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.)
April 29, 2012 (Sunday) – Simple acts of kindness are miraculously effective at bridging deep divides. Among the many miracle workers we have met in Hanoi are Michael Orona; his wife, Selena; and their three children.
These beautiful Baha’i souls made history at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the founding of the Hanoi Baha’i community. There’s still a lot more other news and photography in the pipeline, so please stay tuned. But I could not wait to post the video below. The stage performance it depicts took my breath away because, as I was recording it, its significance suddenly struck home. “Has anything like this ever happened before?” I wondered.
I couldn’t think of anything. Neither, when we discussed it later, could Michael. Please bear with me while I explain:
Michael is a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps. He serves at the American embassy in Hanoi as the ambassador’s adviser on human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam. His heritage is Native American, his father being Apache. (He hails from Arizona, a state where — I was delighted to discover — we share close friends in Charles and Jeanette Coffey.) Anyone who meets Michael or his family will immediately sense their deep love for Vietnam, its people, its culture, its long and often painful history – and their hope for its future.
But what is historic about performing Baha’i music at a Baha’i celebration? Don’t people do this all the time, just about everywhere? Yes, of course we do. What in this video is different?
Probably you already see where I’m heading with this, but please consider two points that sharpen our focus:
First, after the unspeakably tragic events of the Sixties and Seventies, it would have been hard to imagine two governments further apart, diplomatically, than those of the United States and Vietnam. The rebuilding of trust has been slow, awkward, and painful. My sense is that much of that path remains to be traveled.
Second, although the celebration we attended was completely Vietnamese, its ramifications were national and even international, given the attendance. Scores of well-wishers came from other countries, including at least one from the diametrically opposite side of the planet. (That was me!) In Vietnam, anyone wishing to make a stage presentation at such an event must first seek and receive approval from the government. For example, Zabine did not address the gathering because she did not get her visa in time to submit the necessary application.
But back to the family of Michael Orona: As they sang of love and peace, it occurred to me that this might well be the first time (since the end of military engagement) that any American government official had performed onstage at a state-sanctioned national event in Vietnam. Of course, I understood that someone else might know of such an event where I wouldn’t. But Michael himself almost certainly would know, and he too could think of no previous instance.
I am therefore cautiously confident that this was indeed a historic “first”. One that should help bring our countries and our people closer together. It certainly exemplifies the Baha’i approach to unification and healing, heart to heart. Please enjoy and comment on the video:
April 29, 2012 (Sunday) — Today is the big day of our trip, the reason we came: the 20th anniversary celebration of the founding of Hanoi’s Baha’i community.
I have a lot of notes and photos to document this milestone and will upload them Any Day Now. But while I’m organizing, please enjoy this video of the performance which opened the celebration. It’s a traditional Vietnamese “rice dance”, performed by a group of young women that includes Huyen, one of the two who guided Zabine and me during our second-day outing.
This video found its way onto YouTube minutes after it was taken and while the celebration still was barely getting started. My impression is that it’s the very first video coming out of event, though not the last.
One of my striking impressions of Vietnam is how colorful everything is. This is no coincidence, nor is it just a fact about tropical nature. It extends to human artifacts of all kinds. This seems to reflect a deep national and cultural attraction to beauty.
There are many other counties where this is far less true. Places where, despite sometimes stunning natural beauty, people seem otherwise content with relatively bland surroundings. Having visited and lived in some of those places, I never understood why. Perhaps that’s why I’m feeling so at home here.
The photos below are mostly from a drive through Hanoi on Day Three — our destination being Zabine’s workshop on meaningful conversation. Although Hanoi’s streets almost always bustle with traffic, I’ve deliberately edited out most of the traffic to showcase the color and artistry of Vietnamese architecture.
Not everything in these photos is typical. The murals along highway walls, for example, are found primarily in and around the governmental sector. But the same principle holds in inner-city business districts, outlying villages, and everything in between: The Vietnamese people love color. You see it in their clothing, decorations, signs, architecture, cuisine, everywhere.
Please note in particular the last photo, which is not colorful but is important nonetheless. It’s the famous Ho Chi Minh Memorial, one of the most important must-see sights when visiting Vietnam.
April 28, 2012 (Saturday) – This morning, Zabine had a wonderful and completely unexpected encounter with Rosalie Huibonhua, a Baha’i Continental Counselor. Her areas of responsibility include China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and other Asian countries. She is here, of course, to attend the celebration of the Hanoi Baha’i community’s 20th anniversary.
We met her at the home of a member of the Vietnam Baha’i national governing body. Although it seemed like a chance meeting, I don’t really believe in luck. Zabine and Rosalie, it turns out, share a common vision regarding social action and spiritual education. The Counselor instantly recognized many ways Zabine’s work could facilitate her own. They both talked so fast I couldn’t keep up, but my sense is that Very Great Things will come from the relationship.
Later in the afternoon, Zabine taught a workshop on resources for engaging in unifying conversation. Speaking of which: Most of the friends attending were Vietnamese, so she spoke with the aid of a translator. Although she brought various printed materials, one of her best tools is turning out to be the iPad. Considering Zabine never had used an iPad until this week (she’s borrowing mine), it’s amazing how quickly she has mastered thic amazing tool.
That evening, back at our home-away-from-home, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and relaxed conversation with our hosts. Although I love traveling, it is inevitably hectic: You’re always in novel situations and running on high energy. We were more than ready for this deeply peaceful evening. Tomorrow is another day.
If you contemplate travel to Vietnam, you may want to brush up on how to stay connected with home. It is a lot easier than I expected.
You can make free phone calls to home. You can keep your smart-phone, computer, camera, and everything else fully charged. You can plug in.
First step, plugging in: Most modern electronics have dual-voltage power supplies. This applies to all Apple products, all the Android products I’ve checked, and the laptops I’ve checked. (You can verify the dual-voltage status by Continue reading →
April 27, 2012 (Friday) – Having enjoyed our motorcycle ride, we were set for a busy day.
First, we sat in on a committee meeting at the home of a Baha’i friend, met many members of the Baha’i community, along with a visiting Counselor, George Saroya, from Indonesia. Lunch at an outdoor noodle cafe. Delicious food. Did I mention that I am not normally adventurous with unfamiliar cuisine? So far, however, I’ve enjoyed all kinds of new dishes I don’t recognize, can’t pronounce, and that taste unlike anything I recall. It’s turning out to be a treat, not a challenge. (But stay tuned!)
After lunch, we were turned over to two wonderful young Vietnamese women, Ha and Huyen (pronounced “When”). They escorted us on a long trek through downtown Hanoi. Shopping, sightseeing, learning cultural history. Too much to easily absorb, much less summarize here – but amazing stuff. Long walks, long bus rides. (Riding a bus in Hanoi feels just like riding a bus in any American city, or at least that was my take on it.)
In the evening, we attended a Baha’i Feast observance at a private residence. At least 50 to 60 Baha’is attended – almost all of them Vietnamese. Rare exceptions included our hosts, Michael and Selena, who are American; ourselves, and a couple of visitors attending for the same reason we are: To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Baha’i community in Hanoi.
Speaking of which, Zabine was recognized and honored for her role in teaching and enrolling the first Hanoi believer, Dr. Dao An Son. She’s thus regarded by the Baha’is here as the founder of their community. Asked to speak, she conveyed loving greetings from hundreds of well-wishers from throughout the planet. Zabine has unnumbered Internet connections: more than 4500 Facebook friends, just for starters. She assured them (through her interpreter) that this immense worldwide community is vibrant with admiration for everything the friends in Vietnam are accomplishing.
Tomorrow (Saturday) happens to be Vietnam’s annual Baha’i convention, where the National Spiritual Assembly is elected. Since Zabine and I can’t attend that, we aren’t sure how we’ll be spending the day: That is up to our hosts. But Sunday is an open anniversary celebration to which everyone is invited – public officials, private citizens (Baha’i and otherwise), and visiting dignitaries.
April 27, 2012 (Friday) – Our busy day started with an unexpected treat – motorcycle rides for Zabine and me. We knew that Baha’i friends were coming by to pick us up, and I suppose we expected a van or car or something. But the most normal mode of transport in Hanoi seems to be the motorcycle, so it was our time to be initiated.
Major streets in Hanoi are narrower than those in Ho Chi Minh City. There are good lane markings when there’s no construction going on – but there is a lot of construction.
Nevertheless, motorcycle travel in Hanoi is safe and stress-free. Until you get out of the driveway. Connecting alleys are okay, except for the requisite right-angle turns at high speed. Then you enter a major thoroughfare, and the rules change. Including, apparently, the rules of physics: Standard equations that govern momentum, drag, gravity, and quantum thermodynamics no longer apply.
Hanoi has six million people and three million motorcycles, most of which are on the street simultaneously. (Okay, not literally – but a high percentage.) There also are large numbers of large buses, smaller buses, SUVs, cars (regular and compact), bicycles, pedestrians, and other moving objects.
At any given moment, each of those moving objects appears to be on a high-speed collision course with at least five other moving objects. Often a lot more. Time and again I wanted to yell, “You’re heading straight toward an oncoming bus!” Or we’d be zooming toward the back of a car ahead of us, going in the same direction, when an SUV would zoom past that car through an opening that appeared half its size. Milliseconds before the SUV would pass, my driver would slip between the two vehicles and tool nonchalantly along.
How I wish I had photos taken from the back of that motorcycle. Or better yet, a video. But waving around a camera phone during the actual ride wasn’t an act that leapt to mind as rational. I held on tightly. It was fun, sometimes in the way an extreme carnival ride is fun. Our drivers were highly skilled and completely accustomed to the traffic environment, so the reality is that we were – statistically speaking – quite safe. I’d say we were at least as safe as one is driving a car during Knoxville rush-hour traffic. Probably a lot safer.
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.
