one of the few cultural beliefs you’ll catch a non-native fully embracing.
I remember reading about that to-do about the Plexiglas in Philly when it first came up. The people who come up with these silly rules apparently figure they have a captive audience, and don’t realize that if you bar other solutions, businesses eventually come up with the one remaining one—pack up and leave the city center. On any given day now, you can read about businesses closing up shop in some big city or other. Just yesterday, I read about Walmart closing 4 of 8 stores in Chicago, then Whole Foods closing their “flagship” store in downtown SF after only a year. Like Amazon in Seattle, they usually say it is for “the safety of employees” or some such thing, because we wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s “feelz” by saying publicly what the real reason is, would we?
Speaking of the big city and its perils, I’m not looking forward to the 4-hour slog I have to make to the big city tomorrow, but it’s unavoidable. I have to go to the airport to meet two international flights—dropping off my stepmother for an outbound flight, and picking up my wife on an inbound one. Even without the attendant hazards of the city itself, the traffic is still abominable. I only go once or twice a year now, and only for this reason, and can hardly stand it—I don’t know how people who live there deal with it every day. It’s strange how all the big cities are being allowed, even actively encouraged, to degrade so badly, given that Herr Schwab and Co. are supposedly trying so hard to convince us to allow ourselves to be herded into them.
I've been almost nowhere and done almost nothing. I really appreciate the intimacy and complexity of my little space here. I love your writing and your keen perspective on many things. Helps me not feel so alone in this world full of deception. Glad to be here.
Mr Douglas, pack a small backpack with a bottle of water, a couple of sandwiches, energy drinks. Carry a rain coat and wear comfortable boots and just walk and trust the universe. Your common sense will kick in and "been almost nowhere and done almost nothing" will be a thing of the past.
"Site of a 1968 series of battles where roughly 10,000 people died, including Lao soldiers fighting alongside Americans and South Vietnamese, it’s still not clear what anyone was trying to achieve. History is a litany of human sacrifices."
We'll soon be asking ourselves the same regarding Bakhmut and other places. Why did all those young people who are basically cousins slaughtered each other for? MIC profits?
Not that it matters much now, but the Vietnamese Communist campaign in the South in 1968 was a lot of goals wrapped up into one, and some of the effects were lucky bonuses for the Hanoi side of the war. Khe Sanh had the advantage of blinding the Johnson White House and the US HQ in Saigon to many other things that were going on, mainly, the build-up and infiltration into the South before Tet. President Johnson was obsessed with preventing Khe Sanh from becoming "another God Damn Dien Bien Phu," where the French Army effectively lost their war in 1954. So LBJ forced most other institutions to focus on Khe Sanh. There were many US and South Vietnamese officials who noticed signs indicating that other attacks were being prepared, but their voices could not be heard because of Khe Sanh. Hanoi had an objective to get the Southern coalition of guerillas, who were not all Communists, and who did not always defer to Hanoi's leadership, to spend their forces in foolish attacks throughout South Vietnam. They used propaganda to hype up everyone, and many of the rebels were ready to believe that all they had to do was attack the Americans, assassinate South Vietnamese officials, and that all "the people" would rise up in a great People's victory. As any realist could have predicted, most of the attackers met with their demise, and the locals cowered in their basements until the fighting was over. The rebel coalition known as "Viet Cong" (a misnomer, really) was hollowed out, leaving the entire revolutionary movement solidly in Hanoi's control. The lucky (and unlooked for) bonus prize for Hanoi was that the Western journalists in Vietnam, who were already very frustrated with the movement restrictions placed on them and their forced reliance on getting news straight from US Army HQ (aka MACV), reacted viscerally to the violence in Saigon and other places, as they themselves were under threat, and, they had been told over and over again by the generals and the Pentagon and the State Department that the US-Saigon side was winning the war, that victory was just around the corner. Actually, the US/SVN side won the Tet battle season hands-down, by every military measure. But they lost the public perception battle. They lost the war on TV. Hanoi was surprised, and could not believe their luck. They mounted ever increasingly effective propaganda campaigns directed at the US TV audience from then on. And in the USA, they love to say "perception equals reality." Images are useful, but they can fuck up a situation big time. One should always ask "what it the real story behind this picture?" and "what can I not see that is outside of the camera frame?"
Yes, I grew up in the country where the door was often unlocked. Circumstances left me in a series of motels for a fee months this past year. Sitting alone behind locked motel doors can be downright miserable. A safe room, moderately clean room with an open door, flower pots, personal effects often looks alright.
I was raised Catholic, but stopped going to church in my teens. In my mid 20's, I read Simone Weil and a bit of Swedenborg, and that was my last serious attempt to grapple with Catholicism.
Linh, have you ever thought about writing an autobiography? Who’s had a more interesting life, or lived in more places, than you? Can’t think of another American who has.
I think many people would read it but it’s a lotta work and who needs more work in their life ~ 60-no one.
You mentioned Catholicism. If I wrote an autobiography, it would be a tedious and ultimately dishonest exercise in vanity! Plus, I've seen this and that but have done almost nothing.
You say your autobiography would be tedious and ultimately dishonest. You don't seem to realise that you've already written - and continue to write - your autobiography. And, without wishing to seem like an old school marm, I don't believe it's for you to decide what others will find tedious.
To the contrary, your living autobiography is an inspiration - at least to me. Your stories remind me of my first 30 years before I became a father and had to stop travelling through urban bellies around the world. But now that my lad is self sufficient reading your daily dairy has inspired me to realise that old age isn't just a time to slump in a rocking chair and reminisce - it's a time to get out and seek life once again outside the daily 8 to 5 grind.
You might have a fairly small audience but we wouldn't be here if you had nothing to say. Many live vicariously through you and some of us might even end up actually living again as a result of you.
You are entirely too hard on yourself. You’ve survived against calamities that would have destroyed most people. People from all over the world look forward to your posts. That’s a big deal.
When I saw you with Chris Hedges my mind blew up. You fully understand the American Milieu. My background is strictly Working Class and when I hear pundits discussing the problems in our society all I can do is shake my head-no clue at all. You get it.
Just a question for you Linh-have you ever read any of Archbishop Vigano's writings? I have and he seems to have a very good grasp on the satanic nature of the west's leaders today.
Damn, Linh. Don't let the melancholia overcome you, or your talent. There is a saying, "People are scum." In some sense it is true...but human beings are also capable of astonishing feats of kindness and generosity. You've seen it yourself! You've lived it!
We are our own, brute beast.
There supposedly was a lecture given by Dr. Richard Day in 1969 that pretty accurately describes today. Only one guy from the audience has spoken up and made it public as far as I can find unless the story was manufactured elsewhere. If the plan was in place in 1969 they sure didn't seem to alter it much, as all one has to do is pay attention to what is going on here in the America, Canada, and elsewhere to see that it is possible that in 1969 some folks knew what 2023 would be like.
To me almost all of this has already happened or is happening with the main goal of reducing the population.
There is a power, a force or a group of men organizing and redirecting change
* Everything is in place and nobody can stop us now
* Redirecting the purpose of sex; sex without reproduction and reproduction without sex
* Sex education as a tool of World Government
* Tax funded abortion as population control
* Anything goes - Homosexuality to be encouraged
* Families to diminish in importance
* Euthanasia and the "Demise Pill"
* Limiting access to affordable medical care makes eliminating elderly easier
* Planning the control over medicine
* Elimination of private doctors
* Introducing new difficult to diagnose and untreatable diseases
* Suppressing cancer cures as a means of population control
* Inducing heart attacks as a form of assassination
* Blending all religions... The old religions will have to go
* Changing the Bible through revision of key words
* The churches will help us
* Restructuring education as a tool of indoctrination
* Controlling who has access to information
* Some books would just disappear from the libraries
* The encouragement of drug abuse to create a jungle atmosphere
* Alcohol abuse
* The need for more jails and using hospitals as jails
Much more in the transcripts: http://mgr.org/New_Order_of_Barbarians.html
I have heard most of the nine songs at Datta Banana Leaf so often I don’t even have them on my playlists any more. But I had completely forgotten “Hazard” by Richard Marx—I used to love that song, and can’t even remember the last time I heard it. I queued it up, and it’s just as good as I remembered, maybe because unlike the others, they haven’t quite worn it out yet. I don’t know that I would want to hear it every night, though.
If that 1950s writer was correct about it being considered “ill-bred and irreligious in Laos to work more than is necessary,” I guess some of the behavior Leana and Tony described shouldn’t be all that surprising. But I’ll bet it’s probably one of the few cultural beliefs you’ll catch a non-native fully embracing.
I remember reading about that to-do about the Plexiglas in Philly when it first came up. The people who come up with these silly rules apparently figure they have a captive audience, and don’t realize that if you bar other solutions, businesses eventually come up with the one remaining one—pack up and leave the city center. On any given day now, you can read about businesses closing up shop in some big city or other. Just yesterday, I read about Walmart closing 4 of 8 stores in Chicago, then Whole Foods closing their “flagship” store in downtown SF after only a year. Like Amazon in Seattle, they usually say it is for “the safety of employees” or some such thing, because we wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s “feelz” by saying publicly what the real reason is, would we?
Speaking of the big city and its perils, I’m not looking forward to the 4-hour slog I have to make to the big city tomorrow, but it’s unavoidable. I have to go to the airport to meet two international flights—dropping off my stepmother for an outbound flight, and picking up my wife on an inbound one. Even without the attendant hazards of the city itself, the traffic is still abominable. I only go once or twice a year now, and only for this reason, and can hardly stand it—I don’t know how people who live there deal with it every day. It’s strange how all the big cities are being allowed, even actively encouraged, to degrade so badly, given that Herr Schwab and Co. are supposedly trying so hard to convince us to allow ourselves to be herded into them.
I've been almost nowhere and done almost nothing. I really appreciate the intimacy and complexity of my little space here. I love your writing and your keen perspective on many things. Helps me not feel so alone in this world full of deception. Glad to be here.
Mr Douglas, pack a small backpack with a bottle of water, a couple of sandwiches, energy drinks. Carry a rain coat and wear comfortable boots and just walk and trust the universe. Your common sense will kick in and "been almost nowhere and done almost nothing" will be a thing of the past.
A good friend calls what you describe as "trail magic". Although he doesn't bother with the food and water! Cheers
"Site of a 1968 series of battles where roughly 10,000 people died, including Lao soldiers fighting alongside Americans and South Vietnamese, it’s still not clear what anyone was trying to achieve. History is a litany of human sacrifices."
We'll soon be asking ourselves the same regarding Bakhmut and other places. Why did all those young people who are basically cousins slaughtered each other for? MIC profits?
No, they did it because the USA wants a uni-polar world. If this does not make sense, do a bit of research.
Not that it matters much now, but the Vietnamese Communist campaign in the South in 1968 was a lot of goals wrapped up into one, and some of the effects were lucky bonuses for the Hanoi side of the war. Khe Sanh had the advantage of blinding the Johnson White House and the US HQ in Saigon to many other things that were going on, mainly, the build-up and infiltration into the South before Tet. President Johnson was obsessed with preventing Khe Sanh from becoming "another God Damn Dien Bien Phu," where the French Army effectively lost their war in 1954. So LBJ forced most other institutions to focus on Khe Sanh. There were many US and South Vietnamese officials who noticed signs indicating that other attacks were being prepared, but their voices could not be heard because of Khe Sanh. Hanoi had an objective to get the Southern coalition of guerillas, who were not all Communists, and who did not always defer to Hanoi's leadership, to spend their forces in foolish attacks throughout South Vietnam. They used propaganda to hype up everyone, and many of the rebels were ready to believe that all they had to do was attack the Americans, assassinate South Vietnamese officials, and that all "the people" would rise up in a great People's victory. As any realist could have predicted, most of the attackers met with their demise, and the locals cowered in their basements until the fighting was over. The rebel coalition known as "Viet Cong" (a misnomer, really) was hollowed out, leaving the entire revolutionary movement solidly in Hanoi's control. The lucky (and unlooked for) bonus prize for Hanoi was that the Western journalists in Vietnam, who were already very frustrated with the movement restrictions placed on them and their forced reliance on getting news straight from US Army HQ (aka MACV), reacted viscerally to the violence in Saigon and other places, as they themselves were under threat, and, they had been told over and over again by the generals and the Pentagon and the State Department that the US-Saigon side was winning the war, that victory was just around the corner. Actually, the US/SVN side won the Tet battle season hands-down, by every military measure. But they lost the public perception battle. They lost the war on TV. Hanoi was surprised, and could not believe their luck. They mounted ever increasingly effective propaganda campaigns directed at the US TV audience from then on. And in the USA, they love to say "perception equals reality." Images are useful, but they can fuck up a situation big time. One should always ask "what it the real story behind this picture?" and "what can I not see that is outside of the camera frame?"
"Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice. She said..." Something about prisoners.
The hotel/motel scene in America can leave anyone running for the door. Hope that it's not locked.
Hi Troy, I like the ones where long term residents leave their doors open!--Linh
Yes, I grew up in the country where the door was often unlocked. Circumstances left me in a series of motels for a fee months this past year. Sitting alone behind locked motel doors can be downright miserable. A safe room, moderately clean room with an open door, flower pots, personal effects often looks alright.
Linh, do you ever miss Catholicism?
Hi snowman,
I was raised Catholic, but stopped going to church in my teens. In my mid 20's, I read Simone Weil and a bit of Swedenborg, and that was my last serious attempt to grapple with Catholicism.
Linh
Linh, have you ever thought about writing an autobiography? Who’s had a more interesting life, or lived in more places, than you? Can’t think of another American who has.
I think many people would read it but it’s a lotta work and who needs more work in their life ~ 60-no one.
Warmest Regards.
Hi snowman,
You mentioned Catholicism. If I wrote an autobiography, it would be a tedious and ultimately dishonest exercise in vanity! Plus, I've seen this and that but have done almost nothing.
Linh
Hi Linh
You say your autobiography would be tedious and ultimately dishonest. You don't seem to realise that you've already written - and continue to write - your autobiography. And, without wishing to seem like an old school marm, I don't believe it's for you to decide what others will find tedious.
To the contrary, your living autobiography is an inspiration - at least to me. Your stories remind me of my first 30 years before I became a father and had to stop travelling through urban bellies around the world. But now that my lad is self sufficient reading your daily dairy has inspired me to realise that old age isn't just a time to slump in a rocking chair and reminisce - it's a time to get out and seek life once again outside the daily 8 to 5 grind.
You might have a fairly small audience but we wouldn't be here if you had nothing to say. Many live vicariously through you and some of us might even end up actually living again as a result of you.
You are entirely too hard on yourself. You’ve survived against calamities that would have destroyed most people. People from all over the world look forward to your posts. That’s a big deal.
When I saw you with Chris Hedges my mind blew up. You fully understand the American Milieu. My background is strictly Working Class and when I hear pundits discussing the problems in our society all I can do is shake my head-no clue at all. You get it.
I enjoy your food pictures as well.
Just a question for you Linh-have you ever read any of Archbishop Vigano's writings? I have and he seems to have a very good grasp on the satanic nature of the west's leaders today.