"So, your clients weren't trapped at the airport too, where they, Eric?" Okky adjusts her headwrappings and passes the sambal tempe.
"No, but there trapped here alright. I mean, if things go on too long we could always get them back to Singapore by ship, but of course that's a last resort. I heard on the radio that they're sending the national guard in now, so there should be some updates soon."
"It seems like the whole world is trapped in Bangkok. More fish, Brian?"
"Um, sure. I mean it is Thanksgiving and all."
"Mmm, yes... And what are you thankful for?"
"To be stranded in Bangkok instead of stepping off a plane in Mumbai..."
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Yo people...
...can we please stop taking pictures of this lady?
I mean seriously, leave her alone...
I know she photographs well and gives you that NatGeo look for your portfolio and all, but the poor woman is out there every day, getting more paparazzi than Salma Hayek by flocks of voluntourists and aspiring travel writers - and for no pay.
I'm amazed to see these people who come to places like Vietnam and seek out the oldest, poorest most withered woman in traditional clothing selling fruit on the street to take her photo and send it back home - carefully cropping out any semblance of modern life from the background along with it any sense of an honest portrayal of a complex and dynamic world.
What bothers me about this is the idea that 'real' culture only exists in places that are completely isolated from the modern world, which for most places is simply the past. I don't expect my German friends to go gallivanting in lederhosen, and I certainly don't want to wear those shoes with the big buckles on them, and yet we expect for everyone else to stay nice and 'virgin' so we can go 'explore' and 'discover' them again and again. Face it people, the age of exploration by Whitey is over - if you want to see something, do an image search; if you want to learn about traditional culture, go to a museum; if you want to go observe at a captive living thing, go to the zoo - You can go to Angkor Wat, you can go to Tibet, but you're going to have to wait in line because there are French families in fanny packs out there right now getting their photos taken. However the idea that the world is poorer, less interesting or less complex now, is insulting and unimaginative - so many new things are just beginning.
As someone trying to understand gay identity and community, which in most places is a new, urban, and global phenomenon, I'm constantly asking myself, "Is this person too wealthy/urban/educated/westernized"? But this begs the question - is 'real' Vietnam poor/rural/uneducated? Does real Vietnam not speak any English or know what's happening in the world? Is real Vietnamese culture too weak or fragile to survive contact with the West? My Vietnamese friends would disagree...
For other foreigners (especially Europeans), the idea of a gay guy from Texas is a delightful and hilarious novelty. Upon explaining to some Kiwi yesterday that Austin, Texas has one of the highest rates of gay-establishments-per-capita in the States, he quickly responded: "Yeah, but that's not, like, real Texas."
Screw you. Who are you to tell me what 'real Texas' is?
I mean seriously, leave her alone...I know she photographs well and gives you that NatGeo look for your portfolio and all, but the poor woman is out there every day, getting more paparazzi than Salma Hayek by flocks of voluntourists and aspiring travel writers - and for no pay.
I'm amazed to see these people who come to places like Vietnam and seek out the oldest, poorest most withered woman in traditional clothing selling fruit on the street to take her photo and send it back home - carefully cropping out any semblance of modern life from the background along with it any sense of an honest portrayal of a complex and dynamic world.
What bothers me about this is the idea that 'real' culture only exists in places that are completely isolated from the modern world, which for most places is simply the past. I don't expect my German friends to go gallivanting in lederhosen, and I certainly don't want to wear those shoes with the big buckles on them, and yet we expect for everyone else to stay nice and 'virgin' so we can go 'explore' and 'discover' them again and again. Face it people, the age of exploration by Whitey is over - if you want to see something, do an image search; if you want to learn about traditional culture, go to a museum; if you want to go observe at a captive living thing, go to the zoo - You can go to Angkor Wat, you can go to Tibet, but you're going to have to wait in line because there are French families in fanny packs out there right now getting their photos taken. However the idea that the world is poorer, less interesting or less complex now, is insulting and unimaginative - so many new things are just beginning.
As someone trying to understand gay identity and community, which in most places is a new, urban, and global phenomenon, I'm constantly asking myself, "Is this person too wealthy/urban/educated/westernized"? But this begs the question - is 'real' Vietnam poor/rural/uneducated? Does real Vietnam not speak any English or know what's happening in the world? Is real Vietnamese culture too weak or fragile to survive contact with the West? My Vietnamese friends would disagree...
For other foreigners (especially Europeans), the idea of a gay guy from Texas is a delightful and hilarious novelty. Upon explaining to some Kiwi yesterday that Austin, Texas has one of the highest rates of gay-establishments-per-capita in the States, he quickly responded: "Yeah, but that's not, like, real Texas."
Screw you. Who are you to tell me what 'real Texas' is?
Rights
In talking about my project with people, the question often comes up of, "So, what do you want to see happen for these people" and my answer remains an uncomfortable: "It's not about what I want", but that they should have the legal freedom to work it out for themselves.
One of the big issues taken against the international 'gay rights' debate is that it's a form of cultural imperialism wherein the West imposes not only this binary hetero-homo system (which even I don't believe in), but claims authority over concepts of love, marriage, and intimacy as well: that touch is always sexual, that marriage is always about romantic love, that making families and children is simply a personal endeavor engaged in for it's own sake.
I often find myself in the position of wondering whether I'm being culturally sensitive or just supporting mechanisms of repression. Rather than targeting individual policies though, the broader issue that's raised here is how we set about defining universal human rights - a momentous project in the history of civilization, but one that's understandably riddled with difficulties.
Here's a quick link to a video worth another look:
One of the big issues taken against the international 'gay rights' debate is that it's a form of cultural imperialism wherein the West imposes not only this binary hetero-homo system (which even I don't believe in), but claims authority over concepts of love, marriage, and intimacy as well: that touch is always sexual, that marriage is always about romantic love, that making families and children is simply a personal endeavor engaged in for it's own sake.
I often find myself in the position of wondering whether I'm being culturally sensitive or just supporting mechanisms of repression. Rather than targeting individual policies though, the broader issue that's raised here is how we set about defining universal human rights - a momentous project in the history of civilization, but one that's understandably riddled with difficulties.
Here's a quick link to a video worth another look:
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Change...
When the election finally came around last week, it really did seem something a world away. Vietnam is one of the few countries out there that remain more or less unaffected by what's going on in the US and I had cast my vote weeks before. I made some phone calls, found the embassy-sponsored event, and suddenly, from the cobbled streets of Hanoi, I found myself swimming in Americana, all flushed and feverish with excitement.
Stepping into it all at once like that it seems almost unreal - here was a world where people stand up as individuals, demand their rights, and defend their worldview, where people from different backgrounds coexist, value their differences, and struggle to create a world in which they're judged solely by the content of their character and in which anyone can participate. It was an amazing election, a great day, and I have to say, I got a little emotional. I nabbed this photo from the end of Obama's acceptance speech.
The historic victory, however, was cut with a bit of the sting of California, Arizona, and Florida voting to prohibit same-sex marriages. I'm reminded that even back home things are a work in progress and we've still got a ways to go.
Stepping into it all at once like that it seems almost unreal - here was a world where people stand up as individuals, demand their rights, and defend their worldview, where people from different backgrounds coexist, value their differences, and struggle to create a world in which they're judged solely by the content of their character and in which anyone can participate. It was an amazing election, a great day, and I have to say, I got a little emotional. I nabbed this photo from the end of Obama's acceptance speech.
The historic victory, however, was cut with a bit of the sting of California, Arizona, and Florida voting to prohibit same-sex marriages. I'm reminded that even back home things are a work in progress and we've still got a ways to go.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
I ain't gonna live forever...
Growing up in the West, concepts like individuality, personal freedom, and self-actualization are been so drilled into us from such an early age that it's easy to forget that these are culturally-bound values. In, say, collectivist Southeast Asian Confucianism, it's acquiescence to the greater good, filial piety and respect for chain-of-command that make a person considerate, caring, selfless and peaceful. In a word: civilized.
Ever since Vietnam splashed into the outside world the two ways of looking at things haven't so much resolved themselves with each other as cramped their style to coexist. I haven't met anyone my age who isn't struggling between living their life the way they want to vs. the way their parents want them to in one way or another.
And everyone seems to be making different choices, different concessions - everyone expects to go on to get married, have kids and live thoroughly respectable Vietnamese lives. But late at night, in the packed and steamy dance clubs, Saigon's youth throw their up thier hands, jump to the beat, and sing along with full-throated glory to what has become an Indochinese vintage sensation:
Ever since Vietnam splashed into the outside world the two ways of looking at things haven't so much resolved themselves with each other as cramped their style to coexist. I haven't met anyone my age who isn't struggling between living their life the way they want to vs. the way their parents want them to in one way or another.
And everyone seems to be making different choices, different concessions - everyone expects to go on to get married, have kids and live thoroughly respectable Vietnamese lives. But late at night, in the packed and steamy dance clubs, Saigon's youth throw their up thier hands, jump to the beat, and sing along with full-throated glory to what has become an Indochinese vintage sensation:
A brief overview of Vietnamese references to homosexuality:
So, while alternate systems of love, gender and sexuality have had a long history in Vietnam, public discussion of such things are a complete no-no, and the recent introduction of a discourse on 'homosexuals' has been sporadic at best. The Vietnamese government does not reference homosexual anything in it's legal code as, in a society where such topics are so strictly socially regulated, it's basically a non-issue. Nonetheless, a few scattered and contradictory statements by government officials or state-controlled media (aka all media) have eked through, strongly influencing public confusion about sexuality. Without further ado:
1990 - Government plan for response to the HIV epidemic: "Homosexual behavior probably occurs in Vietnam as in most other countries, but there are no formal meeting places or organized homosexual groups." (Colby 2004)
1998 - One Government official, after having broken up a publicized lesbian marriage in Vinh Long province told Reuters: “They would have had no trouble with their relationship if they had not chosen to have a public wedding” and of other women couples in Vietnam: “As long as they don’t wed publicly they are left in peace.”
1999 - Khoa Hộc và Đới Sống (Science and Life) newspaper: homosexuality could be, or may be, "a disease due to high levels of hormones in food like beef or chicken".
2001 - HIV prevention pamphlet quotes famous sexologist Trang Bon Song: that there are two types of homosexuality - "true" homosexuality, which is "very rare", and "fake" homosexuality, which is much more common, in which people are lured by fashion or experimentation into trying homosexuality but eventually return to a heterosexual lifestyle.
2002 - Thanh Nien newspaper: "[The Long Hai City gay pride parade was] a monstrosity. . . [an] abnormal phenomenon which is foreign to Vietnam’s cultural tradition’’.
2002 - Head of Communications, National AIDS Committee: "My guess is the number of homosexuals in Vietnam is only a few hundred"
2002 - Communist Youth Newspaper: "some people are born gay, just as some people are born left-handed"
2003 - Tiep Thi & Gia Dinh Magazine: "There is no scientific basis to conclude that homosexuality is an illness. But it is clear that these people are mentally confused."
1990 - Government plan for response to the HIV epidemic: "Homosexual behavior probably occurs in Vietnam as in most other countries, but there are no formal meeting places or organized homosexual groups." (Colby 2004)
1998 - One Government official, after having broken up a publicized lesbian marriage in Vinh Long province told Reuters: “They would have had no trouble with their relationship if they had not chosen to have a public wedding” and of other women couples in Vietnam: “As long as they don’t wed publicly they are left in peace.”
1999 - Khoa Hộc và Đới Sống (Science and Life) newspaper: homosexuality could be, or may be, "a disease due to high levels of hormones in food like beef or chicken".
2001 - HIV prevention pamphlet quotes famous sexologist Trang Bon Song: that there are two types of homosexuality - "true" homosexuality, which is "very rare", and "fake" homosexuality, which is much more common, in which people are lured by fashion or experimentation into trying homosexuality but eventually return to a heterosexual lifestyle.
2002 - Thanh Nien newspaper: "[The Long Hai City gay pride parade was] a monstrosity. . . [an] abnormal phenomenon which is foreign to Vietnam’s cultural tradition’’.
2002 - Head of Communications, National AIDS Committee: "My guess is the number of homosexuals in Vietnam is only a few hundred"
2002 - Communist Youth Newspaper: "some people are born gay, just as some people are born left-handed"
2003 - Tiep Thi & Gia Dinh Magazine: "There is no scientific basis to conclude that homosexuality is an illness. But it is clear that these people are mentally confused."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
