"Politics"

Darn! Mine was at the dry-cleaners that weekend . . . It was a disappointed group that tried to get a street view of Ho Chi Minh City's 20th anniversary parade, only to discover that to view it you had to either be a member of the Communist Party or one of their guests. They should have pushed their heads together with McCann-Ericsson's Paul Cushman, who donned a Communist theme T-shirt, picked up a brilliant red and yellow Vietnamese flag, and ran to the front of the parade. He presented the flag to a very pleased general who marched with it for the rest of the day.

And the vegetarians resented the shrimp rolls but missed the shuttle bus . . . Attending a recent "invest in Vietnam" conference hosted at Washington DC's Willard Continental Hotel, Standard Chartered's Indochina Manager John Brinsden noted three separate groups of picketers. The first two groups were Vietnamese-Americans and Vietnam Veterans, who objected to warming relations between Washington and Hanoi; the third group was a contingent from the American Communist Party, voicing their disapproval of Vietnam's flirtation with capitalism.

Mind if we throw in a few credit cards with that? . . . The controversial $2 billion Dung Quat oil refinery, over which the Vietnamese government has alienated several potential foreign investors by insisting it be built in a remote location, could end up reaching for a different pot of gold. While PetroVietnam recently announced plans to cooperate on that deal with Russian state-owned oil giant Zarubezhneft, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has also floated the idea of seeking $283.5 million in much softer money - overseas development aid (ODA) - to kickstart the project, reported Saigon Times. Now let's see if other hoped-for foreign investment projects - such as a $250 million satellite for TV channels and mobile phones - are also recast as ODA requests.

In other words, a satellite's worth . . . In late February Party Chief Le Kha Phieu appealed to the Party and people to cut waste. Seems a government survey revealed that extravagant officials and state-company officers bought an extra 15,000 personal cars worth $240 million, according to VNA weekly Vietnam Courier, February 28. Another $80 million a year is spent on them for gas. The official publication notes that to make way for these Japanese and German status symbols, their Russian-made autos were discarded.

And you thought they were just sleeping over there . . . It was bright news that politically sacrosanct domestic telephone operating monopoly VNPT has dropped long-distance prices by up to 23 percent. A rice farmer chatting with her San Jose cousin to now plow through her yearly income in 70 minutes rather than 55. The bad news, for certain VNPT bigwigs, came from Deputy PM Khai. Seems the good folks over there got busted for two small infractions. One, they overcharged customers by $65 million over the past three years. Two, half their profits have been nested in lockboxes rather than being turned over to the government or reinvested, as required. As one of the approximately three state-run companies that turns a profit - out of 6,000 - somebody was bound to notice eventually.


Power of the press . . . Surrounded by a horde of journalists in the Metropole Hotel lobby, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was trying to back his way into an elevator. On either side of the elevator door was a high pedestal, and on top of each were cast iron lamps. As a Japanese television reporter attempted to hike his camera above the crowd to capture the scene, one of the lamps tumbled off its pedestal, crashing directly atop the mighty prime minister's noggin. When he managed to at last back into the elevator, before the doors closed he offered only a distinct: "ughhh."

Straight from the Party's Official Organ . . . Mr. Nguyen's top Party-controlled-newspaper headlines from 1998: "Ministry Demands End to Investment Decline"; "World Cup Blamed for Tourist Slump"; "Street Honors Youth Who Tried to Kill French Governor"; "Manicurists and Hairdressers Flourish in the Countryside"; "The Blind Need More Access to Birth Control".