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[news] VN Business Journal: Street Talk
A humorous column about small things in VN:
OK, then how about a meeting with a famous
football star? . . . Recently an American was
asked by an official from the Hanoi Mayor's
office for ideas on a possible meeting with
Washington D.C.'s mayor. He hoped the encounter
would help promote friendship between the two
countries and would allow both mayors to learn
how each runs his capital city. Sheepishly, the
American provided a quick run-down of Marion
Barry's recent resume, which includes a stint in
the local lock-up for enjoying a bit of crack
with some capitol call-girls.
We were there the day they raised duties on auto parts . . . If
you were wondering why taxi drivers of HCMC's fleets have taken
to peddling their seemingly new Japanese imports, the mystery's
over. Seems drivers were selling the expensive innards and
replacing them with used Korean auto guts.
Of course, there's always her 1978 cameo in "Dukes of Hazard" . .
. It is possible that Vietnam's first wave of film noire
producers will be coming from an unlikely corner-Hanoi's Noi Bai
Airport. A team stationed at Noi Bai is charged with watching all
videos accompanying passengers (for a per-minute fee) prior to
entrance into Vietnam, delivering the videos to the importer
following approval. Of course, some don't get by. For an artist
friend enamored with actress Sharon Stone, one prominent Hanoi
developer picked up a video copy of the skin-happy "Basic
Instict." A week later he was met by a grim-faced culture
official bearing a large fine.
A minyan, you want? . . . Wouldn't life in Vietnam be wonderful
if there were only four questions? As our Jewish readers know, on
the first night of Passover, that's all He wrote. In HCMC over
150 attended a Passover Seder, while in Hanoi more than 80 showed
up in the new wing of the Metropole. In addition to traditional,
non-leavened foods on hand, the eager-to-please ao dia'd wait
staff did a few laps around the dais with bowls of rice and
baskets of bread in tow-before being seized upon by Mrs. Halfon,
the Israeli Ambassador's wife, to rounds of guffaws.
And the cabs-they barely swerved! . . . In New York City on a
recent visit to the U.S., Ministry of Planning and Investment
officials enjoyed a Sunday stroll up majestic Fifth Avenue,
passing the legendary Plaza Hotel en route to Central Park.
Suddenly a group of New York's Finest straddling their trusty
steeds trotted past. The officials looked disappointed. "Can't
they afford cars?"
Wondering when it's time to leave Hanoi? . . . After dutifully
collecting scores of empty glass bottles from the shelves and
corners of her house that had collected over four years of Hanoi
living, Cargill's Kathy Charlton presented them to the local
recycling lady, negotiated 15,000 dong, and, standing at the
curbside,awaited payment. Slowly, the lady, ancient with ruby
gums, reached in her dress and pulled out 100 dong. Another
minute, another 100 dong, and so on for ten minutes. The gritty
recycler stopped at 10,000 dong and told her to go away. But
Kathy was determined to win the agreed price. Finally, the fed-up
old lady swung around and slapped her; that gesture was promptly
repaid in kind. Retelling the sordid tale, Kathy declared that
when she slaps an old lady in the middle of the street, she knows
it's time to leave Hanoi . . . The timing couldn't have been
better, as her flight left the next day.
Who claims credit for a famous Parisian erection? . . .
Construction Company #3, according to them. In front of their
HCMC office on Nguyen Ky Khoi Street, beside the billboard
bearing their name is a large graphic of the Eiffel Tower.
If you're goin' down the road feelin' bad, it might be time to
look over your shoulder . . . A mini-social evils clamp-down in
March led to the (possibly temporary) closing of two of HCMC's
most important hotspots, The Queen Bee and Gossip. In related
news, the subject of the New York Times Magazine article that
stirred so much ire in expats and nationals here, whose life as
an American who would be a laptop capitalist if he didn't choose
to be a slacker was depicted a bit too graphically, lost his
visa.
I was starting to become adept at discerning the English words
over-dubbed by Russian, French, then Vietnamese . . . The
copyright agreement that prohibits piracy of software, videos,
music and other intellectual property signed between Vietnam and
the U.S. that supposedly took a year to negotiate in fact took
place on the way over to a press conference in under an hour,
according to sources close to the negotiations. The question of
agreeing to such a questionably enforceable agreement in the
first place was the stumbling block, and most of the hour's
negotiations involved minute wording of the agreement.
Comings and goings . . . Hello to Mario Fischel, HCMC regional
manager of IFC-initiated Mekong Fund (working alongside Tom
Davenport), formerly based in Manila with ADB . . . Gilbert
Bolliet, new Country Manager for France Telecom in Hanoi . . .
Tony Preece, now Deputy Director for Dentsu in HCMC and formerly
of McCann Erickson . . . Van Mumby, now Hanoi-based Coopers &
Lybrand manager...and goodbye to Kathy Charleton, off to
B-school, and her beloved, former VIR guru Tim Karr, who plans to
a book of Vietnam photos...Yahel Villan of the Israeli Embassy .
. . ITAR-Tass' Serguei Blagov returns to the homeland for the
first time since Perestroika (don't tell him!) . . . and a sad
farewell to the ever-eager Dick Schumaker of A.P.-Dow Jones.
Hello to Mark Ulrich of Saatchi & Saatchi in Hanoi. Congrats to
Austin Chang of Saigon South on the birth of Alex.
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