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Have It Both Ways: Perspective From a Progressive Ex-Pat
Like many Progressives, I am completely disillusioned with the American political system. Watching the Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate support and protect the Bush/Cheney administration has been the final straw. Congressional Democrats no longer have the cover of being members of a "powerless" minority. We can see them now for what they really are, and it sure ain't pretty.
I've walked my share of anti-war picket lines and I've watched as local news vehicles zipped by without pausing to document our presence. I've campaigned for a decent Democratic congressional candidate -- a veteran of the War in Iraq--only to see him lose to a Republican real estate agent who ran on a promise of voting to "rubber stamp" anything Bush wanted. I've written to and visited that Republican congressperson advocating progressive views on national priorities, especially regarding health care. (You can imagine how fruitful that conversation was.) I've written carefully documented critiques of government policy and had them published on the Op-ed page of my local newspaper-- only to see those pieces "balanced" by letters and articles offering character assassination and a call to "level Baghdad if people don't do what we say".
It's enough to make a progressive dispirited.
I don't live in the United States any more. My family and I have moved to Vietnam. I still read and contribute to Common Dreams, the Nation, and Salon.com. And I send contributions to both Dennis Kucinich (a true American hero) and John Edwards (a decent and electable guy if ever there was one). I plan to vote absentee in the next presidential election. Politically, I'm as informed and effective as I was when I lived in America. On a personal level, however, I am far more empowered than I ever was in the US.
Before quitting our jobs, selling our home, and disposing of our vehicles, my husband and I established a non-profit organization, Steady Footsteps, Inc., to frame the work that we wanted to do in Vietnam. Our assets, which were not--and never would be--sufficient to allow us to retire in the US, are enough to support us comfortably in Vietnam and to give us a start on the work of our organization.
For the price equivalent of one modest American car, our organization purchased motorbike helmets for every employee of the Da Nang City Health Department. (Motorbikes comprise 90% of the road traffic here in Vietnam and Traumatic Brain Injury is epidemic.) In return, the Da Nang Department of Health agreed to mandate helmet-wearing by every employee traveling to and from work. This project has received so much publicity, as the Vietnamese government and media work to enhance traffic safety, that I have become a bit of a celebrity--prompting cries of, "Oh, I saw you on TV!" wherever I go.
The helmet project, as well as my on-going, unpaid job of mentoring Vietnamese physical therapists and physical therapy students, has afforded me both access and credibility with decision-makers here and an opportunity to counter the influence of multinational corporations as they try to push the Vietnamese health care system towards the American private insurance model. Will my progressive ideas hold sway here? Who knows? But I am here full-time in a country where personal connections mean a lot and I think that I have a much better shot at influencing the delivery of health care here in Vietnam than I ever did in America. And, because I am present and plugged-in and personally aligned with Vietnamese people who genuinely want to help those less fortunate than themselves, I can discretely offer them support in small projects that they initiate themselves, such as replacing a roof for an indigent typhoon victim, buying seeds and gardening tools for an ethnic community, or pouring a concrete floor for a little mountain clinic.
So, buck up, Progressives! You may or may not bring down BushCo, but you, as individuals and as members of caring communities can make a difference in the world. Look to your own strengths and think about how you can make the world a better place. You don't have to live in America in order to take part in the American conversation. Think about taking your energy and your assets elsewhere. We Americans are wealthy, both materially and experientially. Why not take those assets to a place where you can be your own best and most effective self?
Virginia Lockett is an American physical therapist who lives with her family in Da Nang, Vietnam. She is president and founder of the non-profit organization, Steady Footsteps, Inc. She offers her reflections on life in Vietnam and in America here.
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30 Comments so far
Show AllThanks, Virginia, for the very heartening report on your choice to make yourself useful outside the belly of the beast. It brings to mind a favorite bumpersticker: "I love my county, but i think we should start seeing other people." Many of us are experiencing this quandry of where and how to make ourselves most effective. Sounds like you're happy with your choice, and I applaud your motivation and courage. Thanks for beaming it back.
I left America in 1988 and began living and teaching in Ho Chi Minh City. I have never regretted the choice.
Hoa binh
Wonderful Story!!
I wish her all the best and hope to do the same thing.
Most of us Americans will be staying in America. I wish the best for those who can leave and choose to leave, but leaving and then sending back posts to rip the Democrats (Americans' best hope) is a tad offensive.
No thanks. We could find better things to read.
And there are other "benefits" to living as an expat. I moved to Mexico almost three years ago. My two children 8 and 9 years old feared all the people who were not as white as they when we first moved. Today my kids understand another culture, speak another language. My kids like to travel to the U.S. and other countries but Mexico is home.
I wish I could say that I had made a change in my adopted country as Virginia Lockett has in hers but I can only state that I have made a change in two children who may some day return to the United States with a better understanding of other realities than that taught in U.S. schools.
Daniel David, I cannot believe you think you can speak for anyone but yourself here. I once thought you were naive and overly loyal to the Democratic Party. I am begining to wonder about that.
Too bad you couldn't see the really beautiful witness this woman has given us. Your remark, while seemingly moderate in tone, delivers the same message intolerant folks back during the Vietnam War did. They snarled, "America---love it or leave it." How dare you dismiss her sharing and caring post because you don't want to hear it! A fist in a glove is what you are. Are you fearful that more and more of the "base" will decide their valuable energies can be better spent for good than supporting your beloved, corrupt Party? Guess what? There is a myriad of ways that can be done, and creative courageous people will find them.
I admire greatly her willingness to stop whining and do something useful with her disappointment. Would that I were as courageous.
I am voting for Dennis in the primary and then changing my voter registration "no party". I am involved locally to enhance our lives through work with environmental organizations and non-partisan groups. I wish I could move to another country, but am too cowardly so will do my best to make things better here. That is all I can do for now. I wish Virginia continued success with projects in Viet Nam. We are all one world and I don't think it matters where you make the difference, as long as you do make a difference - or at least make the attempt.
Although I admire what Ms Lockett has done, and is doing it's a route for the few, I suspect. Not all of us can take it. Some of us are bound here in the USA for a variety of reasons.
Surely there is a way to change things here - everyone cannot just cut and run.
I am a British expat, in the USA - I married an American citizen. I could cut and run back to the UK myself, and take him with me, but to me that seems wrong, as long as there's a chance that things here can change.
At present I'm disenfrancised and fairly useless, until I can get citizenship (soon I hope). Articles and comments on CD do give hope that the future will be better than the present - if enough of us want it to be that way.
For me, it's too soon to give up on the USA completely.
Virgina:
Just always remember that "No man is an island". What happens in the U.S., can and will affect you, in Vietnam or anywhere else. I learned this lesson the hard way, after doing what you did, and leaving the U.S. in 2003. I'm back.
After demonstrating against the war, realizing the tremendous damage it was going to cause to our country, economically and socially, I packed my belongings and left for the one country with no army - Costa Rica.
The empire followed me, and our fellow Americans began destroying the jungle and society of Costa Rica, and the Nobel Peace prize winning president Oscar Arias opened the door of his country to American Corporations. Costa Rica is doomed and I am back.
Whether or not the empire follows you, you are affected by the U.S., through it's economic, political and environmental policies. Global warming, which affects the entire planet, is in large measure caused by the consumption model of economics practiced here in the U.S. and being exported to your neighbor China.
As far as not being able to afford retirement in the U.S.? Don't be so sure. Since I have been back in the U.S., four months now, I have been working on putting together a program whereby Americans can retire through the practice of Conservation. It's almost complete, and will open the opportunity of retirement for millions of Americans, and have a very positive impact on our environement.
In fact, it's what I should be doing right now, instead of typing on Common Dreams, but this site is very addictive.
Daniel, oh never mind.
Eat Pho and Prosper,
Ramsay
Amen sister! I loved your article. Now this is what I call a true progressive voice!
I have little sympathy and even less patience with all-bark, no-bite, toothless progressives. Let's not forget that we all threatened to emigrate out of the USA after Bush's 04 election. A mere fraction of all of us who threatened to leave actually did. I do know a few people who left the USA after Bush's 04 election, and they earned my highest admiration.
I too was once an ex-pat, and I currently have greater insight into the Latino immigrant community than 95%, no make that 87.5% of the people on progressive web pages. Emigration OUT of the USA is a true progressive statement!
Virgina, your articles will always be well received by me. :-)
I left The U.S. in OCtober of last year and moved to Cebu City Philippines with my whife and daughter. By American standards we are poor. We could not be happier.
I recomend the Philippines to anyone wanting to get out of America. For $20k they will give you a permanent visa. They are friendly and LOVE Americans. They speak English. You can live quite nicely for well under $1000usd a month.
I admit that I am intrigued by the expat posters. My husband and I talk about leaving America. It makes me sad and I don't want to but I believe it may be necessary. I have a young son and I'm not sure I want him to suffer the country America is becoming.
Molly Ivins used to say repeatedly that Campaign Finance was the core issue; as long as politicians were bought, the democracy was at risk. Over time I came to believe her. Nothing threatens our representation more than the influences of Big Money on elections.
But the loss of freedoms, the impairment of the constitution, those are very frightening.
Isn't it ironic that she now lives in communist Vietnam--which we squandered 3 million lives trying to prevent--and now enjoys more freedom than we do?
Ms. Lockett didn't "cut and run." She remains very much a participant in US politics through the internet; she contributes to campaigns; and she will vote in Nov 2008. That's more than can be said about a huge number of US-based American "citizens," eh?
We live in a Global Society, Ms. Lockett has found a way to make a contribution to the Common Good and world peace. Precisely due to her understanding of US foreign policy and development networks, she can give her Vietnamese colleagues and friends a perspective different from the US free-market corporations wanting to set up shop in Vietnam.
I spent 20+ years in US-China and Canada-China Relations. A job brought me to Canada more than 15 years ago, and I stayed. I am still a US citizen and follow US politics very closely, but inevitably my perspective on the role of the US in the World, the Community of Nations, has changed due to my long involvement with and residence in other countries. The US, for me, is no longer the epicentre of the globe or the epitomy of All Things Bright and Beautiful. I say this as a pragmatic, progressive realistic, patriotic American: The USA is not the sun around which all the other nations of the world revolve.
Progressives in the States should take more advantage of the perspectives of Expats in diverse countries, who see more clearly why the US is despised (and still admired, in principle) by so many, for its violent and exploitative foreign policies. Expats can also offer insight and alternatives into pressing US issues like healthcare, energy usage and transportation.
Millions of US citizens live outside of the US, working in all fields, in all the countries of the world. Collectively they could make an important contribution to helping "at-home" Americans deepen the dialogue about 'Whither America?'
Thanks Virginia for your great article. I love Vietnam as it was my first experience in a developing country I went to volunteer there as a teenager to work with children whose parents were exposed to Agent Orange. I've stuck with work in the international development field as a result of this moving experience.
I'm already planning to do what you have done but I my husband and I don't know where yet..we're trying to figure that out and get jobs overseas. I've had enough and I'm so disheartened. I agree with Ramsey also though as the empire has a way of catching up with a person wherever one goes.
Probably Mike Gravel's most idiosyncratic soundbite, with regards to the "accomplishments" from Vietnam:
"You can now go to Hanoi and get a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone. Vietnam has most-favored-nation trading. What did all these people die for!?!"
"I recommend the Philippines to anyone wanting to get out of America..."
Well, since the Philippines are pretty much still a de-facto US colony - Pres. Arroyo having done everything Bush has asked of her, why would anyone want to got to the Philippines?
I believe anyone can make a diff wherever they live, but if daniel david's claim that the dem's are the 'best hope' for america is true then I have very little hope for the future of your country - or the world.
knew a british ex-pat.... boy was he more than willing to express his opinions on the state of the united states..or his 'own' country. it was not very pretty. how safe. i know alot of younger and older americans who would love to skip the united states but do not have the where with all. i even have a friend who was so sick of her home town who is now struggling to just make it in a new city. my point is, while this is a wonderful feel good kind of success story, many americans, though they may want to, do not have the chance to leave. they are here trying to make it here, to make a difference here. how easy to sit comfortably at a distance.
I too moved to Vietnam after Bush was put into office yet again. It was a difficult decision to make: should I stay in the USA to fight for change or move someplace else before it was too late? I finally decided to get out of the US while there was still time.
I teach English in Ho Chi Minh City and live better than I have ever lived in the US. For less than 500 dollars, I have medical coverage. I only need to work about 25 hours a week to live comfortably. And soon my dream of running my own business is going to become a reality. Our main focus will be on educating the local business people to not only speak better English, but – to me – get ready for Vietnam's entry into the WTO.
As anyone who knows Vietnam and its people will attest, they are a very caring and good people. Of course they aren't all saints and corruption is rampant, but the same can be said of the USA. I hope to ultimately end up working in some poor village to help educate the people about the world they live in and to do their best to keep their culture as free as possible of the Westernization of the young. I should qualify that statement by saying the negative aspects of Westernization.
The Vietnamese are an amazing people. To them, the past is done and over with and I never feel any hatred because of what our nation has done to them during the American War, as they call it. There's much to be said for the Buddhist system of living and view of life and family.
One last comment: Yes, driving here in Vietnam is a very dangerous thing for many reasons. Steps are being taken to change this situation and beginning December 12th, all drivers of motos will be required to wear a helmut. It's pretty sad to hear jokes such as: What's another word for a baby riding in the front of a motorbike? Bodybag.
Virginia Lockett, I wonder how much your work has helped create this much needed law.
When I first came back to Viet Nam in 1988 (I was a Force Recon Marine in 1967) people thought I was crazy for wanting to go back, even for just a visit. In 1991 when I decided I would live and work in Viet Nam people just couldn't understand. This wonderful article and most of the comments have given me time to smile.
I left America because I didn't feel that I wanted to belong to a society that was slowly committing suicide by gagging on all that it was being conned into consuming. I grew up in the fifties, before the TV got a stranglehold on Americans and started dictating social and political thought. I found myself battling the TV for time, and influence, on my two sons. I was supposed to be living the American Dream. The American dream was supposed to provide our happiness. Work and study hard, be honest, help your neighbor and you can achieve the American Dream. Instead we were being tricked and fooled into thinking that we could buy the America Dream.
I have since learned that the American Dream is actually everyone's dream and that it can take place anywhere. But being born in America certainly can be an advantage. As a kid growing up I was always fascinated with the expression, "Go west young man". Living life as a full circle will always allow you to be at home no matter where you are.
Hoa binh
May I inject a more pessimistic, time-sensititive view concerning the decision to become an ex-pat by citing a few facts? Our President now has the power to issue Bills of Attainder, habeus corpus is dead. His power to declare a state of emergency is unrestrained. Posse comitatus is dead and there exist private armies run by neo-fascists that have already been deployed in the United States (Katrina). Concentration camps for hundreds of thousands of prisoners are currently being built. No-fly lists restricting the travel rights of tens of thousands of people without any process at all are currently expanding. Recently, members of Code Pink were denied land entry into Canada because of their political activites. Folks, if should want to leave in the future, the question might be if you will be able to leave.
The Democrats are the best hope for America because they aggressively support the corporatocracy, which is America, and they mouth the talking point platitudes that keep the starbuckaroos quietly sipping instead of hanging the villians.
Indeed, Ramsey, I think people forget the reach of America... You almost have to go somewhere like Vietnam in order to even feel like you've gotten away. Even there, I fear that Virginia might not be able to stay so insulated for long. The cancer that rules America right now doesn't stop at America's borders - they are multinational corporations operating world-wide... they operate in China, they operate in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, they operate in South Africa, they operate in Columbia. They are everywhere and they continue to spread.
Tony I fear what you are talking about to. Problem is not enough people are paying attention. The idea of the borders closing terrifies me.
Tony I fear what you are talking about to. Problem is not enough people are paying attention. The idea of the borders closing terrifies me.
Yes, Virginia, there is an escape clause.
I left more than 18 years ago _ best decision I ever made. I've lived a better lifestyle than I could've in the States, been able to save more money, have far better access to a better standard of health care for myself and my wife and children. My kids speak 2 languages well and a couple more with some competence. They do not have a molecule of racial prejudice. They know how to survive and thrive in new environments. Every day is an education.
Still, I have to warn you _ being far away doesn't lessen the pain of watching your country go down the toilet. You will still see disheartening things like the following _
"leaving and then sending back posts to rip the Democrats (Americans' best hope) is a tad offensive.
No thanks. We could find better things to read."
Even worse, you start to really see what our country looks like to the rest of the world. It's fairly hard to take.
The contrast between other countries' awareness of the world and the US' insularity will be staggering for you.
You'll also develop a greater appreciation for the good things about our country _ and therefore a greater sense of despair while you watch those good things disappear at an accellerating pace, while "opposition" Democrats run around in a state of ever more cowardly surrender.
When you try to talk about that perspective with folks back home, they'll resent you for it, and probably some will see you a traitor, as somehow "less" American. You'll probably lose some friends.
But all that said,
Welcome to Asia! Thanks for your work with the wonderful folks of Vietnam. I'm not far away and will try to see if I can contribute to your organization if I can. You're always welcome in our home.
since 1492---thanks for sharing a heartfelt and beautiful story. Everyone needs to do what they have to do to survive the madness all around us. You were very courageous to go back to Vietnam, if for no other reason than the "facing head on the aftermath of our actions there." I wish you a long and peaceful life and appreciate your contributions. I am one of those US citizens who is not in a position to leave at this time, but I, for one, have no problem making time to read the posts of thoughtful, good hearted ex-pats. Keep on posting here. You are among friends---for the most part anyway.
I can't think of a better way to be an ambassador of the REAL United States than what Virginia and some of you others are doing abroad. Peace Corps Mark II
'If you can't beat them, join them.'
Any true progressive should be wary of using capricious charity as an example of progress. In this case a workplace safety rule resulted, but authority rarely responds to charity so responsibly. Personally, I am not ready to become one of Bush, Sr's thousand points of light, endlessly promoted and PR'd to mollify a population that is having public programs and infrastructure ripped away.
In following Lockett's example, it seems to me that American "progressives" would be carrying the *conservative* revolution to foreign lands. I hope that some of you are able to recognize in this story the conversion of American plebes into expat aristocrats, taking up the right-wing M.O. of charity as sham welfare in the process.
My response here is not a call to provincialism or indifference. Moving abroad and constructively engaging with people from around the world ought to be admired. But if such a thing is going to become a mass movement, then we need to think and be responsible about the form it takes.
Ceding ground, exiting the theater, or 'giving up' any collective project or identity must be a delicate and mindful process if it is not to covert us individually to perfidy.
Ultimately, we must come to terms with the world losing faith in Americans (progressives too) on all levels; that the rapid devaluation of the dollar will itself put the brakes on a wave of politically inept and inane American emigrants inflicting their dis-ingenuity on the rest of the planet.
(Then again, James Carville did wonders in Bolivia...)