Tears

Photograph by Sebastiao Salgado

Life gives you thousands reasons to cry: you are sad, you feel extremely depressed, you cry tears of joy and and even sometimes you cry for no reasons, etc. Looking at this photograph, you may wonder why they are crying. Are they waiting for something and finally unable to do it? Are they happy because they meet their families after a long time?

I still haven’t figured out the answer. Let me tell you something about the photograph, then you can find out the reason of tears by yourself. This photograph was capture at the International Airport of Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. At the end of 1970s, Orderly Departure Program was established to help Vietnamese people migrate to other countries. It was estimated that there were 547,565 people leaving Vietnam between 1980 and 1994. Most went to the U.S. with up to 392,780 people. As several family left for new countries, these women cried when they said goodbye to their families. Maybe they were tears of anxiety for those going to have a new life with many difficulties waiting. Maybe they were tears of regret because these women were left behind. Maybe they were tears of separation.

When people say about Vietnam, many may think of the Vietnam War and the unstable situations after the war ended. However, Vietnam is changing at breakneck speed. The potential bottled up by the war and the restrictions that followed as the painful process of reunification and reconciliation proceeded, is now being unleashed. The current GDP per capita remains around US$2800, and the unemployment rate, which reached a devastating 25% in 1995, had dropped to 5.75% by 2005. In the aspect of politic, Vietnam is a single party state which is lead by the communist party. Vietnam’s current government structure is actually very similar to a democratic form of government. However, the economy is open to all types of economic factors; therefore, it looks like a market controlled (capitalist) economy. This is the same as China's government and economic control.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York, Aperture. 2000. Print. 73.

-Pamphlet. NP. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York, Aperture. 2000. 427. Print.

"Vietnam today." Let's go. n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2010