Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You see a lot of lawlessness in Vietnam – big corruption cases involving lots of VIPs, lots of cheaters in the marketplace (from taxi drivers, to venders everywhere, even big companies lying on the packages of their products), everywhere you go you are afraid that someone is cheating you, big businesses do illegal development projects and the poor people in the area have no voice to protect themselves and their environment, people drive motorcycles and cars on the sidewalks, people drive aggressively, impolitely and dangerously… Too many things to list here. You guys and gals know much more than I do.

What is the cause of all these? Continue reading What is the fundamental issue of Vietnam? →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Every time I think back about my time in primary and high schools, I always feel sad. Not because those were sad times. Actually, you all would agree that primary school and high school were the best time of our life – we were young and only did eating, sleeping, schooling and playing. But most of the boys of that time of mine died very early, during various stages of the war – many at 18, some a little older, 20, 22… By the time I was 20, I could hardly have any friends left. College time was a lonely time. I felt all alone in the city – a couple of friends still alive were in the army, but you never knew when one would drop dead. Continue reading Remembering the old friends of the old days →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Vietnam has always been poor because our culture has been teaching us to hate the rich.

Have you read a lot of Vietnamese fairytales? Almost in every Vietnamese fairytale, when a rich person is mentioned, s/he has to be a bad person – greedy, stingy, oppressing and cheating. Business people are always described as cheaters. Teachers are always poor and their poverty is a medal of honour. Continue reading The myth of rich and poor →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

How do you want your children to be? Honest? Wise? Gentle? Loving? Be respected and loved?…

Then, be the parent with those qualities for your children to learn from you.

Children learn the most from parents, from watching their parents and imitating their parents. Continue reading How do you want your children to be? →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Everyone of us is familiar with the term “global village.” The term was coined in the early 1960s by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who was writing about the newer technologies of his day, such as radio and television. It became popular some time at the beginning of 1990s, at the birth of what we call Internet today.

But, do you really understand and “feel” about the global village? Continue reading What world are you living in? →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Most of the world think in duality – right v. wrong, true v. false, white v. black and, of course, corporal v. spiritual.

So, people divide our human life in two separate parts: the corporal part which is our body and the spiritual part which is our soul or our spirit. Many religions despise the body and glorify the spirit. They consider the body – the flesh – weak and sinful, and the spirit pure (if it doesn’t allow the body to commit sin). The body is temporal – it disintegrates after we die; the spirit is perpetual – it stays on for a different world and/or a different life. Continue reading Corporeality and spirituality →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Diplomacy usually conveys a sense of public work between governments. But diplomacy may have a larger meaning of interpersonal relations – when you do a contract negotiation or a sale representation, you are doing diplomacy.

The only purpose of diplomacy is to make people trust you and believe in what you say. Continue reading The art of diplomacy →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“How do you improve your self?” Is this a philosophical question or cosmestic question?

If I am a Channel sales rep, I will take the question as a chance to make some sale – perfumes, lipsticks, mascaras, purses, belts, trendy clothes… “We help you improve your self” is my sale slogan. And your self is a moving exhibition cart for my fashion products. Continue reading How to improve your self →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We usually think that we are calm and can be calm in any situation, until something bad happens, and we realize that we are not calm at all and have no ability to stay calm in that situation.

I think that is true to anyone.

How does a soldier stay calm in battle? Continue reading How to be calm all the time →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

What is your career goal?

Eveyone of us focuses on, sometimes with worries about, his/her career goal – I want to be a super-accountant, or super-AI-engineer, or super-teacher, or super-dancer.

The problem is we usually stop there. Continue reading A purposeful life →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We talk about justice a lot. But justice for who? For ourselves? Or for some others?

Let me tell you. If you care about injustice for you, you are in a very bad mental shape, because there are thousands of people constantly throwing dirt and all kinds of rotten eggs at you for no reasons (or for their weird reasons, who knows?), especially when you have a little public name.

Let me tell you some of the things people have dumped on my head over the years, (just some, because we don’t have enough room for me to write them all down). Continue reading Justice for who? →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Your family is poor, what do you do?

I imagine many of you will say, “I will study hard and will work my butt off to make a lot of money for my family.”

That’s right. I can’t imagine the other answer: “Well, a king’s child will be a king, a monk’s child in pagoda will sweep banyan leaves.” (Con vua thì lại làm vua, con sãi ở chùa thì quét lá đa). Sometimes you may meet some negative people like that, but I imagine the majority of people will positively say they will work hard to lift their family up in the world. Continue reading Your country is your family →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are good at heart, so when we see that a guy doesn’t know something, we tend to try to teach him that thing.

Now, the teaching and learning are not really from the teacher; they are totally in the hands of the student. Continue reading Don’t be the teacher when the student is not ready to learn →

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Do you want to see Việt Nam known in the world as a strong, powerful, rich and honest country? If yes, then all you have to do is to be a strong, powerful, rich and honest person yourself.

This is simple and basic logic: A country is only a collective of all its citizens. If most citizens are strong, powerful, rich and honest, then the country is strong, powerful, rich and honest. Continue reading You are the country →