My picture just published
My picture on the front cover. http://vietnam-briefing.com/
All posts filed under: Vietnam
Street view barber shop
I am in Doi Can, the street that goes from Lieu Giai to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. If is later afternoon. People are rushing out from their offices to go home. The street gets busy. I am sitting on a typical narrow plastic chair. Knees above the waist line. Motorbikes parked one the sidewalk, pushing people to walk on the street. Shops accompany this busy and lively street up to the mausoleum. Lights are […]
Back in Ha Noi
Let’s see if I manage to keep a diary of my stay in Ha Noi this time. It is the very first time I am here and will not do work for the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. It seems to me a sign of the passing of time, as well as the new route that the taxi took frorm Noi Bai airport to the hotel where I stay, the Horison. It took a narrow […]
Home, no home
“Welcome,Sir”. “Good evening,Sir”. I take a deep breath. End of today’s trip. I am home. But is it home? No, but these greetings are reassuring and familiar by now. They remind me of the country where I live now when I enter the lobby of the Marriot airport hotel in Manila. I recognise some of the staff as I have been here a few times now. Always arriving in the evening and leaving very early […]
Olga Concert in Hanoi
Writing A Doctoral Dissertation And Running A Marathon: Personal Reflections On Similar Experiences Part I
During ten months, from February to November 2006, I have been writing my doctoral dissertation at the University of Tampere. Simon Down, a lecturer from the University of Newcastle who gave a presentation in a two day seminar at the University of Vaasa in April 2006, described the PhD as the most intense period of the academic life of an individual. During those months I have been thinking about a metaphor that could describe this […]
Marathon almost over!
The marathon is almost over. The PhD dissertation is now back in Tampere to be edited for the book and web pubblications. It gives an odd feeling to be so close to the end and to see, at the same time, that the day of the public defense is real and approaching quickly. In the next days I will post some of my reflections on the process of writing a PhD dissertation that I hope […]
Marathon Amost Over!
The marathon is almost over. The PhD dissertation is now back in Tampere to be edited for the book and web pubblications. It gives an odd feeling to be so close to the end and to see, at the same time, that the day of the public defense is real and approaching quickly. In the next days I will post some of my reflections on the process of writing a PhD dissertation that I hope […]
What Modernity?
I have attended an interesting seminar about the Chinese experience in the transition to market economy with socialist characteristics. The aim of the seminar was to help Vietnamese scholars and researchers, who usually claim to be 10 years behind China in terms of social and economic development, to reflect on the challenges that the transition poses to Vietnam today. One of the conclusions of the seminar is that Vietnam is committed to modernization and market […]
Morning Rituals
Every morning I put Olga on the back seat of my bicycle and bring her to the kindergarten which is just behind our block. I struggle with the traffic and get onto the gate of the school. Get Olga down form her seat, unfasten her helmet, unfasten mine. Get her on my lap and start to walk her to her class at the end of the corridor. Passing in front of the other classrooms we […]