Before leaving Namibia<\/a>, I was trying to get a German friend to join me there. Locked out of cafes and restaurants, his life was miserable, and he had just been disqualified from a much better job when his potential boss discovered he hadn\u2019t been Jewjabbed. With enough cash, my friend could relax for months in a much less toxic nation. Two days before his arrival, though, he changed his mind. Since it\u2019s a huge step to remove oneself from the familiar, many will be nuked or starved to death right at home, or herded into concentration camps by those who look and talk just like them! It\u2019s more comforting that way.<\/p>\n I\u2019m in my native country, but in a rather unfamiliar city. Though I\u2019ve known Vung Tau since childhood, I\u2019ve spent just three months here altogether. My willingness to walk everywhere and listen to everyone does go a long way to get me settled, though.<\/p>\n While eating duck embryos on the sidewalk, I was told by a middle aged man at the next table how terrible Vung Tau hospitals are, for his own mother was wrongly diagnosed with having an appendix, and an acquaintance had her left lung operated on, when there was too much fluids in her right one. It\u2019s worth it to travel all the way to Saigon for medical treatments, he claimed. Why, the best Saigon hospital does not even have a morgue, he swore, for no patient has ever died there.<\/p>\n If anything goes wrong, I should just lie still in my air conditioned room and ride it out. As long as I don\u2019t rot for too long before being sniffed out, I won\u2019t feel too guilty. Sorry, lady.<\/p>\n Soon after dawn, I walk about a mile to my favorite cafe, Ca Dao, whose name means \u201cfolk poetry.\u201d I tend to take a circuitous route, often through alleys, because, well, the unknown or unexpected is stimulating. Maybe that\u2019s why the prospects of mushroom clouds on the horizon are turning some people on. For perhaps a week, nuclear war will surely beat Netflix.<\/p>\n In Tokyo, a friend told me most Japanese are so punctual and orderly, they stand at the same spot in the same subway car, at the same time each morning. Vietnamese aren\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n In an alley, Ca Dao is almost never visited by a foreigner. Sometimes, though, a Scottish man would show up. Here for several years, he can speak some Vietnamese. You can be in a foreign country for several lifetimes and never become convincingly acculturated. How you hunch over or lean back can give you away.<\/p>\n Still, many come to Vung Tau and stay, because, like I said, it\u2019s paradisal enough for anyone. I met an 82-year-old American who\u2019s been here for two years, after 65 in his native Salem, Oregon, then 15 in Thailand. Pacified by age, thus indifferent to booze and boobs, Bob just wants to left alone in a pleasant setting, to glide, hopefully not too painfully, towards eternity.<\/p>\n At Ca Dao, I can sit inside under an air conditioner to cool off, or outside to type without musical distractions, though the song selection here is always exceptional. Most of the Vietnamese ones are from wartime South Vietnam, a period of astounding creativity, with lyricists like Tr\u1ecbnh C\u00f4ng S\u01a1n and Ph\u1ea1m Duy at the peak of their poetic power. The grief and terror of that era is well recorded, but also its vitality and love of life. As for songs in English, here you can hear Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash, etc.<\/p>\n [my writing station at Ca Dao, 4\/16\/22]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting how Johnny Cash has such an appeal worldwide,\u201d I said to Ca Dao\u2019s owner, Cao H\u1ed3ng Linh. \u201cHe comes off as an outlaw, but a sappy outlaw!\u201d I laughed. \u201cA real outlaw wouldn\u2019t sing about crying. \u2018When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s an artist!\u201d<\/p>\n H\u1ed3ng Linh\u2019s daughter studied in Singapore, so he visited her there a few times, but otherwise has not traveled. A photographer, H\u1ed3ng Linh particularly admires Bruce Gilden, you know, the one who startles strangers on the streets of New York with his flash.<\/p>\n Loving American music from at least half a century ago, H\u1ed3ng Linh agrees with me America\u2019s cultural rot is well advanced. It\u2019s too obvious.<\/p>\n \u201cThe US used to have mature female singers,\u201d I said. \u201cYou know, women who could sing about growing old.\u201d As an example, I pulled up on YouTube Alberta Hunter\u2019s \u201cYou Can\u2019t Tell the Difference After Dark.\u201d Born in 1895, Hunter wrote this at age 40, but recorded her most memorable version of it when she was 85!<\/p>\n Look at what the sun has done to me. [\u2026]<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s about race, but the \u201cno more fun\u201d means it\u2019s also about aging, and, more broadly, all the limitations of having a body that, even at its peak, is variously handicapped. What makes this version so life affirming is the joyful defiance of Hunter\u2019s old, raspy voice belting out verbal lust.<\/p>\n Hearing this, H\u1ed3ng Linh pointed out, \u201cUs Vietnamese have a saying, \u2018Turn the light off, a tiled roof is the same as a thatched roof!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike most Vietnamese, H\u1ed3ng Linh has stayed clear of the Jewjab. We\u2019ve talked about the evil effects Covid hysteria has had on small children. They grow up fearing other people and the air itself.<\/p>\n During Covid, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to always be in places where life was more or less normal, so, again, I\u2019m in a Vung Tau that\u2019s its usual teeming<\/a> self<\/a>, despite all the mask wearing<\/a>. With my travel sketches, then, I bring you normalcy. It\u2019s nice just to sit at a table with something good to eat or drink, with many people walking by, so even overheard trivia is soothing.<\/p>\n One country over, millions have been locked up in Shanghai and, it appears, millions more in Beijing will suffer the same fate. Perhaps China\u2019s baffling behavior is its way of preventing goods from reaching the US, a disguised embargo? Starved of more critical components, the collapse of the American economy will only accelerate.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine will only escalate and spread, since Washington shows no interest in negotiating with Putin, not that the leering moron babbling in cartoonese is capable of negotiating anything with anybody. The US has become the biggest Jewish joke ever.<\/p>\n Six months ago, a reader, Wanda, left a curious comment at my blog:<\/p>\n I have friends and relatives in the ONI, NSA and, yes, the CIA, and they all tell me they expect global thermonuclear war within five years at the latest, so maybe none of this [Covid hysteria] matters. They could be wrong, of course. I hope so. But in the meantime, just enjoy life for however long it may last.<\/p>\n [\u2026]<\/p>\n There’s no point in obsessing over things we have no control over. So take a nice walk, have a good meal, drink a good beer and sleep well!<\/p>\n Very fatalistic, this Wanda, but perhaps she had no choice, since she admitted to having been Jewjabbed. She\u2019s right, though, in saying that us plebeians have no control over our collective fate or the destiny of our planet, and I\u2019m sorry if that sounds so defeatist.<\/p>\n What we do have some control over is the salvation of our own ass, that is, we\u2019ve been cornered into thinking like refugees. To reach safety, we must be decisive and let go of just about everything. If forced to, we must be prepared to survive, even for years, with everything on our back, though, I admit, it\u2019s a bit silly to speak in years now.<\/p>\n This morning, I bought an excellent pat\u00e9 chaud at a newly discovered bakery. For dinner, I sat next to a Christmas tree, such is the weirdness of Vietnam. Tomorrow, I will have another nourishing conversation at Ca Dao, I hope.<\/p>\n [Vung Tau, 4\/29\/22]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Scroll to the foot of the source page<\/a> to subscribe to Linh Dinh\u2019s Postcards From The End.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/my-writing-station.jpg\")
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\nIt seems there\u2019s no more fun for me.
\nLots of these fellows act so shy,
\nAnd I think I know the reason why.
\nI may be as brown as a berry.
\nHah, but that\u2019s only secondary.
\nYou can\u2019t tell the difference after dark!
\nI may not be so appealing,
\nI may look like Ma Rainey,
\nOh, but I\u2019ve got that certain feeling,
\nAnd you can\u2019t tell the difference after dark!
\nThey say gentlemen prefer blonde haired ladies,
\nBut you\u2019ve got to be out of your mind
\nTo think I\u2019m out of style,
\nJust because I\u2019m slightly shady!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Vung-Tau-2-29-22.jpg\")
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