Time heals all wounds.
It also ushers in another generation, now in high school and college.
Here in Vietnam, students have classes on Saturdays and even Sundays.
Kids of all ages, in uniform or out, but always with a backpack, riding on wheels of all types: bikes, electric bikes, scooters, sedans, and
buses.
They shop at night markets, and at day markets.
Food stalls, snacks stalls and magazine stalls.
Life in the fast lane (the only time I slow down is when I jaywalk across a busy street).
I have tried to put Vietnam in a box, but so far it’s been so vain: not scooter nation, not helmet nation, not multi-tasker nation.
I know one clear difference between life here vs in the US: your survival instinct better kicks in quick (Maslow‘s basic need).
Because it’s noisy, dusty and hot, people want to cocoon themselves in A/C cul-de-sacs.
Common use of language also helps people cope: “choi” (play aspect) is spoken in every other sentence: “choi troi”, “choi chu”, “choi noi”, “choi luon” (upstage, wordy, flashy and go all the way).
Give Vietnam some time.
It will soon get to be a nation of 100 million, whose population are evenly distributed in bell-shaped curve.
The UN person, Mehta, warned Vietnam about the “middle-income trap”.
They have seen it happen with Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The trends are there for Vietnam to grow. Next step is to prune and harness growth to produce desired outcomes. It’s not accidental that the former leader of Singapore speaks here quite often.
He knew a thing or two about materializing a nation’s dream.
Maybe all we need is time. Some watch trains go by, all of their lives. Watching and wondering how others made it but they didn’t. (courtesy of Stephen Bishop).
