Word: western
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Long Fingernail. Who are the intellectuals? The Western image of the intellectual as a man primarily concerned with the quest for knowledge is almost irrelevant. Some Vietnamese regard anyone who does not work with his hands as an intellectual. Thus clerks and even taxi drivers affect the long fingernail on the little finger, mandarin-style...
...Attentistes. With the aid of the latter, the French took over Viet Nam's educational system, producing a new elite that was profoundly influenced by French culture. Until the early '60s, when the Americans moved in, French was the only Western language spoken in Viet Nam. Egotism and arrogance came to be associated with absorption in "la culture française"; not a few in the intelligentsia were far more concerned with the study of Voltaire and Montesquieu than with the realities in their country. What is more, this elitism has produced a view of the world that...
Despite such Western overlays, the influence of Buddhism on the intellectuals remains strong. It holds that temporal life is only an "ocean of sorrows" and that the intellectual should avoid involvement in it. As a result, attentisme (waiting) is a popular posture. It is a detached resignation at least partly rooted in the belief that the nation's destiny is controlled by outside forces-the French after World War II, the Americans and the North Vietnamese in the present conflict-and that the individual is powerless to bring about change. It also reflects despair over the lack of alternatives...
Chicago's Ravinia Park music festival looked like an Eastern bazaar. Strewn around the stage one evening last week were 47 pieces of Western and Ori ental hardware: four full-grown timpani, four little timpani, three barrel drums, nine objects that resembled brass flower pots (they were Buddhist prayer bells), an array of bamboo, glass and wooden utensils, and lots and lots of gongs...
Since then, Nzeru-the word means "wisdom" in the Chichewa language-has produced 35,000 radios of Kroeker's design, and employment has grown to more than 50. In 1968, the company earned about $60,000 on sales of $210,000-a modest sum by Western standards but a considerable feat for an African enterprise. Nzeru has just introduced a portable model that, together with a new radio-phonograph, promises to increase sales...