^ what a mature reply
)
as a quasi-Vietnamese (i say that, tongue somewhat in cheek because i've spent a large portion of my life overseas, and my command of the language is very weak), i'm not impressed by the conduct of some of my fellow countrymen on this forum, especially those who are long time members and have been fortunate enough to acquire CCs/BBs. maybe they view artisan caps more as products/commodities than anything, and i can't comment on that because there's no objective way to gauge it. i'll try to explain the mindset behind this by illustrating how people perceive video games. when i was way younger, the price of a game CD was around 50 cents, and even that was enough for a very satisfying breakfast. things are now much better than 10-15 years ago, but the country itself is still relatively poor. genuine games are sold at a price similar to western retail prices, and although there are buyers, plenty of people still buy pirated games for $2-$3 or just torrent them (at least torrenting doesn't support the disk sellers). for a generation, this notion of acquiring things we want for a we can afford is so deeply ingrained into our mentality, it's not a simple matter of pointing out 'that's wrong' and expecting change, and i don't see it changing in the foreseeable future, especially when the average annual income is still only something like $2000 (i'm sure those who can afford mechs are much better off, but my point stands)
i didn't touch upon the whole morality debate, but it's fairly evident that Vietnamese possess rather ..sketchy morals, blatant disregard for intellectual properties aside. the country is plagued by so many issues within all classes of society, it's a huge deterrent to me returning here. and this is not some sort of 'i live aboard so i'm better than you' humblebrag, these issues are all visible to anyone who spends more than a day in the country. if you recall, the people behind that infamous 60% aluminum case GB were ..surprise, Vietnamese. reading that thread in its entirety was like seeing two cars run full speed into each other: you know exactly how the crash will occur, but you're still amazed at the magnitude of the explosion. even down to the 'excuse' he used for not replying to a single forum post/PM despite having the balls to log on the site every single day, very Vietnamese-esque. and the comment bahz posted earlier.. just lmao. standard nationalistic behavior
p.s. this isn't a Vietnam-bashing post even if it comes off that way, simply because i'm not a very magniloquent poster. i'm just offering some insight into how Vietnamese view intellectual property, and why it is hard to uproot this wrong mentality
