JACK BERNARD'S TRAVELS

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 13, 2011

The World is Flat (at least in Saigon)

The world is flat. The world is small. The world is at our fingertips. We have real-time face to face Skype conversations across the oceans. We “chat” with friends in Europe, Asia and the Americas on a daily basis. We follow the news on the European debt crisis and the air quality in Beijing and we know that all of these things affect us personally.

In Saigon Gucci competes with Pho 24 for our attention. Christian Louboutin sells $700 shoes next door to a counter that sells Rolex knockoffs for under $100. Almost anywhere in the world we can find a more or less homogeneous urban scene. Countries retain their traditions and cultures and on the street the scene can look very indigenous but at the top of the economic ladder, in the center of the largest cities, things start to look very familiar. Brands are global. Half of the world is wearing Nike shoes and baseball caps. Coke and Pepsi are the beverages of choice. Kids in Saigon dream of having their birthday parties at KFC, and there are half a dozen glitzy Vietnamese magazines devoted to fashion and the high life with “golf” in their titles.

I understand the Vietnamese yearning to succeed. They’re hard after it. They’re out early and work late. They save. They invest in their children. They want the stuff that signifies they’ve made it but if they can’t have it they’re willing to sacrifice so that their children can. The grand bargain in Vietnam is that if the parents sacrifice for the children the children will take care of them later. There is no Social Security system in Vietnam. The family is their retirement plan.

The world is indeed small and flat and Vietnamese graduates are competing with Western graduates for jobs on both sides of the ocean. Vietnam is still a developing country and the education system is woefully inadequate. Still, many Western colleges and universities are building satellite branches in Saigon and Hanoi. They recognize the Vietnamese thirst for education and their drive to succeed and prosper.

Many of us regret the Vietnamese rush to emulate the West. Beautiful French colonial buildings are demolished to make way for steel and glass high rises. There is no great affection for the French or their buildings but the demolition is a bargain with the devil. What goes up in its place is a soulless 21st century architecture that has no respect for the past, the culture, or history of the place. When the Berlin Wall came down and the East was opened up, the city of Berlin was careful to maintain and restore many of the rundown old buildings while encouraging new architecture and a mixture of styles. In Saigon and Hanoi it’s all about cost per square meter. It’s all about money.

The world is flat, but a horizon without features isn’t very interesting.

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Categories : Saigon Diary

Posted by jdbernard743

· December 13, 2011

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America in Decline

I often describe myself a short term pessimist and long term optimist. I try to think positively about people and the world. I’ve been traveling almost constantly since 1965 and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the places I’ve lived and visited. I’ve come to think that airports are metaphors for their countries.

Last Wednesday I took the red-eye from Saigon to Seoul, had an 11 hour layover in the airport and then continued on to Seattle. It was midnight when we left Saigon but the Illy espresso bar was open. The cafe was stylishly modern and the clientele a mix of Asian, European, and American types. It could have been anywhere. It’s that way in most international airports these days. I can remember when Tan Son Nhat airport was a couple of one story wooden buildings. Now it’s all glass and marble high rise with luxury brand boutiques and world cuisine. It’s 36 years since the Vietnam War ended and the victorious communist north has fallen in line with the rest of the capitalist consumer world. I wonder what Uncle Ho would think?

In the last year I have been in a dozen airports – Saigon, Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Siem Reap, Pnom Penh, Johannesburg, Capetown, Doha, Seoul, San Francisco, and Seattle – maybe more. If airports are any indication America is a third world country. It is embarrassing. The buildings are rundown, the baggage systems are slow and inconvenient, signage is confusing, there are few moving walkways, distances to gates are long, escalators are narrow, elevators are hard to find, and information services nowhere to be found. On top of that baggage carts are small, poorly designed, cost $4, and can’t be taken to most of the areas in the airport whereas carts in other countries are sturdy, free, and can actually be used to get your luggage to the taxi stand or curb. Foreigners arriving in America don’t understand. The cart dispensers require dollars or a credit card, the instructions are all in English, and there is no place to get either money or change. It’s embarrassing.

In the Seattle airport the baggage carousels are so poorly designed that the bags have to be lifted up and out of a revolving tray. I watched a half dozen women try to get their bags over the lip of the carousel last week only to lose their grip and watch their bags continue around again. Most modern baggage delivery systems are flat so that the bags can slide off the belt – but not in the US.

If you want to see the best in airports you should visit Seoul. It’s beautiful, it’s functional and it’s designed to meet traveler’s needs. In the transit area, if you’re connecting to another flight, there is a hotel. There are free showers, lounge chairs that let you rest (sleep) comfortably, a massage service, airline lounges that only charge $20 bucks, plus all the usual luxury brand and world food choices. The boarding lounges are large and recognize that jumbo jets carry lots of passengers that need to be accommodated before and after the flight. The chairs in the lounges are cushioned and flat, so that passengers can stretch out if it’s uncrowded. I’ve never understood it but US airports are designed as if there is a security concern if people want to sleep so the chairs are designed to be uncomfortable for more than a short rest and don’t allow one to lie down comfortably.

There’s a lot to be said for building from the ground up. It was easier to rebuild in Europe after the war because it was from the ground up. And, it is easier to build a new airport than to remodel an existing one, but when the light rail systems in Seattle and New York were built recently neither one connected conveniently to the center of the airport. In Seattle the light rail passengers disembark and have to walk with their luggage through the parking garage to get to the actual airport building. Now really.

As I watch the ridiculous Republican candidate debates and hear them all talk about how America is the greatest country in the world I wonder how many of them know the truth. America is actually in decline. Our airports are just a metaphor for the decline. Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our train system is bankrupt and in shambles, our cities are crime ridden, the NY subway system is 100 years old, and there are homeless people in parking lots and doorways all over the country. Let’s stop fooling ourselves; America is in decline and if we want to reverse the trend we need to bite the bullet, acknowledge the cost, pay the taxes and start to fix things. Just do it.

Categories : Saigon Diary

Posted by jdbernard743

· November 9, 2011

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Kaci’s Birthday

Almost two years ago Marilynn and I chose an espresso place in the heart of Saigon for our morning lattes. We walk the two and a half blocks from the Hotel Rex gym, where we start the day, and we arrive right at 7am when they open the doors. Gloria Jean’s is an Australian chain and it’s hard for a Seattlite to say but I think they make the best tasting lattes on the planet. They are rich, thick, and very strong without being bitter. Tasty and long lasting.

But, the coffee is not the point here. Over the past two years we have made a number of new friends at Gloria Jean’s. The 7am crowd is very loyal and it took several months to break down the barriers but eventually we nodded and smiled and said hello often enough that we were able to start some conversations. The crowd is very eclectic and has changed a little over time: there’s Mike who does micro-loans and venture investing for Dragon Capital, Andrew, the vice provost at RMIT an Australian technology university, Nga, a Vietnamese business owner and single mom to 3 children, David, a San Francisco lawyer who splits his time between the Bay Area and HCMC, and Kaci, an ambitious, attractive, and very smart 28 year old who is starting an Executive MBA program at RMIT in January. Then there is the sidewalk newspaper vendor who saves us the Sat-Sun International Herald Tribune, the motorbike taxi guy right outside the front door who can’t keep his finger out of his nose, and the neighborhood sidewalk restaurant just across the alley. They are all part of our morning.

But, last week Kaci invited us (and Nga)to her 28th birthday party on Monday night at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel. It was a formal sit-down dim sum dinner for 20. Marilynn and I were the only non-Asian faces in the group and most of the other guests had known Kaci for years. It was very flattering to be invited and it was a good party even though it had to be moved from poolside to inside because of the never-ending monsoon rains.

Kaci’s friends are on the move. They are the ambitious, upwardly mobile, college educated, English speaking cohort who want to be part of the global community – whether they stay in Vietnam or move elsewhere. There were more women than men in the group and almost everyone was late 20’s or early 30’s and single. There were journalists, PR people, bankers, executive assistants, interior designers, business development people and Mr. Tri, Kaci’s American educated mentor and English teacher as well as head of external relations for the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. But that’s another story.

One notable difference between the Far East and the US is that age is not limiting in the formation of friendships. Almost all of our friends in Saigon are the same age as our children. I suppose it has something to do with the Confucian influence on the Asian side, but even our expat friends are much younger than we are. It feels good and natural to have these friendships despite the obvious age differences. Next week we are going out with Nga and her children, whom we have not met. It’s been a real privilege getting to know these people.

Categories : Saigon Diary

Posted by jdbernard743

· November 2, 2011

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Saigon’s Moveable Feast

It’s been raining here the last two mornings. Normally, mornings are clear and the rain comes later. But these two mornings have highlighted a Saigon phenomenon. Rain or shine, morning in Saigon has a unique feature; it’s the breakfast cart brigade. These are the portable aluminum and glass carts on wheels that set up on sidewalks all over town. There must be 10 between my apartment and my office, a mere two and a half blocks.

The parade starts about 3 or 4am when they leave their overnight storage spots. Most of the carts are pushed by the women who operate them. It looks especially dreary in the rain, but they do it wet or dry. Once they get their spot the carts remain stationary for a few hours. Some of them make morning deliveries. Some of the goods are carried on foot (like those carried by this woman), but most of the activity involves rolling stock.
I don’t know where they keep the carts when they’re not in use. It’s got to be somewhere in their very small living spaces, but it’s hard to imagine. Some are very large. Some are small. Some have fire in the hole. You see the pots hanging from a passenger’s shoulder bar on a motorbike spitting flames and sparks. Some are shiny bright, some are dented and creased from long wear. The vendors themselves often sit on the sidewalk beside the cart waiting for customers. Some sell fresh fruit. Some sell banh mi, the Vietnamese baguette sandwiches. Some sell soft drinks. Some sell pho or noodles. Some sell things that can’t be described.

This is free market capitalism at its most basic.

Everyone is in the game. They’re out early, in the dark, rolling their carts down the street. It’s cars, motorbikes, food carts, buses and bicycles. They all share the road. Then they have to set up their space. It’s very territorial. The carts are positioned on the sidewalk. It’s not easy to set up the more complicated carts. There are little plastic stools for the clientele. The cart surface has to be free for work space. There has to be enough sidewalk free of motorbikes for customers to congregate, and they can’t be so close to the street that traffic can’t get by. But, some customers stay on their motorbikes and order take away. Horns are blaring. Orders are shouted. Dishes are washed in plastic buckets and reused, but there is no running water. Vietnamese immune systems are bullet proof, but it’s a big Petri dish for Westerners.

From 6 – 9am the streets are teeming with people picking up take out, sitting down with friends, slurping Pho, sipping tea, drinking Caphe Sua Da the iced coffee drink with condensed milk, eating noodles or some kind of breakfast cracker. And then it’s done – about 9 everyone packs up and rolls away. I’ve never actually seen the dismantling and dispersal. It happens while I’m at work but by the time I leave for lunch all the small vendors are gone – presumably to their day jobs. That part is still a mystery to me.

Categories : Saigon Diary

Posted by jdbernard743

· October 31, 2011

· 1 Comment

Life Reports

This morning David Brooks of the New York Times asked his readers over 70 for a gift. He asked them/us to send him brief “life reports” on our lives so far, an evaluation of what we did well, of what we did not so well and what we learned along the way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/opinion/brooks-the-life-report.html.

He plans to write a couple columns around Thanksgiving using the “gifts” that show up. I thought about it all morning and couldn’t resist the challenge. Here’s mine:

“Dear David:

My wife and I were drinking lattes in a Saigon coffeehouse when we read your column requesting brief life reports from people over 70. My first question was how could I possibly write a brief report on 74 years of careening around the globe? The answer is I can’t but I’m willing to take a crack at it.

All in all I feel very satisfied with my life. I would like to have made a bigger difference in the lives I’ve touched, but I’ve come to accept that positive change comes in small increments like compound interest over the long term. It’s never a straight line and there are often serious setbacks, but in the big picture sense I see myself as a long term optimist but a short term pessimist. For the past 2 ½ years I’ve been working in Saigon for East Meets West Foundation, a humanitarian aid NGO that is working to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in SE Asia. This is on the heels of a jagged career path that included being a Marine Corps fighter pilot, lawyer, Pan Am pilot, restaurant owner, lawyer again, non-profit manager and now development director at EMW. My parents would likely have said I can’t hold on to a job, but I’ve loved the path that took me from Seattle to Quantico, Pensacola, Orange County, Berkeley, Los Angeles, New York, St. Tropez, San Francisco, Berlin, Miami, Sun Valley, Salt Lake City and back to Seattle before taking on this job in Saigon. Some of the changes and places were volitional and some were dictated by health, furlough, or other circumstances, but, as I’ve told my children, “keep your eyes and ears open; you never know where the next opportunity is going to come from.”

Family has always been important to me, but my choices have created some chaos. I had a brief marriage when I was still a child myself and then I was married for 25 years to a smart and talented artist who was a good mother to our kids but my restlessness did us in too. I love and am proud of my kids, but our relationships have been strained at times and I’ve come to believe that you can never truly know or understand either your parents or your children. You just love them and hope that in their hearts they know it. 13 years ago I reconnected with a childhood friend, we married, and now she is sharing this adventurous life. We’re both in our 70’s and know that life is fragile and can’t be guaranteed. We’re both still healthy and try to live as fully as possible with good friends, family, adventure bike travel, good books, good food, and some good works thrown in.

Faith is a tough one. I flirted with evangelical Christianity in college, Buddhism in mid-life and the smells and bells of the Episcopal church later on. Fundamentalism is spoiling the stew for everyone now, but I will continue to observe the faith as an Episcopalian because it’s in the mainstream of my Western heritage. If I were Eastern or Middle Eastern I might honor the mystery in another way. It might sound wishy-washy but I think it’s important to acknowledge and honor the mystery and as someone from the West this seems the best way for me.

Self-knowledge? I can’t say for sure, but I think I know myself better now than I did when my wife and I met at age 10. I’ve always been pretty independent and not been guided by other people’s needs, desires or expectations. I’ve experienced joy, caused pain, shared the wealth, stayed engaged and been very, very, lucky. I have never given much thought to retirement. I’m wrapping up my full time work in Saigon and next year I will only spend one or two months in Vietnam. I’m excited to have time to devote to other interests, but I don’t think of it as retirement. I’m sure I’ll be actively engaged on a number of fronts. 2 ½ years ago a friend of mine in DC told me “Jack, you’ve found the secret to a fulfilling retirement – another good job.” That’s my story.

This is our picture taken in April.

Sidebar: We wanted to meet you at the Sun Valley Writer’s Conference in August. We were volunteers at the Pavilion and excited to hear your presentation. We bought your book, but I’m not much for standing in lines and you were swamped when you finished. We’re died in the wool liberals but read your column religiously. We think you must be the last real conservative in America. It must be lonely.