The Change

Sunday's Vietnam News headline boasts that "Ho Chi Minh City has ambitious plans to become a major Asian economic centre, with a projected population of 30 million by 2050." The city is laboring under the weight of its current 8 million inhabitants. Can it find a way to manage the exponential kind of growth the paper projects?

The city's existing infrastructure can't deal with its present demands. The streets are groaning under the pressure of 4 million motorbikes and the growing number of automobiles. Twenty years ago these streets were full of bicycles and cyclos. Twenty years from now there will be fewer motorbikes and more cars. How will the city accommodate the change? Somehow the authorities will have to figure it out because they're coming. Get ready. China is the paradigm for dealing with this kind of change. Seattle's boots will be in the sucking mud 40 years from now and they will still be debating freeways vs. tunnels long after the people have arrived. A centrally controlled economy "can" be much more efficient. It might be riddled with corruption but if the decision is made to build something, it will get done.

Vietnam, as I have said repeatedly, is an amazing place. It's messy, orderly, dirty, clean, primitive, sophisticated, fast, slow, energetic, and lazy. It's a complete paradox. Every week we walk or drive past a building that has been gutted or razed and will soon be full of new shops. Every week a construction fence comes down to reveal a new office tower with Armani and Versace filling the retail space. Next door the people are squatting on small stools, eating pho and washing their dishes in a bucket on the sidewalk. It's all about contrasts.

The photo above is of the building that dominates the Saigon skyline these days. It's the Bitexco Tower, a 68 story office building under construction and scheduled to open in October. The story behind it is pure modern Vietnam. The owner is one of the richest men in the country, but he grew up in a very poor province in the north. He's made a fortune since the country became a free market economy. This building is not a shrewd business venture. It's all about pride - personal and national. The 68 stories will be almost twice the height of the next tallest building in Saigon. And, its shape is inspired by a lotus flower. The foundation is oval in shape, so there isn't a straight line or a right angle in the entire building. The exterior is all glass and every custom cut piece of it is different in size and curvature, because it expands in volume from the base to the 48th floor and then contracts for the next 20 to give it the lotus shape. Did I mention the heli-pad on the 50th floor, probably not because there are no private helicopters allowed in Vietnam.

Mr Hoi, the owner, doesn't care about cost, efficiency, "green" construction, or anything but building the dominant, signature, skyscraper landmark in Ho Chi Minh City. This building is every architect's dream - where the owner says you know my vision, now go create it. Whatever it costs is fine with me.

This is modern Vietnam.

If It's Tuesday This Must Be Can Tho

11 days on the road in Vietnam - From Saigon to Danang to Hanoi to Can Tho and back to Saigon. Four different places, four different climates, four different cuisines, four different architectures.

Danang is always a nice change from the madness of Saigon's noise and dirt and swarming motorbikes. It has wide streets, reasonable traffic, soft warm breezes off the South China Sea, earthy food I can't begin to describe, and a mish-mash of architectural styles from Five-Star resorts, to galvanized tin lean-to's. China Beach is becoming the Vietnamese Riviera as a dozen new mega-resorts open or get set to open in the next couple of years. But Danang, Vietnam's third largest city, is still wrapped in a pretty plain wrapper. It's all about business and education - pretty no-nonsense.

After a week in Danang, I flew to Hanoi which seems to me like several cities in one. I like the old part around Hoan Kiem Lake with its small pagoda where legend has it that Le Loi received the magical sword, from a golden turtle, that enabled him to defeat the Chinese and liberate Vietnam in the 15th century. I like the streets near Hoan Kiem that specialize in particular goods - Silk Street, Shoe Street, Handbag Street, Crafts Street, etc. But the weather in Hanoi is confused. It can be cool and humid at the same time, making you feel like you're living under water. You don't feel warm but your clothes are damp and clinging. The good news is you can get almost any cuisine you want to eat almost anytime. It may not be as international feeling as Saigon, but there are many more non-Asian faces on the street. The Hanoians think of themselves as the only true Vietnamese and they are very critical of other regions, dialects, climates, and cuisines. I don't see it, but I'm not Vietnamese.

On day ten, I flew from Hanoi to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta and I felt as if I'd been let out of my cage. Can Tho is tropical - coconut palms, banana trees, wild orchids. It's hot, but it's summer hot like the beach, and there's water everywhere. Can Tho is a modern city, but the surrounding area is rural, delta country with boats for transportation, and huts built out over the Mekong canals and tributaries. I can't imagine how you navigate those canals, rivers, and backwaters. It's a maze, but the people there are as warm and welcoming as the weather, and I was invited with a group to lunch after a ground-breaking ceremony at a school we are renovating. There were about 25 of us at a long table under a thatched room. I have no idea what I was eating, but most of it was tasty. The principal of the school was determined to fatten me up, so she kept putting mystery things in my rice bowl and the head of the People's Committee kept filling my beer mug and toasting. It's tough to say no to the People's Committee in Vietnam, but just when you think this thing will go on forever everyone gets up and walks away. I didn't see any signals, but it ended suddenly. Then it was a six hour drive back to Saigon, a shower, and beddy-bye. I was really glad to get home.

The News Feed

For the last 40 years I have regarded The International Herald Tribune (IHT)as my paper of choice when traveling. If I could get a hard copy at home in the States I wouldn't hesitate to subscribe. In 16-18 pages they pack in serious international news, arts, sports, and opinion. The paper has an interesting history but now it is a joint enterprise of the New York Times and the Washington Post, which probably doesn't endear it to the American right wing although I see people of every stripe reading it in cafe's around the world. It's really the only game in town.

Here, in Saigon, I only buy the weekend edition of the IHT. I don't have time to read the daily. I get lost in it and read it cover to cover, and there isn't that much time in my day. I do need daily news however and I get it in various ways. There are two English-language papers published here, Vietnam News and The Saigon Times. I read both at the local espresso joint in the morning. They both reflect the government approved news, but they are indispensable in understanding the business side of this rapidly expanding economy. Like the IHT they include some arts and sports news, but they are pretty thin in those departments.

Another source for us, God bless the internet, is live streaming of NPR. During the week it's hard to time the 14 hour difference to the West Coast, but on weekends I tune in to KPLU or KUOW at 6am Saigon time and catch All Things Considered as we're getting up and eating breakfast. It helps keep us in touch with Seattle area news, as does the online edition of The Seattle Times which Marilynn checks out on a daily basis. I confess to being relatively uninterested in the Seattle "process" which consumes way too much time, but she fills me in if she thinks there is something I "need" to know.

We watch relatively little TV, because there is relatively little to watch but we usually tune into CNBC in the evening for an update on the world markets, and we catch the sound bites on CNN International at the gym in the morning. The truth is it is hard to get away from the news with newspapers at work and in the coffee shops, TV in our living room, online editions of every news source, live streaming of broadcast media, and blogs to give us opinion and advice on just about everything.

One thing I thought I would miss is magazines. We subscribe to half a dozen or more in the States. It's funny but I don't miss them at all. Here, in Saigon, there are two excellent English-language magazines - The Word and Asia Life. Both are well written and include serious journalism as well as extensive food and entertainment sections. At month's end I can hardly wait for the next edition, and I find myself reading both of them cover to cover. Last month Asia Life devoted most of the issue to articles on climate change. Vietnam is especially vulnerable to changes in climate since a rise in the level could place 10% of the country under water. Most of the southern part of the country is at sea level already. Asia Life did an excellent job of reporting on the problem.

Many of us have a love-hate relationship with media, but I am keenly aware of my own need to stay connected to the world at large and to what is happening where I live. I just hope that in the changing world of media, where newspapers are disappearing and bloggers are exerting a big influence on opinion that we all can learn to sort and select the responsible voices from those that are not. And, in that regard living here has another advantage; I never have to hear the voices of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, even by accident.

Is This Creepy or What?

One way members of the ex-pat community stay in touch with each other and have an opportunity to meet new people is through a series of networking events. Some are privately organized; some are sponsored by the various Chambers of Commerce (AmCham, CanCham, EuroCham, AusCham).

Networking in a foreign country is different than it is in the US. Here, people actually circulate and talk to one another. In the US people tend to stand in small groups and talk to the people they already know. Here, everyone has a story, and it is always interesting to dig for it when you meet someone new.

I've been lucky enough to meet hundreds of people since moving here in September. In an earlier blog I mentioned that gender attitudes are sometimes highlighted in this environment. Eligible ex-pat women generally complain that the men have very little incentive to look for a serious relationship when there are so many beautiful women falling at their feet.

Two months ago I met a guy at one of the networking events and he drew me in for a few minutes before I broke the code. He was totally self absorbed and had a story that was too good to be true. Last night I saw him again. He's one of the many men who come to Asia looking for quick and easy female companionship but can't be straight about it. He's created a myth about himself and he self-hypnotizes and spins it out continuously. Last night someone Googled him to see if anything would come up.

Check this out:

http://www.10k4awife.com/flashVersion/flash/mainTest2.html

Is this creepy or what? There are so many good people doing good things over here, but people like this guy give ex-pats a bad name.

It's All About Attitude

Attitudes among Vietnamese Americans vary radically when it comes to the question of returning to their homeland. Some, like our friend, Tami, think it's a terrible idea. They hate the government that took away everything and sent them to re-education camps - sometimes for years. They dislike their rapacious relatives who are only interested in what their rich American relatives can bring them when they come. They are still angry and grieving for the lives they lost when they climbed into a boat and set off for an uncertain future.

But, many Vietnamese Americans have a different take on returning. They see adventure or opportunity or the spirit of philanthropy. There is a lot to be said for checking out where you or your parents were born and to scoping out the landscape - human, cultural, and geographic. There is an intense curiosity and there are many reasons to return. Some are very personal, like meeting uncles, aunts, cousins or other family members who never left. Some are altruistic and involve decisions to help where it is obviously needed. Some return for an adventure or to get away from other pressures. They are all good reasons, but there seems to be a difference in what happens once they get here - and often it is gender related.

Yesterday's Vietnam News, one of the two English language papers, contained an article, entitled Singular Comfort, by a young woman named Thu Anh. The gist of the article was skeptical, even cynical, about men in her young professional age group. In my limited experience this is a common lament. These young women see the men as uninterested in serious relationships at best and lazy predators at worst. The Viet Kieu women always point out that there are so many Vietnamese girls who are ready and willing to service the guys that there is very little incentive for the men to think about a serious relationship. It's a sad comment on all three sides of that equation. It's all about attitude.

The Vietnamese Diaspora

Việt Kiều is the name often given to Vietnamese people living outside Vietnam. Of the roughly 3 million Viet Kieu now spread around the world the majority left Vietnam as refugees in 1975 or the years following the Fall of Saigon and the Communist takeover. This exodus is often referred to as the Vietnamese diaspora. Unlike the Jewish diaspora this was not the result of foreign conquest and expulsion. It was the product and outcome of the bitter division within a country fighting to reclaim it's own national identity. Vietnam was officially and artificially divided by the Geneva Conference in 1954 following the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu. Four years earlier the southern part of the country declared its independence and soon became the Republic of Vietnam.

Vietnam is not homogeneous in either population, geography or climate. There are distinct differences in accent and dialect. Central Vietnam adds a third dimension, because it is not like either north or south in these regards. And, there are two distinct climates. Three years ago we left the hot humid south on a train and a few hours later walked out into a cold drizzly rain that persisted for the rest of our stay in the north.

People in the north feel that theirs is the true Vietnamese culture and people in the south think the people in the north are arrogant and lazy. The situation is not unlike the north and south in America. We had our Civil War and Reconstruction and they had their civil war and re-education camps. There's plenty of pain to go around and it's not all gone.

But the "Overseas" Vietnamese, the VK, are bringing their experience with other cultures back to the country they left 40 years ago. Almost every day I meet VK who have come back to find out about where they and/or their families came from and if there is a place and opportunity for them here. My newest VK friend is a 26 year old from Seattle. She grew up dirt poor in White Center, one of the Seattle housing projects left over from the Second World War. But family is everything to the Vietnamese and she and her family scrimped and saved and worked hard to help her succeed. And, she did. She graduated early from Seattle University with a degree in accounting and went to work in the audit department at KPMG. She was on her way there, but she wanted to know more about the place she and her parents left. She bagged the audit job and bought a one-way ticket to Vietnam.

She's been here a year and a half, tried a couple of jobs, and is now part of a start up software firm in its stealth phase. She's bright, independent, opinionated, beautiful and VERY confident. Her two brothers are happy in the US, but she needed to find out about Vietnam. She's found out a lot of things she would rather not have known about Vietnamese men and women and about VK men who have returned. More about that in the next post.

It All Happens on the Sidewalk

This photo is pretty typical of the sidewalks of Saigon. They are crowded, chaotic, torn up, obstructed, and messy. They are also orderly, organized, and surprisingly clean. Like a lot of other things in Saigon they are paradoxical. For an outsider they take a little getting used to.

I like to learn a city by walking it, but it's close to impossible to do here. Except for Dong Khoi, the main shopping street in the tourist center, there are almost no walking streets in Saigon - and for practical reasons almost no one walks anyway. It's hot. It's humid. And, except for Sunday, there is almost never enough room to negotiate the narrow spaces between storefronts and the streets.

My view of sidewalks was formed in urban America where they are pedestrian zones that provide a safe path, off the street, for strolling, exercise, or neighborhood shopping. In Saigon they are extensions of the streets, restaurants, living rooms, showrooms, bedrooms, parking lots or playing fields. At any time of the day or night they are teeming with activity. At 3:30AM families are setting up their food stands or sidewalk retail operations. As the day emerges they expand into motorbike parking lots, alternative motorbike roadways, communal living rooms, cottage industries, social centers, and classrooms of this energetic country.

If I had seen the future I would have invested in children's furniture 15 years ago. Every Vietnamese sidewalk is crowded with the tiny tables and chairs that characterize the entrepreneurial spirit and energy of this city of 8 million. At first I thought they were comical, but they are just another practical solution to the space problem - and they are surprisingly comfortable.

The sidewalks of Saigon are an interesting challenge for Westerners but they are also the business hubs and venture projects of an emerging economy that cannot be contained by its architecture. So, grab a tiny chair, order a ca phe sua da (Vietnames iced coffee), and enjoy the show. This is where it's all happening.