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Published: June 27th 2007
Yup, last night in Jackson, and I met the King of Vietnam... with Frank Melton, no less. From now on, I'm never going to "Saigon" without my camera.
The evening started off innocently enough when Glen, Bjorn, Luke, Erin, Dakota, Blackness the Elder, and I attempted to dine at the new Thai House location (cleanliness increased, service decreased). Upon finding out that we wouldn't all be able to sit together, however, we decided to follow Bjorn's tip and head to Saigon, a Vietnamese restaurant on Lakeland. I crossed traffic and made it to the parking lot like a pro, despite Luke's babyish cries about our impending death in a fiery car crash, and then the fun really began.
Coming around the back of the restaurant we noticed that there were a couple of police cars and a big police bus. Our immediate thought was that some local jail decided to take a field trip, but that notion was quickly corrected when we noticed none other than the illustrious Frank Melton himself standing outside telling some aide to "Come to the Vietnamese place!" over the phone. Slightly confused but spurred on by hunger, we passed him and went in to find almost every table in the place taken by Frank's entourage of suited men and women, including a handful of serious-looking guys with pistols. Fortunately, the waiter found us a spot in a back corner where we kept to ourselves and ordered quietly (don't even consider the spring rolls, you want the egg rolls). Our food arrives without incident, but in the 20 minute interval we really just couldn't come up with any good explanation for all of those people being there. Cue Frank, several taxpayer-funded gifts, and a speech revealing the point of the shindig.
Turns out, a delegation from Vietnam has been in Jackson for the past couple of days meeting with various city officials and observing how things function here. OK, so the head guy was a provincial governor, not a king, but keep that to yourself. The story is a lot better when he is the king, and how many people in Corinth are going to be confident enough in their knowledge of global politics to tell me Vietnam doesn't have a king? Anyway, after he and Frank exchanged speeches through a translator, everybody went back to eating their meals. I decided that one doesn't get the chance to meet the King of Vietnam every day, so I got up and asked the head security guy if I could speak with him.
After deciding not to shoot me, the big security guy walked me over and introduced me to the interpreter, who in turn introduced me to the King (governor). I'm not exactly sure what I asked him once it got translated over to Vietnamese, but what I intended to ask him was something along the lines of, "What advice or caution would you give young Americans about how to cultivate good international relations so that we can handle matters diplomatically instead of resorting to the military might?" His response, through the translator, was mostly generic diplomat-speak about trading and whatnot, but there was one really good line about the "community of village," which I'm pretty sure meant "the global village."
And that's how I met the King of Vietnam.
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haha
i love it. absolutely love it. as i read the title, i wonered if the president and prime minister of vietnam knew that some bloke was over here declaring himself king of their country, but all is clear now. and you're right: "king"does sond much more impressive than "provential governor." i can see the headlines already. "VIETNAM MODELS NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AFTER JACKSON, MS MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. CHAOS ENSUES. REPORTS OF KING KICKING DOWN DOORS..." -pjh