Tag Archives: national convention

Blending in in Vietnam

One faithful reader complains of difficulty in picking out my friend Zabine from the group photos posted here. The reason is that Zabine and I, as seasoned world travelers, have learned to blend into a crowd of Vietnamese.

Here’s a picture of the two of us blending in. Zabine, you’ll notice, does it better than I do. It takes special skill to fly under the radar when you tower over the folks with whom you’re blending. Still, don’t you agree I could do worse?

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Be that as it may, Zabine blends very well, height-wise. So long as she’s surrounded by really tall Vietnamese men. With women, maybe not quite so well. Note below the extent to which “Shorty” (as her friends know her) does or doesn’t blend with typical Vietnamese women. She’s in the center. Please disregard her friend Barbara, who, as a fellow-Westerner (on Zabine’s left), blends almost as well as I do.

Days Three-Four 172But unlike Barbara, Zabine and I face a further challenge in the blending sweepstakes: We not only are taller than our Vietnamese counterparts, we’re also (ahem!) significantly wider. After nearly two weeks of striding through packed crowds with my bird’s-eye view, I have yet to see a single overweight Vietnamese person. I’m told they exist, but cannot confirm this from observation. Width-wise, I blend in best in my own land, where two-thirds of us are overweight and one-third are obese.

Details, details. Here we are below, blending into the audience at Hanoi’s 20th anniversary celebration for the founding of its Baha’i community. Bet you’d never have spotted us if I hadn’t circled us in red, huh? Except maybe for the telltale white hair. Hmm. We might need to work on that in a nation where most everyone, young or old, has black hair (or near-black). Maybe some henna…

AudienceHuyen Speaking of black: Our young friend Huyen told me yesterday that her name in Vietnamese literally means “black” (referring to eyes and hair), and is therefore synonymous with “beautiful” since in that cultural context black is considered beautiful. Wow! Reminds me of the Sixties when our African-American friends fought to popularize that same truth with regard to dark skin. How wonderfully they succeeded! (And yet, how tragic that in that community — or too much of it — darker skin still is deemed aesthetically inferior to lighter.)

But my point… Let’s see, did I have a point? Oh, yes, something about blending. But I can’t write any more about that right now. It’s time to go practice my chopsticks, so that our Vietnamese hosts (and expert chopstick-wielders like Zabine) don’t have further need to stifle their laughter and make polite excuses next time the bite I’m fumbling with flies across the table and hits them in the forehead. For those of us who practice blending, the challenge is never-ending.

Hanoi: Baha’i 20th Anniversary

For Zabine Maryam (Linkins) Van Ness, this has been a journey of 20 years. For me, it only felt like one.

Hanoi-FlowersWe arrived Sunday morning at the hotel in Hanoi where the Baha’i community was gathering to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its founding. Stunning floral arrangements were everywhere. Many of these, I hear, were sent by the government, which recognized the Baha’i Faith here four years ago and with which the friends now have very good relations. Wishing to offer support, government officials were taken aback to discover that the Baha’is could not accept funding from outside sources. They therefore sent flowers as – I assume – did many other institutions and individuals.

Traditional Vietnamese costumes were much in evidence, alongside Western business attire. Throughout the day, Zabine was warmly greeted both by Vietnamese friends and by foreign dignitaries who remembered her humanitarian work in their respective countries.

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Days Three-Four 086 The new National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Vietnam, elected the day before at the annual national convention, was introduced. Among the members is Tahirih Hong Le (the only woman), daughter of Le Loc, a longtime friend of Zabine’s from the Old Days. Le Loc once served as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of South Vietnam , and later as chairman of the NSA of unified Vietnam.

Cameras were everywhere – traditional cameras, cell-phone cameras, you name it. They were snapping continuously. I mostly took photos of people I didn’t know in groupings I didn’t recognize. They all seemed to want Zabine in the picture. Occasionally they even wanted me, which was awkward since, willing though I was, I really preferred to be wield the camera. But of course I occasionally gave in and turned it over to one of the friendly volunteers who always stood ready. Thus I ended up in some very memorable photos.

It was impossible not to notice that iPhones and iPads were everywhere. More than once, I had occasion to try to type my name and e-mail address or web-link into someone else’s contact book. I say “try” because I kept tripping over an unfamiliar keyboard layout, and oddly accented characters would pop up at times for no apparent reason. The extraordinary customizability of Apple products is of course is one reason why iEverything permeates world markets iEverywhere. (But I digress.)

Some prominent government officials attended the celebration. They were of course treated with highest honors, befitting their high rank. Recognizing the Baha’i community as a force for social progress and stability, the government of Vietnam has been very supportive since granting official recognition in 2008.

No one introduced me to the officials in attendance, however, and I blush to confess that I’m not sure which (if any) of my group photos include them. At the time, I wasn’t even sure whether individuals of such high station would be comfortable having their photos taken by a visiting American. So for reasons of cultural sensitivity I exercised caution, only to hear later that that very caution might have been perceived as culturally insensitive. (Sigh!)

Baha’i Counselor George Soraya of Indonesia gave a rousing keynote speech. He emphasized Baha’i principles of obedience to government, peace, education, loyalty to government, the oneness of humanity, Baha’i non-participation in partisan politics, cooperation with government, non-violence, and obedience to government.

Days Three-Four 119 Another moving address was from a beautiful lady (Mrs. Tran Thi Bich) who was the second Hanoi Baha’i, having been enrolled 20 years ago by the first believer, Dr. Dao An Son. Sadly, the latter’s whereabouts are currently unknown, although the National Spiritual Assembly made every effort to find her during the lead-up to the celebration.

There were stage performances of various kinds – guitar, dance, vocal – all of them excellent. There was a beautiful slide show, highlighting the events that gave birth to the Hanoi Baha’i community, as well as its two decades of growth and progress since that time. The slides included several from the presentation prepared by Zabine (see the previous article on this web site).

At the appropriate point, Zabine herself was invited to stand and was introduced befittingly. As noted earlier, she can rightly be regarded as mother of the Hanoi Baha’i community, having enrolled that city’s first believer in 1992. (See previous article for details.) Although she received rousing applause from the audience, she was unable to address the convention: Her visa did not arrive in time for her to seek and obtain government clearance for such an address.

After the celebration, we found ourselves in a sea of tearful goodbyes. Language and culture aside, the high emotions would have been familiar to anyone who has experienced the close of any Baha’i school, conference, or other large gathering: No one wanted to go. But time moves on, and hotel rooms must be cleared for the next gathering.

We went for lunch, later, at a nice restaurant with a large group of celebration attendees. While I ate, Zabine mostly ignored her food in favor of negotiating Very Great Things with a prominent Thailand Baha’i. Her newfound friend, Rosalie Huibonhua, watched from across the table with growing concern and finally told me, “We have to make this woman eat!” I was like, “You think I can make Zabine do anything?”

Well, of course I can’t – and I’m pretty sure that’s the way things are supposed to be.

Vietnam: Hanoi Beginnings

April 29, 2012 (Sunday) – As I have explained, the stated reason Zabine Van Ness and I are in Vietnam is that the Hanoi Baha’i community, on the 20th anniversary of its founding, wanted to honor Zabine for her role in that seminal event.

That “stated” reason is of course their reason – and a good reason it is indeed. But it isn’t Zabine’s reason for accepting the invitation. She came here with the hope that she could assist and empower the Vietnamese friends today, perhaps even more than she did in the past. “The celebration is about the last 20 years,” she says. “It’s time to be working on the next 20.”

That’s what she has done, from the moment the plane touched down. More about that later. Zabine, however, has a passion for documenting history and has put together a fabulous slideshow about the events 20 years ago that launched the Hanoi community. She and her then-husband, the late J.T. Linkins, taught and enrolled the first Hanoi believer, Dr. Dao An Son. The circumstances were harrowing: J.T. almost died, under circumstances that might easily have triggered an international incident.

But he didn’t die, and all was well that ended well. Please click the image below to read the amazing story. It is in PDF format, and you will need the free Adobe Reader software (adobe.com) to view it. If you have it installed already, you should be able to view it in your browser window. (And please be patient – it’s a large file and may take a few minutes to download.)

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