Mr Ky the legal scholar, Saigon

I’m in the habit of wandering into interesting looking buildings anywhere I travel. Sometimes it earns you a stiff rebuke from a security guard. Often it reveals a little gem. And occasionally it means you get to meet someone special like Mr Ky (pictured). On Saturday, I popped into the Hanoi Translation Centre in a handsome 40s or 50s (I guess) Saigon apartment building. And that’s where I met Mr Ky, the boss. It turns out that the Hanoi Translation Centre has no real connection with Hanoi. Mr Ky started the company in the 1990s and hails from Quang Ngai in central Vietnam. He used Hanoi in the name because it lent some distinction to the business that his hometown may not have. Mr Ky's lived in Saigon for more than 50 years and is both a lawyer and scholar. He has that learned, grace that I so often encounter chatting with the elderly in Vietnam. I noted a painting of an esteemed western gent on the wall. To my shame I didn’t recognise who it was. Mr Ky happily advised that it was US founding father, Thomas Jefferson. Mr Ky’s office isn’t the only place in downtown Saigon where American founding fathers are honoured. The exterior of Saigon’s main Post Office, one of the city’s grandest surviving colonial edifices, lists the names of leading western intellectuals, scientists and political thinkers at the top of its columns. Ben Franklin is honourably mentioned on one. Foreigners may find it odd that a nation that suffered so much during the Vietnam War, might be able to fondly remember people like Jefferson and Franklin. But that's Vietnam.  In the photo, Mr Ky holds a copy of the English - Vietnamese legal dictionary he co-authored.