Picture Preview

To give you a little preview of my future safari blogs (written in my head but not on paper/internet), here's a picture of a lion cub that I took. How cute is this little guy?!

Letters From Management

For the last two weeks, we've been staying at the Hotel Apollo in Ramsburg. Ramsburg isn't exactly the ideal location to stay in Johannesburg but it's done the job. We were originally supposed to stay at another hotel but at the last minute were changed to this one. Apparently the other hotel didn't actually exist. Ole Ole told us that they booked the other hotel four years ago; the hotel then was an office building and supposed to be converted into a new hotel for the World Cup. For whatever reasons the hotel was never finished and hence we ended up in the outskirts of Jo'Burg.

The Hotel Apollo is a nice hotel but seems like it isn't 100% ready for business either. For example, my bathroom is missing a toilet paper ring. Another person's room was missing outlets. Also, all of our sheets and pillow cases seem to be right out of the packaging; they smell and feel like they've never been washed. The staff was also putting more furniture into the common areas the other day and even yesterday they were painting the staircase.

The other indication that this hotel hasn't been up and running for a long time is the unintentionally comedic letters the hotel keeps putting under our doors. Here's the first letter we received, the day after checking in, which lambastes all the hotel guests for apparently eating in the rooms:



The irony of this letter is:
a) Um, don't people always eat food in their rooms? Has this hotel never heard of room service?
b) Upon check-in, the hotel had a welcoming spread of cookies, jerky and drinks in the lobby. People were taking some food, getting their hotel room keys and going to the room.
c) In the room is a hot water heater and coffee/tea packs.
d) There is also a cabinet in the room which is clearly meant for a mini-fridge. I would bet that the lack of a mini-fridge is only because the hotel isn't 100% finished yet.

The second letter wasn't quite as ridiculous. However, the punctuation is embarrassing (says the guy who constantly has grammar/spelling issues on his blog). On top of that, it's sort of strange for a hotel to tell its guests when they should leave their rooms in order for them to be cleaned.



Anyway, after living in hotels for basically three weeks, I'm ready to return to my own apartment where only Huyen can tell me what to do!

CNN Article: Blogging Behind Vietnam's Bamboo Cyberwall

So you think blogging in Vietnam is easy? Check out this CNN article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/24/vietnam.cyberwall/index.html?hpt=C1&fbid=T1aSBB4JKJj

Here's the article:

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (CNN) -- Helmet under her arm, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quyn arrives after traveling 450 kilometers by motorbike, evading the security police, to tell CNN the story of her imprisonment for blogging in Vietnam.

"The first three days I was scared for myself," she said about her 10 days in prison, during which officers repeatedly asked her about her writing and if she received cash from anti-government groups outside the country.

Vietnamese like Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quyn are embracing the internet in full force. There are 24 million internet users right now, nearly a third of the population. A decade ago there were 200,000. Internet cafes have popped up all over Ho Chi Minh City, and social networking sites are increasing in popularity along with mobile internet use.

"Internet life grows so fast," said a popular blogger, who requested anonymity out of concerns for his safety. "Even I, one of the bloggers, could not imagine how fast this could be.

"And nearly everyone, each Vietnamese, has their own blog."

Like elsewhere, most Vietnamese blogs deal with life, work, humor or technology. But a group of bloggers here also focus on a more dangerous territory in this one-party Communist state: They write about local corruption, land seizures and the increasing influence of China. They complain about the lack of multiparty democracy, too.

In a nutshell, they blog about the sort of issues that can get you into deep trouble in today's Vietnam.

This is something that Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quyn -- who blogs under the Vietnamese pen name Me Nam or Mother Mushroom -- knows well.

Her blog includes writings about her daily life and pictures of her young daughter, but she also expresses her outspoken views against China's intervention in her country, including Beijing's financing of a controversial bauxite mine in the Central Highlands.

Those views led to her arrest and imprisonment for ten days in August, for, she said, "abuse of democratic freedoms and infringing on the national benefit."

When I first got in touch with Nguyen nearly a year later, her phone and movements were still being monitored. E-mail, I had been told, was the best way to get in touch.

"I am willing to tell my story to you," she wrote to me, saying she would travel from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City to meet us.

Twelve hours later, she sent another e-mail. "Can you sure filming is OK and safe for us?" She feared the security police would prevent her from coming, but she would try.

The next day she arrived, and over the next two hours she told her story.

"I did not know what happened. But the fourth and fifth and the sixth day when they asked me the same questions, I was scared for my mom and my daughter and my husband. I didn't want to think about them when I was put in prison, because if I ever think about them I wanted to give everything to come to my family."

As a condition of her release, she agreed to give up blogging, posting a handwritten letter on her site in which she explained that she loved her country, but that the government felt this was the wrong way. After being denied a passport two months later though, she decided to begin again.

"I write another entry on my blog, that I gave up already, but they didn't leave me alone," she said. "I have to take the right to say what I think."

What does she think the government will do if they see her telling her story on CNN?

"I think that they have to think about this," she said. "Because I just tell the truth ... If they arrest me again because I send a message outside to the world, I am not scared. This means that they show to (the) world that we don't have freedom like they say."

When contacted by CNN about its policy on freedom of expression on the internet, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry provided the following written response.

"In Vietnam, freedom of information and freedom of speech are guaranteed and practiced in accordance with the law. Such concern as 'government threatens free expression online and an open internet' is groundless."

Nguyen and I have been keeping in touch by e-mail since her story aired on CNN International television one week ago.

"Thank you so much for the film ...," she wrote me on Saturday. "Thank you for coming to report about our country."

And at the bottom of her automatic signature, the same as on every e-mail I have received from her, it read: "Who will speak if you don't?"

Playoff Beards

(PICTURE: The guys and our facial hair after the USA vs. Algeria game.)

You may have noticed some funky facial hair in my recently posted pictures. For the last three weeks, none of us have shaved (although a couple of the guys did some trimming). We all agreed a few weeks ago to grow out our Group C playoff beards for fun. After the itching started, we decided to axe the beard idea and change it into not-so-stylish playoff mustaches. Here's a closer look at our individual styles:


(PICTURE: Me wanting to be Johnny Depp.)


(PICTURE: Devin with his Harley Davidson handlebar look.)


(PICTURE: Dave's imitation of Bull Hurley from the film classic "Over The Top.")


(PICTURE: I like to call this "The Rat".)

USA vs. Algeria

(PICTURE: Me and Oguchi Onyewu's family at the World Cup in Germany. I also talked with them at this World Cup.)


(PICTURE: Devin and I traded jerseys with two Algerians after the game.)

By now everyone knows that the USA beat Algeria 1-0 on an amazing injury time goal by Landon Donovan. I received about a dozen emails from people (including Masumi in Japan and Kristy in Australia) congratulating the United States on our big win.

I can say that without a doubt, the ending of this game was the best finish to a sporting event I have ever been to (just edging out Donovan McNabb's last second touchdown pass against Virginia Tech at the Carrier Dome). I think I hugged about twenty strangers just because they were wearing USA gear. However, before we scored the winning goal, this could have been one of the most frustrating games I've ever attended. The USA should have put home at least two or three more goals, not including the goal that was mistakenly called back for being offsides. Regardless, all's well that ends well -- the USA won our group, edging out England.

One of the traditions in soccer is that players exchange jerseys after the game. Well, when walking around Pretoria after the game, two Algerians came up to Devin and me and asked to swap jerseys. I've had my "Gooch" jersey for four years but felt no hesitation in exchanging it with the two guys. Now I've got an Algerian jersey to remember our victory forever!

Mexican Americans

Before coming to South Africa, I read a few articles about how Americans bought the most tickets to the World Cup. When I first read this, I assumed I would see American flags and jerseys everywhere I went in South Africa. However, I didn't account for the fact that many Americans weren't coming solely to root for America. Based on nothing but my own observations, I would say that 50% of the Americans who came to the World Cup are rooting for other countries. The most obvious case of this is with Mexican Americans.

There are tons of Mexican Americans here pulling for Mexico. I would say that without a doubt, Mexico has the largest fan base at the tournament. You can't go a block without seeing a Mexican flag, a guy in a wrestler's mask or a sombrero. Our hotel, which is filled with people who bought their tickets from an American travel agent, is packed with Mexican Americans. I've met Mexican Americans ranging from places from Los Angeles to Jackson, Mississippi.

I don't want this blog to sound like the Mexican Americans are being unpatriotic because they're not. Every single Mexican American I've met is also rooting for America to win. Besides the Mexican Americans, I've met Americans rooting for Italy, Argentina and even...Algeria (the team America is playing in our third and final game...which will have already been played by the time this is posted)!

Congratulations to Benjamin August and his Asian Wife!

What's with Benjamin Augusts falling in love with Asian women? Three people sent me this link this week to the New York Times Weddings/Celebrations page:

Penelope Tang, Benjamin August

Published: June 17, 2010

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Penelope Tang, the daughter of Patricia P. Tang and Henry Tang of New York, was married Saturday evening to Benjamin Meyer August, a son of Barbara L. August and William August of Cambridge, Mass. Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit officiated in Sutton Square Park in Manhattan.

The bride and bridegroom, both 28, met at Princeton, from which they both graduated.

Mrs. August is a senior designer in the interior design department of Selldorf Architects in New York. Her father retired as a partner in the New York office of the Houston law firm Baker Botts, and now works in private practice. Her mother is an art dealer for E. V. Thaw & Company in New York and a trustee of the China Institute, also in New York. The bride’s parents are also on the board of the American Friends of the Shanghai Museum.

Mr. August is a bond trader at Susquehanna International Group, an institutional sales, research and brokerage firm; he works in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. Until 2009, the bridegroom’s mother was the director of the Kids of All Learning Abilities Program at the ARC of Greater Boston, a nonprofit organization serving people with disabilities. His father is a partner in the Boston law firm Epstein & August.

Last Sunday, Mr. August had to have an emergency appendectomy. The bride reports he has rallied, noting in an e-mail message: “He is on his feet and in marriageable condition.”