Government of the Eastern Asia Socialist Republic of Vietnam has embarked on a serious crack down of Nigerians resident in the country following a wave of anti-social and criminal activities reportedly being perpetrated by Nigerian immigrants.
This echoes reports from neighboring countries. In 2013, there was this Nigerian Monitor article, "[SHOCKING] 20% of Nigerians in Thailand are in jail," with most of the 400 locked up for drug offenses. In 2011, the head of the Nigerian Association of Cambodia, Okere Ugochukwu Emmanuel, was busted for drug trafficking. On a more positive note, the head coach of the Cambodian national basketball team is a Nigerian. Despite Austin Abayomi Koledoye's tireless and patient instructions, however, the double dribblers from the Land of Angkor still rank among the worst in this galaxy. We're not all born to slam dunk.
With its American fast food joints, foreign models, black star athletes and the beginning of black neighborhoods, Vietnam is looking more multicultural and progressive (in the American sense) by the day.
This transformation also includes annual gay parades, of course, with the first in 2012. The Atlantic, Guardian, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, NBC, BBC and CNN have all praised Vietnam's progress on the LGBT front. A Hanoi photographer, Maika Elan (real name Nguy...n Thanh Ha' � �i), won a World Press Photo Award for her series depicting gay couples at home, and a Saigon transgender bodybuilder, Kendy, was profiled by Narratively. Hanoi's KÃ �nh14 now has an annual feature, "Ten Most Beautiful Homosexual Relationships of the Year."
In Vietnam Under Communism, 1975-1982, Nguy...n V�'n Canh paints an entirely different society:
In the South, soon after the communist victory, the party officials and military commanders on the spot declared open season on the previous regime's culture. Gangs of young enthusiasts were secretly ordered or incited to destroy as much of this culture as they could. Early in May 1975, Communists burned every book in the libraries of the Saigon University Faculty of Law and Faculty of Letters; the books, they said, came from a "decadent culture." Circulation of all other books, as well as art works such as music tapes, records, films, and even paintings, was prohibited. Communist youths went from door to door to search out and confiscated books and materials considered antirevolutionary.
Among the banned cultural products was "Golden Music," love ballads, with lyrics often by well-known poets. Just for listening to this stuff, you could be locked up. Consider the case of Hanoi's Nguy...n V�'n La' � � c. After the Communist takeover in 1954, La' � � c and a small group of friends would gather in private homes to sing these ballads to each other. In 1968, this ballad-loving ring was finally exposed, with the entire seven-member gang arrested. First kept in The Furnace, better known to Americans as Hanoi Hilton, they were finally put on trial in January of 1971, with three men slammed with sentences of 15, 12 and ten years.
With "clemency," La' � � c served eight. Waiting patiently all this time, his girlfriend married the stigmatized man when he finally got out. After decades of struggle, La' � � c now owns a cafe' named La' � � c Vng [Golden La' � � c] on the edge of Hanoi's Western Lake. His friend Toa'n wasn't so lucky. Broken and destitute after prison, the man died homeless in 1994. La' � � c:
I marvel at how bitter my life has been. For doing nothing but loving music, I ended up in jail. Now, this kind of music is revived, and these songs are sung on TV. When I hear other people sing them, tears gather in my eyes.
Beneath this veneer of sidewalk hip hop shows, gay parades and transsexual bodybuilders, Vietnam is still very much a totalitarian state, however, for many people, priests, monks, journalists and bloggers, etc., are still imprisoned for thought crimes. Influential blogger Ä �ia' � �u Cy, for example, was locked up for 6 years on trumped-up charge of tax evasion. He was kept in filthy, dark, solitary cells and beaten up. In 2003, Pha' � �m H"ng SÆ �n was slapped with a 13-year-sentence for translating and disseminating "What is Democracy?" an article he found online. SÆ �n ended up serving 4 years. Last May, dissident Father Nguy...n VÄ�'n Là � was finally released after eight years in prison.
Wealth in Vietnam also flows straight to the top, for its fattest cats are senior Communists. Gorging on graft, they own the swankiest nightclubs, send their kids to American universities and jet around at will to splurge on this world's pleasures. With no free press or independent judiciary, corruption can't be checked, so cops shake you down, professors sell grades, doctors demand tips before treatment and officials of all ranks sell favors and extort.
But isn't the United States itself an oligarchy that's seemingly free and superficially tolerant? Of course! Like China, Vietnam has learned from the U.S. on how to run a 21st century totalitarian society. Instead of banning pop culture, they've realized it's the state's best ally, for the more sexy, decadent or trivial this pop culture, the more it'll tranquilize people as the elites rob them blind. Drunk on protean porn, the hip-gyrating plebes won't even notice they're being cornholed.
The United States has also been studying the Communist playbook, for it's now legal to jail or even kill a citizen on the most nebulous charges. American laws are already totalitarian.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
3
