Today we’re posting a couple videos from Vietnam.  I know, I know, you think you’re over the whole Vietnam thing.  But guess what?  Vietnam’s a big country, and as much as I would like to say, “We nailed it in seven episodes and the Laurene at the Delta short,” that’s just not accurate.  The truth is that we need at least two more shorts to cover this complex society.  And we got ‘em.

These were shot in February, when principal photography had wrapped and I was able to turn my attention to some of those details that make life in Vietnam so unique.  I was always intrigued by the utilitarian aspect of Vietnamese society, by its people’s ability to make do with whatever works and not demand all the bells and whistles that mark any undertaking in the States.  The train crossing is a great example.  In America, where it’s often said that we value machines and automation at the expense of people, a human-operated train crossing would be unthinkable, or at the very least hopelessly outdated.  In Vietnam, where the biggest technological concern is air pollution from motorbikes (and lately the censorship of Facebook), it’s common-place.  So common, in fact, that there were stations just like this one only 25 yards in either direction.  Cynics might say that this is the communist influence on the country, a simple way of creating soul-sucking jobs that keep everyone busy.  Maybe there’s some truth to that, but the reason I found this station so interesting was because the workers’ spirits seemed to be as high as anyone’s.  I was able to observe them a couple times before this shoot (this crossing was near my apartment), and every time I saw these young women emerge from their small guard house and lower these barriers, they did it with enthusiasm.  Perhaps it’s that difference – that a Vietnamese person could do the same task every day and be happy – that explains why these train crossings exist.  No economic system can explain that kind of inner peace (though they’ve all certainly tried).  No, it seems to me that that the Vietnamese are able to be happy with their work thanks to the influence of Buddhism.  There’s more to that than I can pretend to know, but the more I learned about Buddhism while in Vietnam, the more I saw it reflected in daily life.  Maybe America doesn’t need hand-operated train crossings, but perhaps there’s something to be said for inner peace.

I don’t have as much to say about the coffee short.  While it also exemplifies the utilitarianism of Vietnam (gloves? what for?), the truth is that I just love Vietnamese ice coffee, or cà phê sữa đá.  I went to this coffee cart every single morning, mostly for the delicious, sweet elixir, but also to get made fun of in Vietnamese by the nice woman making the drinks.  See that glass that of coffee she just made?  I drank that.  And it was damn good.