"If you drink beer or liquor, don't drive. Safety for you and society." On my drive home the other night after an evening event, I chose a route that I figured would have a police checkpoint at that time of night on the lookout for drunk drivers. Let me modify that: drivers who had even … Continue reading Zero Tolerance, No Exceptions
vietnam
Mary, Queen of Peace, in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
This is one of the nicer "Marys" I've seen in a HCMC taxi or rideshare car I've seen. I immediately know if my driver is Catholic, a legacy of French colonialism and pre-colonial influence, or Buddhist, based on what's on their dashboard. (7% of Vietnam's population identifies with the former. About 1% are Protestant.) My … Continue reading Mary, Queen of Peace, in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
A Small Business Role Model: Kudos to Pizza 4P’s!
I've eaten a lot of pizza and related dishes in my time and I can say without exaggeration that Pizza 4Ps is the most delicious I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. I'm impressed by the consistent quality across locations and over time. It's one reason why Pizza 4P's now has 31 restaurants in Vietnam, … Continue reading A Small Business Role Model: Kudos to Pizza 4P’s!
The Bloodstained Legacy of Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)
Or serving on the board of trustees of a former employer... (Read the linked article below to find out which one.) Coincidentally, I recently returned from a trip to Cambodia, a country I first traveled to in 1999, to visit a friend, one of the truly good ones, who lay dying of cancer. (He passed … Continue reading The Bloodstained Legacy of Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)
The Little Darlings Are Still Hard at Work
Defacing Public and Private Property as a Form of "Personal Expression" These two photos, which I took on a recent trip to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), are examples of graffiti/tagging and street art. In the first example, young people run around at night, spray paint cans in hand, "expressing themselves" wherever they find a … Continue reading The Little Darlings Are Still Hard at Work
The Lasting Legacy of Good Teachers
This is a blog post that I originally uploaded in 2021 and was published in Vietnamese by Zing. The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. -Mark Van Doren Teacher’s Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers, a once-a-year opportunity to remember, honor, and thank them for their contributions to … Continue reading The Lasting Legacy of Good Teachers
Happy 14th Anniversary, IEinVN!
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 14 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging. It’s no coincidence that I started this blog two months after co-founding Capstone Vietnam, rebranded last year as Capstone Education, a full-service educational consulting company with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). It was a … Continue reading Happy 14th Anniversary, IEinVN!
Hail The Scrap Collectors and Scavengers!
Photo by MAA. Taken in early October 2023 in Hanoi. These are people most of us ignore or worse look down on. They roam the streets of Hanoi and other cities on their rickety bicycles or aging motorbikes looking for recyclable material they can sell at a very modest profit. When I saw this woman … Continue reading Hail The Scrap Collectors and Scavengers!
Micro-Illustration of a Linear Economy in Action
I took this photo near my Hanoi office. No, this is not litter, although there's plenty of that to go around; it's one way that garbage is disposed of in the nation's cities. Throw it to the curb and the street cleaners will pick it up and put it in their mobile bins. From there … Continue reading Micro-Illustration of a Linear Economy in Action
Obesity: A Curse Passed Down from Parent to Child
As seen recently at a restaurant in Ha Long in northern Vietnam. Full disclosure (and trigger alert?): In Vietnam, people use the word "fat" (béo) to describe those who are overweight or obese. There's no sugarcoating this reality, no euphemisms, just a brutally honest adjective. It made me sad to see this little girl sitting … Continue reading Obesity: A Curse Passed Down from Parent to Child
An International Educator in Vietnam 
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