One Love

I remember a story a friend told me a while back.

She had grown up in Canada after her parents had fled Saigon.  She had often been curious about her homeland but when she was offered an internership in Hanoi her parents tried to talk her out of it.

She, like many other second generation overseas Vietnamese, returned to find that Vietnam wasn’t the hellhole she had been brought up to believe. It wasn’t perfect either but it was liveable, beautiful in parts and people were friendly.

Up to that point she spoke no Vietnamese but she started taking lessons.  She emailed her parents regularly telling them how the place had changed and urging them to visit.  Her father eventually agreed to make a brief return.

Excited by his trip she went back to her langauge tutor and enquired how to say “Welcome to Vietnam, Father”.

Finally she would be able to speak to him in his mother tongue.

The big moment came. She approached him at the airport, hugged him and proudly said the words and waited for his reaction.

Immediately a look of absolute horror and sadness swept across his face and then tears came.

“My own daughter,” he wept. “a North Vietnamese.”

In short, beyond the fact that the Northern and Southern dialects are very different, the story is an illustration of grudges still held.

If emails I have received from overseas Vietnamese are any indication, there are still those carrying second generation grudges.  I have been told that posting a picture of a Vietnamese flag was wrong because it was a symbol of Communism.  I’ve been told that simply being here was assisiting a corrupt country and regime.

I know of another blogger who became “password-only” in an attempt to shake off a persistent overseas Vietnamese commenter who bombarded him with similar messages which became increasingly offensive.

All of which means I approached OneVietnam carefully.  Here they explain what they are:

It all started when a light-hearted conversation between friends over pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) morphed into a serious endeavor among young, dedicated Vietnamese-American professionals, including graduates from UC Berkeley and Harvard University.

As 1st and 2nd generation Vietnamese- Americans, we wanted to reconnect our fragmented community and redefine what it means to be “Vietnamese.” We wanted to prove to ourselves and to the world that we are no longer the victims of war, or children of victims of war.  We are the people who thrived in spite of it.

We came together in 2009 to bring our dreams to reality through OneVietnam.  Our tasks were clear. First, we seamlessly connect people with Web 2.0 technology. Then, we make it easier for them to help each other with our one-click, search find-and-contribute system.

So far, so good and the proof has been in the pudding.  I’ve watched their Facebook feed and been impressed.

It would have been easy for OneVietnam to be aggressive in nature.  That is has, instead, decided to celebrate Vietnam and stated it’s desire to work with the country to implement positive change – well that speaks volumes.  It’s also a reflection of the fact that they obviously understand how Vietnam works.  Trust and relationships are the key to affecting any change here.

Agression and blame doesn’t cut it.

It reminds me of something I read by Canadian blogger Joe Ruelle, who made himself a celebrity here by learning Vietnamese and using it to blog his thoughts from an outsider’s perspective

I keep coming back to this quote from him:

The back bone of what’s going on in Vietnam right now is overwhelmingly positive particularly with the media opening up and the economy. Of course there are problems but if you ignore the backbone you’re not getting reality.

Now it should be pointed out that this interview is a couple of years old and it’s fair to say the progress graph has perhaps dipped just a little in the past year or so.  However, that shouldn’t detract too much from the general movement being in the right direction.

So, going back to One Vietnam, there is good news:

OneVietnam.org is launching on Monday, July 19.  We are a new online network dedicated to connecting Vietnamese communities worldwide.  In celebration of our public launch, we will host a release party at Butterfly restaurant in San Francisco on Sunday, July 18.  We invite you to come join us in the celebration and help us spread the word.

The Ford Foundation Grant
OneVietnam recently received a $100 thousand grant from the Ford Foundation as part of the “Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin.”  Ford Foundation has distributed nearly $16 billion in grants worldwide since it’s inception.  We will work with the Ford Foundation and other special initiative grantees to raise awareness and help ease the harmful effects of Agent Orange.

Long may OneVietnam carry on its good work.  Long may their attitude stay the same.  Long may Vietnam’s Government learn that the internet is not something to be feared.

Just maybe, the single most important way that OneVietnam can help is by showing what an incredible resource the internet can be to shape, connect and promote modern Vietnam.

One Vietnam, you did it the right way.  You did it with love.

Nice work.