Tag: Nha Trang

Micro Trend, Macro World

Economy of scale, strength in numbers, linear growth.

Out of the 7 Billion of us, almost half live in the cities (hints: pollution, traffic congestion, high crime rate, time crunch, shrinking quality of life, more opportunities but unsustainable).

I read about China’s sewer cooking oil, crocodiles roaming the streets of Bangkok, and tent city on Wall Street.

In Micro Trends, the author mentions niche markets like knitting, which command 1 percent of the larger market.

Harley Davidson is now targeting women (empty nesters whose OK’s are critical before husbands can “buy to be wild”).

Near where I live, a new store has just opened. It is called “Halloween Express”.

They cherry-pick the 7 Billion-dollar seasonal costume and candy markets.

Or, take virtual Job Fair. More candidates can visit the “booths” while HR and recruiters can make the most of their day. Fewer people are working and those who do, handle more work. The net effect has been productivity increase.

99% of 6 Billion in 1999 is less than 99% of 8 Billion in 2025. Too many people living too long creates capacity crunch. To solve this, we have to move to virtual world  (social media and rural broadband are in).

Population grows linearly, while  tech has shot up in hockey stick curve, creating an ever widening “digital divide” (lady old lady, driving while texting???).

Enter the rising costs of health care. A nightmarish scenario.

I don’t believe  Social Security will pay out as planned.

They will move the lamp-post, in the hope that those of us who don’t go to the gym will die before the first checks are cut.  Even when they did arrive, the adjusted for inflation amount will barely be sufficient (I read about a retiree couple relocating to Nha Trang and getting by on their meager income).

To find the silver lightning, we must look at new comers to the party.

They are eager, enthusiastic and resourceful. Our next billion of knights will have arrived by 2025.

Not long ago, when Bill Gates made his visit to Vietnam where young students said they all aspired to be mini-Gates.

I hope the same can be said about Steve Jobs, whose penchant is in product design, where Art intersects Technology. Design something people and yourself would want to have. New thoughts for a new world. Micro trends for a macro world.

butterfly in the sky

Amidst traffic and smog, a black/yellow butterfly dances its way through the intersection, bouncing from motor bike to motor bike.

I shouldn’t have paid too much attention to the creature. I need to worry about my safety. But it struck me as odd.

All concrete in the city with only few trees left in old Saigon. Yet we saw a rare beauty. Just like Nha Trang, south of China Beach, where Miss World took place.

But I can’t pass on learning from this creature, whose primal instinct is to survive.

Human beings instead took their own lives (in this recession, it happens a lot). Or like a Vietnamese student studying in Singapore, on her boyfriend’s support. When the well runs dry, she committed suicide and found dead in her closet (her love story and financial support ironically have been well hidden, a closeted affair).

And the Fashion TV channel keeps unveiling many thin couture, very chic.

So, the co-existence of what’s ugly and what’s beautiful, what’s shameful and what’s honorable is a norm.

The Prime Minister of Singapore, on the country’s birthday celebration, touches on this issue: many conflicting interests.

One of his solutions is to allow immigrant workers, unlike Japan who opted for automation over immigration.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, tourists’ expectations are varied.  Many are from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Hence, inter-regional business interests arise naturally due to proximity. Reverse tourist flow has also been on the rise. One of these days, the imbalance in trade and tourism will find its equilibrium, and incidents such as dorm-room closet suicide will be a rarity. For now, going abroad to nearby countries,  to study, to settle and to sight-see have been and will be a boost to the ego: look at me, I have it made. Let’s book that regional flight and shop til we drop. Long live luxury goods and those can afford them. High living and up-stairs living. The once-colonies now turn new crops of shopper colonialists.

Who gives a damn about wolves in Mongolia, or butterflies in Dalat? Just cut down those trees and make ways for the flow of goods made else where to come and conquer. The shoppers are invited foreign elements in. No need for Trojan horse.

Even butterfly wants to swing out of the congested situation, much less the nouveaux riches who never seem to run out of options to shop.

 

Sustainable Vietnam

The leadership of World Economic Forum met in Vietnam a few years back.

Concerned parties already discussed Green Vietnam.

http://www.good.is/post/how-vietnam-is-going-green/

These days, if you are late into the Industrial game, at least you can leap-frog in thought leadership and learned from others’ mistakes (China is overtaking Japan as number 2 economy, but it faces Hon Hai‘s workers’ suicides among other things).

China and India got a head start in development, but as the Olympics in Beijing went underway- with pollution – everybody realized that you can’t have a strong eco-nomy without a healthy eco-sphere.

Vietnam could use bamboo as a symbol of sustained economic development.

The plant is sturdy although not strong as an oak.

And it’s green. Soothing and self-sustaining.

I have been to Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Vung Tau, Da Lat and Mekong Delta.

What I saw was lush green (although hot).

And I kept thinking of my mom who used to save paper.

People in Vietnam and Thailand use green leaves to wrap sticky rice.

Everything is recycled. And mother Nature is truly respected in this animistic-turns-materialistic culture.

Eco-tourism should be factored in to balance out luxury tourism (high-culture French cuisine? Ou est Catharine Deneuvre?)

A blessing in disguise, Vietnam’s weakness (slow development) might be used as its strength (eco-tourism spin).

Besides, it could boast 5th place in the SEA happiness index (just like Costa Rica of the South America hemisphere).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10650464

Recently discovered world’s largest cave has been a lure. These kinds of attraction can differentiate Vietnam from its neighboring Thailand and Cambodia. Or else, it’s a lonely planet for those “Me too” destinations Westerners can’t tell one from the other.