Jul 19, 2007 14:48
Today the swelling in my face has decreased enough that my teeth are starting to touch again. For the first few days I could only get my molars to connect, which made chewing difficult. The scabs came off my nose and my ears, and I'm getting more and more functionality back in my arm.
Though I mostly haven't done anything but watch 6 feet under, sleep and eat the last three days, the few westerners I've talked to about this experience have reacted in a way that's brought my frustration with them to a head. Most westerners tend to react in one of two ways to living in Vietnam: the first is to completely over-romanticize it - "Vietnam is so beautiful and ancient and the culture is so amazing and the people are beautiful and blah blah blah blah blah." Believe it or not I find this just as offensive as the other attitude, which is scorn and disrespect "these people are lazy/criminals/liars/shit-for-brains." Neither group seems to understand that the Vietnamese are real people. Their lifestyle is incredibly different from yours, but that does not make them less valid. That guy over there? He has a favorite food. Sometimes he gets caught in the rain when he's already late for work. Some kid made his life hell as a child. God damn it, being from England does not make you better than someone from Vietnam. They are not your servants, they are not children waiting to be taught your glorious western culture.
But on the other hand, their culture is not incredible and flawless. Shit goes wrong here. Yeah, you could learn a lot from them, but they could learn a lot from you. Romanticizing a culture is just as dehumanizing as looking down on it. Their life is no more beautiful than yours.
Sorry for the vent, but I don't understand why it's so hard to understand that Vietnam isn't crazy to the Vietnamese. Their lives are normal to them, and their surroundings are normal. Contrary to what the Japanese may have you think, Different and Wrong are not the same concept.