December 13 Editorial
Thursday, December 13, 2007 12:03 PM PST
Book is landmark work
When you think of today’s Vietnam, what images come to mind? Do you imagine an economy on the rise, or a stagnant country where little happens? Do you see a welcoming people eager to enter the 21st century and maintain relationships with other countries, or a tired old socialist regime possessing little desire to communicate with the rest of the globe? Do you envision a land healing from the scars of war, or a country ripped apart by fighting that is struggling to make it in today’s world?
Quite a few Americans likely see Vietnam as a backward land still torn by brutal conflict. But a Rancho Palos Verdes photographer and Tennessee poet recently came together to shatter many stereotypes about the country that have weighed so heavily on Americans’ psyches since the late 1960s and early 1970s. RPV resident Scott Charles Clarkson, a Torrance attorney and world traveler, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Veita Jo Hampton created the groundbreaking work “Windows to Vietnam — A Journey in Pictures and Verse.”
The Peninsula News congratulates Clarkson and Hampton, as well as those who worked behind the scenes on the book, for opening Americans’ eyes to a country and a people trying to move forward. Books are published all the time, but rarely does one so beautifully portray the character and culture of a place while smashing decades-old preconceived notions.
In only nine days, Clarkson captured more than 1,000 digital images. More than 130 of them appear alongside 30 of Hampton’s poems. “[The people] are looking forward, and that was the most astounding thing of all,” Clarkson told the News last week. “They’re incredibly optimistic.”
While the country remains under a single-party socialist republic, Vietnam has a 98-percent literacy rate, Clarkson discovered. And as the second-largest coffee exporter in the world and a recent entrant into the World Trade Organization, Vietnam is a major player in Asia’s economy. “Since the mid-’80s, the economy has grown by billions of dollars due to exported products such as crude oil, coffee, rice, seafood, textiles and footwear,” Clarkson explains on his Web site at www.windowstovietnam.com. “It is the second-largest growing economy in Asia.”
But beyond numbers, “Windows to Vietnam” has the power to heal old wounds. Fellow RPV resident and Clarkson’s friend Marcia Haber, who organized an event highlighting the book at Peninsula Center Library last Saturday, is optimistic that the work will have a positive impact. “Hopefully, new generations will discover the beauty that Scott and Veita Jo have discovered,” she told the News. “It’s an opportunity for people to heal the past.”
Clarkson has high hopes as well. “The concept of Vietnam has been repressed by Americans,” he said. “This book and my travels to Vietnam have been an effort to get past that screen. This book is one of the first steps to allow Americans to see Vietnam as it is today, as a vibrant country with remarkable people.”
For more information, visit www.windowstovietnam.com. To order the book, visit www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.
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