Tag: KFC

Go a bit more native

In 2000, after 25 years of being away, I made a short trip back to Vietnam.

What a culture shock (especially when I landed in Hanoi, where I had only heard about).

Twelve years. A dozen trips later. A little deeper into the alleys and byways.

I think I have touched on different parts of the proverbial Elephant.

Vietnam now has malls that are as sterile as the ones in the States (on weekdays).

The first Starbucks is having its soft-opening.

Raybans, I-phones and Vespas are as common as the remaining rice fields.

French colonial presence is confined in the centres with boulevards and sidewalks (just like in Cote d’Ivoire). But urban sprawl doesn’t stop there.

At the outskirts of Saigon, shops after shops compete for retail customers.

Fresh flowers are shipped in from the highland just in time for Tet celebration.

Coffee shops with Wi-fi serve up tea to go with coffee (East and West blended).

When you see a bunch of well-dressed Asian get off a bus, you know they are APEC tourists.

Or else, backpackers would try to hopelessly blend in with flip-flops and shorts. Lonely Planet. I read that guide on my first trip. Now, I rely on instincts and instructions from my taxi and scooter drivers.

Like any city, Saigon is divided into various social strata The upper crust lives behind iron-gates and tinted Mercedes.

Everyone else, crowded flats and scooters, wearing required helmets and optional surgical masks.

Fortune are made and lost here. One bubble after another. 1997 and 2008.

Not as severe as in Thailand. But the poor have always suffered, below the radar. They will probably continue this trajectory for a while, even with more foreign investments. With brands like Nike, Intel, Starbucks, KFC and Jabil , change is undeniably in your face.

Vietnam has grown out of the “war” box. It has evolved into an emerging market and “Happy” country (behind only Costa Rica). It is worth visiting and studying.

While people are increasingly materialistic, that alone is not what makes them  happy. Perhaps with the right mix, one can be content.

Let’s not forget, people do share the spoil, which makes them materialistic, but not yet individualistic.

To give is more blessed than to receive. But not for long since the mono-chronistic, individualistic and modernistic cultures are invading, and people start putting up fences and walls. Fences make good neighbors, as Frost put it.

But it also slices away those invisible connections people are born into for centuries, before the French, the American, the Russian and the APEC people arrived under the pre-text of global village. In truth, what do we know about life in a village? I certainly don’t. The US arm forces didn’t. Nobody did, except the people who had lived there, and now are living in the city. They too wouldn’t tell (I found “After Sorrow” by Lady Borton quite informing).  While I try to go a bit more native, they went the opposite (urbanized). Somewhere in between, we cross-path like two ships in the night. Oh, don’t forget to bring cash if you want to go a bit more native.

Fast foods invasion

It’s kind of redundancy. Fast foods in Saigon?

The place has already been fast. I don’t know if fast foods will help.

At Saigon Central (train depot), I was told to take a number and wait (the way Carl Jr would do in the US) for my fries.

Saigon is not used to mono-chronistic tempo (first comes first served). People just cut in, last in first out. If you are fanatic and faithful to Western sense of order, you will pick a fight every time (conversely, if you went native, you might run into reverse culture shock upon re-entry to the US).

No wonder, the first thing a foreigner sees is the sign, which says “US citizen” this way, the rest, that way. Get in line.  One at a time. Orderly Departure and Entry.

Burger King, KFC and now Starbucks, preceded by a bunch of Filippino and Korean chains.

Pretty soon, one cannot distinguish this city from any other in the world: cosmopolitan, clean and charge it baby (burgers and fries, cappuccino and pizza).

The West is taking over the rest.

When Fareed Zakaria talks about the Post-American World, he meant The Rise of the Rest. But what does that mean? Indian IT workers begin to go clubbing, Chinese tourists begin to take up coffee habits at Forbidden City’s Starbucks, and Brazilian go-go dancers start shopping at Victoria Secrets?

It’s a blended world, of which America happened to be the lead influencer.

Fast foods, fast pipe etc… are manifestations of mass markets, whose principles are rooted in auto manufacturing (which happened to be an offspring of the old industrial world).

It seeks not high-end Tiffany base. Just the lowest common denominator: limited decoration, fast turn-around and a lot of marketing hype (to look hip, westernized, with I-tunes music in the background). Thomas Friedman noticed  that any two countries with a McDonald are least likely to be at war with each other.

The French once boycotted against McDonalization and Disneylandization. They wanted to enjoy slow foods (multiple courses). It’s the slow growth view. The anti-globalization view.

The clash in Seattle not too long ago was a wake up call.

In It’s a Miracle (by one of former Pink Floyd members), we learned about “McDonald in Tibet”. It’s a miracle (with sarcasm).

Now, all you need is fast foods for Saigon fast lane. As if the place is  not fast enough. Actually, what took them (fast foods chains) so long? The place is way ahead of the curve. I have seen people stop their scooters, ask for a light, and zoom along with cigarette to go. Starbucks might have to have their Zippos ready for drive-bys. It’s smoking fast here.

Madonna and child

Not the Seine in Paris. But Rach Nhieu Loc in Saigon. She wore a cone hat. Baby tanning in the morning sun, resting in her bosom. The other hand, she checked her messages from a mobile phone.

It’s  Thanksgiving in Vietnam. People  have a lot to be thankful for. It’s now ranked second on Happy Country Index (the US 25th on infrastructure).

Infrastructure and Index of Happiness. By all counts, the canal stings. But people as a whole are considered happy. Many would care less for the Mayan calendar and its doom prediction.

When it gets too hot, it rains. Nature idea of  a “smart” grid. GE is investing heavily in “industrial internet” (the way Bill Gates referred to in his “at the speed of thoughts”.)

People here move about at the speed of motorbikes. It barely rains and people are already in ponchos and helmets , zooming by non-stop. No delay, no second thought.

Moving forward. Day after day. Only the future. When school is out, kids pour out into the concrete sidewalks, like a disturbed  beehive.

High-margin items are on display, all mobile related (I phone casing, eye glasses and sun glasses, helmets of all stripes, pull-overs and book bags).

Students from the country side try hard to accommodate themselves off campus by working at odd jobs.

I found an eatery with decent meals. Sharing a round table with strangers: meat, rice, soup and iced tea.

French-style cafes are extremely popular, serving cafe-sua-da at all times of the day.

007 is shown here too, interlaced with Twilight.

I wonder if the life style depicted in those movies ignite young people’s aspiration.  The Twilight cast, red-eye aside, all look perfect when they don’t go “hunting”.

Books are confined in a dozen outlets, scattered around the city, still priced themselves out of reach of the average wage earner.

The publisher I am in talk with has a branch office behind a huge pagoda, which is located across from Vietnam’s famous Vinh Nghiem pagoda. So, it’s not just KFC and Burger King who stake out prime locations. Religious outfits do so as well.

Meanwhile, the population understands health and fitness, how they relate to happiness. A nation ranked second after only Costa Rica in Happiness can surely connect the dots.

Their diet is healthy and their movement swift.

It starts early in the morning and early in life.

I saw the evidence this morning. Mother and child. Sun bathing.

Texting and tanning.

All contribute to the formula of healthiness besides discarded Vinamilk pouches on the street.

Perhaps technology has contributed much to Vietnam’s progress. Today, if you found a bicycle moving about, it’s a rare sight.  You can’t reverse history (especially in China, where automobiles are now as common as bicycles three decades ago).

You can only move forward with industrialization.

You read these lines. You know I am at an internet cafe next to my cafe-sua-da.

I do have something to be thankful for. I found a high-speed internet location.

Besides perspiration

Hard work is a given, a prereq for success. But that necessary spark, the 10% inspiration, must be there.

Two candidates, with  equal experience, the one with a great attitude wins. You must have the mojo.

It shows up in conversation, in off-hand moments (kicking the dog on the way out or giving the finger in the driveway to the one who ends up interviewing you).

In the Orient, job interviews often take on a new dimension. 3 finalists. Two walked by the broom that fell on the floor. The third picked it up and thereby, secured the job.

Attitude.

I just learned that Oprah ran the 1994 Marathon. On your way to success, you will have to walk across many “brooms”.

Just pick them up. Get used to removing obstacles. Habits of Effective (and not Deffective) People.

Tell me a success story, I will tell you how many obstacles he/she had to overcome:

– Colonel Sanders almost gave up until his last-ditch effort: a bar owner asked him to toss in more salt which is now the KFC recipe.

– Khan‘s wife offered herself to Silk Road traders to bail her husband out

– Al Gore, accepting defeat, but not becoming a failure, went on to win the Nobel Prize

– yesterday, at the London Olympic, Michael went on to break world swimming record.

Life gives us those stories to instruct and illustrate the point, unveiling new heights and setting new benchmarks.

Stay away from the Nay sayers. Prove them wrong. Or even better, think of them as never existed, for the longer we do, the more likely that this will come to pass.

Yesterday, I blogged about The Limits. But that was just one side of the coin. Today, there is another.

We have physical limits. But we reach out still to the stars. Feet on the ground, but eyes on the prize.

One more try. Then one more.

Another heart beat, then another. Breathe in and breathe out. Wax on and wax off. Karate Kid all grown up. Use all the pain and suffering and waste them not. They were there  to make us and not to break us. Each of us is different, not because of our limits, but because of how we dealt with those limits.   90 per cent inspiration, 10 per cent perspiration. Multiply that to the nth time. While perspiration is limited, inspiration is limitless.

Social dynamics

Like aerodynamics,  social dynamics involve working with conflicts, not avoiding them.

Since we are all made differently, we accept change at various speed.

That’s why some ideas are voted down immediately.

Others might take some arm-twisting.

For instance, it took a while for some emerging countries to introduce the condoms. Used to be a cultural taboo to mention the subject of sex.

Now, you can find Condom Store in Vietnam.

Years ago, people there were rushing abroad to seek better life.

Now, they would rather see returnees marry them and settle there: best of both worlds.

The West has lost some of its luster.

Besides, “Western” draws have made their ways there: KFC, Carl’s Jr, Domino Pizza, Hard Rock Cafe, Starbucks and LV handbags.

Why not stay home and wait for it (the West) to come.

I came back to SF airport and found on my flight mostly of Asian origins. Are there any Westerners touring Asia these days?

In Asia, people tend not to disagree with you out right.

They accumulate the points of differences, and give them back to you in one fell swoop.

Ouch!

You thought silence was consent.

People skilled in diplomacy anticipated opposite reaction and worked that into their presentation. It’s called getting the buy-in.

But in the end, it’s all in the relationships.

People-people bonds are stronger than idea-idea boundaries.

Let’s build more bridges than barriers.

Knowing in the absence of conflict, we don’t have real dialogue.

Differences define us and strengthen us as people living in a pluralistic society. Like aerodynamics, social dynamics need to face some headwinds and opposing ideas to rise.

My Saigon

Like Trinh Cong Son‘s Diem Xua, I got my own imprints of what  Saigon was like.

Especially on Sundays, like today.

Shaded streets, short strolls and sweet smiles.

Who needs all the executive shirt with designers’ emblem on it.

Instead of shirt, just smile even when you are not on camera. “Cuoi len di em oi” Just smile.

Le Sourire.

Flowers for the graves, flowers for the grade school teachers.

Lots of laughters, lots of tears “Ta chi can mot nguoi cung voi ta doi chet moi ngay”

Just a person to pass the time with while awaiting death inevitable.

Hence, Saigonese put on their best.

Last night, at a friend’s private birthday party, I sat outside on the balcony, looking into the glass door, taking in the scene, as if it were a movie set. Was I there, or just watching myself being there?

Am I in or in but not of it?

They say you can take a Texan out of Texas, but you cannot take Texas out of a Texan.

Perhaps the same holds true for Saigonese like myself .

Something about the French cafe, the Vespa, the Chinese noodle, and now, the KFC.

Saigon is a synthesis.

We “cao dai (unitarian) every strand of thoughts and expressions.

No one knows or is let in to our core. Double protection.

Suspicious of foreigners yet embrace them all.

Like on LinkedIN.

Like on Facebook.

Like on Twitter.

Just smile.

Le sourire.

Lots of laughter and lots of tears.

Just one life time.

But in mine, I have seen Saigon live multiple lives.Try every dish, every taste: bitter cucumber or  pickled lemon.

We take everything and leave out nothing.

During my entire life interacting and learning about Saigon , I have yet seen Saigon lose out.

It blends and synthesizes everything.

To the point where you could only recognize it by its smile.

Then the younger generation takes over.

You see the resemblance but can’t put a finger on it.

Turns out it’s that smile underneath the facade.

They smile when they are happy and when they are sad (see Understanding Vietnam).

Saigon’s smile is more of a reaction than an expression. “You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows”.

My Saigon. Cuoi len di em oi, du nuoc mat rot chet vanh moi. Smiling while swallowing tears.

Rain and tears

In the three months that I was in Vietnam, I have seen more rain and tears than 3 years in the US.

When it rains, it pours. Then, it all of a sudden clears up. Branches and trees start to breathe and “branch out”.

The tears’ part came from funerals that have a way to announce themselves, some even hired gay performers to lament on the bereaved’s behalf.

But not all are rain and tears here in the city.

I just viewed a clip taped at ICT conference last year,  showing pole dancers (w/out the poles) in between general sessions.

The entertainment agents here are also busy at events all over the city.

Things are looking up even as rain and tears flow down.

What is down will sow the seeds for what is up.

Environmental and social ecosystem: learn from others’ mistakes,

stay in the forefront of change and surf the waves.

We still see Monkey Bridge outside the city.  Other bridges are more modern, but shared by bikes, buses and trains.

During my time away, I guess there were enough rain and tears to overflow city rivers and canals.

Younger generations just take things at face values. Besides, why ponder and bewildered by things one cannot change. Just be on the move, constantly. People in motion. Fingers in motion (playing games). Products and services in motion (KFC and pizza delivered on bikes).

I heard that catering is an emerging business. Why not “in-home” cuisine as prelude to in-home care. Enough rain and tears. Now is the time for laughing and not lamenting, joy and not sorrow.  Enough rain and tears to last a life time. From here on, update that software version in the head to enjoy Peace Time Vietnam.

Moon Alley

Last night, when I got back to my alley, I thought they had turned on extra lighting.

Turned out I did not notice that it was full moon. No wonder people were going to the Temple, buying and selling fake dollars for the dead.

It was supposed to be the second important date on the Buddhist calendar, second to his birthday.

Here in Vietnam, the consumer confidence index is on the rise.

You thought I must be kidding!

A war-torn country with a higher consumer index in the midst of a global recession?

Don’t take my word for it. Check out Nielsen data source.

College students are back from Tet holidays: dictionaries, backpacks, Samsung phones, and facemasks.

Ready to roll!

The old (money for the dead) and the new (studying a foreign language, preferably certified by an European  Language center) co-exist.

I also noticed all sorts of snack items: hot-dogs of all types, fish balls, fertilized eggs (in the Philippines, they call “Ba-Lut”), chips, corns etc.. The young demographics are poised for the likes of KFC.

Fast food on the fast lane.

If they can redesign the stores to accommodate ride-in (scooters nation)

In fact, some sandwich stores located at street corners are doing just that.

Nearby you will also find hamburgers on wheels (xe-lam) or food carts at the curb.

Living in a dead-end alley affords me some peace and quiet.

It’s also safer, although not well-lit.

Until last night, with full-moon.

Moon Alley.

Where children learn to walk and the old do exercise.

Neighbors turned on their karaoke machines… so loud it took over my reading concentration.

Still I love my Moon Alley. I know no one is waiting for me, except my parents’ pictures on the altar.

Felt like a kid every time, walking in the door.

Still, for me, there is no need for food offering and burning of fake money.

Their memories are well-preserved in my mind, and their advice well-heeded.

i.e. Just be a good kid. Bring honors to the dead and the living.

And remember to floss your teeth.

Moon Alley.

Vietnam goes “social”

Mark Zuckerberg is here for Christmas vacation.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/science-technology/16933/facebook-s-ceo-visits-vietnam.html

Perhaps he would find a striking difference between the way people celebrate the Holidays here as opposed to Northern California.

In the US, the joke is “if you got tired of the Turkey, you can always order Chinese”. McDonald’ s and KFC‘s are closed.

One culture withdraws to nuclear-family gathering.

The other (VN) pours out to the street, Buddhists and Catholics both.

Someone mentioned that during the celebration of Buddha’s birthday, the Catholics here reciprocated by joining the throng on the streets as well.

Golden Rule.

I learned in cross-cultural classes that the hardest distance to cross is the last few inches (between two people).

Here in VN, in internet cafe,  people log in to connect via social media to friends far away, but are oblivious to the next person.

We have evolved as species who use technology as a hyphen (send me an in-mail, text me, call  me, drop me a line).

Back in the feudal age, people used accessories and ancestry to class-ify people (Bovary – Gastby).

Now we got algorithms doing the match-making and recommending.

“4 friends in common”, so?.

The Web speculates that Mark is here to “push” Facebook in this untapped market.

True or not, he would find plenty of food stalls to choose from, instead of  Chinese take- out on this very day.

I can’t explain the loneliness single people experience in the States, especially up North (like Maine or Massachusetts).

In fact, America (the band) did try to capture this in “this is for all the single people, thinking that life has passed them by”.

Here, besides having food stalls open at any time, people celebrate Christmas wholeheartedly and wholesomely.

I got back from visiting my cousin on the outskirts of Saigon. The bus began to pull into the station, but the Christmas music was so good that  I  wanted to listen till the end of Sad Hymn… while outside the temperature would put Arizona’s and Austin’s high heat to shame.

People here survived many wars (my cousin’s husband was declared missing-in-action for more than 36 years). But life moves on as shown in her ensemble of  children, grandchildren etc… And yes, people love music, their secret sauce in patience in suffering.

The end of the bus line, normally sweaty and unpleasant, became bearable because of pipe-in music.

Steve McQueen the King of Cool, often portrayed Prison break rebels. The moment he was put back into solitary confinement, his prison mates would toss him a baseball glove and a ball. There, in the dark, he would throw the ball, creating rhythm and routine. Survivors know what it takes to pass the time. That same 24 hours could be an eternity to those who don’t know how, or a brief blip from eternity’s perspective.  Let the clock tick toward year-end. Vietnamese already went out and bought their 2012 calendars.

Now, this came from a people who fought Dien Bien Phu manually, and their “American War” with low tech. Now, social media want to make a splash here. Let the game begin. See who is more connected and how enriching the experience will be for a country bent on education. Facebook might sell, but I doubt that frozen turkeys will even for Christmas (my friend called last night at 3AM thinking I was still up to join him at a noddle stall). Go figure! Merry Christmas Mark. Make sure you post relevant and engaging “Like” about Vietnam.

Vietnam, next Hong Kong?

On my first trip to Hong Kong summer 1981, I was taken in by the energy and entrepreneurial spirit there.

A camera shop (pre-Iphone era) next to a watch shop (again, pre-Ipad era) next to an electronics store.  Shoppers from India, Europe, Australia were all there, bustling about. Double-deck buses (still under British colonial rule) moved to and fro from Kowloon to Sham Shui Po.

China‘s Champs ELysees.

And that’s 30 years ago.

Now, boarding a bus in Saigon, full of college students from the University of Industry, I saw Vietnam‘s future 30 years from now.

Every kids on that bus ( with Samsung phones) will start a business or work for MNC companies, which will surely be coming (when wage pressures increase in China and water level rises again in Thailand).

In fact, Quang Trung Software Park is holding a conference on that very same topic (Human resources, mostly ICT, in a flat world).

Thailand wants to play a lead role in connecting and collaborating at this gathering.

Alliances for a planned and collaborative future (who is going to be the next Hong Kong or Singapore?)  Indeed, Manpower and other HR agencies have sprung up all over town. With hard and soft skills, one can command a decent wage here.

The living condition leaves much to be desired however : supermarket is located next to a dry dirty river, for instance. But all that can and will be fixed in time. Right now, younger learners are enrolled in foreign-own classes, picking up an expression here and a tune there.

My relative sent his daughter to the US to complete high school, Singapore to finish college and now to Australia for graduate school.

Stories like this put Vietnam on the path toward becoming another Hong Kong , while Hong Kong itself has moved up the value chain (per NYT Friedman) to full service economy, “off-shoring” its manufacturing further up North.

In other words, if those “Boat People” were to arrive today and be allowed to go off camp to work, they would be at a total loss, as opposed to work off-book in the garment industry as back then (“tailored in Hong Kong”).

Back to ICT as a way out

Young people naturally pick up new skills faster than older workers.

This is especially true for language-acquisition.

Once we can integrate the two camps (business savvy vs tech savvy) we are on our way to a promising future.

I notice primary schools and Universities here have started an all-English curriculum,  Vietnam’s latest attempt to copy the Asian Tiger miracle. Private universities are busy constructing “campuses” modeled after counterparts overseas (Hoa Sen, Tan Tao ), still have to shuttle students to and fro on chartered buses to city’s outskirts.

Countries like Taiwan, Singapore and S Korea have all traveled that road.

The raw materials are present, as evident from my bus ride which was all of a sudden empty after the drop off  at the main campus. Franchise concept has taken hold here: sticky rice chain, sugarcane juice chain, KFC chain, Lotteria chain and Tous Les Jours.

Being a “virgin” market has some pluses. Investors can’t wait to stake out location, location, location and brand positioning.

But the locals will learn the ins and outs of good and bad use of capitals.

(23 things they don’t tell you about capitalism by Chang).

The solution: go ahead with caution, but still move ahead speedily when  opportunity presents itself.

Just the way heavy traffic is here . Just the way people are moving about in Vietnam now. Just the way I saw in Hong Kong then.