The "boat people" of Vietnam

Last Sunday, uncle invited his mafia group over for lunch, and two of them belonged to the "boat people" group, which means these people left VN in the 80s, just after the VN war ended.

When I listened to their stories, which were of course nothing new to me, it made me wonder why they fled while they were awared of the danger (hunger, Philipino, Malaysian, or Thai pirates...) that awaited for them. Women were raped, men were killed, or sometimes they were faced a horrible survival choice to kill their own people to live, thousands of Vnese died but yet people just keep on leaving the country. To me it was an adventure to look for a treasure like many India Jones movies we have seen, only that it was real, and involved many children and women as well.

I still remember many times my grandmom paid a lot of money, gold, everything that my grandparents earned before the end of the war in order for my youngest uncle, and aunt to flee as well. Many times they were kept in prison for leaving the country in prisons that were deep in the Mekong delta, many times my mom had to visit my grandfather, my uncle and aunt. My youngest uncle had been in Cambodia, I meant they found every possible way to leave VN, to be in the new land. Yeah, many foreigners do not understand why, but only you lived it, you would know how it was like to lose everything you had worked hard to earn, EVERYTHING, and being put into prisons or one member of your family died.

Many people who travel to poor countries like VN usually say that we are poor but happy. I guess there is a price for everything. If we want to have better living conditions, i.e. convenience and comfort, unfortunately we have to work hard to pay for it. Thus, more stress, more nervous breakdown, more depression, more worries. I don't think we can take the way that people who live there to adapt here, it is just different.

It is not about we want to get rich, but I don't think equal opportunities exist in this world. When people are born in a better place, that already is an advantage.

Of course, nobody wants to stay away from their family, from where they were born, not especially Vnese or any other Asians where the culture is collectivity. So, my parents generations ask "what about you young people?" "how do you feel about the situation of VN?" "do you see any difference between before and now". Unfortunately, we were born after the war, we don't live the war, we hardly understand of why the Vietcong lost the Tet Mau Than in 1968, a year that many Vnese died, or whether Ho Chi Minh is a good guy or bad guy...We only know that it's our country, it's where our parents are, where memories of childhood stay. We don't care much about politics, of course we complain about many things, but if we could earn enough to support family, and if from time to time we could help others, that's already a happiness.

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh, South or North VN, does it really matter? After all, aren't we Vnese?