human development in emerging markets: the view from bklyn

Poor Economics

2011-05-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

Examining the world through randomized control trials, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee's new book summarizes findings on what works, and what really might not, in development policy and practice.

The book's conclusions are based on two premises. First, use data to try and understand the real drivers of behaviors like school attendance and condom use. Second, assume the "poor" are making choices that are just as rational or irrational as anyone else - just that they have different information and constraints. If it isn't clear what those choices are or why they'd be made, keep looking.

The true excitement of the book bubbles from the small diamonds of insight that could dramatically affect human development outcomes (on either a micro or macro scale).

For example, in certain countries, could providing free school uniforms be a key to reducing teen pregnancy and HIV infection rates in teen girls?

Could be.

Check it out. http://pooreconomics.com/

Then check out some criticism on Chris Blattman's blog here.

Good trade/Bad trade

2011-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Consumers who want to consume products like coffee 'responsibly' - and for now let's define responsibly as: farmers getting a price for their raw product that reflects the pricetag a western consumer pays supported by contracts that don't put the farmer in a vulnerable position - could have a few reasons for doing so. For example, a fair trade is one in which no one gets ripped off, so there's an ethical fairness to feeling like you've made a better bargain. But what, I presume, most people think is that 'fair trade' coffee offers farmers better prices and therefore better livelihoods. So people buy products that are 'fair trade certified' in the hopes that they're doing something good for the farmer, and perhaps, the world.

That might not be the case. Not for the first time, but worth reiterating, is that maybe being 'fair trade certified' isn't so good for the farmer. Lawrence Solomon writes in the Financial Times about the costs of certification and cites recent research from the University of Hohenheim that finds farmers with 'fair trade certification' after 10 years seem in worse poverty than non-fair trade farmers.

Read Lawrence Solomon's post here.
Access the paper in "Ecological Economics" - the May 2011 edition.

Certifications play different roles - one of them is to help consumers make choices that align with their values. (Others, for example, like "FDA Approved" are intended to help them make choices that are safe.) As more and more consumers become concerned with being 'responsible,' these certifications matter to more people. They can either use this to drive down the cost of certification (as increased scale reduces costs), or exercise pricing reflective of their monopoly on the market. If this is the case, strong consumer preferences for a 'certified' product could be exerting market pressures that are pushing farmers into deeper poverty. That is not the point. (I dispute that it will lead to a proliferation of certifications, because the beauty of the certification is that it becomes recognizable.)

This only adds confusion to the increasingly confused world of 'responsible consumption.'

Old post, new post - red post, blue post

2011-04-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

Posts appearing before 2011 were written when I was an expat abroad living in Viet Nam.

Myanmar Minutea

2010-05-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

Here's an informational look into my recent trip to Burma

Some History
The country was ruled by a monarchy based in Mandalay before the British took over from 1824-1886 and made it part of the Indian territory (it was later a separate administrative area). The country became independent in 1948, following WWII, and didn't join the British Commonwealth. General Ne Win took over via military coup in 1962.

Some Econ
The country's primary interest to the British was teak, which was logged in vast quantities and continues to be a main export - though forests are nearly depleted.

Some Religion

The country is primarily Mahayana Buddhist, with some Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities.

It still retains a significant ethnic 'hill tribe' population, mostly in the north and border regions it seems. There are some 70 plus different ethnic groups recognized by the government.

Urbanization & Infrastructure
The country's 40 or so million are relatively urbanized, with about 6 million living in the former capital Yangon and a comparable number in Mandalay. Infrastructure is poor - major highways are 1.5 lanes and not always sealed. We observed quite a bit of road improvement over our 6 hour drive from Bagan to Kalaw. It was almost all being done by hand, and by women. They were laying rock and mixing/heating asphalt in drums b the side of the road. Once in a while there was the odd Komatsu bit of machinery rolling it down. The road was originally constructed by the government, but has since been 'privatized' and we paid tolls for road maintenance several times on our journey.

The rail infrastructure dates to the British, with many trains as slow as 15 km/hour. Large bed trucks transport goods and people - likely of Chinese origin, though we saw some that had been built by hand of wood and homemade engines. Air travel routes have been increasingly developed but are dramatically unaffordable. It's clear that it is hard to move goods in and out: air strips seem unlikely to be able to handle large aircraft form modern fleets - so things would have to be flown somewhere else then transferred to smaller planes.

Connections to the World
People here aren't cut off from the outside world. English is taught in schools from primary school, and there was a surprisingly high level of English. That bodes very well for their future economic development.

Foreign products are available - we see Nivea, Coca-Cola and apparently also European pharmaceuticals. Chinese products are plentiful - plastic goods etc. Motorbikes are increasing outside Yangon, where they're banned. A Chinese motorbike runs $300, and over 5,000 are smuggled into the country a day. Cars cost thousands of dollars to register and motorbikes cost significantly less.

Satellite TV is available (after a hefty government tax) and Korean popstars are visible all over. Imitation hairstyles have ensued. At two weddings, photos of Korean pop stars were decorating the festivities. (Look at top left in this photo).

Internet penetration appears to be advancing. Though there are blocks on sites like cnn.com and bbc.com, we have been able to find internet for as little as $0.40 in Yangon and it's relatively fast.

Cell phones are more of a luxury item. The cost of the phone is low, but to get a number you have to pay the government around $2,000. This ensures very few people have their own phone numbers. You can also buy a sim card that gives 1 hour of talk time and expires after 1 month.

Today
When people say that Burma is 'unspoilt', I think it most aptly refers to the disposition of the people towards travelers. I see why they would be compared to Thais 40 years ago. The warmth and friendliness - and curiosity! They're not jaded or interested only in the business of tourism.

There are elections approaching. One person said, "We will all vote, because if you don't you're in trouble. But nothing will change; we know the outcome already." However, another remarked these elections were very important, because the military wasn't allowed to run, and they'd have civilians - though generals can conveniently retire just before elections to run as civilians.

Reasons I Love Hanoi

2010-04-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

As I have been driving around the city recently, I've been making a mental checklist of the things that are truly, wonderfully Hanoi:

Driving home late at night on my motorbike when the roads are empty and the temperature has dropped. Juxtaposed to the busy-ness of the day, it's a thrilling freedom to drive the quiet empty streets.
Walking into bun cha smelling air-bubbles as it's being cooked before lunchtime.
Looking up and realizing the streets are lined with ancient trees, peacefully rooted in the chaos.
Being able to change the iTunes playlist at most of my favorite bars.
Running into people I know everywhere I go.
Stretching, bobbing women in aerobics classes en masse in the parks.
Constant valet parking.
The fact that none of the clothes fit me, so I never feel the desire to go shopping.

A Day in the Life

2010-04-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

A day filled with variety is something tremendously wonderful. Too often our days are filled with monotony - it's the one thing I dread most about leaving Asia and my current life here.

Today, I woke up and turned on my water heater. Then I went downstairs (two flights), and used the electric kettle to boil water. I've stockpiled organic coffee from the USA (ground for a french press). I put a tablespoon of coffee in my Bodum and turned on CNN in the living room for 15 minutes while it brewed.

I left my computer at the office last night, because I went straight to Gaelic football practice and it was raining. So after my shower, I threw a mini-mango (yes, those exist) and a banana in my messenger bag, put on a light down coat - it was high 60's today - and headed over there. On my motorbike.

Putting on a motorbike helmet feels so natural that sometimes I forget I'm wearing one. And a facemask - no joke, after 1.5 years here I notice every motorbike ride I take without one. Air pollution is the #1 reason I want to move back to a developed country - or a less developed one.

I worked on the 'stack' - read powerpoint - for a pitch that I'm finishing for tomorrow. Today being Thursday, I had a standing date for a long lunch with a friend of mine. Just so happens he's an ambassador, so he has a driver and a car. This means getting to see the bustle of the city from a peaceful, climate controlled environment - which is a completely different experience than 90% of my days. It's great.

We take an hour to go to the driving range (ok, not EVERY day is like this. just every once in a while), then have lunch at Don's (he named the restaurant that). I live with the managing editor of a local magazine, and she's constantly over at Don's for tastings and things, and she's introduced me to him. And my friend is a regular, so he meets us at the door.

At this point, I've already spoken 3 languages today (English, Vietnamese, and Spanish). Just for fun, we chat in Portuguese for a while at lunch too. And discuss the fact that he'd like to resume French lessons - I've just started.

After lunch, I'm dropped off a block from the office. I'm ducking into the tailor's to see if my dress, suit and jean skirt are ready yet. No - ngay may. I have to come back tomorrow. No problem.

I run one more errand - I've got 2 government manuals for first aid and their 911 dispatch system. I want to share them with some doctors in the US, so I find a copy shop that will scan them into .pdfs for me. Both'll be done by Saturday - great.

The pitch isn't going to get done before end of business, so I walk back slowly and stop to buy a birthday present for my housemate. I walk serenely down an entirely chaotic street. It's a learned skill. I pass a shoe store - and just to check - go in and ask if they carry women's shoes in a 41. Nope. Not a single one. Eh, it's what I expected, but I thought maybe there was a shot.

I tutor for a bit - we talk about gerunds and infinitives - and then it's off to the Old Quarter to find 'pan street'. I end up making a miserable purchase of 2 baking sheets which both leak in the corners (which I don't realize until later), and head home.

Watching Grey's Anatomy (season 5) on TV while I cook some dinner, I plop down on the couch and chat with a friend visiting from Thailand. And then it's back to work. I'll be up late working on this pitch; it'll need to be in by noon if the Red Cross director's going to have time to look at it before the weekend.

Long time, no see

2010-03-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I've actively blogged. From here on out, you can expect a longer post every 1-2 weeks with other little tidbits in the interim.

A tidbit to start, from the Economist:

In an unusually co-ordinated campaign, more than a dozen Chinese newspapers published an editorial calling for a reform of the household-registration (“hukou”) system, which deprives tens of millions of rural migrants of access to many public services in the country’s big cities. The editorial soon vanished from most of the papers’ websites. See article

A good run in Hanoi

2009-11-05T02:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3302355

What is poverty?

2009-09-30T00:40:00.000-07:00

There are many ways of looking at it. Here's an excerpt from Carola Barton's summary of some of the ways of viewing it:

We sometimes treat it as a matter of blame: the poor are poor because they cannot or choose not to be better off. We sometimes treat it as a matter of virtue: people choose material poverty because it generates—or does not interfere with—spiritual well-being.

We have a long history of explanations for the existence of poverty:

Sociology: the poor are poor because human beings instinctively look to differentiate themselves from one another, and someone needs to be at the bottom of the pyramid

Economics: the poor are poor because economic forces depend on a mass of impoverished workers to provide the labor that makes our societies run

Psychology/Physiology: the poor are poor because individuals have unequal faculties, and in a society that does not compensate for those inequalities, someone must wind up at the bottom

Scarcity: the poor are poor because there aren’t enough resources to go around

Environment: the poor are poor because of regional environmental conditions—climate, topography, soil, etc.

Spirituality: the poor have chosen material poverty because they have found, or have been endowed with, immaterial sources of wealth

Vietnam is considering raising the poverty line

2009-07-27T01:22:00.000-07:00

In rural areas, the current poverty line is 200,000 vnd/person per month.

That is $11.11 per month.

The new definition would raise that to $19, which will double the number of poor.

Vietnam—“New poverty line would double number of poor”—Viet Nam News

25-07-2009

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs proposed raising the official poverty line to twice its former level. The move would mean those living in rural areas who earn VND 350,000 (US$19) or less a month or those living in urgan areas who earn VND 450,000 ($25) or less will be considered poor. (The existing poverty line is VND 200,000 per person per month in the countryside and VND 260,000 for those living in urban areas, respectively.) The new standard means that the number of households living in poverty would rise from 13% to 20%...

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=07SOC250709

In a country where you can earn $25+ per hour teaching English with no previous certification.

New Release from the Economist Intelligence Unit

2009-06-21T21:02:00.001-07:00

Here's what the Economist Intelligence Unit has to say about Vietnam:

Outlook for 2009-10

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam will maintain its tight grip on power in 2009-10, rejecting calls (especially from groups of overseas Vietnamese) for political pluralism.
The government's fiscal stimulus package includes spending on infrastructure, as well as tax breaks and a delay in the implementation of the new personal income tax regime.
Given that the inflation rate is continuing to ease, the State Bank of Vietnam (the central bank) is likely to keep policy interest rates low in 2009-10.
The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that the economy will expand by 1.6% in 2009, before growth picks up to 4% in 2010. But concerns exist that official data will not reflect fully the extent to which the economy is suffering.
As domestic demand growth weakens, we expect price rises to continue to abate, and inflation is forecast to slow to an average of 5.4% in 2009.
We forecast that the value of the dong against the US dollar will fall by around 8% in nominal terms in 2009.
The current-account deficit will narrow sharply in 2009-10 as a result of a major reduction in the merchandise trade deficit.

Monthly review

A recent court case suggests that the government is increasingly intent on curbing unfair business practices that contravene the 2006 Competition Law.
From June 1st foreign investors will be allowed to acquire up to 49% of total equity in unlisted companies, up from 30% at present. The move brings the foreign-ownership cap into line with that for listed companies.
The government’s policy approach to boost economic growth will focus on supporting key sectors; stimulating investment; poverty reduction and social stability; and adopting a flexible approach to monetary and fiscal policy.
A study of two industrial zones by an international charity, Oxfam, showed that the global economic downturn has had a negative impact on business. Most firms conceded that production orders have fallen.
The trade balance swung into deficit in April. After posting three consecutive months of surpluses, the trade deficit soared to US$700m for the month.
Foreign direct investment inflows are down significantly. The government approved US$6.4bn in new projects the first four months of the year, down by over 72% year on year.

Poor Mexico

2009-05-10T09:04:00.001-07:00

Lately, all I've been seeing is drug crime and swine flu. Considering I spent my entire senior year focused on people and money moving across the US - Mexico border, I feel a bit involved and attached to transborder flows of any sort, and I've got to say - it's never good news. No one ever talks about on the news, "Oh how great that we have a huge border with Mexico so that we can get easy access to inexpensive labor, fruit, and vacations." Pshaw.

On the issue of drug crime, I'd like to refer you all to the following article: Reflections from Latin America by Ibsen Martinez. He notes, as I have maintained, that the crackdown on drug imports from Colombia have led Mexico to be the new route into the US. The decreasing purity and increase in street price of cocaine in the US are also a side effect of this success. However, he also points out (which I did not know) about a potentially huge gun smuggling business from the US into Mexico. So perhaps increases in gun control in the US would be one policy to help our neighbor?

See an excerpt from the article below:

Mexico has quickly become the other epicenter of the violence activities carried out by criminal organizations associated with drug trafficking. Mexican drug cartels have come to supplant the Colombian traffickers as the main suppliers of illicit drugs to the U.S. market.

Mexico's attorney general reckons that U.S. consumers buy U.S. $10 billion worth of drugs from his country's cartels each year. All that money allows the two main cartels to arm, equip and pay for a highly motivated army of 100,000 that almost equals Mexico's armed forces in size and often outguns them.

"Americans are understandably focused on the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S. from Mexico," says Andreas Peter, author ofBorder Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide. "But too often glossed over in the border security debate is the flow of weapons across the border into Mexico," he told FoxNews.com in a statement via the Internet.3 Mexican authorities say 90 percent of smuggled weapons come from the United States.

Photos From Mai Chau

2009-04-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

From Mai Chau and Hoi An

Mai Chau is about 4 hours west, and a little south, of Hanoi. It is a low-lying area where mostly the White Thai ethnic people live.

Trials and Tribulations

2009-04-07T18:46:00.001-07:00

Vietnam has an interesting sense of history - something I am thinking about today as John McCain is revisiting this city where he was held in prison, now advocating human rights and economic reforms. Two other news stories have touched on this recently: the trial of Alberto Fujimori in Peru and the tribunals of Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia.

Briefly, the Khmer Rouge was a communist group which came to power in Cambodia. Under its leader Pol Pot, Cambodia was ruled brutally, with a number close to 1.5 million people killed in only a four year time span. No one knows for sure. Of interest now is the way that Cambodia is dealing with that history. The country is incredibly young - over 70% of the 14 million Cambodians are under the age of 30. In fact, 1/3 of the country is under the age of 14. The people who lived through the Khmer Rouge are a small fraction of the population now, and their stories seem far-fetched to the country's young population. It is an interesting question of how you deal with history - do you try to steep these young children in an awareness of the country's past? The reasons that the fields around their homes are riddled with bones? Or do you bury the past and simply wait for the generation of people who lived through it to die?

On a similar note, Alberto Fujimori - former president of Peru - was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of murder, agravated kidnapping, and crimes against humanity. Fujimori was president of Peru during the years when the Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") wrecked havoc in the southern countryside. The Maoist group spread through university students who became rural teachers, started by Abimael Guzman in Ayacucho during the 1960's. It turned violent in the 1980's and continued into the 1990's. Fujimori was president from 1990-2000, ruling over the final government attempts to put down the insurgency. After his government collapsed, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated the crimes committed during the period, finding a death toll of close to 70,000 people. About half of those were due to the Sendero Luminoso; the government and a few other factions were accountable for the remainder. Fujimori's explanation for the crimes committed under his goverment: “I had to govern from hell,” he said. “That is why I am being judged.”

A variety of mechanisms have been employed to hold leaders accountable for actions taken during their regimes. These mechanisms include national or UN-backed Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (eg. South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Peru, East Timor, Rwanda); national trials within the judicial system (such as Fujimori's or the one intended for Chilean leader Augosto Pinochet; nationally-run but specially formed tribunals (like the one that condemned Saddam Hussein); special international tribunals (like those for Rwandan and Yugoslavian leaders); and the international criminal court (which indited Al-Bashir). Each of these carries carefully nuanced implications. Nonetheless, in absolute terms the number of leaders who have been held accountable post-mortem; while they are still alive; or while they are still in 'office' has grown steadily. If this implies an increasingly credible commitment to holding individuals and regimes responsible for the human rights abuses committed under their watch, then what are the implications? (And, in particular, will the international community ever be able to hold accountable the leader of a G8/NATO/'powerful' country - as some have demanded Kissinger or Nixon be? What would be the implications if that were to happen?)

In this context, the question that a variety of political theorists are trying to answer is whether or not the commitments to try leaders for criminal acts will be credible enough to impact those decisions in the first place. Will these tribunals serve as a deterrent? Are they a part of the process of healing for those who lived through a brutal reign? Or is it a way of reconciling honestly with the past in order to prevent similar acts from occurring in the future?

Cambodia and Peru offer different visions of how holding leaders accountable can play out. Cambodia's population seems broadly unaware of the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders, according to the Berkeley survey cited in the NY Times. Meanwhile, in Peru, Fujimori's daughter is a senator running for President in the next elections, with the promise that if elected she will pardon her father. His supporters were demonstrating in the streets at news of his conviction. Lessons can be found from other countries as to what the long-term implications of these events will be, yet I hesitate to make too many generalizations based on any one country's experience. Grappling with the past, with the symbolism of 'mythic' leaders, and with the shape and form of justice - these will vary across time and place.

For example, at this point in time, I cannot imagine Vietnam holding a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or a trial for crimes committed during either the Vietnam war or the more brutal era of communism post-war - only partly because the party is still in power. I don't know what it would accomplish to do so. This reveals to me that I ethically judge these trials on the utility they provide to those alive/unborn, as opposed to seeing the procedure as being necessary because it, in itself, is right/ethical. I have not fully reconciled myself to the implications of that sentiment, the contradictions it implies, or the inconsistencies in legal and political policy that it would require. Fortunately, there are a great number of very intelligent people writing about theories of international justice and mechanisms for achieving it, so at least there's help to arrive at some conclusions...

This might be the best one yet

2009-04-03T02:56:00.000-07:00

A thought for a Saturday morning on economic productivity

2009-03-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

A chicken in the USA produces 350 eggs per year, because it's in a high capital environment (nutrition, medicine etc.).

A chicken in the developing world pecking around the backyard the way they were in the USA 70 years ago produces 50 eggs a year.

- EconTalk Podcast, 2/5/07

What did you have for dinner?

2009-03-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

I bet you it wasn't sweet potato french fries refried with dough into a patty, followed by spicy beef, followed by tofu dipped in raw shrimp paste, followed by fried morning glory, followed by fried eel with peppers, followed (finally) by hot pot of banana, snail, tofu and herbs.

Oh, and then tea and fruit.

I am SO full.

office chit chat around the water cooler

2009-03-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

This morning I brought one of my coworkers home-made dulce de leche as a thank you for doing some negotiating on my behalf with our landlady (who is also a dear, but needs to pay for a new air conditioning unit...) Anyway, somehow this got her talking about the pre - doi moi period in Vietnam, which it's not always easy to get people to speak about.

When she was growing up, standard meat consumption was 100 g per child per month. Milk was absolutely a luxury, and many of the supplies they got were from the USSR (and sometimes already expired).

As for choosing a husband, always a good idea to go for a driver or someone responsible for selling petrol - if you found out the guy had a PhD he was definitely a bad prospect!

Standing in line for a half-day or day for your rice portion was standard, so you'd use a brick or a bowl to mark your spot. People who distributed goods - purchasing them and then reselling them at a higher price - had a special name in Vietnamese, that roughly translates to 'scum.'

These are women just a bit older than I am, who now rock cute outfits to work that put my fashion sense to shame. They are raising kids in a totally different world, and they just take it all in stride.

These were the days when the few countries that had aid missions here sent staff, but those staff were not permitted to speak to Vietnamese except for things like transactions in the market. (Though I've already heard of one love story of a Danish woman falling in love with a Vietnamese guy, despite government prohibitions against their speaking and the fact that they didn't share a language. They're still married).

The Wildlife

2009-03-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

So I realized on my bike ride home (deftly navigating the twists and turns of my unlit alley in the rain on my bicycle), that this guy

has completely replaced this guy

in my local fauna.

They are not quite as tame as NJ squirrels, but the fact that they run away actually makes it more fun. It's like the running of the bulls,

and I'm the bull.

There aren't hordes of rates scurrying out of my way, but the ones that are there are pretty darn quick. On a good night I'll race several for a 2-3 meters, until they find a little cubby hole to leap into and out of the way of the speeding wheels of Bikel (my bike).

That's the Hanoi version of the "rat race"

Policing the Internet

2009-03-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

The NY Times recently ran a great article on a tongue and cheek movement to push back on China's internet censorship.

An excerpt from the article:
" a mythical creature whose name, in Chinese, sounds very much like an especially vile obscenity. Which is precisely the point.The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that."

The future of China's internet policy is of real relevance in Vietnam, because currently the country is not developed enough nor does it have enough resources to take measures similar to China - it would like to though. The Government is, of course, concerned with making sure that the people of Vietnam get only the most accurate information.

One measure to ensure this is to ensure that the press does not publish anything that is incorrect (I mean, that would be awful!). As it exists, the Ministry of Ideology has weekly meetings with the Editors in Chief of all major newspapers, and publications all are associated with different ministries at different levels of government that work with them to make sure nothing that isn't factual is published.

Vietnam does not currently have the reach that China does in its policing algorithms, I don't believe, nor does it seemingly have the capacity to shut websites down as quickly. Moreover, to my knowledge, most international news sites are available in full.

A shout-out to Kurt for pointing this article out to me, by the way.

These are the moments when I have the best job in the world

2009-03-09T06:50:00.001-07:00

A New Favorite

2009-03-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Seth, I have a new favorite tea. Market Spice Tea from Seattle... kind of hard to come by in Hanoi, but I had a big pot of it last night and it made my day. Just wanted to share.

Phat Diem Cathedral

2009-03-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

From Phat Diem Cathedral

My recent trip to Nam Dinh for a Helmets for Kids ceremony scored big time because we also got to visit Phat Diem Cathedral. Hands down, it was one of the most startling sights I have experienced to date in Vietnam. It is a Catholic church built in teh style of a buddhist temple or pagoda, the work of Father Tran Luc from 1875-1899. Chinese characters are interspersed with stone relief work depicting the lives of the Jesus and Mary. A series of smaller chapels surround the Cathedral, and the complex in total is several acres.

The ground under the Cathedral was constructed - originally it was on a reed-filled swamp. It has stood for over 100 years now, including surviving a 1972 bombing that tilted the Cathedral 15-20 degrees (restoration was necessary).

Catholics represent a significant minority in Vietnam. In this district, they are 53% of the population. Below is a slideshow of my pictures, posted on my picasa site.

We Just Drew Our Lines

2009-02-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

A ceremony will be held either today or tomorrow to mark the official completion of the demarcation of the border between Vietnam and China.

Seriously guys? The 100+ officials from each side in attendance acknowledged it was a "major step" for bilateral relations.

Hanoi has its moments

2009-02-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

So Hanoi is not a particularly tough place to live. I cannot honestly say that I often feel like I'm really roughing it - we have electricity, running water, and air conditioning (though heat would be awesome in the winter). However, there are moments when little creepie crawlies remind me that, well, these are NOT the fellas you find in your kitchens in the good old US of A. There's Frank, the gecko, and one of the guests that I don't like quite as much is this guy:

This is from quite a while ago, and I cannot claim the photographic credits. One of my very brave housemates put a guitar pick up next to the spider that has now been in our kitchen 3 times. No one has been able to kill it, but we have chased it out. So far, no casualties.

Street Crossings

2008-12-31T01:10:00.000-08:00

I shot a few videos around Hanoi, and I am thinking that I will do a few more. These are pretty amateur, and I had thought I would be able to edit them. Unfortunately, when my computer crashed I lost my iMovie, so I currently have no movie editing software. But until I do, enjoy some scenes from Hanoi's streets.

Vietnam Victorious!

2008-12-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

Wow. Talk about excitement. Last night, Vietnam beat Thailand for the Asian Football cup, for the very first time. The entire country seemed to erupt in jubilation, and the streets were mobbed for hours with people playing pots and water jugs, riding around on their motorbikes, and waving flags.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

2008-12-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

On Monday I took the day off work and went to Halong Bay again with Annette. We kayaked out - despite the lack of directions that we got from the people with the kayaks. Fortunately Annette knew the way. That night we slept in a tent on Tiger beach (where local climbing company slo pony have their routes). Dinner was some banh my sandwiches (it has taken me 6 months to realize that when pronounced in an American accent that sounds like "bang me" - thanks Tim). We sat around a campfire and somehow it felt like Christmas Eve, so we did a little singing...

The next day (our "Christmas") we did 3 climbs and some more kayaking, then found ourselves a present! Annette and I decided to buy a bike from Andrew, who'd just biked from the Thai-Burma border. We rechristened his steed Bikel (formerly Iguana) and she's road ready for some great cycling trips in Southeast Asia. A merry Christmas indeed!

Vietnam Revises its Personal Income Tax

2008-12-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

Vietnam just revised it's personal income tax law. One change is that foreigners and Vietnamese now face the same tax rates. These new tax rates are (by monthly income):

First 5million dong/month ($295) - 5%
5-10m ($295-592)/month - 10%
10-18m ($591-1,065)/month - 15%
18-32m ($1065-1,893)/month - 20%
32-52m (1,893-3,076)/month - 25%
52-80m (3,076-4,773)/month - 30%
over 80m/month (over $4,773 per month, or $56,000 per year) - 35%

So the top tax bracket is an annual salary of $56,000/year. Considering that I will make around $10,000 a year and I have a very highly paying job that means I can live pretty well, that is a truly luxurious salary. Our office estimates only 2% of the population earns that much in income.

I am actually a little bit surprised that in a socialist country the tax rate is so low. The highest marginal tax rate in many European countries hits 50-60%! Moreover, the bulk of the population here would fall into the first 3 tax brackets, meaning that in terms of income redistribution, the government is not doing a whole lot.

Also, the revision of the tax code actually raised the marginal tax rate on the first 5 million up from 0%, and lowered the highest marginal tax rate from 40% to 35%.

Like I said. Doesn't sound like the mom and pop version of socialism I learned about in history class.

UPDATE

In an earlier post, I noted that Vietnam had changed its income tax. What I did not point out at the time was that people earning under $5,000 were being taxed for the first time. The system introduced millions and millions of people into the tax system for the first time.

Insiders say that may be why the Vietnamese government suddenly declared a "no tax" payment period until May. Ostensibly it is supposed to help families in tough economic times; realistically, it may be the result of a completely overwhelmed, un-computerized tax system. Word is that they literally had to close their doors and shut the office, because their system is utterly overwhelmed.

Speaking of good economic news - Vietnam's stock exchange the HOSE has lost about 75% of it's value from a high of around 1100 in August of 2007. It's down to around 244 now.

And did I mention inflation was running around 28%?

Operation: Thanksgiving in 'Nam

2008-12-01T08:20:00.001-08:00

As you may know, I love Thanksgiving. A holiday of unparalleled excellence, Thanksgiving is a beautiful time to unite family and friends, enjoy sumptous good food (especially Dad's stuffing & Mom's cranberry sauce), and give thanks for the wonderful things and people in our lives. I was quite sad not to be able to share that with my family (& Andy who still made it to my house!) this year.

As we did not get the day off, my Thanksgiving celebrations had to be postponed to Saturday, but I was determined to make it happen. Once I got the idea into my head, I found several others who were interested. And we all seemed to have non-American friends who wanted to join in the fun as well. It didn't seem to be adding up to too many people until suddenly we were having a dinner for 18+ people (it turned out to be 21 at the final count!).

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

Now, let's begin with the fact that I've never cooked a Thanksgiving dinner or organized one on my own. Then examine the relative availability of traditional Thanksgiving ingredients. Once you've pondered those obstacles, consider the fact that our kitchen equipment included 2 pots & frying pans, a 2 burner stove, 1 rice cooker, an electric kettle, and a fridge. Oh, and did I forget to mention that we only have about 9 chairs in the entire house? Hmmm... Well, the pilgrims certainly seemed to make due, so none of this made any difference, and in fact just steeled our wills further!

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

That, for example, was the oven we located. It was at Sylvia's house, and fortunately plugs into the wall so it could be carried down several alleys, put in a cab, and then carried down several more alleys to our house for a few days!

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

Then there was an Excel spreadsheet shopping list, divided into categories according to where we thought the ingredients could be found. We're talking as specific as having to go to one shop for butter, another shop all the way across town for bullion cubes, the market for produce, several different markets all over the city to get the required number of potatoes (we cleaned out a bunch of different women of their produce) - I think we finally had 6 kilos of potatoes, or something mad like that. Raisins, fresh yogurt, different spices, canned cranberry sauce - all of these were like puzzle pieces we searched for.

Fortunately there was great teamwork in the cooking, and several people brought prepared dishes. This included Jen's salad of arugula (who knows where she found that!) and Mel's pumpkin pie. Well, why don't I just share the entire menu?

Cheddar, rosemary & thyme biscuits (Aaron)
Banana Flower Salad (brought by Annette, from the bia hoi under the railroad tracks with the best banana flower salad in town)
Arugula Salad (Jen) with a delicate balsamic dressing, baby mandarin oranges and sesame seeds

Five roasted chickens (a Vietnamese lady)
Stuffing with raisins and pine nuts (Katy)
Vegan main dish of pseudo stuffed peppers (Katy)

Sweet potatoes mashed with bananas (Alison Jones)
Mashed potatoes with yogurt, butter & garlic (Aaron)
Green beans with onions and garlic (Alison and Scott)

Apple crumble (Long)
Pumpkin Pie (Mel)
Pumpkin no-bake cheesecake (Mel)
Vanilla Ice cream (Simon via Fanny's)

Wine & beer!

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

Now that's what I call a menu! Even better, we had a gaggle of countries represented, with showings from America, France, Holland, Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand, and we had several "first" Thanksgivings!

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

All in all, it was the first Thanksiving where I felt the accomplishment that the pilgrims might have at getting it all together!

The only problem... we also don't have a dishwasher.

From Operation Thanksgiving in 'Nam

Men, Women & Black Chicken

2008-11-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

Men and women face a different legal drinking age in Viet Nam. It's 16 for men and 18 for women. I had a completely culturally inappropriate reaction when I learned this. Something like this: "NO WAY!?!"

I found this out the night I had a black chicken for dinner. I didn't have my camera, so I'm stealing this photo from someone else's blog about Vietnam.
From reading Wikipedia I found out these are called "Silkies" and actually have plumage that feels more like fur than feathers. A furry chicken! Who knew? It tasted pretty good. But the black feet did sort of unnerve me.

2008-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

As an American, I'm often called upon to explain our country's foreign policy, and one thing that I usually struggle to explain is the concept of 'American Exceptionalism.' Inevitably, this is one of fundamental pillars which I want to try to convey to whomever I am speaking with, because without an understanding of how Americans see themselves and our world, I cannot begin to explain why we have acted as we have, and why so many people believe strongly in America's foreign policy choices. I think our national myth (using myth in a rather anthropological sense) of 'American exceptionalism' is crucial to that self-image - and I've finally heard a definition of it that I think captures the essence of this idea:

"The mythic narrative goes like this: a nation, providentially set apart, in the New World, and wanting nothing more than to tend to its own affairs grudgingly responded to calls that it assume the mantel of global leadership in order to preserve the possibility of human freedom."

This is the definition given by Andrew Basovitch speaking on the November 3, 2008 at the Carnegie Council. (He is the author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism").

He goes on in that same discussion to claim that this mythic narrative has become detrimental to our ability as Americans to see the world as it truly is and ourselves as we truly are, arguing instead that America "became a great power because it sought power and succeeded spectacularly in acquiring it." The purpose of the distinction is to enable us to see how the expansion of freedom within the US in the latter part of 20th century was the result of a policy of expansionism that led to abundance, which in turn expanded access to freedom.

Anyway, it is an interesting argument, and if I could get my hands on his book, I would read it... Ah deprivation of English language books.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

2008-11-02T07:21:00.001-08:00

So we've gotten a little bit of rain recently. And by a little bit, I mean we've gotten enough to flood a significant part of the city on and off for 2 days, and the rain's not going to stop. My friend Aaron finally braved the water snakes (fact or fiction?) and floating nastiness to get some food yesterday, and took this photo:

(That's Aaron in the blue shirt). Cars apparently floated away from where they were parked, and actually several people have died - including 3 kids on their way to school. I don't know the details, but I guess they drowned. That's put a damper on what would otherwise have mostly been a fairly odd but mostly inconvenient situation.

The rain's not from a typhoon or anything dramatic - it's just a storm, and it's the kind of more extreme weather that's expected with climate change. Trust me, I'm beginning to see the advantages of living in a city that's ABOVE sea level for the next 50 years. Hanoi lies right along the Red River, and the name actually means "city along the river" or "city over the river." Someone told me that not only is much of the city below the surface of the river, but the parts are below the bottom of the river.

Needless to say, we've got dykes, and actually dykes have been in place for over a thousand years to protect Hanoi. Even in the major recent floods of 1971 and 1996, these haven't failed. They ostensibly protect the city for floods of up to 13.5 meters. Below is a powerpoint slide I stole, but it has a diagram of the dyke that is sort of visible, and some statistics.

Nonetheless, the water levels were the highest that have been since since 1984. Here are some snapshots of other floods in recent history. I was sad to say that so far no one has broken out the boats...

Thinking back to the Gvdv seminar, it's funny to now be living in a place that was just a red "hotspot" for future climate-induced humanitarian trouble. Looking around town, being here has shown me both how both ill prepared Hanoi would be for a flood that broke the dykes, and yet also how unfased people seemed by it. No one panicked, and some people lost furniture, but I think the fact that almost everyone has a 4 story house (because they build tall & narrow), meant that everyone sort of retreated up and waited it out. That's what we did, anyway. People in general seemed pretty resourceful and calm, yet at the same time the extent to which people didn't modify their behavior (like those people who kept driving even though they were up to their windshields in water) also didn't always meet with a successful outcome. It's kind of an odd dichotomy, where no one really treats it like it's a huge deal, but at the same time, by not breaking their routines they don't necessarily demonstrate the ability to adapt if something really drastic occurred... I don't know. I'm curious to know what would happen.

For another interesting look at the water, here's the field where I usually play touch rugby on Saturdays. It's out in "Ciputra", this luxury housing complex about 5 miles away (hence the lovely white villas). The place where the cameraman is standing is up on a small hill that's a solid 1 meter higher than the level of the playing field. This was emailed out to the rugby list to explain why the game was cancelled on Saturday, even though "rugby's more fun in the mud"...

Halong Bay

2008-10-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

I went to visit the crazy geology of Halong Bay last weekend. It's a UNESCO world heritage site - and home to over 1,600 limestone islands in the Gulf of Tonkin (which is famous for a different reason). You can get there from Hanoi in a few hours - we started out at 5 AM with a xe om (motorbike) to the bus station, where we caught a bus to Haiphong and a speedboat from there to Cat Ba island. At that point, it was about 10 AM, and we met up with the fella we''d hired to take us around for the weekend. Around eleven we got aboard and started motoring, stopping first to pick up our kayaks at one of the floating villages and eat a lunch of fish and rice en route. Finally, around 2, we had arrived at the set of islands we'd been looking for to do a little deep water solo climbing.

The idea of deep water soloing is that if you're climbing on a cliff that's over deep water, you don't need safety equipment. I have to admit, I wish I'd had some safety equipment for my fingers. The limestone was SHARP! I had to dig a bit of it out of my hands just a few days ago.

From "Halong Bay & Rock Climbing"

Check out more of my pictures in the Halong Bay album on picasaweb.google.com/kathryn.lankester

Cu Chi Tunnels outside Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

2008-09-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

There are a series of tunnels outside of HCMC where the Viet Cong managed to maintain control for most of the Vietnam war. The area was declared an open fire zone, meaning any kind of weapon could be used, and as a result the area was totally stripped of trees due to defoliants, and the landscape riddled with the effects of bombing, artillery, and land operations. The Viet Cong who controlled the area survived underground, in a tunnel system over 200 km long, for years. Many died, I think 10,000 out of 16,000, but they managed to hold off the Southern Vietnamese and American forces - with the most amazing ingenuity and basic technology.

Today, there is a tourist park where foreigners and Vietnamese kids can go see this. It's a great piece of propaganda for North Vietnam. They have demonstrations of the traps they used to hide to catch enemy soldiers - these things are adaptations of the hunting traps used for tigers, with covered pits that have sharpened bamboo stakes. They show the way the Viet Cong would screen smoke so that they could cook underground without having it be seen from above, and make shoes out of old tires. They would even dismantle live bombs for the gunpowder inside - and doing this all with the most minimal of tools.

The one other thing they've got at this place is a firing range. It seems lightly bizarre, but they actually have M-16s, AK-47s, and several other weapons available to be fired.

Hearing the gunshots in the background certainly added to the realism of the morning! Anyway, I was curious, so I got one bullet, rather to the amusement of the Vietnamese man monitoring the whole thing. "One? Really only one?" Yep - it's not something I want to make a habit.

It was a little weird firing an AK-47 just a hundred meters from the wreckage of a US tank that had been destroyed during the war, and probably meant the deaths of the soldiers in it.

But I have to admit, I feel kind of bad-ass for having done it.

The Motorbike: Miraculous Transporter of Innumberable Persons & Items

2008-08-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

A co-worker of mine emailed me some classic photos of true Vietnamese ingenuity. When combined with the medium of the motorbike, the results are often stupendous.

Here's to hoping he got home with her and all the groceries... and why does HE get the helmet!

Yes, the fact that the motorbike is a small, short vehicle does not mean that very long items can't be carried on it. These pipes are the longest I've seen, but people will regularly sit on the back of one and hold lamps, vases, tall tubing, or construction materials.

So I don't know what happens here if the woman holding the poles with her foot has to brake...

This contraption of two baskets balanced on the end of a long pole is ubiquitous in Vietnam. Most of the time, women carry them on their shoulders and they are filled with fruit to be sold (well, in Hanoi anyway).

While I've seen 3-4 people on a motorbike before, this is the record.

On the other hand, motorbikes aren't the ONLY way of moving things from place to place.

People are good at pushing too...

Vietnamese Language

2008-08-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

So I haven't written too much about the Vietnamese language yet - Tieng Viet. For starters, it has a romanized alphabet - courtesy of the French colonization and particularly a Jesuit named Alexandre de Rhodes. For someone like me, that's a godsend, because it means that once I get pronunciation down, I'll be able to sound out words. This in comparison to my friends out there learning Thai or Chinese, where the letters/characters are unfamiliar - that's a whole different challenge! So I'm lucky in that regard.

To give you an idea of what it looks like, here's the Blogger menu in Vietnamese:

Sorry if that's really hard to see.

Anyway, what does make life tricky is that the langauge is tonal - with six tones to be exact - not to mention a bunch of extra vowel sounds we don't have in English. Because you can say the exact same set of letters with a different tone and have it be a different word, getting the tones down is really important if you want to be understood and not make massive mistakes. For example, a coworker of mine - the graphic design guy, to be exact - is named Hiep. Well, if you pronounce that with a rising or falling tone, the meaning changes from his very common first name to the word for "to rape." I am positive that on occasion I have accidentally said "Hey Rape, how are you today?"

Whoops.

So my efforts to really break into Vietnamese are stalling while I try to get the tones down. I think I've learned how to say 1 to 10, yoghurt, yes, no, thank you, beef, dog meat (self-defense), reciept (for expense accounting taxis), how much is that?, and...that's about it.

I do have my first official Vietnamese lesson on Monday night, which I'm very excited about. I wanted to upload an .mp3 of how to count in Vietnamese, but I don't see a way to do that easily on blogger. While I try to figure that out (and please post hints if you already know), you'll just have to wait in suspense.

Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon)

2008-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I loved HCMC (the short name for Ho Chi Minh City), but I also didn't stray too far from about a 5 block radius that encompassed my hotel, my office, the Reunification Palace, and (coincidentally) Max's apartment (the PiAer in HCMC).

The city is definitely much more Westernized, and there are a lot of foreigners walking around. I saw an upscale shopping center with lots of Gucci, Ferragamo, and other designers that could have been Bloomingdales in NYC. In other words, there is definitely money to be made in HCMC.

Interestingly, a lot of Vietnamese also refer to it as Saigon, and the names seem to be interchangeable. That seems kind of in keeping with the Vietnamese view of the "American War" - it happened, it was pretty awful while it happened, it changed a lot of things, but now it's over. I haven't found much resentment of Americans at all - in fact, I've experienced none - and as far as I can tell, it's something that's in the past and that few people get really touchy about. So it's not a major no-no to call HCMC Saigon, for example.

In HCMC, they've kept the palace which was the southern Vietnamese headquarters almost totally intact, and you can go downstairs and see the rooms with all of the maps, rotary telephones for calling the battlefield, the emergency radios and the President's "war-bedroom" Diem hung out when he needed to be near the phones. It's really interesting - and you can check out my pictures on my Picasa album.

I also got to try some delicious teas - kinds of juices with fruit in them, and these are fruits which have gelatinous textures like nothing I've really experienced before. I can't quite decide how to describe them. I also got to eat a lot of food from the region of Hue, one of the old imperial capitals of Vietnam. It's supposed to be culinary heaven, and certainly the food from there was some of the most unique I've tried yet. They do something with rice - I think whipping it in to a light fluff and then steaming it - which turns it into something that is slick and a bit gooey. It looks like a piece of white fish, actually, but it's rice. And you can eat it plain, or with things stuffed inside, or as the outer layer on a roll with beef and other things in it. Really interesting...

Anyway, it was 3 days of work with a little sightseeing and lots of eating - and quite fun! It was good to get back to Hanoi though, even though I think it is MORE humid here!

Some Photos

2008-08-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hello there again. Well, I've now been in Hanoi for a full week, and while my plans to play touch rugby got way-laid by a massive downpour, I have managed to get out and go for a couple runs. Today my new housemate and I ran down to a little park near our house, which turned out to have a zoo in it. So we ran past the monkeys and elephants, as well as a carousel. The major attraction for me, if I was about half my height, were these big plastic inflatable globes. A little kid would get in one, and they would seal it and then inflate it. Then the child would roll out onto the lake, and be in a giant clear plastic ball rolling around on the lake. How cool is that!? I have no idea how long the oxygen supply in there lasts, but I guess long enough for a good roll around. Anyway, it seemed pretty sweet.

I head down to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow for 3 days, so I imagine I'll be able to report back a bit on that. I hear that it's quite similar to the Washington DC - NY split. Hanoi is a bit sleepier and less hectic, and the seat of government, while HCMC is all about finance and generally crazier. Should be interesting! In the meantime, here are a few shots of Hanoi to give you a flavor of the place:

Some photos of Hanoi

First Few Days

2008-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that I have only been in Hanoi for 5 full days. So much has happened! I spent the weekend wandering around the city and getting to know it. It's a confusing place in a lot of ways, with twists and turns, dead ends, streets whose names I really can't pronounce, and lots of tricks. I think I'm slowly getting used to it though. I found a place to live, which was exciting, and it's a 10 minute walk from work. It's down a series of narrow winding alleys, which I took some video of to post, but I took it vertically so on the computer it looks sideways. The video below, though, is of the entrance to my house.

I've gotten to eat a lot of Vietnamese food already, and it's overall pretty delicious. Lots, and lots, and lots of noodles. Yummy cilantro in most everything, morning glory in a lot of stuff (which I had barely ever encountered before), and lots of soups. I even had a breakfast sandwich of pork and egg on a gorgeous french baguette.

One of my favorite things, though, has to be pho cuon. It's a pho noodle wrapped around mint, cilantro, and beef, dipped in sauce. I had these with friends at the restaurant that is, according to my friend Khuong, the birthplace of pho cuon. It's pictured above.

In this photo, you'll see Phuong, Khuong, Aaron (obscured by some dong, the currency), Simon, our waiter giving the peace sign, Casey, Kelsey, and Jeff. I work with Aaron and Khuong at AIPF and the others I know mostly because they live with Aaron.