Choosing a title is often the easiest part of writing a blog, but for this author, it was an almost insurmountable challenge. This difficulty cannot entirely be blamed on a lack of creativity from the author's part. Vietnamese politics is still as polarizing a subject now as it was three decades ago. The middle ground is extremely narrow, and those adventurous enough to traverse this road has a very small margin of errors. As such, most publications, newspapers, websites and people tend to gravitate toward one extreme or another. Their political orientations depend more on geographical location and upbringing and less on educated and well-informed opinions. The author, having been fortunate enough to travel the globe, wants to avoid such pitfalls and strive for neutrality. After cycling through a horde of names, from Fraternite-Liberte-Egalite, to OSS Agent 19*, all of which can cause the blog to be misconstrued as a defense of either extreme, the author decided to borrow the current title from one of his favorite blogs: Observing Japan, written by Tobias Harris. The simple title helps set the tone for the rest of the blog. Each subsequent post will strive to provide the most detailed, responsible and objective view of current events, in order to contribute to political discourse and greater goods of Vietnam and Asia.
* Code-name given by CIA to Ho Chi Minh, who participated in several of its Indochina-based intelligence missions during WW2
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