Friday, June 09, 2006

(hanoi) if only, when people say iraq is turning into 'another vietnam,' they were talking about this

From the NYT:
Corporate executives who find themselves invited to sing karaoke while on business in Vietnam might want to think twice before declining the offer. The newspaper Tien Phong (Pioneer) reported yesterday that 21 officials of P.V.F.C., the financial arm of the state oil monopoly PetroVietnam, had been ordered to make "self-criticism" reports after they opted not to sing at a contract-signing ceremony near Hanoi on Saturday, Reuters reported. The newspaper said that at least eight department heads were facing suspension. [...]
I have introduced repeated resolutions that Madison Sociology require 'self-criticism' reports of those who do not attend karaoke nights, or, even more appropriately, those who attend but refuse to go onstage even when a particular song is objectively perfect for them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

... the first time as tragedy, the second time with subtitles.

Anonymous said...

My father is one of those men who is usually stern, often intimidating and has his hair cut in such a fashion that it can never be "let down." Back when he worked for an international conglomerate with a lot of military contracts he used to do a lot of business in Asia and on more than one occassion was required to do a round or two of California Dreamin' for the good of international business relations. Now, I've never seen such a display... but the mere thought of it can make me laugh on the worst of days.
Mandatory karyoke rules!
-TOK

jeremy said...

TOK: I would love to see video of your father doing karaoke, whether from his business days or back when he used to kill people for the military.