Skip to main content

just came back from hanoi

i was in hanoi for a week to attend a microsoft-sponsored conference on asia-pacific teachers. my paper, phil star, sent me there. i did write a blog entry and was about to post it when the internet went dead.

yes, vietnam is like manila. but they have enough rice, less pollution because there are a million motorcycles and bikes on the road. the way they drive is like us, too. pedestrians are seen as nuisance on the road, and have to be flattened.

my heart skipped a beat when i saw from afar the mausoleum for ho chi minh. this poet, president, revolutionary of viet nam speaks to us still, in the burning and beautiful poems he wrote. i teach his works for my asian lit/ third world lit class at ateneo.

hanoi is full of lakes. 130 in all. the newspaper, vietnam times, looks like a high-school paper. coffee is great. we stayed in sheraton hanoi, which is very elegant. i met some filipinos in the hotel (musicians, executives, Ayala Alabang tourists) and yes, they asked me about 2010. i smiled and said everybody is keeping quiet, feigning they are not interested -- but already preparing the ground work for the political marathon. when does the marathon begin? this october of 2008. the last quarter of the year.

the vietnamese thought i was vietnamese. the chinese thought i was chinese. the japanese said i looked like a japanese from their northern regions. even the koreans said i looked like them.

ha? the filipino as the pan-Asian race of the continent.

i will write more about hanoi next time, i just arrived today and have millions of vietnamese dong (money, you silly boy) i have no use for in manila. maybe i can go back to hanoi again?


when i do, i will queue up at 7 am for the ho chi minh mausoleum, buy all his books in the stores, bring home some beautiful vietnamese paintings (they're the rage in all of asia), and talk to some kind friends i had made there.

but first, to sleep. summer classes begin monday, and i have to prepare the syllabi and readings tomorrow. i also have to do last-minute review for my spanish-language exams monday, for my phd in UP. Then, I can do the laundry and pressing the clothes.

and people thought my sundays are extraordinary.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A mansion of many languages

BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...
1 comment
Read more

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A mansion of many languages

by Danton Remoto Business Mirror Front Page www.businessmirror.com.ph *** This is the last in a series of four columns commissioned by the British insurer, Pru-Life, as part of its Planet English project to showcase the English language and English-language writing in the Philippines. The columns appear on the front page of Business Mirror every Monday. *** In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assi...
Post a Comment
Read more