'Knowing how to cherish the Fatherland in your heart is the only way to make international friends respect you!'
(Baonghean.vn) - Besides some overseas Vietnamese who have extremist thoughts because they do not have a clear understanding of information in their homeland, many people have learned to rise up, always learn about and be proud of their homeland.
I happened to know Tran Thu Hang - a girl from Ha Nam but currently living in the city of Brittany, Republic of France since 2003.
The first thing that impressed me about Hang is that she regularly shares on her personal Facebook page articles, clips, and images about Vietnam with a consistent viewpoint of criticizing and refuting hostile arguments against Vietnam; viewpoints that revise and defame history; and slander the achievements that Vietnam has made during the renovation period...
Hang always shows a passionate patriotism and deep national pride in every article, every share, every comment... Hang also regularly debates and refutes wrong and hostile views towards Vietnam on many other Facebook pages.
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From that concern, one time, when Hang shared a Youtube clip titled "Vietnam's Strength" with content affirming the achievements that Vietnam has achieved from history to the present day, I commented and discussed with Hang about her attitude and perspective towards Vietnam.
Talking to me, Hang said that a relative of her husband was an officer of the French expeditionary army, who fought in Vietnam but always had great admiration for General Vo Nguyen Giap - the man who defeated their mighty army. It was this sentiment that gave Hang a more correct view of the war of national liberation and unification of the country by previous generations.
In particular, when Hang was interviewed to apply for French citizenship, an employee confided: They were very happy to hear a Vietnamese person from Vietnam talk about the people who caused the French to completely fail at Dien Bien Phu. They did not know that the vast majority of Vietnamese people were patriots and were willing to sacrifice for the independence and freedom of their nation, not like the people from Vietnam they knew before.
The interviewers were also surprised by the new things Hang said about Vietnam, helping them understand the Vietnamese people in a completely different way from the Vietnamese people they had interviewed and met, especially those who fled the country as "boat people".
They said that only after listening to Hang's interview did they understand why the Vietnamese defeated both France and the United States to gain independence and freedom for the nation in the 20th century. And that made them respect the people who made the Dien Bien Phu victory many times more, even though they were the ones who lost miserably in this war.
"At the end of the interview, the staff happily told me that they always respect and admire people like me and the righteous people who have defeated them before. All paperwork for me after that became extremely simple..." - Hang confided.
I told Hang that we are very fortunate to have inherited a proud history that our ancestors built with their own blood and sweat, thanks to which our nation can hold its head high before the five continents. We must not only be grateful, but also preserve it as a treasure.
Yet today, we still see people, even those who are well-educated, trying to destroy that heritage. Sometimes it's so sad to think about...
Sharing with me about this, Hang said that because Vietnam developed too quickly, from zero to the level of developed countries, it caused people not to have enough time to adapt to the new environment, which is why it ended up like this. Vietnamese people can now go abroad too easily and what they see is only the surface but they are not able to realize this.
Those who study abroad as well as those who work abroad only see a very small part of the real life of other countries, not to mention those who only know how to ride horses to see the flowers when traveling, but they think they know everything.
Some of the brothers and sisters who go through marriage do not understand that they have entered another class that can be considered quite high in society, so they mistakenly think that all of society is like that. They do not know that those who are granted permission to marry foreigners and bring their spouses from abroad are those who must have a stable income and meet certain requirements, not just anyone can receive the license.
Besides some overseas Vietnamese who have extremist thoughts because they do not have a clear understanding of information in their homeland and have opposing thoughts, many people have learned to rise up, always learn and be proud of their homeland, because they understand the reality of life in a foreign land.
Through the conversation with Hang, I would like to add that there are more and more people who share the same views as Hang and they openly and properly express them on social networks. I still see posts on Facebook every day expressing patriotism, refuting hostile arguments against Vietnam, defending the socialist regime... by businessmen, international students, overseas Vietnamese and other freelance workers.
They study, work, produce and do business diligently to contribute to building Vietnam into a more beautiful country. They love this country with its glorious history, they love this nation with its indomitable strength that has quickly revived after devastating wars.
They know that it is these things that make up the value of Vietnam and it is the people who know how to cherish the Fatherland in their hearts that make international friends respect them!
Minh Ly
