Nov 2008

Check out this site for pictures of the recent Hanoi floodings. Most of the photos are in the area I live in, none of them are in the city of Hanoi, just outer suburbs. Played with a lovely Vietnamese ballad.

http://slide.legono.com/?tag=Hanoi&uid=tester

Also, something interesting about the Vietnam War. It's over 20 years old, but still relevant. Hosted by Charlton Heston, ex president of the NRA and Ape Man extraordinare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqayiS3NnuY

Love.
Cat.

So I'm not an American, therefore cannot vote on who becomes the next American president. Some Americans simply do not choose to vote. There was a time though, that the only people that could vote (like many other countries) were white, male, property owners, gradually allowing all races, and both genders after the Civil War.

I'm not going to talk about who I "would vote for if I was American", nor am I going to talk about how one or the other is better than the other.

It's just so interesting, that for the first time in history, Americans have the opportunity to choose a black candidate. It's funny that he has been labelled as "not black enough", because of his ethnicity, and the fact that he has lived in Indonesia, Hawaii and has had a rather good education. This compares to the "real African Americans" who a lot of the time, do not receive the luxury of a higher education, and may have the "chip" of racial resentment on their shoulders. But I'm not too sure. He's far "blacker" than McCain, so wouldn't he be a better option to represent the needs of African Americans? I'm not sure how much of the African American population will actually support Obama. Maybe they distrust him because he doesn't appear to be "black enough". Or maybe, really, they distrust him because of his background, and because he is smart, educated, very able, and extremely successful so far.

And McCain. After learning more about McCain, his relevance to me is so much more, well, relevant. I had dinner on Truc Bach Lake last night. Beautiful, romantic, lights alit, Truc Bach Lake. It's my favourite spot. They make fantastic pho xao. But 40 years prior, this is where John McCain parachuted into and almost drowned, after being shot down. He was then captured by Vietnamese civilians.

He was transported to Hoa Lo prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by Americans. McCain was a Prisoner of War for five and a half years, which involved torture, beatings, solitary confinement and no medical attention to injuries. Pretty severe I must say.

I pass this prison whenever I go into the centre. Sometimes I drive past without even realising, sometimes I stop and think about the fact that this prison was a POW camp, where the communists were held by the French during French rule in Vietnam, and where American soldiers were held during communist rule. The street is the only street in Hanoi to have only one address on it.......the prison.

So Australia, being such a young country, of course, we have a history, but not like this. Right here, in Hanoi, I'm in the thick of it. It's incredible seeing places that hold magnificent, or unebelievable, or horrible histories. I'm sure there are many places around the world that hold such old stories in them. But I haven't seen much of the world.....so I guess I will have to wait and see.

So it will be interesting who is chosen. I always think about the Howard/Rudd "race to Parliament House". Rudd wore psychadelic ties, brushed his hair the other way, was slightly younger, and appealed to the younger generation. In comparison to the older Howard, had already been Prime Minister for four terms, and labelled by some as "out of touch" with the Australian people.

I think some of these elements are shown in the two candidates fighting it out today on the 5th November 2008.

So, I will, in Hanoi, always be thining about the incredible history that I can "witness", learn about, research, and literally visit.

My youth is going to show here, but........I think that is pretty damn cool.

Love.
Cat.

P.S. The rain has stopped, and I can get out, but I still have to walk through lots of water. It's supposed to start raining again tomorrow. No! (Please pray for no rain)

Oh Melbournians, please pray for rain.......

So if you read the World News section of the paper, or are somewhat interested in news in Vietnam, you would have noticed that there has been severe flooding in Central and Northern Vietnam since Thursday. Since my post on Friday, the rain has continued, literally causing a flood in the western and southern suburbs of Hanoi (I live in the South Western of Hanoi). Luckily, the land that my building and 3 others is acting like a "mote", on higher ground, so the water hasn't actually reached the doors of the buildings. Some buildings nearby (rather expensive, and inhabited by some foreigners) have underground parking for cars and motorbikes. They have, as you can imagine, have been completely flooded, and the vehicles damaged/destroyed.

So on the plus side I am very lucky. I'm not one of the poor, working Vietnamese families, so harshly affected because my house has been flooded. I'm not one of the two men found dead in their truck after drowning during heavy rain. I'm not one of the children washed away because of the strong waves caused from buses, trucks, and wind. I am 8 floors up in my building, and have an excellent view of the crazy amounts of water.

On the flip side, I am extremely bored. I've been in the house since Friday. My room mate and I went out on Friday to Big C, the supermarket about 500 metres away, which took us 40 minutes to get there, about the same to get back. We pushed on through 30 centimetres or so of dirty murky water along with lot's of other residents. We stocked up on all sorts of food, minus vegetables, which there were none of. Hardly any meat or fish either.

The following day, I stayed in, but was literally dying of boredom. The old quarter by then was clear, and they had no problems, so I was really tempted to go out. 3 friends contacted me and asked me to come out, but I was really reluctant. But I did, I had to! It was so boring. So I ended up getting a lift with a friend who lives in the building, who has a big big car. I've never been in a car inHanoi, and it was rather fun going through the water, but the downside was that we created massive waves for the people on the street. I ended up sleeping at afriends house closer to the city, as no taxi would take me home to my place on the early hours of Sunday morning.

Anyway, so the weekend has come and gone, the rain stopped last night (thank God), and today I was at home again. I really hope I can go back to work tomorrow because 1) I miss the kiddies and 2) I need some sort of sanity in my life!

So please have a think about the everyday Vietnamese people who have been much more greatly affected (in other ways than boredom) by the flooding over the last few days. There have been some who have lost their homes, or property, motorbikes, cars, crops (in rural areas), and even family members and children. I have been so lucky living where I am, and am very thankful! But particuarly out in rural areas, where the people are generally poorer, there business has been destroyed, and many of them have lost friends and family. This is not something like the Myanmar cyclone, or Asian Tsunami, but it's something still of great importance to Vietnam. A major blow to it's agricultural industry, and a sufference on everyday Vietnamese people and families.

The rain has stopped in Hanoi, I hope it has elsewhere, so the we can recover, and move on, and continue with life.

Here are some links with information and photos:

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/photogal/2008/11/811399/

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=43380

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=43407

Love.
Cat.