Vietnam After-Thoughts

Drafted this post Thursday morning thinking I would post it later in the day after a quick review. Well, Thursday turned out to be a busy day what with catching up on paperwork at the VFW and the social night at the same place. Yesterday I was at SeaTac at 0515 for our trip back to Pittsburgh for the VFW National Convention so here I am on Saturday morning finally getting back to this draft.

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 Back from our trip a day and a half now I find myself reviewing the trip for insights that might interest followers of this blog.

First is the overall beauty of the countries. Traveling through the hill country was an experience I won't forget. Since it is in the tropics the hills (mountains, really) are covered with vegetation even though we were sometimes at elevations higher than our own Stevens Pass. It was cool at times and they even get occasional snow at the higher elevations in December and January.

My previous mental image of Vietnam was based on my experiences while there during the war in 1966-67 when I was stationed in the Saigon area in the southern part of the country. The terrain there is pretty flat with cultivated fields everywhere but no hills. In contrast the travel through the mountains of the north was an eye opener.

Next would be the friendliness and industriousness of the people. I lump these two traits together because they seem to go hand in hand. Everywhere we traveled the people were happy and hard working. I occasionally saw a neutral face but can't recall even one instance of an unfriendly or scowling face. From the hill tribes to the Laotians to the Vietnamese of Saigon and the larger towns, the people were uniformly accepting of the gang of foreigners that invaded their workplaces and homes.

The other half of that equation was in evidence everywhere. From waterfalls to construction zones to local attractions, if there was a chance of making a sale there would spring up a roadside market of people selling handicrafts, drinks or whatever produce was in season. On one occasion I saw a couple young lads carrying freshly harvested orchid plants, roots and all to the orchid vendors at one such market.

Every inch of tillable land was planted to crops or in transition between crops. Even some not tillable land (up to 45 or more degrees) was planted to corn. I don't know how they climb those hills to plant and more impressively, to harvest and carry out their product. In some distant fields we could see lean tos or small platforms with a roof that looked like a place to spend the night. I suppose that after walking the better part of a day to get to their field they would spend two or three days working before making the trek back home.

In the towns and cities of Vietnam and Lao people were busy from first light until well after dark. There were small shops specializing in doing the work that keeps a civilization functioning. Repair work of various kinds, small carpenter or machine shops, making small parts for a larger assembly operation somewhere else, foot operated sewing machines, and, of course, the needle work in any spare time, kept everyone busy either doing that work or supporting those who did.

The actuality overrode my preconceived notion that since this was a communist state the workers would be organized and directed by central authority. That tuned out to be not the case at all. It looked to me like a better model of private entrepreneurial efficiency than most places in the western world.

Finally, this visit impressed upon me again that today's Americans have no idea what poverty is all about. Those of us in our seventies or eighties have memories of a time in our country when poverty was not a government statistic. Of course, I have no memories of the depression or the dust bowl era, but during and after the war (WWII) there were tough times. Food was scarce, hand-me-downs were the norm and people were fortunate to eat in a restaurant a few times per year. Yet we survived. Mothers cooked low budget but nutritious food and safety nets were operated by neighbors, churches and other local organizations. People worked because they wanted to eat.

Vietnam and Lao reminded me of those times doubled. Many of the remote areas have no electricity although the government is working to get all on the grid. Even if they had electricity there were no washing machines, no dishwashers, no driers, no TV or other electronics, no flush toilets or even running water. We often saw people doing laundry or bathing in the rivers.

Even in Ho Chi Minh City, while everyone had electricity and running water, hot water was not necessarily a given, modern appliances were scarce and long, hard labor trying to improve ones lot was the rule.

Here in the US even our poorest people have shoes, decent clothes, modern appliances, telephones (and cell phones), often a car and usually some kind of a decent roof over their heads. In fact, our poor can afford to eat fast food and gain weight instead of cooking at home and eating more nutritious meals.

The true homeless may be an exception but it seems to me that the more government programs we offer the poor the more poor we have. When people have the luxury of declining a job because it doesn't suit their lifestyle, or career goal or entails physical labor it tells me that too many folks are riding the wagon of economic survival instead of helping to pull it.

Unlike in the places we recently visited, no one here is going to starve because they can't or won't work. I wonder if we shouldn't return that option to the equation and see if some old time motivation might induce more people to find a way to earn an honest living instead of living off the largess of our government (other people).