Random 7

This video is making the rounds in the offices around Saigon. So you need to see it too.

Ignore any mocking comments; this Chinese choir is clearly having the time of their lives performing their cover. So I say, good on you, it’s what cross-cultural exchanges are all about. Work it, move that thing, crazy.

Public service exemplars

Vietnam is the envy of the world in public service performance, says a new report and a country to be emulated for its efficiency, transformation and simplicity.

Clearly the report writers have never stepped foot in Vietnam, let alone lived here. In fact, while other news outlets agree some “eyebrows will be raised,” I’d venture that the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)—the authors of the report—were hopelessly drunk or handsomely bribed when they compiled their information. Ignoring the implications of that last sentence, let’s offer a few exhibits to counterbalance CIMA’s exuberance.

Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index scores Vietnam at 2.9 (out of a possible score of 10), ranking the Communist nation 112 out of 183 countries.

The organization, in unveiling its 2011 index, said that “public frustration is well founded. No region or country in the world is immune to the damages of corruption, the vast majority of the 183 countries and territories assessed score below five on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean.) New Zealand, Denmark and Finland top the list, while North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom.”

Now, lest you think I am comparing apples and oranges, CIMA itself agrees that important performance indicators include things like corruption, red tape or wastage, health and life expectancy of a population, educational achievements and the quality of communications and transport infrastructure.

The CIMA report approvingly notes Vietnam’s breakneck GDP growth (since slowed to 5%-8%), but fails to mention that this marvelous economic growth has occurred at the expense of CIMA’s social performance indicators.

You cannot drink the water here; animals are shot and garbage strewn in national parks; power failures are commonplace; the hospitals grim and overcrowded; the universities turn out grossly under-qualified students and the police routinely extort from landlords ever-increasing “administration fees” for renting to foreigners. Vietnam is not lacking in laws (hence CIMA’s approbation). Vietnam lacks enforcement and political will.

For this post, since cameras are banned in public service offices and ministries, Buffalo Surf took a picture of the next closest government-run agency that tolerates cameras—the main post office in downtown Saigon. But when we went to the counter to purchase stamps we were told there were none.

So, while it’s a small example, it is just one of the many that make up daily life here and I’d love to see how that ranks in CIMA’s accountability outputs.

Anniversary

It’s been three years since Buffalo Surf sailed away from its small northern island in search of adventure overseas. Or to be more exact, in search of the next level of meaningful work. It was obvious that a severe financial downturn was coming, so it made sense to leave. Over the years now, we’ve met many folks, all here for different reasons. Some come for love, some came because of love; some come for the lifestyle, some came for the freedom. Yet, the biggest reason seems to be to start fresh…no one knows your history, personal mistakes or job failings. Here, you can be almost anything you want to be. (And some of the crazy business cards I’ve been handed would attest to this.) So one thing is for sure. Regardless of the reasons for coming—really, we’re all economic migrants.

Requiem for a rhino

War on wildlife



Poachers shot the last Javan rhino in Vietnam. DNA testing confirmed this rhinoceros subspecies, once endemic to Southeast Asia, as extinct, according to WWF International. There are no rhinos left in Vietnam.

In South Africa a record 341 rhinos have been killed this year, fuelled by demand from Vietnam. Many here believe the powdered horn will cure cancer.

The South African white rhino above is the face of poaching in Vietnam—and around the world, abetted by corruption, greed and toothless enforcement. How we treat the world and all its inhabitants is a moral issue. Our stewardship is at times horrifying.


Photograph: Martin Harvey/WWF International

Random 6

Upon a painted ocean



These last few days have been marked by water—this vale of tears, flooding, unseasonal monsoons and the government’s random acts of appreciation for its military. That’s right, Hanoi’s love was directed at its navy and the sailor boys who spend untold hours of their lives defending far-flung islands. But I missed those stealth-by-night billboards in Saigon of apple-cheeked recruits in their crisp whites and ruby red lips. So instead, I bring you a mermaid, all the way from Rach Gia where Buffalo Surf finds itself again. She’s painted on a short wall that actually blocks the view of the ocean.


Line from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Flooding in Southeast Asia

What to do if a whale turns up at your door




A team of anonymous volunteers has made a video—illustrated with giant blue whales—explaining the flooding in Bangkok and why it’s happening.

It’s timely as Thailand is swamped with the worst flooding in fifty years. Cambodia is also experiencing its worst flooding in almost as many years and in Vietnam, flooding in the Mekong Delta is the worst the country has seen in a decade. Heavy rain is predicted for Vietnam for at least the next week and emergency flood relief activities are underway.

The Thai video equates how 100 billion cubic metres of water on land is equal to the weight of 50 million blue whales and what the best way might be to get a whale out of your house and back into the Gulf of Thailand.

While taking a shot at the net-heads who paralyze themselves with too much info, the cheery animation ultimately advises panicked residents in the simplest of terms: keep calm and carry on.