The Propaganda Machine

Yesterday, after stepping off our train from Sapa at 4.30 am, we spent the morning at a massive complex dedicated to Ho Chi Minh (the leader of the Vietnamese socialist revolution). And it was quite an experience!

After waiting in a queue about 300 m long together with Vietnamese people on their national pilgrimage, we entered the complex and checked our bags and valuables so that we could enter the mausoleum housing Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body. We then lined up in another fast-moving queue and entered the air-conditioned concrete box-building that was the focus of the entire trip. In the central room was a glass sarcophagus, very dimly lit, containing Ho Chi Minh's body. The sarcophagus was guarded by 4 soldiers (one at each corner) and behind it was a star (the symbol in the middle of the Vietnamese flag) and a hammer and sickle emblazoned onto the wall. As the queue was moved along pretty quickly by other guards, we were out again before we knew it. I observed a group of older soldiers who had also just emerged, talking animatedly and obviously very excited by what they'd just seen.

We spent the rest of the morning looking at Ho Chi Minh's "House on Stilts", a simple house where he is said to have lived and worked as leader of the nation before he died, and a large and well-presented museum extolling the revolution and the "exemplary morals" of its leader with a massive statue and various multimedia displays.

So despite Vietnam's move to a market economy, the country remains communist in name (somewhat like China) and communist symbolism can be found without looking too hard. Like this shop we saw in the street where our hotel is, unashamedly selling "Propaganda Art"! And the English-language Vietnamese paper I read this morning on the plane from Hanoi to Danang (yes, we ditched the 16-hour train ride for a 55-minute flight!) was also an eye-opening experience, full of congratulations to the Prime Minister for being re-elected last month as well as news on the various mutual cooperation and peace initiatives the government is pursuing with its neighbours.

A curious mix of capitalism practicality and communist ideology is the result of all of this and one can only wonder where it will all end up!