Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Presidential Election
We hosted over 300 friends and colleagues to our modest office for an election day open house. Among the attendees were a contact who rode his motorcycle for several hours from a remote western province; 40 students from the nation's only US Government class (many of you blog readers!); Vietnam's first post-1975 Fulbright alumnus (a prominent area professor); and more than 15 reporters from major regional dailies, some with national circulation. We conducted a mock ballot and held discussion groups with students, media and business people. I grabbed the microphone and provided unsolicited commentary off and on through the morning.
Perhaps the most striking exchange came a few days earlier, when a Vietnamese friend asked asn American friend how he voted overseas. My apathetic friend explained that he did not bother to vote; my Viet friend had a horrified look on his face and asked what the government would do to him since he did not vote. I told the American friend that here it is compulsory to go out and do your duty. America has freedom--the freedom to be apathetic!
Perhaps the most striking exchange came a few days earlier, when a Vietnamese friend asked asn American friend how he voted overseas. My apathetic friend explained that he did not bother to vote; my Viet friend had a horrified look on his face and asked what the government would do to him since he did not vote. I told the American friend that here it is compulsory to go out and do your duty. America has freedom--the freedom to be apathetic!
