WWED Stories Now Available for Syndication

The Wild East Dailies (WWED), my other blog, is a collection of over 500 stories relating to Asia, Korea and Vietnam over the past 3 1/2 years, from an American expatriate POV. All stories are protected under a Creative Commons license that encourages reprinting but only for non-commercial enterprises. Our stories have been linked or quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine.


If you are a commercial print publication, webzine or other site and have interest in reprinting WWED stories, please contact us. We offer very reasonable rates and can even write on demand for Asian related issues. Contact David.E.Carlson@gmail.com for more information.

Happy Birthday America! How's that workin' out for ya?

As this 4th of July begins I find myself in an interesting position on the present state of our country. I don't live there. Recently,when discussing being asked by an editor to look at a story on the release of Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, a writer and pro-Democracy advocate here Vietnam, a British friend reacted, "Ha, Democracy, how's that workin' out for us these days?" And that's a more than reasonable retort considering the world's economic changes over the past 10 years or so. Is it democracy that makes people happy, or economic prosperity and the peace of mind that their government is doing the best job they can on behalf of all of its citizens?

Promoting the wealth and prosperity of citizens doesn't seem to be a hallmark of democracy alone. Does it really matter that countries have one party, or two, or tens - or a monarchy, or even a benevolent dictatorship? The United States supports any number of monarchies throughout the world, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with nary a lecture on 'democracy' to them and our history of supporting dictators of the non-benevolent variety and then not supporting them later is spotty at best.

And when was the last time anybody voted on a war, or an economic stimulus package or anything else that mattered to their daily lives? We just voted for the people who made those decisions. And did that make the decisions better? Over the last 10 years, democracy has been behind the evaporation of a federal surplus left to us by President Clinton, two new war fronts we didn't have (or need) previously, and the single worst 10 years in the stock market ever. How's that workin' for us? Need we credit or discredit democracy?

Democracy had nothing to do with any of that. And our efforts in Vietnam over 50 years ago to "stop the spread of communism" didn't do much in our favour either. So it seems that labeling governments by their brand of politics has little to do with the policies those governments produce. China has endured harsh western criticism of its human rights record in the past but has also doubled its GDP, twice, in the last 30 years, bringing modernity and prosperity to the greatest number of people on the planet ever. Somehow now, with our new enormous debt to that country, I suspect there will be a lot less diplomatic finger wagging towards them in the future. A very democratic decision, for sure.

So Happy Birthday America. That's 236 years of Democracy and freedom from British taxes - now, if we could just pay those Chinese taxes.

A suspension of disbeliefs is a desirable delusion when watching a film or play, but a less desirable one with regard to participating in the politics that shape our lives. Once this anniversary party is over it's time for Americans to get back to the real-life game plan of providing appropriate jobs and social welfare on a standard with the top countries in the world (which we currently don't). The question is, what can you do to help?

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my previous blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies.

Motorbike Helmets for Kid's in Vietnam? Not yet.

A few years ago Vietnam finally passed a law requiring motorbike riders to wear a helmet but this law only required them for adult riders. Kids don't need them. Is somebody kidding somebody? We could blame the lawmakers for not seeing the fatalities and injuries amongst children but that shouldn't release parents from their basic responsibilities to protect those children should it? I didn't think so. And so an idea was hatched (yeah, bad pun) to do a public service campaign to speak to parents about the importance of the whole family wearing a helmet. In a country of what might be easily, 30 million motorbikes for roughly 80 million people the motorbike is a way of life in Vietnam. In fact it's an extension of life, an extra limb it has been called. But it's also a way of death, the highest rate of highway fatalities in Asia before enactment of the law.

On launch day, the government deployed 5000 police around the city (Saigon) to enforce strict fines ($10 is strict here) and lo and behold - one day nobody had a helmet and the next day they did. Except for the children. And this baffled the crap out of me. Didn't the people understand that a not fully formed skull can be crushed up to 60% easier than an adult's? Didn't they see it as important? And the answer is, 'no they didn't'. What was important to them was not paying a fine to comply with the law. Sad, I thought. No thought about the reasons one should wear a helmet at all.

Ask anyone what they believe to be a symbol of birth and childhood and you will eventually hear the word 'egg'. So I took that visual and put a helmet on it. It was funny. And it worked. We all know eggs crack easily and putting a helmet on them just reinforced the point. Photographer Mads Monsen and I worked together to create this campaign and we did it without a specific client in mind - because we thought the idea was important. Should you know of any organization in Vietnam who might be interested in running this work as a public service, please contact me. We would love to get this campaign up and running and doing the job the parents should be doing - getting all their kids to wear a helmet.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my previous blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”: Mohandas Gandhi

Did anyone else find the display and joy of Americans in the streets over the death of Osama Bin Laden just patently morose and self serving - even crass by conservative standards? I am American and I did. I also live in Vietnam, a country where America killed nearly 1,100,00 north Vietnamese soldiers over 40 years ago during the conflict and infected another estimated 5 million today with diseases and deformities as a result of Agent Orange dispersion - the 2nd largest display of attempted chemical genocide ever in modern times. Perspective is needed here. Information is needed here. History is needed here, compassion is needed here - not gloating in place of proper grieving for our small number of lives and architecture lost. This week was a media event, a play into our willing suspension of disbelief to have a bad man die at the end of a battle. You can leave the movie now, it's over. Time for another presidential election campaign. I felt we as a country behaved deplorably in a moral capacity this week.

Bob Dylan in Vietnam - Impressions

This is not a review. I offered to do a review for a local magazine but that was declined because they felt they were given short shrift by the promoter in press and photo passes, so I didn't attend the show to make notes and work, I went to enjoy. Budget matters raised their ugly head towards the end of the week. But I'm about to turn 55, am severely underemployed and have had my writing critiqued recently as "pretentious and flowery" so going to the first real major rock concert in Vietnam seemed like the proper tonic for the times. I wouldn't regret it.


Phone jangles around 4 Sunday with my buddy Ryan texting me about meeting for pre-show drinks. Meeting up with six mates or so we got an early buzz going and headed off to the show around 6. The only thing I would be missing would be a ticket. But that was fairly easily solved in that the university, RMIT, had been offering 2 for one to students and there was no shortage of students looking for partners to buy in. I did and was in in seconds. $25 bucks.

Early rounds for what seemed like a grand garden party on the grass football pitch at the university were spent sitting and chatting and sharing some of the local smoking produce. Billed to accommodate 8000 this seemed about half full with tents for beer and food and a VIP section that, had I spent $120 for that ticket, would have been summarily pissed off at the left sideline location and slow beer queues. But slow beer queues were de rigueur for the evening with one having to purchase coupons first, 20 minutes, and then get in line for the beer - another 20. So absolutely nobody was drunk. A security precaution I'm sure. One blogger termed the service "clown-like". I couldn't agree more.

Partially billed as a tribute to Trinh Cong Son, the Vietnamese Bob Dylan, whatever his brilliance was, was lost in a haze of Don Ho-like theatrics and faux Vegas production, dragging big stars and even a Vietnam Idol winner on stage to just bore the living crap out of the crowd. It was positively dreadful, considering the primarily foreign crowd - so we engaged in a little more crop sharing and let the whole intro pass. Dropping a Prince-like banner behind the stage cued my biggest mis-call of the evening, thinking there was yet another Vietnamese band set to play. "That's not Bob Dylan's logo", I proclaimed to a friend, seeing the white on black swirly king crown symbol above one penetratingly watchful sparkly eye. "Looks more like something for a Swedish death metal band", I said. And wrong, wrong, wrong I was.

In a white skimmer Dylan hits the stage, guitar in hand, and whatever had become of our lawn party quickly disassembled - the rush of the crowd like a human tsunami quickly washing away rock real estate and trading it for SRO. Time to see the star. And with little or no fanfare the poet laureate plugs in. A few songs in and we crowd forward to see and hear better I feel the need for a pee and a smoke. So I writhe out of the crowd and find the sidelines toward the rear. Sound is much better midway back and "It Ain't Me You're Lookin' For" clocks two stars on my hit list for the evening. Following a few songs later with "Tangled Up In Blue" his arrangements would have baffled even but the most ardent of fans but this is where I felt he hit his stride. Harp work on "Tangled" was ethereal.

Getting to the back lawn I spy a girl with a laptop. WiFi on a soccer pitch - only in Vietnam. She's found the show live-streaming on Zing and is passing the laptop around for her friends to hear. "It's Hard" is a soft lawn favourite and I sit with a fresh beer and chill as if I am at Ravinia in Chicago or any number of other summer music festivals in the states or Europe. It's positively civilized. Good thing I got stoned earlier or it wouldn't have been a rock concert at all. "More wine and cheese Madge?" A Vietnamese man around my age taps his foot and rocks back and forth as his 16 year-old son sits motionless. "What do you think?", I ask the kid. "Cool", he says - pretty much summing up that he had never sat on the grass and watched a rock concert before. "This is weird - and this is what my dad likes." I found it positively charming. Change happens in teeny tiny ways and the times in Vietnam was a changin' just a bit that night.

"Highway 61" brought a hard Texas blues twist to Saigon and Dylan brought his best Tom Waits in to accompany. Walking back up front for the finish saw him playing vocalist on "Somethin's Happening Here" after spending too much of the night on keyboards - a weird thing I thought having seen him once before in 79 in his Jesus days.

First encore got everyone shouting to "Like A Rolling Stone" but even the audience had trouble figuring out the timing on that one. "Watchtower" didn't do much to solve audience arrangement confusion but made the crowd happy. Back for the second encore a sublime "Forever Young" was nice and soft and a fitting way for a seventy year old man to finish a show.

For me, I felt old, underpaid and trying to find something in just doing a simple thing that anyone in my age and supposed-pay scale should be able to do. I asked myself why all the good work I do doesn't get paid for and how to make things better. This week I quit two jobs that didn't pay me any money. Maybe that's a start. Seeing Dylan in Vietnam made me realize that the times indeed can change. Time for mine. "Pretentious and flowery" - there must be a market for that.


For Dylan's 'Vietnamese Government Approved Lyrics' click here.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my previous blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies.

Vietnamese Government Approved Bob Dylan Lyrics

In a memorandum from the ministry of communications, the Bob Dylan show scheduled for April 10 has been approved, but with revisions to some of Mr. Dylan's original lyrics. This has caused great consternation amongst many long and loyal Dylan fans in Vietnam as many of the songs were popular during a time of great national struggle. In response to these concerns, the Ministry has issued the following statement and approved lyric:

"The appearance of Mr. Robert Zimmerman (AKA: Bob Dylan) and his band will indeed be a watershed event in Vietnamese history. Some of Mr. Zimmerman's early songs played an important part in Vietnam's struggle for independence but the passing of 50 years has made many of his lyrics difficult for young Vietnamese people to understand. Working with top Ph.D.s from our most prestigious universities, we have carefully re-crafted and updated his lyrics to be more like what a Vietnamese student may have actually learned in school. Understanding also, that many of Mr. Zimmerman's lyrics are intended to employ 'poetic license' we have either left phrases alone, or substituted more contemporary American idioms from a bunch of idiom books we had lying around the office. We believe these lyrics accurately depict the author's feelings to today's Vietnamese audience and will be pleased to hear them sung in a contemporary socialist context." - The Ministry

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright


It ain’t no usto sit and wonder why, babe


It is of no value to sit and be confused about the circumstances, young lady


It don’t matter, anyhow


It is not of any importance in any case.


An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe


And it is no longer of any purpose to sit and ponder things that already are, adolescent female


If you don’t know by now


If you are not already aware of this fact


When your rooster crows at the break of dawn


When your male chicken sings as the sun comes up


Look out your window and I’ll be gone


Look out your window and I will have vacated the premises.


You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on


Because of you I am now in transit


Don’t think twice, it’s all right


Do not consider this two times, there are no anomalies here.


It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe


It is of no purpose to turn on your torch, young female


That light I never knowed


That torch I have never been familiar with.


An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe


And it is of no purpose to turn on your torch, young female


I’m on the dark side of the road


I am on the side of the road that has less light than the other side


Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say


Still I wish that you would do something or say something


To try and make me change my mind and stay


To try and make me change my mind and hang around for a bit


We never did too much talkin’ anyway


You and I were never very conversational in the first place


So don’t think twice, it’s all right


So do not consider this two times, there are no anomalies here.


It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal


It is of no purpose to call out my name, young woman.


Like you never did before


As if you had ever done that previously


It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal


It is of no purpose to call out my name, young woman.


I can’t hear you anymore


I can't hear you anymore.


I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road


I am thinking and wondering all the way down the road


I once loved a woman, a child I’m told


I once had improper sexual relations with an underage female I am told


I give her my heart but she wanted my soul


I gave her a lot of money but she wanted a house in America and a credit card and many, many things


But don’t think twice, it’s all right


But do not consider this two times, there are no anomalies here


I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe


I am walking down a road that does not have any other people on it, young lady.


Where I’m bound, I can’t tell


I do not have any f*&@#$% idea where I am going.


But goodbye’s too good a word, gal


But the word 'goodbye' is a much better word than I should use here, young woman.


So I’ll just say fare thee well


So I will just say goodbye anyway because that's the only English word I know that means goodbye.


I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind


I have not said that you treated me poorly.


You could have done better but I don’t mind


You screwed me over pretty badly but I do not care in any case.


You just kinda wasted my precious time


But I thought you were extremely time consuming and generally high maintenance.


But don’t think twice, it’s all right


But do not consider this two times, there are no anomalies here.


(additional suggestion)


With sincere thanks,


Robert

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies and keep up on our efforts with aSaigon/CreativeMorning.

Vietnamese Govt Approved Bob Dylan Lyrics: "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"

On 10 April, Bob Dylan will play Vietnam for the first time in Ho Chi Minh City at RMIT University. In preparation for his visit, the Vietnamese Censorship Authority has asked the RMIT English department to revise the lyrics to be linguistically, and grammatically correct for Vietnamese students. Below are the party approved lyrics for Mr.Dylan to sing to his song "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright":

It is of no use whatsoever to sit and question the circumstances, young lady.
It has now become a moot point.
And it is also futile, to sit and be curious about what already is so, miss mature adolescent female,
if you had not been aware of this previously.
When your male chicken sings as the sun comes up,
look out your window and I will have abandoned the premises.
It is because of you that I am now in transit.
Don't think the same thought double the number of times one might ordinarily think. 
There are no anomalies here.


Click above for full original lyrics.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies and keep up on our efforts with aSaigon/CreativeMorning.

Overheard in Vietnam: A question of what is believed to be disbelieved?

Below was found when looking at the blog one of my new Twitter followers, @QuynhGiao - and it illuminates the idea that to suspend one's disbelief, one must first believe in something. What do Vietnamese youth believe in? What they are being taught, or the life they are living?

• You don't know this -ism, Socialism? It's on your passport.

So startling a question, isn't it?

Socialism is in my thinking, when I read about it. Socialism is in my heart, when I love and hate it. But only when I overheard that question did I realize it's on my face!

Some days ago, they again mentioned Socialism. A girl said, "It's not Socialist. It's about Communism." That's what I'm pretty preoccupied with. Is what Dr Long Le*** argues, that most young Vietnamese are apolitical, true? Vietnamese youth are fed up with political education to the extent that they've ignored politics altogether? Or are they enjoying so many Western values that they'll fight against anything Vietnamese whatsoever? Or are they, like me, not sure if they're loyal kids or dissidents?


It has been said that when a tourist lands at the airport here in Ho Chi Minh City, that he will instantly look out at the beautiful new building and acres of neon advertising outside and immediately surmise that "America has finally won the war". Walking around either here in Saigon or in Hanoi, but much less so in the smaller cities of Hue or Hoi An or Dalat I am continually impressed by the suspension of disbelief with which the government continues promotion of a doctrine and ideal that seems, well, very 1960s to a foreign national. But it is interesting to see that the urban young Vietnamese national feels precisely the same way. All that government teaching lead you to Prada? Even fake Prada. It's all the same.

The language of brands has taken over the conversation and it's communicating loud and clear. And the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a brand - a brand badly in need of a makeover. It's almost as if the government and the people are of two different imaginary ideations. The government believing that they are running a socialist utopia, whilst living in a shopping mall with a string of new motorbike dealers outside, and the people believing that they are living in a shopping mall whilst plaster busts of past leaders and banners proclaiming dated symbolism beg for their compliance. Each group suspends disbelief in the other's belief because that's what's necessary to maintain harmony.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

-------------------------------------------------

Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies and keep up on our efforts with aSaigon/CreativeMorning.

I can't count the number of people/companies who want free stuff!

In Vietnam, everybody loves my work. But the minute I ask them to pay, anything at all, they all back off. Why? Because the expat people are all working on a budget that doesn't include money (except what they get paid) and the Vietnamese are all working on a budget that doesn't include money (except what they get paid). So what up? I can't help them because there is no money. Simple. But not their best choice. I spoke with a DJ and a rapper who said the same thing about his business. People want him to work for 'exposure'. Geez. If I get any more exposure my butt will get sunburned.

And this is not coming from nobodies. This is coming from graduates of Wesleyan University, The University of Chicago, American University, Ivy League schools and too many East Coast prep schools. These are people with educations that cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars, yet they come to Vietnam and deal in pennies - except when it comes to their houses, and their cars, and certainly their salaries.

Back at Leo Burnett in Chicago we had plenty of people like that. People from the North Shore with MBA's from Northwestern, mostly in marketing. We called those people, 'Hobbyists'. They were trust fund babies that didn't so much need a real job, but needed a job that looked to others like they had a real job, so they could go to the office every day and the symphony every weekend and to their country club events whenever needed. People from 'good' families - as the Koreans might say of their top tier. It took me a while to understand people like this. If I didn't have to work for my money, I certainly couldn't understand people who did. But I understand people like that now.

Recently, I saw a magazine launch and their big news was that the editor was the wife of the ambassador of a reasonably exotic sounding European country. A hobbyist for sure. But it looks great on the mag's sales pitch - and god knows, she doesn't need the money.

Count the Bentleys in town town amongst the locals who are most definitely making a buck. Watch another expat high-rise go up in Anh Phu or Phu My Hyun. In Vietnam we're beginning to witness one of the most surreal states of suspension of disbelief that we've seen outside of China in recent times. The one that makes people believe, that so long as they are doing well, that things are truly going well. And that's a worry. Oops, there's another boatload of expensively educated foreign NGO workers come to help Vietnam. Good. They work cheap. Mom and dad think they're saving poor people.