AT SEA EN ROUTE TO LAEM CHABANG, THAILAND (3/14/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (biggiroot)
Date: Mar 14, 2007 12:03 PM
Subject: Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

AT SEA EN ROUTE TO LAEM CHABANG, THAILAND

Yesterday our guide said things we found remarkable. We wouldn’t think we could hear these things a year ago. Several times, when we asked our guide delicate questions, last year, we understood there were things they were afraid to talk about. You have to remember, these guides are picked by the government more for how much they can be trusted then how well they spoke.

The one we had this time was very nice and very knowledgeable but was hard to understand. He mentioned he was living with a girlfriend. This was totally unheard of in this country. Like other Asian countries, much if not all is done by tradition. His parents were very angry and unhappy with him as of course were the girls. He later said he was living in a community. We figured out that he meant commune. This too is totally unheard of in Vietnam.

He also mentioned six points to becoming more like Americans. One is, they openly wanted things and the status quo was not good enough. In their communist form of government that is totally against ideology. The party line is everyone is alike and you do not want more then anyone else has. Another point is that they work hard. The communist way is to do as little as possible. Everybody is the same so there is no getting ahead. Why work hard if no one else is.

I don’t remember what the rest of the six points are but this is total and complete blasphemy in the eyes of a good communist. Very obviously this new capitalism is working and the masses are agreeing with it. As I mentioned, he showed us how many motor bikes and scooters there are. Last year, when there, we saw almost none. He proudly pointed out that not only were bicycles now in the minority but these new motor bikes were not Chinese. They were good ones. They were Japanese.

They have not gotten to owning many if any cars yet, but in an awful short amount of time, an awful lot of these people have raised themselves to the point where they are living far better then their ancestors ever dreamed of. Once you give them a taste of a better life, there is no going back.

We find that this country is still the cheapest place in the world, by far, to buy things that are made here. Even when we were a thousand miles up the Amazon River, without haggling, things like baseball style hats, locally made, were $5 US. Most other places the minimum would be about $10. Anywhere we went in Vietnam, the asking price was $1.00 US.

Someone wrote, and asked if there was animosity about the war. First off the life expectancy is only about 55 here. The guide said 80% of the population was under 30 years old. Their school, for those that do go, is only eight years. They either don’t know about the war or at least not very much and the attitude seems to be not to trust much of what the government tells them. Even the more outspoken ones were very friendly wherever we went. They would ask where we came from but usually never heard of any cities like New York, Chicago, Miami or Los Angelus. All they knew was US.

This is all stuff you never see in our papers. All I ever see is how bad our system is. I would like to see some of these US bashers have to spend some time living under the systems and conditions of these much better communist and other countries.

The main entertainer this evening was Mark Russell, "America’s Most Famous Political Satirist." I don’t know about the most famous part. That is what his billing was. He was really funny though. If you ever get a chance to see him, don’t miss it. He will make you laugh.