Hanoi

We are now in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city. Hanoi is a big, noisy, dirty city, with a lot of character. There is a combination of French and Asian style in some of its buildings. The tree lined streets of the old city are crowded with motor bikes, bicycles and more and more cars and there are many good and cheap places to eat. The sidewalks are crammed with vendors, parked motorbikes, sidewalk cafes and many other things besides the pedestrians trying to get through these obstacles. There are quite a few tourists here, especially around the old quarter near Hoa Kiem Lake. There are several lakes and parks that people enjoy especially in the early morning when many people do tai chi exercises, aerobics, walking, dancing and jogging. You can see many red flags and symbols of Communist rule. There is also quite a bit of construction going on. Workers were using a jackhammer in our hotel so we had to move out and are now staying with our friend Jessie and his Spanish fiance, Marta, near Lenin Park.

Jessie is the son of two dear friends from Massachusetts. He works for UNESCO as an environmental sustainability consultant. UNESCO promotes educational projects and tries to promote governmental policies that encourage a more healthy environment.

Yesterday we visited the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, which focuses on all the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. We learned about the languages and customs of some of the minority groups who live in the hills and plateau region. There are many pictures and artifacts and also some typical housing that has been built on the museum grounds. I wonder how much of the tone of respect for minority cultures found in this museum is actually carried out in practice. It didn't seem that way during our brief visit to a minority village near Khe Sanh.

There was also an exhibit sponsored by the Ford foundation about Catholic minority in Vietnam. I have been told that the church hierarchy recently resisted giving up some land it owned in central Hanoi. The government wanted to build a luxury hotel but people got together and resisted that, demanding that a park be built. I am told the people won and they are building a park.

In the evening we went out to eat at a large, busy popular middle-class restaurant. We had dinner with Jessie, Marta, and a Ruben, a friend of theirs. He has lived in Vietnam for a few years and knows the people well. He was explaining that there is quite a bit of participation in the political process, at least at the local level, and the leadership is obligated to consult with the elected bodies when shaping governmental policy and that the government here is backed by the people by and large, in spite of the corruption that does occur here. He said that there was a kind of consensus achieved before policies were carried out. Higher elected governing bodies are chosen and elected by the local bodies, I understand.