Years
never end in quite the way that had been anticipated on 1st January,
and this was certainly the case with 2013, which began with a sunny 1st
January, continued with a late spring, and eventually provided a good summer,
with a long, late autumn. In
between, I visited New Zealand, something completely unenvisaged on 1st
January, while in September, our grandson, Oli started school, and the year
ended with an unexpected work assignment in Vietnam.
That’s
the personal stuff. Meanwhile, on the national scene, there has been an increasing awareness that the
government, which reassured the
electorate that the NHS would be save in their hands, is systematically
dismantling and flogging off chunks of it to the private sector, EU competition legislation
being conveniently deployed to aid and abet this process, while
the sinister (and evidently deaf and deceitful) IDS (Ian Duncan Smith) is
‘rationalizing’ the social security system with maximum ill effect as the
hugely complicated IT systems needed to implement it limp behind schedule.
A
new lexicon has entered the language: ‘bedroom tax’ has become the label for
one of the government’s vicious little schemes, while ‘reform’ has become the
deceitful label for anything that the government (sorry, ‘Coalition’) is doing
in pursuit of ‘efficiency’ and ‘austerity’ and ‘fixing the mess left by the
last government’. Beware ‘reformers’.
(See thoughtful article by ex MP Tony
Wright on ‘What is it about politicians’ in latest issue of The Political Quarterly at http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sunni-monarchs-back-youtube-hate-preachers-antishia-propaganda-threatens-a-sectarian-civil-war-which-will-engulf-the-entire-muslim-world-9028538.html
)
On
the international scene, the Syrian situation goes from bad to worse, with the
Assad regime looking likely to stay in power as being the lesser of two evils,
the greater being ANF, SIF, SILF and the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater
Syria (ISIS), forces associated in various ways with al-Qaeda. (See NYRB
article by Sarah Birke http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/dec/27/how-al-qaeda-changed-syrian-war/
)
In
fact, the Arab Spring – a term which surely invited disaster– has turned into
Arab Winter in Egypt, while in non Arab Turkey, that some time darling of the
Western world, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has proved to be a winner takes all
politician with a self serving and distorted notion of democracy. His current corruption problems are
entirely in line with this set of attitudes. Meanwhile, that stalwart of the
rule of law and human rights, Vladimir Putin, has been named not only Russian
Man of the Year (by the Russians), but also International Person of the Year
for 2013 by that erstwhile great journal of record, The Times. Is this
parody, I wonder, on the same level as Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize?
Two
notable and, one hopes, beneficial events in 2013 were the Snowden revelations,
which have, worryingly though not surprisingly, created few ripples among the political class in the UK (cf
the USA ), and the election to the papacy of the hitherto obscure Cardinal Bergoglio from Argentina. See a very thoughtful review of the Pope’s
first year by James Carroll in a recent New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_carroll
Tragically,
but all too predictably, the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan continue. Fortunately
for her own good, Malala Yousafzai, didn't receive a prize in Oslo, but what
can she and others like her do in the face of the corruption, veniality, incompetence
and blindness that seems to characterize the situation in her ruined home
country? As to Iraq, it appears
have joined Syria as the site of a proxy war between the Sunni world, pay-rolled
by Saudi Arabia, and the Shia world, under the aegis of Iran. The fragile détente reached between the
‘West’ (i.e., the USA ) and Iran
could be, as they say, a game changer, but the influence of the Saudi regime
can be, and is, nothing but malign and they will work to
destablize any rapprochement. (See Patrick Cockburn in a recent Independent article: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sunni-monarchs-back-youtube-hate-preachers-antishia-propaganda-threatens-a-sectarian-civil-war-which-will-engulf-the-entire-muslim-world-9028538.html
)
And
so one could go on, and on and on.
What about climate change? A climate change denier is now PM in Australia. Yet, the scientific consensus appears to support man made
climate change. The kind of
climate instability that is increasingly common, as in the hugely destructive
typhoon in the Philippines, is in
line with predictions made years ago when climate change first became an issue.
As
is the movement of populations in pursuit of land, water, security and that
elusive goal, ‘freedom’. The
harrowing instances of foundering vessels and drowning passengers en masse in
the Mediterranean is in line with the kind of population movements predicted in
the past and which, thanks to climate change and political instability, are now
so common. The response of the
world at large has been pretty paltry and mean spirited.
I
have written at length elsewhere on my visit to New Zealand, a country which
itself is undergoing significant demographic changes, together with a
realignment of identity as a Pacific and near SE Asian nation, rather than
being an antipodean version of the Old Country. This reorientation is entirely realistic as the hemisphere combining
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and, above all,
China, has become a major centre of the world economy and a significant market
for Kiwi produce, as well as a source of new citizens.
My
year ended with a visit to this very region, albeit one country within it:
Vietnam. I first visited Hanoi in
1995, and more recently I’ve worked in Danang, as well as paying brief tourist visits
to Hue (old imperial capital) and HCMC (formerly Saigon). This visit took me via Bankok (change
of flights) to Hanoi, which has, like VN itself, moved on from being a country
emerging from a period of prolonged economic underdevelopment, to an almost
frighteningly vigorous and booming nation.
The
road traffic symbolizes this transformation. The motorbike and scooter remain the predominant means of
transport, thanks, I was told, to the coming to market of cheap Chinese
machines which have brought this means of transport within the means of large
swathes of the population. And I
mean large swathes, as men and women of all ages use them, they are the usual
form of family transport (2 parents + 2 children are a common sight) and from
the viewpoint of mobility and economic emancipation, they have had a
tremendous, beneficial effect.
Since 1995, with accelerating prosperity, motor cars (including luxury
brands like Bentley) have also increased by huge numbers , so now there is a
frightening mix of two, four and multiple wheels at large on the roads which,
in the main cities are pretty good, if crowded, but are woefully inadequate
inter-city.
Although
there are some traffic lights in the major cities, much traffic is unregulated,
and conventional adherence to rules of the road, as normal in the UK, seems to be largely unknown and, if
known, unpractised. Even so, the system does work, albeit in a way which is both unnerving and
baffling to a foreigner -- and despite everything, the traffic keeps moving. One principle appears to be to ignore
any traffic coming behind you, it being the responsibility of a driver who can
see traffic ahead to take whatever evasive action is needed. Performing U-turns in the face of
on-coming traffic is common, it
being their job to avoid you, as
is changing direction with little concern for following vehicles. The worst challenge, however, faces the
hapless pedestrian, who, unless at a rare light controlled intersection, must
try to identify a break in the traffic stream, and set off at a steady,
confident pace across the highway, in the hope that on-coming traffic really will
take evasive action. Loosing the
plot, and stopping half way across is to invite disaster.
In
Saigon, I was staying on an ‘island’ from which, fortunately, I didn't have to
stray on my way to work, five heavily polluted minutes from my hotel, the
colonial Continental Hotel Saigon.
However, obtaining sustenance other than at the hotel required an
expedition ‘off shore’, and this certainly gave an edge to the appetite! The
main concern was the number of life-threatening crossings to ‘spend’ en route
to a targeted restaurant.
The
overt chaos and hidden system of traffic management did seem to sum up our
experience as trainers. Andy and I
were contracted to run three two week leadership
courses for university lecturers as part of major national curriculum reform
(or ‘restoration’) in foreign language teaching (i.e., mostly ELT). Promulgated in the form of a ‘Decision’ in 2008 (i.e.,
legislation), and now the subject
of a cascade form of implementation, NFL2020-P as it is called, is already
about two years behind schedule.
This is partly because of the unwieldy nature of the system itself, as
well as a result of multi-agency machinations and lack of coordination within
the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).
It
is a characteristic of a regime run by an autocratic party like the Vietnamese
Communist Party (which is doggedly and determinedly clinging on to power and
privilege, like its Chinese equivalent), that information is difficult to
obtain, and is acquired in dribs and drabs from a variety of sources. Even
then, it’s difficult to form a coherent picture of the system. Thus it proved
to be for Andy and me, and even at the very end of our venture, we were still making
discoveries. For instance, during my final week, I learned that the ETCF (English Teachers Curriculum Framework), largely the product of an
American advisor, had not yet been signed off by MOET, so it exists in a kind of administrative
limbo as it isn't yet ‘official’. Until it is, the ETCF doesn't seem to be
fully in the process of being implemented. Of course, reluctance to implement decisions and guidelines
that aren’t yet fully ratified isn't confined to members of the Vietnamese
education system, but learning about this administrative glitch helped to
explain why decisions take so much time to put into effect and why, despite the
NFL2020-Pl egislation and the curriculum development that has already been
achieved, the project is into penalty time already.
Combined
with a dearth of linkage across divisions and agencies within the education
system, the slowness of decision taking and dissemination helped account for
what we regarded as a woeful absence of coordination. People attending our courses had been told with very little
notice (like 24 hours) that they were to attend. In many cases, this meant
arranging at short notice overnight train journeys and accommodation at the
venue. In virtually all cases, it
meant rearranging their university and private classes, not to mention making
considerable domestic rearrangements (a majority were married women with families). The coup de grace came when the
Danang group were told by the representative of the P2020 office that he wasn't
sure when their promised expenses would materialize. To say that this put quite a dampener on the rest of the
afternoon is an understatement, the participants not being alone in feeling angry
and upset by this state of insouciant mismanagement.
The
apparently ramshackle and corrupt way things are run in VN makes visitors wonder
how come it has an expanding economy?
Evidently, within private sector enterprises, things can and do run
efficiently, as witness the overnight tour I did to scenic Ha Long Bay, near
Hanoi, or the superb theatre troupe, AO,
performing original and imaginative acrobatics with a modern twist at
the Saigon opera house. Why, one
wonders, can't these skills be scaled up to national level? It’s very clear that Vietnamese are
diligent, hard working and, given the right kind of leadership, as in the AO
troupe, are able to perform wonders.
They are quite different from their near neighbours, the Thais (who are
regarded as, to put it diplomatically, too easy going), and although much
influenced by Chinese culture, they are in turn quite different from their mighty
northern neighbours, with whom they maintain a very ambivalent relationship,
there being a long history of Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts from 1979 to
1990, while the Spratley Islands (their Vietnamese name: Quần đảo Trường Sa)
dispute is on-going. We hope that ultimately it gets back on track.
Apart
from the well maintained and rather fruity architectural relics of French
colonialism, such as the Saigon opera house opposite my hotel, and the occasional food influences,
such as the baguettes which are widely available as street food, in Vietnam there was
another unexpected and ubiquitous influence from the West: Christmas. Within days of arriving in Saigon, our
hotel, the Japanese owned Nikko, sprouted a splendidly dressed two storey Xmas tree in the
lobby, which is no surprise to anyone who has lived in Japan, while outside, other
even more extravagant seasonal decorations appeared at the posh shopping
malls. The absolute climax of
Christmas decorations and lighting was to be found in booming Saigon, where
they were a major attraction for the Saigonese, who came on their motorbikes in
droves to photograph and be photographed. Taking selfies and family pics and artful shots of
young women fetchingly posing became a virtually 24/7 activity in the centre of
Saigon. Few Vietnamese are
Christian, but all recognize a retailing opportunity, which says much about
their flair in making the best of an imported cultural and commercial influence.
After
a day trip to part of the Mekong Delta, a vast agricultural area which produces
three rice crops a year, I started the long journey back to Blighty via Hong
Kong (don’t ask: I didn't make the travel arrangements). This provided time for a brief spell in
another Asian phenomenon, including a visit to the Peak, where, since my last
visit, a huge visitors’ centre has been constructed at the top of the cable car
route. Ignoring this crowded
attraction, I walked along Lugard Road, overlooking Central and Kowloon and
the harbour. When we spent a month
at the nearby HK University in 1992, this walk, in the company of many locals, was
part of my morning routine, and I always try to retrace it whenever I visit the
city. On this occasion, I
found that a luxury hotel wishes to situate itself above the route, and is
seeking permission to close part of Lugard Road for its unique benefit. A protest movement is in progress. This intrusion of rude commerce on part
of the island’s heritage (and on a much used and loved public walkway) left me
with a sadly sour taste as I took a taxi down to Hong Kong station and travelled
in the Airport Express to the splendid British designed terminal (Foster and
Partners) to await my midnight flight back to LHR, and the country, parts of whose
former empire are now at the heart of a significant new economic, cultural and
political hemisphere.
1st
January 2014
