[Vung Tau, Vietnam on 8/27/22] On 7/27/23, there’s a wrenching tale in the Vietnamese newspaper, Tiền Phong [Vanguard]. The author was Thu Hiền. Certainly a pen name, it means benign or gentle autumn. Of course, that season of falling leaves connotes death. Though dreaded, it’s only a curse if comes too early. Nothing is worse than eternal decrepitude.
Thank you Linh, for this heart breaking story. We insouciant americans know so little of the horrors of war. Blessings and I hope your health continue to improve.
Hey Linh. Ever look at the Ana Bushcraft channel YouTube? Supposedly a young Vietnamese lady living the antithesis of your nomad lifestyle. She's building her home in a natural world using traditional skills and where necessary the tools of modernity. Or at least that's how it's depicted. It's YouTube after all so you never know.
Anyway, it's beautifully depicted with almost no dialogue since Ana apparently doesn't speak no english. Your photos of exotic places and people are interesting, but I will watch 90 minutes of Ana walking barefoot around her hectare plot, tilling and tending and building for the future again and again and again.
It is funny you should refer to that. One of the young lady's channel is "Wild Beauty." There is something mesmerizing about those "return to nature" shows; unlike the schlock show "Survivor" there's no cut-throat competitiveness. (That show, "Survivor"is an apology for a cut-throat capitalist society which we all have to get used to and just accept.) Just a single, not unattractive young woman with remarkable survival skills. One can't help but wonder why she spends hours weaving a basket from palm fronds when she could just go into the city and buy a plastic pail? However I can't help but speculate if these sorts of shows are filmed in an ersatz "nature" studio just outside of Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as my Vietnamese friends prefer to call it).
Yes my friend, it's YouTube fantasy. Still it's better than what's on TV and better than most of what's on YouTube. And Ana does have loads of plastic pails but she also weaves the occasional basket with palm fronds because the materials are cheap, the skills are inherent, and she's getting paid ten grand a month to do it. I would do the same if I had the chance.
how kind of the families to have a wedding ceremony for their deceased relatives
recently i have been reading about collapse - of western civilization, of human civilization, of the existence of the entire species - writers on this topic muse about the process of becoming collapse-aware, collapse-depressed, and possibly even collapse-accepting
life is like a beanstalk, isn't it? and maybe not just an individual life, but the life of a species, and eventually all the life on a planet
Several years past I was taking some classes at a community college in Sacramento, California. I had an anthropology professor whose father was European-American and mother was from what she (my professor) referred to as the "hill tribes" of South-East Asia.
My professor told us about the "hungry ghosts" of SE Asian legend. Supposedly ghosts of the dead who wander the land looking for some sort of spiritual nourishment. Not unlike the Mexican "dios de los muertos", day of the dead (November 1st) when the veil between the living and the dead is pulled back like a thin curtain.
"There is more under heaven and earth than your philosophy knows, Horatio..." to probably ineptly quote Hamlet.
"With its ethos of constant war, one country exceeds the rest in this plunge to the bottom. The brightest fireworks in the darkest depth await them. Insatiable for destruction, they’ve been hankering for it."
Let us all pray to the heavens that the malignancy of the angloZionaZi empire of shit be flushed before the planet burns in the ongoing implosion of their "rule$ based system" and centuries of plunder and perversion.
Wonderfully written article covering such a sad story from that terrible war on the people of Vietnam. It is very depressing that large numbers of Americans no longer step up and resist all the wars of aggression their government has launched the last 20 years. I’m sure they will pay a price for this ignorance and cowardice.
This is perhaps the most beautiful and sad essay I remember you writing Linh.
Thank you Linh, for this heart breaking story. We insouciant americans know so little of the horrors of war. Blessings and I hope your health continue to improve.
Hey Linh. Ever look at the Ana Bushcraft channel YouTube? Supposedly a young Vietnamese lady living the antithesis of your nomad lifestyle. She's building her home in a natural world using traditional skills and where necessary the tools of modernity. Or at least that's how it's depicted. It's YouTube after all so you never know.
Anyway, it's beautifully depicted with almost no dialogue since Ana apparently doesn't speak no english. Your photos of exotic places and people are interesting, but I will watch 90 minutes of Ana walking barefoot around her hectare plot, tilling and tending and building for the future again and again and again.
Hi Charlie, I've seen two or three of her videos. There are others on YouTube living the same lifestyle. It's fascinating and inspiring.--Linh
It is funny you should refer to that. One of the young lady's channel is "Wild Beauty." There is something mesmerizing about those "return to nature" shows; unlike the schlock show "Survivor" there's no cut-throat competitiveness. (That show, "Survivor"is an apology for a cut-throat capitalist society which we all have to get used to and just accept.) Just a single, not unattractive young woman with remarkable survival skills. One can't help but wonder why she spends hours weaving a basket from palm fronds when she could just go into the city and buy a plastic pail? However I can't help but speculate if these sorts of shows are filmed in an ersatz "nature" studio just outside of Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as my Vietnamese friends prefer to call it).
Yes my friend, it's YouTube fantasy. Still it's better than what's on TV and better than most of what's on YouTube. And Ana does have loads of plastic pails but she also weaves the occasional basket with palm fronds because the materials are cheap, the skills are inherent, and she's getting paid ten grand a month to do it. I would do the same if I had the chance.
Just subscribed. Thanks for posting the link.
the best time for a tourist to visit vietnam is in the autumn, it is asserted
https://vietnamtrips.com/seasons-in-vietnam
how kind of the families to have a wedding ceremony for their deceased relatives
recently i have been reading about collapse - of western civilization, of human civilization, of the existence of the entire species - writers on this topic muse about the process of becoming collapse-aware, collapse-depressed, and possibly even collapse-accepting
life is like a beanstalk, isn't it? and maybe not just an individual life, but the life of a species, and eventually all the life on a planet
kate bush has a song - "and so is love" -
'we used to say "ah hell - we're young"
but now we see that life is sad
and so is love'
may peace be with us all
Several years past I was taking some classes at a community college in Sacramento, California. I had an anthropology professor whose father was European-American and mother was from what she (my professor) referred to as the "hill tribes" of South-East Asia.
My professor told us about the "hungry ghosts" of SE Asian legend. Supposedly ghosts of the dead who wander the land looking for some sort of spiritual nourishment. Not unlike the Mexican "dios de los muertos", day of the dead (November 1st) when the veil between the living and the dead is pulled back like a thin curtain.
"There is more under heaven and earth than your philosophy knows, Horatio..." to probably ineptly quote Hamlet.
Always evocative, Mr. Dinh. Thanks.
"With its ethos of constant war, one country exceeds the rest in this plunge to the bottom. The brightest fireworks in the darkest depth await them. Insatiable for destruction, they’ve been hankering for it."
Let us all pray to the heavens that the malignancy of the angloZionaZi empire of shit be flushed before the planet burns in the ongoing implosion of their "rule$ based system" and centuries of plunder and perversion.
Wonderfully written article covering such a sad story from that terrible war on the people of Vietnam. It is very depressing that large numbers of Americans no longer step up and resist all the wars of aggression their government has launched the last 20 years. I’m sure they will pay a price for this ignorance and cowardice.
wonderful story