Vinh Pham

Watching a History Channel special on “Alaskan Pollock” fishing makes me never want to eat fish sticks again. I am going to try to avoid eating fish paste products from Japan and McDonald fish filet sandwiches.

Why? Well, I don’t like seeing how they put a giant a$$ net down on the ocean floor and pull up thousands of fishes. Then the fishes are dumped indiscriminately into a giant tank where they are sorted and packed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not anywhere near to being one of those “organic” only, yoga doing, vegetarians. But just the thought of eating something so “passively” produced takes the joy out of the food.

But I know my pledge is pointless. Everything we eat nowadays is mass produced and indiscriminately created in some big factory somewhere. If I really wanted to avoid those products, I would starve to death or left eating my toe nails — which is probably the only thing I can grow naturally and harvest myself.

This reminds of how on Star Trek they always complain that they have to eat “artificial” food (or whatever the hell they call it). But the way I see it, eating “artificial” food is not a problem of the future, we are doing it right now. Everything we eat is just what “used” to be food. By the time it gets to our table, it is just a representation of what it was.

Anyways, I guess I am lucky to live in the Central Valley. At least around here I get some good locally grown fruits and veggies. Can’t wait till the summer time to go to the u-pick farms…

Oh yah… I am also glad I am not dying from hunger. I guess fish paste is better than starvation…

At dinner Tran asked why the Vietnamese community is so pissed off that they cannot have the name “Little Saigon” in San Jose. She did not understand why a guy was willing to go on a hunger strike in protest over a simple name change. I didn’t know either, so I went to ask my parents. The answer was, “Because they are Commies!”

According to my parents, and perhaps most older people in the Vietnamese community, Madison Nguyen is a communist. She was put into office with the help of the Vietnamese people, yet she betrayed them. They believe that she was bought out with communist money. They also have all these conspiracy theories about how the communists are influencing public policies and that the communists are working hard to suppress the Southern Vietnamese people.

Now, to be realistic, I don’t know much about Madison Nguyen, or communist influence. However, in that conversation, it became very clear to me how much my parents, and essentially the entire older generation of Vietnamese immigrants, still passionately HATE communism.

It is hard for the younger Vietnamese people and Americans ( excluding Vietnam Vets ) to understand the pain and sorrow the older generation feel. We usually just brush them off as paranoid and old-fashioned. But the more I listen to my parents, the more I realize that perhaps we will NEVER understand all the suffering they’ve been through. And the minute we try to understand it, we have already failed.

So to answer Tran’s question, the reason why they are so passionate about the name “Little Saigon” is because to them it’s not just a name change. To them, it represents an on going fight against communist influence. They feel that the name “Saigon Business District”, or “Vietnamese Business District” does not fully represent their desire to separate themselves from the communist regime. To them, the name “Little Saigon” is a form of protest against communism, and will send a message to the communists that the South Vietnamese people are still alive and well.

I want to extend my last post about “becoming a better person” by adding “frugality” to the list.

Today Forbes magazine released their list of the riches people in the world. Warren Buffet is number one, and Carlos Slim is number two. The striking similarities between these two men is their frugal life style. It is said that Mr. Buffet stills live in a small house and drive a modest vehicle. Carlos Slim also lives in a “comparably” modest home and complains when his travel accommodations are too extravagant. Another rich man, Sam Walton (who would probably be the one of the richest person, if he was still alive) also lives by this philosophy. I heard a story that he used to cram his employees into small hotel rooms whenever they travel for business, because he did not believe in wasting money on such needless expenses.

Frugality has always been a struggle and a cause of embarrassment in my life. Growing up poor, being frugal is no exactly a choice. And it’s not called being “frugal” when you are poor, it’s called being “broke”, and as some will insist “lazy”. That is why in my adult life, I find it very awkward to be frugal, forced or not. It makes me feel unaccomplished and stupid. In the world of BMWs and Paris Hilton, sometimes being frugal can be misinterpreted as being “poor”, which then becomes an issue of mockery and shame.

But I thank these amazing men for making frugality a cause for celebration. Their enthusiasm for living a modest life, even when they are at the top of the rung, validates the honestly and humility of living a frugal life.