Knife sharpeners, ice cream vendors, vegetable sellers. Each providing a useful service, each worthy of at least some shred of human dignity. Seems so foreign in 2023, yet we know this all would have been perfectly normal on the streets of any American city at the turn of the century. (Not the LAST one, obviously. The one before that.)
Not even the turn of the last century. I grew up in a working-class suburb of Akron in the 1950s and 60s, and my mother was one of the few women who had a car (a jalopy). So the knife sharpener still came around, as did the dry cleaner, the milkman, the ice cream vendor, etc. And in rural Maine grocery vans still plied their trade as well as other peddlers.
I grew up in suburban Chicago in the 50s and 60s, and we also had all those things--the knife-sharpener with a two-wheeled pushcart, a milkman, ice cream guy, etc.
One of my sons taught me how to properly sharpen the kitchen knives. I balked at first because it takes a lot of time. But it is peaceful and it does make me feel useful. I can see myself sitting out front of my house, sharpening knives or fixing random things. I aspire to become a profession lost to modernity: the local Tinkerer.
Of the dozen or so Vietnamese vendors riding by my house everyday chanting out their merchandise or service, I understand about 70%, which reflects my overall level in the language.
The ones I can't understand sound like magical mantras veiled in mystery. I kind of want it to stay that way and would probably be disappointed to learn that it means, say, "nail service" or "cardboard disposal". Your articles are very inspiring as always, Linh, thanks!
I stayed in Hanoi for a month over 20 years ago, and every morning, while still almost dark, there was a vendor calling out, I think for bread, but I never caught sight of him from the balcony, and never figured out what he was selling. But it was as you say, a magical mantra. To the locals it was no mystery at all. Since it was no mystery, I could not figure out how to ask what it was, not having a local companion with me that time of day. My Vietnamese was never good enough to ask that question intelligibly.
Same goes for the marathon funeral chanting. At some point, I became proficient enough to understand the monk was actually calling out dollar amounts, for alms I presume, a bit like an auctioneer. "Your salvation for 3 dollars"? "Three fifty"?
As someone who taught thousands of young black people and read their life stories in their journals, set in poverty and the violence of the drug wars, I retain some sympathy for those who do not want blacks depicted as violent. But that does not help those kids who bear the brunt of the violence either. Certainly telling them that racism is so systemic that their attempts to live a good life will always be foiled doesn't help. Gee, you'd almost think those white virtue-signaling "allies" are in it for their own self-serving gratification.
The beauty of being on the side that wants to completely destroy society is that you don't really need to fix anything. You can just accuse blacks of being violent on one hand (never mind the complete destruction of black families in the last decades), and whites of being systemically racist on the other hand (never mind those real victims of black crime, random violence etc). The virtue-signallers are not in to "fix" anything nor help anyone. They just want to pose as morally virtuous without having to do anything particularly virtuous, while society as a whole goes to hell.
Your commentaries and observations were what I looked forward to at The Unz, but no doubt your Substack audience is more appreciative, plus there is the bonus of NOT having your commenters refer to the Vietnamese author as a "Chink" who needs to "go home". As you would sometimes remind them - at least you still have a home to which to go.
I broke from Unz for two reasons 1) I finally realized I was the beard on Unz' Angry White Pussy Pride Parade 2) Unz is a fraud for insisting the Jewjabs are safe and effective, and he's still doing that with these 8,000 word articles.
If young people dropping dead and even children having heart attacks don't wake you up, then you're really stupid, and Unz isn't, and he also has nothing to say about Klaus Schwab's evil Great Reset. If Trump runs again, I'm sure Unz will, again, push him heavily. Unz wants his mostly white older male readers to focus on US politics and their racial rage, and he'll talk about old Jewish crimes while ridiculing those who are outraged by the current Jewjab genocide. Don't worry, vote Trump, says the Jerry Springer of internet dissent!
I agree and it is baffling. Ron Unz by any reckoning is a very bright man, but his Jewjab stance is an outlier and incomprehensible. In commenting at TUR I sometimes mention that its attraction for me is the books he has made available to be downloaded, but I doubt most visitors go to them. Unfortunately your assessment of his readership is dead on. At any rate, your commentaries are completely unique, literally the only ones of their kind. I am grateful you are here.
This was me until I quit my federal intelligence job: "Much more likely, he’s been turned into a dazed and quietly embittered machine performing monotonous tasks endlessly. Worse, he’s become superfluous, to make room for real machines and a greener earth, for the private jet set." I had a sneaking awareness that my job was useless except to provide the USG official stamp of compliance to the work of contractors. The contractors were paid more than me, but their companies were paid about 200% more per billable hour than the salaries of their employees. I'm convinced we were in Afghanistan for 20 years just to create wealth for the contracted corporations.
Linh, and dedicated readers of Linh, I want to drop an advert for the works of the late and great journalist Colin Flaherty. Probably his most infamous work is the book "Don't Make the Black Kids Angry." I bring this up because of how Linh mentioned how the media deliberately refuses to report on black crime. Colin's videos can still be found on YouTube, but there are probably more to be found on Alt-Tech platforms. Anyway, Colin's obsession with reporting on what he called the Greatest Lie in America cost him his journalistic credibility and kicked off the NPR, NYT, etc.
Thanks Ben and company for the tip. When researching the background during the George Floyd incident, I was dumbfounded to learn that the African-American population of America is less than 15% of the population. Who knew? - certainly no one who casually watches the news in other countries.
There’s a saying or meme that goes “13/50”. It comes from when the FBI used to compile crime statistics and differentiate by race. “Thirteen percent of the population, fifty percent of violent crimes.” So the Justice Department stopped producing the statistics. Because it was “racist.”
I am due for a cop shop interview at 9 in the morning, because of long overstayed visa. They're going to ask for a lot of money I don't have, but they won't throw me in jail because I would become a superstar in there. Let's see...
One thing I notice is how colourful things seem in Cambodia, from the clothes to the advertising to the objects around (or maybe that's just an effect of the camera filter with high saturation). Here, everything seems mostly grey, from the buildings to the people to the weather. I was in a line for the cashier in a shop the other day. The woman in front of me was paying for her items, several shirts, blouses, dresses, pants -- all of them were either black, or white. I think most women dress in black these days. But I think that wasn't so common before. Except maybe for nuns.
Germans, South Koreans and Japanese also prefer black clothing. Southeast Asians are often lurid or florid, with the men and more educated less likely.
Rereading this as I usually do, I am struck by how beautiful your photos are. Yes, I see how much you love us or was that irony? Anyway, looking forward to despatches from Our Man in Laos.
You're being quite productive, Linh. Very good essays lately thank you. You should practice intermittent fasting more often. I've been doing this for 6 months and I've lost 7 kilos. I only eat between 12-8pm, but I can drink coffee no sugar in the morning.
I also have noted the absence of Jewish influence in SE Asia and, as you note, how normal life is here. Best kept secret.
Not having friends around to get trashed with has forced me to become more productive. Stung Treng tomorrow, then Pakse in two weeks perhaps. Should be instructive.
Always looking forward to your articles and photography ! Your description of daily life in all these different countries and cultures is really great.
Thanks! Tomorrow I'll go to Stung Treng, so up the Mekong (without a paddle). My tentative plan is to be in Laos by the end of the month. Its economy is in deep trouble, I hear, but I want to see for myself.--Linh
The plastic table belongs to a snack stand in an alley next to my hotel, Zing, so I use Zing's wifi. To upload photos, I must return to my room, where the wifi is much better.
Knife sharpeners, ice cream vendors, vegetable sellers. Each providing a useful service, each worthy of at least some shred of human dignity. Seems so foreign in 2023, yet we know this all would have been perfectly normal on the streets of any American city at the turn of the century. (Not the LAST one, obviously. The one before that.)
Not even the turn of the last century. I grew up in a working-class suburb of Akron in the 1950s and 60s, and my mother was one of the few women who had a car (a jalopy). So the knife sharpener still came around, as did the dry cleaner, the milkman, the ice cream vendor, etc. And in rural Maine grocery vans still plied their trade as well as other peddlers.
I grew up in suburban Chicago in the 50s and 60s, and we also had all those things--the knife-sharpener with a two-wheeled pushcart, a milkman, ice cream guy, etc.
One of my sons taught me how to properly sharpen the kitchen knives. I balked at first because it takes a lot of time. But it is peaceful and it does make me feel useful. I can see myself sitting out front of my house, sharpening knives or fixing random things. I aspire to become a profession lost to modernity: the local Tinkerer.
(If I sharpened knives in bare feet, I would lose one of my toes.)
Of the dozen or so Vietnamese vendors riding by my house everyday chanting out their merchandise or service, I understand about 70%, which reflects my overall level in the language.
The ones I can't understand sound like magical mantras veiled in mystery. I kind of want it to stay that way and would probably be disappointed to learn that it means, say, "nail service" or "cardboard disposal". Your articles are very inspiring as always, Linh, thanks!
I stayed in Hanoi for a month over 20 years ago, and every morning, while still almost dark, there was a vendor calling out, I think for bread, but I never caught sight of him from the balcony, and never figured out what he was selling. But it was as you say, a magical mantra. To the locals it was no mystery at all. Since it was no mystery, I could not figure out how to ask what it was, not having a local companion with me that time of day. My Vietnamese was never good enough to ask that question intelligibly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr3iYamSxxI
It's weird, but the main writer being Asian, I'l just curious for a reaction.
Remember those days for they are blessed.
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
(Dylan Thomas)
Same goes for the marathon funeral chanting. At some point, I became proficient enough to understand the monk was actually calling out dollar amounts, for alms I presume, a bit like an auctioneer. "Your salvation for 3 dollars"? "Three fifty"?
As someone who taught thousands of young black people and read their life stories in their journals, set in poverty and the violence of the drug wars, I retain some sympathy for those who do not want blacks depicted as violent. But that does not help those kids who bear the brunt of the violence either. Certainly telling them that racism is so systemic that their attempts to live a good life will always be foiled doesn't help. Gee, you'd almost think those white virtue-signaling "allies" are in it for their own self-serving gratification.
The beauty of being on the side that wants to completely destroy society is that you don't really need to fix anything. You can just accuse blacks of being violent on one hand (never mind the complete destruction of black families in the last decades), and whites of being systemically racist on the other hand (never mind those real victims of black crime, random violence etc). The virtue-signallers are not in to "fix" anything nor help anyone. They just want to pose as morally virtuous without having to do anything particularly virtuous, while society as a whole goes to hell.
Your commentaries and observations were what I looked forward to at The Unz, but no doubt your Substack audience is more appreciative, plus there is the bonus of NOT having your commenters refer to the Vietnamese author as a "Chink" who needs to "go home". As you would sometimes remind them - at least you still have a home to which to go.
Hi Charles,
I broke from Unz for two reasons 1) I finally realized I was the beard on Unz' Angry White Pussy Pride Parade 2) Unz is a fraud for insisting the Jewjabs are safe and effective, and he's still doing that with these 8,000 word articles.
If young people dropping dead and even children having heart attacks don't wake you up, then you're really stupid, and Unz isn't, and he also has nothing to say about Klaus Schwab's evil Great Reset. If Trump runs again, I'm sure Unz will, again, push him heavily. Unz wants his mostly white older male readers to focus on US politics and their racial rage, and he'll talk about old Jewish crimes while ridiculing those who are outraged by the current Jewjab genocide. Don't worry, vote Trump, says the Jerry Springer of internet dissent!
Linh
I agree and it is baffling. Ron Unz by any reckoning is a very bright man, but his Jewjab stance is an outlier and incomprehensible. In commenting at TUR I sometimes mention that its attraction for me is the books he has made available to be downloaded, but I doubt most visitors go to them. Unfortunately your assessment of his readership is dead on. At any rate, your commentaries are completely unique, literally the only ones of their kind. I am grateful you are here.
This was me until I quit my federal intelligence job: "Much more likely, he’s been turned into a dazed and quietly embittered machine performing monotonous tasks endlessly. Worse, he’s become superfluous, to make room for real machines and a greener earth, for the private jet set." I had a sneaking awareness that my job was useless except to provide the USG official stamp of compliance to the work of contractors. The contractors were paid more than me, but their companies were paid about 200% more per billable hour than the salaries of their employees. I'm convinced we were in Afghanistan for 20 years just to create wealth for the contracted corporations.
Linh, and dedicated readers of Linh, I want to drop an advert for the works of the late and great journalist Colin Flaherty. Probably his most infamous work is the book "Don't Make the Black Kids Angry." I bring this up because of how Linh mentioned how the media deliberately refuses to report on black crime. Colin's videos can still be found on YouTube, but there are probably more to be found on Alt-Tech platforms. Anyway, Colin's obsession with reporting on what he called the Greatest Lie in America cost him his journalistic credibility and kicked off the NPR, NYT, etc.
Thanks Ben and company for the tip. When researching the background during the George Floyd incident, I was dumbfounded to learn that the African-American population of America is less than 15% of the population. Who knew? - certainly no one who casually watches the news in other countries.
There’s a saying or meme that goes “13/50”. It comes from when the FBI used to compile crime statistics and differentiate by race. “Thirteen percent of the population, fifty percent of violent crimes.” So the Justice Department stopped producing the statistics. Because it was “racist.”
I am due for a cop shop interview at 9 in the morning, because of long overstayed visa. They're going to ask for a lot of money I don't have, but they won't throw me in jail because I would become a superstar in there. Let's see...
One thing I notice is how colourful things seem in Cambodia, from the clothes to the advertising to the objects around (or maybe that's just an effect of the camera filter with high saturation). Here, everything seems mostly grey, from the buildings to the people to the weather. I was in a line for the cashier in a shop the other day. The woman in front of me was paying for her items, several shirts, blouses, dresses, pants -- all of them were either black, or white. I think most women dress in black these days. But I think that wasn't so common before. Except maybe for nuns.
Hi Tom,
Germans, South Koreans and Japanese also prefer black clothing. Southeast Asians are often lurid or florid, with the men and more educated less likely.
Linh
Rereading this as I usually do, I am struck by how beautiful your photos are. Yes, I see how much you love us or was that irony? Anyway, looking forward to despatches from Our Man in Laos.
You're being quite productive, Linh. Very good essays lately thank you. You should practice intermittent fasting more often. I've been doing this for 6 months and I've lost 7 kilos. I only eat between 12-8pm, but I can drink coffee no sugar in the morning.
I also have noted the absence of Jewish influence in SE Asia and, as you note, how normal life is here. Best kept secret.
Hi Matthew,
Not having friends around to get trashed with has forced me to become more productive. Stung Treng tomorrow, then Pakse in two weeks perhaps. Should be instructive.
Linh
sjuttiosjuaring
Always looking forward to your articles and photography ! Your description of daily life in all these different countries and cultures is really great.
Thanks! Tomorrow I'll go to Stung Treng, so up the Mekong (without a paddle). My tentative plan is to be in Laos by the end of the month. Its economy is in deep trouble, I hear, but I want to see for myself.--Linh
I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful writing
seeing a post from you in my email is a treat
Thanks!--Linh
Love the photographs, Linh, and your writing, too. Is there wifi everywhere? Or do you have to go to a cafe with internet to upload?
Hi Peggy,
The plastic table belongs to a snack stand in an alley next to my hotel, Zing, so I use Zing's wifi. To upload photos, I must return to my room, where the wifi is much better.
Linh