[Vnbiz] Vietnam Inc Revising Its History with Tourism Spin Risks New "Marxist class conflicts"

[AD Marshall]

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Date: Aug 20, 2007 9:45 AM
Subject: [SighGone, Hø!] Vietnam Inc Revising Its History with Tourism Spin
Risks New ...

Director of International Initiatives at the Global Studies Center and a
lecturer in Vietnamese Studies at the University of Houston, Dr Long S Le
casts plans for a new Thich Quang Duc memorial in HCMC in a light of tourism
industry marketing spin, ongoing suppressions of religious freedom and
complementary historical revisions to envision social contradictions
paradoxically boding new "old-fashioned Marxist class conflicts".

Wait...  What!?  See BeLow.

Asia Times Online, 2007.Aug.14.Tue.
Contradictory histories plague Vietnam
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IH14Ae01.html>
By Long S Le

Excerpts

... the tourism industry's new investments are allocated to renovating and
renaming colonial-era hotels, buildings and streets in a bid to revive
tourist-friendly colonial nostalgia and allure.

This multimillion-dollar marketing ploy serves as a way to call foreign
attention to the "new" Vietnam, one that sheds the baggage of the war and
embraces ancient traditions as well as Western influences. This new attitude
will be highlighted in the country's upcoming global tourism advertising
campaign, which will air on CNN, among other media outlets, for 13
consecutive weeks starting this autumn.
...

Vietnam's emergent but still small middle class is by many accounts either
closely associated with or dependent on such government connections for
their improved livelihoods. The thesis that with greater affluence Vietnam's
growing middle class will push for more democracy misses the importance of
this connection to the political status quo.

More likely, old-fashioned Marxist class conflicts will emerge, as the
masses who can barely make economic ends meet are sensitized to the
association of the country's *nouveau riche* with government-linked
privilege and corruption. Despite the country's recent economic boom, the
average Vietnamese's annual income is still only US$650.
...

Full Report <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IH14Ae01.html>

 Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd.
--
Posted By Mặc AD Marshall to SighGone, Hø!
<http://sighgone-ho.blogspot.com/2007/08/vietnam-inc-revising-its-history-with_20.html>at
8/20/2007 09:45:00 AM
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