CCNM: Tom Hutchings

Final Blog? Read on

2007-09-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings from My Beloved Saigon

September 13, 2007

I haven’t really been away from writing. I’ve been doing a lot of it over the past few years since I’ve moved back to my old haunts in Saigon. Even now, I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Saigon writing this. I’m surrounded by banana palms, waterfalls, wooden bridges over small indoor ponds and light, smooth music is playing in the background; a perfect setting for writing.

My earliest blogs highlighted some of the things I have been doing here; teaching at a university, writing, travelling and photography. I’ve written a lengthy novel, begun another one, and have had to travel to the US a few times, passing through the beautiful Central Coast even as recently as June of this year.

Viet Nam is such a beautiful country and the people are gracious. I’ve travelled nearly the entire breadth and length of the country from the South to the North, the Central Highlands and the Northern and Southern coastal towns along the Eastern Sea (South China Sea). It is now September and I’ve just returned home two weeks ago from mysterious Halong Bay in the north.

I’ve made many friends throughout the country, including those in various government ministries, theater and the arts, literary circles, photographers and many more representing all spectrums of Vietnamese society from the abject poor to the rich. I’ve been involved with the Vietnamese since February 1970 when I first arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. It is now called Tan Son Nhat International Airport. I have many personal Vietnamese connections here and in the States. My first wife is Vietnamese, we were married in Saigon in 1971, and my oldest children are half Vietnamese, half American. My oldest daughter was born in Saigon. All of them live in the US.

One of the reasons for not writing this blog for a long time is that no matter what I wrote about the condition in the US, it wouldn’t change anything. The US is in a constant state of perpetual divisiveness that cannot be changed. It is a very sad state. Majority desires are ignored while inexcusable deaths continue to mount daily in Iraq and Afghanistan in a war on terror created by the current administration.

The divisiveness extends down into the heart of the people. Anyone who reads article comments in the online-version of the Tribune will realize that no matter what a story is about, commentators – mostly cowardly anonymous people afraid of using their own names – begin a downward spiral of epithets about race, immigration and “us versus them.” I have seen some very hateful and racist comments. Of course, I used my own name with the Tribune when reporting them as violations. I’m proud of my name.

In this blog, there have been two detractors; again writers who do not have the nerve to use their own names, but prefer to cower behind such sobriquets as “anonymous” and “spectator.” I have enjoyed their comments because I know they must stay up late at night using the dictionary to write very eloquent replies. I will admit “spectator” did provide some very positive comments and constructive criticism for which I am grateful, but his offereings were laced with a facetiousness flavor. Below are a few of Mr. or Ms. Anonymous’s comments for your entertainment, sans corrections.

Anonymous...
Greetings from the peoples republic of San Luis Obispo to the
peoples republic of South Vietnam. I hope American investment has made a
difference in the quality of your life.I hope you are treating Tom Hutchings
well, we surely do not want the pinko back.
11:28 AM
Anonymous nói...
Fuck you Tom! You hateful commie bastard! All fags are the same...hateful
and fulla shit!Go pack an ass and a bag and get out of town you scum!
5:22
PM
Anonymous nói...
Fuck you you commie prick! Leave my country you
asshole! You and all your muslim brothers! go fuck up some other country! we
like this one just the way it is!If you don't then shut the fuck up and leave
you fag!

(Tom’s note: the logic of the syntax can leave one confused. Also, the Vietnamese word "noi" means "says" in English. It got translated somehow in Google that way.)

“We like this one just the way it is!” This comment is perhaps the most saddest I’ve seen. People losing their homes, jobs lost, civil liberties eroded, the venerable Constitution of the US trod upon, politically-inspired terminations of US Attorney lawyers, sex scandals, hundreds of millions of US dollars missing in Iraq, American servicemembers and contractors indicted on theft, bribery, corruption, rape, murder, and the list simply continues on and on; both political parties are equally culpable in the US being “just the way it is.” I trust that Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Fox News, Bill Riley and others would be proud of you, Sir or Madam Anonymous.

For now, it is now time to say good-bye.

With this post, I end my “one-note song” lyrics about the most abject failures in American politics since January 2001, when GWB assumed his current position. I realized long ago it was affecting me and I no longer wanted to rent space out in my head over such negative things that continue unabated and unchallenged by what once were a courageous people. The American people, for the most part are a good and generous people, but the pervasive feeling is one captured by fear, suspicion and confusion. Americans have forgotten their roots and allowed this deplorable situation to become out of hand.

However, I am not finished writing.

As a columnist for a Saigon business magazine, and political commentator for another daily newspaper that pays well for my comments, I have many stories under my belt and will share those with the readers of this blog.

As a travel photographer, with a nice little business here on the side, I will share photographs that depict the beauty of the Vietnamese, the culture and some of the most enchanting and mystical places on earth.

Au revoir to the old and bonsoir to the new. Check back regularly for new articles and photos about life here in Viet Nam.

I'm Back - 13 September 07

2007-09-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

Still in Saigon

I've been busy and wanted to let you know I'm still here and back writing the blog. Come back in a day or so and read my latest "transition" blog from Saigon. You'll be slightly surprised. In the meantime, enjoy this pseudo-lithographic photograph of Halong Bay (Vinh Ha Long). I returned just a couple weeks ago from my second visit to this mystical place. See you soon.

A Personal Message to "President" George W. Bush

2007-01-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

You are so full of shit!!!

By Thomas Hutchings
Ho Chi Minh City

Fearing rebuke, George W. Bush is adopting a new Iraq strategy. The administration is now leading an effort to stem the tide of the Republicans who are starting to jump ship from Bush's abject failure. Now, they are hinting that the congressional resolution opposing Bush's call to send more American lives to their deaths are assisting terrorists.

Bush is sinking to a new low. A landslide of Americans, over 70% by a recent poll, disapprove of Bush's Iraq War policy. Yet, he is stubborn as an ass and says he'll do it anyway. So much for Democracy. And now, to suggest that those who oppose him are assisting terrorists is nothing more than the pathetic whining of a loser; someone who does not deserve respect.

That is why I am proud to say, as an American who has opposed the war from the beginning, "Mr. George W. Bush! You are full of shit!"

Bush's View of Democracy

2007-01-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

"I'll do what I want!"

Thomas Hutchings
Ho Chi Minh City - In the so-called democratically held election in November 2006, the American voters renounced the hateful Republican Party's policies. Those policies included graft, corruption, election fraud, bribery, illicit sex and the usual "perks" of elected office. Americans, though, also renounced the Republican Party's conduct of the American War in Iraq.

Only 29% of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the illegal war.

Now, the new congress is taking measures to reduce the war. A non-binding resolution by the US Senate would send the message to Bush that the US commitment in Iraq "can only be sustained" with popular support among the American public and in Congress."

Again, with only 29% of Americans approving of Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops into peril, it is reported that "Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said resolutions passed by Congress will not affect Bush's decision-making. "The president has obligations as a commander in chief," he said. "And he will go ahead and execute them."

Now, that's what anyone would call a Model of Democracy! Forget what the people think; forget what the people demand and forget what their elected representatives act upon legally. Bush will still do as he damn well pleases. Bush is a model of repression and dictatorship.

Rice Logic Encourages Attacks Against US

2007-01-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

Rice's statement in Jerusalem provides authorization for attacks against US troops

Thomas Hutchings
Ho Chi Minh City

The United States attacked an Iranian liaison office in Iraq. The office was in the process of approval to become a consulate and was operating with the Iraqi government’s approval. Bush personally approved the attack on the diplomatic mission.

Early Sunday morning, January 13, 2007, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice provided the rationale stating, “The United States is simply responding to Iranian activities that have been going on for a long while now that threaten not just to destabilize the chance for Iraq to proceed to stability but also that endanger our forces.” Ms. Rice was speaking prior to a meeting with Israel’s foreign minister in Jerusalem, Israel.

Iranian officials describe as an intervention in Iranian-Iraqi affairs.

Using Ms. Rice’s logic, carte blanche is now given to other nations to respond to America’s aggression in Iraq. America’s War in Iraq based on Bush Lies has completely destabilized the region. Iraqi nationals realized long ago their country was better off with Hussein, even though he was a ruthless leader. At least, under Saddam, they had hospitals, schools, electricity, water and relative peace. The incompetence of the moronic Commander-in-Chief has thrown the Middle East into turmoil and is fostering militant terrorism worldwide. This is not my opinion' this is the conclusion of CIA reports, as mentioned in an ealier blog on this site.

The Bush doctrine of "I'll do what I want and no one can stop me" has already completely destabilized Iraq and the region with his Cowboy Crusade. I do not condone violence and completely opposed to war. The reason for my living in Viet Nam is because it is a country at peace. It has known war. It is also completely bewildered that America has not learned its lesson from their disasterous war here in Southeast Asia.

America: you got what you paid for. I just wonder why you sit quietly and allow this to happen. What ever happened to the Spirit of '76? You've forgotten your roots, America. You're no longer a nation of brave people, but cowards who have allowed a liar to ruin the country, it's economy and its reputation around the world. America should be ashamed.

Man Gone Mad Tom Hutchings

2007-01-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

A view from overseas: America’s quagmire in Iraq

By Thomas A. Hutchings
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

A recent poll conducted after Mr. George W. Bush’s speech calling for additional troops to be sent to Iraq indicates 70% of Americans are opposed to this plan. The US military’s storming of an Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and its inability to effectively confront the violence in Iraq demonstrates a War Gone Mad and pursued by a Man Gone Mad.

The Friday 1/12/07 Opinion in USA Today states the “Criticism comforts enemy.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The authors, Andrew C. McCarthy and Clifford May, believe that Bush’s war-fighting abilities should not be micro-managed. They surmise that America must and shall win in Iraq for to do otherwise would mean a moral defeat for America and a guarantee of more terrorism and more dead American citizens. Perhaps Mssrs McCarthy and May should climb out from under their covers and face the real world.

It was the intentional lies by George W. Bush and his administration’s act of aggression to invade Iraq in the first place. America’s own intelligence community has clearly stated that world terrorism increased dramatically due to the invasion of Iraq. Instead of lessenig world terrorism, Bush is throwing gas on the flames of terrorism.

Criticising the US Government is a right and privilege of every citizen. The US now has the most opaque government led by a man completely incompetent to represent America. Iraq is cool to Bush’s plan, England will be reducing their troop strength and America would best be served to begin pulling out of Iraq immediately. Those who demand that America stay in Iraq are mere jingoistic, moronic sychophants of a lying president.

The Incompetence of an Alleged President Tom Hutchings

2006-11-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

Didn't We Already Go Through This?

29 November 2006

Ho Chi Minh City -- As the world watched the horror that was the beginning of Bush's personal Iraq War, the looting of Baghdad and the realization that Bush lied about Hussein's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, their attention was interrupted briefly.

On May 1, 2003, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was stationed off the coast of California, near San Diego. Like a child with a new toy, Bush emerged from the back seat of a jet that landed on the carrier and strutted like a proud peacock in a flight suit.

As Bush made his speech declaring that combat operations in Iraq were over, he was posed in front of a huge sign that indicated, "Mission Accomplished." This was a huge red, white and blue banner produced jointly by the Navy and the White House.

Now, as Iraq is in their civil war, created by Bush's lies, he has said on November 28, 2006, he would not pull troops out "before the mission is complete."

Before the mission is complete? What did he declare on May 1, 2003?

Now the Taliban is increasing in Afghanistan, a country that Bush of his typical gross errors in judgments, and he diverted troops and funds for his lied-about war in Iraq. Now, Bush is beggin in Latvia for NATO to help in Afghanistan. This so-called President is becoming delusional and also refuses to acknowledge that Iraq has finally plunged into civil war.

Just like his ever-changing rationale for the war, Bush has no idea what he is doing. It is no small wonder the world deems him the most dangerous individual to world peace.

Blood on a Lying President's Hands Tom Hutchings

2006-11-23T07:11:00.000-08:00

November 23, 2006

Ho Chi Minh City -- According to Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times (11/23/2006):

According to the report, 3,709 Iraqis were killed in October, up slightly from
the previous high in July, and an increase of about 11 percent from the number
in September.

We know their blood is on Bush's hands.

Bush's Real Visit to Viet Nam Tom Hutchings

2006-11-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

November 23, 2006

Ho Chi Minh City -- Last month, on October 24th, I wrote the following:

When Bush visits, the country will give him a dignified reception, though, because the Vietnamese have grace and style. Bush will think he is the man of the hour, but all will resume laughing at him when he finally leaves. When the Vietnamese pour out to see him in Ho Chi Minh City, I'll be there with my camera, but I'll be more concerned about taking the photos of many wonderful Vietnamese; not a disgusting rogue cowboy who does more harm than good.

That's exactly what happened.

As a resident of Ho Chi Minh City for the past two years, I am very close to the Vietnamese people. In fact, I have been close to them for the past 37 years beginning when I served during the American War.

President Bush’s camp reported warm, welcoming and cheering crowds that waved as he passed by and he warmly waved back. Nothing could be further from the truth. I saw the presidential motorcade speeding through the city at breakneck speeds. Side streets were filled with motorbikes and anxious riders who simply wanted to move on with their lives; perplexed at how one man can command such power to have traffic police clear streets and keep them free of people.

Other friends, at other places, also saw a speedy motorcade sans waving and cheering crowds. There was no waving or cheering that anyone saw or heard. There were only questions about the US not learning its lesson after Viet Nam and frustration with the Bush Administration and it’s retreat from democratic rule.

Bush’s presence and statements here were an embarrassment. Not only did he not bring the Permanent Normalized Trade Relations agreement with him, but his visit was completely sanitized and he had no contact with local people at all.

Everyone is glad he's left.

Saddam as Bush's Political Tool Tom Hutchings

2006-11-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

Tom Hutchings
6 November 2006
Ho Chi Minh City -- International media reports that the world is divided regarding Saddam Hussein's sentence to death by hanging. Announced two days before the US mid-term elections, the sentence will give the spiteful Republicans something to cheer about and encourage their "eye for an eye" followers to get out and vote.

Bush, who must be living in the vacuum of a plastic bubble, announced the verdict is a

"milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant
with the rule of law."

Somehow, it doesn't seem to hard to reverse and replace a couple words for it to read,

"somehow the American people have replaced the rule of law with the rule of a
tyrant"

if one could refer to current US leadership (oxymoron) that way.

Sadly, this verdict, which is the decision of an American approved judicial system, will have far more ramifications in the world than Bubble Boy Bush and his lackies will ever imagine. If anything, the world sees the Iraq invasion as a means for America to gain more oil, and the oil profits are not going to the Iraqis. If anyone is murderous, it is Bush who set a record for most capital punishments carried out in Texas and the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis who had nothing to do with al Queda, as Bush kept incorrectly and purposely insisting.

When the leader of a country can maliciously and purposely use blatant lies to carry out a personal vendetta (After all, Bush did use the rationale for going after Hussein that "after all, he tried to kill my dad") against another country, then where is the fairness in a resultant death verdict for the former leader. Yes, Saddam is a horrific man. He deserves justice. But it begs the question, is the justice accomplished by a puppet court in a puppet American government? It somehow doesn't seem like justice.

The best thing America could do is to ask the Iraqis to give Saddam a life sentence under UN supervision; begin a systematic withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and allow the country to gain some equilibrium. It will take time, and during that time, the American people can begin focussing on the tremendous national debt that will bankrupt America within another 40 years. But, that's another story.

Despicable Bush Tom Hutchings

2006-10-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

Ho Chi Minh City - 31 October 2006

Bush, on Monday, responding to critics of his "let's lie about WMD to start my personal war," said "terrorists win and America's loses" if Democrats prevail in winning Congress. This supreme idiot, while loudly trying to export American politics and so-called democracy is the antithesis of what democracy is. There should be reasoned dialogue, but the Idiot-in-Chief is using fear, and a declining bases of conservative fundamentalist christians, to hold on to his power. How frickin' pathetic is that? To say terrorists will win if Democrats take over Congress is the epitome of stupidity and arrogance. Of course, I'm not a fan of the Democrat Party, either. They're in bed along with Republicans with Corporate America. But, at least they'll kiss you after......

Rumsfeld Can't Stand the Heat Tom Hutchings

2006-10-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Neo-cons drawing last breaths through grasped straws
Thomas Hutchings
27 October 2006

Ho Chi Minh City -- Donald Rumsfeld speaking at a recent Pentagon news conference said Thursday that anyone demanding deadlines for progress in Iraq should "just back off." It can only be surmised that Rumsfeld may just now start believing the his ill-fated American War of Aggression and an American War that Encourages Terrorism is simply going very, terribly bad. He's telling Americans who question his ability, and most Americans are, to "back off" while

Americans should be telling Rumsfeld to "F**k off."

Why not, if Dick "Halliburton" Cheney can get away using the "F" word in the halls of Congress, then administrative officials should be able to handle the criticism.

Elsewhere, the also-going-horribly-wrong Republican Party is trying to suck breath into itself by breathing through grasped straws. In this case, Bush was telling his Christian taliban followers that "
that marriage was “a union between a man and a woman,” adding, “I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.” Apparently, he is blind to the fact that marriage in the US is on the decline. While they're grasping at anything to take the public's mind away from the War of Lies (Iraq), sexcapades of Republicans, Republican bribery convictions and charges and simply just a downright hate-mongering political party run by the rich and the corporations, Bush is trying to get the christian taliban on his side and vote. How pathetic.

Me, I'll be sitting on a beach on the East Sea (South China Sea), and watching America implode on itself. It was such a nice country. You know, thinking about it...it could be a better country without the divisiveness of the Democrats, who are just as ludicrous as the Republicans. Most of them simply haven't been caught yet. Here's a thought...naw, never mind. As far as I see it, American politics will simply get worse. Too bad. She was such a lovely lady a couple hundred years ago.

Bush to Visit Vietnam Tom Hutchings

2006-10-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

24 October 2006

Ho Chi Minh City - It was reported in the Thanh Nhien Daily today that the White House in Washington has announced George W. Bush's intention to visit Viet Nam. Bush will also travel to Singapore and Indonesia during his trip, the White House said in a statement. The White House also reported that

"At APEC, the president looks forward to continuing his robust dialogue with
APEC leaders on ways to ensure the continued prosperity of the Asia-Pacific
region."

Not only do we see the hackneyed phrase "robust" but one wonders what the message really is. Sitting atop a vast oil reserve, Viet Nam has had 4 US Navy ships visit the country, a high ranking US Navy Admiral visit Ha Noi and Chevron USA recently won the bid to develop an offshore tract for oil exploration. One wonders what Bush's visit is really about as America begins looking for more sources of oil for the insatiable demand of the energy consumers in the United States.

Many Vietnamese and many foreigners view the American leader for what he really is; an undereducated danger to world peace - sometimes the word idiot comes to mind, but I hate to disrespect the simple-minded of the world. His Iraq War is viewed by the US intelligence community as the leading cause for world terrorism. On the streets here, Bush doesn't carry any respect among common people and it has been reported to me that many ranking officials in Viet Nam laugh at Bush. Essentially, he is not a person to be respected. While many in the US are calling for a review of the deadly Iraq War policy, a war which Bush keeps shifting his justification, Bush simple-mindedly states he is not changing his policy. His hackneyed attack of those who seek a peaceful resolution as those who prefer to "cut and run" is the other side of the coin which is "stay in Iraq, fuel terrorism and extremism and waste the lives of America's young for Bush's ego."

I've seen somnambulists make more sense.

When Bush visits, the country will give him a dignified reception, though, because the Vietnamese have grace and style. Bush will think he is the man of the hour, but all will resume laughing at him when he finally leaves. When the Vietnamese pour out to see him in Ho Chi Minh City, I'll be there with my camera, but I'll be more concerned about taking the photos of many wonderful Vietnamese; not a disgusting rogue cowboy who does more harm than good.

Overcooked Rice Tom Hutchings

2006-10-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

War of the Words: Believe it or not (with apologies to Ripley)

Thomas Hutchings
11 October 2006

Ho Chi Minh City - Today, USA Today reported the following statement by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:

President Bush, Rice said, has told "the North Koreans that there is no
intention to invade or attack them. So they have that guarantee. ... I don't
know what more they want."

The last time anyone checked, Bush, Rice and one can include Rumsfeld and the rest of the criminal gang, that their words lack any meaning to the rest of the world.

Rember, it was this same administration that lied about Iraq's connection with Al Queda when a majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. The gang insisted that Iraq was preparing to launch weapons of mass destruction against the United States. It fabricated lies about Iraq's attempt to buy uranium. It lied, it lied, it lied.

So, now, Condy, you want the world to believe you when you parrot your boss who says that the US has no intention to invade or attack North Korea? Maybe, and I hope it is true. But.....any military action against North Korea would simply be another blatant lie to the rest of the world. I truly hope the US doesn't take military action.

Consider This!!! Tom Hutchings

2006-10-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

When going to the polls in November 2006, consider this phrase spoken by a Fawkesian character played by Hugo Weaving:

People should not be afraid of their
governments;

Governments should be afraid of their
people.

V, "V is for Vendetta" 2006

Central Coast News Mission Tom Hutchings

2006-10-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Deeply Imbedded Problem: American Violence

Thomas A. Hutchings
October 3, 2006

Saigon, Viet Nam – In Joseph Conrad’s literary work Heart of Darkness, a haunting line about corrupt human actions is uttered by the character Mr. Kurtz; The horror! The horror! News items issuing out from America are horrible. I was motivated to move to Viet Nam two years ago for several reasons. One rationale was that I could no longer morally and ethically justify living in a country that would use its military strength to invade other countries without proper justification and based on deliberate lies of its president. The violence that America models in Iraq, including prison torture, murder, rape of young girls by its soldiers and the now-admitted secret torture prisons has percolated into the heretofore safe depths of hometown America.

Within the span of one week, America has seen murders at three schools, including a horrific incident in a peaceful Amish community schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. Bush’s proposal for a conference on school violence is hollow, at best.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2004 to 2005, the rate of violent crime, which includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, actually rose 2.5 percent for the first time in five years.

One can’t help but think the National Rifle Association and its paranoid gun-owners feel pride in keeping their right to bear arms. At the same time, Bush continues to make the world a more dangerous place while parents bury their soldiers or their children who do not return home from school.

As an international traveler, I have the opportunity to speak with people from many countries. The overwhelming opinion is that America is not viewed as a beacon of freedom and morality in the world, but as an arrogant and violent bully nation imposing its will through military force on other countries. Recently, a declassified report cited that Bush’s American War in Iraq has become a “cause celebre”for Islamic extremists while Bush has the audacity to claim the world is becoming safer because of his policies. With a “head in the sand” approach to reality, Bush is seen as the most dangerous person to world stability. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recently told reporters that the (Bush) invasion of Iraq has made the world a dangerous place.

In July, the New Economics Foundation in Britain issued the results of a study aptly entitled The Happy Planet Index: An index of human well-being and environmental impact. It also measured people’s life satisfaction and life expectancy. The G-8 countries ranked very low out of the 178 nations ranked. The US was in 150th place. Andrew Simms, the foundation’s policy director and co-author of the report, said the index “addresses the relative success or failure of countries in giving their citizens a good life.

.
Before detractors start running for pens and pencils, I admit to living in a communist country. It’s a country moving ahead with its free-market economy and opportunity. It recently dedicated a new hospital dedicated solely to treating persons with AIDS\HIV for free; a country that in the past two years released more than 40,000 prisoners to celebrate major national events and boasts a recidivism rate of only 1.37%, and; a country that warns its citizens of impending dangerous typhoons and proactively evacuates those in peril. The few police who carry guns have rubber bullets, school students wear uniforms six days a week, and the country seems to close everyday for a nap after lunch. It’s also a country that is ranked as the 12th happiest country on the planet. Sure, there are economic problems still to tackle here, but the news here is nowhere at the violent level as the United States.

There is something people can do in the US to change things for the better. Revamp Congress because Republicans and Democrats alike are all on the payroll of corporate America. You can force a Bush impeachment, bring your troops home from Iraq and begin an open and frank dialogue with the Islamic world. There’s still a bit of time before everyone will echo Kurtz; The horror! The horror!

Central Coast News Mission Tom Hutchings

2006-09-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Some Thoughts Before a Return Visit tothe U.S.

Thomas Hutchings
2 September 2006

Ho Chi Minh City - Today is a holiday in Viet Nam. It's the 61st anniversary of the country's independence. Ho Chi Minh drafted Viet Nam's Declaration of Independence, borrowing from America's declaration. It's a fun day here as people revel in their nation's independence, flags of the country - a five-point gold star on a red field - fly everywhere, even on the front entry way to my house.

I am preparing for a 2 week visit to the states. First, there will be a 5 day trip to Colorado where I'll give a presentation about living in Viet Nam to my fellow airmen at our reunion. There weren't many of us who flew on the EC 47s, the electronic military version of the DC-3. Then, I'll be winging on to California to take care of personal business.

As I get ready, I think about some of the things that fill the pages of international and national news - news items that reveal a state in America that doesn't look too good from the outside. Living in Viet Nam for the past two years has given me a different perspective of actually seeing the trees and the forest from the outside.

The fact that Tom Cruise's daughter's first poop has been cast and made into a sculpture is the epitome of, what is the word I want to use here? I'm not quite sure, but as a photo of the sculpture is listed as one of the most emailed photos on yahoo!, it demonstrates the base attitude of many. Literally, who gives a s**t? It seems many do.

I see that the Bush administration is still looking at the American War in Iraq through rose colored glasses while the Pentagon releases a report illustrating the violence is increasing as 12,000 more troops are assigned to Bush's never-ending "waronterror." Bush has nearly given up on finding Osama bin Laden, as he used his personal war in Iraq to cover up his own inadequacies.

Cheney and Rumsfeld are also trying to paint a rosy picture of the war. If those two aren't on drugs, I think they ought to be.

Ernie Dalidio is complaining that the downtown businesses do not support his ballot measure to approve a damaging shopping mall on his ranch in the middle of San Luis Obispo. He must believe that environmental effects and traffic will only occur on his property and he would be exempt from environmental impact reports. Did I use the word "complaining"? I meant to write "whining." Hey Ernie! Wake up and realize the impact of your private property rights extend a little bit beyond the boundaries.

The continuing saga of the Los Osos Community Services District and the beleagured sewer has become a very sad comedy of errors involving so many people.

A newborn is taken out of seat to be breastfed a couple years ago and is killed in a very tragic accident. The Latino mother is charged with negligence. A 22 month old boy darts out into traffic and the parents are not charged, though one could argue they were also negligent. Both events are so very tragic and I understand the suffering the parents go through, but it also clearly shows the bias of law enforcement. (Should anyone wonder, I lost a newborn 35 years ago and memories are not quickly forgotten.)

This will be my last blog until the end of September. When I return to Viet Nam, I'll catch up on local news, some positive, some negative, but I must admit, the news here isn't on the level of the crap news in America. The media in Viet Nam doesn't adhere to the rule of "if it bleeds, it leads." The media here goes by the rule, "let's inform the people of what is really meaningful."

Until the end of September, live good, and remember, it's all smoke and mirrors (especially the news out of Washington D.C).

What Country Am I From?

2006-08-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Thomas Hutchings
24 August 2006

Ho Chi Minh City – Living in Southeast Asia, I access international news from various sources, not just those in the U.S. I was intrigued by a story in the August 23, 2006 Bangkok (Thailand) Post (Breaking News, 17:09 local). It reported on the arrest of 175 North Korean defectors in Thailand who had fled the dictatorship via China with the help of missionaries.

As it was reported in the Bangkok Post;

"No one has told us, so we don't know about it. We do not have information on this," a North Korean embassy official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We will not go to immigration to see them. We have not been told about it," he added.

The story continues about the possible fate of the defectors and the option of being sent to South Korea.

But, that is not what interested me.

The interesting part of the story was a comment made by a UN official.

“Speaking privately it was "quite normal" for North Korean officials to shun their estranged compatriots.

Either you are with them or you are against them.

They (the North Korean authorities) can't really cope with people who think independently."

Gosh, where have I heard that before? That’s right, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Since November 6, 2001, Bush and his fear-mongering administration continue to lie to the American people, are “robust” in their efforts to illegally usurp the U.S. Constitution, and maintain the hackneyed “with us or against us” admonishment.

After the Connecticut vote where Bush-supporting Joseph Lieberman was ousted in a Democrat primary by newcomer Ned Lamont, Vice-President Dick (Halliburton) Cheney was quick to warn,

“that these votes would encourage "al Qaeda types" to think that "they can break the will of the American people."

Oh, that’s right. How could I forget? In a so-called U.S. democracy, people have the right to vote for whomever they feel is the best candidate, but not in the Bush-Cheney model of democracy.

An editorial by the Philadelphia News on August 11, 2006, stated it correctly;

THESE PEOPLE have no shame. Their contempt for democracy is so great they will stop at nothing to undermine it. Their adherence to fundamentalist beliefs that blinds them to reality is frightening. They must be stopped.

And that's just the Republicans.

Sadly, the Bush fear-mongering supporters in the press will work to maintain that “With us or against us” conflict motif. As reported in the Boston Globe (A convenient threat: Kuttner, August 12, 2006),

“DICK CHENEY was certainly farsighted when he declared Wednesday that Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman would comfort ``Al Qaeda types."

Kuttner’s comments focus on a Wall Street Journal piece written by editorial writer Daniel Henninger. His column was entitled, “Democrats Knifed Lieberman on Eve of Airliner Plot.”

For an editorial writer for WSJ to connect a democratic vote with a terrorism plot is unconcionable and demonstrates how far some are willing to go to maintain support for the illegal war in Iraq; a war based on the most blatant lies by George W. Bush and his administration.

Kuttner is correct in stating that the Bush administration will focus their immediate attention on critics of the single word “waronterror.”

Kuttner’s opinion is that as America goes into another voting season the main message from the Bush White House will be “and if you’re against the Bush strategy, you are of course with the terrorists.”

Kind of sounds like North Korea, doesn’t it?

The Murder of Lebanese by Israel

2006-08-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

by Tom Hutchings
3 August 2006

Ho Chi Minh City - The question needs to be asked, "How many Lebanese have to be murdered by Israel to rescue two soldiers?" The answer, as of this date, is at least 548 and quite possibly 750. Of the 548 to date that have been killed in Israel's State Act of Terrorism, 477 have been civilians.

While I was in Cambodia this past week, seeking solace among the ruins of the Khmer Empire of the 12th Century, that peace was broken by the news of Israel's rocketing a refugee center, killing nearly 60 people. Of that amount, 37 were children.

Insincere apologies and statements by Bush, who is supporting Israel's acts of terrorism against the civilian population, mean nothing to the rest of the world. In Cambodia, I spoke with Canadians, French, Germans, Australians, Japanese and many others. They all find Bush's calculating nonchalance and allowance of this massacre to take place to be at the war crimes level. I told them others in the United States also believe George W. Bush is a War Criminal as is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

These two criminals have ignored pleas from the world to stop the violence. They are allowing the killing of civilians to continue in cold blood. Many believe that Bush is following an irrational belief in a two millenia old text and allows this genocide to occur in hopes of the return of a religious deity. Such irrational beliefs have no place or credibility in the modern world. Sadly, all sides in this horrific violence are fighting to preserve unverified religious dogmatic beliefs.

Regardless, the world must condemn Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush and brand them as war criminals and their fallacious positions of blaming Hezbollah for the calculated violence against Lebanese civilians.

It should be stated here that I do not condone nor tolerate the actions of Hezbollah. As a former police officer, I was taught to use only that force which was necessary to overcome the immediate threat. Israel, with Bush's tacit permission, is simply now on a killing spree.

How many more will die? The two criminals must believe in the Armageddon myth.

The Fuss Over Non-English Languages

2006-07-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

by Thomas Hutchings
July 20, 2006

Ho Chi Minh City – In the past few weeks an article was written about the use of the English language in America. The story told about a Philadelphia sub shop owner who put up a sign in his restaurant that reads, “This is America. When ordering, speak in English.” An article in the Christian Science Monitor on July 19, 2006, describes a backlash taking root across America – a backlash aimed at the Latino culture.

In the article, the writer mentions local ordinances aimed at inhibiting taco stands in Gwinnet County, Georgia, a ban on landlords in Hazelton, PA renting to undocumented people, or “illegal aliens” as the conservative, fearful Americans are more apt to use, and little towns in Kansas attempting to outlaw people sitting on front porches – a tradition among Latinos.

It would seem America is headed towards putting a blindbold over the Statue of Liberty. (Well, why not? It was a gift from France and they didn’t support Bush’s illegal war in Iraq.) But, the trend in America is not towards being anti-Latino, but the Christian Science Monitor reports that acceptance of immigration is at a five year high, citing a recent Gallup poll.

In Viet Nam, a small country that fought and struggled for independence for over 100 years, has a language within the Austroasiatic family of languages. About thirty percent of the vocabulary is from the Chinese. Vietnamese is simply a difficult language to learn, by most Westerners’ accounts, but I find it much easier to learn than a Vietnamese who is learning English.

Throughout Viet Nam, an increasing amount of schools are offering classes in English, French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. In many areas throughout the country, any English speaker can find a Vietnamese to talk to about nearly anything.

Many schools begin to offer English in the middle levels, about 5th Grade, and many students study English for a few years or more. Adults who remember the American War, and who quite possibly helped that wrong side, also speak some English. It seems one can find English in just about every village in the southern half of Viet Nam.

In my travels throughout the country, I have been very pleasantly surprised to hear Vietnamese greeting me in English. Many conversations I have with Vietnamese are by them speaking English to me and my speaking Vietnamese to them.

In Viet Nam, I have never encountered anyone who has barred my access from any commercial establishment, restaurant or otherwise, merely because I do not have a complete fluency in Vietnamese. If anything, Vietnamese will bend over backwards to try and accommodate my speaking their tongue. It is a language that has six different tones and if a speaker inflects a word incorrectly, the meaning of the sentence is lost. I have found Vietnamese to be very patient with me and very helpful as I stumble attempting to find the correct rise, fall, curl, or dead stop tone of a word to get it right. We collectively agree that I have six tries to get a word correct.

I will soon hire a teacher and gain the fluency I desire in about a year. In the meantime, I’ll consider the backlash in the U.S. against non-English speaking people and how insipid they look from this perspective. Perhaps if the Sioux, Algonquins, Winnebagoes, Iroquois, Chippewa and many other tribes had required the newly-arrived English speakers to adapt to the native tongue of the New World’s tribal nations, things in America would just be a little different. But, that’s a fallacious argument, and the fact remains: many Americans are just plain afraid of anything different, and proud to prove the fear.

Bush– Aiding And Abetting Terrorism

2006-07-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

by Thomas Hutchings
15 July 2006

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam – The Bush administration, that incessantly believes that it must remain exempt from the checks and balances incorporated into the United States Constitution, has taken a new step towards becoming what it hates; a supporter of terrorism. It’s been reported in the world press that George W. Bush refuses to press Israel for a cease fire in its criminal attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

An Israeli police officer runs past the scene of a Hezbollah rocket attack. AP Photo.

There can be no doubt that Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas in the Gaza Strip are committing heinous acts of terrorism. However, Israel has taken a new stance and has bombed Gaza’s crumbling infrastructure shutting down electrical supplies needed for pumping water, blasting legislative offices, abducting legislators and controlling access into and out of the Gaza Strip. Israel has created a “de facto” mass concentration camp named “Gaza.” Israel casually and repeatedly uses snipers to shoot into Gaza. They have used weapons fired from jet fighters destroying houses and killing civilians.

The acts of Israel retaliating for the across-the-border attacks and the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah can be defined as nothing more than “state acts of terrorism.” An agreed-upon definition of terrorism is, “The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.” By this definition, a country that uses its military to destroy civilian infrastructure of another nation is committing state acts of terrorism. The killing of innocent civilians must be condemned whether it is by freedom fighters, guerilla groups or recognized political states. The definition of terrorism applied to individuals is equally applied to states.

Israel is targeting Lebanon and the Gaza Strip with such a ferocious violence that the world is demanding Israel stop. Under the accepted definition of terrorism, Israel has sent it bombers and aimed its artillery at civilian structures, water supplies, bridges and residential areas in a callous disregard for human life. Israel may believe that only Israeli lives are worth much more than Muslim life. By its actions, Israel is a terrorist state.

George W. Bush, a long-standing friend of Israel, refuses to press Israel towards a cease fire. If anything, Bush is promoting Israel’s state acts of terrorism by stating, “Israel has a right to defend herself.” No one can dispute that a country has a right to defend itself, but this LAPD versus Rodney King use of military deadly force, above and beyond what is absolutely necessary, under the color of its state authority, dehumanizes life and subjects others to live in a constant state of fear. Bush has gone so far as to ignore the plea of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fuad Saniora for a cease fire.

Lebanese medics carry a victim of an Israeli attack. AP photo.

On September 16, 2001, Bush giving impetus to America’s nacsent war against terrorism, stated, "This is a new kind of evil and we understand, and the American people are beginning to understand, this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while.” Acknowledging George W. Bush’s deeply-rooted Christian convictions gives one the impression that he will side with those who are against Islam – that it is a “crusade.” Islam and Judaism have been in a struggle for countless generations. The United States has militarized the Middle East and has given Israel the upper hand against its impoverished Islamic neighbors, to the extent of looking the other way at Israel’s nuclear arsenal. By his statements alone, one cannot mistake Bush’s unrelenting support for Israel, even when her state acts of terrorism are what the United States should be fighting against. Bush supporting Israel is tacit support and condoning state acts of terrorism.

Israeli bombs a Lebanese television tower. AP Photo.

The world community must sanction Israel and demand its brutal attacks against civilians and the infrastructure of Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon. The world community must sanction the United States, and Bush specifically, for the most calloused disregard for human decency. Sadly, the United States is viewed by many around the world as lacking credibility as a model for ethical and moral behavior.

(coming in a few days, the first installment of “A Viet Nam Central Highlands Roadtrip.”)

Still Alive in Viet Nam!

2006-07-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

by Tom Hutchings
14 July 2006

Ho Chi Minh City - It's been awhile since my last blog. I hesitate to write that it's been about 2 months, and for that I am regretful. It's been a very hectic period of time. Some of my previous blogs have been very cutting towards the Bush administration, given everything they have been doing in many areas, mainly in privacy and constitutional issues. Some of my blogs have been more relaxed after visiting coffee shops along the Saigon River with friends. I still have to write, the last two months have been busy.

The University of Technical Education,where I teach, increased the class load and the need to create a new curriculum was necessary. Many things in education here are done at the last minute (or in the week before a new term begins). At the same time, I was putting the polishing touches on my manuscript of the recently completed "Tears of Tay Ninh" as I needed to get a finalized copy to a publisher that has expressed interest. That alone, took many hours.

I took some time travelling in Viet Nam, as well. My next blog, hopefully in the next few days, will give a perspective of everyday Vietnamese life in the rural villages and smaller towns of the Central Highlands. I'll put up photos along with the story. Spending time "on the road" with the Vietnamese and riding the same busses with the livestock, bicycles, bags of avocadoes and luggage and experiencing the weaving in and out of traffic, funerals and dodging oxcarts was literally a trip.

Until the next week, peace to all. That's a difficult thing to say with the world situation flaring up, but the wish remains the same. Peace to all of you.

From Saigon

2006-05-02T03:30:00.000-07:00

by Tom Hutchings
From L’Indochine, 30 April 2006

On Friday, April 28, and 1400 kilometers away over the humid Bay of Bengal, a monsoon swirled and sent some of its energy to the four corners. One of those corners influenced by the storm was Viet Nam. On that day, Ho Chi Minh City, along, received nearly 4 inches of rain over a period of about 8 hours. A deluge of rain continued to pour onto the city and as each bolt of lightning seared the sky a cauldron of thunder poured down into the neighborhoods, resonating through the warrens and mazes of neighborhoods. It was a good day to open all the doors and windows and take a nap. It was also a good day to start the rainy season.

The following day, friends and I went on our motorbikes to ride around the city and find a coffee shop to relax in for an afternoon. My friends were off from work for the holiday. It was thirty-one years before that Vietnamese troops surrounded Saigon and waited for the final push into the capital to complete liberation of the South on the 30th of April. I was the only one in the group who remembered that day. My friends, thankful for a nation now at peace, merely wanted to find a nice, peaceful coffee shop. Areas areas around the banks of the Saigon River promised some good pickin’s. We settled in at the Café Song Bong; The River Bank Cafe.

After locating a table on the cantilevered deck over the water, we leaned back in metal-framed canvas lounges, sinking deep into the fabric, lower than the sand barges that drifted downstream. We slowly drank our sweetened, iced milk coffees and listened to soft Vietnamese music. My friends began peeling the lotus seeds they had moments before bought from a lady sitting at the busy roadside at the entrance to the cafe. They peeled the seeds, separated the halves and plucked the bitter green shoot from inside. I mentioed Tennyson’s poem about lotus-eaters and Odysseus’s epic journey and his contact with the Lotus Eaters of Northern Africa. Eating lotus seeds was said to produce a euphoric effect. Daydreamers are sometimes thought of as “lotus eaters.” My friends said they throw the bitter start of the shoot from the seed, but those who consume it feel drowsy, lazy and happy. That’s okay. I told them not to waste their extra energy pulling the halves apart for me. I didn’t mind being indolent.

So, I sat and watched barges filled with sand float downstream under a blue sky billowing white with piles of clouds; the boatmen squatted on the pilot house roof and watched for river traffic. It was a lazy time for me as I just completed over a year’s work on a novel tentatively titled “Tears of Tay Ninh,” a story that is set in Viet Nam of 1966 and 2005. The easy part was over; the hard task of finding a publisher or agent now begins.

On May 1, International Worker’s Day, some other friends and I decided to visit the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Visiting a park in Viet Nam is an all day affair. We arrived in the morning and very casually strolled around the large park and zoo. Families came to spend the holiday, some had apparently traveled from the outlying districts of Ho Chi Minh City. They brought picnic baskets filled with food and drink, and while children played games, adults strung hammocks between trees for an afternoon rest. We found some empty benches and I took a short nap under the shade of tamarinds, frangipani trees and coconut palms. There was no rush to go from exhibit to exhibit. Oddly enough, being nearly the only foreigner at the zoo, I received more attention than the hippos, chimpanzees or the elephants. Another mid-afternoon rain cooled the already-cool air at the zoo. My last trip to the Saigon Zoo was in 1970. Little has changed.

When not writing or visiting with friends, I’m still teaching at the government’s University of Technical Education in Thu Duc, about a thirty-five minute motorbike ride from my home in Saigon. When the semester is over in late-June, I’ll be heading to the southern part of the Central Highlands to spend a week visiting ethnic hill-tribe villages and I’ll stay at a Catholic convent. A social worker is taking me to visit for a couple reasons; one to document and photograph the ethnic conditions of the hill tribes and, two, as research for the next book I intend to write. In July, I’ll be heading back to Siem Reap, Cambodia with my Nikon D50 to take more photos of the ancient temples and to visit with an old friend, Chomm Samithy. September will find me visiting the U.S. as I reunite with my buddies whom I flew with during the American War in Viet Nam.

Someday, if you find yourself in this part of the world, give me a call and we’ll eat some lotus seeds and drink some sweetened, iced coffees on the banks of the Saigon River. You can even take a nap, if you wish. --Tom

George W. Bush Consistent In His Idiocy

2006-03-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

by Thomas Hutchings
March 17, 2006

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam - Reading the news from a variety of sources around the world does not present a pretty picture of events in the United States. Since George W. Bush's illegal take over of the White House in 2000, along with the help of the other criminals, the state of the nation has rapidly deteriorated. Incapable of correctly reading the sympathy of the world for the US after September 11, 2001, he rapidly pitched the world into a terrorist mode. After his resolute failures as a human being and alleged president, he abandoned Afghanistan, which has resorted to becoming the world's leading producer of opium and the warlords have assisted in concealing Osama bin Laden.

George W. Bush and his criminals then began a campaign of deceiving the American public and the world in lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and connections to al Queda. I submit that his personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein resulted not only in Iraq falling towards a civil war, but the lives of the more than 2,000 soldiers, hostages and the estimated tens of thousands of Iraqi lives (more recently the bombing of a house resulting in innocent lives being taken) lies directly on George W. Bush's head. He is alone responsible for al the bloodshed in Iraq. It is no wonder why so many in the world see GWB as the leading cause of hostilities in the world today and the World's Most Dangerous Person.

He has eroded civil rights in the US, ordered secret spying of US citizens in direct violation to the United States Constitution, which he LIED about protecting when he took the oath of presidency. (Did anyone check to see if his fingers were crossed?) He has given Donald Rumsfeld carte blanche with the Department of Defense and has allowed the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to operate out of embassies around the world, which emasculates the CIA. SOCOM is comprised of 1 to 3 or more military individuals whose sole mission is to try and ferret out terrorists in foreign countries by kidnapping and authorized to commit murder.

The United States, once seen as a moral leader in the world, now condones and conducts terror, illegal wiretapping and searches against US citizens, kidnapping around the world and torture. The US has called the "kettle black" when reproaching China, Viet Nam and other nations on their human rights abuses while many US citizens await execution in the United States and continues to operate Guantanamo as a prison. As governor of Texas, GWB broke the record for state executions.

Now, the US is denigrating the United Nations Human Rights Council and was one of two nations voting in opposition. The US, which once was a signator to the International Crimes Commission, had its signature/endorsement pulled by GWB after taking office, citing he was concerned the ICC would punish US soldiers for war crimes. Hey George! Don't condone or authorize war crimes in the first place (Abu Ghraib rings a bell).

I would like to say "(expletive deleted) Bush!" but the hesitation resides in that fact that SOCOM could always come knocking at my door here in Ho Chi Minh City. Oddly, I feel more safe, though, and feel I have more freedoms here as a foreigner in Viet Nam than I do as a citizen in the United States.

I still wonder why the US population still puts up with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton and the high crimes and treasons they commit. With his popularity at an all time low, Bush needs to be removed from office. Who would a likely replacement be? Not Cheney, not "Parrot" Rice, so you're stuck with really nobody. Sadly, the US is reverting to the dark ages of ignorance with South Dakota passing the abortion ban, Mississippi considering it and Bush's administration committing human rights abuses and crimes against humanity around the world. In addition, the sabres are rattling at Iran and the White House is talking again about pre-emptive strikes. Wasn't Iraq a big-enough mistake?

Privately, I will still say "(expletive deleted) Bush!" It feels good, but all I hear from De Lay, Abramhoff, Frist and the spineless Democrats is "Baaaaa, Baaaa" as they're led up to the slaughterhouse by the Judas Goat. Good luck, America!

Saigon’s Poor Struggle To Survive

2006-02-24T22:37:00.000-08:00

Years of Western World’s Economic Embargo Still Hurts People

Story and photos by: Thomas Hutchings

Saigon, Viet Nam – It’s the end of February and the heat hasn’t begun to gain momentum on this sultry morning. It’s only 9 o’clock, but everyone feels the air temperature rising. The poor cling to the edge of living like their shanties, which sit at odd angles atop rotting pilings set into the mud. The poor have already taken shelter in the shade of an old French building across the narrow street where their “houses,” made from anything they can find, begin to bask in an Indochina sun. The sun will start to blaze soon and it will be time to continue their work, which is trying to do anything to earn something. A good month may bring in about $12 from recycling glass, plastic and just about anything else that can be picked up and sold.

Lan (not her real name) is in her late thirties and is the mother of 4 children, ages 5 to 16. Her children are illiterate and help to earn money for the family by walking neighborhoods selling lottery tickets. For each ticket they sell, they will earn a profit of 200 dong, the equivalent to 1 ¼ cents in the US. The two youngest children stay with their mother at the edge of a tributary of the Saigon River separating Districts 5 and 6. As I talk with Lan, I look inside what can best be described as a hovel. Just inside the opening sits her devotional Buddhist shrine and the case of soy sauce that was donated by a friend accompanying me. A rat comes from behind the shrine, sniffs at the plastic wrap enshrouding the black liquid-filled bottles, and then disappears back into the shadows of the shack.

Lan doesn’t smile much. There’s not much to smile about and her front teeth are missing and her gums have nearly receded to the bone. Other teeth hang precariously nearby. She has several huge bags of recycled materials on the concrete apron at the now low-tide river. When it rains, they take shelter inside the shack and put tattered, blue, plastic tarps over the roof. When the river rises in the rainy season, they sleep on the concrete embankment because the shack becomes inundated with black, filthy water. They have no bathrooms. Lan and her neighbors do what they can.

Near the downtown area of Saigon, in District 1, Kim (also not her real name) shares a 5 foot wide by 10 foot long living quarters with 6 other people. Like Lan, her children are also illiterate and help earn money for the family. Several years ago, Kim tried to get some extra money for the family and sold heroin to the addicts who live nearby and some of the drug-seeking foreigner backpackers who haunt the nearby Pham Ngu Lao district. She was caught and sent to a vocational center near the Highlands for 3 years. While she was gone, her husband left and never returned, leaving the children to the care of social workers.

Education is not compulsory. Attempts are being made to make gains in literacy in Viet Nam, but the country is still feeling the effects of the nearly 17 year economic embargo by the United States and some of its western allies. Four billion dollars in war reparations promised by the Nixon administration was never sent. A country only seeking its own liberation and self-determination was punished by the West, which it now forgives.

Making inroads into the impoverished segments of society is difficult for the government. Poverty eradication programs have been at work, but funds are severely stretched to help those most at risk. Private persons and non-government organizations try, but it is like trying to catch the wind. The rate of poverty in the rural southeast of Vietnam stands at 45% according to the World Bank. They also discovered a high of 74% of people in the North Central Region are also impoverished.

To women like Lan and Kim, percentages don’t matter. It also doesn’t matter to their children who go out every morning to help earn what money they can in an economy that is shifting to a full market economy. Lan and Kim, and so many others, will sadly be left out of the booming markets.

Viet Nam Welcomes New Year of the Dog

2006-01-21T23:28:00.000-08:00

Country readies itself for Year of the Dog that begins January 29th.

Thomas Hutchings

(Saigon, Viet Nam) – Everyone in Viet Nam is busy making final preparations to greet the Lunar New Year, which begins on January 29, 2006. Vietnamese are traveling to their hometowns, as is the custom, and getting their houses ready for 4 days of celebration, and sometimes more. It is customary to clean the entire house, moving furniture in the process, repainting surrounding walls, front gates and sometimes the entire house, to make everything new again. The country is preparing for the Year of the Dog which begins officially at midnight, January 29, 2006. It is the time of the new moon and the beginning of spring.

Downtown Saigon is also preparing itself. Entrances to different residential quarters are decorated, flags are being flown and the abundance of decorative red lanterns, “Lucky Money” envelopes and gift packages are displayed on many street corners and on the sidewalks in front of stores. People are buying new clothes, washing their motorbikes and going to parties; all in the spirit of Tet 2006.

The park areas along Le Duan Boulevard and bounded by Pasteur Street and Cong Xa Paris are decorated with the Tet Tree in full blossom (photos above) and there are many colorful displays, food vendors and dragon dances and drummers to fill the air with excitement. Various companies have sponsored huge wire and colorful plastic displays of famous locations around the world, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China and Sydney’s Opera House, to name a few.

Pedestrians and motorists vie for space along the park (photo) and along Le Duan Street. Thousands throng the downtown to see the electric displays, the lights and they have come to share the spirit of the holiday. Nearby, Saigon’s Notre Dame Cathedral is bathed in an eerie glow.

As for me, I’ve had some help cleaning my house, bought some new furniture, hung paintings and will soon purchase gift packages for when I visit friends over the holiday. This is an important time for renewal and when the government releases many of those held in prison and allow them to go back home; debt paid. Ask a Vietnamese what their favorite time of year is and they will all reply “Tet!”

Happy New Years!! May you all have prosperity, luck and a long healthy life!!

Central Coast News Mission Tom Hutchings

2005-12-21T02:32:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, American values?

Congress recently passed legislation to build a wall 700 miles along the border between Mexico and the United States. This bill also allows the military to patrol for undocumented workers entering the US.

So, let's review some good ol' American values: invading and attacking sovereign nations without provocation based on lies; eroding private property rights; suspending and limiting civil liberties; unlawful and unconstitutional eavesdropping; rendition; the Administration’s advocating torture; “black detention facilities;" secret prisons; and a Republican-controlled Congress eager to pacify RACISTS in America by putting up an "Iron Curtain" (made of surplus metals from the military) along the border with Mexico. Let's not forget "overlooking redemption" (Williams' execution at San Quentin, CA.).

Sounds like downright darn good moral values to teach children, don't you think?

Central Coast News Mission Tom Hutchings

2005-12-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

Cheney:

“I believe in a strong, robust executive authority…”

Hell, Dick, why don’t you and George crown yourselves as dictators while you’re at it? Oh, wait, that's what you're doing, right?

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam – While reviewing news before returning stateside for a holiday visit it is not surprising, nor stunning, the comments of Mr. Dick Cheney onboard Air Force 2, December 20, 2005. Apparently, he believes, by using the words “strong and robust executive authority,” that the Bush administration is inclined to suspend the Constitution of the United States of America so that George W. Bush can do as he sees fit. Spying on Americans without warrants seems to be okay with them. George W. Bush, trying to transfer the culpability of his unconstitutional acts, blames the New York Times for reporting his malfeasance.

It is not coincidental that the phrase, “strong and robust,” is being used. In 1997, Richard Perle, one of the prime architects of Bush’s quagmire in Iraq, referred to the Soviet Union as “strong and robust.” A reference was made to the Soviet Union in an earlier writing on this blog page in reference to America becoming what it hated for so many years; eroding private property rights, suspending and limiting civil liberties, and now unlawful and unconstitutional eavesdropping. We may as well include rendition, the Administration’s advocating torture, “black detention facilities” and secret prisons as other strong American values.

This blog will be short. I still have packing to do before my return to the States. I do not hold any hope the American public will wake up and see the danger signals this neo-conservative backed administration is doing to what could have been the most beneficent and respected country in the world. Why? Because a Republican-controlled Congress lacks the testosterone for impeachment.

As for me, after my visit stateside, I’m returning home to Viet Nam where the economy is burgeoning and is geared towards freedom, democracy and peace. I know that will make some people happy – mostly me.

Criminals in the White House Part II

2005-12-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

With a tendency to mangle spoken English,

“I swear to unfold and bend the Constitution of the United States”

may be what George W. Bush really said at his swearing-in ceremony.

By Thomas Hutchings

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam – Talk among expatriates here usually centers around ways to make life easier in dealing with the rain, current cold temperatures of 72 degrees and traffic jams. On many occasions, talk swirls around the sad, desperate political state of affairs in America with a “President gone wild;" Loose cannon may be the more appropriate term.

SECRET PRESIDENTIAL ORDER

In my last article, “Criminals in the White House,” it wasn’t even pondered that a crime against the revered Constitution of the United States was being committed secretly by order of George W. Bush. He has committed an act of terrorism against this hallowed document with his secret presidential order after the attacks on the World Trade Center, attacked predominantly by Saudi Arabians, yet Afghanistan and Iraq paid the price. To that list of entities under attack, we now add the Constitution of the United States and US citizens. In retrospect, not only US citizens are under surveillance, but anybody who resides on this planet.

CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS KNEW AND CLOSED THEIR EYES

Members of Congress, lacking testicular organs (with all due respect to the Honorable Women of Congress), knew of the program and turned a blind eye in blatant disregard for the Constitution. As reported in the New York Times, “Some officials familiar with it say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional, amounting to an improper search. One government official involved in the operation said he privately complained to a Congressional official about his doubts about the program's legality. But nothing came of his inquiry. "People just looked the other way because they didn't want to know what was going on," he said.

BLOW JOB VERSUS CON JOB

I may be pushing a limit here, but a sex act engaged in by President Clinton in the White House was minor given its relevance, yet a Republican majority House decided to impeach Clinton because of a stained dress. Now, a Republican majority House repeatedly refuses to bring any charges against George W. Bush who admittedly last week acknowledged that approximately 30,000 Iraqis have died in the “George W. Bush and Neo-Cons War Against Iraq." Over 2,100 American lives have been lost and the reasons for his war, as he now admits, was based on faulty intelligence. Let’s face it; George W. Bush wanted the war and LIED (bold, italics and underlined so as the reader knows exactly what I mean) to the American people to sell it. He is now caught shredding the Constitution of the United States. Which is worse, Clinton’s oral sex or the killing of human lives and civil liberties? We know where Republican hearts lie.

REPUBLICANS CONTINUE PARANOIA

The New York Times story was delayed for a year because of investigations, it claims. The release also coincides with Congressional repudiation of the Bush Administration’s urging to reauthorize key surveillance sections of the USA PATRIOT Act. Republicans love to play on building paranoia in order to get what they most greedily want – power over the lives of others.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is reported to have said in a BBC article, “We have a clear choice before us today: Do we advance against terrorism to make America safer or do we retreat?" Senator Frist is merely frightening people into getting what he wants.
Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, stated, “God forbid that there be a terrorist attack that could have been prevented by the Patriot Act after it has expired." This is Kyl’s scare tactic.

Americans should realize that individuals like Frist, Kyl and George W. Bush are advancing an agenda to make America contain the most frightened and paranoid of all peoples in the world, including its law enforcement, which now operates with a hair trigger.

Only a complete political revamp of American government can restore some sensibility to the country. In personal conversations with other nationals who reside or pass through Saigon, America is not seen as a moral and ethical standard, but rather, America is suspect in its foreign policy and seen as completely immoral in its governance.

CONGRESS NEED A HEALTHY DOSE OF CALCIUM IN ITS SPINE

A cowardly Congress is finally finding its much-needed calcium supplements by those who are denying George W. Bush and his ilk the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act, but they need more. They are finally beginning to question the illegal and unconstitutional secret presidential orders. Nothing less than an impeachment of George W. Bush can help Congressional members recover and display an unprecedented courage in repudiating a President with a penchant for denying civil liberties and lies.

The American people have been at the crossroads for a long time, staring like scared rabbits caught in the headlights of a juggernaut driven by Bush and the Neo-Cons. America, take your country back. Urge immediate impeachment and removal of George W. Bush and the Dick Cheney from office.

Criminals in the White House

2005-11-06T01:24:00.000-08:00

Thomas A. Hutchings

Saigon – Living in a different country provides a different perspective on what was once called a homeland. It is disheartening to consider what is happening in the United States and the public’s refusal to force criminal charges against the Bush administration; an administration that has hijacked the government of the US by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. The Bush administration is completely ignorant of history and is repeating it with a war that is unethical, immoral and illegal.

There are very strong parallels that Bush is ignoring; striking similarities between the American War in Viet Nam and the American War in Iraq.

Polls Repeat History

It’s interesting to note that Bush’s polls leading into the American War in Iraq is similar to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s polls in 1965 shortly after Operation Rolling Thunder, the devastating bombing of Hanoi, began. The polls showed Johnson’s approval rating of 70 percent and an 80 percent approval of U.S. military involvement in Viet Nam. Similar to Bush’s polls at the start of the war in Iraq.

When US diplomats urged restraint leading up to the involvement in Iraq, Bush ignored all pleas to wait. Questions were raised about the administration’s claims of weapons of mass destruction and it was eventually discovered that the shifting rationale for invading Iraq at Bush’s behest were fabricated. That is a High Crime!

The United States public, being led down the primrose path by a cowardly press, didn’t question Bush. A strategic plan for withdrawal was never formulated and even now, Bush claims that to discuss a plan would provide information to terrorists to use against the US. Bush has dragged the US into a quagmire, another lesson not understood from Viet Nam.

History Repeats Itself

In early 1965, Ambassador Taylor in Viet Nam presented his grave reservations to Johnson. Taylor indicated that America was about to repeat the same mistake the French made by sending increasing numbers of troops into the jungles and forests of Southeast Asia where friend and foe are “indistinguishable.”

Worldwide protests were ignored by Bush, reasoning that he would not yield to the opinion of “focus groups.” He is still completely ignorant of the gravity of the war he feloniously entered and instead is more focused on approval ratings. He is now trying to save his sinking Ship of Fools, torpedoed by the recent withdrawal of Bush’s legal counsel, Harriet Miers, from her nomination to the Supreme Court, the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff and the continuing investigation of Karl Rove who is currently spared and his more recent failures in developing a free trade agreement for the Americas.

Oh, let’s not forget the failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina in a timely manner, though he’s quick to help his brother’s state of Florida when a dying girl is in a coma or weigh in on the Christian instigated “Intelligent Design” vote in Kansas on November 8, 2005.

Speaking To Improve Poll Rankings

Instead, Bush travels the countryside speaking to specific friendly groups and using the same hackneyed phrases he used to enter the war; phrases like rogue nations, weapons of mass destruction, democracy is imminent, war on terrorism, and the list goes on. From here, Bush sounds more like a broken record than the leader of a nation.

Despite current polls showing declining support for the Bush War in Iraq, he still urges the country to stand firm against the enemy. During Johnson’s administration, columnist Walter Lippmann blasted Johnson’s Viet Nam policies and wrote, “Gestures, propaganda, public relations and bombing and more bombing will not work.” Forty years later, the American public and press are beginning to repeat what Lippmann and others wrote.

Bush’s criticism, echoed by the brainless right wing conservatives who will continue to polish the brass on Bush’s sinking ship of state, of those opposed to the war sound very similar to Johnson’s comments. Regarding protesters opposed to the war in Viet Nam, Johnson, used the media to deride opponents and war protesters and his critics in Congress as “nervous Nellies” and “Sunshine Patriots.”

Viet Nam: Four Times All Bombs Dropped In WWII

During the entire American War in Viet Nam, the US flew 3 million combat missions and dropped 8 million tons of bombs. This amount is four times the amount of tonnage dropped during World War II. All that for a country the size of California and which then Secretary General of the United Nations expressed his doubts that Viet Nam was essential to the security of the West. Many believe that the war in Iraq is simply corporate America’s war to ensure a continued oil supply to the US’s insatiable consumption economy.

Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, the architect of the War in Viet Nam eventually had the courage to announce that the entire war was a terrible mistake.

The President Spoke Of Madness

I doubt Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the other sycophants of the jingoistic corporate right will ever admit the mistake of Iraq.

On January 12, 1966, in his State of the Union address, President Johnson spoke about the war in Viet Nam. He stated, "Yet, finally, war is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate...therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in this world."

The “Madness” continues to this day in America’s discolored and stained White House.

Many Will Mourn Loss of George Moylan

2005-10-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

(Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam) -- I read with sorrow the passing of George Moylan, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo. George was only a few months away from retirement when he died. George (his first name is used rather than his last because he was a friend to me and many others) had been heading the Housing Authority since 1987.

George was an incredible man who brought many strengths with him to his job every day. His job was to assist the disabled, elderly, working poor and the homeless find permanent housing. In a particularly difficult time, when the Bush Administration apparently deems these groups expendable in order to prosecute a senseless war, George worked hard to place people into a permanent residence.

George’s strengths included compassion, a willingness to help in very creative ways while still adhering to the law and the regulations of the US Housing and Urban Development, a persistence, willingness to literally bend over backwards, and all the while keeping his unique, and albeit cynical, sense of humor that kept many laughing.

George was not an aberration in humanity. Living here in a poor country such as Viet Nam, I see other distinctive, caring individuals at work to alleviate homelessness in difficult times. The August Typhoon Damrey left many homeless, thousands of hectares of rice land under sea water and thousands of homes destroyed. One businessman, Dao Hong Tuyen, put up his 1,200 square meter island villa, valued at $755,000, to raise funds for those left homeless. It is estimated that approximately 800 houses will be constructed from the proceeds. In addition, Mr. Tuyen has already donated 110 tons of rice.

Elsewhere in the country, Asian Commercial Bank (ACB) has been working to provide permanent housing for ethnic minorities. ACB recently handed over eight houses to minority people in the Thua Thien-Hue Province.

There are many other examples of individuals here in Viet Nam, a poor country with a Gross Domestic Product of only $52 billion (Saigon Times Daily, October 6, 2005), who give what little, or as much, they have in order to help their fellow countrymen. The Government, itself, has increased its financial allocation to the different provinces in order to restore those displaced by Typhoon Damrey get back into permanent housing. It’s not only in times of need, but the government does all it can do to help the homeless and the poor to obtain housing.

The task of housing the poor, disabled, elderly and homeless is a monumental task, made ever more difficult by shrinking funds taken from local coffers and sent to protect America’s oil and business interests in Iraq. Few are up to such a task. George Moylan was a man who could do it and he will be desperately missed in the County of San Luis Obispo and other locales where his heart touched many people.

His shoes will be very hard to fill.

Viet Nam’s AIDS Healthcare More Sincere than US

2005-09-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Photo by UNESCAP

(Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam) During the week of August 23, 2005, local health officials in Ho Chi Minh City announced through The Saigon Times Daily that people with AIDS and HIV will have access to a confidentiality card.

This card, created by decision by the HCMC People’s Committee, will allow PWA/HIV with free medical care and prevention services. Because of Viet Nam’s economically developing status, only anti-retroviral drugs will be available free of charge to AIDS patients in serious need.

Free Medical Care With Confidentiality Card

This move is to address the estimated 40,000 to 50,000 HIV patients, of which approximately 10,000 are in need of urgent care. HCMC Committee for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Deputy, Le Truong Giang, announced that the cards will be available at the City’s 28 support centers. The cards will bear only a code and will not contain any other patient information.

To apply for the confidential card, individuals need to provided current demographic information, proof of AIDS diagnosis or HIV-positive status and certify they have not applied for a card at any other location. Many PWA are homeless or have drug addictions. HCMC is the first city in Viet Nam to issue cards to HIV/AIDS patients.

Viet Nam Steps Forward--US Steps Backward

While efforts to treat AIDS/HIV in Viet Nam are increasing, the United States and California are making efforts to take steps backwards. Republican California legislators have presented legislation to remove patient confidentiality and reductions in AIDS/HIV program and healthcare funding due to outdated allocation formulas which are based on estimates that undercount PWAs have been proposed in Congress.

Funding for disease prevention and education, housing, and the closing of publicly-funded care facilities has placed an onerous burden on those living with HIV/AIDS and those who tend to their needs.

In 2004, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors decided to close its General Hospital, despite warnings from the healthcare community that the indigent, working poor and underserved population would lose access to their only means of healthcare. There has been seen a significant decrease in physicians and dentists who accept Medi-Cal (US Medicaid) as a payer for services to the indigent disabled community.

Central Coast Health Priorities

In a region that has seen an increase in tourism, wine-grape production and especially in highly inflated land values, political emphasis has been on catering to the elite and discounting the value of life for the less-fortunate.

Viet Nam recognizes the value of all its citizens and tries to focus attention on healthcare. Even at a time of severe constraints and with rising world oil prices, Viet Nam continues to build new general hospitals in the more impoverished districts. Focusing the health care need of her people, Viet Nam is requesting assistance from international sources to help develop medical technology and provide it at a reasonable price.

US Highest In World Economic Ranking--Viet Nam Ranks 56th

The United States is the highest ranked economy in the World. California is usually ranked 6th. Viet Nam, a country that never saw the $4 billion in war reparations as promised by then President Nixon, is ranked 56th in the world (World Development Indicators database, World Bank, 15 July 2005).

It would be expected that a country like the US which has the richest economy would have more than enough to take care of its own and reach out to help others. Not so true. The US and California have been slicing social service benefits since the Bush Administration came to power and Governor Schwarzenegger has been Bush’s conservative ally in promoting social service decreases in California.

People in the US should be outraged. There should have been huge, unprecedented marches and demonstrations in Sacramento and Washington DC to protest these cuts, and in some cases, complete abandonment of other services. The question should be raised, "Why didn’t the people care?" The people and political leadership in Viet Nam care.
--Thomas Hutchings

Columnist Sowell Suffers From Misperceptions/Misinformation

2005-09-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Saigon, Viet Nam--In his August 10, 2005 column at townhall.com conservative columnist Thomas Sowell is concerned about the lack of news surrounding the heroics of the troops in Iraq by the mainstream media, specifically the New York Times and the "big three broadcast news programs." With the lack of responsibility of the mainstream media to report the truth leading up to the invasion of Iraq, it seems peculiar that Sowell would now take temporally displaced pokes at them.

Mr. Sowell claims the media portrays the troops as victims and nothing is noted about their heroics. He cites front page stories of Marine funerals and the financial hardship of National Guardsmen who have been called to active duty, citizen-soldiers who never thought they would be fighting in a war. Sowell mistakenly refers to Senator Kerry’s remarks about the National Guard becoming a "backdoor draft" stating that joining the reserves or Guard will exempt one from having to fight.

Sowell should understand a "backdoor draft" is to the benefit of the Bush Administration to draw troops from the civilian population without having to actually activate the Selective Service System.

Sowell simply states that "The theme of troops as victims has been a steady drumbeat in the media, because of the way the media have chosen to filter the news, filtering out heroes, among other things."

Mr. Sowell, you may recall this is the same media who helped whip the American public into a frenzy of patriotism (read "jingoism") as the mainstream media and the Republican Party-oriented Fox News incessantly reported the manufactured lies of the Bush administration alleging Iraq’s ties to Al Queda, possession of weapons of mass destruction, the threat of Iraq to "attack" the United States military bases, and Iraq’s attempts to buy nuclear material. Sowell doesn’t seem to know which way the wind is going to blow and his memory has become as selective as the Bush administration.

Sowell also claims this is a re-creation of the media’s reaction to the American War in Viet Nam (my words not his, Sowell used "Vietnam war") when "victories on the battlefield were turned into defeat on the home front by the filtering and spin of the media."

Sowell should recall there were no "battlefield" victories in Viet Nam, nor were there actual battlefields. The American War in Viet Nam was a guerilla war. Sowell claims current Vietnamese leaders claim they were losing the war militarily but expected to win politically.

As it is, Viet Nam was wearing the United States down militarily, but it wasn’t the "Jane Fondas, Walter Cronkites or a "cast of thousands in the streets and on the campuses across the country" who lost the war for America" it was the American political leadership and the military’s attempts at cover-ups.

The reader should recall that news about the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, could not be confirmed until 8 months after the fact. On that March day, over 500 Vietnamese civilians were murdered by three infantry divisions in the Son My district. Nixon had his own secret war in Laos and Cambodia, and when the North ventured across the 17th Parallel in 1972, Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, in which over 200 B-52s caused devastation on the ground during Christmas of 1972.

There is a fraction of a point that I can agree with Sowell. He writes that the media filtering and gullibility of those who accept the truth by the media are at fault. Yes, Mr. Sowell, the gullibility of the American public who believe Fox News and the mainstream media about the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Wolfowitz created virtual reality led to an immoral, illegal and unprecedented unprovoked invasion of another sovereign nation by America.

Mr. Sowell, it is not the "dumbed-down education in our schools" that caused the American public inability to see through the "most blatant hypocrisy" but rather it was the American public’s primal need for revenge and to blindly follow leaders that has led to the quagmire America is in. America doesn’t seem to learn from history.

It’s about time, albeit late, that the mainstream media is beginning to educate the public about the futility and error of Bush’s War in Iraq. Mr. Sowell should be reminded of two things: the Iraq war is not the same as WWI or WWII and not everyone will believe the Bush Fairy Tales anymore.

America Can Be Better!

2005-08-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

Living in Viet Nam does not insulate me from receiving the incessantly forwarded "hate speech" emails touting the penultimate experience of being an American. I trust many readers may understand.

Photo: Centers for Disease Control
One such recent email forwarded to me entitled "Middle East Mystery" contained the following: Everyone seems to be wondering why Muslim terrorists are so quick to commit suicide. Let’s see now:

No Jesus
No Wal-Mart
No television
No cheerleaders
No baseball
No football
No hockey
No tailgate parties
No Home Depot
Rags for clothes and towels for hats
Constant wailing from the guy next door because he’s sick and there are no doctors
Constant wailing from the guy in the tower...

And the list continues with more derogatory and pejorative statements about Middle Easterners.

For a brief period at the beginning of her history, America was defined by a moral ethic and a sense of compassion around the world. America once stood for protecting civil liberties and ensuring a press free from government intervention. America was once a beacon of independence and liberty and a model of democracy around the world. That is what America was.

From What We Were, To What We Have Become

America is rapidly becoming a nation of politically-oriented Jesus followers ready to inconsistently interpret a book, based on 2,000 year old legends and re-written close to 1700 years ago at the direction of a political leader, to justify personal prejudices. America has become the Wal-Marts and Home Depots that destroy the economic sustainability of local communities, exploit workers in developing countries and cheat workers in their weekly pay packets all for an erroneously perceived lower price.

But, hey! They have a smiley face and that should make you feel good. Home Depot and Wal-Mart takes community money and sends it to distant corporate capitals. Congress also approved $38 million of your tax dollars to help ease traffic congestion into Wal-Mart headquarters.

When has America been the leader in television? Here’s some examples as seen from the outside:

Photo: Reuters

Fox News (A propaganda machine of Rupert Murdock for the Republican Party)
Average Joe
Who Wants to Marry My Dad?
Fear Factor

And Baywatch, to name a few. The quality of corporate controlled commercial television programming has quickly eroded and replaced with senseless crap, for want of a better word.

I suppose Muslims could be jealous of America because she has baseball players who will go on strike, demand higher seven-figure salaries, are unable to control explosive behaviors and become involved in on-field brawls and suffer from drug and gambling addictions. They’re jealous of football? See the comments about baseball players and add to that sex crimes, drug crimes and weapons charges.

American Values: Real As Bullets

I believe the reason for all of the violence in the Middle East has been a direct result of America’s "weaponization" of the area, the calculated interference in political stability, and arrogantly forcing countries to adopt its values while being completely unable to practice those same values at home.

Some of the values that America models are:

Forcing an invaded sovereign nation to adopt a consitution on America’s time frame

Ignoring the right of self-determination of independent countries

Invading and conducting war in independent countries without provocation

Gaining the support of people for war on the home front based on calculated lies

Pitting groups of Americans against each other to take the attention away from the numerous American deaths in Iraq

Appointments by a dictatorial Executive Branch without consent of Congress

Ignoring the grief-stricken families of soldiers killed in Iraq

Unilateralism in regards to environmental policies and human rights violations

Mostly progressive and liberal readers will see this brief article. However, as Americans, you are charged with making America better. It is time to join and support third political parties. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party have worked to the detriment of the America that was once respected.

A Third Way

Only third parties have an independent voice and the courage to speak out against the injustices that are committed. Join a third political party. It sends a clear message to the Republocratic Party that, as Howard Beal stated in Network, "We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!"

While you’re at it, when you get "hate-speak" emails, reply to the sender you don’t appreciate their sentiments. I certainly do.

Next week: Thomas Sowell is wrong! --Thom

Healthcare For All

2005-08-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

(Saigon, Viet Nam) I laid sweating on the drab white sheeted gurney in the emergency room watching the ceiling fan slowly stirring the tepid morning air.

I was just another uninvolved person who suddenly became involved in the Vietnamese healthcare system. I couldn’t hear or see the 45 year old man who was only a few feet away and dying, but I heard his 3 young daughters pleading for him to live.

The four had traveled from Cambodia to Vietnam to attend a festival. There are many Vietnamese living on the other side of the border, much akin to many Latinos living in California. This farmer had a history of high blood pressure and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.

Doctors Counsel Family Members

The daughters were pleading for his life and pleading with the doctors to operate or transfer him to another hospital in Saigon. The doctors explained to the grieving girls nothing could be done except to let him die peacefully and painlessly there in the emergency room.

There is no "confidentiality" or "privacy" in the Vietnamese general hospital in Tay Ninh, a border area witness to so much hostility during the French Indochina War and the American War in Viet Nam. Everyone in the emergency room becomes family, everyone becomes aware of the connectedness to another human and everyone helps each other--even the dying.

Comfort Is The Same In Every Language

The 18 year old girl who was attending her grandmother came to my bedside to comfort the foreigner who needed help. She offered a calm hand and a smile. We spoke in Vietnamese. I couldn’t help but smile with her. An older man with his aging mother also visited. He didn’t say much. He saw the sweat pouring out of my shirtless chest and used an old woven fan to cool me. He also smiled with me.

When there is a problem in the emergency room, it is easier for the doctors and nurses to quickly respond. No buttons to push, no waiting for someone to pass by a door. You are simply another involved human needing care, as it was for me.

The level of healthcare in Viet Nam’s rural area is sometimes considered primitive in comparison to the healthcare in the city. The striking difference is that healthcare, anywhere in Vietnam, is affordable. People are able to access a doctor for a few dollars and the doctors provide the best care they can.

People Helping People On Low-Cost Basis

Here, there is more of an emphasis on people helping each other. The wealthy help with fundraisers, overseas Vietnamese come to pledge assistance and everyone is involved in providing healthcare.

Healthcare is very affordable. Full time monitoring with a cardiologist, 3-day hospital stay, ambulance transfer from Tay Ninh to Saigon and all the IV’s and medications amounted to a mere $391. No mistake, it was three hundred ninety-one dollars.

How California Can Help It's Own Health

Californians can also help each other with the California Healthcare Insurance Reliability Act. This act will provide affordable and reliable healthcare for all Californians and much better yet, is it will provide for health-oriented healthcare, not "for profit" healthcare. Wouldn’t California be better served with a healthy workforce? It is the responsibility of all in California to pull together for better health conditions in the state.

I would urge everyone to support "Healthcare for All."

After my medical emergency, which the doctors agreed would have been fatal had I been nearer the Cambodian border, I became more interested in healthcare here. Following my return home from the half-week stay in the hospital, my neighbor had a medical emergency at home. I was summoned for help by the housekeeper. They had already called the doctor and while I was there, the doctor came literally running around the corner with his black bag in hand.

In the United States where profit drives healthcare this would never be seen. In Viet Nam where healthcare is patient oriented, it is a common site and affordable. Which is better? --Thom

A USA EXPATRIATE Act

2005-08-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

I enjoy an unusual status as an American citizen living overseas, specifically in Viet Nam. Those of us who have opted to live outside America's boundaries are referred to as "expatriates."

There are just as many reasons to be an expat, as we are usually known, as there are people who chose to abandon the confines of their homeland. In the immediate instance, my leaving America can be referred to as a USA EXPATRIATE Act.

Ex-pats Have Their Reasons

The act of my leaving the US to become an expatriate was related to various reasons, which most expats, will not usually discuss. What one is escaping from or going towards is not a topic freely spoken about in expat groups. The fact that one has already made the step in living overseas, that is unless one has chosen Canada or Mexico, is accepted and reasons become moot and quite usually uninteresting.

For as long as most living today can remember, the United States has been involved in an ideological struggle with communism. I am a veteran of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the American War in Viet Nam. Viet Nam is a socialist country under the one party rule of the Viet Nam Communist Party.

Some of my Republican Christian family members have difficulties reconciling the fact that their socialist-leaning Buddhist liberal brother's has chosen to live in a country that America considered its enemy for over a dozen years. Not only was Viet Nam considered an enemy, but it continues to be a communist party-ruled country.

A Tale Of Two Countries

Communism was generally viewed as an economic practice that also included limiting civil rights, giving the state power to pry into the people's private lives, redistributing wealth and taking the property of individuals for the state's good. In comparison, one can argue quite reasonably that the only difference politically between living here and in America is the food and the language.

On July 18, 20045 the Supreme Court decided that the State can take personal property under eminent domain when it serves the community's need for economic development. Under the Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme private property can now be taken by the state only to be handed over to private developers for their private gain, and the U.S. Constitution offers no protection, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

I'm still wondering where the conservatives are who fight and yell so loudly for private property rights are hiding now. The predominantly conservative court that appointed George Bush president in 2000 has decided government can now seize your private property. Funny, the communists have done that also. Where is the US headed?

The State Grows Ever More Powerful

On Thursday, July 21st, the House of Representatives voted to make permanent the US government's right to limit the civil liberties of its citizens. The USA PATRIOT Act, not to be confused with my own EXPATRIATE Act, was rushed through Congress suspiciously soon after September 11, 2001 and passed by Democrat and Republican alike.

The USA PATRIOT Act, as many already know, allows the government to intrude into personal lives under the guise of fighting terrorism. The Act allows roving wiretaps, monitoring of emails and internet usage without being limited to an individual or specific phone. It also allows for government agents to obtain business, library and medical records all without the individual being aware of being the subject of an investigation.

It is illegal for custodians of records to advise the individual that personal records have been obtained.

One Senate Republican sponsored bill proposes to give the FBI, who may be watching me from afar, expanded powers to subpoena records without the approval of a judge.

Another interesting Senate proposal is establishing a new crime of narco-terrorism, which is usually defined as supporting terrorism from drug profits. If that were to pass, I propose America investigate itself. During the French Indochina war, the French government sold opium and heroin from Laos to Marseilles criminals to finance their war against the Viet Minh, the precursors of the Viet Cong.

Narco-Terrorism Finances War

Later, the US CIA, which also may be watching me at a much closer range, continued the practice of using profits from opium and heroin sales to finance the US operations in the region during the US war. As the Geneva Convention of 1954 prohibited foreign personnel to operate in Laotian territory, America's actions of more than 600,000 bombing sorties in Laos can be considered terrorism, under new definitions.

I challenge the US to investigate those Americans and government officials who traded in opium and heroin to finance that war.

Another similarity to communism is the Republocratic Party. The voting of Democrats has been closely aligned with the Republicans, both funded by major corporations. Let's face it, both parties voted for the USA PATRIOT Act, the War in Iraq, the World Trade Organization, GATT, tax cuts for the rich, a burdensome federal budget, increasing the federal deficit, the new bankruptcy bill that prevents people to get out from under excessive debts that may have been caused by divorce, critical medical care or other emergencies and the Republocratic Party is once again voting for the USA PATRIOT Act again.

What Have We Become?

Many should face reality that America has finally become what it has hated for several generations. She now lacks moral leadership in the world. Her government has acted cowardly in supporting dictatorships, providing them with training, weapons and even selling weapons to enemies (Iran) to finance Contra rebels in Nicaragua (Iran-Contra scandal).

The US helped Diem and Ky in Viet Nam, Noriega in Panama, Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, then had him killed, Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, and Saddam Hussein when he was fighting the Iranians who were using our weapons we sold to them.

For me, I like my own version of the USA EXPATRIATE Act. I'm not encouraging others to leave the country, but it seems, I am beginning to experience more liberties here than in America. Here, at least, expats don't live in a paranoid surveilled state.

Indochina Update

2005-07-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

This last Friday, I finished helping at TEFL in Ho Chi Minh City evaluating new teacher candidates. The end of the course dinner was held at Binh Quoi 1 in Binh Thanh District of HCMC. The attached photo is a small tributary of the Saigon River that flows through this area where the dinner was held. I captured the moment as the sun was trying to make the effort of setting, but everything moves a bit slower with the change of weather here.

The weather is turning a bit colder. The temperature dips to 75 degrees at night. Add "wind chill" factor, it's downright chilly. The rains continue in the afternoon and turn to thunderstorms when there is enough energy.

Everything is moving slower nowadays with the change in weather.

I went for my iced coffee this morning and nearby sat three men silently sipping their warm green tea in small clear glasses. They sipped and watched the banana vendor slowly pulling his heavy three-wheeled bicycle cart down the alley under the grey overcast sky, his green pith helmet stained from years of sweat. With reservation, one of the men mutters, "It's time to go to to work," but they take their time.

Even the clouds this morning can barely make the effort to release their own burden brought in from the Eastern Sea. Small droplets of water barely survive when the cool air stirs for a brief moment. Everything here has come to a slower pace. Leaning against the fading green plastered wall of Ong Tuan's store sipping my iced coffee takes energy. I suppose sitting minus effort equals contentment.

Tomorrow, I travel to an area north of Tay Ninh near the Cambodian border for research on my book and will spend the day discovering areas of Viet Nam safely tucked away from tourists. Late August will see me in Laos for a week of more research. They say Laos still retains the charm and atmosphere that was Indochina so many years ago before the wars. They say you come to Indochina and you learn a lot in a few minutes, but the rest has got to be lived.

Peace to all of you. --Thomas

When Forgiveness Is Understood

2005-07-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have chosen to return to Viet Nam where I served two tours of duty as an aircrew member at Tan Son Nhut Airbase, now renamed Tan Son Nhat International Airport, in Saigon. My squadron’s mission accounted for 90% of B-52 bombing strikes and 80% of the intelligence for the ground war. Living now amongst the Vietnamese has taught me many things, one of which is forgiveness.

I recently read a story from San Luis Obispo about Priscilla Vargas being charged in the tragic vehicular death of her 3 month old daughter (July 19, 2005; Tribune). How devastating it must be to lose a child, especially under these circumstances. When taking the baby out of the car seat to breast feed – hungry infants won’t wait for rest stops - a tragic accident occurred. What makes this more tragic is the reaction of the California Highway Patrol. They have requested felony child endangerment charges against the mother.

If I have learned anything about living in Viet Nam, especially as a veteran, is that horrific acts, even of war, can be forgiven. Traveling around the country, one can see the long terms effects of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant/herbicide used in an indiscriminant manner. Many areas of forest and jungle are still devastated. Even more apparent is the human tragedy of Agent Orange. Congential deformities are evident in the people and seen everyday in the streets and orphanages; children born without eyes, limbs partially formed, brains severely damaged. I am currently teaching a student with a facial mass that severely distorts her features, but not the beauty in her heart. She was born in an area that had been sprayed during the war. She knows who is teaching her. There is no animosity on her part.

In March 2005, a United States Court federal judge decided to dismiss the Vietnamese victims' claim for Agent Orange damages against Dow, Monsanto, and the other chemical companies, citing, in his opinion, that although toxic, the use of Agent Orange did not consititue "chemical warfare." The decison may be appealed.

Facing the remnants of war everyday, the Vietnamese still manage to practice forgiveness towards the United States for the environmental, physchological and human damage. As an expatriate living in Viet Nam, my house is in the middle of a labrythine neighborhood. There are no other foreigners nearby. My Vietnamese neighbors know I am American and I served here during the war. However, they are aware that they fought the Chinese for a thousand years, the French for a hundred and the Americans for a mere dozen or so years. They celebrate the fact that, after so many years of violence and war, their country is now at peace. They help each other but they also accept the tragedies without having to compound the sorrow and misery.

Consider the tragedy of Priscilla Vargas. A mother who was simply removing her child from its seat to breast feed. No one can dispute that it is not only illegal but unsafe to remove a child from its seat while a vehicle is in motion. Yes, a grave error was made and no parent should ever experience the death of a child. However, the California Highway Patrol seems intent on adding to Ms. Vargas's sorrow, which I can only imagine is quite intense.

From my experiences in war and "working the streets" in law enforcement, I have seen human tragedy in the extreme. From these experiences, I cannot understand the need for the CHP to compound human suffering, save its own need to demonstrate the State's power. I submit Ms. Vargas's loss of her infant is more than enough misery for one person and charging her for this accident only adds to her suffering. If 80 million Vietnamese can forgive the U.S. for the destruction of the environment and the human toll estimated at around 3 million Vietnamese lost, then the CHP and the District Attorney's office should be able to find some level of compassion and understand Ms. Vargas's loss. Like the Vietnamese, I can only hope. Like the Vietnamese, I can forgive. I hope the CHP and DA can also.

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Tom Hutchings is a veteran of the American War in Viet Nam and served two tours. He was awarded four (4) Air Medals and was recently (January 2005) awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which had been overlooked at the time.

Hutchings is a former member of the SLO City Human Relations Commission, Paso Robles Library Board of Trustees, and served on the Hemet City Council in the early 1980s. He recently ran for the 33rd Assembly District as a Green.

Hutchings lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam and teaches underprivileged students. He is currently working on a novel.