Then and Now Part II

Pay day! Oh my gosh! I remember my father always gave most of his salary to my mother which was then deposited in the bank to get some profit and to be safe. My mother was in charge of everything in the house as well as her work at the rice company. My father was a hotel manager who took care of the accommodation for high class government officials.

I remember we had some chickens, ducks and pigs at home. I had to help my brother and sisters to cook the food for the pigs and give them a bath and sometimes had to take pig shit to my neighbors, and dig it into the land. Not the best household job! In those days, most families had pigs or chickens or ducks around their houses, but the most popular were pigs and chickens. We used to eat the chicken eggs and sell them to get money or exchange them for some other food.

"The system of distributing subsidised food produce affected people who did not work in agricultural section from the wartime until 1989. The system's rice stores were perhaps its most essentail components; people's lives were directly dependant on them". This was very true and my family were lucky because my mother was a rice shop manager so we had better options to choose our own rice and we didn't have to queue that much.

Some people weren't as lucky as us. As Mr Ngo Duc Thinh, aged 63, prof.Ph.D, room 912, A6 Giang Vo Street, said "After taking the rice home I would open the sack immediately: if the rice wasn't smelly I would feel happy the whole day."

"His face is as sad as if he had lost his rice book!"(an idiom in subsidy period).

Tobe continued.

Now and Then Part III

"Buying and selling coupons illegally was common. People even bought and sold train and bus tickets etc. If you queued and couldn't get the ticket or you didn't want to queue, you could buy a"black market" ticket. The real price of a ticket was 5 hao(10 hao equivalent 1Vnd), you had to pay 7 hao. Illegally traders made a connection with the government clerks who sold the tickets," said by Mr Le Gia Thuy, aged 65, sub alley 12/21, alley 12 Luong Khanh Thien street Ha Noi.

This man's story reminds me of the time when I had to go to buy two train tickets for my relative with my sister. We had to queue for most of the morning at the station but we couldn't get the tickets so we were forced to get 2 tickets from "black market" traders. We pay 3 hao (about 50,000VND/US$3.20 in today's money, I guess) more than the official price but we decided to do that in future to save time.

Now And Then Part I

I went to the Viet Nam museum of ethnology last weekend and was really surprised about the information that they give to visitors, even though I'd heard about this place heaps before. This place reminds me lots about our life after the American War, about how difficult life was and how the majority of people were needy but people were still happy that peace had finally arrived.

Here are some extracts from the musuem brochure about that time:

"The period of the "Subsidy Economy, 1975- 1986" has been known as a time of hardships, when mechanism for socio-economic management was inappropriate, causing privations in people's material and spiritual life. Material life was poor due to a sluggish and inefficient production system, but the constraints also applied to people's creative and spiritual endeavors."

"Almost all commodities were distributed to people through a system of state and cooperatives. Distribution of goods was dependent on the rank of the citizen and distributed by the using coupons or food stuff books. High ranking officals were served at special shops,whereas a number of other stores in the city were for common people".

"Food was bought with coupons that had a lot of small spuares. Sometimes, in order to buy green vegetables or even to buy some oranges in the summer, you needed to cut the different squares on the coupons" said by Mrs Le Thi Hien, aged 69, former head of the Dong Xuan vegetable and fruit shop,85 Hang Buom street, Hanoi.

Yes, this is so right, I remember my family had to go to the shop very early sometimes to put a brick or stand there for hours just to buy some veggies or some meat. But luckily, at that time I was only about 6 or 7 years old and people saw me as a tiny kid and they always let me buy my stuff first. One day, on the way I lost my coupon which had just 3 squares left. I was really nervous and expected a big slap on my bum from my Mum when I got home. But my mother didn't do that. She told me have to be more careful next time.

My parents both worked for the government as managers so, while our life was still difficult, it was worse for other families.

To be continued

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Ho Chi Minh museum in Ho Chi Minh city is the only museum that interested me, which shows many of the things that remain of Uncle Ho from the war.

All of the pictures and objects here are explained clearly with information on the side of each that helps people to understand them clearly.

Besides all of the guns, tanks and radios, this museums exhibits lots of very interesting things from coal irons, fire trucks and some different cars that people used before and during the war.

I think you will not believe your eyes when you see lots of the things that Vietnamese soldiers and Vietnamese people used during the war. These resourceful people recycled enemy bullets, bombs and parts of aircraft to make fry pans, helmets, food containers and knives as well as gifts and souvenirs for friends and family.

When you visit these places, it's difficult to imagine how Vietnam survived such a terrible war. They lived under a lot of pressure but they still used to sing and play when the bombs were not dropping.

I was so glad to visit this museum as it has helped me to better understand about how hard it must have been to win the war with nothing much to work with. I dont want to make it become a huge deal in this post but I am so proud about being Vietnamese.