Screenshot of the webinar On Saturday, 10 October, Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) organized a webinar entitled Beijing's Expanding Shadow: Choices for Vietnam in which Murray Hiebert, one of whose titles is Senior Associate (Non-resident), Southeast Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), spouted the prevailing anti-China party line and hawked his new book … Continue reading “Beijing’s Expanding Shadow: Choices for Vietnam”
Commentary
“Vietnam’s Economic Hopes Fade as COVID-19 Takes Away Business”
A flower vendor wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus waits for customers in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. Vietnam has tightened travel and social restrictions after the country's death toll of COVID-19 to six. (AP Photo/Hau via VOA) This 4 October Voice of America article is a textbook example of propaganda … Continue reading “Vietnam’s Economic Hopes Fade as COVID-19 Takes Away Business”
Is Vietnam the Next ‘Asian Miracle’?
The country is making autocratic capitalism work unusually well. Hang Ma Street in Hanoi, last month. Linh Pham/Getty Images This 13.10.20 New York Times op-ed by Ruchir Sharma, the chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, is a decent analysis for someone who is probably writing about Viet Nam from his perch in New … Continue reading Is Vietnam the Next ‘Asian Miracle’?
Going Home Again – The Vietnamese overseas return
Source images: Bitexco Financial Tower, in Ho Chi Minh City © Kevin Miller/Alamy; vendors in Hoi An © John Milligan/Alamy; Tra On, in the Mekong Delta region © Robert Harding/Alamy; Mekong Delta © Jason Langley/Alamy Here's an interesting take on Viet Nam, overseas Vietnamese, and related identity issues that appeared in the June 2020 issue … Continue reading Going Home Again – The Vietnamese overseas return
RE: Racist Aspects of the Recent DHS Proposed Rule to Eliminate F & J Visas Duration of Status (D/S)
Below is letter sent to one of the international education listservs of which I'm a member by a frequent contributor, Boston-based immigration attorney Richard L. Iandoli. (The italics are mine.) He mentions the three white nationalist musketeers. Drop them a line, if the spirit moves you. Stephen Miller, Senior Policy Adviser to the President and … Continue reading RE: Racist Aspects of the Recent DHS Proposed Rule to Eliminate F & J Visas Duration of Status (D/S)
“I can’t be a pessimist because I am alive.”
Photo courtesy of the New York Times Warm Mid-Autumn greetings from Viet Nam! How many of you are familiar with this quote from the great James Baldwin? I can't be a pessimist because I am alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So, I am … Continue reading “I can’t be a pessimist because I am alive.”
The Battle of the Coffee Chains in Viet Nam
Inside a Phuc Long tea and coffee outlet in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Tu. In this November 2019 blog post My Starbucks Story: Made in Viet Nam I told the story about how I reached out to Starbucks in 2005-06 to offer some unsolicited (and free!) advice about entering the Viet Nam market. Fast forward … Continue reading The Battle of the Coffee Chains in Viet Nam
“Learning English at school, a mandatory chore that leads nowhere”
High-school seniors listen as an inspector informs them with regulations before taking a test of the national high school graduation exam at a school in HCMC, August 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. An excellent article about the status of English instruction in Viet Nam in which I'm quoted. Here's my 8.9.20 article about this issue: … Continue reading “Learning English at school, a mandatory chore that leads nowhere”
Balancing Solidarity & Individualism in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond: a View from Vietnam
Image courtesy of Zing By contrast, Vietnam is well-positioned with a younger generation that is more individualistic than that of its parents because of their country’s integration into the global community, the Internet, and the fact that they are growing up in a time of peace with no (physical) external enemies, yet still possesses a … Continue reading Balancing Solidarity & Individualism in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond: a View from Vietnam
9-11: The Day the Chickens Came Home to Roost
Photo by MAA (2019) I was sitting at my desk, cup of coffee in hand, when I heard the news and watched it on CNN. Some of my memories include the crisp late summer weather punctuated by a deep blue sky, the messages of concern from colleagues around the world that arrived in my inbox, … Continue reading 9-11: The Day the Chickens Came Home to Roost
An International Educator in Vietnam 
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