Posted on 10/23/2006 1:47:18 AM PDT by John Carey
For years, Cong Thanh Do waged his battle for democracy in Vietnam on a laptop computer in his quiet suburban home, thousands of miles from the country he fled a quarter-century ago.
No one -- not even his wife or three kids -- knew the soft-spoken Silicon Valley engineer had founded an underground political party, advocated for jailed dissidents or penned dozens of pro-democracy essays -- all under the pseudonym "Tran Nam."
Do's secret life as a freedom fighter was revealed to his family and the world when he was arrested while vacationing in Vietnam and accused of plotting against the communist government. He spent more than five weeks in detention, staging a 38-day hunger strike while a slew of American politicians and activists demanded his release, before he was deported to the United States last month.
Though Do, 47, says he prefers working behind the scenes, since returning to California he has embraced his new celebrity to advance his cause: bringing democracy and political freedom to Vietnam. He said his imprisonment illustrates why the country's one-party system needs to change.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
President’s Planned Trip To Vietnam: Encourage the Economic Miracle Along With Human Rights Improvements
By John E. Carey
October 23, 2006
President George Bush plans to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference November 17-19 in Vietnam. We applaud this effort by the president to make this historic trip to help foster what we call the “Vietnam Economic Miracle.”
Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) by the U.S. are virtually assured in the next month or two, or, for PNTR, sometime next year. We support the president and congratulate Vietnam on these successes in bringing the government of Vietnam into the greater world of economic cooperation and prosperity.
But we also urge the President of the United States and the American people to remain mindful of the human rights abuses in Communist Vietnam – abuses which have lessened somewhat in recent years but still paint a troubling picture.
The economy in Vietnam is starting to rumble and many want to participate in the anticipated new prosperity and wealth.Tourism is exploding in Vietnam along with the associated hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. Tourist arrivals to Vietnam have grown on average 20% per year over the past 15 years, shooting up from 250,000 in 1990 to 3.5 million last year. The first quarter of 2006 saw more than a million tourists visit Vietnam, on pace to hit the government’s target of hosting 4 million tourists this year. Some industry analysts optimistically estimate tourist arrivals will double to 8 million in Vietnam by 2010. The industry’s positive cash flow to Vietnam is estimated at two trillion dollars a year.
But there are many other industries and ventures that are currently thriving in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s textile industry is such a potent force that it threatens to destroy what is still remaining of clothing manufacturing in the United States. So the Bush administration promised Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in October that it would closely monitor textile and clothing imports from Vietnam after that country joins the World Trade Organization and the United States is required to drop import quotas.
This small promise by the president set off a fire storm among retailers anxious to sell inexpensive clothing from Vietnam without any restrictions.
There are at least 600 software companies in Vietnam. Computer chip manufacturing is huge and growing. Both Japan and China have recently announced huge investments in Vietnam’s computer industry.
Vietnam expects to be responsible for 10 per cent of Japan’s $3 Billion offshore software industry by 2010.
Bill Gates visited Vietnam earlier this year because he doesn’t want Microsoft to be left out of the “Vietnam Economic Miracle” many interested in the future of Vietnam have predicted.
Some other aspects of “Vietnam’s Economic Miracle” which have been trumpeted recently by the Communist government controlled media in Vietnam include:– Vietnam’s three major telecom companies are expected to be partly privatized next year with the majority of the stakes remaining under government control, officials said.
–Authorities in Vietnam have fined an affiliate of South Korea’s Daewoo Corp. for using pirated software, the first time a corporate user of illegal software has been targeted in the Southeast Asian country, officials said on October 11.
–Intel has a new $300 Million microchip assembly and test facility in Ho Chi Minh City. It will open later this year, with as much additional investment money expected in the next two years. Canon has three printer factories near Hanoi, Canon’s largest manufacturing facility in the world.
–Vietnam, Laos and China signed a border treaty last month; a breakthrough that will hopefully increase commerce and trade.
–Vietnam announced last month that it is firmly committed to “the promotion of gender equality and the advancement of women” and takes the enhancement of women’s roles and status a top priority in the national socio-economic development programs. This was a new and breathtaking announcement: just one month ago.
–Under a draft decree, Vietnam will permit transgender people to undergo gender reassignment surgery starting next January, according to local newspaper Saigon Liberation. This shows how eager Vietnam is to display openness and a liberalism in attitude.
In early September Vietnam released prominent dissident and pro-democracy activist Pham Hong Son. Son was originally sentenced to five years in prison. His crime? He translated articles from the U.S. State Department web site for an online journal in Vietnam. The articles were titled “What is democracy?”
Mr. Cong Do, an American citizen, was also falsely imprisoned by earlier this year Vietnam. He has now been released and is advocating the return from Vietnam of another U.S. Citizen: Thuong Nguyen “Cuc” Foshee.
Mrs. Foshee, a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody Sept. 8, 2005. She was not charged, not allowed to post bail, denied an attorney and put in a prison in Ho Chi Minh City. Her crime? While in the U.S. she did business with an organization the government of Vietnam terms “seditionist.”
The Vietnamese people have no free elections. In Vietnam, the Communists Party chooses all candidates prior to an election and no people excluded by the Communists system can run in an election. Since all candidates are nominated by the Party, there is no legitimate “voice of the people.”
The Communist government of Vietnam, like that of China and North Korea, controls and monitors all media including the internet and email. Along with the U.S. Department of State web site, the web site of The Washington Times is not available to readers in Vietnam. The Washington Times is also too “seditionist.”
Although Vietnam currently has more than 600 newspapers; all are owned and controlled by the Party. No private newspaper has ever been allowed to be published. Song lyrics are monitored and have to be approved by the government in Vietnam.
Vietnam has one of the strictest systems of control over public use of the Internet in the world. Many web sites with information on freedom and democracy are not available in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese people do not have freedom of religion and worship. In its annual report on religious freedom, the U.S. State Department listed Vietnam among its top eight “Countries of Particular Concern.”
So we applaud and thank the President of the United States on his planned trip to Vietnam. And we want the U.S. economy to share in all the benefits of Vietnam’s anticipated growth.
And Mister President: Please bring home Mrs. Foshee.
And let’s all remain mindful of our American commitment to human rights and our American values in the process of expanding the “Vietnam Economic Miracle.”
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
There is no economic excuse for textiles to still be an industry in the United States. It is inherently a labor intensive industry that America cannot support without massive subsidies and market controls which all constitute inefficient allocation of resources to a less productive use from a more produuctive use. It is a drag on the economy and on net reduces job reation and depresses wage levels. Textiles is a natural for countries just getting a start in the Industrial Revolution to grow industry and capital. It is a bootstrap industry for thirdworld countries and a route into the free market and capitalism. In an advanced economy in a rich country it exists for nostalgia and political favors. It has no benefit and is a drag on productivity. Internationally, the American insistence on maintaiining a textile industry against the exigencies of the market is akin to petty and self defeating possessiveness, as practiced by some spoiled children.
I agree with you on textile. Good input.
A few other thoughts on Vietnam....
I do not know where it worse to be a woman. In much of Asia the people have no concept of "spouce abuse." Husbands often beat wives....
Here is the economic scene in Vietnam:
For the last 20 years, the Communist government in Hanoi, Vietnam has followed a policy called "Doi
Moi" (The Industrial Development Policy in the Renovation). This policy brought about increasing productivity and revenue for people and the
government of Vietnam. However, there is a sad aspect for the workers: their minimum wage has been going down and the value of the currency in Vietnam, the dong, has been dropping.
The average per year per capita income in Vietnam is about $880. The Vietnamese government aims to increase per capita income to $1,100-$1,200 by 2010.
Indeed, to attract foreign investments, the government has lowered the workers' minimum wage from 45-50 US dollars per month in 1999 to 35-40 US dollars in 2005.
Moreover, Vietnamese workers habve been often exploited by their employers and the foreign companies they serve. The Workers Union of Vietnam, anorganization created by the government, and whose staffs receive their salaries from the governmentor from foreign corporations, has been indifferent to the miseries of the workers and powerless in defending their legitimate rights and interests.
This caused hundreds of strikes by hundreds of thousands of workers.
Because the Vietnamese workers are exploited and repressed by their employers and abandoned by the government and the Workers Union, on October20th, 2006, the Independent Worker Union of Vietnam came into being to
support and defend workers' legitimate rights.
We, the undesigned, are people from all over the world who solemnly declare:
Firstly, we welcome and actively support The Independent Worker Union ofVietnam in its struggle to defend the basic and legitimate rights of theVietnamese workers in Vietnam and all over the world;
Secondly, we call on all Vietnamese organizations, all workers unions of the free and democratic nations in the world to raise their voices to accept The
Independent Worker Union of Vietnam and actively support the Independent Worker Union of Vietnam in its mission to protect the Vietnamese workers'rights.
Unions are not an answer. The government "union" is there to control the employees and the companies, not to enhance the pay and perks of the employees. And independent unions, while useful now in the effort to free up the country, they will be a drag on industry after freemarket democracy is attained. Actually the dong has depreciated only about 2-2 1/2% total against the dollar since 2002 and government minimum wage effectively applies only to foreign companies. Workers are paid what they are worth to their employers, whatever is the official minimum wage. If a worker does not produce enough to justify the minimum (if it is enforced) then the worker does not have a job. The government reducing the minimum wage would indicate that there is a shortage of labor at that minimum. Don't sweat the government regulations. The proper goal is to remove the government from regulating these things at all. It just serves as a hindrance to the working of the market which is what is going to bring Viet Nam out of it's third world status, but it is necessary to build from the bottom. Slave wages are better than starvation and lead to skills and higher wages as productivity rises.
Some good thoughts, thanks!
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