the problem with Viet Kieu’s

This post comes from a place of angst and anger. Basically, Viet Kieu’s (the general populace and not individuals) piss me off. I don’t like the art we produce as a community, I don’t like the way we work or don’t work together as a community, I don’t care for the so-called accomplishments we’ve made as a community, I don’t like the way we view our own culture, and I don’t appreciate the way we view our so-called homeland.

Granted, I grew up in white suburbia and feel that such an experience gave me enough space to never really feel Vietnamese-American as much as I felt like a fan of Pink Floyd and hacky-sack among other things. I’ve also never really had Viet Kieu friends. More than anything I remember crying in my mom’s arms at fifteen whilst mulling over the nostalgia that I live in the country that bombed my blood’s country. Furthermore since I came to Vietnam over 18 times now I never had any feelings that Vietnam was a communist place. My parents have also been doing humanitarian work in Vietnam since I was a child, ever since I can remember, and despite my allergy and distance from the Viet Kieu community I think that I’ve seen enough to say what I’ll say here. (But I hope these words aren’t only seen as admonishment but also as a motivation to look back)

Concerning Vietnamese-overseas, nothing pisses me off more than anti-communism. I mean, McCarthy’s Red Scare, US-Cuban embargo, Stalinism, North Korea,etc. aside, I think it’s deeply plagued the Vietnamese-overseas community in so many ways. It’s basically made Vietnamese-Americans blind and stupid. I think it’s ridiculous that people who work to help Vietnam could be called, by the anti-communist community, communists. And I know, many people were hurt by the Vietnamese communists after the war came to an end, and that essentially democracy and capitalism appears to give people more freedom.These factors though, rather than causing people to want to get involved in a useful way has caused people to be petty, vengeful and hateful. It has also caused people to feel a sense of entitlement, unwarranted privilege, pretention, and for them to look down on Vietnamese people as if they’re less educated, politically stagnant, and basically unmodern. Is this a mature way of acting?

The irony is that Viet Kieu’s (even those that have lived, worked, and traveled here) don’t understand Vietnam’s current state of affairs. As the Vietnamese community continues to whine over a fucking red-yellow flag, they’re missing the full spectrum of colors that are currently and have been manifesting in Vietnam since independence. Viet Kieu’s are stuck in 1975 while Vietnam has moved along at its own pace until 2008. Consequently, they are the one’s that are less educated, politically stagnant, and basically unmodern.

(One side note about the alleged beauty of American capitalism versus the frowned-upon Vietnamese communism. Our capitalist system, although fueling competitiveness and professionalism, has of course resulted in a country with too many lawyers and insurance companies. And although a country hailed as individually-driven, it’s pretty hard to own things such as your own cellphone, your own car, your own house, your own bank account, etc. etc. Not to mention the economic crisis)

The above indeed fuels the rest of my issues with my own ailing ethnic community. That’s that for now…more later…