The Flood in Viet Nam:
Reflections on a Tragedy

ast weekend, my Linh Thao group met in our weekly meeting to view a documentary video which we received from Viet Nam depicting the tragic flood that is devastating the land and the people of the southern region. During the past two months, I had been following the news daily about the damages occurring in Viet Nam, taking notes of the millions of dollars in damages, the escalating number of the dead and the number of people left homeless. The daily news made me extremely concerned about the tragedy in my homeland. But it was not until I watched the video did the reality of the flood completely come to me and has since haunted my mind.

Indeed, it was a sight to behold. What were once lush rice fields on the verge of harvest is now a sea of water. What should have been schoolyards where children played during recess are no longer there. Above the water surface, one could only see the beginning of roofs of straw houses for the walls seemed to be completely submerged. People were forced to stay in their small wooden boats in order to stay dry. With the rice harvest, the primary source of income for the citizens of this part of Viet Nam virtually destroyed, despondency and hunger were written on everyone's face. Old mothers expressed their desperation at having no children to take care of them and had to rely on good neighbors' help. Others expressed the difficulty of trying to catch some fish in the flood water in order to make it through the day. Still others expressed the hopelessness in leaving their nearly submerged houses to relocate to the main street where they can receive help from relief groups. When the reporter interviewed a family and the father made a comment that he nearly drowned and it was probably better if he did drown, the wife immediately scolded him saying: how could he say something like that, who would be left to take care of the small children?

Looking at these scenes, it was difficult to hold back my tears and I knew that everyone in my Linh Thao group was feeling the same. After watching the video, we shared our feelings regarding what we saw with each other. Some of us recalled the 1978 flood when they were just little boys or girls back in Viet Nam. Being little, they did not realize the pain that came with experiencing a flood. But now that they have grown up, the reality was extremely different. The video had made all of us wish that we could do something in order to allay some of the pain of the people at home. But at the same time, many of us knew well of our limitations and it made us feel helpless. In the end, it was decided that we would raise money among ourselves, families, and friends on a long term basis in order to participate in the aids effort in the spirit of "laù laønh ñuøm laù raùch".

This effort was going to require little sacrifices on our part, whether it be cutting back on going to the movies, on buying cigarettes, or buying new clothes. We realized that even if we were to save 5 dollars on a movie, it could mean quite a bit for the victims of the flood who would be happy if they obtained 5,000 VND a day (about 30 cents) to buy food for their entire family.

Growing up in the United States, I was quite oblivious to the regular storms that ravaged Viet Nam. The first storm that caught my attention was Typhoon Linda that took place several years ago. At that time, I had just started to participate in a Vietnamese student organization and the news of the storm came to our attention. As a group, we decided to launch a fund raising effort which resulted in an amount of $10,000. My participation in this fund raising helped me to take notice of the variety of natural disasters that took place annually in Viet Nam. It seems to me that since my awareness of Typhoon Linda began, there has not been a year when something terrible has not happened to our country. What pains me is the realization that these natural disasters are making an already poverty-stricken people suffer even more than they already have.

What I have also realized is that I should never be satisfied with one effort of helping. Some of us may feel like we have already fulfilled our responsibility after donating some money to the Typhoon Linda flood relief, or to the Central Vietnam flood relief last year, and this year, we don't need to do any more. But I think that would be a great mistake. We are so privileged to be in the position that we are in. Last week, I met a girl who came to America for training by her company in Viet Nam. Having spent a month in this country and traveled to the various cities, she exclaimed that her trip has been nothing less than marvelous because of all the wealth and beauty that is present here.

As young people, we must not forget where we came from and how privileged we are. Not only are we responsible to the poor and unfortunate in our homeland, but we must be responsible to the poor and unfortunate of anywhere that needs our help. It is part of making the world a more just place to be. It is a part of living the Gospel message of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Though I was raised in the United States, my love for the people of Viet Nam has grown throughout the years. During the short time living in Viet Nam, I never had the chance to visit the area where the flood is taking place. However, on my first trip back to Viet Nam, this was one of the first places that I came to visit. It was the first time in which I saw the lush green rice fields, the delicate and poetic "monkey" bridges that spanned the myriad canals. It was the first time I rode in a wooden boat that took me down the various canals where I saw rice stalks gracefully swaying in the wind and old mothers bending lowly in back breaking work. My love for the beauty and the hard life of our Vietnamese people came clearly to me at that time.

How surreal it is to look at images of that same area again, but this time not finding dreamy green fields, not finding gentle waterways, not finding children laughing gaily in schoolyards, but a sea of water and people desperately trying to stay afloat. I cannot even imagine what will happen once the water level recedes exposing the land that it submerged. More troubles are to come with insect infestations, sanitary problems, and people trying to rebuild their ravaged lives. As young people living in a wealthy and powerful society, how shall we respond to the suffering people of our homeland?