More than half of
Vietnam's population today
were born after the war and are more
interested in consumerism than communism. But in spite of
their
smuggled videos and make-believe motor bikes (which are all chrome and
glitz and
have tiny motors), they live in a culture where corruption
is a way of life, the judicial
system is almost non-existent, and
writers are persecuted and forbidden to portray Vietnam
without a rosy
myth.

The extent of the corruption is everywhere. If you are sick
you
have to pay extra to get the most basic medical care, even if you
have government insurance.
If you want your children to pass their
exams, you have to pay teachers for "private tuition".
If
you want to move, change jobs or leave the country, you have to pay
someone. The
police can arbitrarily rob street vendors or require
payoffs from anyone at whim. And, as
foreign investors have found,
unlike other Asian countries, the pay-offs do not necessarily
obtain
the results desired.

There's a history of famine in Vietnam and
memories of
starvation. There are also food practices that Westerners
find abhorrent. Yes. The Vietnamese
do eat dogs and cats and
restaurants get big bucks for serving meat that is on the
endangered
species list. I know that I should try to not be judgmental, but the
ancient
practice of beating a dog to death over several hours in order
to tenderize the meat
particularly disturbs me.

The book is dense
with facts and slow reading. And some of the
sections were difficult
to follow, especially when the author went into great detail about
the
complexities of corruption in the Vietnamese Communist party where one
leader after
another would fall into disfavor with the party, be
thrown into prison, his family denied any
employment and his children
forbidden to attend school.

To raise money from tourists,
especially
from Americans who return to Vietnam with a sense of guilt about the
war,
several war museums have been erected. The fact that many of the
exhibits are not authentic
does not stop people from visiting them.
There is even a museum that re-creates the infamous
tunnels used by
the Viet Cong although they had to be made larger to accommodate the/>larger size American tourists. There is even a make-believe mine
field with firecrackers
that explode when a wire is tripped.

For the
Vietnamese who now live in other parts of the
world, returning is
difficult. They are considered rich foreigners and intruders and it/>is extremely rare for any of them to come back to settle
permanently.

It was a bit of a
struggle for me to read this book. I
learned a lot but cannot say I enjoyed it. There was
very little to
break the tension and the few shreds of humor were few and far
between.
And yet, for anyone who is truly interested in a serious
comprehensive analysis of what Vietnam
is today, this is a worthwhile
book and I would definitely recommend it.