Flowers in flowers and censorship






Back in Sweden.
It's not easy to describe a country, I cannot describe Vietnam.

But I know that the state there wants to keep control of what is written on Facebook and on blogs.
The pictures and the films I took was impossible to show on the blog until some days after they were shot. Or they suddenly popped up in the blog and were huge.

It was even troublesome to reach the blog from time to time.
So I guess they wanted to check what I wanted to show.

People in Vietnam have been jailed for writing the wrong things on their blogs.
I would't be that but it could be troublesome for me to get back if I wrote a book about my experiences.

People told me that policemen in Saigon demanded money to "protect" for instance your shop. Probably the police salary it low so they do what they can to get some extra money.
One man. working at a SOS-village, told me that his salary was lower than the average salary in Vietnam. And the average salary is very, very small.

But, like in China, some people are very rich.
If you have the right contacts, you can earn lot of money.

There are few beggars though and  people seem to have at least food and shelter.

There are beautiful and peaceful places in Vietnam, like Con Dao. The nature there was very nurturing for your health.


The people in the the little town, Con Son, was very friendly.
Just about 7000 people live there.

Saigon, of course, is a totally different place. If you like pleasure, entertainment and looking at people and motor bikes it's heaven. But for me it's too much. Though they have things like vegetarian restaurants, that Con Dao haven't.

So Vietnam, as Sweden, has many faces.
Here we now have many beggars and refugees, coming from poor countries or countries in war.
Of course we have other troubles too, as a quite newborn racist party.

So nothing is black or white. There are hidden flowers in  the big flowers.

To travel is to learn.

And one thing I learned is that giving is one of the most valuable thing. One of the happiest moments was when I visited the SOS-children's village in Saigon that I have supported for a while.

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cora Diamond on eating animals - with the help of Wittgenstein´s ideas

Image
Cora Diamond is a new name for me, even if she has worked as a professor in Philosophy in the states for a long time and is still  teaching at the university of Virginia, even she is over 80 years old. She has written a lot about Wittgenstein and that has helped her to express her view of the topic. Although she, like Wittgenstein,  has lived in a hut in Norway - and actually brought Tractatus with hes - she seems to be different and for sure more glad than W. Anyways, its W: s writings that interests her and especially his critics of metaphysics and ethics in philosophy. As it is said in Tractacus  : " Whereof one  cannot speak , thereof one must be silent." And of ethics philosophy should not speak - why? Is it like in Buddhism - its better to sit in silence and let know yourself, than to speculate about what will happen when we die? But for sure there ethical guidelines in Buddhism,  but the behaviors is often named skilful, not good (or bad). Another
Read more

I think, therefore I am NOT

Image
So Descartes was wrong. He said that he could doubt everything about himself except that he was thinking. That proved that he existed. The word "I" is the central point here. What does it mean? Perhaps we are sure that we know the answer. Is it the thoughts? In that case - where are you when you aren't thinking? Is it your job, your title? In that case - what happens if you loose your job or change job? Is it your house, your nation? Under my course to be a mindfulness instructor, the teacher, Ola Schenström, made us ask to each other; "Who are you?" After each answer the question was repeated by the questioner.We soon discovered that there were no end to the answers - or maybe an adequate end could be; "I don't know."Or maybe; "It seems I have no essence." Other thinkers have come to the same conclusions; Buddha, Sartre and more recently Damasio and Parfit. Sartre, for instance, has said that we are the sum of our actions. We ha
Read more

Wittgenstein and Buddha -buddies?

Image
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the famous philosopher, reflected in the posthumously published  book "Philosophical Investigations" about the picture above; Is it a hare or duck?  He meant that we make, or must make, a statement what it is. And I suppose he meant that we often or always has to interpret the world around us. But two different interpretations can both be right! Language and thoughts controls what we see.....   You can compare with the picture of a glass. Half empty or half empty?  Who decides? Yes, it's you... And whatever you say is right.  But you can be aware of what you think. That can say more of yourself than of the glass....  You can be aware of that you always do interpretations of things that happens.  If you have a pessimistic or a naive point of view, you can be aware of the view and your statements.  Buddha and Wittgenstein were both aware of that different persons uses different perspectives.  But Buddha spoke about the "right 
Read more