From: nvt@netcom.com (Fam Com)
Subject: Re: Please, Viet-Kieu
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 92 18:31:55 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

>From: hy@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU (hY tRuOnG lAm)
>Subject: Please, Viet-Kieu ........................
>
>     Yes, this is a story, though it is not a story about the rich and famous
>No, it is neither a story about a rich Viet-Kieu who generously helped the
>poor nor about a rich Viet-Kieu who lived luxuriously on the bone and the
>blood and the sweat of the his people.  I have decided to write (or post)
>the following story on this net NOT because I am disturbed by the
>controversial issue about "Viet-Kieu who had returned to Vietnam" but because
>I am sad, sad for Vietnam.  Gosh, I can't believe such sadness is noisier
>than happiness.


         Hy Truong Lam !  Are you sure that you are sad for Vietnam ?
     A friend of you told me that you were looking happy after returning
from VietNam ....

>     How much do you know about "Viet-Kieu who had returned to Vietnam"?  I
>am a Viet-Kieu who had returned to Vietnam and yet I have realized how little
>I know my own self, as a Viet-Kieu.

          You are O.K, Hy Truong Lam.  After 13 years living away from
motherland, I understand that you always wish to go back to VN to get
some taste of communinism which you didn't have a chance to taste it after
the fall of Saigon.

>     Let us not talk about "Viet-Kieu who had returned to Vietnam".  Let us
>listen to their stories told by NO ONE ELSE but they themselves.  So far, I
>have not heard one.
>
      Are you sure that "so far I have not heard one" .  This is NOT true!
Many people had gone back to VN and had exaggerated their "miracle" stories
which made you make up your mind to go back to VN, didn't you ?

>
>      Ah, but you are one of them, Hy!  Come on man, tell them your story;
>get on and get done with it, will ya?  Okay, but spare me a few more seconds!
>
       You sure are one of them, Hy Truong Lam !

>      From experience, I had tried very hard not to be a Viet-Kieu but a
>Vietnamese just like everybody else and yet in the eyes of our poor Vietnamese
>people back home, a Viet-Kieu I was.  It was hard not to be a Viet-Kieu in
>Vietnam because of the way our poor people treated me like a king or a prince
>instead of a friend or a Vietnamese just like them.  I hate to say this but, I
>sometimes unconsciously or unintentionally acted like a king or a prince,
>the way they expected.  I am still shocked after a year has passed.  It
>would have been easier if I had not tried to be someone else but me; the
>real me.  So, in my opinion, TRY NOT to be who you are not, and also
>TRY NOT to be who you are; just NATURALLY be who you are.
>

      What you mean "NATURALLY be who you are" ? Hy Truong Lam 92 is
not the same as He Truong Lam thirteen years ago ?  You should try
to be plain and simple as your friends ( in VietNam) are .....

>      Some of my friends who plan to go back home have asked me what should
>they bring with them to Vietnam; What kind of food should they eat.  Before
>I went home I did ask myself these questions a hundred times or more times.
>Now I know the answer.  Bring nothing but your heart and soul, and use your ears and
>eyes a lot more than your mouth.  My mouth was quicker than my brain which
>in turn was quicker than my heart and soul.  The more I talked, the less I
>listened.  Here's a quote I found in Thua^.t -Do.c Sa'ch Ba'o written by
>Hoa`ng Xua^n Vie^.t:
>
> Tinh tha^`n con ngu+o+`i chi? co' the^? tie^'n xa vo+'i -die^`u
> kie^.n na`y: la` vu+`a kie^n nha^~n vu+`a thinh la(.ng, tu+
> tu+o+?ng ca' nha^n the^m va`o tu+ tu+o+?ng ca'c the^' he^.
>        Rodin
>
> A (wo)man's mind can only advance further with this condition:
> be patient and calm, one's idea (thought) adds to the idea of
> the generations.

     Hy Truong Lam, what kind of heart and soul did you bring back to
Viet Nam ?  I agree that your mouth is quicker than your brain which was
in turn quicker than your heart and soul.  What about your legs and arms ?
Were your arms and legs quick enough in front of communists ?

>     I had attempted to translate the quote above into English the best I can,
>with the help of my Vietnamese-English dictionary (of course), for the sake
>those who can't read Vietnamese.  I think there are some Americans and others
>who are reading this net.
>
>Also:
> Chi? co' ngu+o+`i thu+.c tho^ng tha'i mo+'i nha^.n mi`nh la` do^'t
>
>Victor Hugo
>That is (?):
>
> Only a genius admits he is ignorant.

 Also:

   Chi? co' ngu*o*`i thu*.c do^'t mo*'i nha^.n mi`nh la` tho^ng tha'i

                                                      NVT
   That is:

   Only ignorant people admits they are genius

>     The more you know, the more you know you know very little.  The less
>you know, the less you know you don't know a lot.  The latter one applies
>to me.  I am still ashamed of how foolish I was, boasting to my Vietnamese
>friends back home about how much I knew!  Now that I admit I am ignorant,
>it does not mean I am a genius; does it? :)  Naw.
>
      Hy Truong Lam, I don't think you were boasting to your Vietnamese
friends back home.  I understand that your friends are very much curious
about the life in U.S which they hardly imagine from the hearsays by
the so-called "Viet Kieu" (sic).  You must have answered tons of questions
asked by your friens, huh !

>      I lied!  I asked you to spare me a few seconds and I spent several
>minutes!  Oh, well, at least I admit I lied, which is very rare.

       Hmmmmmm!!!  Very rare ???? Who knows !!!  Once you admitted you
had lied then don't back it up by saying "very rare" .

>Before I post the first part of my story about my trip back home, I'd like
>to say one last thing.  One last thing???  Uh... yes, one last thing, I hope.
>
     Are you sure you want to say "One last thing???"  ???????

     Netters, please count Hy Truong Lam's "last thing"(s) and judge him .

>     This story was published in the magazine, "Horizons of Vietnamese
>Thought and Experience", Vol. 01 No. 01, Spring 1992, edited by Huy Thanh
>Cao.  Therefore, I'd like to thank Huy Thanh Cao for revising my story with
his magic pen (or computer).  Thus, all errors were wiped out.  Because I
>retyped this  story straight from the magazine, nothing was deleted but a few
>sentences were added to explain vague matter in detail.  Thus, all typos and
>errors of any sort you detected are mine; especially a missing or an extra
>word like "not"!
>
>     If you are a subscriber of Horizons or you just yawned after reading all
>this, please read other useful messages or take a nap if you are sleepy :)
>If you decide to continue for some reasons, please keep in mind that I wrote
>the story for no other purpose than to share my experience, thought, and
>feelings.  I have heard enough arguments about the good-doer and bad-doer
>Viet-Kieu in Vietnam and yet no one has told me how bad, in more detail,
>and not with his/her imagination but with his own eyes; that s/he had seen
>the incident.
>
>One time a friend of mine told me about a murder case a few block away from
>my house.  He said the victim was shot in the head and died.  That was it,
>nothing more.  I went out and told my other friends exactly what my friend
>told me.  I was asked, "How did it happen?"  My tongue got stuck in my mouth.
>I could have learned more if he told me who the victim was; how blood splashed
>out of the victim head like a stream of water or whatever; and how the victim
>struggled before his last breath; and every thing he saw with his own eyes
>the best he could.  Only if I knew the story well,
>I would have had no problem then.
>
>     I have no ill intention toward anyone.  I have tried very hard not to
>distort the real story with my imagination and forgetfulness which might lead
>to exaggeration.  I have tried very hard not to make anyone angry because
>when we talk about patriotic, love for our country, we have become very
>sensetive and volnerable, I believe.  If you find anything I said above is
>disturbing, my apology.  Finally, I hope you enjoy my story.  It is not just
>a story on a piece of paper or on this screen; it is a story in me
>written with my blood and wrapped in heart and soul.
>
>It is understandable that it is hard to trust a man now-a-day.  Like Henry
>David Thoreau said a century and a half ago:
>
> There is no odor so bad that which arises from
> goodness tainted.  It is human, it is divine, carrion.  If
> I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my
> house with the conscious design of doing me good, I
> should run for my life,...
>
>Thus, I do not expect you to believe that I love my country dearly.  I don't
>believe it myself.
>

       Yes, I believe you, Hy Truong Lam, but...... with the grain of salt !!!

>                            - * -


                                               Sanjose 8/15/92
                                                   NVT


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