VIETNAM: Urban Vietnamese flock to a "hard times" exhibit showcasing relics of the country's communist economy

Motorbikes fill the streets of the capital of Vietnam and shops overflow with goods both produced locally and abroad. Hanoi now is a completely different world from the Hanoi of 20 years ago when people were poor and food and other necessities were rationed under a subsidized economy. The city known for its french colonial buildings and tree-lined streets is rapidly expanding into the suburbs where high-rise apartments and cranes dominate the skyline. Supermarkets which sell a wide variety of things are starting to compete with mom-and-pop shops for the money of urban dwellers, who have more and more to spend as living standards improve. The rapid change has made people nostalgic for the period of "Bao Cap" or subsidy economy which lasted from 1975 to 1986. And an exhibit at the Vietnam Ethnology Museum located in the suburbs of Hanoi showcasing things from that period has been drawing local tourists by the thousands. The exhibit started in June and was supposed to run to the end of the year but has been extended until next June due to popular demand. Vietnamese, young and old, have been flocking to the museum to see food stamps and models of houses and shops from an era when mechanisms for economic management were inefficient. During that period senior government officials were allowed about four kilograms of meat and fish per month while clerks and other lower-ranking civil servants were rationed a mere half a kilogram. Obtaining food and other necessities involved queuing for hours and there was no freedom of choice. Food stamps could be sold on the black market for a very low price and people had no choice but to buy what they really needed on the black market. "At that time, I was young and had young children so I didn't have to queue from very early in the morning, many had to go at 2 or 3 am, but I went there around 5 or 6 am and waited until noontime to buy some rice, but it was terribly crowded," said Leu Thi Le Sach, 69, a visitor to the museum. Museum Director Nguyen Van Huy said he had created the exhibit to help people to understand the economic prosperity of today. "Through this exhibition, the Vietnamese people from Hanoi and other places can have a broader and deeper understanding of the values of the Doi Moi (Renewal) process over the past 20 years. What our people enjoy today, we should understand that the people paid a large price for it 20 years ago," he said. The Bao Cap era ended with the country adopting the Doi Moi or "Renewal" policy, similar to the Soviet Union's Perestroika -- a reform programme which eventually led to the end of the Soviet Union. Economists say the pent up frustrations of the people propelled Vietnam's socio-economic reform and the opening up of the country's economy. "Sometimes we tell my children some stories on having to queue to buy things and the hardships. We told them that their parents and grandparents had experienced so much difficulty to get what we have today. Today you can get things everywhere and you can buy and choose whatever you like," said 68-year-old Nguyen Minh Anh, another visitor to the museum. For many young Vietnamese, the age of hardship is pretty much a thing of the past and the memories of the hard times is due to recede further into people's memories as the economy grows, fuelled by events like its entry into the World Trade Organization and gradual privatization of state-run companies.

ITN Source | November 14, 2006

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