Bản dịch: Lê An
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH - Upholding the Beacon of Integrity and Truth.
Winter this year has been kind, very warm and very little in snow, without the usual bone chilling deep wintry freeze.
Yet my soul remains frozen in gnawing pensive thought and numbingly perturbed by the messages and images conveyed by a number of magazines and advertisement, displaying misleading opulence with images of towering buildings in Vietnam, unintentionally or intentionally forgetting or avoiding the reality of the general mass who lost their homes or ancestral land, living from day to day in hunger without a roof over their heads or the protective warmth of 4 walls.
We live in a free society, outside of Vietnam, enjoying the full benefits of freedom of speech without persecution. We thus owe to ourselves the responsibilities to speak the truth, and to question incomplete news reporting or confusing/misguided advertisement. Otherwise, we would inadvertently propagate the malicious lies and cruel oppression, brutal incarceration and even risk of death faced by our fellow countrymen / brothers and sisters in Vietnam where currently basic human rights, to speech and life, merit no significance under the dictatorial communistic "Socialist Republic". We are obligated to guide the trusting innocents and lead our inexperienced young to the hard reality of current Vietnam, and to expose the untold lies, uncovered without the misleading rose-tinted glasses.
News reporting about Vietnam comes with great noble responsibility to uphold the truth and integrity of complete reality, especially when these reports originate in the free world. True reporting about Vietnam should not only cover the external facade of a mirage of a paradise or the forced loud laughter of a boisterous illusion, but must also include the obvious internal pain and undeniable cries of a country in misery and deep oppression, on the verge of extinction with its land, islands and sea butchered and bartered by greedy selfish traitors, the so-called leaders of communist Vietnam. Incomplete news reporting together with mollifying portraits of dancing prosperity and joyous musical galas, unintentionally or intentionally, may help to conceal the unforgivable sins against our country of Vietnam, and serve to deafen and dull the "Con Rồng Cháu Tiên" spirits condemning the once indomitable "Đại Việt" minds and souls into the dark "Red" northern vortex of our mortal enemies.
Articles about Vietnamese festivities, bustling temples and churches, should be tempered with news of speech suffocation and religious persecution, as in Pagoda - Chùa Liên Trì or Church - Nhà Thờ Thái Hà...The extravagant parties with bountiful dishes and blooming flowers in luxurious exotic locales of tropical vacation frequented by tourists and Vietnamese expatriates, should be contrasted by the despicable abuses the young Vietnamese women endured, sold and traded in local and foreign "meat markets", treatments unimaginable even for animals but swallowed for survival necessity, or by the heartbreaking sights of unschooled children forced onto the streets digging in garbage, begging in foreign tongue, lying and cheating for daily survival. The hard truth should be balanced by the malnourished mass, with no financial means to purchase even the essential sustenance, or by the dilapidated so-called hospitals with seas of bodies flooding corridors and vying for the same scarcity of the most basic medical care. The splendid wonders of Vietnamese majestic mountains and imposing seas should be discussed in the same patriotic heated fervor as in the shameful kowtowing loss of our "Ải Nam Quan" and "Thác Bản Giốc", or with agonizing anguish as with China's marine invasion and ruthless massacres of helpless Viet. fishermen off the coast of Vietnam.
Please understand unrestricted and unbiased Truth is the obligation of news reporting. Truth is the ultimate love one has for one's country and people. Truth will steer our young, everywhere in and outside of Vietnam, away from misguided misperceptions fabricated by corrupted parasitic dirt who leeched on the suffering of the general mass. Truth will bring justice and freedom against corruption and oppression, and will lead our Vietnam onto the righteous path. Truth is the basic respect one demands of oneself. Truth is the beacon of hope.
In Truth We Trust,
Lê An, Inspired and Translated
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