« Class and the Democrats | Main | Don't Count The Supers » Tet in Virginia09 Feb 2008 04:11 pm
A little slice of the changing face of the United States, as Northern Virginia's Vietnamese community celebrates Tet in a strip mall parking lot. The unassuming Eden Center features a great Asian supermarket, but several excellent ban mi shops and sit-down Vietnamese restaurants. For the purposes of the holiday, the mall was festooned with Republic of Vietnam flags. Comments (24)
Um, no, Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. The Tet Offensive was so named because it happened over the Tet hoiday. These people are celebrating their cultural New Year by flying the flag of American-allied South Vietnam as part of their celebration, as most Vietnamese families in the U.S. came here after the war because they fought on the side of the U.S. and were persecuted by the communist government. So yes, it *is* quite patriotic, I think. 
The post by "jamie" was a joke, no? I thought it was a pretty good one. But my irony detector may be off.
If it was a joke, apologies all around for my humorlessness. I admit my nativism detector is on a hair-trigger these days.
It's an incredibly fine point, but what is the correct spelling of those tasty sandwiches? Is it "banh mi" or "ban mi"? Democracy by Google hits suggests the former (with accents) over the latter.
Klug, I think the obvious answer is "however Matt Y doesn't spell it."
Not a huge fan of Vietnamese food, it's tasty but the cooking is the bad part. My old neighbors across the hall cooked more traditional food (cuz the guy's grandfather lived with them) and wow did it EVER smell bad when I got home at 6 and their stove was one. Consistently.
Eh, if it was a joke, it wasn't funny. I wouldn't worry too much, Roadrunner.
MY seems to collect a healthy amount of nativists and racists in his comments sections. I imagine that a few of these folks were offended that Americans were celebrating a holiday besides Christmas or Easter. It's only natural to interpret a comment like jamie's in this context.
I kinda like the old RVN flag, even if the government was corrupt and the army was shit. (The Vietnamese, however, are great)
Perhaps MY can ask the Vietnamese refugees how good an idea it would be to cut and run out of Iraq. And, with all those S. Vietnamese flags, given they are the subject matter experts, who was responsible for the calamity. The pro-war US side, the anti-war US side, the S Vietnamese failure to defend their nation - or was it the Communists of the North and all the aid they got from the Soviets, the Chicoms, and the US media? The answers MY would get would surely be more interesting than his ban mi shops.
Yeah, let's fight the Vietnam war all over again. That was another case of "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here". That was good for our nation, its people, and its military, right? Better yet, CF, why don't you lead a Rambo-esque one-man mission to refight it. Let us know how it turns out.
Perhaps some of those refugees could explain to chris ford that if the US hadn't intervened many of them would still be living in Vietnam, along with many of their relatives who are no longer among the living. But then I know what value chris ford actually assigns to a Vietnamese life, and you couldn't buy a bowl of soup with it.
It's usually transliterated as banh mi. There is a large Korean community near there too.
Re Chris Ford "Perhaps MY can ask the Vietnamese refugees how good an idea it would be to cut and run out of Iraq." Which is that only a moron --or a traitor -- wastes American lives propping up a government which is not supported by its own people. The resources and population of South Vietnam far exceeded those of the North. Given the enormous support given to Saigon by the US Government, South Vietnam should have easily prevailed if the Saigon government had the support of its people. But it did not. President Eisenhower noted in 1954 as many as 80% of the Vietnamese people would have voted for Ho Chi Minh, as the popular hero of their liberation, in an election against Bao Dai . That is why the US Government backed Diem in his refusal to hold elections. The "fight for democracy" is yet another lie told by those serving the agenda of the superrich. And the common citizen dies for those lies. Strange that we go on the other side of the world to kill people -- when declassified archives show time and time again that the real enemies of We the People live in our midst. And wave the flag.
The Vietnamese language is written with Roman characters and a lot of diacritical marks that indicate tone and otherwise alter the pronunciation. Banh mi are spelled with a rising accent on the a in "Banh" and a falling accent on the i in "mi." In plain text, it would be written as Ba'nh Mi`. With the diacritical marks, the popular soup is written as phở, where the mark on the upper right of the o alters the pronunciation of the vowel (into an "uh" sound) and the squiggle above changes the tone so that it sounds like you're asking a question. So it's pronounced as if you're asking "Fuh?" (There's a pho place in Huntington Beach called, "What the pho," emphasizing that it sounds like a euphemism for "fuck.") In plain text, it's written as pho+?, with the plus changing the vowel sound and the question mark noting the tone. If you really want to see a massive tet fest, come visit Little Saigon in Westminster and Garden Grove, in Orange County, California. And if you want to get your ass kicked, fly the flag of the current Vietnamese government.
Of course, the subtext here is that MattY is mindlessly (I know, redundant) promoting MassiveImmigration, and doing so just so he can get some yummy treats and also feel good about being so high-minded. Don't expect MattY to look at the downsides of other forms of MassiveImmigration, and most of all don't expect him to even consider that there might be some funny business going on. Unless, of course, he gets an email telling him that he should be concerned about that.
I believe those refugees know the difference between an apple and an orange.
"For the purposes of the holiday, the mall was festooned with Republic of Vietnam flags." The mall is always festooned with Republic of Vietnam flags. Every day.
the subtext here is that MattY is mindlessly (I know, redundant) promoting MassiveImmigration Oh, the projection gives one vertigo. It's all about the brown hordes to Wacko Kelly, the white supremacists' friend. But when you're a piece of shit, everything looks like a toilet bowl.
pseud psums up the Bushpig Era: "But when you're a piece of shit, everything looks like a toilet bowl." That's just beautiful, man. Flush 'em all!
as Northern Virginia's Vietnamese community celebrates Tet Matt - there are about 100,000 Vietnamese in Northern Virginia - the "community" is not limited to about 15 people of said community in a parking lot. Jeeze.
In plain text, it's "Bánh mì", folks.
By "plain text," I meant "if you can't add diacritical marks to your letters." Sorry if I got that terminology wrong.
Comments closed February 23, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
is this what i think it is? vietnamese folk celebrating the 'success' of the tet offensive against their adopted land?
quite patriotic of them.
Posted by jamie | February 9, 2008 4:39 PM