Author Description

Geographic, political, cultural, and religious forces have differently shaped North and South Vietnamese and determined their reaction to war and peace. THE SORROWS OF WAR AND PEACE For the Vietnamese people, war was part of their life. Not that they wanted to fight year in and year out, it was just that they were born in a land of wars. War seems to be as natural as air in Vietnam. One just has to look at the history of Vietnam to realize that wars and battles had consumed hundreds of thousands of lives throughout the centuries. It is therefore natural that they discuss about war and peace mostly about the sorrows that came with these entities. War may have ended, but somehow peace has not settled in their hearts and minds. Strangely "peace" has unleashed another type of war: a full blown revenge followed by an unrelenting discrimination against the losers. And the vicious cycle goes on and on. To feel the pain, you have to go through that pain yourself. To feel what the Vietnamese had gone through, you need to embrace their stories. It is a tale of immense suffering, of recurring pain, delusion, despair, of death and survival, but also of hope that no such a war would ever happen anywhere else in the world. A REVIEW OF VIETNAMESE CULTURE-THE SACEI FORUM-promotes Vietnamese arts and culture through workshops, discussions and publications.