Although I've always been abundantly nationalistic when it comes to my ancestral land throughout the years from childhood to date; sadly, that nationalism and pride has slowly been deteriorating. There are many reasons for this but mainly the mentality and mindset of majority of Vietnamese today both overseas and in Vietnam is not the same as what it was before.
Grew up with limited interaction with other Vietnamese other than my own family and a handful of friends since we were underrepresented in my city but the interactions I did have were never anything less than positive. My parents instilled values, maintained cultural/family integrity like no other and in turn have shaped me into a morally rounded, ambitious, hardworking (well most of the time) individual that I continue to strive to be today. Grew up listening to folklore passed down from my parents that always contained acts of heroism, honor, and of our intelligence as well as many pieces of our glorious history that complimented these stories. My family/relatives had always been very charismatic, caring, and have made so many acts of selflessness that one would only seldom read about in the news in today's society-this kind of breed of Vietnamese is seemingly a remnant of the past.
Realization
As I got a little older and become more autonomous, I explored more and more into my own culture as well as expanded my social circle and sought out other like-minded individuals. I've always given people the benefit of the doubt-especially people of the same ethnic origin as I (everybody has racial bias to some extent). The more Vietnamese I've met, the bigger the disparity was felt between myself and others but I always told myself that this is just due to the diversity of minds/personality types within our culture. Eventually I accepted that either my people have changed or the ideals and pride of my people weren't what I grew up to believe after all and this damaged my soul indefinitely. A lot of Vietnamese I've encountered at this point were not only deficit in all things I believed my people to be, a lot of them were completely on the other side of the spectrum. If I could personify my feelings exactly during this period, it would be analogous to a beautiful portrait that is weathered over time and eventually chips away to an empty canvas- with the portrait representing the image and pride that I have for my people and pieces of the portrait chipping away with every new interaction or news I hear about Vietnamese. Examples of this would be other Vietnamese' lack of pride, lack of morals, and lack of excellence that we were created to possess. Now when I read about Vietnam news I always hear something to the nature of Vietnam thinking foreign products/entities are always greater than her own, women marrying out to foreigners, general preference to things foreign, economic/developmental stagnancy, morally deficit thinking. How could this be? From ancient folklore to the entire glorious history of Vietnam, how could today's Vietnamese be so unparalleled with ancient/pre-Vietnam war Vietnamese?Contrary to what I've written so far, I actually have met like-minded Vietnamese like myself but the numbers are fewer and fewer. I'm far from perfect and don't see myself better than anyone but I do see people that need some awareness. We are not a subordinate race. We were not put on this earth to be number 2 but we are losing out badly to others in a lot of ways you can imagine. There has to be a turning point in history for our people and something tells me the current Vietnam is not going to have any kind of breakthrough anytime soon. What if we were to be given another chance, another piece of land to call our own and start off from scratch.. Hypothetically, how would we fare off? At this point in time I feel this would be the only measure drastic enough to ascertain our true place in this world otherwise we will continue to feed ourselves false hope that eventually our country and people will find some way to pick themselves up.
Discuss
Heh heh he. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread got deleted. Just my 2 cents, bye
