Exclusion

Exclusion- process of exclusion from full participation in society. By definition there is a group of people that live by this definition as their reality. These people are the inhabitants of the Red River. I had the opportunity to speak to couple of the families and gain a better perspective of what their lives are like.

Question 1. In what ways do they experience exclusion?
Before becoming an inhabitant of the Red River, these family used to live a normal life on land. They had jobs and was able to rent houses, and afford certain necessities. But, as living standards go up their laborious intensive jobs weren't able to keep up and they lost their way of living. They had to resort to living on floating houses along these river banks. One major way they experience exclusion is that in the past the government did not tolerate this way of living, so they forced these family out of their homes and chased them away. Some families even had their floating house ripped apart. Without a home, symbolically how can they feel like they are a part of anything.

Question 2. In what ways do they experience inclusion?
These families of the Red River experience inclusion through help of NGO's. One family spoke personally of SJ (a french NGO) helped them by giving their children an opportunity to go to school and gave them supplies to help them maintain their floating home.

Question 3. Do they want different development or just a different path to the same development?

Question 4. What sort of government policy/ program changes might increase their inclusion?
To increase their inclusion, these people wants government to ACCEPT their existence and INCLUDE their living area as part of society. They feel that they carry out their duties as citizens, such as voting and contributing to society, and thus, they deserve to be treated as citizens. A policy/program that can help them is anything that can create and give them an opportunity to work and add some progress to their lives. Most of the families here have been living there for more than a decade and nothing has changed.

Question 5. What sort of community NGO policy/ program might increase inclusion?
Similar to what SJ is doing, I think that by reaching out to the kids of these families there is a higher chance for the kids to make something out of their lives and in return help their own family. Teaching the kids how to read and write, or helping the older ones to go to vocational school and acquiring skills that allow them to get better jobs and improve their living situation.

blogging..is really hard!

I wanted to blog every week prior to coming to VN, but now it's getting hard. I guess from now on i'll just blog about the big things, like trips to special places. Speaking of which, last week was Ha Long Bay. That was one special place. I remember just laying on top of the boat, and gazing up at the full moon and truly feeling peace and quiet. The feeling was almost too surreal. Kayaking was also a cool experience. Total arms workout. It definitely made it to the top of my escape-to list in the near future. =]
Well back to the regular stuff. Lately, I've been fine. Just dealing with this lingering "unknown" cough. Also, trying to keep a lid on my spending. OOH! played some ball here..and i sucked! no surprised there because for the past months I haven't really done anything active, so i was dying keeping up with the endurance and the heat. It did make me wish the guys were here, reminded me of the hills. Plus, people just don't understand the fade..haha. Well, I hope all my friends are doing fine back in the states. I'm getting sleeping..sorry for the short blogs..i'm tired.

The Manor

Seeing the model picture on paper I was impressed by the magnitude of the project, but when I was in front of it I felt nothing. It was just a building....cements and bricks. Once I started exploring, I noticed a couple of things. This place had the most random statues... there was no real purpose or meaning behind these decorations. Then there were the security guards. The security around this place was so tight. It was almost like they thought we were a group of terrorists. No cameras were allowed, no wandering, and no entry into the residence area. They really emphasized GATED community. Funny thing is there was no sign of a community. Part of living in Viet Nam is being able to get to know your neighbors and interact with people. Now if you take that away, then you're really taking away the essence of living here.

Goals for the next 4 months

I've never been a planner type of thinker, so for me to think ahead and think about specific goals is pretty hard. In general, during my stay here I hope to learn more about Vietnam, be able to read and write Vietnamese, and all that good stuff. On another level, after coming here I feel like I have a greater responsibility beyond myself. People here are trying so hard just to make end meets and they are living in such poor conditions. It even makes me feel guilty for living a regular life. Being raised in America, I was used to thinking that people are "entitled" to certain living basics and standards, but that is not true at all. It's just one of those things you don't think about until it's right in front of you. How can you continue to eat your meal when an elderly person or a child is begging for couple of cents? Thinking about these things saddens me, so my goal for the next 4 months is doing something that will make people or even someone's life better in some way. That being said, the hardest part is "how"... and honestly I don't know. I can volunteer for certain projects or spend a day helping someone sell something, but whatever it is I will definitely achieve it before I go back to America.

Friendship Village

8/21
When thay Gerard told the class that we had the chance to go see people who were affected by agent orange I was actually afraid. Not afraid of the people, but scared of the reality that I was going to face. I couldn't help but think that they were victims of their own lives. For most people including myself, our lives and futures contain to some certain extent a handful of possibilities, but what about these people? Being born with diseases and birth defects, what type of future do you think is in stored? How far will they go in their lives? Maybe a better question is, is there even a "real" future, especially for those individuals who are severely affected by agent orange? What about their family? I can't imagine how saddened the parents must be, knowing how hard life will be for their children, but powerless to protect them from such hardships. The more I asked myself these questions, the more depressed I became. I don't mean to pity these individuals' lives, but the predicament is just way too sad. Honestly, what is the point of life if this is the case? Going through all these thought processes, I knew I had to witness this reality for myself because that was the only way to find my answers.
When I arrived at the Friendship village and went into the first classroom, I was a bit shaken. They were just children, maybe around 5-7 years old. I thought for sure I have found my answers and it wasn't what I hoped to find. But, all that changed the more time I spent around these children. They became less shy and even to my surprise embracing. Seeing the smiles on their faces totally stripped all the pessimistic thoughts out of my head. I didn't care about answering my questions anymore, it didn't matter. For the moment, I was a part of their lives, just living it with them. They are no different from ordinary people, they have their own dreams and aspirations. Their lives is and probably will be much harder as one would expect, but for all that they had overcome I believe they will continue to do so and live life to their own fulfillment.
These moments really are the most endearing moments in my life. I want to thank these special kids for touching my life with their strength and smiles. Truly, thanks for the memories.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Hi, my name is Chanh. I was born on October 11, 1988. I have two siblings; an older sister and a younger brother. My home town is Cai Be, Tieng Giang. I grew up there for the first seven years of my life. Then my family moved to America, in search of a better future. My parents understood that better education was the key to that future for their children and they were willing to give up their comfortable life for it. With that by December of 1995 I was freezing my butt off in Daily City, California.
I went to school at Brisbane Elementary School for second grade. It was not really school per se, more like a babysitting. Toward the end of that year I managed to pick up two words, “The End”. I was pretty proud of that accomplishment. After second grade, my family moved to San Francisco. There I attended Sheridan Elementary School. Going to another school so soon was really hard to adapt to. Friends were hard to come by because of the language barriers. Academically I was doing horrible because I had no interest in learning. Fortunately, being young I unconsciously picked up the language as time went on. It was not until around fourth grade that I had picked up enough words to communicate about basic things and a bit of writing. By fifth grade I was doing extremely, so well that I was one of the kids chosen to speak at our graduation. Everything seemed to be going great, but the problem was that I was slowly losing my Vietnamese language and identity. At that age I took those things for granted because I had no purpose for them. I was in America and this was going to be my new home, so why bother? This was my justification to avoid learning Vietnamese, but in my defense at that age I did not want to learn anything period and Vietnamese was no exception.
From sixth to eighth grade, I would say my middle school experience was the typical American experience. Although during this time, I was exposed to prejudice and stereotype to some extent. I was matured enough to tell that I was not being judged by my characteristics anymore, but more based on how I look and my racial background. I remembered the label for me back then was a “chinaman”. Guess kids back then were not too good at geography. I wasn’t either. Then when it came to sports like basketball and football I was being overlooked because I was not Black, Latino, or Filipino. I was especially annoyed at being tossed around like a burden when it came to picking teams for those sports. I know I was not that good, but sure was better than the chubby Filipino kid! It was not until 8th grade that the stereotypes broke down, because by then all the kids knew each other pretty well.
High school was a different experience, it was fun actually. School was easy as pie, which was a good thing because school was nowhere near the top of my priority list. Those years were all about finding what “herd” you belong to, superficial relationships, and learning what’s “cool” and what’s not. I definitely did not want to miss out on these vital life lessons. On a serious note, I did find my fellow sheep-mates. They are an awesome group of friends, practically my second family. By having such a good external supporting network, I matured pretty well and preserved much of my sanity.
After those good years of high school, shitty college came around and I went through another “phase”. Almost all of my friends were split up to different schools and so I lost that daily companionship. I ended up at UC Davis. The first year of college I felt really lonely and depressed. On top of that I was feeling overwhelmed by the future, school, and life in general. I had no passion, motivation, or purpose. I was pretty much just a loser waiting for each day to ends. It was not until the mid of my sophomore year that a very special person to me revitalized and renew my spirit. She gave me something that I had always been lacking; a purpose. She told me the type of person she thought I was and was going to be. Regardless if it is true or not I made it my goal to become this person. With a sense of purpose I saw life though a tunnel vision view, and at the end of that tunnel was everything that I wanted to be. In order to accomplish my goal, I knew I had to change my life. I took school more seriously and almost instantaneously my academics got back on track, it was actually way better than it was ever was before. This was such a boost to my sense of self and confidence that it affected every aspect of my life. I took better care of myself and gain a new self-worth, learned to appreciate the important things in life, especially things that I took for granted before, and simply just knowing how much control I have over my life. With the same mentally, I made it through junior year pretty well. The best academic year of my college experience so far. Some time during this time, I came to the realization that college life sucks and I want something that really was worth my time. I came across the study abroad program and decided that Viet Nam was the best choice. Being my birthplace it holds the most meaning to me and so if I was going to experience anything, then it would have the most, if not strongest, effects on me. Plus, as an economic major I know I will be getting the most bang for by buck!

Obituary

Hans Holzer

I chose this obituary at random, but the life of a ghost hunter does sound interesting enough for a quick read. As I am reading mister Holzer’s obituary, I wonder how someone could ever live the life he had lived. Choosing to build his life’s legacy on something as wild as ghosts, some would say it is pure idiotic. That being said, I do admire him for being so successful at it. To be able to not only live life the way he believed in it, but also attracting others to his passion. I don't think there is any standard higher than that to measure success. Well, maybe except having enough self-confidence to to give yourself your own doctorate title.