VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has many people who are not different from Nick Vujicic, but Vietnam cannot turn them into mirrors or seeds with wide spreading influence like Nick.

VND31.7 bil. for Nick Vujicic visit

The four days in Vietnam of Nick Vujicic, an Australian man born with no arms and legs created an "acute" craze to the media and especially to the youth. Nick was considered like a star, an idol, an icon of iron wills, extraordinary courage and desire to live and to dedicate by Vietnamese young people.

What Nick did in Vietnam in four days was fully covered by the local media and social networking sites, creating “tsunami" with pervasive influence on Vietnamese, especially the youth, which has never happened to any event in Vietnam.

What happened when Vietnam also has the people who are similar as Nick? Whether Nick - with the "mental boost," with what he did - has struck a chord of Vietnamese youth?

Or Vietnamese youth lack of "pushes," so the presence of Nick was the final straw, which warns of severe shortage in many aspects of the youth?

Not only Nick was welcomed by the Vietnam youth with enthusiasm, excitement and desire, as a symbol of "life." Before that, foreign singers and actors were also received with enthusiasm and passion, even excessive madness, despite all the obstacles in the weather, time, language, etc.

Please do not be quick to criticize Vietnamese young people.

The reality of society today, is what have the adults been doing for the young? What makes them to become disoriented, lose faith, do not completely know the purpose of life, the ideal for life; because they have no spiritual fulcrum.

How can young people have faith when the things that the adults do go against the good theory? In the narrow the scope - the family, many parents are not being a mirror for their children. Many crime tragedies caused to young people come from the family, when the family is not a cozy nest.

In the broader scope – the society, big corruption scandals, justice not being enforced, deception becoming normal… all of those things have shaken, cooled off the belief in young people. Without unsteady spiritual fulcrum, where they will cling to withstand the pitfalls -- the labyrinth of crime?

Because of that lack, the desire for a spiritual fulcrum, desire for a true value, the value of life has become such a demand, of course, like water or air to breathe.

Understandably, the characters who are seen as idols, stars, the symbol of man's desire to live, to attainment, have become a breath of fresh air, inspiration, motivate, and a "mental boost" for the young from afar.

It is not true that Vietnamese youth lack orientation, purposes, and ideal for life. These theories are all in the ... principles and purposes of the Vietnam Youth Union, the Communist Youth League, not to mention to ethical rules in schools...

But why are these things only "water off a duck’s back" and they make no significant influence on the youth?

Many of the youth movements are all organized in formalism. In addition to shaken spiritual fulcrum, whether the theories and the way to gather the young in Vietnam have long been obsolete and inappropriate?

Is the imposition of young people in the "dogma" from the wartime, or impose the thinking, way of life of the previous generation on young people no longer effective?

Contemporary life has made many valuable lives, the information is no longer a narrow range, and the vision is also expanded multidimensional, multifaceted.

Young people now understand their "rights" so they want to participate in making decisions about themselves and they do not want to "follow" any theory, if it is not the laws.

Should the dogmatic theories need to change to suit the needs of young people to urge them to voluntarily share their self-awareness and empathy, on the integration and development of the nation?

Strategy for Vietnam youth

Many seminars have been held to analyze the youth’s idolization of foreign entertainers in order to find out what young people need, want, hope and dream about.

Also, in many seminars on social issues, experts showed headaches with the phenomenon of increasing youth crime or young people’s favor of the "virtual" life.

But what Vietnam's youth need, want, how about their spiritual anchor, their faith in the contemporary social turmoil, their future... are still a big question that has not been answered.

Nick Vujicic, the 8X generation Australian, who was born with no arms and legs but has done many extraordinary things that normal people cannot do has sowed the "seeds of the soul," creating a "mental boost" with strong pervasion as "tsunami" among Vietnam's youth.

Not only Nick, but many other characters in the entertainment world, economists, Nobel Prize winners who came to Vietnam, all created the "waves" sweeping the Vietnamese youth.

Do these characters bring to Vietnamese young people the value of life that they cannot find? Do these characters "heat" up and give the Vietnamese young people a spiritual fulcrum, to know how to dream, to have passion, to strive for a goal, great aspirations, the desire to contribute to humanity?   

Probably not, because what they brought to Vietnam is not new, not different, and not mysterious. It is very normal, but it's close; it's not theory but the fact that is proven by the "living" characters themselves.

One more point -- they were well received and very pervasive because they were "backed" by their nation in general, and their media in particular.

In Vietnam, when Nick came, many people wondered that if Vietnam does not lack people like Nick, why they are not praised like Nick? Yes, Vietnam has many cases which are similar as Nick, but what does Vietnam do to turn them into a mirror, a powerful seed with wide spreading influence like Nick?

This question is posed to all the youth-related policy makers, the educators, the psychologists, the sociologies of Vietnam, even the media.

And above all, it is the interest of the state leaders on the youth.

Minh Chau