Compassion in Vietnam

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

We define ourselves by our own response to human need. We become engaged through the perception of our own obligation and opportunity.

War didn’t call me into Vietnam . . . but human need did! My first trip into Saigon was in early 1996. As a result of that trip I was introduced to a precious lady named Binh Rybacki. Binh was a native of Vietnam and was one of the last to be plucked off the roof of the American Embassy by helicopter in Saigon as the Americans were in hot retreat from the city in 1975. She and her family had tied their wrists together so that none could be left behind.

Binh’s father was a professor at the prestigious University of Saigon and the family was well off financially. Binh was a student. Vietnam was just coming out of one war and was presently engaged in a vicious civil war with the Communists from the North. One day the students found a large notice posted on the bulletin board. It stated that all the students of the English Department would be killed very soon. They all laughed at the incredulous impossibility. But the officials of the school told them that the notice was serious and that they needed to go away to find their own protection. The priest of the school even gave them their last rites just in case he would not be around to do it later. The Communists entered Saigon and began randomly killing the students at the University, as well as thousands in the city. Binh and her friend escaped from an upstairs window and onto a roof and down into a dumpster, thinking that the killing would stop and the Communists would leave. But they didn’t.

Binh’s sister worked for the US Embassy in Saigon, so their whole family was targeted for death by the Communists. As the Embassy loudspeakers played Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” the last helicopter lifted from the Embassy roof and Binh and her family were on that chopper! They were flown to Fort Chafee, Arkansas, and eventually resettled with a host family in Loveland, Colorado. Binh started her career with Hewlett Packard, married her husband, Jack, and together they had three boys. When her mother died in America, Binh felt compelled to return to Vietnam for the first time to find her Mother’s closest friend, a nun, and inform her of the death.

Binh eventually found the friend hiding in the countryside, illegally harboring 27 orphaned children. Binh discovered that the set of circumstances in which you find yourself will determine where you can start, but will not determine where you can go in order to change things. She made a vow to get involved. She told me, “The message was very clear even if the way was not!”

By 1998, the orphanage that started with 27 hidden children grew under the leadership of Binh to four remarkable orphanages with 1600 abandoned kids.. Binh and her husband, Jack, pledged Binh’s entire salary from Hewlett Packard to personally underwrite the orphanage work. With her traveling back and forth from USA to Vietnam, the orphanage project experienced remarkable blessing and grew rapidly.

Project C.U.R.E. was privileged to get involved with Binh’s venture and deliver over $2 million worth of donated medical goods to the Children of Peace organization and surrounding hospitals in Vietnam. The Vietnamese children were “better off,” the Children of Peace organization was “better off,” but, undeniably, Project C.U.R.E. experienced the greatest benefit, from being associated with such a great lady as Binh Rybacki. We became first-hand witnesses of a miracle that took place in the heart and life of a lady who defined her own life by her response to human need. She became engaged through the perception of her own obligation and a ready opportunity.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

Seeking Truth

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Many old, salty sea captains have managed to sail their ships back to the safety of harbor lights with nothing more than a magnetized sewing needle balanced on a cork, floating in a cup of water. That was the only compass they needed to get back to the comforts of home and hearth. And while it is touted that a compass never lies, yet, it can deceive you. The direction of "north" that your compass gives you just might be wrong. Compasses point toward the magnetic north pole, located near Ellesmere Island in North Canada. But true north is not there. It is over 70 miles away. Depending on where in the world you are located, the difference between where your compass is pointing and where you are in relation to true north can be considerable.

When I was just a kid, I learned that it was possible to take even the finest compass and make it tell you that north was anywhere you wanted it to be. All you needed was a cheap refrigerator magnet close by and you could perform miracles. No longer would the needle of the compass point to earth's magnetic north, but to wherever the refrigerator magnet was placed in close proximity. Of course, the accuracy and utility of the compass was completely spoiled. No longer would it perform the function for which it was designed. No salty sea captain would set his cup of water, cork, and magnetized sewing needle on top of a refrigerator magnet and expect to sail safely home.

Through the years I have been concerned about how easy it is for folks to employ their handy refrigerator magnet to situations of life and truth. It doesn't take much for someone to slip their refrigerator magnet onto the table and proclaim that "north" is precisely where they say it is. I have become increasingly bothered with the proliferation of "relative truth" and the difficulty of determining "True North." While growing up, I used to wonder why glib politicians were referred to as having magnetic personalities. Today, I think I better understand. With their handy little refrigerator magnet they can change the compass direction of "north" two, three, four times in a day, or even a debate. But, where precisely is True North?

I was traveling in the Bulgarian city of Hoskovo, performing a medical Needs Assessment for Project C.U.R.E. I struck up a conversation with one of the health officials, a former officer of the Soviet Union. We began talking about what it had been like to live in the country prior to the collapse of the Soviet regime. "Everything was relative," he said. "You never knew just what to expect as 'truth.' You could only depend on what you were told at the moment and you were expected to respond accordingly. Everything was relative with no unattached or independent 'absolutes.'" Then he related a story to explain his point."

There was a certain clock shop on the main street of our town. The man who operated the shop had a good reputation in the community. He was conscientious and kind, and knew a lot about clocks. On the back wall of his shop he had on display a large and beautifully hand carved clock with an expensive and precise set of works inside. It was, indeed, a masterpiece and kept very accurate time. The clock man loved the clock and was very proud of it."

My new friend went on to tell me, "Everyday, an important-looking man walked by the clock shop. He would stop momentarily and study the clock on the back wall. He would then pull out his own pocket watch that was attached to his jacket by a handsome chain. He would reset his pocket watch, place it back in his jacket and hurriedly walk away. One day the clock man stepped out of his store and stopped the man as he reset his pocket watch. 'Do you admire the clock on my wall? I see you stop everyday and look at it before you walk on.' 'Yes,' he said, 'I love your clock, and I know that it is very accurate. I have a very important job. I work at the large factory by the river and I am in charge of blowing the whistle precisely at 8 o'clock. I check the time on your clock every day so that I will know exactly when to blow the whistle.' The clock man gasped. His mouth fell open as he stumbled with his words. 'You are the man who blows the whistle each morning? But, I set my clock each day by your whistle!'"

For this coming New Year, I have made for myself a resolution: Don't get caught up in depending upon relative truth, but diligently seek, as if for the finest treasure, Truth that is unattached, loosened from and non-manipulated by the agendas of this world. 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com


photos: istockphoto.com and Jimmy Dozer

How Christmas Affected Cultural Economics

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Radical teachings passed down through the centuries:

We owe a great deal to the intervention of the Christmas story into our economic history. To those of us who were not born as Jews, we were introduced to an entirely different collection of thoughts and traditions. Moreover, the revolutionary teachings of Christ changed moral standards and expectations forever. We were given a nobler concept of what it is to be human and were given insights into our own weaknesses and greedy foibles. Christ shed light on concepts not available from any other source. Those concepts were indispensable for the later experiments with the concepts of a free society.

Christ’s teaching changed the vision of the “good society” proposed by the classical writers of Rome and Greece, and made possible new ideas of culture and economics. Philosophers and writers who adamantly refuse to believe in Christ’s claims to deity or the correctness of the Judeo-Christian position, are none-the-less compelled to admit their indebtedness to the unique teachings of the Christ of the Christmas story. Richard Rorty, whose parents were ardent followers of Trotsky, and he, himself, totally immersed in atheistic Marxist teachings, once wrote that as a progressive philosopher he owed more to Jesus for certain key notions, such as “compassion” and “equality” than to any of the classical writers. In Bertrand Russell’s book, Why I Am Not a Christian, he conceded that although he took Jesus to be no more than a humanistic moral prophet, modern progressivism is indebted to Christ for his ideals.

In Plato’s Republic, citizens were divided in the following way: A few were of gold, a slightly larger body of silver, and the vast majority of lead, (that sounds a lot to me like my frequent flyer program). Those considered in the group of lead all had the souls of slaves and, therefore, were properly enslaved. Only the persons of gold were truly to be treated as individuals of importance and worth. Christ taught that God, who made every single child in his image, gave every child worth and dignity, saying, “what you do to the least of these, my children, you do unto me.” It was revolutionary teaching to identify God with the most humble and the most vulnerable. Christ taught a fundamental equality in the sight of God to all human beings. Whether a person “believes” in Christ or not, it would be intellectual dishonesty to deny that his teachings radically changed concepts regarding culture and economics.

Christ taught that God sees “into” us. God sees us as having equal weight in our “uniqueness,” not because we are the “same,” but because each of us is different. Each is made by God after an original design. This concept of being equal in our uniqueness is quite different from socialist concepts of being equal because of our sameness. Christ’s teaching did not promote a leveling notion. Neither does it require uniformity for equality. On the contrary, it tries to pay heed to and give respect to the unique image of God in each person. God did not make us equal in talent, ability, vocation, bank accounts or position. He did not take away what is unique and submerge it into uniformity, as we have seen promoted in so many economic and political cultures where, traditionally, the impulse has been to pull people down and place them all on the same level, regulated by the state.

Another revolutionary teaching that resulted from the Christmas story in Bethlehem was Christ’s teaching on compassion. Historically, most teachings regarding compassion are limited to one’s own family, nation, culture or kin. Christ’s teaching nurtured and encouraged the impulse to reach out, especially to the most vulnerable, and to the poor, the hungry, the wretched, those in prison, the helpless, hopeless, and the sick. His teachings instruct us to even love our enemies and see and respect the dignity even of those who in the eyes of the world have lost their dignity.

The radical expectation of those teachings pushes to include the concept of universal compassion!

Those are a few of many teachings introduced into our cultures and economic systems because of the Christmas story. We have not only an economic venue as a setting for the Christmas story, but, also, the phenomenon of the Christmas story affecting even present day cultural economics.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com


photos: The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch and Jimmy Dozer