Black Baron It was before 1995, when the US and Vietnam announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations between 2 countries. In 1993, Vietnam hadn't opened to the world so there weren't many tourists or backpackers here
Philip Nguyen In 1993 it already opened to the world, just not every part of the world opened for VN yet.
Brian Smith I think the question was "does anyone remember that phone booth?". None the less, thanks for the historical and political reports Black and Philip
Hoàng Tuấn Anh ^ Philip Nguyen agree, not yet 1993. Until 1994, the USA president had removed US trade embargo against us, then huge part of the world start trading and be opening with us.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
approved with a smile
Hi all,
After being a member in this group some month and living as an expat in Vietnam a few years, I would like to say that I do enjoy many of the posts which made me smile, yes sometimes laugh quite a bit. Of course, without all the great comments it would not be half of the fun.
I would like to raise the following observations which caused some unease in myself. There are several kinds of categories of photos which I generally feel not ok with. The first is showing photos of poor places or poor people without any 'funny' actual content except making fun of the poor. Yes, this is Vietnam not the U.S., U.K., Germany or Singapore. As it might look to some of us funny, for others it is the world they are born in and have to struggle hard to make a living. Posting photos to bring more awerness to the suffering of poverty with a clear statement of such is of course appreciated by many.
After being a member in this group some month and living as an expat in Vietnam a few years, I would like to say that I do enjoy many of the posts which made me smile, yes sometimes laugh quite a bit. Of course, without all the great comments it would not be half of the fun.
I would like to raise the following observations which caused some unease in myself. There are several kinds of categories of photos which I generally feel not ok with. The first is showing photos of poor places or poor people without any 'funny' actual content except making fun of the poor. Yes, this is Vietnam not the U.S., U.K., Germany or Singapore. As it might look to some of us funny, for others it is the world they are born in and have to struggle hard to make a living. Posting photos to bring more awerness to the suffering of poverty with a clear statement of such is of course appreciated by many.
The second category is making close up photos of other people who are
in an embarrassing situation. Privacy is something we should respect and
posting photos of people without their agreemant who are in a situation
where they might feel embarrased, by publicly making fun of them is not
okay. Please make sure when posting close up photos of people, that the
person cannot be identified. That would not only be morally correct but
also actually in accord with the laws we grew up in. Imagation, how you
would feel if people would make a photo of you where you feel
embarrassed of and post it in a group of 25k people?
This post is getting to long, so I will stop here. Thank you for allowing me to share. Best, Martin
This post is getting to long, so I will stop here. Thank you for allowing me to share. Best, Martin