Sai Gon: Cu Chi and Viet Metaphysics
A big welcome to the first readers from Pakistan, Venezuela, Colombia, Italy and Lithuania.
Cu Chi
American soldiers used the term
"Black Echo" to describe the Circumstances Within the Cu Chi tunnels. Viet Cong For the, life in the tunnels was extremely difficult. Air, food and water scarce and the tunnels infested with ants Were Were, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin. Most of the time, soldiers Would Spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend Their crops, or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, falling on Periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, They Would Be To Remain forced underground for days at a time Many. Sickness WAS creepy Among the people living in the tunnels, Especially malaria, Which Was the second wide large largest causes of death next to battle wounds. A captured Viet Cong report Suggested That at Any Given time half of the unit HAD malaria and That "one-hundred percent per HAD intestinal parasites of significance".
Being Such a tourist draw I Could not take myself to the tunnels. Had I already felt the atmosphere, seen the pictures of the man standing up under one of the panels covered in camouflage.
'Look! Here I am the His body language says. Had I to stay away. Maybe Another Time.
Aim the tunnels at Cu Chi raised issues about me in Some national characteristics or 'Viet chi' spiritedness.
The logistics of the tunnels Makes for interesting reading.
Duoi UOI và Chau Chau Dog
Being Such a tourist draw I Could not take myself to the tunnels. Had I already felt the atmosphere, seen the pictures of the man standing up under one of the panels covered in camouflage.
'Look! Here I am the His body language says. Had I to stay away. Maybe Another Time.
Aim the tunnels at Cu Chi raised issues about me in Some national characteristics or 'Viet chi' spiritedness.
The logistics of the tunnels Makes for interesting reading.
1. The building of the tunnels at one cubic meter Moved per person per day.
2. Reached The 200km tunnels right up to the Cambodian border
3. tunnel dwellers cam out at night to tend Their crops.
4. No central entity designed or oversaw the tunnels Their construction. They Evolved out of necessity.
5. Held The tunnels living Areas, storage depots, ordinance factories, Hospitals, Headquarters, kitchens, and Any other facility needed by an army.
6. The tunnels also included a water bend every 100 meters to Prevent tear gas or CS riot gas from blowing all the way into the tunnel complex. They also Helped to control flooding.
T he Vietcong Were an adversary Who Was Prepared to give up everything, odd sunlight, Who Would never give up. Who survived on rice and rat meat. Orangutan gold golden fried grasshopper. Cassava root soup and gold. A people Whose Were Prepared to women jets shoot out of the sky (see the little visited Women's Museum up by Vo Thi Sau in Sai Gon.) The readiness to partake in hand-to-hand combat depressed the U.S. government. So THAT collective U.S. Will collapsed.
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Viet Cong mind set
The Viet Nam flag in flowers
'Look here I am!'
One of the tunnels at Cu Chi
Viet Nam War Montage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InRDF_0lfHk
Guerilla tactics
A Vietnamese writer once wrote:
this war was our luck at a resurrection
Vietnam HAD beens Chosen by History. After the war,
our country Would Become humanity's paradise.
Would our people hold a rank apart.
At last we Would Be Respected, Honored, revered.
We Believed this ...
I wonder what contemporary Vietnam thinks?
Vietnamese Character
And with all this echoing On Some floating metaphysical plane of historical and emotional reference points I visited Saigon third time. Again with the benefit of local expertise and generosity.
I Spent every breakfast at this couples Bun Bo stall on Vo Van Tan.
Lovely food, different everyday and them so kind in serving it.
A highlight
Right by the Golden Rose Hotel
Alas the wind is cold,
forlorn is the moon.
Gaunt, dejected, my love wanders in a foreign land.,
down roads carved from the wind and the dust.
Tuyet Lan Mac
Almost next to the Bun Bo stall is the best coffee I have tasted outside of Italy. Viet Nam is the 2nd large largest producer of coffee behind Brazil. I Had mine iced; Cai Dai Phe Sura. You only need one.
Two suicide is caffeine.
Two suicide is caffeine.
O Viet Nam, beautiful country,
rich with your oven thousand years of culture,
you await our laboring hands.
Tuyet Lan Mac
In music - what I felt when i put thesis Viet people:
Thuy
The Vietnamese family
Throughout history the family HAS icts Formed the corner stone of Vietnamese culture, and society. The family unit preserved HAS icts status through Chinese and French domination, the 30-year struggle for National Liberation, Communism and Doi Moi (the current policy of market reform and the trappings of westernisation and modernization).The institution of the family has come under intense pressure Throughout Vietnamese civilization. It is, HOWEVER, Regarded by Many That The traditional role of the family in modern Vietnam is under more pressure than at Any other course in Vietnamese history. Doi Moi , the development of western style capitalism, government family planning policies, modernization, individualism and westernisation sccm to be Assaulting the traditional family from all sides.
DESPITE this, the Vietnamese government recognises the importance of the role of the family in Vietnamese society and Sees it as a major element in Combating "social evils" such as drugs, prostitution, gambling, commercialism, that 'as a result Developed-have of the transition to a market economy.
The future for the traditional family structure remains unclear. What is sure is That Vietnam's Economic and Cultural Transformation shows no sign of abating and It is within this context the traditional family structure That Must Develop and exchange to meet the Needs of the "new" Vietnamese way of life. Vietnam and Its family structure Currently stands at major crossroads year.
Traditional roles and structure
InfluencesThe family is the basic social unit of Vietnamese society. Its development has-been based on Thousands of years of history. It has-been Influenced by Chinese, French and American culture, as well Confucianism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism and the cult of Ancestors. The family cannot be separated from the normal Understood culture, nation and country of Vietnam.
Collective identity
One of the basic premises That exist Within the family structure is the idea of collective identity. The individual's Interests and destiny are rarely Conceived outside of the framework of the immediate and extended family. The young are not taught to Develop Their individuality. The considerations of the family are always put before the individual. This collective nature of aussi Closely linked to the individual's strive to accomplish achieve harmony with oneself.
More on the Family in Vietnamese Mekong Blues next week:
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