[Vnbiz] Leadership -- Knowledge in Human Affairs (used to be "Nha Trang Bay")

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear Sister Huong & CACC,

I agree with your completely, Sister Huong.  Your argument demonstrates my
point.  WE CANNOT RELY ON LABELS.  We cannot make decision on knowledge by
simply labeling things "religious" or non-religious" and say "we have to
stay away form this because it is religious" or "we have to respect this
because it is religious."   We need to stay away labels, because as soon as
we get into it, we get into dumb arguments and confusion.

(BTW:  I don't care about this point but there are many many people around
the world who have said that Communism is a religion.  And I have heard high
ranking Communists and ex-Communists from Russia, Eastern Europe, China &
Vietnam said that to me personally.  However, please do not dwell on this
point because we will confuse the issue.  My point is:  "Look past the
labels into the substance of things.  Learn what is good and stay away from
what is bad.")

Have a great day!

Hoanh


On 6/13/07, huong luong <huongluongdc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
> Anh Phong, anh Hoanh and All,
>
> Anh Phong, your arguments make a lot sense to me.
>
> and I just want to share something with anh Hoanh: I don't know what kind
> of "VCP" you met in VN, but I grew up and were educated in the
> communist/socialist system, and never heard about any government officials
> talk about HCM as a "religious" leader, but as a nationalist and
> communist, and the Vietnamese is NOT forced to worship him.  we were taught
> about communism as a "leading ideology of the Party", not as a religion
> ever. we were taught to praise, to follow and be loyal to the communist
> party, not to worship it as a religion as you mentioned because it is simply
> NOT a religion. I didn't see the communist party manipulates religion as a
> way to influence or "indoctrinate" people at all. They keep religion
> separate from politics pretty well in my opinion.
>
> To be fair with Ho Chi Minh without criticizing his political ideology
> (b/c political ideology is always criticized by the opposition everywhere,
> under any political regime), he was viewed as one of national heroes by the
> Vietnamese because he did lead Vietnam to the independence and finished the
> French colony that lasted for almost a century. He became a part of
> Vietnam's history and a leader to many generation of the Vietnamese born
> before 1975 at least in the North and Central areas (not sure about the
> south, then don't want to generalize). Therefore your desire to "stay away
> from talking about him" while you want to become friendly/understanding with
> "all Vietnamese brothers and sisters" is impossible.
>
> And if you spend more time in/around Vietnam, you might notice that a lot
> of Vietnameses have a tradition of worshiping national heroes ( "khan vai")
> such as Tran Hung Dao, Ba Trung, Ba Trieu....etc. because they were
> considered as "holy warriors"....but this is only at personal/individual
> level because of not only to remember them, but also for supertitious
> reasons,  and the government plays no role in these activities. Maybe HCM
> became one of those heroes to be worshipped by some people.
>
> And  I personally think that America can be a better example for how
> politicians use religion in politics and issue-oriented policy debates than
> in Vietnam. I just wonder, in the history of human kind, maybe religion
> could have been viewed as a "short-cut" to gain the largest support base of
> voters and followers because it is easier to get the entire groups of
> supporters who have the same set of belief and values rather than dealing
> with every single individual?  I need more input from CACC who is more
> knowledgable about religiousm.
>
> peace,
> huong
>
>
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
>
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