Re-unification of Vietnam

Helicopter at the Reunification Palace Helipad

For me, one icon of the Vietnam War is the helicopter - yes, I'm thinking of the one in Miss Saigon with the American G.I. waiting beside it, to take the heroine to the US.  Of course, she never shows up... ... and he is forced to fly off without her.  Saigon, more than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, is a completely different city.

The Reunification Palace is however one place where time has stood still.  In itself a result of the strife in Vietnam after WWII, the Palace was completed in 1966 after the previous Presidential Palace (the Independence Palace) was bombed and partially destroyed by two pilots who rebelled and bombed the Palace instead of the Viet Cong.  The Palace was too badly damaged to be repaired and was instead rebuilt.  However, it did not last long as the seat of power.  On 30 Apr 1975, North Vietnamese tanks rolled through the main gates of the Palace, culminating in  the dramatic "handover" of power to the North Vietnamese government.

Mahjong, anyone?

Today, the Palace remains more or less untouched from these last days.  The upper floors contain the formal reception rooms and meeting areas, including an auditorium and the Cabinet meeting room.  On the top floor, however, things get a little more interesting with the addition of a mini cinema and a gambling room.  The mahjong table is still on display.  

But what makes the Palace truly interesting is the basement, fitted out with the communications equipment and maps required for the President to keep a handle on the progress of the war.  The mood is sombre, and heavy.  A place and a government which history has left in the dust; events have moved elsewhere and the palace remains today as a museum and tourist attraction.  

A small exhibition in the basement of the Palace gives a brief pictorial history of Vietnam in the 1960s to recent days.  The events leading up to the war, the protests against the previous government are all covered.  There are still some hardware around to be seen - a helicopter rests on the helipad; replicas of the tanks which went through the gates of the Palace sit near the exit.

But the Reunification Palace as a whole is a calm and serene looking building.  No longer a seat of power, it is now a memorial to moment in time where the fate of Vietnam was decided.  Hopefully, its days of turmoil and strife, of bitter battles and last stands, are finally over.

Reunification Palace

More photos here.

Re-visiting Vietnam's Tumultuous Past : Cu Chi Tunnels

The decades following WWII were tumultuous ones for South East Asia.  It was a time when the colonial powers - the British, French and Dutch - were slowly withdrawing from their colonies in South East Asia.  A time when Communism found fertile ground amidst a people who were fired with a new nationalism, and a burning desire  for Independence.  We were fortunate in Singapore and Malaysia, where the new democracies were able to withstand the Communist threat.  But the countries of IndoChina - Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, went through many  years of turmoil, war, and hardship.  The legacy of the Vietnam War was not so apparent in Hanoi, or Danang/Hoi Ann - the only other places in Vietnam I had been to previously - but here in Ho Chi Minh City, the memories and reminders of the War are still very much all around.  We visited both the Reunification Palace, and the Cu Chi Tunnels - both must see sights for visitors to HCM City.

Emerging from the tunnel

We went to Cu Chi Tunnels in a small tour group, comprising a British family (of three), a solitary Brit and three male Aussies. I did think that it would be a leetle awkward if there was an American tourist on this particular tour!  Our guide, Son, was a young man at the time of the pivotal events which led to the successful capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese forces and the reunification of Vietnam.  Now 62 years old, Son gave an authoritative tour of the tunnel system, and of how the tunnels were used.  He punctuated his narrative with warnings of potential dangers facing unwary tourists and reminded us that our task was to follow him, as he certainly would not be following us.

What do we see of the tunnels? The site itself has changed, we were informed, as during the war there were no trees or greenery covering the site.  These would have been bombed to smithereens or killed by chemical agents, by the American forces who were trying to clear the Viet Cong from the area.  Today, there are youngish trees covering the site.  Bomb craters still remain, here and there. Tunnel entrances dot the place. From their positioning, and distance from each other, we do get an impression of the labyrinth beneath our feet.  There are a few types of tunnels, we are told, ranging from the small, narrow "one-star" tunnels which presumably were just meant for the Viet Cong fighters to sneak out to attack the enemy, up to the "five-star tunnels" which were used as living quarters, and even had electricity!  A "soldier" showed us how the fighters emerged and returned into the "one-star tunnels" - indeed, with the leaves covering the earthen "lid" of the tunnel entrance, it would be difficult for any casual observer to spot the entrance.  Our guide also showed us how people lived in the tunnels. Every now and there, there were big bunkers - which formed eating/cooking/sleeping spaces.  Smoke was channeled from the bunker itself to a point some distance away, to misdirect watchers from guessing where the bunker really was. What did they eat or drink?  Obviously food was scarce.  We sampled some - tea made from pandan leaves and steamed tapioca.

Visitors also watch a documentary at the site..  Although obviously propaganda, the hardships

Visitor exploring the damaged tank

faced by the civilian population do come across clearly.  The short film includes short portrayals of the heroes and heroines of the fighting, including a farmer whose mine-laying capabilities took out numerous enemy tanks/soldiers, and a young girl who fought as fiercely as any man.   Using explosives taken from the enemy, the Viet Cong made their own mines - and used them to deadly effect.   The site also shows examples of the traps used to capture/maim the enemy.

Did we go down into the tunnels?  The answer is yes- there are a few tunnels open to visitors.  These have been widened and strengthened for the purpose.  Nonetheless, they are still quite cramped especially for larger visitors.  Small Asian girls like me, can squeeze through with ease (even though I still had to go through doubled up).  Unfortunately, I suspect that the guide leading us through got a little fed up with the bunch of tourists behind him who were complaining about hitting their heads and apparently brought us up to the surface before the trickier portion of that particular tunnel was reached.  Hmmf.  But out of the group of 9 tourists, only four (including us two Asian girls) even made it to the halfway mark.

All in all, the Cu Chi tunnels certainly served their purpose of enabling the Viet Cong to hold the land, even though the South Vietnamese and America forces may still have held the cities and towns.  But as Son reminded us at the end of the tour, war is a terrible thing. Today, the Vietnamese people want to live in peace and harmony with all.

More photos found here.

Candle for St Joseph

I had written previously about the chapel of St Francis next to the busy Hynes Convention Centre in the Prudential Tower, Boston.

I have not been back to Boston since my student days there, almost 7 years ago. But somehow, when I was at the Prudential Centre, my footsteps took me almost automatically to the chapel. The first thing I saw was the statue of St Joseph. So, since my grandmother passed away on the 1st of May, just over two weeks ago, it seemed like the right thing to say a rosary for her in this serene and prayerful place and thank St Joseph for his aid in granting her a tranquil death surrounded by those she loved and who loved her.

God bless you, Grandma!

The Passing of the Iron Lady

As someone who studied in the UK during the Thatcher years, I have utmost respect and admiration for her - a lady in what was essentially a man's world; determined; driven; and ultimately someone who led Britain out of despondency, industrial strife and economic stagnation into a country which was safe, relatively prosperous and attractive to live and work in. 

Internationally, she had recognised in Mikhail Gorbachev a leader who had the potential to change the Soviet Union and in so do, helped see an end to the Cold War.

So it was with some sorrow that I heard last week on 8 Apr  2013 about the death of Margaret Thatcher, after many years of decline.  The Iron Lady, who led her country, had left the world.  To mark this event, here are some extracts from the many obituaries about her: :

The BBC says:

She was, above all, that rare thing, a conviction politician who was prepared to stand by those convictions for good or ill.

The New York Times summarises these convictions:

But by the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism - the belief that economic freedom and individual liberty are interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only ways to national prosperity, and that the free-market democracies must stand firm against aggression - had won many disciples.  Even some of her strongest critics accorded her a grudging respect.

As does the Economist:

Mrs Thatcher believed that societies have to encourage and reward the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs, who alone create the wealth without which governments cannot do anything, let alone help the weak. A country can prosper only by encouraging people to save and to spend no more than they earn; profligacy (and even worse, borrowing) was her road to perdition. The essence of Thatcherism was a strong state and a free economy.

She was a divisive politician, with many from her own party ultimately turning against her.  But, as she herself said:

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

Find more great quotes by Margaret Thatcher here.

Ultimately, however, her funeral went off in a smooth and dignified manner.  After a week where perhaps too much attention was given to the noisy and angry voices, at the end, the street was lined with mourners, who wanted to pay their last respects to a woman who had transformed Britain:

This was a day, in short, of tributes untarnished. A day when, to a far greater degree than expected, abuse was overcome by respect, violence by decency, and hatred by love.

-Telegraph 

 Goodbye, Mrs Thatcher.

Miniature world

My Terrarium. A Miniature Garden in a larger one.

Terrarium, a photo by Taking5 on Flickr.

Every time I go to the Singapore Garden Festival, I spend some time at the Bazaar area looking at the terraria on sale and wondering whether this is the year I will buy one. But my mother would discourage me, commenting unfavourably on the prices and saying that if I left it in her hands, she could produce a terrarium which was just as nice.

The high prices as well as my mother's comments put me off the purchase and I am glad that I held off now.

Of course, my mother never got round to making a terrarium for me. But her brother (my uncle) got into his terrarium phase and started putting a number of little gardens together. He made this charming little terrarium for me. I find it really quite fascinating - this tiny self-contained world of plants, soil, water and air. The plants happily photosynthesise, releasing their oxygen by day and their carbon dioxide by night. The water evaporates, condenses on the sides of the container and trickles back in. Tiny little mites are observed crawling on the leaves... I've decided to just let them be.

Best of all, I don't need to do anything to maintain it, aside from occasionally opening the container when the condensation is a little excessive or to remove a dead leaf (not that there are many).

To thank my uncle I bought him some replacement containers ... for him to create another garden to brighten someone else's day.

Waxing philosophical - it's cat's play

Books lead you, one to another.  Last month, I read "Swerve: How the World Became Modern" by Stephen Greenblatt.  Swerve tells the tail of a Florentine named Poggio Braccionlini, who rose from being an ordinary clerk to become a Papal Secretary.  Unfortunately the Pope Poggio served was subsequently forced to retire (history lesson for me - learning about the period when there was more than one Pope) and Poggio lost his job.  He decided to pursue his passion to locate long-lost classical texts and in 1417, found a copy of the poem De Rerum Natura, by the Roman poet-philosopher Lucretius, in a German monastery.  Lucretius was a disciple of the Greek philosopher Epicurus and as such, the poem expounds on the Epicurean philosophy (pursuit of pleasure as the highest good in life) and lots more besides.  The book's title is supposed to denote the point at which the western world moved away from the gloomy Stoicism which characterised the Middle Ages to experience the re-birth of a more liberal, enlightened age - also known as the Renaissance.  Many reviewers (see here, and here) do not quite agree with the fundamental thesis that the discovery of this poem caused such a fundamental shift in western philosophy.  I am not going to attempt my own assessment.  But the book goes on to recount how this poem influenced other influential readers and thinkers who have influenced many others in their turn - people like Botticelli (he who painted the Birth of Venus, La Primavera, etc), Thomas Jefferson (American President and author of the US Declaration of Independence), and Michel de Montaigne.

Michel de Montaigne?  Who is he, you may well ask?  I had never heard of him till reading Swerve (I am no philosophy student).  But it so happened that I went to the library soon after finishing Swerve and was randomly browsing along a particular shelf when I came across  a book: "When I am playing with my cat, how do I know she is not playing with me: Montaigne and being in touch with life" by Saul Frampton.  Instantly struck by the profundity (or maybe pro-felinity) of that simple question, I borrowed the book.

Ariel: I'm afraid she is definitely playing with me

Thus, serendipitously, surreptitiously, I came across Montaigne.  Turns out that Montaigne is a French philosopher, a famed essayist.   Montaigne's philosophical approach derived from his experiences (or essais, or "tastes"  of life).  He drew from what he experienced through his senses to make observations about life, and living.  In this, he differs considerably from Descartes, who some 30 years after Montaigne, would take a far more rationalist approach  ("I think, therefore I am"). 

Frampton's book helps us understand Montaigne and his essays. Born in 1533, to a Gascon nobleman, Montaigne would encounter sorrow and death (of his father, best friend, brother and first daughter) within a short period and in 1570, decided to retire to his estate to think gloomy thoughts.  However, his reflections during this period led him to realise that life, at the end, was well worth experiencing and living, with humility and grace.  He asks himself, "what do I know?" and comes to realise that there are no absolutes, that life cannot be lived in black and white.

Which brings us to the famous feline quotation.  When I am playing with my cat, how do I know she is not playing with me?  In this particular essay, Montaigne challenges man's presumption of superiority over the natural world around him.  (See further explanation here.) Perceptive indeed, given that our actions have shown that whilst we can certainly change the climate, we don't know how to change it back. 

Frampton's book is reviewed here and here and here.  One reviewer feel that he has not captured the richness of Montaigne's work.  But others say that it is a good introduction- to give the reader a taste, an "essais" of Michel de Montaigne.  Which is what he has done, at least for me.  I find I like Montaigne.  I like his openess, his humility, his warmth and humanity.  I like that he plays with cats.  I find I want to read more about him.  Books lead you, one to another.

For more on Montaigne, you can try reading his essays.  I also came across this series of posts from the Guardian.  Looks like this Renaissance philosopher still has much to teach the modern world.

Son of Singapore - Sculptor Ng Eng Teng

Look Down, a photo by Taking5 on Flickr.

Look down and see the beggars at your feet
Look down and show some mercy if you can
Look down and see the sweepings of the street
Look down, look down
Upon your fellow man!

Poverty, hunger - the struggle to live and for human dignity have always been themes which resonate through the centuries- in the Paris of Victor Hugo, in Singapore in the 1960s and today.   The movie version of Les Miserables is currently showing here in Singapore..  I've decided not to watch it (because I have certain expectations as to how it should be sung), but could not help be reminded of this song from the musical when I visited the NUS Museum's exhibition on "Sculpting Life: The Ng Eng Teng Collection".  Ng's interest in social commentory is seen in this relief  - where the viewer is truly looking down upon the subjects (interesting use of foreshortening in a sculpture as opposed to a painting). 

Freedom Child

Fortunately, Ng has a far broader range of subjects, including much more cheerful subjects.  He is  well known for his public sculptures (eg "Wealth" and "Contentment", which used to be in Plaza Singapura) and his "Mother and Child" series.  My JC had a large relief along the two walls leading to its front lobby.  He even did some ceramics!

Here at the museum, one of the sculptures I really liked was this one, entitled "Freedom Child" .  This particular sculpture embodies, to me, contentment, playfulness, freedom, joy.  Such a contrast to "Look Down"!

A temporary exhibition on Ng currently running at the Museum is  "106 Joo Chiat Place: Ng Eng Teng House". This is just a single room, with sculptures from Ng Eng Teng's house/studio, and memorabilia about the sculptor.  The house, which was originally the home of Ng's father and family, became his studio and that of other artists. It was subsequently sold to a developer and has since been demolished.  The owner invited Singaporeans to come and take a piece of the house - for memory collectors, I guess.  For more information, do read the Museum blog post on the exhibition.  The exhibition runs until 3 February 2013

Look here for some more of my photos from the Ng Eng Teng exhibition, including mini "Freedom children".