idolizing ho chi minh, educating into capitalism

The title of this writing itself is an oxymoron—in that a government which propagates to its people the personality cult of its last great leader is training its citizens to function in a global society operating under the system of capitalism. This is not only ironic, but laughable as state-sanctioned booklets on the doctrine of Marxism-Leninism are still being published—which were intended to support the party in its use of powers of government to educate the proletariat to remove the notion of false consciousness which leads to economic exploitation of the worker (funny thing, the party is still suppressing the bourgeoisie institution of religion in regards to political attachments, while actively promoting nationalism—two other components of the notion of false consciousness).

Thus, the partial liberalization of Viet Nam’s economy may have some unintended (or intended, depending on whose perspective it is) consequences. Perhaps there is a reason behind the party’s decision to allow overseas Vietnamese who choose to contribute to the country’s economic development to have fifty year leases on land (temporary private ownership of land by the new bourgeoisie as opposed to Communism’s mandated collective ownership of land by the proletariat), and five year multiple entry visas. If the doctrine of Leninism holds true, another revolution is probably soon on its way to overthrow capitalism (once again) as reforming capitalism from within is stated as being doomed to fail—that is, unless the party is comfortable with having a flag with three stripes and a star in the foreseeable future. Perhaps this will aid the party in its doctrinal goal of achieving a stateless society (wherein it should probably go ahead and quickly convert the other members of the world economy to its ideology—Communism); imagine that, a world without borders.

theory and action

As of late I've been learning about a lot of Marxist theories on work, production, and what not. It's very interesting--perhaps I will see where his view point fits through examples in contemporary society.

I will try and update tomorrow with a detailed entry attempting to correlate these thoughts to the social programming in Viet Nam based on the responses I received for my education survey, and perhaps incorporate the idea that few students read the actual primary texts which are supposedly a foundation for that society.

On another note, I think I would like to organize a month-long humanitarian relief research trip to Nicaragua with university funding. More on that later, and whether it is feasible or not.

spoken word

The following are two spoken word pieces, originally written towards the end of March and early April, which I performed last Wednesday, 18 April 2007 as part of U-ACT's "diverseSTORIES".

untitled

This life, peoples, 'things'--multifaceted and many.
Worries, expectations, fears, success, emotions.
What to do? Create something, intangible or real, perhaps.
Culture, ethnicity, race--socially defined.
It changes; the tide is never constant.
Adapt, participate, define, live.
Time, perception, existence, meaning--relative and situational.
Structured, boxed, confined? Speak the mind.


The Socially Attuned World, or something of the sort

Order, destruction; disorder, chaos.
Silence, eyes closed--out disjunction.
A button pops, a jar shatters.
Conversation, senses awaken--meaning ascribed.
Massacres with purpose, information, benefits.
Ethnic dominance, social strata--continuous cycles.
Ignorance, education, regurgitation.
Structure, unfortunate collapse--profitable aid.
Currency, wages, motivation for social changes.
Where it all begins; how it ends.

where hearts are

Today, I want to ask, a question which I have deemed to have some intrinsic worth, "What is conversation?"

What I shall ask from you, is to consider this question of structure (no matter how mundane it may seem at first) among the other things which may derive.