[Music]
I would like to ask you guys to close
your eyes for a little bit and keep them
closed for me please now what do you see
darkness emptiness nothing well please
open your eyes again and let me tell you
about my experience seeing what could be
considered absolute darkness because as
a matter of fact human eyelids can never
pluck light completely so what you just
saw even if you try to close your eyes
real tight it’s not absolute darkness
and my experience with absolute darkness
happen at this beautiful place some of
you could probably recognize this place
as it is taken at a famous part in a
famous world heritage site Son Doong
cave the world’s largest under crowd
Kingdom and I’m sure if you look it up
online
you see many more stunning photos of
many more stunning places in this cave
but none of those was my favorite when I
visited a cave four years ago my
favorite was the place that deep inside
Son Doong so deep that no light could
ever get in and I remember when we got
there dr. Howard Limbert the scientist
at discover sundown asked all of us to
turn off our headlamps and a media
reaction was I felt suffocated I
couldn’t breathe I was I was overwhelmed
with the darkness putting my hands in
front of me I couldn’t see them looking
down to my feet I couldn’t see where I
was standing on and I thought to myself
this is probably what I would feel like
when I died when my soul’s is still
there but my body’s gone and it was my
most unforgettable moment because it
helped me to realize that human beings
are just so insignificant compared to
nature that we like to think to
ourselves oh we are so mighty we conquer
nature reality is nature’s darkness can
swallow us any second in human beings
has become so vulnerable my second most
unforgettable
came the very next day when dr. Howard
Limbert call me out to talk why the
entire expedition team was taking a
break after a long day tracking with
teary eyes he told me that he regretted
discovering sundown Cernan was fine in
its own but now that it’s open to public
people want to exploit it for money and
as much as he lied to keep the place
safe by only bringing in the most
respectful people trekking in small
group and cut it at a few hundreds a
year there’s another construction
conglomerate that was trying to build a
cable car which can a premium a thousand
people per hour going from a few
hundreds a year to a thousand an hour
that would kill sundown
and even though Limbaugh was the
scientist that discovered this place as
a foreigner he kept on emphasizing with
me that sustainable changes must come
from within which means in order to
influence Vietnamese government’s
decision it must take Vietnamese people
being the only Vietnamese in the
exhibition team that day I felt
extremely guilty sitting in front of a
crying man was who was about the same
age with my dad I felt extremely guilty
and that sense of guilt was what
motivated me and my teammates to start
safe soon though that was in the year of
2014 and we faced lots of difficulty
with a core team members of less than 10
members we paid everything from our own
savings yet we faced suspicion from
naysayers who questioned us where does
your funding come from who was behind
you we were even labeled conservatives
entire development or even reactionary
no none of those allegations were true
all we were advocating for was one
sustainable development and to
transparency and I’m gonna get to tear
shortly but now on one sustainable
development what does that term even
mean in a context of Vietnam a country
that is so obsessed with economic growth
know the idea of a cable-car to an
natural sight is not too unusual errata
would but what said Vietnam apart was
the lack of public voices in the
planning and constructing of these
projects a 2015 report by packed an
international environmental organization
pointed to a raft of loopholes in the
law of environmental assessment of
Vietnam it says that there is no
requirement for open public involvement
and agencies that supposed to represent
the communities usually do not reflect
their opinions and concerns accurately
now that is on the side of the
government but what about the people
what said and us more was when we face
supporters who agree with our cause but
refused to take actions they asked
what’s the point what’s the point of
starting a campaign of circulating a
petition of collecting signatures of
raising awareness among the people why
at the end of the day the decision comes
from the government what that lie of
thought said and us because it did not
just give up on sundown it give up on
their right to participate in the
decision-making process of anything
relating to the national asset in other
words it give up on the fate of their
own country but that same lie of thought
was what keep on going because we have
to make sure that sundown is going to be
successful then it can serve as a
precedent as a case study for other
cities and let environmental campaigns
and the most effective way for so long
to be served is that people like all of
us need to boycott any environmentally
damaging projects to this place the
cable car at the end of the day is a
for-profit project and if investors
cannot see its profitability they were
not invest but where there’s profit come
from our own pockets ladies and gentle
so our primary approach for the past
four years was trying to make
information regarding the cave as
available to public as possible for
example the virtual reality the
exhibition that we have in a friend was
one of those
initiatives now some people expressed a
concern they were saying that well the
virtual reality would draw more
attention to this place and make people
want to go visit it more fitting into
the whole mass tourism dilemma we
believed in the opposite we believe that
if people are informed they can make the
best decisions for themselves and
therefore we try to make informations
transparent
that’s why Alberto reality does not just
contain the beauty of sundown but also
as scientific values and why they need
to be preserved that is also why I said
that the ultimate goal of serfs unknown
is not just about saving a case even
though it’s the world’s largest case but
it’s also about advocating for
transparency before sundown there were
other environmental campaigns that were
pushing for transparency for example in
2010 the protests against both set
factories and in the highland region of
Vietnam in an interview miss 20 came a
59 year old local residents at that fish
died plans died some days the sky is
covered in a thick layer of white dust
as sad as it sounds the campaign
couldn’t reach the masses because at
that time there was no social media in
Vietnam and therefore it did not succeed
but after service unknown there was
another prominent environmental campaign
and things started to change it was the
trees movement in 2015 in which Hanoi we
ins started to protest against the plan
of the city to remove six thousand and
seven hundred trees on the streets of
Hanoi these two pictures showed the
difference between a street before and
after trees were cut initiated and run
by multiple stakeholders this campaign
managed to free on the street thousands
of people they pray to the trees that
were cut they chained themselves to the
ones that were left and after weeks they
managed to bring the Cedars chairman to
have an O
when dialogue and their overall review
on the upland tree planning of the city
this meeting involves multiple
departments scientists and community
residents and it ended up in the
cancellation of the 6700 tree removal
now one year after that another
environmental campaign that received
widespread public outcry was the 2016
marine life disaster the worst water
pollution crisis in the modern history
of Vietnam thousands of kilometres of
beaches were covered with fish carcasses
and a man cooperage formosa a Taiwanese
steel plant denied responsibility for
months more frustratingly the government
of Vietnam refused to take further
action to investigate for more Cyril
East any information to the public this
led to a series of demonstration
throughout a country every Sunday but
this time the authority took a much
stronger stand by the second weekend’s
men streets were covered with buses
peaceful protesters were thrown onto
these buses taken to police station and
interrogated overnight even for days
what’s heart-wrenching about this is
that those exact buses were the ones
that usually carries students from the
city center to the University Village
the ones that usually bring young
scholars to knowledge to intellectual
curiosity to critical thinking and now
the one that bringing them to jail still
the protest went on for weeks and
finally Formosa was pressed charged with
a penalty of 500 million u.s. dollars
now even though it is still unclear
until today whether that money gets to
the hand of the fishermen communities
the one that got affected the most by
this disaster this can still be
considered a huge achievement for the
people of Vietnam now as you can see
in a country where the government
becoming more increasingly wary of
public sentiment online there are also
more and more successful environmental
campaigns that are led by citizens this
is the best proof that the fate of your
country is indeed in your hands but in
order for it to be in your hand the
first step that you need to take is to
open your eyes when TEDx organizer
invited me to the stage it asked me to
conclude my talk with a call to action
what all of them asking you today is to
be engage simple as that
I’m not asking you to become activists
I’m not asking you to flood the street
with protesting sighs I’m not asking you
to change yourself to trees or use your
bodies to shield caves no all I’m asking
you is to go out there tune in sick
information be engaged did you know that
Vietnam finally enact its law on access
information so starting in this July you
as Vietnamese citizen and finally
legalize the sick information in your
own country now it doesn’t have to be
about you know big issues anything like
that it can start from things really
small for example if you know that
Vietnam is one of the top five ocean
polluters with none biodegradable trash
you probably will start saying no to
straws to plastic bags so styrofoam
boxes if you know that Vietnam is one of
the top two consumers of wildlife
products you probably will start telling
your parents that well rhino horns and
elephant tusks cannot cure disease
magically but instead they cost lives
any more lives and human lives if you
know that lengua is one of the most
threatened primates species and then
there are only a few of them left only
in Vietnam you will probably start
boycotting any mass tourism projects
that invade the natural habitats in
Sanja and cut birth my friends remember
the exercise I asked you to do that
first cover your eyes
when I was trapped in darkness I felt
like I was dead and it’s not that much
different from living in ignorance
living then is not much different from
dying
some people may try to keep you in the
dark because it is easier to control the
flights than the open eyes but I would
put that responsibility on you go out
tune in sick information and when
information not available demand
transparency because remember guys we
are only intellectually applied when you
choose to close our own eyes thank you
[Applause] [Music]
I would like to ask you guys to close
your eyes for a little bit and keep them
closed for me please now what do you see
darkness emptiness nothing well please
open your eyes again and let me tell you
about my experience seeing what could be
considered absolute darkness because as
a matter of fact human eyelids can never
pluck light completely so what you just
saw even if you try to close your eyes
real tight it’s not absolute darkness
and my experience with absolute darkness
happen at this beautiful place some of
you could probably recognize this place
as it is taken at a famous part in a
famous world heritage site Son Doong
cave the world’s largest under crowd
Kingdom and I’m sure if you look it up
online
you see many more stunning photos of
many more stunning places in this cave
but none of those was my favorite when I
visited a cave four years ago my
favorite was the place that deep inside
Son Doong so deep that no light could
ever get in and I remember when we got
there dr. Howard Limbert the scientist
at discover sundown asked all of us to
turn off our headlamps and a media
reaction was I felt suffocated I
couldn’t breathe I was I was overwhelmed
with the darkness putting my hands in
front of me I couldn’t see them looking
down to my feet I couldn’t see where I
was standing on and I thought to myself
this is probably what I would feel like
when I died when my soul’s is still
there but my body’s gone and it was my
most unforgettable moment because it
helped me to realize that human beings
are just so insignificant compared to
nature that we like to think to
ourselves oh we are so mighty we conquer
nature reality is nature’s darkness can
swallow us any second in human beings
has become so vulnerable my second most
unforgettable
came the very next day when dr. Howard
Limbert call me out to talk why the
entire expedition team was taking a
break after a long day tracking with
teary eyes he told me that he regretted
discovering sundown Cernan was fine in
its own but now that it’s open to public
people want to exploit it for money and
as much as he lied to keep the place
safe by only bringing in the most
respectful people trekking in small
group and cut it at a few hundreds a
year there’s another construction
conglomerate that was trying to build a
cable car which can a premium a thousand
people per hour going from a few
hundreds a year to a thousand an hour
that would kill sundown
and even though Limbaugh was the
scientist that discovered this place as
a foreigner he kept on emphasizing with
me that sustainable changes must come
from within which means in order to
influence Vietnamese government’s
decision it must take Vietnamese people
being the only Vietnamese in the
exhibition team that day I felt
extremely guilty sitting in front of a
crying man was who was about the same
age with my dad I felt extremely guilty
and that sense of guilt was what
motivated me and my teammates to start
safe soon though that was in the year of
2014 and we faced lots of difficulty
with a core team members of less than 10
members we paid everything from our own
savings yet we faced suspicion from
naysayers who questioned us where does
your funding come from who was behind
you we were even labeled conservatives
entire development or even reactionary
no none of those allegations were true
all we were advocating for was one
sustainable development and to
transparency and I’m gonna get to tear
shortly but now on one sustainable
development what does that term even
mean in a context of Vietnam a country
that is so obsessed with economic growth
know the idea of a cable-car to an
natural sight is not too unusual errata
would but what said Vietnam apart was
the lack of public voices in the
planning and constructing of these
projects a 2015 report by packed an
international environmental organization
pointed to a raft of loopholes in the
law of environmental assessment of
Vietnam it says that there is no
requirement for open public involvement
and agencies that supposed to represent
the communities usually do not reflect
their opinions and concerns accurately
now that is on the side of the
government but what about the people
what said and us more was when we face
supporters who agree with our cause but
refused to take actions they asked
what’s the point what’s the point of
starting a campaign of circulating a
petition of collecting signatures of
raising awareness among the people why
at the end of the day the decision comes
from the government what that lie of
thought said and us because it did not
just give up on sundown it give up on
their right to participate in the
decision-making process of anything
relating to the national asset in other
words it give up on the fate of their
own country but that same lie of thought
was what keep on going because we have
to make sure that sundown is going to be
successful then it can serve as a
precedent as a case study for other
cities and let environmental campaigns
and the most effective way for so long
to be served is that people like all of
us need to boycott any environmentally
damaging projects to this place the
cable car at the end of the day is a
for-profit project and if investors
cannot see its profitability they were
not invest but where there’s profit come
from our own pockets ladies and gentle
so our primary approach for the past
four years was trying to make
information regarding the cave as
available to public as possible for
example the virtual reality the
exhibition that we have in a friend was
one of those
initiatives now some people expressed a
concern they were saying that well the
virtual reality would draw more
attention to this place and make people
want to go visit it more fitting into
the whole mass tourism dilemma we
believed in the opposite we believe that
if people are informed they can make the
best decisions for themselves and
therefore we try to make informations
transparent
that’s why Alberto reality does not just
contain the beauty of sundown but also
as scientific values and why they need
to be preserved that is also why I said
that the ultimate goal of serfs unknown
is not just about saving a case even
though it’s the world’s largest case but
it’s also about advocating for
transparency before sundown there were
other environmental campaigns that were
pushing for transparency for example in
2010 the protests against both set
factories and in the highland region of
Vietnam in an interview miss 20 came a
59 year old local residents at that fish
died plans died some days the sky is
covered in a thick layer of white dust
as sad as it sounds the campaign
couldn’t reach the masses because at
that time there was no social media in
Vietnam and therefore it did not succeed
but after service unknown there was
another prominent environmental campaign
and things started to change it was the
trees movement in 2015 in which Hanoi we
ins started to protest against the plan
of the city to remove six thousand and
seven hundred trees on the streets of
Hanoi these two pictures showed the
difference between a street before and
after trees were cut initiated and run
by multiple stakeholders this campaign
managed to free on the street thousands
of people they pray to the trees that
were cut they chained themselves to the
ones that were left and after weeks they
managed to bring the Cedars chairman to
have an O
when dialogue and their overall review
on the upland tree planning of the city
this meeting involves multiple
departments scientists and community
residents and it ended up in the
cancellation of the 6700 tree removal
now one year after that another
environmental campaign that received
widespread public outcry was the 2016
marine life disaster the worst water
pollution crisis in the modern history
of Vietnam thousands of kilometres of
beaches were covered with fish carcasses
and a man cooperage formosa a Taiwanese
steel plant denied responsibility for
months more frustratingly the government
of Vietnam refused to take further
action to investigate for more Cyril
East any information to the public this
led to a series of demonstration
throughout a country every Sunday but
this time the authority took a much
stronger stand by the second weekend’s
men streets were covered with buses
peaceful protesters were thrown onto
these buses taken to police station and
interrogated overnight even for days
what’s heart-wrenching about this is
that those exact buses were the ones
that usually carries students from the
city center to the University Village
the ones that usually bring young
scholars to knowledge to intellectual
curiosity to critical thinking and now
the one that bringing them to jail still
the protest went on for weeks and
finally Formosa was pressed charged with
a penalty of 500 million u.s. dollars
now even though it is still unclear
until today whether that money gets to
the hand of the fishermen communities
the one that got affected the most by
this disaster this can still be
considered a huge achievement for the
people of Vietnam now as you can see
in a country where the government
becoming more increasingly wary of
public sentiment online there are also
more and more successful environmental
campaigns that are led by citizens this
is the best proof that the fate of your
country is indeed in your hands but in
order for it to be in your hand the
first step that you need to take is to
open your eyes when TEDx organizer
invited me to the stage it asked me to
conclude my talk with a call to action
what all of them asking you today is to
be engage simple as that
I’m not asking you to become activists
I’m not asking you to flood the street
with protesting sighs I’m not asking you
to change yourself to trees or use your
bodies to shield caves no all I’m asking
you is to go out there tune in sick
information be engaged did you know that
Vietnam finally enact its law on access
information so starting in this July you
as Vietnamese citizen and finally
legalize the sick information in your
own country now it doesn’t have to be
about you know big issues anything like
that it can start from things really
small for example if you know that
Vietnam is one of the top five ocean
polluters with none biodegradable trash
you probably will start saying no to
straws to plastic bags so styrofoam
boxes if you know that Vietnam is one of
the top two consumers of wildlife
products you probably will start telling
your parents that well rhino horns and
elephant tusks cannot cure disease
magically but instead they cost lives
any more lives and human lives if you
know that lengua is one of the most
threatened primates species and then
there are only a few of them left only
in Vietnam you will probably start
boycotting any mass tourism projects
that invade the natural habitats in
Sanja and cut birth my friends remember
the exercise I asked you to do that
first cover your eyes
when I was trapped in darkness I felt
like I was dead and it’s not that much
different from living in ignorance
living then is not much different from
dying
some people may try to keep you in the
dark because it is easier to control the
flights than the open eyes but I would
put that responsibility on you go out
tune in sick information and when
information not available demand
transparency because remember guys we
are only intellectually applied when you
choose to close our own eyes thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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