Presentation #1

            There were a variety of topics that were presented today. I thought the presenters knew what they were talking about and were well prepared. It would have been easier to follow the presentations if the topics actually correlated with each other.

            The topic that I thought was the most interesting was the one with policies against Amerasian. I thought the presenter knew what he was talking about and presented it well, even without a powerpoint. Although the article was really long, it was a good read. It just brings more insight at how the United States is always in denial and never wants to take responsibility for its own actions by manipulating messages to the public. As the author stated, these Amerasian lives are greatly affected by the anti-United States sentiments in the places where there were huge United States military presence. I think the author does a great job acknowledging the amount of work volunteer agencies do to help Amerasian.

            I thought the presenter for the economy topic between China and Vietnam presented the topic well. The powerpoint slides helped a lot. I do agree that you cannot really talk politics without having to talk about the economy because a lot of our political issues stem from our economic situations. Political decisions are usually made to benefit our economic needs over anything else. The article was also really long, but it was a good read either way.  I think the author does a great job addressing the gains that China and Vietnam get from joining the major economic markets like the United States. Because western countries like the United States rely heavily on importing from China and Vietnam, so if a crisis ever happens, China and Vietnam will be the ones that are less affected. I also agree that because Vietnam is a smaller and less wealthy country than China, its dependence on China may hurt Vietnam’s economy since resources are hard to find, especially with huge domestic Chinese producers around. I thought the author did a great job in comparing and contrasting Vietnam and China’s differences because while doing so, the author explains what kind of pros and cons impact it has on each country.

            The last topic that was presented was on the politics in Vietnam. After reading this article, I remember a guest speaker in one of my ASA classes and he told us that Vietnam is now more of a materialistic country than a communist country? Because having the latest new gadget upgrades your socioeconomic status in your small social group. The article also analyzes Vietnam’s attempt to “democratize” its state, but the author claims that it fails to do so because of corruption and lack of responsibility from those who lead. I did not like this article as much as the first two, mainly because it confused me. I did not really understand what the role of village leaders were and what role they had in Vietnam’s politics.

            I thought these topics were interesting and all of them were relevant to the politics topic. Because they are all related to Vietnam, my question for the presenters is: How can you relate all three of these articles to each other?

Pajkub Vahchuama