If the population of the Earth was reduced to that of a small town with 100 people, it would look something like this:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 Americans (northern and southern)
8 Africans
52 women
48 men
70 coloured-skins
30 caucasians
6 people would own 59% of the whole world wealth and all of them will be from the United States of America
80 would have bad living conditions
70 would be uneducated
50 underfed
1 would die
2 would be born
1 would have a computer
1 (only one) will have higher education
I came across this passage from one of the forum just now and it reminded me of a person who i'd met during my Hanoi trip. I have the chance to met quite many people of different colors along this trip but there is this particular girl who had left a vivid impression in my mind. This young Hanoian girl is the tour guide for the Halong bay trip, i am not sure how old she is, judging from her appearance, she should be in early twenties maybe.
Although she carries the title of English speaking tour guide, but let just say her English fluency wasnt that great. However, with her charming (to an extend funny) Vietnamese English ascent and big warm smile, she doesnt seems to have much problem mixing around with the rest of foreign tourists with her broken English. Its very interesting that she speaks and smiles at the same time, you can literally 'see' her laughters radiating from her bright and cheerful expression whenever she spoke.
I had a long conversation with her during the drive back from Halong to Hanoi since both of us were sitting beside driver seat and we were very much immobile and have nothing to do during that 3 and half hours drive. I am surprised to find out that she has been working as a tour guide for 6 years now, and she has to travel back and forth from Hanoi-Halong everyday without failed. Gosh, thats a bloody 7 hours of drive everyday! She was surprised to know that i've been to quite a few European countries before and was bold enough to tell me that she wished she can do that too, but has no money. She told me further that the pay in Vietnam is very low and its quite impossible for them to think of travel outside the country.
I was quite sad when i listened to this. At that moment of time, i realized that i never really know this part of Vietnam before. I've see the beautiful culture and its fabulous tourist spots, but i never really comprehended the reality and hard life of the Vietnamese, of which some of them make their ends met through selling the street food, souveniers, handling hostel business to serve foreign tourists like me.
When you look at the world from this perspective, you can see how different a person can be just because he/she born in a different country and have the proper education opportunity. How lucky i am in the sense that i owned a computer, and i can express myself and writting freely a blog now, and i am the only 1 in the 100 people who had the chance of higher education.
I told Yen (the hanoian gal's name) to practice hard and master her English, as Vietnam is developing fast, there will be jobs which required English speaking, and when the opportunities open up in future, she will be ready for that. I dont know how much she absorbed imy words, but i really hoped she will experienced a more abundant and wider horizon in her life.
My very best wishes to you, Yen
Although she carries the title of English speaking tour guide, but let just say her English fluency wasnt that great. However, with her charming (to an extend funny) Vietnamese English ascent and big warm smile, she doesnt seems to have much problem mixing around with the rest of foreign tourists with her broken English. Its very interesting that she speaks and smiles at the same time, you can literally 'see' her laughters radiating from her bright and cheerful expression whenever she spoke.
I had a long conversation with her during the drive back from Halong to Hanoi since both of us were sitting beside driver seat and we were very much immobile and have nothing to do during that 3 and half hours drive. I am surprised to find out that she has been working as a tour guide for 6 years now, and she has to travel back and forth from Hanoi-Halong everyday without failed. Gosh, thats a bloody 7 hours of drive everyday! She was surprised to know that i've been to quite a few European countries before and was bold enough to tell me that she wished she can do that too, but has no money. She told me further that the pay in Vietnam is very low and its quite impossible for them to think of travel outside the country.I was quite sad when i listened to this. At that moment of time, i realized that i never really know this part of Vietnam before. I've see the beautiful culture and its fabulous tourist spots, but i never really comprehended the reality and hard life of the Vietnamese, of which some of them make their ends met through selling the street food, souveniers, handling hostel business to serve foreign tourists like me.
When you look at the world from this perspective, you can see how different a person can be just because he/she born in a different country and have the proper education opportunity. How lucky i am in the sense that i owned a computer, and i can express myself and writting freely a blog now, and i am the only 1 in the 100 people who had the chance of higher education.
I told Yen (the hanoian gal's name) to practice hard and master her English, as Vietnam is developing fast, there will be jobs which required English speaking, and when the opportunities open up in future, she will be ready for that. I dont know how much she absorbed imy words, but i really hoped she will experienced a more abundant and wider horizon in her life.
My very best wishes to you, Yen
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