[Vnbiz] Fatherland Front helps fight inflation

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

Let me add a little more to clarify further my position on religious
organizations.  Religious organizations are important because:

1.  The majority of people of the world and of Vietnam believe in something
spiritual, something  or someone higher than themselves.  This includes the
people who do not belong to any established religion or any established
belief.

2.  As far as development strategy is concerned, religion is culture, the
deepest level of culture where the innermost feelings and attitude of a
person dwell.  So, when I talk abut religion, I really talk about culture
(not as a religious matter per se).

3.  As any other human field, most established religions have very good core
teachings, but also has some parts that may be used by extremists into
damaging works.  If means the core teaching of a religion is good for
development, the extreme behavior is bad.  If our religious organizations
have good environment to develop their core teachings well, then the extreme
part may subdue.  If the core teachings are not developed well, the extreme
parts will grow well instead.  I am talking about the fact that religious
training in Vietnam is very weak.  I have run across many priests and
pastors that do not understand well the spirit of Jesus teaching and too
many monks who do not understand the gist of the Buddha teachings.  The
government should not involved in religious teachings, but should be
conscious about this problem, in order to provide a good environment for
religious organizations to work develop their mainstream training.  When
mainstream religious organization can grow well, con artists using religious
color to cheat the public will recede.  We are talking about law and policy
on religious organizations.

4.  We need to remind our religious leaders that they need pay attention to
social issues of the country and should do their part to help.  But they
should not use their religious organization or position to do politics,
because that is the fastest way to ruin their own religious teachings.
Religious teachings are truly higher than politics.  If religious teachings
are dragged down to the level of politics, they will lose all their
spiritual value and strength.

5.  As we are discussing CSO (community service organization), religious
organizations are indeed CSO.  But they are "General CSO" without a
specialized task.  They provide general mental and spiritual support and the
sense of being connected and being together.  Upon that kind of
psychological fabric, other organizations, including CSO, NGO and
government agencies can function well.

Hope this make my presentation a bit clearer.

Have a great day!

Hoanh


On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Craig Stevenson <cstevenson2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
> Hi All:
>
> A friend of mine, a French Agro-Scientist, recently left Vietnam after the
> field work portion of her project completed.  She had been offered office
> work, but declined as she liked to be out in the fields with the people, I
> understand her sentiment.  She was quite adament about the need for VN
> farmers to receive more support in techniques and technology.  She worked
> primarily with fruit farms, although vistied a wide range of farms in the
> region, not simply Vietnam, and noted that most Vietnamese, when shopping
> prefer to purchase foreign fruit due to the fact that it was mostly
> blemish-free, uniform in size, and "tasty".  With such a diversity of
> climate and an abundance of farmers, it is frankly appalling that Vietnam
> imports any fruit that can be had in season.  Why import fruit from Thailand
> and China, when, if resources are provided, and talents are unleashed, it
> can be grown within the country?
>
> Frankly, you understand your people better that I ever will.  But from
> what I have heard, there is some strong desire, and bottom-up support, for
> the operation and development of CSOs around the nation.  The writing,
> previously posted, noted some 10,000 organizations, and hundreds of
> associations, who, frankly, often, have no basis within the law.  Where such
> basis might exist, it seems the operation of these organizations is
> inhibited by the arbitrary impementation and interpretation of relevant laws
> and decrees. Further, it is said that these organizations might be seen as
> competitors for the resources that go to support local initiatives. Finally,
> where a local offical holds perhaps a local government role, a ministerial
> position, and some level of membership in other local structures whether
> organizations conflict with their interests or not, it seems they might have
> very little energy, especially when factoring in familial commitments, to
> consider ways to more fully integrate local organizations more
> constructively.  I have heard it said that all local actors need more
> training regarding public administration reforms, more training toward
> enahcning their management capacities, and more support to encourage
> an enabling environment.
>
> As to your perspective on the importance of local spaces, re: religious
> institutions.  I can say that I have never been an adherent to a particular
> faith, but have been a student of many.  I can not say that I ascribe to any
> particular belief structure but do believe in something more than myself
> (and of course more than those things that I can control and consume; I
> guess my anti-materialistic leanings bleed through). Some of the most
> rewarding experiences that I have had have been with those of a faith.  I
> regularly sit back home with a 88 year old woman who is a Calvinist, I was
> asked to pray with a Sudani Muslim Cleric before he left on a journey, I
> regularly attend Jewish High-Holiday festivals and dinners at my friends
> home, I am regularly at guest of some buddhist friends, even, at one point,
> I had a part-time job cooking for retired priests.  In each of those
> settings I have found an intense enjoyment of the sense of community.  You
> are right, the common space enabled by those who share a common belief
> structure can work wonders to galvanize a community to tackle the problems
> that are being faced by the community.  Yet, despite the weakening of the
> village structures that you note, which I know little about, I believe were
> an enabling environment to be enforced in respect to the laws as determined
> by the government, then we would see a revival of the community you lament
> as lost.  10,000 organizations, even if only 2,500, do not lie, and the
> people are ready to make a difference, and Vietnam can little afford to
> waste that opportunity, especially at a time like this (although, as always,
> I could be wrong).
>
> Craig
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
> Washington DC
>
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