Tag: Diamond Plaza

Par Avion

I almost stepped on an envelope with imprint of an airplane on the cover.

It’s been a while since I saw that design. We used to write intimate letters, telling in detail what had happened in our lives, then “seal with a kiss” an envelope which had “Par Avion” on it.

In fact, when Vietnam was still North and South the way Korea now is, we were allowed to mail only post cards across the DMZ. So and so just had a third baby, the youngest finally got married and moved out etc….(Good news!:)

We lived with what was available at the time:  American cars for wedding rental, Pan Am flights, and Vespas (Roman Holiday without Gregory Peck).

Now I heard of $3,000 Chinese-made cars.

No thanks.

I’d rather get married and chauffeured away in a ferry or a bus, slowly but surely.

Best off is to take pictures in front of Notre Dame De Saigon and walk across the colonial boulevard to a Bowling Party at nearby Diamond Plaza.

Speaking of Malls.

Shoppers in the US are anticipating Black Friday shopaholic reunion.

“My name is Tommy, and I am a shopaholic”.

The prayer of serenity will be recited in unison.

Friendship fosters via common interests. And what is more popular than the love for shopping?

I used to be into ties and books.

Now, if given a choice, I still am into books, and you can keep the ties.

Except for when I attend a wedding. Like yesterday, of all places, in Cu Chi

(No, I did not wear a tie to crawl into one of those war-time tourist “traps”).

Still, a wedding in the country, especially in Vietnam, brought out major “players”.

I got to meet a very important man in the vice squad.

Go clubbing safely my friend, from here on.

It’s important who you know, not what you know.

Back to modern mode of communication.

Vinaphone and Vietel will offer 4-G.

Who is going to write letters and “seal with a kiss” before sending them via PAR AVION letters any more?

Even fax, chat and e-mail will soon be obsolete.

When I saw the young groom, tall and slick, I know time has moved on.

His kids will be of the 4-G + generation.

Text, voice and video, simultaneously.

No more Concorde or Cu Chi.

Messages will be instantaneously delivered.

As we think, shall others know.

Par Avion will be too slow (turn of 20th century not 21st).

My parents did not think so at the time.

To them, buying a stamp that had “Par Avion” meant having less meat for the meal.

Faster mail= leaner meat.Perhaps the same is still true today with many families in emerging economies (I-phone 5 = less milk).

One will have to grow stronger, swifter and smarter. Welcome to an increasingly flat world, at the speed of light (fiber optic).  But that envelope on the street did trigger this lengthy flash back to the past.

Proust would be proud! After all, I did not title this “Air Mail“. It’s Par Avion.

Blind man amidst Saigon traffic

Yesterday I saw a blind man, cane first, feet followed, amidst really busy traffic.

He was neither assisted by a companion, dog or human being, nor by traffic alerts for the blind.

Yet he made it to the other side (without music from the Door) , and was on his way into an alley, which must be his way home.

I am sure his hearing must be extremely sensitive to compensate for his lack of eyesight.

Then I reflect back to my situation. I am  sure I have missed tons of signals during my trip: designer glasses, upscale bikes, Vespa resurgence, Western-style brewery, less road fatality and infrastructure improvement.

Still I have been blind to many situation, most obviously, the absence of the middle class.

Yes, more are out of the poverty level, but it will be another 10-20 years before we see the emergence of a “middle-class Vietnam“.

Since this society is inter-linked on a web model (extended families), we won’t see all-boats-rise for a while yet.

Case in point: the credit system has yet taken hold here because people have used to borrow from friends and relatives, and not institutions (which rely on home ownership as collateral). Banking, insurance and heavy industries are dominated by State-Owned Enterprises.

ATM‘s weren’t even around back in 2000 (one exception was at the Diamond Plaza).

Micro loan (similar approach has been successful in India), hui (turn-taking to borrow from the common pot) and pawning are still prevalent.

So, an economy whose rate of growth is only behind China and India, still functions under the old “trust”system, which further insulates Vietnam and impedes its otherwise ascension on world stage (i.e. access to a larger FDI pool.)

20 years from now, I hope to see Electronic Medical Records take hold here, as well as E-government and E-services. Vietnam Airline now allows self-check-in and there will be a traffic audio alerts to help our blind hero in his daily walk.

There was an Iranian film (the Willow Tree?) about a blind professor who after undergone surgery in France, decided that he did not like his new state of “seeing”.

Way philosophical for me, but the gist is : we can only control the smaller circle and  not the macro one.

To play God is to invite guilt. And I am sure our blind hero has every right to curse the dark (and traffic). Instead, he goes about his way, using cane for feeler and ears for sensors. Wonder what he hears everyday. Certainly, more than those who listen from their I-pods to tune out Saigon noisy traffic. Perhaps on the I-pod, we hear “Getting on to the other side” by the Door.