Remember Gordon Gekko, the Michael Douglas character in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street? He’s the one who proclaimed that “greed is good” at a shareholder meeting. Wall Street hasn’t changed much since the 1987 film. Those nice folks who brought you the sub-prime housing crisis, the Great Recession, the too big to fail bailouts, and the obscene bonuses are still bilking all of us. America is still run by the fat cats and special interests. So is Vietnam and cynically “greed is good” could also be the national tagline in Vietnam. The cynical view doesn’t take into account the incredible industry of the people, their positive outlook on life, or their willingness to sacrifice their own welfare for the welfare and education of their children. But, greed and corruption are huge problems in the country and in some ways seem to be driving the culture. It used to be unmentionable but recently it’s more and more a topic of concern and conversation along with the Bo Xilai corruption scandal in China. read more

Howard Hughes was afraid of germs (and so is my wife). His fear drove him to extremes. Sometimes I think it’s doing the same to her. Living in Saigon, I think she has better reasons but he wouldn’t touch doorknobs and eventually he removed himself, as much as possible, from all human contact. He was managing risk. He was a nut case, but we all do it to one degree or another.

For a Western expatriate, Saigon can be a challenge in risk management. Yesterday, a friend told Marilynn that she was surprised and appalled to find out that her house cleaner was “cleaning” all the surfaces in her bathroom with water from the toilet. A less extreme case was our discovery that our household help was washing all the dishes with cold water. That is more understandable when you know that most Vietnamese houses don’t have hot water. Cold water is the only kind available so naturally everything, clothes, dishes, and bodies are washed with cold water. Even when we told her to use hot water for the dishes she had a hard time complying because she said it burned her hands. She didn’t perceive any risk from bacteria and she thought it was too expensive to use hot water. Sidewalk food vendors have a bucket of water that they use to wash dishes and utensils. They use the same water for hours. It may not be the food that gives you stomach cramps. It could be the dish it’s served on. read more