Some day, while talking to friends over cà phê sữa đá, a teenager in Viet Nam will look at his shiny motorbike helmet and marvel at the thought that there was a time when no one had to wear them. He’d imagine a long bygone era when beautiful long hair would flutter in the wind, and every now and then you’d see a bright crimson streak with bits of that hair and brain and think to yourself: how poetic it is when placed against the dull gray of the pavement.

Today is helmet day. From this day forward all passengers and operators of open-air motor-driven vehicles are required to wear helmets. I may have missed the fall of the berlin wall, and the first (supposedly) democratic elections in Iraq. But I was in Viet Nam on helmet day, 15 December 2007. Let the world know.

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