Economist Survey
From: Bill Hayton <bill.hayton@bbc.co.uk>
Date: 2008/5/5
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
A request for colleagues in Vietnam. Did last week's copy of The Economist - which has the lengthy survey of Vietnam - make it into the country? A couple of friends have told me that their copy hasn't arrived - although that might just be the usual postal inefficiencies. But it would be interesting if there was a systematic blocking of the edition.
Many thanks
Bill
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From: Tuan Hoang <thoang1@nd.edu>
Date: Mon, May 5, 2008 at 5:54 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Bill Hayton,
I'm not in Vietnam & can't answer your question. But having read the special issue, I couldn't help thinking
it'd be a mistake for the Vietnamese government to block this issue, or even censure it excessively. I
haven't read The Economist regularly for several years now, but my memory is that it had few articles on
Vietnam, and very short ones at that. This special issue, on the other hand, has nine or ten articles,
possibly the most comprehensive single issue about Vietnam from a major popular international English-language
magazines in a long time. (I'm not counting Asia-centric mags like the FEER.) While they aren't upbeat, the
articles as a whole are more positive than negative about the country. The topics are hardly news to many
VSG members, but this special issue is a nice introduction of the country's economy and politics to novices
in the general readership. One of the articles, for example, mentions several Sino-Vietnam differences. It
also compares the current economy to the Cao Dai religion! I don't know how sound or not sound are these
differences and comparisons. But this is the first time I've heard of the simile & thought it very
interesting.
~Tuan
--
Tuan Hoang
PhD Candidate
Department of History
University of Notre Dame
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From: Nguyen Van Duyen <duyennv@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, May 5, 2008 at 6:11 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Bill,
I even see Vietnam Television (VTV1) on the last
weekend in the program "Panorama' introdueced this
section in great length and show to the viewers.
bestregards
With Best Regards
Nguyen Van Duyen (Mr.)
Master of Extractive Metallurgy (Curtin - Australia)
Master of Environmental Law (Sydney- Australia)
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From: Matt Steinglass <mattsteinglass@gmail.com>
Date: 2008/5/5
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Yes, the Economist arrived just fine at our house.
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From: Lonán Ó Briain <lonanobriain@hotmail.com>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I'm living with an American Economist in Hanoi and he tells me that it is available on the shelves but that two pages have been torn out of every copy.
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From: Jonathan Haughton <jhaughto@beaconhill.org>
Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 at 7:50 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Hello,
Naturally, we are all itching to know which two pages were removed!
All the best
Jonathan
Jonathan Haughton
Economics Department
Suffolk University, Boston MA
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From: Lonán Ó Briain <lonanobriain@hotmail.com>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Apologies for holding you in suspense. The articles are "How long can the party last?" and "And yours, and yours, and yours too: foreign policy made simple." These were removed from the copies my friend looked at but I don't know what the situation is countrywide. Hope this satisfies your thirst!
Le meas,
Lonan O Briain
Graduate Student in Ethnomusicology
University of Sheffield
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From: Mike High <mike.high@earthlink.net>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I have a strong suspicion that the missing pages contained the last of the Vietnam articles listed in that issue:
* Half-way from rags to riches
* A bit of everything
* Two wheels good, four wheels better
* Entrepreneurs unbound
* The return of the boat people
* From basket case to rice basket
* Revealing its hidden charm
* We want to be your friend
Of course, from the party’s perspective, the last title is shockingly provocative. In general, though, it’s a carefully-nuanced assessment and not entirely negative.
“the internal workings of the Communist Party's leadership remain as mysterious as ever. In China, Hu Jintao is clearly the paramount leader, combining the jobs of president, party chief and head of the party's military commission. Vietnam, by contrast, is led by a rather self-effacing triumvirate: Nong Duc Manh, the party's general secretary; Nguyen Minh Triet, the president; and Nguyen Tan Dung, the prime minister. No individual is praised except the late Uncle Ho. The national assembly and the party's central committee are forces in their own right, not rubber stamps.
...What is clear is that in terms of personal freedom, cautious liberalisers seem to have the upper hand. Vietnam's regime can be less nasty than those of some of the country's democratic neighbours: anti-government activists and clerics are in little danger of being murdered, as in the Philippines, and orderly protests are more readily tolerated than in uptight Singapore.”
The article goes on to discuss corruption at some length, but that kind of criticism seems quite acceptable these days, as the government itself makes a big deal of its anti-corruption efforts.
Another candid remark that might bring out the censor’s scissors is:
“An economic setback that reverses the recent rise in living standards might make people turn against the party. Or, as they get used to economic freedom and learn more about richer, freer countries, they may hanker after more political freedom too. Unlike, say, the Thais, the Vietnamese are not at all deferential. If, one day, they get too fed up with the party, they may lose their fears and ditch it.”
And finally,
“The party, which claims almost 3.2m members, still recruits from among the high schools' brightest pupils, a student says, but those who join are resented by their classmates for the privileges they get. It may be that most of them are motivated by a desire to make useful political connections for their own advancement rather than a wish to serve the nation. The danger is that Vietnam may end up like some other South-East Asian countries, stuck firmly in the middle-income trap it is trying so hard to avoid, and suffering from predatory elites, weak institutions, crony capitalism and a pseudo-democracy.”
Living in a country with a more-or-less free press, it seems absurd to me that government censors still take such crude and obvious actions as removing a few pages from a magazine. You might not have the patience to make it all the way through this series of articles--I certainly haven’t--but seeing that a few pages have been removed leaves a far worse impression than the words that were on them.
But the Economist article alludes to this kind of paradox as well: “Bookshops are full of the translated works of authors from Mother
Teresa to Jackie Collins, yet under a 2004 regulation actors are banned from dyeing their hair or even appearing bareheaded on stage.”
:: Mike High
Great Falls, Virginia
USA
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From: Mart Stewart <Mart.Stewart@wwu.edu>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Lan,
Interesting exchange about a recent issue of the Economist devoted entirely to Vietnam -- apparently those that were delivered in Vietnam itself had a couple of pages missing. See below. I'm trying to track down a copy of this issue.
Mart
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From: Mart Stewart <Mart.Stewart@wwu.edu>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Just sent a personal message to the list -- my apologies and please don't post it. Thanks,
Mart Stewart
From: vsg-bounces@mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:vsg-bounces@mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Mike High
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 8:42 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Economist Survey
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From: Maxner, Steve <steve.maxner@ttu.edu>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
The entire series is available online here:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/index.cfm?d=20080426
Stephen Maxner, Ph.D.
Director
The Vietnam Center
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From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Along these lines, I wonder if translated works are sometimes censored in parts. Our library here just received the Vietnamese translation of The Vietnam War files: uncovering the secret history of Nixon-era strategy, by Jeffrey Kimball, the translation published by NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan in 2007. I have no idea if any parts of this book were edited out, but I cite it as an example of American academic works now being published in translation by Vietnamese publishing houses.
- Steve Denney
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From: Adam @ UoM <fforde@unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 at 3:10 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
This may work the other way around - are things omitted from the
translations of the Cong Bao into English?
Adam
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From: Jim Cobbe <jcobbe@fsu.edu>
Date: 2008/5/7
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
And that website is still fully accessible through my ISP in Đà Nẵng [VNPT], as it has been since publication.
--
Professor Jim Cobbe
AY 2007-08: Fulbright Scholar,
Đại Học Kinh Tế Đà Nẵng
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From: Jim Cobbe <jcobbe@fsu.edu>
Date: 2008/5/8
To: Bill Hayton <bill.hayton@bbc.co.uk>, Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
My subscription copy of the Economist reached me today, intact -- all articles in the Viet Nam survey present. [The delay is not unusual for my copy; I have to get it through my university, because I don't have a private mailing address -- my rented house is in the redevelopment area near My Khe Beach, on an alley with no name off a street with no name; my dia chi below is the ward plot number for the house. As sometimes in the US, my mail takes a long time to filter down through the university until it gets to me].
Jim Cobbe
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From: Chuck Searcy <chucksearcy@yahoo.com>
Date: 2008/5/11
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I do not subscribe and I haven't looked for this issue of The Economist at newsstands in Hanoi. However, in 1996 or 1997, I think, an article appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review (as I recall, maybe another magazine) which was widely talked about because it suggested that Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in private conversations had disagreed with the public campaign he had announced against social evils, which of course upset the government. Curious, I bought a copy at a newsstand on Trang Tien Street and went to a cafe to read the article. I could not find the article. After combing the pages of the magazine twice I realized that the article had been neatly razored out. I took the magazine back to the newsstand and showed it to the vendor, who nodded immediately in apology, reached under his table and pulled out a photo copy of the missing article and handed it to me with another apologetic shrug.
Chuck Searcy