But now I feel I should write some lines.
I should add that I was not a bit surprised reading this piece of
news. I'd known about it. Thanks to my mom and her connections I have travelled
to several countries in Europe, met and talked to a great number of Vietnamese
people, not only pro-democracy activists and their friends, relatives, but also
apolitical, ordinary people working in Europe, especially the Eastern part. The
Vietnamese slang word for growing cannabis is "trồng cỏ". It's very
common in the Vietnamese communities in Eastern Europe and Britain. The English
police, thus, associate the drug farms with Vietnamese people and the image of
Vietnamese people is getting quite bad in the UK.
That reminds me of a discussion with a Vietnamese Norwegian friend
a couple of days ago. Basically she told me, because of some reasons I don't
feel like mentioning here, she was considering studying in Poland, but somebody
advised her not to go there because she's Vietnamese. She asked me if I knew
why. Well, the thing is, whilst the majority of Vietnamese people in Norway are
boat people, and their descendants, from the South, the majority in Eastern
Europe are from the North, and Central Vietnam, most of whom are workers sent
there in labour-export programmes (which I see as no other than a modern form
of slavery). They, to put it simply, limit themselves within the community-
work among the Vietnamese, go to Vietnamese markets, speak Vietnamese, eat
Vietnamese food, watch VTV4, read An ninh Thế giới, live more or less in the
same blocks or at least within the community... In other words, they borrow the
land and don't care at all about the native people, or any ethnic group in the
place in which they live. That is enough to annoy, or offend, native people.
But that's not all. Vietnamese people, when not smuggling cigarettes and other
stuff, "trồng cỏ" or at least commit other crimes- attacking, fighting,
killing each other within the community. Though I think logically speaking the
Poles might have some sympathy and understanding for the Vietnamese since they
have gone through communist years, I don't think they have much respect for
Vietnamese people.
The 3rd related incident is, about 2 or 3 weeks ago on the bus or
the metro I saw some warnings of pickpocketing. Both my mom and I thought, now,
Oslo's not safe any more, not peaceful as before. Yet a relative of ours, who
has lived in Asker since the 1980s, said pickpocketing had begun in Oslo nearly
a decade ago, when there started to be more and more immigrants from different
parts of the world and society became complicated. Once in a while they put up
some warnings to tell people to be careful, this wasn't the 1st time. Then she
said, a couple of years ago some Vietnamese people shoplifted without knowing
everything was recorded by a camera there, so the video was broadcast on
Norwegian TV and shown everywhere.
If only some people realise that, in a foreign country, they, when
not able to do something for their compatriots to feel proud of, at least
shouldn't do anything to make us ashamed when saying "I'm
Vietnamese".
And the Vietnamese people in Norway? So far they've been pretty
much invisible. Norwegians don't have much thought about them. Pretty OK.
Haven't done any outrageous, unacceptable crime. Haven't got a very high
position. Haven't had an influence on Norwegian politics. Focus on earning
money. At least are not seen as lazy and dependent on welfare. (Please excuse
me for stepping to 1 side, keeping a distance and using the pronouns
"they" and "them" instead of "we" and
"us).
But, let me tell you something: "Trồng cỏ" has spread to
Norway, too.
What can I say?
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