Dave's 13th Post

Dave’s 13th Post
Reflections on our visits to Vietnam and China, March 31, 2011

About Vietnam
I’d like to start this blog with a couple of concluding paragraphs from my letter home after our visit to Vietnam in 1997.

We visited HMC during a unique time in its history and next year it will be vastly different. As you walk down the streets of HMC you see people cooking next to the curb while behind them a new Hyatt is being built. People live on the sidewalks out of necessity as if sidewalks are extensions of their homes. It appears to be a city in the midst of rapid cultural change. Last year Anna was able to rent a cyclo (a bicycle with a large seat) driver for $2 for the day. This year the same service would cost about $40. In addition, not all cyclo drivers this year can be trusted. Several passengers on our ship contracted for a $2 ride and were taken to some obscure place and told it would cost $20 to be returned to a recognizable place. Pickpockets and crime are endemic. Our ship’s staff, and even a shopkeeper we bought from, advised us not to use fanny packs because they are commonly cut or ripped off. We were advised to keep our valuables under our clothes. The first night of our stay in port 20 people reported thefts of cameras, purses, and other items. The world is coming to Vietnam and it’s not quite ready. The first McDonalds will open in HMC in 2 months. What we are witnessing as we go from Vancouver to Kobe to Shanghai to HMC is the dawning of a common global culture. Communism is dead here but bureaucracy has replaced it and Western companies are trying to get a foothold. Native cultures, like Vietnam, are disappearing and being modernized, Americanized, Westernized, capitalized, globalized, and secularized. HMC is probably a decade behind Shanghai in this process. Sociologists have a term for the change we see here in Vietnam called Anomie. It refers to rapid social change where old and new norms and values are in conflict which causes confusion and turmoil. You can see the turmoil and change in the traffic, the crime, and at the main post office where you have a choice of having your mail metered or to use the glue pot to paste on your stamps. In secularization, world religions are demythologized and homogenizing, and what kind of worldwide religious paradigm will evolve, if any, is anyone’s guess. In terms of commercialization and acculturation, we can see the future and it looks a lot like America and that’s not all good.

Our shipmates had mixed feelings about Vietnam. Many of the adults, including Jean and myself, were ready to leave or would have left earlier. Most of the kids loved the country, plan to come back, and some wanted to stay. I guess you have to see the country for yourself and make your own determination. I’m very glad we were there and grateful to have been there at the time that we were. We were able to see a culture on the verge of a radical transformation. As outsiders we could be more objective in our observations, particularly in light of all the class work we’ve done in preparation and the lectures we’ve heard. As we travel we become constantly more aware of how diverse world cultures are, how much we can all learn from each other, and how inevitable is the coming of a common world culture.

The change we have witnessed in fourteen years is astounding. In 1997 there were no tall buildings and now they are everywhere. Jean commented that two noticeable changes she sees are motorbikes have replaced pedal bikes and the women wear western clothes rather than their former Vietnamese traditional dress. I liked the appearance of coffee shops, in particular The Coffee Bean (same as at home), where I got the best lattes ever. Although Vietnam is not without its problems, things are booming here and I wonder if Vietnam and American are heading in opposite directions. They’re going up economically and we’re going down. It was a nice ride in America while it lasted.

Unfortunately we did not learn as much in Global Studies Class this year as we did in 1997. There is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction among the senior passengers about the fact that medical folks from the U of Virginia have been lecturing about infectious diseases during our trip from India to Vietnam to China. We got little to no information about Vietnam to maximize our visit. Fortunately we did have on board a Harvard Grad and current employee/scholar of the Kennedy School on Vietnam, Ben Wilkerson, who spoke in various classes. He was wonderful and I stumbled across one of his presentations by accident in a class on contemporary China that I sat in on. Here are some of his observations as I best recorded them:
• Vietnam is a country of just under 90 million and has about 3m communist party members, most over 65.
• Vietnam is a member of OSEAN, a union of Asian countries with a shared commitment to common values and fears. Ironically it was originally formed as an anticommunist union. Vietnam, a communist country, joined in 1995.
• Vietnam and China have a conflicted relationship and Vietnam joined OSEAN so as not to be overwhelmed by China. This brings back memories of our disaster in Vietnam from the end of World War II until our eventual defeat and in departure in 1973. If you remember, the argument for our involvement was to prevent the spread of communism as Vietnam joined forces with China to dominate the world. Remember the “domino theory”? Those of us who opposed that war have watched in amazement as Junior started two more self-destructive wars to further deplete our treasury and antagonize the rest of the world. We have replaced the communist bogeyman with the Islamic bogeyman and our military industrial sector has become the only industry in which we still lead the world…and few in America seem to notice this foolish, wasteful, and immoral behavior. There…I feel much better after venting.
• I’m not done after all. As I type, I realize the students onboard have not heard a word about the Vietnam War in the Global Studies class they are all required to take. This is truly amazing as it is such an important part of our recent history and our visit to Vietnam should be such a teachable moment. I heard that some of the students did visit the war museum in HMC and came away shocked and surprised. They claimed they knew nothing about the war. I guess the Harvard teacher’s observation is true. He said that “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” How many more needless wars will we fight before we are completely impoverished or rethink the current domination of our military industrial complex that President Eisenhower advised us to resist?
• China and Vietnam have a conflict over rocky and uninhabited islands that both claim and that may prove valuable in the future for oil and gas. Vietnam has been courting the U.S. to side with it but to date we have not got involved. Hopefully OSEAN may be able to resolve this issue in the future.
• Another potential conflict between the two countries is the issue of China building dams on the Mekong River that would greatly reduce the flow to Vietnam and be disastrous for it. Vietnam exports a lot of rice using this water and this might cause receiving countries to side with it on the issue.
• Wilkerson claimed that SE Asia has stagnated lately because of crony capitalism, poor education, and uncompetitive companies. He said China’s investment in South East Asia is primarily in extraction industries and the U.S. could build relevance here by making goods. Under Obama the U.S. is becoming more involved in Vietnam and Intel just opened its largest factory in the world in HMC.
• In the 10 years Wilkerson has been involved inVietnam, he has not encountered anti Americanism and says Vietnam is a “positive America supporter.” He claims the people here distinguish between our government and the American people. The two most popular dog names in North Vietnam are Nix (for Nixon) and Jon (for Johnson).
• Since the war here many Vietnamese have immigrated to the U.S. and Vietnam is currently in the top 10 in sending students to U.S. universities.
• Vietnam is highly internet wired and most of its population is online and was born after the war.
• Only 3 million of its 90m people belong to the Communist Party and 2/3s of those 3m are over 65. Apparently communism will eventually die a natural death of old age
• Higher education is in bad shape here and the young use the internet to self educate. Let’s hope that internet education also helps counter our dismal public school situation in the U.S.

We visited the Vietnam War museum in Hanoi and saw an impressively arranged collage of a crashed U.S. fighter on its nose with a lot of attached abandoned U.S. military hardware. The display was adorned with several plaques with inaccurate information. For instance, did you know that the North Vietnamese Peoples’ Armed Forces shot down and captured “33,068 American planes including 88 B-52s?” That’s what the display claims and it’s obviously false. One wonders when someone has the truth and moral high ground on its side why it would undermine its story with nonsense. On to China…

About Hong Kong and China
I’m now typing on the last day of March from dockside in Shanghai. It is Thursday and we leave tomorrow for Taiwan. Jean, John, Carol and I have decided to leave the ship next Wednesday, April 6th, and fly to Maui and our condo. After Taiwan, the ship spends eleven day traveling to Hawaii. I feel a little guilty jumping ship and abandoning the relatives I brought on board, but John’s kids arrive in Hawaii before our ship arrives there and our leaving the ship in Taiwan allows us to pick them up at the airport when they arrive. Also, because the Global Studies class has become so disappointing (not much if anything has been said about Vietnam or China before our arrival in our last two ports) there is not much reason to stay other than socializing with our siblings and spouses, which I will miss.

Hong Kong since 1998 has been reunited with China (the Brit’s 100 year lease expired) and is functioning as one country but using two systems. HK is 90% Chinese, has freedom of speech, uses 2 currencies, and 13% of the households have a car. The trams are less than 30 cents, the subway is great, and the majority claims to have no religion. The only other thing I learned there was that it is bad manners to place your chopsticks on the table. Use the holder.

This will be my last blog from the ship and I would like to conclude with a few observations about China. I’ve only been here two days so I don’t know much.
• The growth and change observable in Shanghai from our 1997 visit is remarkable. Like Vietnam, China seems to be a culture heading in an opposite economic direction than the U.S.
• Ours tour buses are met as we exit by what our guide calls “hello people.” They are the street vendors that sell stuff from postcards to Rolex watches.
• According to our guide, prominent people in China are called the “Big Potato” instead of our title “Big Cheese.” (Where else can you get such riveting information?)
• The number 6 in China is related to happiness and 666 = 3 x happiness. This is contrary to American Christians associating 666 with the Devil.
• The number 8 is associated with money and the number 4 is considered unlucky as it is pronounced as “death” in Mandarin. Accordingly, 8888 is the most expensive license plate in Shanghai and 4444 is the cheapest. I assume letters accompany the 4 numbers to make possible the sale of a lot of plates.
• A license plate in Shanghai can cost $5000 but it is a one-time cost.
• All land in China is owned by the government and Shanghai citizens get free residences or money toward rent.
• Young people “do not believe in God,” but as our guide claimed, “believe in the internet.” This lack of belief is contrasted with the 70% of the elderly who believe in God. This sounds a lot like America where disbelief has grown from 6% in 2001 to 15% today according to polling. I wonder what the next belief system will be anchored in? It seems to me consumerism is the real religion of our era.
• Shanghai men are in demand as husbands as they do housework and are evidently very trainable. Our guide claimed she has a boyfriend but figures she needs to conduct about 3 more years of training before marrying him.
• Shanghai men marry at about 30 and women at 33 and both work very hard. Young Shanghai couples we were told often do not want children because of the expense. These couples are referred to as DINKs, translated as “double income no kids.”
• Most newlyweds live with their parents because of the cost of housing.
• China is about the same size as the U.S. with two significant differences. It has no west coast and its northern and southern parts both extend further so it has a wider range of climates.
• China has been diverting its rivers for the past 2,500 years and has large projects in the works now that will greatly affect other Asian countries.
• It has turned much of its forested area into farmland in the past few decades which is a reason it now has such disastrous flooding. Farmland does not absorb as much water as forests.
• You probably know that China has taken over Tibet the last few decades, forcing the Dali Lama to flee and take up residence in India. An important reason for China’s takeover is the fact that major river systems start in Tibet and China wants control of the water for its growing population.
• For an answer to the question “Is Taiwan part of China?” It depends on who you ask. It’s a little complex, so if you’re interested, ask me when I’m back and I’ll tell you what I remember from the lecture I heard.
• Our knowledgeable guest speaker said that China has a patient wait and see attitude and he thought that during Obama’s second term that C & T would sign a peace treaty. I thought I’d end with some good news.

That’s about all I have to say about this voyage. If you want to know any more, you’ll have to travel yourself. Have a great trip.