When I started to study in middle school, the military base near my home in Vietnam was converted to civilian use. Many military officers were granted land to build houses. They started to bring their families from the North to live in Saigon. In my middle school classes started to have more children of military officers. I got along with them well, but when they were in their group, they often talked back about me such as he was a son of the traitor. When I was in my group ( no the North 1975, the North 1975 is the name for people from North Vietnam go to the South after 1975), we often talked back about them too such as they came to South Vietnam to get rich not liberate South Vietnam from the US. That was a reason I didn’t like the North 1975. In high school, I had some of the North 1975 friends, I got along well with them too. In college, my best friend was a the North 1975, he moved to the South when he was two years old. Right now, my mind no longer hates the North 1975. I am sorry all of my North Vietnamese friends, I am not arrogant like that. I think my hate of the North is because of the different culture and history. People in the South often said that the North people were stupid, they followed Communist Ideology, which made Vietnam poor and undeveloped. Based on my experiences and research, they were smart too. In 1986, the Vietnamese government reformed Its economy from a command economy to a market economy like many Western countries. This reformation kept the “Communist Party” in power, unlike many Eastern European countries and the Soviet collapsed in 1989. You see in the World right now, many countries have wars or unstable, chaos. But Vietnam is stable and has no war. In my first few years in the US, like other Vietnamese Americans, I hated the Vietnamese government a lot. I blamed many bad things on the Vietnamese government such as widespread corruption, less freedom of speech, poor economy, etc. I watched an interview of a Vietnamese American who was a millionaire, he just lost a few million dollars in Vietnam. When a reporter asked him “Do you blame the Vietnamese government for your investment loss?”. He said, ” I see many Vietnamese blame the government for many things, I don’t like that. Not all many bad things are caused by the government.”. I think he is right, for example, drug or alcohol addicts, a lot of children, laziness, etc. Many Vietnamese blame one party state causes widespread corruption, but many African or South American countries with multiple parties have widespread corruption too. I remember when I applied to get a motorbike license, some of my neighbors said ” You don’t need to do paperwork or take an exam, you just give me some money, and a few weeks later you will have a motorbike license.”. I didn’t like that, so I did all paperwork and took an exam. I got the license without bribing. I did the paperwork for my Vietnamese passport without bribing. In my Vietnamese passport, when I got a receipt that showed the date to pick up a passport. On that date, I went to a window to pick up a passport, and a policeman told me “Your passport was not done yet, you should come on another date, I asked him what date, and he told me two more weeks.”. When I walked out of the building, an old woman told me ” You put a little money inside the receipt pickup date, you get your passport right away.”. I was not hurry, so I came back after two weeks to pick up my passport without bribing. Not all corruptions are caused by the government, I think Vietnamese like corrupted culture, because It is convenient for them.
In freedom of religion, the Vietnamese have more freedom than many Islamic countries. Malaysia is an example. Malaysia is considered a democratic country based on Western standards. In reality, Malaysians don’t have freedom of religion like Vietnam. Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country. In Malaysia, the constitution grants guaranteed freedom of religion. But in reality, if Muslims want to convert to other religions, they have to go through a complicated process. First, they must get approval from the Sharia court that declares them as apostates. The Sharia court seldom grants to Muslims who want to leave Islam. Second, many States in Malaysia consider apostate as a criminal crime, carrying by fine or prison time. So in reality, Muslims are impossible to convert to other religions. If they want, they choose to convert privately. I don’t know why Malaysia mistreats its Muslim citizens. Freedom of religion in Vietnam is better a lot compared to Malaysia. I lived in Vietnam for 26 years, you can convert to any religion that you want, and the Vietnamese government never interferes. In Vietnam, you shouldn’t use religion as a political tool against the Vietnamese government. If you do, you get in trouble.
I know many Vietnamese Americans hate me because I think differently from them. I don’t care because I am not on the Vietnamese government payroll. You know what, if I think the same like them. I unintentionally made the US like Cuba or North Korea, China, and Vietnam where everyone thinks the same. I remember I read a business book, in the book, It says that If everyone thinks the same, It means some people don’t think. So please respect my differences because we live in America.