Cuddling

Yes, indeed, the word "caress" remained quietly dormant until one day it erupted in controversy when it slipped from the mouth of a former judicial official who had just left his position of power to become a "decent person" a few months earlier. The incident unfolded in a situation where the words were uttered in a way that couldn't have been more spectacular. People were disgusted by the act itself, but equally horrified by the deviousness of the deception. A high-ranking public servant, formerly working in the judicial system, used the very knowledge acquired through his state-funded training to turn the tables on the authorities, putting those striving to uphold the law in a disadvantageous position. It's incredible how he could have conceived of "caress"—a verb with only four letters—to miraculously, quickly, and dangerously reverse the situation. He turned the tables in broad daylight in the blink of an eye. From an act that seemed clearly illegal, he magically transformed it into an act that was… beautiful and noble beyond belief! Caress! Excellent, I must say our officials are incredibly brilliant, perhaps even world-class. No need to ask, no need to argue, just a good vocabulary. Filth becomes cleanliness, corruption becomes purity, evil becomes kindness, vulgarity becomes elegance. People admire his resourcefulness, but they shudder at his deceitfulness. They are outraged by his vile behavior, but even more outraged by his methods of escaping punishment.

Those who happened to see the video of the little girl being molested in an elevator in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, will likely be haunted by it. The tiny, innocent, and naive girl was roughly dragged into an elevator by a burly old man who grabbed her neck and kissed her passionately. It's heartbreaking to think of the innocent and pretty mouth of this little girl, which was probably just singing lines like..."Don't cry so Mom can plant fruit trees / Dad goes to the factory so Grandma can happily cultivate the land."And then she had to endure such a forced, unpleasant sniff. And yet they call it "cuddling"—is that really cuddling? Oh, anyone can believe it, except for skeptical people like us. Oh wait, the Ho Chi Minh City Association for the Protection of Children's Rights doesn't believe it either, and neither does the Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation.

The public is outraged and seemingly in a frenzy, all because people are imagining a scenario similar to the forced kiss of a female student in Hanoi a few weeks ago, and predicting this case is even worse. Compared to the Hanoi case, at least the act was convicted, and the punishment, though light, was only 200,000 dong as proof of admission. In this case, the man, formerly a deputy director, didn't forcibly kiss her, never groped her, only caressed her – and caressed her without even touching her! He got to satisfy his craving for caresses without paying a single penny. Some people, being more cautious, are even worried that he might retaliate against those who falsely accused him. How infuriating!

Equality is a legitimate aspiration throughout history. It seems that in this case, justice is stuck between vague concepts and legal provisions that have more than one interpretation. "Cuddling" is an act of showing affection to a child through words and gestures. So, is there any affection here? Absolutely not! Not even a thousandth of a gesture of affection. No questioning, no consideration, one hand holding a phone, the other performing a professional, martial arts-like maneuver to corner the child, then… kissing and groping. And to call that cuddling? That person is truly a master of wordplay.

People threw dirt and spray-painted graffiti on his gate; these extreme reactions are certainly reprehensible, but I hope he understands them. They couldn't control their emotions, just as he sometimes couldn't control his own emotions."A hundred years may wear away a stone monument, but a thousand years will not erase a spoken word."Rumors are circulating online like, "Nung has been prosecuted," "Nung's house was vandalized," and so on. A verb has become a proper noun, specifically referring to a particular person. Yes, just calling him "Mr. Nung" would likely be enough for millions to recognize him. If this moniker stays with him for the rest of his life, it will be far more painful than a temporary handcuff. He is talented, and he was originally virtuous; he was simply unlucky. Hopefully so.

Speaking of the word "nựng" (to caress/affection), it suddenly reminded me of another phenomenon that many are trying to explain: a certain group of people suddenly going crazy over gangsters. They hailed these tattooed thugs who burned cars as if they were earthly heroes. They pursued them, asked for autographs, searched for similar outfits, and, even stranger, this "Bảnh" (cool/stylish) even appeared in... literature exam questions. Shocking! A kind of free publicity for potential gangsters. What's happening? A crisis of idol worship, or simply a complication of the word "nựng"?

There's another matter that's not at all nonsense: the press is publishing many articles about a former provincial Party Secretary who "illegally occupied over 40 hectares of forest land, received a disciplinary warning, but was still 'secretly' awarded the Second Class Labor Medal." See? Living virtually isn't just for young people, and it's not the only way to achieve it through social media. To be celebrating a Labor Medal while still under disciplinary warning – how delusional is that? It's one thing for him to be delusional, but those who "processed" his medal application were also very diligent in preserving and developing the word "nưng" (to flatter/caress) in an unusual new sense.

There's another uproar about the announcement of the list of exam score fraudsters. Netizens are debating what constitutes humanity? Humanity towards the dozens of perpetrators or humanity towards the millions of victims? Yes, if this is a fraud, then the whole country is a victim. Netizens aren't being malicious when they ask: If the names of the candidates aren't revealed, why not reveal the identities of the parents? Those who used their power or material influence to manipulate the system, brazenly stealing opportunities from so many others. They disregard the law and trample on the most basic principles of fairness. They say revealing the parents' names would affect the children's psychology, but why isn't this principle of "humanity" applied in other cases? People like Duong Chi D., Trinh Xuan T., and even former Politburo member Dinh La T., they also have children and families. Their children also suffer, also endure terrible trauma. "The law knows no favoritism," meaning those who intentionally violate it must be held accountable before the law, and their families must, of course, accept the unfortunate consequences. This has been the case throughout history, from East to West. Moreover, in this case, those half-baked students are not entirely blameless. They knew they entered the university through dishonest means; we taught them to resolutely resist wrongdoing. From a moral standpoint, they should have protested, spoken out to reject what didn't belong to them. "Humility, honesty, and courage" are what we're supposed to emphasize. Instead, they remained silent, even proudly accepting the empty title of valedictorian when their actual scores were less than a decimal point. Are they victims or accomplices?

Remember, a child over 14 years old is subject to legal penalties if they commit a crime. In this case, they were all nearing the end of their first year of university. They were full-time citizens with the right to vote, so naturally they were old enough to face the consequences of their complicity. Vietnamese law defines children as those under 16 years old. Clearly, none of the dozens of students involved in the exam cheating scandal were children anymore, and since they weren't children, there was no need to... coddle them.