Have It Both Ways: Perspective From a Progressive Ex-Pat – CommonDreams.org
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.
One Response
You are right about the environmental thing. We just had a heartbreaking oil spill in the San Francisco Bay that will take years to clean and our wildlife are dying. I found your community work to be inspiring.