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Today I have discovered that Vietnam is now the head of the UN Security Council for 2 months from today. Ironically the situation for the Prajna monastics has worsened and they are now under siege from uniformed police in Bao Loc. Below is an article that I have submitted to various newspapers for publication.

A memorial to my true home

Hoa Pham is currently in Berlin on a writers residency courtesy of the University of Western Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney, the Goethe Institute and the Copyright Agency Limited.

Time is marked in memorials of concrete and stones in Berlin. The Communist rule here has been taken over and superseded, the Wall is now slabs of art and a gallery, the site of the Third Reich planted with memorials for their victims. Germany lost a war more than fifty years ago, and the tourists visit the legacy of places where once  massacres occurred. The death strip where those who tried to escape East Berlin is also immortalised in stones, reminders of a more recent past.

How different is the reminders of war in Hanoi? Here the memorials are also cast in concrete and history is written by those who won. It is more than thirty years ago now and tourists take pictures next to tanks and the Liberation Palace that witnessed the fall of Saigon. There is no mention of the hundreds of thousands who fled the Communist regime, nor of those murdered or imprisoned for trying to leave. Instead the Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) return to marvel at what has become of their homeland and spend foreign currency much needed to boost the economy.

I visited the statues of Marx and Engels in Berlin, flanked by metal rectangular monoliths that had photos of other Communist regimes incised on the surfaces. Ho Chi Minh was there, along with a photo of a tiny woman from the Viet Cong next to a gigantic American soldier. There is no commentary with the photos, they speak for themselves in black and white on silver.

Both places make a living from the recent past, a morbid fascination with history drives the snapping of cameras, for people to say, I’ve been here. Communism in Germany and Vietnam is a souvenir to Westerners who have not experienced it. Some of the radical left in Australia tag themselves Communist in ideals, expressing values that have resulted in lethal oppression in other countries. To me this seems impossibly naive.

It is the present that concerns me now. As I write three hundred Buddhist monks and nuns, have been forcibly evicted from Prajna Monastery in Bat Nha, 6 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City. The monastery has been destroyed while police blocked all exits and it is known that plain clothes policemen were part of the mob that destroyed the temple.

Prajna Monastery followed Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, the exiled Vietnamese Zen Master based in Plum Village in France. Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King in the sixties when he was in the US asking for the end of the war. Thich Nhat Hanh was invited back to Vietnam twice by the Vietnamese government, the last time in 2007 when he did a tour of Vietnam for Great Ceremonies of Mourning commemorating all that had suffered during the American/Vietnam War. His teachings say that fear and anger are the enemy, not mankind. In 2007 it seemed that Vietnamese government was opening up and encouraging Buddhism, the predominant religion in Vietnam.

Now in 2009 this action by the Vietnamese Government destroys the optimism of removing Vietnam from the list of repressive regimes by the US just before APEC was held in Hanoi in 2006. Coincidentally APEC occurred just before Thich Nhat Hanh’s last visit to Vietnam. The government that maintains his exile have withdrawn their opportunistic welcome of him once more. On the thirtieth of September the Prajna monks and nuns having fled to Bao Loc’s temple have been placed under siege this time by uniformed police. Under the threat of violence the abbot has been forced to surrender 30 of the youngest nuns and monks who have been arrested and taken to Ho Chi Minh City.

I have been to Prajna Monastery and visited the monks, nuns and aspirants there with their bright smiles and welcoming eyes. It was at this peaceful beautiful place that I thought I had found my spiritual home, connecting me to Vietnam as a Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese). Thich Nhat Hanh held a five day Buddhist retreat there for ten thousand Vietnamese people in 2007, teaching breathing, mindfulness and peace within oneself to promote peace outside oneself. Prajna means insight, one of the three jewels of Buddhism.

At one of the sister temples in Ho Chi Minh City there are five pebbled mounds commemorating the execution of five followers of Thich Nhat Hanh before the war broke out. If the world does not react to the latest oppression in Vietnam there will be yet another memorial for more than 300 monastics in the ground.

I dread to think what this might look like, and weep for my true home.

Tom Cho’s book “Look who’s morphing” has been short-listed for the Age book of the year award. This is a credit to his hard work and dedication to his creative ideas. Tom has been working on his short fiction for ten years, and despite discouragement from most publishers his collection was finally picked up by Giramondo Press. I’m really excited for Tom – he deserves the accolades. Not only is this a breakthrough for short fiction, it also shows that the mainstream literary world can recognise a unique voice and talent when they can see it. Tom did get some negative reviews including one short sighted reviewer who felt he should only concentrate on Chinese identity stories- which shows alas how limited some expectations are of Asian diasporic writers.  You can check out all the reviews of Tom’s book and his own thoughts at www.tomcho.com

Very exciting news- I’m going to Berlin in October courtesy of UWS and the Goethe Institute.