Tag: Vietnam

Saigon upgrade

In 2000, I was sitting at Cadillac, a semi-enclosed bar, whose band played Hotel California and I Will Survive.

In 2010, I found myself at Rolls Royce, which also played Hotel California and I Will Survive.

2013, at Van’s Cafe, its band plays Bon Jovi’s number lacing with Santana’s classics.

Nouveaux riches, yetl good oldies.

The expats came and went. The FDI-enabled buildings and factories were built then abandoned. Investors fled, yet their dollars and euros stayed.

The spill-overs pay for the infrastructure upgrade and remodeling of multiple entertainment venues in the city. Saigon District 1 is still prime real estate. As a song goes, “Ngua xe nhu nuoc tren duong van qua mau” (Horses and buggies zip by on the streets of Saigon), it’s the kind upgrade once seen in New York of the time of Henry Ford.

Taxi pulled up, dropped off, especially when it was pouring.

And the youth, on motorbikes, couldn’t get enough of drag racing (richer counterparts have moved up to Vespas and Roman Holiday).

They did this during the World Cup. Now they practice for the next World Cup, keeping local police busy.

WIth all its pent-up energy, Saigon is upgrading and up to task. from Cadillac, to Rolls Royce.

Female singers with tattoos and cigarettes waiting for their gigs.

A  sequel of ” the girl with a dragon tatoo” could easily be filmed here.

And at the bus station, film crews were busy at work, with  PA’s in black T-shirts doing crowd control. With only that much space, and limited infrastructure – to get around, young people either have to wait until 2AM to race, or they go online during the day. By-pass bridges can’t be built fast enough to accommodate break-neck speed of urbanization and modernization (tallest high-rises, then, another taller-than-current-tallest is proposed).

Airport proposal and counter-proposals dominate tabloid news.

Digital content are thriving here. So have cosmetic surgery e.g. eye lash clip-on, hair extension, All things for personal-brand reinvention.

Those rock band members are splintering off only to regroup somewhere else. Bar ownership change hands as quickly as the names on the doors.

But “I still survive” if failed the US interview to live in Hotel California (background Karaoke screen often shows Golden Gate Bridge).

Those who were lucky to migrate to the West can’t wait to make enough money to return to the “village”. This time, to their surprise, the place has changed. From Cadillac, to Rolls Royce. And you can take a working elevator up to the joint as well. No more semi-enclosed bar (Cadillac) where rain would disrupt a fashion show in progress as often did.  Siting from the inside, you might think you are in a Vegas joint. Gaming and gambling are pushed to its neighboring Cambodia..

As of this edit, a legislative proposal is on the table to legalize sports betting modeled after Singapore recent successes.

With only eateries and spirits as socially acceptable vices, everyone  “dzo”, eat, drink and be merry. Tomorrow will take care of itself, that is, kicking the can down the road for younger population to step up and take up the torch. That torch might not be the same. This time, new issues have emerged: gay, abortion and single mothering. I hope they don’t carry real burning torches on their next drag race. Arson is a kind of upgrade no one needs. If upset, just go ahead and torch yourself.

Me, I will survive. With or without Hotel California.

 

strong as an ox

I am back to the land where people work animals into daily speech:

– strong as an ox

– wrinkle as a monkey

– dumb as a cow.

Everything gets used more than once (recycled): plastic bags, banana leaves. In Understanding Vietnam ( through literature) published by Berkeley Press, the author, after surveying many well-known pieces, came to see that the tension between “Hieu” and “Tinh” is key to understand Vietnam.

I would posit that this tension gets new expressions and variations in today’s context. For instance, the “Hieu” (loyalty to parents and extended families) could easily evolve to loyalty to a team or support system (women group).

Meanwhile “Tinh” gets complicated with the introduction of Western understanding of sexuality (even homosexuality).

I can understand why Asian young struggling with changes challenges.

PBS has a piece on this subject. A Chinese peasant girl went to the city for work (garment). She saved up enough for the annual trip back home on the train. Upon arrival, her independence came to a head- on with traditional mores.

Bang! Conflict. Collision. Compromise.

Changes in morality, changes in the tools we use and changes due to the influx of FDI and foreign influences (smoking or non-smoking?).

Web sites are discussing a country bride who was set up to marry a Korean man through a matchmaking service, only to die a week after her arrival to the new country.  Groom wasn’t well in the head and did not take his medicine, or so they said.

Infrastructure need FDI. People need Foreign Aid even without “Tinh”, as long as the “Hieu” gets taken care of (building country houses with modern electricity and plumbing for parents).

This tension intensifies with each new element gets added-on into the old system.

So the parents of the dead bride now experience the most extreme of unintended consequences.

This leads me back to the bamboo as a symbol of strength, but a quiet one.

Bend with the wind. Unbreakable. Resilient.

I would rather use plants to describe strength, than animals (the Zodiac leads first with the Rat, yew!).

Western world, on the other hand, works machine, instead of plants or animals, into their daily figure of speech: robust, retooling, reboot.  Whatever the dominant factor at the time in that society becomes the mental construct of the day.

With 90% back then, and 60% today, Vietnam can’t help using the buffalo to describe strength (Buffalo Boy vs Cowboy). Everyone can relate to the usefulness and stamina of an ox, a traditional symbol of strength in Vietnamese literature. After all, it has been around helping to cultivate the field for thousand of years. (Similar to Wolf Totem in Mongolia).

But it’s bamboo that helped mobilize Quang Trung‘s troop to traverse the entire expanse of the country, during New Year, to defeat the invading army. Two soldiers carry the one who rests. Very much like Spain during World cup. They were unselfish. They stayed with their triangular formation.

They claimed victory, rightfully. History (rewritten one) always favors the strong. But the strong have known this for  some time: strength alone doesn’t assure victory. Just go to the museum of Natural Sciences and see now-extinct dinosaurs for yourself.

 

From Bay Bridge to Bong Bridge

It took 20 years for me to reconnect with a childhood friend.

The last time we saw each other was near the Bay Bridge.

This time, 2 decades have passed, and he picked me up on his motorcycle near Bong Bridge, in the heart of Saigon.

You might think that his ability to weave in and out of chaotic HCMC traffic is a sign that he is a local. But you would be surprised to find out that Hung Nguyen used to work for Electronic Arts, and now CEO of LogiGear, with HQ near Bay Bridge, and offshore office near Bong Bridge.

When the other Clinton was here, he checked out Pho 2000.

Now that Hilary Clinton’s turn to visit Vietnam, she will have more choices to visit, from software parks to hardware parks, many of which were start-ups by Viet Kieu and other expats.

I am here to witness a new transition, which leap-frogs from an agrarian to an information society.

I found myself a Rip Van Wrinkle, coming back to a city of  10 million, all of whom on two-wheels, and software engineers, ten years ago, were probably playing games at internet cafe. They are here now, with “bug-hunting” contest, while in the Bay Bridge areas, their counter parts used to do Egg Hunting on Easter.

Hung Nguyen co-authors a best-selling text-book on Software Testing,

and he envisions Vietnam as a premier destination in South East Asia for this particular sector. The work force are young, which means they can stay and scale with the projects. They are ambitious, working long hours and yes, there is a crash-landing play room on the 6th floor, and cafeteria on the 8th floor for reboot.

The campus-like infrastructure was no where near Google’s,  Cisco’s or Salesforce.com’s, but for Vietnam, it does the job. VISTACON , Hung’s brainchild on software testing conference, welcomes speakers from Microsoft, EA, McAfee and FIT to the convention center near Bong Bridge every summer.

It will be just like any conference on software testing near the Bay Bridge, except for sponsorship banners, buffet and bunch of people who are eager to learn.

I can’t get the song out of my head “sur le pond, D’Avingon…” or the Vietnamese song “Ai dang di tren cau Bong, rot xuong song uot quan ni-long”.

Broadband build-out gave off-shoring industry a head start in places like India and Ireland. Now CAT5 is running up and down the stairs here at LogiGear, HCMC the same way.  The world is not only flat.

It is getting flatter every day with each IT graduate.

Out of my school and class, emerges people like Hung.

Out of many colleges and universities here in Vietnam, I am sure there will one day see a Bill Gates, who commands a huge rock-star turn-out in Bac Ninh. It’s not the “origin of species” here, but the process seems to favor the fittest. We got a bunch here but they do need a half-hour nap for reboot. In that half an hour, the machine takes over to do the downloading, upgrading and whatever else a contractor is asked to do. I don’t doubt the day when these semi-automated testers can afford a full-length nap while files are traveling back-and-forth from Bay Bridge to Bong Bridge.

Et pourtant, I think of French bread

This guy, Thomas Huang, went searching for a chocolate eclaire in Saigon, and ended up having his article in the Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/travel/thisweek/stories/DN-vietbread_0711tra.ART.State.Edition1.4fb9c7b.html

I sat next to a business man from Dallas on my recent trip to Vietnam.

He and his partners were into real estate.

And the amazing thing was, while his partner and he flew separately, Korean and Japan Airlines respectively, they both arrived at the same time.

(The Polish government could have taken a page from this playbook).

I wasn’t sure they went hunting for French bakery or not. Not everyone from Dallas craves for the dough.

But I must admit, my upper class men were into French cinema (Bonjour Tristesse), French music (Et Pourtant) and French cuisine (cafe au lait).

I, however, just barely missed the tail end of French colonial influence, and the emergence of R&R (Oh Susie Q).

Everything came back to me a bit fuzzy: like on a super 8mm reel. Back then, life was on the fast lane. Fashion and fad, fun and fear. Ballroom dancing anyone?. Male riders in the back of scooters must sit cross-legged like girls, for security reason. Occasionally, when a waltz number was up, I saw couples wearing white shirts (reflect the psychedelic purple) and tight jeans, twirling and turning, both long-hair and skinny. Way to go the late 60’s.

My upper class men adopted foreign music but selectively: Santana was OK, since it fit into their ballroom dance cycle. Christophe was OK, but only for listening. And , out on the left field, came Lobo, with You and Me and the dog named Boo (Lobo and Procol Harum were both one-hit wonders).

Public school got ample supplies of French bread and powdered milk. Up to their ears. And to change menu, they went for US army rations sold on the black market: those crackers and small peanut butter  in army-green tin cans (reminded me of Kiwi shoe polish).

Anyway, we grew up in a hurry, pulled all-night study to avoid the draft (had there been a Canada North, many would have gone. In fact, our generations’ Canada was Colombo scholarship to study in Melbourne).

And of course, the ubiquitous French bread for study break. They poured the sauce and their hearts into it, and tell you the truth, I am going to join Thomas Huang of Dallas in his hunt for a perfect French baguette. It makes me hungry all of a sudden. I must give it to them, the French, who came up with everything long: Eiffel tower, baguette and Tour De France.

Le jour le plus longue. No wonder they drink coffee all day long. Their days are even longer than ours (but they work only 35 hours per week). I realize just now why I enjoyed Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. I was “Thomas Huang” but in the opposite direction. He went from Dallas to Saigon, and I, Saigon to New Orleans, both in search of  “un temp perdu”.

Those were the times, of war and peace, love and hate, loyalty and betrayal. Of fast life on fast lane and sudden losses.

Regime change and revolution upheaval.  Of romance and regret. Life-defining moments. It’s not just an eclaire.

It’s an era, forever gone, yet stuck in memory. Now the street behind yesterday’s Independence Palace lay dimly, leaving the glowing stage for capitalist-like District One, Vietnam’s shopping show case. We’ve got it too! Yet we didn’t get it. Maybe just an eclaire. Stuffs that are consumable. Everything else is left to fate. When one gave up free will, fate takes over, by default.

Former colonial mentality follows its master’s fate into oblivion. Bonjour Tristesse! How I wish for the young to dance, to dream and to make it happen again: to build bridges instead of jumping out from one.

Avez vous le vuvuzela?

Vietnamese soccer fans are eager to get their hands on the instrument.

It’s not surprising to see Vietnamese hot for soccer. I was there when Vietnam scored at the last-minute to win over Thailand.

But it is quite amusing to hear how vuvuzela is also making its way from South Africa to South Vietnam. Isn’t it noisy enough with millions of motor bikes honking all day long?

http://www.vnexpress.net/GL/Doi-song/Mua-sam/2010/06/3BA1D42E

Some cultures have an affinity to expressing themselves more audibly than others.

Hispanic events are always loud, so are the Filippino ones.

And Japanese events are the most quiet.

In the article, we also learned that in Hanoi, the demand for vuvuzela is lower than in HCMC .

The hotter the climate, the noisier the society.

The cold and rain tend to soothe and produce a calming effect.

The gods must be crazy in South Vietnam.

And World Cup fever is at its height. Blow the horn. Win or lose.

Meanwhile, in traffic, people also blow the horn to :

– announce their presence

– urge drivers in front to hurry

– celebrate soccer victory

In other words, honking  for all occasions.

In the US, if you honk, you will likely get a finger or trigger a road rage.

Intended and perceived message. Pure mis-communication play.

At least, the article brought up a good point: vuvuzela is not meant to be blown solo. It’s not like a sax which produces the urban lonely sound.

Vuvuzelas are meant to be blown in communal setting. In World Cup stadium. In South Africa. It’s so amazing how fast music (or sound) and sports can bring people together.

So does a simple instrument  (from the Roman Empire to today’s Arlington Memorial).  Wait until someone tries to blow it in Sapa or Dalak where nature will join in with its own hollowing echo, reverberate the (sounding) circle of life (Disney-esque) e.g. bushman and cave man, mountain man and city man, factory man and fashion man, hobo and homo: all free men.

Humanity will get its say. It just takes time. Do unto others what you would want done. What comes around comes around. I just hear the sound of one hand clapping.

What’s that sound. Everybody is going round.

Self-monitoring Vietnam

Two articles on Bloomberg Business Week.

One on Clicking with co-workers (productivity increase) and the other, Vietnam is finally ready for foreign investment ( with a question mark at the end).

The former article is based on a study that people who work and play together make a great team.

The other, since its neighbors Thailand and China are facing internal pressures (upheaval and worker strike) Vietnam might emerge as a strong off-shored contender. (As of this edit, BW has an article on Vietnam’s emerging role in Regional Security, with Mr Hagel meeting with Vietnamese counterpart in Brunei).

Huge hotel infrastructures have been up, but cautiously, taken a lesson from China’s building burst.

Meanwhile, Utah just put a man down via firing squad, a century old practice which has just been banned in Vietnam.

How is that for Amnesty International observers? Be fair and be balanced.

Have you read Banners from Heaven, a tale of struggle and murder in Utah?

There are Evil everywhere, even in the self-professed  civilized society ( And conversely, there is kindness in the most unlikely place.)

Back to our Bloomberg articles.

The clicking which results in team synergy came from self-monitoring (social intelligence).

And Vietnam, to build critical mass in global integration, will need a dose of self-monitoring as well.

By installing VINASAT 2, it will soon be able to see things from outer space.

And this GPS view will help it to see its geo-economic position against its neighbors: Thailand to the left and China to the North.

BBC did an interview about the subject just last week at the World Economic Forum i.e. China + 1. And Cisco signed a deal to build Smart buildings.

It’s not good enough these days to build world tallest hotels. Our expectations have increased : we need not only sky view, but also broadband access.

The rich want to be connected (it’s lonely at the top). And Vietnam, wanting to “click” with ROW, will need to accommodate those wishes, among them, high-speed rail and mail. The list of unintended consequences just gets longer each day. And that’s the price of growing pain. Instead, it is considering blocking off Skype and Viper, disruptive services which eat up the shares of state-owned shares. All the energies devoted to catching the “bad” guys could be channeled to “creative destruction”. It’s not too far-fetched to see Vietnam young come up with another Yahoo or Skype itself. Just a matter of time.

Work in team and play in team. It’s best that way!

 

Up the value chain

China is dreaming up its own Silicon Valley.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127742250&ft=1&f=1017

Its young are flocking NE universities in the summer, learning about American culture and history.

While in San Jose, they visit Tech Museum.

Are ideas and innovation moving offshore?

I was told to “follow the money”.

Does anyone know what time it is? Doesn’t anyone even care? (Chicago).

Actually, they have been nickel-and-dime, with rising costs (of wages, inflation pressure etc…).

Either they move South to Vietnam, Cambodia etc… or up the value chain.

Moving of the mind instead of moving the factories.

In crisis, there is opportunity. (Inida after 4 decades of leapfrogging the manufacturing step, end up with inflation).

30 years ago, China did it, out of necessity (with obvious consequences such as wage pressures and pollution).

This time, it is forced to go beyond dorm-room refrigerators to solar panel and software development.

Already we saw Baidu. And cities which offer high rebates for film makers (free extras). Watch out Bollywood!

If history taught us anything, it is this: China made a huge mistake by burning its world-class vessels back in the 16th century.

It drifted away and distracted itself  with opium and orthodoxy. Now China wakes up, moves fast and away from its progress-resistant mode. It has no time to eat or spend its money.

Money and success feed themselves. And each Chinese is moving up the Maslow scale. So is the interior country (with each province’s RFP and coordinated initiatives),

to catch up with Coastal cities such as Shanghai. The latter have been on steroid, while the former adrenaline.

Turns out, China is doing what exactly anyone in its place would: follow the money because its leader said “to get rich is glorious”, in this case, optimizing the value chain and use all its resources (which means it will soon have to outsource, offshore and build Tech museum as well). The force of nature favors survival of the busiest. And China is busy building its own Silicon Valley.

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.

 

Vietnamize the franchise

Carl Jr, Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe, KFC, BK, MacDonald, Circle K, Domino, Pizza Hut.

The age of franchise bull run.

When I said I had been to 40+ cities in N America, I actually meant, I have been to only one. The one with MacDonald, Starbucks, Walmart, Target etc…

You got the idea.

The funny thing was, per my  job, I had to zero in Chinese and Vietnamese niche markets in those cities.

And within these niches, I ran into Lee Sandwiches, Tung Ki noodles, Pho Hoa,  Hoa Phat Money Transfer, Le money transfer etc…

Can’t seem to find the authentically local flavor (maybe in New Orleans and Biloxi).

HCMC and Hanoi will soon be filled with similar landmarks, once the invasion of franchise outlets saturated those two engines of growth.

For now, it’s novelty to sit in a new establishment, place your order and self-serve your drinks (the age of prosumerism).

I ordered an iced coffee milk this morning at a local MacDonald. What I got was iced milk. And the cookie I ordered, I had to pay three times for it

(because the system doesn’t allow for customer to buy just one).

So, welcome to supply chain, branding and upselling.

And good luck with getting customer service at those places.

Indeed, one can go through life, at least here in the States, for a month without ever getting any help at all, over the phone or the counter.

See my other blog on “machine and me”.

It gets to be lonely. Hence the blog.

I hope Vietnam doesn’t get that way, at least, not yet until I can find a Carl Jr at every corner, right next to the Starbucks.

Third place, third screen, third world

Known as the third place (away from home and work), Starbucks did not stop after opening up in Forbidden City, China.

It has just opened for business in Vietnam (where the I-phone, our third screen – after TV and desktop – recently made a stirring appearance).

Vietnam young consumer segment and older generations with French-cafe habit are low-hanging fruit.

It will have to acquire prime real estate and make an inroad into tourist centers, or M&A with existing Viet-Thai International who operates Highland coffee chain.

Either way, the WiFi Third Place is here in once Third World., Cheryl Crow‘ s pipe-in music (if it makes you happy, and why the hell are you so sad).  After all, Hard Rock cafe has beaten Starbucks to the punch.  Now the hard part is how to translate those “tall ice latte” into Vietnamese.

Those slim bodies are ready to put on some weight.  Soon, location-based promotion will pop up on those I-phones, showing tourists where to get a foamy caffeine fix. It’s no longer Third World but where ever there is a Third Place with Third Screen, that’s home.

No need for coded song (White Christmas) to launch an evacuation. Just stay put for the next Cheryl Crow’s spin on an old Carpenter’s song “While life goes on around him everywhere he’s playing solitaire”. Third Place, third screen, anywhere.