[Vnbiz] RE : Independence Day

Sun Sep 3 18:22:54 PDT 2006

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL VIET NAM NATIONALS FROM SINGAPORE.
  AS MEMBERS OF ASEAN WE SHARE YOUR JOYS AND ACHIEVEMENTS  JUST AS YOU FEEL PROUD IN OUR COUNTRY. MAY BOTH OUR NATIONS GROW DEEPER IN OUR FRIENDSHIP

Romi <romibleue at yahoo.fr> wrote:

[Vietnam Business Forum]

  Dear a.Hoanh et al,

  Thanks for the greeting and for raising this question. Coincidentally, I did ask myself a similar question when I woke up yesterday morning (2/9). As I’m now (and still in 3 more years) fully qualified to meet a.Hoanh’s “criteria” for this topic ^-^, let me share my personal story

  Honestly, I was quite surprised and slightly worried about my growing ignorance to such a "happy event for the country." Isn’t that only because of getting older? If so, the "2nd of September" (2/9) wouldn't be different from any "happy days" like Tet, Trung thu (Mid-Autumn Festival), and even my own birthday. The fact is that 2/9 has always been the National Day to me. The idea of it as the Independence Day sometimes comes up to me only when someone or some historical documentary reminds me. 

  I dare to blame the mass media in Viet Nam for favouring “Ngay Quoc khanh” too often, which has apparently diminished the meaningfulness of the day. The repetition of this usage years after years might create a mindset of 2/9 as Viet Nam’s National Day but nothing else, a title without any implication to the triumphant struggles of the VietNamese over the centuries to win and maintain their independence. All countries have their National Days (some even have more than one), many of which are also their Independence Days like us. We have a choice to highlight any title, why not choose “Ngay Doc Lap” as Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia do? Well, it’s just the matter of using words. Although we know the best name among the two, the more frequently used is the winner! 

  Then to “decode” my ignorance, should I blame myself for “being born after the wars (even after the Subsidy time – thoi Bao cap) and knowing nothing of the past and the hardship”? There is no scale to weigh and compare the hardship of different periods of time, but there are a few things I’d like to say about “knowledge of the past.” Being a social science majored student and an avid reader myself, I believe I'm more lucky than quite a number of other Vietnamese youth who neither receive enough 'proper' education of the history of Viet Nam (I mean the education which guides learners to approach historical events with logics, preliminary analyses and debates, not by learning by heart the stats/numbers of crashed planes, shipwrecks, casualties etc.), nor find any good access to materials and information of history (or they probably know some, but simply have no interest!). I have read quite a few. But this knowledge is mostly text-based stories. And they are fading as time
 goes by. Perhaps that is why I feel my ignorance growing. Still, what always remains is the SPIRIT. That’s the most important thing! Thanks brother Hoanh for speaking it out as you were sharing your perspectives.

  I’m not sure if this SPIRIT is any kind of patriotism, but it thrives amazingly when we are away from home (our big home - Viet Nam!). It sometimes combines with nostalgia that mixes us up and brings us closer to our country fellows. Take it simple, when we live in Viet Nam, 2/9 is an important day for our family gathering, when we are overseas, we tend to find a way to get together with other VietNamese friends. Isn’t that beautiful?

  Singapore’s National Day 2 years ago, on the National Stadium of Singapore, I was 1 of 2 foreign students to be interviewed by Channel News Asia in their live programme. I said I was proud to be there blah blah blah, made some compliments on the impressive event, and “
 I feel like being home
 as if I were standing in Ba Dinh Square in Ha Noi, in a forest of red T-shirts and chorusing with people to celebrate Viet Nam’s National Day
” At that time, the SPIRIT rose high as I realized that I was wearing a blue ao dai, and in front of me, there was a real red forest (Singapore’s flag is in red and white)

  And yesterday night, my Yahoo and MSN Messenger boards were full of online VietNamese friends. Though most of them were from different corners of the world, I believed they shared a same SPIRIT as I saw their status messages: “Yeu To quoc, yeu dong bao,” “Happy National Day,” “Let’s listen to my national anthem!” etc. 

  I don’t think my story can stir anybody’s heart, but it’s long enough to weary your eyes ^-^
  Happy belated Independence Day/ National Day to everyone!

  All the best,

  Romi

Tran Dinh Hoanh <tdhoanh at gmail.com> a écrit :

    Dear CACC,

  Today is September 2 (Washington DC time, already the 3rd in Vietnam).  Wish everyone a good recovery from the celebration :-)  I've got something for you guys to think for fun:

  It seems the Vietnamese media calls this day "ngay 2/9" which is just a number, or "ngay quoc khanh" which means "the happy event for the country" or "the country's celebration," which doesn't really say anything either. 

  I wonder why it is not called "the Independence Day" (Ngay Doc Lap),  Doesn't that say much more?

  And now that we talk about the Independence Day, I really love to hear from you guys and gals who are, say, still under 25, to tell me how do you feel about this Independence Day.  What does it really mean to you?   Would you like to share your heart with with everyone? 

  As for me, I am very proud of us Vietnamese and our determination to maintain independence throughout history, regardless of what obstacle we face.  I want to see that independence spirit continue to prosper for generations to come.  I want to see that we Vietnamse believe in ourselves, believe that we hold our destiny in our hand, and believe that we can conquer the world. 

  So tell me what you think and feel.  I love to hear things from you that will stir my heart.

  Have a great Independent Day!

  Hoanh 

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC 

---------------------------------
  Découvrez un nouveau moyen de poser toutes vos questions quelque soit le sujet ! Yahoo! Questions/Réponses pour partager vos connaissances, vos opinions et vos expériences. Cliquez ici. _______________________________________________
To subscribe/unsubscribe, please contact admins at
vnbizadmin at vietlinks.net
Info at http://mail.saigon.com/mailman/listinfo/vnbiz
Archive at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vnbiz
Or http://groups-beta.google.com/group/VNBIZforum/
Or http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz
Or http://www.tin.le.org/archive

---------------------------------

 Real people. Real questions. Real answers. Share what you know.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz/attachments/20060904/b82e1298/attachment.html 