Warring Frontiers

I watched an interesting documentary on Channel News Asia called Warring Frontiers, which is actually a series, and the episode they showed today was about Vietnam, and how Vietnam's economy is growing 30 years after the end of the war. The rapid pace of development that's taking place is astounding, and what struck me the most is the resolve with which the Vietnamese people had stood up. An interesting fact that they mentioned was that Vietnam was the most bombed country in the history of warfare, with the U.S. dropping 7 million tons of bombs in its 11 year involvement in Vietnam. In comparison only 2 million tons of bombs were dropped in the whole of the 2nd World War! 77 Million litres of Agent Orange was sprayed by the U.S., resulting in horrible birth defects and other illnesses.

But today, all of that seems to be forgiven (but maybe not forgotten) and Vietnam and the U.S. have become close trading partners. The level of development reached in this short period is telling of the resilience of the Vietnamese people and how they overcame the immense adversity that the Vietnam war caused.

I just love documentaries! :P (and I've noticed that Channel News Asia is making better and better documentaries with each passing year!)

anyways, the reason I thought I'd sharing this whole thing is because it gives me hope that maybe someday Sri Lanka would be able to leave all of those bitter memories behind and become a better place to live in... :)