Haven’t you ever heard of the American Dream?

Today I strangely learned a lot about Vietnam by discussing American history, culture, and daily life. After our usual classes in the morning we went to the U.S. Consulate Building, where we got a tour and met with a few of the officers to learn about what exactly a consulate does. They explained that while a lot of their work is processing visas for immigration and tourism, they also have the important goal of strengthening diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries (which we explored in detail when we spoke to Patrick Wall two days ago). We also heard about their program to help Vietnamese students to come to the United States to study, called Education USA. This became the most interesting function of the consulate as we proceeded to visit Education USA to meet with Vietnamese students who participate in their program. The intention was to have one on one conversation, but this approach was quickly abandoned as more and more Vietnamese students arrived, ready with questions. We broke into groups, with about 3-4 Americans talking to 30-40 Vietnamese. This tactic was similarly abandoned when we realized how many questions these students were eager to ask, and groups of 1 American talking with about 10 Vietnamese was the final result. The Vietnamese students’ English was flawless, which I was very thankful for. Most of the questions I answered revolved around choosing a major, finding a job, dealing with stress, student loans, and housing in college. However, I did encounter some particularly interesting questions that opened my eyes to some realities in both America and Vietnam. When I was asked about how Americans could afford taking gap years to volunteer or travel I found myself stumbling over the fact that I was in a very fortunate position. Here I was, in Vietnam, not knowing any of their language and only doing minimal research on their culture and customs because I could afford to do so. Meanwhile, I was talking to students who have studied English and American culture tirelessly, in hopes that they could earn a chance to visit my country. I was reminded of our visit to Hutech (a local university) on one of our first days, where the vice president spoke to us on the value of education. He explained how education is so valuable that farmers will sell all of their land simply to send their children to study in America. After learning the value of this land in our talks on the Mekong Delta and speaking with these students, I realized how fortunate I was to be in my position. To be able to pursue a major where I can be confident in my career, to be able to travel and explore countries like Vietnam using that major, and to be able to have my opinion be respected largely due to simply being born into a middle class American household. One student asked me “are you allowed to disagree with your professor?” and I realized that for many students in Vietnam, they do not have the luxury of expressing their own voice in the classroom. I learned that simply being heard is a rare gift for many students as one Vietnamese student excitedly bragged to the rest of the group that his favorite professor (who was educated in America) allowed him to disagree without penalty. They explained that even in classes like philosophy, the professor’s way is the only way. I wonder if this is indicative of a greater cultural norm instilled by the strict communist government and strong family values.

After attempting to address as many major questions as possible I retreated to the hotel for much needed water and rest from the very long day and week. Once there, many of the students from Pitt discussed the most interesting questions they gave or had to answer. One of my friends asked “How do you perceive the typical American?” and received the unexpected answer of “freedom, beautiful, and smart.” Most of us agreed that this was the opposite of what we expected to hear as we see stereotypical Americans as ignorant and lazy. Another friend of mine, confused as many of us were as to how Vietnam, a nation which was the target of extreme American violence during the war, could have such love for the United States. The response he received was “haven’t you ever heard of the American Dream?” I don’t even know how to respond to that.

Religion, Culture, and Art

In lieu of Vietnamese language class today, we visited a Taoist pagoda hidden amongst Saigon's city sprawl. The pagoda, dating back to the 11th century had a number of interesting artifacts including a pond packed with turtles, many wood carvings of warriors, and an old statue who's halo was lit with cheap colorful LEDs. This was an interesting combination of old and new Vietnam and the visit to the pagoda was a nice set up for our lesson back at UEF.

At UEF, we had a lesson on the history of Vietnamese culture. The most interesting portion of the lesson was the discussion of an indigenous tribe in the highlands of central Vietnam. Their culture held females in higher regard than males and valued nature over worldly possessions, such as luxurious homes.

By far the highlight of the day was our visit to Glass Egg, a digital media company that specializes in modeling cars for video games such as Forza Motorsport and Need for Speed. We were given a tour of their facility and got to watch their 200 artists digitally map out supercars down to the nuts and bolts of the engine. Their work is extremely impressive as games like Forza are regularly praised for the beauty of their cars. I remember playing Forza Motorsport 3 for hours on end even though I don't usually enjoy the gameplay of racing games. I played solely to look at the cars. We also met with Phil Tran (CEO), Steve Reid (CFO), and Guillaume Monier (COO) and were able to ask questions after viewing their portfolio. We learned about how Vietnam is a prime place for entrepreneurship since labor costs are so low and heard Phil and Steve's story in building Glass Egg. Phil's story was particularly fascinating because him and his family were actually refugees from the North Vietnamese at the end of the Vietnam War. His father was a soldier in the South Vietnamese military who wrote to a friend in the U.S. Military when he recognized that if he didn't find a way to escape the country his family would be divided and imprisoned while he would likely be executed. This letter was published in the San Diego Times and the publicity pressured the U.S. embassy to evacuate him and his family immediately. Phil was 12 at this time and returned to Vietnam when he was 31. He met Steve, who grew up in Virginia and was visiting the country, and they founded Glass Egg.

Be Strong, Mekong

For our lecture today, the president of a local university, who serves as an advisor for multiple international organizations, spoke to us about the history, culture, and economy of the Mekong Delta. He instructed us about how the region adopted and modified the cultures of neighboring nations and developed its own unique customs. However, the most fascinating part of the lecture was the discussion of the Mekong Delta’s politics and economics. The delta is dominated by poor farmers who produce whatever crop is in highest demand (most often rice). Great economic disparity exists in the region because the average farmer only owns about an acre of land, making it extremely difficult for them to do anything but work for survival. Additionally, the delta has very little infrastructure and the worst education level in the country. With the expansion of industrial sectors into the delta, through the displacement of farmers, these uneducated workers are often forced into working for extremely low wages in factories. Additionally, the land that remains is in peril.Since the delta is the end of a long river that spans multiple countries, each nation it occupies claims ownership of the river and influence it in different ways. For example, 22% of the river lies in China, who built multiple dams that have significant impacts on the Mekong Delta. With the addition of dams upriver, the amount of water flowing into the delta decreases, making the dry season even drier and reducing the amount of floods. The later might seem to be a plus, but for years farmers have relied on regular flooding in the rainy season to wash away acidity and revitalize the soil. To make matters worse, with rising sea levels due to global warming, the Mekong Delta could be mostly submerged within the next 50 years. This presentation opened my eyes to how Vietnam’s expanding infrastructure affects rural areas like the Mekong Delta. It also provided a new perspective on yesterday’s visit to Phu My Hung, where marshlands were transformed into an industrially centered city running on fossil fuels that contribute to the very global warming that could submerge the surrounding area within my lifetime.

Our company visit was to the United States Commercial Service, a sector of the consulate in HCMC. We met with Patrick Wall, who explained that his role was to aid American companies in tapping in to Vietnam’s economy. We discussed this process and the many complications that often emerge in dealing with the beaurocracy and corruption of the Vietnamese government. His insight on American economic and political interaction with Vietnam since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations was helpful in understanding the relationship between the two nations.

Cityception

Today we had our first company visit to Phu My Hung. From previous research, I expected to tour a modern development consisting of 10 or so buildings. What I found was an entire city which was built from scratch by the Phu My Hung Corporation over the past 20 years. After exploring the often chaotic nature of Ho Chi Minh City's blocks which largely consisted of unique houses connected by streets packed with scooters and motorcycles, exploring Phu My Hung's carefully planned and organized development was especially impressive. During our morning lesson, we learned about the HCMC's rapid growth as an economic keystone of Vietnam and the government's plans to expand the city to over double its current size with developments like Phu My Hung. At Phu My Hung's headquarters we received an impressive presentation on the history of the corporation and its transformation of previously lightly used marshlands into the spectacularly modern district of South Saigon. The most interesting aspect of the presentation was Phu My Hung's initiative in using international resources to plan and construct an almost entirely self-sufficient city within the borders of HCMC. In fact, Phu My Hung built a power plant that not only provides sufficient energy to fuel South Saigon, but also powers 40% of HCMC in entirety. That statistic is extremely impressive for 1 power plant but considering its massive smoke stack it probably consumes coal or natural gas. This contradicts Phu My Hung’s claim that they work in harmony with the environment but it also makes sense in that Vietnam is a nation that is struggling to compete with other rapidly growing nations in the region who also resort to cheap but harmful means of power.

I realized during the Phu My Hung visit that I am more confused than I initially anticipated with the Vietnamese government. As I understand it, one of the pillars of communism is a command economy where the borquoise is eliminated and resources are evenly distributed throughout the people. As we learned this morning in the presentation on urban planning, since the Doi Moi (where Vietnam’s command economy began to transition to a market economy), disparity between the rich and the poor has grown significantly. This policy makes me question Vietnam’s communist values. I find the most interesting part of communist morality is in its focus on maintaining equity. Phu My Hung exemplifies a private corporation which developed a self-sufficient city designed to attract the wealthy. Besides Phu My Hung having to lease the land from the Vietnamese government due to shared land ownership, this development seems farther from government involvement than most developments in Western countries. Phu My Hung plans itself, selects which businesses are able to move into their city, and even has its own police force with security stations regularly dispersed within the development. In many ways, Phu My Hung Corporation appears to be a government of its own. While I was extremely impressed by Phu My Hung’s modernized accomplishments, I was left skeptical about their clear marketing towards the wealthy. With signs like “we sell apartments to foreigners” and millions of dollars of foreign investment already given to Phu My Hung, the development will naturally aid Vietnam’s standing in the global market. However, I found myself questioning how HCMC’s economy will be affected if the majority of the city’s wealthy investors move to the exclusive South Saigon and invest less in the rest of the city. Regardless, Phu My Hung’s progress is a marvel in terms of business and engineering, and I very much enjoyed the visit.

Exhaustion is creeping in so I’ll keep the rest of the day fairly brief. After Phu My Hung, the Vietnamese students took us out to dinner at a pho (noodle soup) restaurant. I have been eating pho since I was very young in America, but never have I tasted anything as delicious as the real thing. I finished my bowl of pho within five minutes, broth and all, because I couldn’t stop eating. After eating pho, we visited a park in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral, where it is common for teenagers of HCMC to eat street food on newspapers laid out on the side walk. This makeshift picnic was wonderful and reminded me of the activity of HCMC, with hundreds of motor bikes revolving around our park. I realized that on a Tuesday night, very few American cities would be as alive as HCMC. This idea was strengthened by our trip down the newly completed walkway in the heart of HCMC. On this walkway, crowds of people on the massive sidewalk were flanked by busy streets which lined modern shops, restaurants, and sky scrapers. This tour of downtown HCMC dampened my doubts about Phu My Hung as it appeared that many districts of HCMC are rapidly expanding. However, we passed a high end restaurant in central HCMC named “Le Borquoise” and my confusion on modern communism reemerged. I hope to clarify this subject through the rest of my experiences here in Vietnam.

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) Phu My Hung Corporation is impressive to say the least, I don’t really know what modern communism is, pho is good.

A Warm (and humid) Welcome

I beat jetlag! Despite feeling sleepy in a presentation or two, a morning workout and swim coupled with an incredible breakfast that included glorious Vietnamese coffee and surprisingly tasty corn broth locked me into the Vietnamese schedule. 

Today we visited our partner university, the University of Economics and Finance, and I couldn't have asked for a more hospitable welcome. As soon as we got off the bus we were greeted by enthusiastic Vietnamese students who placed hand woven leis made out of real flowers around our necks. We then sat through a welcome party including numerous dance numbers and speeches where  during the breaks we were able to get to know our new Vietnamese companions. Most of them spoke English very well (which was relieving considering I could hardly even pronounce their names) and all were friendly and outgoing. My first conversation with a student involved him excitedly telling me about how he watched a cartoon movie about a vampire living in the same place that I'm from. I didn't have the heart to pop his bubble by explaining that "Pennsylvania" and "Transylvania" are not the same place.

After the welcome ceremony, we had our first lesson in Vietnamese where I found out I can't differentiate between the Vietnamese word for "ghost" and "mother." I hope I never have to hold a conversation involving both. The different pronunciations were not only difficult to hear, but they were even harder to speak. This language is definitely going to be a challenge.

Lunch was an assortment of Vietnamese foods at a nearby university's cafeteria. The food was about a million times better than anything Market Central has ever served. Lunch was followed by a trip to Hutech, another private university nearby that has both business and engineering. We were divided by major and the engineering group spoke with the Vice-President of the university, who was an electrical-engineer. The topic was intended to highlight the differences between American and Vietnamese universities, but most of the talk was redirected to the VP's philosophical musings. Regardless, he was still very well spoken and his words of wisdom felt worthwhile.

Dinner was at a restaurant that accumulated numerous street vendors and housed them in a gorgeous semi-outdoor building. Once again we received an insanely delicious meal composed of a variety of shared dishes.

Remember when I said I beat jetlag? I lied. It's hitting me now. Goodnight.

RIP Weekend

I woke up Friday morning at 5 o'clock in Pittsburgh, now 34 hours later I am finally in Ho Chi Minh City at 2 o'clock Monday morning. My weekend consisted of two fairly simple, short, laid back flights preceding and following one behemoth 16 hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Preparing for that flight I convinced myself that if I fell asleep early, I could cruise until the end. However, once I took my seat in the middle of a row of 9, I realized that I would not only have teach myself how to maneuver plastic utensils with my elbows touching in order to eat but that I had little to no chance of sleeping comfortably with my legs forced into the shape of the reclined seat in front of me. This resulted in me watching movies until I was tired enough to sleep through anything. This method actually worked very well and I ended up getting at least 5 hours of sleep through periodic slips of consciousness (I highly recommend Citizen Kane and Birdman).

First Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City:
1. Communism is real! With our arrival being just a few days after the 40th anniversary of the liberation (or fall) of Saigon, the city was covered in giant billboards, posters, and banners commending the victory of the North with images of soldiers, workers, and tanks. It was very interesting to see first hand the kind of propaganda I had previously only heard about in history class
2. Scooters, Motorbikes, and Mopeds. Everywhere.
3. The hotel is surprisingly nice and I look forward to killing jetlag tomorrow with a morning workout and swim (we'll see if that actually happens when the morning comes)

Related Links

Plus3 Vietnam Website