In Vietnam, we call it the =93American war=94
For most of us it is history =96 over two thirds of Vietnam=92s population
was born after the war ended in 1975. However, those who lived through
part, or all, of that terrible time look back in sadness, not anger or
rancour =96 even those who lost children and loved ones, or still suffer
from war injuries or the effects of napalm and chemical weapons.
Many American citizens come here fearful of a hostile reception and
are amazed at the warmth of the welcome they receive. For us, the war
is in the past =96 we're looking forward to the future.
The events of the war
The American War is a study in itself. The tactics and strategy, the
battles and engagements, the ebb and flow of the conflict, are the
stuff of military history, and there are already many books, films and
documentaries detailing what occurred from various viewpoints. Most
guidebooks contain good synopses of the war years, so there is little
point in duplicating their content here.
Not just the usual Vietnam War tour!
Most =91War Tours=92 consist of visits to various battle sites in what was
the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), and elsewhere, perhaps with excursions
to sights of military interest, such as the Cu Chi tunnels, near Ho
Chi Minh City. Although such a tour is fascinating, especially for
those who were involved in the action, at Viettrails, we prefer to add
a Vietnamese perspective to what took place.
A Vietnamese perspective
For the many Americans who fought and died here, it was sometimes
difficult to be clear about the purposes of the conflict. It must be
even more difficult to understand the motives and actions of the
Vietnamese who, in most popular media accounts of the war, are usually
referred to as 'gooks', 'Charlie' or simply =91the enemy=92.
Most of the dozens of films about the war are from the US. Nearly all
are introspective studies of the effects upon the GI=92s, gung ho
=91action=92 movies, or more developed attempts to try to capture the
horrors of the war from a Western viewpoint. Perhaps understandably,
very few feature the Vietnamese as more than an anonymous cipher or a
stereotype.
The war today
The traumas of the war are still with us. Accounts of children and
adults being killed or maimed by unexploded ordnance, deformities
caused =91Agent Orange=92, by the chemical herbicides used to deny the
Viet Cong cover under foliage, and repatriation of bodies from remote
areas feature regularly on television and in newspapers. The
devastation wreaked upon many historic sites, such as the Hue Citadel
and My Son Sanctuary (now UNESCO World Heritage sites), by US blanket
bombing are continuous reminders of our cultural losses.
A different view
However, that was then and this is now. Apart from trying to show you
the conflict through Vietnamese eyes, using people who were there at
the time, we also want to show you our successes. You=92ll see the
restored buildings in Hanoi, the new Ho Chi Minh trail (now a modern
trunk road following part of the route of the original Viet Cong
supply line from the North to the South), and the many major
infrastructure projects replacing the bridges, roads and viaducts
battered by the war.
Most of all, we want to show you the future - our optimism and the
desire to make up for the lost years. You'll see it in the enthusiasm
of the young and the friendliness of their elders, and feel it in the
buzz of energy that pervades our towns and cities. We will never
forget the war, and the millions of our people who paid the price of
peace with their lives, but we know that just remembering isn't
enough. As citizens of the new Vietnam, it's our responsibility to
make their sacrifices worthwhile.
Vietnam in the 21th century-a destination for this millenium
Emerging from the shadows
The pace of change
For us, and for visitors returning to the country after a period of
absence, Vietnam is changing at breakneck speed. The potential bottled
up by the war and the restrictions that followed as the painful
process of reunification and reconciliation proceeded, is now being
unleashed.
In the cities, practically every street has a building site, slum
dwellings are being demolished and replaced by modern high and low-
rise dwellings, and new districts are being created in the suburbs to
house the swelling urban population.
Country areas are being provided with a clean water supply,
electricity and new services and facilities. Reservoirs are being
built to ease water shortages and new coal and gas fuelled power
stations are being opened.
Transport and communications are improving daily. Entertainment
facilities are expanding, supermarkets are appearing, and tourism
infrastructure is opening up new areas and locations to visitors.
No aspect of Vietnam=92s daily life escapes attention, and no-one is
unaffected by the changes that are taking place.
The social aspect
Change is never neutral =96 it always creates winners and losers. Our
government treads a narrow path in balancing the benefits of change
with the social disruption that it causes. Fortunately, the
overwhelming majority of our people understand the problems and
support the measures introduced to deal with them.
Working together
Our nation has a long tradition of communalism. In the 21st century,
communalism is manifested in =91mass movements=92 =96 national campaigns to
overcome social problems such as poverty, drug abuse, pollution,
health issues and so on. Involvement comes in many forms, attending
meetings, donating money and goods and so on, but the main form is
volunteering time to assist. The Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, the Women=92s
Union and other large national organisations can mobilise millions of
people to assist in building bridges, working with handicapped people,
cleaning up dirty beaches and a host of other activities.
Challenges and successes
Vietnam=92s problems are shared by all developing counties. Each has its
own approach, and each has its success and failures. No approach,
system or model fits all =96 each country has a different context, so
each has to find its own way. By trial and error, and with help from
our neighbours and the international community, we are learning
lessons and working out solutions in ways that fit our national
culture and beliefs.
Successes
We are now beginning to see the fruits of our labour. Poverty is
falling, the economy is sound, industry is modernising and tourism is
expanding, for example. Vietnam has had several notable achievements
in the health field =96 it led the world in containing SARS, is
attracting international attention by treating tuberculosis
successfully, and is well on the way to controlling malaria.
The future
Despite our progress so far, we are only at the beginning of the road
that leads to our eventual goal of =93Independence, Freedom and
Happiness=94 =96 a vision laid out by Ho Chi Minh in his Declaration of
Independence in 1945. We have yet to come to terms with the major
issues of wealth distribution, universal free health care, full
employment and all the other conditions necessary for his dream to
become our reality.
Every so often, the views and attitudes of Asian people in relation to
their quality of life are surveyed. Overall, Vietnam is usually ranked
somewhere in the middle (an achievement in itself considering the
country=92s starting point). However, in one category Vietnam is always
at or near the top =96 optimism about the future. We know the going will
be tough, but we=92re determined to get there!
1) Life in Vietnam=92s cities today
All Vietnam=92s urban centres, and especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City, would be almost unrecognisable to someone returning to the
country after a five year or more absence.
More variety
Some things would stand out immediately. For example, in the city
centres, the jumble of open shops spreading over the broken pavements,
war-damaged buildings shored up or in ruins, and poky Vietnamese caf=E9s
and =91bia hois=92 have been replaced with smart new Western-style shop
fronts displaying international products, supermarkets, neatly paved
walkways, and restaurants and bars offering a huge range of menus from
all over the world.
From bicycles to motorbikes to cars
Our imaginary visitor would also be surprised by the traffic =96 not so
much the volume (Vietnamese cities have always had busy roads), but by
the number of motorbikes, buses and cars. In 1998, bicycles
outnumbered motorbikes by at least a factor of three. Today, the
positions are reversed. The growth in motorbike ownership has been
exponential =96 so much so that local authorities, with government
support, are limiting registrations and even stopping them altogether
in the large cities.
Car ownership is also beginning to rise. Sales doubled last year, and
luxury brands such as Mercedes, Lexus and BMW are becoming commonplace
on city streets.
Public transport
The battered old buses, built on lorry chassis, belching smoke, and
picking up passengers wherever they appeared, are now an endangered
species. Most have been replaced by fleets of spruce new vehicles
painted in bright colours and stopping at regular bus stops.
Ridiculously cheap fares, clean comfortable seats, and timetables have
made them very popular =96 both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are rapidly
expanding their fleets to ease traffic congestion.
More noise than ever
However, our imaginary visitor would be reassured by the noise.
Although bicycle bells, and the hooters and thunder of antiquated
lorries and buses, have been transformed into a cacophony of motorbike
and car horns, the streets are a noisy as ever.
Fin de siecle for the =91cyclo=92
In both cities, the famous Vietnamese =91cyclo=92, or bicycle taxi,
ubiquitous by 1992, are dwindling to become tourist attractions,
elbowed aside by the cheaper and quicker =91xe om=92 (motorbike taxi), and
barred from main streets as a traffic hazard.
Modernisation
Supermarkets have opened up, and are already beginning to eat into a
market previously dominated by small shops. Roads are being re-laid,
with new drains, pavements and =91motorbike-friendly=92 curbs. City
authorities are beginning to experiment with turning some roads into
pedestrian-only areas.
The decline of the street traders
Our visitor would soon notice that the number of women wearing a
conical straw hat and carrying goods in baskets hung from a bamboo
pole has dropped, and that there are far fewer pavement cafes. Faced
with a situation of pedestrians being forced to walk in the road by
parked motorbikes, street trading and other activities, the police
force is now starting to enforce a long-standing (and completely
ignored) regulation prohibiting blocking the pavement in some urban
areas.
Somethings never change
However, our confused visitor would feel more at home upon noticing
that plenty of Vietnamese people still wander across the road without
looking and ride their bicycles on the wrong side of the road
(Vietnamese pedestrians and cyclists still seem to believe that they
are exempt from both traffic regulations and using their common-
sense).
2) Modern arts in Vietnam today:
Painting
With only a few exceptions, painting did not become a developed art
form in Vietnam until the beginning of the last century, when the
country was under French rule. The colonists established an art school
in Hanoi with a curriculum heavily biased towards French art, and
particularly expressionism, an influence that is still clearly be
identifiable in Vietnamese works today.
The =91social realism=92 period
The spread of communism, and the growing influence of the USSR, led to
a period of social realism. During this period, the purpose of
artistic expression was to further the revolution. By definition,
other forms of art were counter-revolutionary. Thus, the soft images
of derivative French Expressionism were replaced by graphic depictions
of heroic peasants, Viet Minh soldiers, factory workers, and
propaganda poster exhortations. The Fine Arts Museums in Hanoi and Ho
Chi Minh City have many examples of the genre.
Sculpture, architecture, film, theatre =96 all were directed along the
social realism path, oblivious to artistic movements taking place
elsewhere in the world.
Post =91Doi moi=92
With the advent of Doi moi, the open door policy, social realism was
put to one side to make way for a flowering of suppressed Vietnamese
artistic expression. Although much of the art in the mushrooming
galleries of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is highly derivative, a new
Vietnamese art style is emerging.
A fusion of western styles and Vietnamese traditions expressed in a
range of media as diverse as lacquerware, furniture, silk painting,
calligraphy and ceramic is increasingly apparent. Many Vietnamese
artists now attract international attention and can command prices in
the thousands of dollars for their artwork and sculpture.
Other artistic forms have yet to benefit from the Vietnamese
renaissance. Publishing, public art, public performances and
television are still tightly controlled.
The cinema
Film making has been a state enterprise since it began. Films were
sponsored by the government on minimal budgets, usually around $US
60,000. Despite a lack of money, and primitive equipment, some
Vietnamese films received international accolades, but even they
failed to gain a popular audience in Vietnam.
Recently, a film breaking new ground received a licence for
distribution. Instead of a worthy, innocuous theme =91Bar Girls=92
portrayed the life of young women working in dance halls and dealt
with contemporary issues such as prostitution and drug abuse. Box
office receipts eclipsed those for Hollywood blockbusters, usually the
cinema=92s staple fare.
Recently, the government has allowed private cinema companies to
operate, opening the way for a new film industry aimed at meeting
public demands.
The youth generation
Vietnamese pop music is a curious blend of 'middle of the road' soft
rock with highly sentimental lyrics, and is the mainstay of the
ubiquitous karaokes. Karaoke singing is highly popular: families and
businesses often have their own machines. A wide range of Western pop
is available on very cheap pirated CDs and DVDs. Some of the famous
international girl and boy groups are popular, but there is no doubt
that Vietnamese youth, and their parents, prefer the home-grown
version.
There is little sign of the raunchiness associated with European and
American tastes, nor any apparent desire to express a specific
identity for youth through Western-style shock tactics and
exhibitionism. The teenage rebellion has yet to happen in Vietnam =96 if
it ever does!
3) Economic issues:
Vietnam is a country in transition, steadily dismantling a monolithic
centralised =91command=92 economy entirely made up of state monopolies
protected by subsidies and tariff barriers. Some industries have
already been exposed to the chill wind of competition. For example,
Vinacoal, the state company exploiting the country=92s vast coal
reserves, now competes successfully in the open market following the
removal of subsidies. After a painful period of restructuring
involving a massive =91shake-out=92 of labour, exports are now buoyant.
Steady progress
The government has implemented a programme of =91equitisation=92, a form
of privatisation akin to a management =91buy-out=92, and is encouraging
other state companies to seek foreign investment through
shareholding.
A small stock market has been established in Ho Chi Minh City trading
shares within a limited band of price variation.
Progress in breaking up the state monopolies is slow for a number of
reasons, notably the reluctance of managers to lose the security of
state control, the massive investment needed to enable aging
industries to compete and an understandable government reluctance to
exacerbate an already high rate of unemployment.
Monetary stability
Growth has been high and reasonably steady over the last decade, and
inflation has been brought under control. The Vietnamese Dong is a
closed currency, pegged to the US dollar. The government has strongly
resisted calls to float the Dong, but the State Bank is slowly
implementing measures to free up the banking system in preparation for
monetary reform.
Controlling smuggling
Accurate economic data is hard to obtain. The official figure of
income per head is almost certainly understated due to the extensive
=91moonlighting=92, and a thriving black economy. Smuggling on a massive
scale, mostly between Vietnam and China, distorts import and export
figures. Informed guesswork suggests that between a quarter and a
third of Vietnamese =91imports=92 may be entering the country illegally
across its long, porous border with its mighty neighbour.
The border police are working hard, and have had some notable
successes, but the length and terrain of the border makes effective
control very difficult.
Labour-intensive agriculture
Vietnam continues to rely heavily upon agriculture. Most farming is at
subsistence level and labour intensive =96 although 70% of the
population still works in agriculture, the sector contributed only 25%
of GDP in 1999, down from 40% in 1991. Industrial growth has averaged
13% over the same period.
Positive indicators
GDP overall is rising rapidly, from $33bn US in 1999 to $42bn US in
2001, and during the same period GDP per capita rose from $400 US to
$503 US, a 34% increase. At the same time, inflation dropped from 4.3%
to 2.4%.
Two major challenges
However, although rapid growth is undeniably raising standards of
living at all levels, there is mounting concern about wealth
distribution. The income of the wealthiest sector of the population is
now eight times greater than that of the poorest, and the gap is
widening. Furthermore, the speed of development is outpacing
regulatory measures and procedures, opening the way for widespread
corruption and fraud.
Positive measures
These two issues are probably the greatest challenge to the continuing
success of =91Doi moi=92. The government is well aware of the scale of the
problem, and is working hard to overhaul the personal and corporate
tax structure and make revenue collection more efficient.
The complexity of the procedures has made large-scale V.A.T fraud
difficult to detect =96 they are being simplified. Each individual civil
servant, local authority official, manager of a state company and
Party member is now obliged to make an annual declaration of his or
her income and assets.
Looking to the future
Vietnam is fully committed to =91Doi moi=92 and the development of a
socialist system. We have recently become members of the Asian free
trade group, and are joining the W.T.O. We recognise that our
transition will not be easy: tariff barriers begin to drop in 2004,
and some of our less efficient industries will suffer badly.
Nevertheless, we are confident that we can overcome the challenges
that face us now and in the next few years.
4) Vietnam=92s problems:
Population:
Viet Nam=92s present population is around 82 million, about 87% of which
is the majority =91Kinh=91 group mostly living in low-lying areas, and the
remaining 13% in fifty-three different ethnic groups living mainly in
mountainous areas.
A population boom after the end of the war allowed Viet Nam=92s
population to climb rapidly. Increasing population density, pressure
on ageing infrastructure and worsening environmental damage prompted a
policy of applying disincentives to families with more than two
children. Population growth is slowing, but the previous high rate has
left a very young population (65% are under 25) with consequent
serious strains on the education system and the labour market.
Poverty:
Nearly three-quarters of Vietnam=92s population were living in poverty
in the mid-1980s. In the early nineties, the government committed
itself to a systematic strategy to improve the situation: it has been
remarkably successful. The 2003 United Nations 'Human Development
Report' records that poverty is now under 29% and dropping rapidly,
one of the sharpest declines in any other country on record.
Nevertheless, poverty is still common in rural areas, and increasing
urban affluence has stimulated migration from poor rural provinces
into the cities adding to the social problems there. Wages for low-
skill jobs are minimal and unemployment is high and increasing as the
country progressively adapts to the world market economy.
Polution:
Most of the infrastructure in Vietnam was built during the colonial
period, and is now in desperate need of replacement. Some of the
rivers and lakes in urban areas are little more than open sewers, and
levels of heavy metal and other industrial pollutants are well above
safe levels in some areas.
Flora and fauna are not only threatened by pollution and habitat
encroachment, but also by poaching and illegal logging, particularly
in poor rural areas. National and local authorities are working hard
to improve the situation, but the scale of investment required to
solve such problems is currently beyond the country=92s means.
Health:
Many of Vietnam=92s hospitals are in antiquated colonial buildings.
Equipment is basic, and medical staffs often lack necessary skills and
experience. Patients have to pay for treatment and medication =96 poor
people are exempted. However, a new employee medical national
insurance scheme has been launched and is proving popular.
The proportion of live births and life expectancy are both rising, but
Vietnam faces many health challenges. In particular, HIV/AIDS is
increasing, fuelled by a growing drug abuse and unsafe .. However,
the country has scored some remarkable successes, notably being the
first country in the world to eradicate an outbreak of SARS in the
spring of 2003 and fowl flue in 2005.
Tradition:
In the past, Vietnam=92s Confucian heritage has served the country well.
However, some aspects of Confucian behaviour are now putting a brake
on progress and, in some cases, causing harm. In the workplace, a
strict hierarchy of deference blocks initiative and innovation, and
bureaucracy, red tape and low-level corruption abound. In schools, a
rigid fact-based curriculum and didactic teaching stifles imagination
and curiosity.
In the family, male dominance relegates women to menial tasks, limits
their freedom and legitimates risky .ual behaviour by men. On the
positive site, Vietnam=92s strong Confucian traditions have been a major
factor in maintaning political stability during a period of rapid
change, and have been a significant curb on some of the more
pernicious excesses of globalisation.
Source: www.orienttrails.com |
|
|
|