Christmas Crowds

Here are what the crowds looked like while I was walking around on Christmas Eve, 2007 in Hanoi.  It seemed like there were more people (and police directing traffic) on the street than even when Vietnam succeeded in the AFC Cup this past summer.

Intersection of Trang Tien and Hang Bai, at the base of Hoan Kiem Lake.

Nha Tho Lon, around 7pm, Christmas Eve

Random intersection, Old Quarter.  Duong Thanh Street, I believe.

Nha Tho Lon, around 11pm Christmas Eve.

My Christmas Day dinner.  No turkey and stuffing, just some odd Singaporean interpretation of chow fun.  

Christmas in Vietnam

Just throwing up some pictures of Christmas in Vietnam, and Hanoi in particular, circa 2007.  

Fortuna Hotel

Hanoi Hotel

Outside of the Vincom Towers

Inside the Vincom, in Megastar Cinema

And of course, the Sofitel Metropole

The Power of Government

Walking back from breakfast this morning, I noticed something was odd, then it hit me. Mostly everyone on a moto was wearing a helmet. Then it hit me, it's December 15th.

Even the dude riding next to me.. as I was strolling home. I guess the helmet law even applies when you ride on the sidewalk. The only guy that I saw not wearing a helmet was a dude riding sissy on a bike. He was in full army gear, natch.

Do You Know What Day It Is?

I had no idea today is Pearl Harbor Day - just an odd sensation today, every time I wrote something and typed in the date
, I sensed somehow this date is familiar.

Now it's like 6pm here it finally hit me. I've mentioned before how sporting events, and cultural touchstones like this day of remembrance, help one mark time throughout the year in the States, and how I'm somewhat lost here. Is it December, or September, or March? It is very easy to forget while here in Vietnam.

Next thing you know, it'll be time to return home.

Time to Let Go

So it is time to let go.. of a staff member the other day.

I've had a hand in hiring a number of people - the psychic rewards are nice, but sometimes you have to experience the flip side of it.

It is never easy to fire someone. If it were easy, then that means that you made a horrendous mistake in the hiring process. This person was relatively nice and all, maybe a bit too pushy, using her age and the cultural deference towards such, to bully some of the younger co-workers. But she didn't cut it at her job - didn't learn and didn't improve, so we had to let her go.

I tried to do the professional thing by telling her privately, giving her time to digest and ask questions, and time alone. Also gave her ample time to transfer her work to co-workers before leaving at the end of the week.

I headed off to a meeting and came back to find that she flew the coop, collected all her pay, including pay for the next few days for which she wouldn't show up, and, most egregiously, deleted all the work product that she produced.

I was basically flabbergasted. This person got a job through a recommendation from a current manager - a cousin or in-law or some such - so that manager pretty much screwed the pooch on this one.

The deleted computer files was more of an annoyance than anything, after all, she was let go because her work product was severely deficient, but man, that'll teach me. Next time I fire someone, it'll be with ruthless corporate precision - lockdown of computers, 15 minutes of supervised clean up of their work space, security will escort them out, the whole nine yards. It's a shame really, but as the saying goes, fool me once...

Turning Vietnamese

A Brazilian keeper is renouncing his citizenship to apply for a Vietnamese passport, in order to play on the national team. First the WTO, then the Security Council, now Brazilians want to be Vietnamese. These are interesting times..

Here's an F430 on the streets of HCMC. Dang. This was taken by the blogger 'lilmissmeg' at LiveJournal, the now Russian internet company. Found her blog through SaigonNezumi, who commented on some less than savory things she's written about the local populace. I'm more interested in the car than the commentary. So, if you own this thing, give me a lift going 3 kph, will ya?

On China Time

Lately, with the winter in Hanoi, the pollution in Vietnam has finally gotten to me and is causing a slight tickle in the throat and a cough.

Recently I headed to Beijing, China. The last time I was there, summer of 2006, I didn't notice any pollution. Maybe I was just busy checking out the scenery and thought that the grey skies were normal. I've finally figured out that when the sky is that grey and there is no chance of precipitation, something is wrong.

One of the new things to do is to go around town checking out the progress of buildings, some constructed to coincide with the Beijing 2008 games, some just a reflection of the continued economic boom.

I think this one is supposed to be the next CCTV tower. I'm not too sure. Looks interesting, like some uncompleted Tetris pieces. (speaking of media in China, it seems all blogspot sites are blocked, and news sites, such as CNN.com or WashingtonPost.com, are really, really slow to load, to the point of being unusable. And there is a great fascination with parading foreigners on CCTV, or KBS for that matter, who can speak Chinese. I don't get it - it would be interesting if it's 1907, but c'mon, so what if there is some white guy or some black guy who can recite nursery rhymes? The writer strike is still on in Hollywood - quick, get some Asian people on TV to read Shakespeare. But I digress.)

So going somewhere new means trying new food. The above is some calf marrow. It was part of a hot pot meal.

This is some braised goose heads. Surprisingly tasty.

Went out on my birthday for some scorpions. They're on the left, along with some stinky tofu, chicken hearts and white chicken meat. No, the scorpions didn't taste like chicken. Just a bit crunchy, not bad.

Before dinner, the hotel brought by some birthday cake gratis. Finally, a benefit from handing over your passport at hotels in foreign countries.

This is the way up to the hotel room. No 13th floor for the Westerners, no 4th and 14th floor for the Easterners (or at least the ones that share some Chinese cultural traditions).

Oh, I also went shopping - at the knockoff places and at Sogo, 'cause I heard a lot about it. People were lining up 15, 20 minutes before the place opened. I got there early 'cause I was uninformed about the store hours. And no, this wasn't some Black Friday deal. Weird, 'cause it's only a (nice) department store.

That's pretty much Beijing, in a 48 hr nutshell.

Breaking The Social Contract

Being in this region means I watch a lot of news via the BBC, CNN International, and the various satellite broadcasts from neighboring countries (NHK, KBS, CCTV). One of the things that gets more coverage in this region is the transformation of China, particularly the preparations for the Beijing games in 08.
Part and parcel of the ongoing construction in China is the government land grab, and the people's protest against the perceived unfairness of it all. People are rioting against the government takings, and the news is starting to filter out. I guess when I head to Beijing in a few months and see the progress since last summer, some of it will be on the backs of those left behind.

People in the investment world say that Vietnam is like China 10 years ago; similarly, China's social problems will visit this country as well.

A few weeks back I was listening in to a conference where an audience member asked one of the big fund managers about the issue of eminent domain in Vietnam. Shockingly, and a bit embarrassingly, the manager had no clue as to what eminent domain even meant. I guess you don't need to understand the terminology behind Kelo v. Connecticut to follow it's conclusions.

I am as commercial as it gets - that's part of the reason for being in Vietnam right now. But sometimes the progress here is heartbreaking. I'm sitting in a coffee shop in HCMC, having a light lunch of western-priced panini, looking out to the Gucci storefront.

A middle schooler walks by, beyond the plate glass that insulates this culture of tourists, expats and local privilege, from the streets. He has a wide grin, showing off youthful, sun-bleached teeth. He's holding what looks like a deck of cards, and carrying a small satchel - perhaps a bit of reading material, perhaps a small stack of DVDs to pitch. It's the middle of District 1, and he's barefoot. And I question my morality.

The light lunch turns heavy and I am consumed by things other than the texture of the bread. I make an effort to purchase yesterday's USA Today when leaving the coffee shop - it is not exactly StreetWise, but then again I was never partial to that concept.

I force a smirk while reading about the ineptitude that is ND football under Charlie Weis. I leave the paper and walk in to another conference session, trailing two Cubans who I overheard talking about buying into a resort in Danang. I hope to find this well of empathy the next time I walk through Hanoi's night market in the Old Quarter, with its street urchins and the old man who canvasses the crowd by scooting along on his rear, his ineffective legs leading the way.