*****  AMAZING Teachers Day in Vietnam  *****

Student Dancers from LDnCD

First of all preparation for Nov. 20 Teachers Day starts BEFORE the actual day.  Handmade cards, banners, flower decorations were ALL over the campus.  Monday night (18-11-13) we attended a student performance on campus that featured groups from several departments who “competed” to perform the best songs, dances and art showing honor for teachers and learning.  The students write and produce their own shows: choreography, costumes, select songs, lighting, staging, audio and then direct the performance.  Although I will admit to some (actually a lot of) bias, I felt that our Labor Relations Trade Union Department had one of the best, probably the very best presentation Monday night. The judges agreed and we found out on Teacher’s Day that our department’s troupe won.  Our department's players used as their theme “We are one” and sang, danced and acted with a variety of costumes reflecting the wide range of cultural images of Vietnam: traditional songs and dance, modern student dress from casual through a variety of uniforms: military, Youth Union, and student volunteer uniforms.  Another element of the event was each department “competing” to have the loudest and most visible audience  -- and the Business Administration Department sure made a lot of noise (this is a HUGE department).  We sat in the midst of our student body in the audience and everyone cheered, clapped and hollered for each and every performance.    Although every department's performance was excellent the runner up, in our opinion, used the American War as the scenario for a patriotic performance.  And yes, there were Vietnamese fighters dressed in “black pajamas”, a form of dress based on traditional styles and that provided excellent camouflage in the jungle, forests and rice fields where the shadows are black against the multiple shades of green that surround you in VN.  Then followed Teachers Day…

*********    National Teacher’s Day – Wow!   ***********

Teachers Day begins with a ceremony at the front of the University

Wednesday this week (20-11-13) we celebrated our first national Teachers Day with the faculty of the university (FYI: In Vietnam the word faculty is very inclusive and includes the instruction staff (Professors, lecturers), Administrative staff and the staff that we refer to in the US as the Support or Classified Staff (Facility services and other services), and the student body.  The day could be divided into 4 main sections depending on the type of activity and the timing.  At 7:00am the instructional staff, administration and classified or support staff gathered in front of the administration building facing the statue of Ton Duc Thang.  After singing the Vietnam National Anthem and words from our Administration we filed up in columns with burning incense which we stuck into a large ceramic pot in honor of teachers and education.  This was a very dignified and serious measure highlighting the esteem of National Teachers Day in Vietnam. After we completed our incense placement we returned to the ranks we had formed earlier to wait for all the departments to finish.  There were no classes – all day teachers, workers, administrators, students interacted and shared fun OUTSIDE the classroom.

Then, almost magically a group appeared carrying signs on sticks and people began lining up by the signs.  Leanna and I had no idea what was happening and then Vinh, our extra-ordinary friend/fellow lecturer/interpreter/translator explained now people were forming up in new lines to take part in the athletic competitions among the entire faculty (except for students).  It was strongly suggested that I join the “running” event and after some cajoling (yeah, right – Leanna commentary) I consented.  The course was probably 2/3 of a kilo and I enjoyed running with my new friends from Vietnam.  I won a prize as the eldest competitor.  Students began joining in the fun as spectators, fan clubs, helping with logistics, etc.    

Ms Vinh and Hollis on tandem bike.

  Next Ms. Vinh and I competed as a team on a bicycle-built-for-two in a race that was probably about 2 ½ miles in length with 12 sharp turns.  We almost fell over at the start and ended up dead last out of six teams out of the gate so to speak.  We pumped hard and began to catch up by the first turn and made up our first place into 5^th on the 2^nd stretch.  Ms Vinh yelled to me to save energy for the end so we could finish.  We sprinted the last half lap and Ms Vinh brought us 2^nd place victory with her power (I was bushed.).

Our Dean, on the left, playing football.

Now it was time to watch others “sporting” and we watched our    Dean, Professor Hoa, play football ( aka soccer in the USA) for the Biz Adm team since he also lectures for them. The game was fought furiously and it was getting hotter and hotter out on the field but after about an hour the other team pulled out a victory.  Final event was the “fishing contest” where Mr. Quang (LRTU Administrator) and Ms. Hien (recent graduate and probationary worker)   represented our department.  The fishing event was a wild affair held at the canal that cuts across the campus.  Alas our fisherman was assigned to the southeast side of the canal and the fish weren’t biting.

Our Fishing team,Mr. Quang in front of  Leanna and the
woman to the right side in high heels,  Ms Hien.

Once the fishing contest was over we rushed back to our room (everyone else used offices and bathrooms! )and got into serious clothes again to be ready for the 3pm Convocation where honors were handed out to many of the instructors by the University President and Vice-Presidents after a moving student performance including several from our department.   Leanna and I were presented certificates for our contribution to the internationalization of Ton Duc Thang University as part of UCLA Labor Center’s ongoing international solidarity work– it was such an honor in front of the faculties and students.  To work at a University named for the first President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam who was also an educator and a comrade in arms with Ho Chi Minh – wow!  Ton Duc Tang is known as a revolutionary leader who taught literary and politics to fellow revolutionaries while imprisoned by the French.  You can jail the revolutionary but you can’t jail the revolution!

Thêm chú thích

At the conclusion of this stately celebration that included many special guests seated at the front of the auditorium: guests such as VGCL leaders, VCP dignitaries, retired instructors, government members and the Board of Directors members of our University we all went to a hosted dinner in the newly constructed Sports Arena. (dinner photo).  

  The buffet was an amazing selection of seafood, fish, vegetables, beef and pork, bamboo sprouts, and on and on plus excellent Saigon Beer for toasts to teachers, education and Vietnam.  It was a real gala event for everyone on campus.

Our Table Salutes Teachers Day

We share all these details to try to convey to you, dear friends, that education and learning are CELEBRATED and VALUED here in Vietnam in a way we have never before experienced.  While there still exists a formality in some teaching methods, we observe an underlying cultural (which includes the impact of the Vietnamese Revolution) and societal and economic respect for integrating learning into one’s life.  Increasingly this underlying respect and integration influences teaching methods, workplace organization (which is part of the challenge of Vietnam’s economic development, in our opinions), the role and structure of people’s organizations, evolution of academic policies – this is significant!  This is such a contrast in context and theory and practice to our experience of education in the USA.    We knew when we came to Vietnam that we would probably learn more than we had to share with faculty and students here at TDT.  We had no idea!  We now hope we will be able to share some of the education insights and practices we have gained here in Vietnam with our teacher and organizer buddies in the USA as we all continue our work for a better world of peace and justice for all workers.  Celebrate teachers and learning!

Check out the Ton Duc Thang University HCMC website, http://tdt.edu.vn/,  where you can click on the British Flag in the upper right hand corner for an English translation.  Not only will you see information about Teachers Day but you can get other information about TDT.

Typhoon/s in the Vietnam Area.

A weather picture of Haylan
 note the well formed storm center
and the density around the center.

As many of our readers are well aware there was a horrendous typhoon, Haylan, that a few days ago devastated parts of the Philippine Islands and then veered north by northwest across the East Asia Ocean and swept across the eastern part of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam before heading into The People's Republic of China. 

Note the dead animal amidst the debri

A few friends have asked whether our area was affected and the answer is no with a clarification.  A tropical depression/storm did come our way a few days before Haylan did its damage and that storm caused some flooding in downtown HCMC but not in our area as far as we know.

Survivors

  In other words the hit area was north and west of the campus.  Streets were flooded and we saw some pictures that showed some places that it looked like some downstairs open front stores might have been flooded, but no deaths that we heard about.  In the north a reported 13 people died in the swath cut by the storm on its way north and there was flooding and wind damage.  There were some more deaths in China but neither country had the terrible death toll and damages that occurred in the Philippines.  Although we have no positive way of knowing for sure my opinion is that is while there are the disaster groups trying to raise money for typhoon relief and they mention only the Philippines and not Vietnam or China [Or at least we have not heard of any relief being sent this way from other countries.].  On the other hand Vietnam sent $100,000 in emergency aid to the Philippines immediately, reportedly the same amount sent by the US government.

A picture of the typhoon from space
that again illustrates the power of the
storm and its strong construction.

Now, having said that it is important to realize the difference in the governments of the nations involved.  Vietnam is a Socialist Republic and takes as its first responsibility the security and safety of its people and therefore several days before the typhoon reached this area there were some extensive evacuations.  Then the people's army of Vietnam began moving large amounts of rice and other food stuffs into the areas along the east coast and the northern areas that were hit to provide immediate relief and life saving.  This is not a particular political criticism of the Philippines, no country could have escaped without widespread damage and desolation from a typhoon, a Pacific Ocean Hurricane, with winds of 195mph with gusts close to 250 mph.  If you have any doubts about global warming and the havoc it  is creating around the globe just consider what this storm did to the Islands.  At this  point we are hearing numbers like 12,000 dead, hundreds of thousands of housing lost, 800,000 people displaced and the tolls and the devastation will probably rise because of illness, malnutrition or starvation, and the like.  Our own nation has been having more hurricanes although from what we have heard and seen here this year there was an unexpected absence of hurricanes but the drought is still severe for the third year in big parts of the US including in our home town of Los Angeles.

It needs to be  added that we donate money almost ever day for disaster relief for the two typhoons that hit the central coast of Vietnam about 6 and 8 weeks ago respectively with great losses of crops, infrastructure, and some lives.  In the housing, dorm, where we live there is a box set up where we all drop money in to go to the areas that were flooded and suffered catastrophic wind damages around and north of Hue.

There have been large and regular blood drives here on campus along with the donation collections mentioned above.  These repeated typhoons do significant damage to Vietnam's infrastructure of electricity and water, flood crops and agricultural land, destroy rural housing, etc.  The level of systematic organization and mobilization in Vietnam is impressive -- advance monitoring and warnings, evacuation alerts and transportation (includes release of children from schools), collective sandbagging, mobilization of medical supplies and care as well as food, etc.  Since we've been in Vietnam the fishermen in some provinces have organized their own union -- citing improved boat-to-boat and harbor-to-boat communications for weather alerts as one of the motivations (other reasons include cooperative fishing to improve catches and better preserve the long term health of fishing stock environmentally and also to better deal collectively with brokers/middlemen).  Evidently already the fishermen are seeing results on the safety/protection of boats issue.  The issue of these serious storms hits close to home here on campus as many of the students come from the impacted provinces with working class/farmer families.

We know the scale of devastation in the Philippines is horrific -- and we know many of you are joining us and the people of Vietnam in sending whatever each of us can to our Filipino sisters and brothers as they meet the challenges ahead of finding surviving family, friends and neighbors, mourning the dead and rebuilding their lives and communities.

Our understanding of the critical importance of global warming and climate change is now more real.   Our sisters and brothers of the Asia Pacific region are strongly leading and calling us to action way beyond immediate disaster relief.  Our future's are shared!    

A Special Dinner and TDT's Got Talent

A night shot in District 7 taken from near our room.

     A few evenings ago we had dinner at a great restaurant in District 1, downtown, Ho Chi Minh City with several friends from the college including the Vice President, the Director of the Office of Science-Technology, Cooperation and Graduate Studies, an assistant from that Department and the two of us. Driving to the restaurant in the TDT  we discussed our impressions of Vietnam with one of our hosts, a scientist and administrator for the University. We let him know very directly that we would work hard to try to attract other scholars to come to Vietnam and the University to teach and learn. 

The dinner was a classic affair in an exquisite private dining room with four or five courses as well as bottles of delicious "good for your health" red wine.  With such great food and wine we worked hard to protect and improve our health of course. The dinner facilitated a great discussion about our time in the land of the Lotus and the Dragon: how do we like Vietnam? “We love Vietnam.”Do we like the food? “Yes, we love the food, too, just as our friends in the US said we would.” Is our room at the dorm okay? “Our room is just fine, and it is close to the canteen when we want to get food.” Have we tried snake soup yet? "No, not yet but we will have an opportunity soon, when we visit the MeKong Delta next week." and "In Hanoi we ate the famous West Lake escargot, prepared in the Ha Noi fashion, very good and the sea food in Nha Trang at an outdoor restaurant was just fine."  How do you like teaching at our University and was it hard to get going? “Well, it is turning out very well we believe. It was some difficult learning what our curriculum should cover. We prepared before we came but that always has to change once you know the situation and are living and teaching in it.” And so on for quite a while.  We were paid a giant compliment when our hosts allowed that we had adjusted to living in Vietnam very quickly.  

Meanwhile the first course of dinner was a delicious serving of small pieces of pork with a green vegetable and a plate of another leafy green vegetable that seemed to glow like it was luminescent, but it wasn’t, and that you dipped in a sauce to eat. My gosh how good they both were. Then they brought out about 40 large shrimp for 5 people. The shrimp had been cooked in coconut juice and were arranged around the top of a cut off coconut like hooks hanging on a pole. You would just pluck a big old shrimp off the top of the coconut with your sticks, shell it and dip it in another sauce to eat and enjoy. I thought this was probably the main course so I ate a lot of shrimp or prawns and had some of that red wine to go with it. 

 Meanwhile the conversation was continuing with discussions about the different areas of the nation that we had traveled to and our impressions of the areas: Nha Trang, Dalat, Ha Noi, the Saigon Resort and all around Ho Chi Minh City and so forth (soon we go to the Mekong Delta and then Cu Chi and who knows where else). Watch for blog posts on those travels (FYI -- This just made me remember, when we were in Ha Noi we drove twice across the fabled Red River and through a swampy area flooded by the Red River.).

Then a flat rectangular hot pot was served with a big ol' wonderful tasting white fish that was cooked right there on the table over a candle burner while we waited for it to be ready. Meanwhile we ate more shrimp or prawns and celebrated a couple more toasts with red wine. When the fish was ready our table hostess served us nice servings of the fish in our bowls and we ate it up with our sticks dipping each piece in some sauce or just eating it straight, it was supreme either way.

After we had eaten our tender white fish there was ANOTHER COURSE: A POT OF A THICK RICE SOUP, LIKE A PORRIDGE I THINK, with fish in it and a taste like there might even have been some corn for flavor. By now we had consumed a fair amount of healthy red wine and so even this last course goes down really well with a host of toasts to the University, Vietnam, Friendship, and whatever else as well as the wonderful dinner. Mot hi ba Zoe or Yo! One two three, down the hatch.

At about this point the general conversation focused for a long bit of time on the American War and its effect on the way that American people either do or don’t even think about Vietnam now. We ventured the thought that sometimes we wonder if Americans don’t feel comfortable about Vietnam because of the destruction that we wrought on the country. Our host, the vice president of the University, a man of sixty, stated that he was a veteran but that he like others in Vietnam have put the war behind him and Americans are welcome and safe here. 

 He said that you can’t live in the past but must build the future for the younger generations that are now Vietnam. We allowed as to how that is true though Leanna made the point that Americans must not be allowed to shove things like Agent Orange under the table to be forgotten when the damage goes on from generation to generation and the US government isn’t doing much to help. A striking statement our friend made was that during the years as a soldier it had been very difficult because it did not seem that they could win their war of liberation, but they did. Leanna and I spoke then to the fact that their victory broke the back of colonialism and for the entire world – that the people of Vietnam are true internationalists, heroes who changed the history of the whole world when a super-power discovered it couldn't occupy another country that was determined to fight back.

A very humbling moment occurred when the Vice President stated that we were the first Americans to be invited to spend an entire semester teaching at the University.  We feel so honored and privileged to be the first but it is also a bit scary -- we can only hope that our performance leads to many more Americans coming here and contributing to this growing university.  

The evening finished with a ride back to the dorm room, warm good nights and off to bed to be ready for work on Wednesday at 7:30am.

The Phamtom of the Opera

Sing it out!

TDT has Talent!  A student talent show at the University displays the wealth of talent of these young Viet students.  In the past 8 days Leanna and I watched and listened to about 7 hours of a talent show held on campus with magicians, dancers, guitar/singer duets, solo singers, break

First Image

dancers, traditional songs and dances and current music, acoustic guitars and box drum and bamboo flute and group dancers.  It is hard for each of us to decide which was the best performance since the arts displayed were so varied.  However, we did get some pictures of an artist whose performance was painting a three layered picture in five minutes or less using a variety of spray paints, some tools for spreading and moving the paint on the surface.  The piece was made in three sections.  The first two were on a regular opaque surface and the third was on glass. 

Artist working on Second Image

Image on Glass--3rd image.

3on one, the Work completed

Each section was a work of art in itself but then the two on opaque surfaces were inserted in the frame behind the glass image and low and behold the three combined for an even more finished painting. The images are a blit blurry, indoors, no flash and enlarged for this posting.  I will try to upload more to facebook.

Artist holding picture and friends around him!

Pictures of the art will illustrate this better.  Several singers and dancers were stirring in their performance and now we must wait till next Saturday night to find out who are the winners in the competition.  One of the more unusual was a woman who performed the phantom of the opera with a mask and cape and we got a picture of her, too.  But who proceeds to final competition? We'll find out next week!  

Youth Union at the HCMC Zoo, Team building of Lao Dong va Cong Doen Students

Off to observe student “Team building Exercises” and tour the HCMC Zoological Garden and Park.

Yesterday, Sunday in HCMC and Saturday in the US, Leanna and I had a chance to observe and take a little part in a “team building” exercise of Youth Union (FYI -- the Youth Union is a national political association of young adults) members of Lao Dong and Cong Doen students, students from the department where we are guest lecturing in this semester.  We weren't quite sure what the Youth Union team building would be like although our colleague and translator Vinh, also a lecturer for the University, told us that it would be a many hours long activity that is designed to bring the students together and develop a loyalty to each other and the department and University.  The Youth Union student activity took place at the Ho Chi Minh City Zoological Park, the Zoo and inlcuded students working as teams competing to find hidden items or information – we remarked that it sounded like a treasure hunt to us...it was and wasn't.
Anyway, Sunday 8am we met Vinh at the front gates of the University with two big bags of fresh fruit hanging from her motorbike.  She stopped, hefted the bags over to us, told us to wait and then zoomed off to park her motor bike in the underground faculty parking.  She was back quickly, we hailed a cab and took off for the Zoo.  I estimate it was about 7 or 8 kilometers to the Park where we bought our zoo visit tickets – 3 tickets cost 36 dong or a total of $1.60 for three adults (two old farts plus 1 regular).

 The Zoo was full of students, families with lots of little kids, teenagers, young lovers,

Leanna and Vinh with "decorated" students.

 grand parents, and parents pouring into the park on buses, taxis, motorbikes and walking.  Everyone was out to have a day at your all purpose zoo and park.  It wasn't just taking in the animals and birds, crocodiles and great apes, rhinoceroses and giraffes but lots of small lakes, a bandshell (with free entertainment for the kids that included learning to play traditional instruments and a magic show), lots of shade and grass where families set up picnics and teenagers and young adults vogued for their cameras.  The Park also included play stations for children learning to paint, fish toys, from shallow pools and carnival rides. There were happenings going on in all directions a cacophony of sound, light, the noises of happy and excited children and action.
So, in the midst of all this and using every inch of the zoo park the Youth Union Organizing Team of some 12 students had planned out a full day's activities that they refer to as “team building”.  With ten teams of ten students each they worked together to complete tasks, play games, score points (or lose points) get to know each other better and have FUN.  Each team selected a color in advance and a slogan, planned their own food, drink and snacks for the day, elected a team leader and showed up wearing their colors.  And in other ways visibly showing their team identity from a glance we could see that each team included both new and senior students and both men and women.  The older students had the responsibility to break in the newcomers to being team members.  

The 12 organizers let the first two rules be know very straight forward to start.  Rule 1 – Organizers are always right. Rule 2 – If you consider questioning the organizer refer to Rule 1. And that was the rule book except for rules made up on the fly by organizers.  The teams tore off through the zoo in quest of the “treasurers” that would earn them points.  The complication was that the organizers were the ones who decided whether points were earned or not! 

We watched for a while and got some pictures with the students, but then took off on our own and toured the Zoo.  Now I am not a big zoo pusher – I always wonder if the caged bird sings but I was happily surprised.  The animals were in large spaces, well cared for and loved by the zoo goers.  Yes, the animals were still in placements or settings and not running wild but they weren't eating the spectators either.  We were amazed to see a white tiger with very light gray stripes lounging in its enclosure.  It was the biggest cat I have ever seen – an immense fellow bigger than any lion I have seen.  The crocodiles were pretty lazy and no wonder the temperature was probably at least 35c or about 95 degrees and 80% humidity.  The signage was in Vietnamese except for the species and common name, that was in Vietnamese, English and Latin for the scientific names.  It was nice that the year of known discovery of different species was listed.  At 11:30 we felt it was time to go to the History Museum but alas it was closed for lunch hour!  Next trip.  We snared a taxi and went out for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant that features traditional food from Central coastal provinces of Vietnam.  We ate special dishes.  One was yet another incredible pancake that you wrapped in green vegetables and then dipped in a mixture of three special sauces.  The second dish was a “fish” soup that had the best broth and unique noodle with delicious fish; mackerel and another fish prepared as a type of sausage.  Our lunch was scrumptious and filling.  After lunch we headed back to the University by taxi though we had the cab drop us off at our local supermarket where we bought food, bakery, books and a pair of sandals for Leanna to go with her new silk ao dai in turquoise and white (picture soon).  The ao dai is a gift from the President of the University that was made to order for Leanna by a seamstress that came to the University to get measurements and then craft the outfit.
Later in the week we got a chance to attend a Youth Union meeting here on campus and really enjoyed the mix of political history (great SHORT documentaries), culture -- KAROKE and practical skill building.  The students' plan all the content and conduct the meetings completely.  Vinh is the faculty sponsor, but seems to just review generally what is planned -- encouraging students to keep themselves motivated as they grow and hae fun.  Very impressive!

Flying Vietnam Airlines to Hanoi, Hanoi on the Quick

Hanoi recently (2010) celebrated its one thousand year anniversary as a City so going to see Hanoi made us feel very young indeed. Of course there have been organized “civilizations” for many thousands of years before the birth of Hanoi as a city. Like on our own continent these were tribal peoples or clans that had their own identity and culture reflecting their relationship to the world around them and many of those cultures still function here and are usually recognized by the Vietnamese government.

At the VGCL in Hanoi

Presenting at the VTU University

Our Hanoi trip lasted a too brief 5 days – but were they ever FULL! We were able to meet with faculty from both the Vietnam Trade Union University (which we learned was visited 3 different times by Ho Chi Minh) founded by the VGCL and the University of Labor and Social Affairs (which has an official relationship with MOLISA, the government ministry responsible for labor and social affairs). Later in the week we gave presentations – kind of like demonstrations – of how we are using popular education/active learning to teach students about conflict resolution and collective bargaining. The VTU presentation was to faculty and students who were labor leaders from Laos and Cambodia. USLA's presentation was a different experience with more than 150 students, faculty and a link to 2 other campuses! We learned a lot and were really made to feel welcome by both faculty and students. All three trade union universities (TDT included!) are in the process of exchanging curricula and training materials about conflict resolution and collective bargaining, so our modest collection of materials will get included.

Discussion at ULSA

When we weren't busy preparing our presentations (and getting GREAT support from translators!), we got to visit the VGCL headquarters and meet with representatives from the international section and policy/legal sections. The VGCL discussion was really inspiring – one of the union brothers (and his daughter) later took us to the War Museum and talked with us over delicious coffee next to the Hanoi Opera House. We also met with a representative of the VCCI – the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce – which seems to play a different role here in Vietnam from what we experience in USA. We also got to meet with two Australian labor activists who are doing amazing work with VGCL – we hope to connect further with them and their work. They were two impressive women! We spent a moving evening with a leader of the Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Association VAVA who not only shared his own story of involvement but also a history of VAVA. The reach and depth of this organization throughout Vietnam is incredible as is their ongoing battle for justice for the now fourth generation of children and families living with the poison of such toxics.

That's Orchids for a special Women's Day

A great statue honoring women!

A special note is that Oct. 20 is Vietnam Woman's Day (declared by the Party to celebrate the founding of the Vietnam Women's Union in 1930), so Friday afternoon at one of the presentations Leanna was presented with a beautiful orchid bouquet – wow! We also celebrated Woman's Day at the Hanoi Women's Museum which was incredible – got to share that experience with Julie Brockman of Michigan State University who is here teaching and doing research as a Fulbright Scholar.

Perhaps the most moving Hanoi experience was our visit to the Ho Chi Minh Museum – which brought Leanna and Hollis to tears several times. The museum is an amazing collection of historical artifacts about his life and the Vietnamese revolution but also art which so effectively depicts and illustrates the culture, world history, people, economic and technological events that shaped Uncle Ho's life and thinking. While there were plenty of tourists, the museum was full of Vietnamese, especially families with children. We walked around the exterior of the mausoleum where there is a big open park. One of the Australian women had described to us how when she observed the flag ceremony at night at the mausoleum she thinks of Vietnam putting Uncle Ho to bed. One of the Vietnamese women we got to know in Hanoi had another comment about the open space/park at the mausoleum – when she sees all the children and families playing and relaxing there she imagines that Uncle Ho enjoys hearing the laughter and happiness of today's Vietnamese children. Now you know why Leanna gets teary-eyed.

Having a good time in Hanoi

No way we can talk about Hanoi without mentioning FOOD. Hollis found some of the best pho to-date. We ate these beautiful, small, translucent pancakes from Hue and West Lake escargot among other delicious treats. All our new Hanoi friends were just wonderful making sure we appreciated some of what makes the food of “the north” different from HCMC.

With all the incredible work we learned about and gracious, committed people we met during just 5 short days, one thing we definitely learned is our trip to Hanoi was way too short of a visit. We are so grateful to everyone who shared their Hanoi with us – and we sure as hell hope to be able to spend more time in Hanoi before returning to USA.

Unfortunately Hollis' photos somehow disappeared, so one of our Hanoi friends shared some his great photos – thanks to Tuyen!

General Vo Nguyen Giap Memorialized and a time for thought and consideration of today and yesterday

As I sit here in Ho Chi Minh City as a volunteer worker in a land that is new to me but where I feel very at home,  I am moved to consider the meaning of the passing of a world recognized General and a courageous leader of the people of Vietnam.  Of course I am writing of General Vo Nguyen Giap who died this past week at the age of 102 years.  

Reading stories in the world press the past few days I read of the same old divisions that seemed so stark back when I was in my early 20s.  The government of the USA was pressing for war and I was of draft age back then.  I had no thought of serving after I  asked myself, "Why would I want to kill Vietnamese, they have done nothing to me nor my neighborhood?" And I pointed out to friends and colleagues, "Vietnam is no threat to the US.  They lack an air force and a navy so they can't reach here.  We are being lied to to scare us of "the Red Menace".”    My answer came down to I will not kill Vietnamese, whether from the North or the South.  At the UofA I had been forced against my will to take ROTC and maybe that was good because I had picked up literature on the concepts of people's war as it had been practiced against the French in Vietnam as well as by Mao in China and by other leaders across Africa, Asia and South America including Cuba. (I feel impelled to clarify that ROTC did not supply me with these materials.)  I even considered that when my great, great, great .... grandfather fought the “stinking British” in the War of Independence, he and others used concepts of peoples war (perhaps they learned from the indigenous peoples of North America?). In other words, we in the US shared the tradition of anti-colonialism with the Vietnamese.  Our own shared experiences should have resulted in support for Vietnam instead of invading and attempting to re-colonize it. It is one of the paradoxes of history that false patriotism and propaganda can deceive people like us in the USA to follow leaders who have no concern for the best interests of our country.  Instead these “leaders” wage warfare to steal oil fields, rubber plantations and the like from countries weakened by such warfare --- killing other peoples and our own young in the process.

In fact General Vo Nguyen Giap like his comrade in arms and politics Ho Chi Minh was an internationalist, a person who believes that we are all sisters and brothers in the world.  Internationalists believe though we live in separately defined nations that our needs and desires are much the same and that through the organization of the working class and peasants who produce the wealth on an international basis we can achieve a world of  peace and plenty with harmonious relations unrestricted by the jealousy, greed and other fetters of capitalism that come between people and nations and lead to destruction, hatred, and war.  I am proudly an internationalist.  On the other hand, capitalism is based on the brute dominance of the small class of the rich and super rich who always work to divide and conquer and winner take all whether in the purely personal or in international relations.

This is why so many of us continue to organize and mobilize around many issues so that we as a people in the US rise up and say no more!  We will not invade other countries for resources, for intimidation, or in an effort to force our ways upon others.  The Constitution says it is a duty of government to defend the nation.  All it takes is a much smaller defensive force to easily do just that without the invasion of other countries, without nuclear missile threats, without nuclear bombs, without chemical and biological weapons, without drones or other weapons of genocide.  We have the capacity to be an independent nation, a very resourceful nation taking care of the needs of our people and living in equality, freedom and happiness if we will just re-distribute the wealth away from the 1% who take advantage of us.  Then the rich cannot use our government for their corporate interests of profit through the inhumane (and usually illegal) invasion of other countries.  It is up to us, the people of the United States of (North) America to do this.  That is what I believe and that is what I put my life to achieving.  For all my friends for all these years, not one step back -- the future is ours.  We must seize the time. For ourselves, for our children, our grandchildren and theirs.  Ho Chi Min, General Giap, Live Like them.  Dare to Struggle.  Dare to Win.

A fine day with Union leaders from Binh Thuan who have just completed a Labor Studies regimen.

An important community education program of TDTU is the training of local, provincial, and upper union leadership in the theory and practice of Labor Relations, Collective Bargaining, Conflict Resolution and other key skills necessary to the function and strengthening of workers organizations in Vietnam. On 10-4-2013 our Vietnam experience took a honored turn with an invitation to join a large group of recent union graduates of TDT’s training from Binh Thuan Province and Phan Thiet City.

 Workers were from local, industrial-park based, and the provincial unions as well as an organizer for the VGCL who works for the unions in the area. The conduct of training in far flung areas – in time if not in distance – requires the professors and lecturers who do the training to travel by motor bike to the union locations located across southern Vietnam from the Mekong Delta to the Central Highlands and east along the Coast.  The courses last several months and are conducted at the best possible times and locations convenient for the worker students: the students are from the working class and work their regular jobs and have families and all that.  Three of our good friends and advisers for our teaching in VN are central instructors in these training program.  One of the TDT Professors was the former Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Council and the others have been instructing Labor Relations for several years (one of whom has a long career in Human Resources before becoming a Professor in labor studies).  They each are highly capable leaders who have a mountain of experience that they contribute to their teaching.

The focus for the visit of these union members was two fold.  First there was a visit to the POUYUEN VIETNAM COMPANY LIMITED, a FDI wholly owned by its foreign investors the POU CHEN GROUP of Taiwan, in the industrial park to the west and north of downtown Ho Chi Minh City followed by a tour and dinner at the TDT University campus for the graduates.  The Union at the plant represents 80,000 workers and the plant is enormous to say the least.  It was explained that the company has a fleet of 550 buses and provides transport to and from work for  their employees.  When our caravan of TDT Labor Relations students and the bus of union leaders from Binh Thuan Province and Phan Thiet City arrived at the factory and Union Offices, we were met by the President and Vice Presidents of the Local Union of the workers of the POUYUEN plant and a worker delegation.  As we were being met and greeted by the plant employees, we were also meeting the union graduates who were our hosts and guests at the same time.  Within a few minutes we all made our way upstairs to a beautiful union room where the meeting took place.  The total delegation numbered about 50: 35 unionists from Binh Thuan Province and Phan Thiet City, 5 staff members from the Labor Relations and Trade Union Department, and 8 students from the University.  What a day of labor and workplace lessons!

In the meeting room the President of the Local began the meeting welcoming us all again and then launched into answering the questions that had been submitted beginning with the questions from the guest unionists from Binh Thuan Province, then the questions from our TDT students delegation and lastly the questions from the guest lecturers.  During the QandA the union leader invited people to come forward and sing a song for the meeting.  The performances were very good and added a “Maslow moment” to the gathering as the union members were able to receive the applause of their sisters and brothers.  Toward the end of the meeting the Binh Thuan Province and Phan Thiet City delegation presented a gift to the POUYUEN Local Union.  Leanna and I presented the local union President with a bag of UE, Labor United Against the War and Labor United for Universal Health Care union buttons from the USA to be distributed to the officers of the local and a few members.  The meeting ended with picture taking.

Then it was time to have lunch at an excellent Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood.  Two women from the CSR (plant management) department joined us for lunch and conversation.  Besides eating a lot of good food we had fun doing a lot of traditional toasts with our beverages: mo, hai,  ba , YO and everyone drinks.  At first we performed our toasts at our table and then after a while we got up and moved around the room toasting the new graduates at every table.  Once we had finished lunch it was time to return to the University for the next part of the days activities.

At the University we met the delegation of labor studies graduates when they arrived on their bus, boarded their bus with them for a driving tour of the campus.  When we arrived at a spot over near our dorm room we invited everyone to come by and receive Union buttons from us as gifts from sisters and brothers in the USA.  Then we continued the tour on foot of the campus displaying the qualities of the different areas and the administration building, libraries and meeting rooms in particular.  On the 6th floor of the admin building we were invited to visit the President’s Room, named for Ton Duc Thang, the former President of Vietnam and the namesake of the University.  It was a picture opportunity and the VP of the University posed with several people who wanted to have a memoir of this wonderful day.  A special enthusiasm was generated when the workers spoke about the meaning of this university to them: A VGCL sponsored University supported by the working class and a place where they could hope their children would attend.

Two floors down we went to a beautiful conference room where we held a meeting of honor for the graduates with several speeches, three songs by different performers -- just a great time.  

Finally we all enjoyed  a catered dinner in one of the special large meeting rooms of the new Sports Arena facility.  One of the canteens catered the event with a delicious fish and seafood hot pot as the main course surrounded by lots of other goodies.  It was a very fine to sit here and have dinner with these new union friends and feel the warmth of the event.  Sometime after 8pm everyone said good bye, the workers got on their bus to go to their hotel and we retired to our room.  Picture with labor leaders from the Binh Thuan Province and Phan Thiet City.