Vietnam Launches New Tourism Logo: Industry Has Another Hissy Fit

the new logo

At the end of last year Vietnam’s long-reigning national tourism slogan ‘Vietnam, the Hidden Charm’ (not to be confused with similar slogans; ‘Vietnam, the Inapparent Charm,’ or ‘Vietnam, It Takes a While to Get to Know Us but Our Charm Might Grow on You If You Try’) was finally discarded. The old logo, meant to be a golden lotus bud above red text, looked more like Aladdin’s lamp, which may or may not be harbouring a dysfunctional, little red Marxist genie inside.

the old logo 

A new logo was announced about 2 months ago, and is actually quite attractive. The blue text (‘Vietnam, Ve Dep Bat Tan,’ or ‘Vietnam, Timeless Charm’) set in contrasting fonts, is topped once again with a lotus flower, though the 5 petals are now a separate colour of the rainbow. For once I think the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism did an OK job.

The other 'new logo' that was implemented then quickly rejected last year. Vietnam, A Different Orient--not necessarily the orient you were looking for; just different--but thanks for coming.

Unfortunately, even when someone at the top finally makes a fair decision, we can always trust someone else at the top to screw with things. Here come the petty rants from government employees who can’t take credit for someone else’s achievement…

Director of Hanoitourist, Luu Duc Ke, complained that the logo didn’t help tourists imagine the beauty of Vietnam, “Our products that use this logo will have to be accompanied with explanations to highlight the logo meaning.”

Director for the Viet Media and Tourism Company, Tran Van Long, also commented, “International tourists cannot image how Vietnam is when they look at the logo and slogan. Long said that the slogan so far is “Vietnam – The destination of the new millennium.”

Many in the Vietnamese media went on explain, it would seem, how they thought the logo was unintelligible too.

My response, apart from the fact that Mr. Long’s top slogan choice is about 13 years out-of-date, is that you fellows are looking for a t-shirt design, not a logo. Logos don’t need to be explained; they need to catch eyes. They don’t need deep, auspicious meanings nor antiquated Confucius symbolism; they just need to be recognizable. As neither of your departments currently fit that criteria, I’d say you could learn something from the new logo yourselves.

Much like my previous post regarding VNAT’s selection of Ly Nha Ky as national tourism ambassador (and the public’s backlash over her audacious half-Chinese cleavage), my suggestion is this:

OK Vietnam, you’ve got the new resources—they are decent--now you need to just make use of them!

Unfortunately, much like Mrs Ky, who seems to have disappeared immediately after Vietnam squeezed its way into the 7 Natural Wonders honours 3 months ago (the honour seems to have all but disappeared too), Vietnam has done nothing with the new slogan or logo.

Doan Thanh Tra from Saigontourist complained, “We are waiting [for 2 months already] for the VNAT’s action program but the agency has not launched any event that goes with the new logo.”

Ho hum.

UPDATE: Thua Thien-Hue Province has announced a new tourism website today which forms the corner stone of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism program for 2012. The website is a hodgepodge of plagiarized, out-of-date articles and tidbits lifted from all over the internet. Also included are many empty pages and broken online forms. Some of the negative reviews that were plagiarized are, if not unfortunate, rather comical at times.  My favorite restaurant review states:

"The decoration is cheesy by any standards; right down to the ragged map of India that looks like it was forgetfully ripped from a National Geographic and stuck to the wall with the shop's last thumbtack."

Well, at least VNAT is putting its best foot forward now...

Vietnam’s Deepening Political Destabilization: Rights of Land & Country

The plight of farmer Doan Van Vuon and his family in Quang Vinh Commune of Hai Phong, Vietnam made international headlines last month when he and his family tried to fend off a squadron of more than 100 police and soldiers trying to seize (we are now told illegally) his family’s farm. In a momentous battle recalling John Rambo of First Blood (1982), Vuon and his family fought off officials with homemade landmines and shotguns. Six government officials were seriously wounded, including the police chief. Vuon and family members were eventually arrested and await trial for attempted murder. Their homestead was demolished by police.

Forced evictions by the government--even violent ones--are common in Vietnam, particularly involving ethnic and religious minorities. The degree to which Vuon and his family resisted, and the fact that it was reported widely, even by the government-controlled media of communist Vietnam, is not so common. Unlike most seizures of private property, the government could not sweep this one under the rug.

When Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later announced that the land seizure was illegal and further investigation and remedies were needed, it represented an unprecedented bowing to public pressure (who, not insignificantly, showed overwhelming support for Vuon). Despite the Prime Minister’s words however, Vuon and others still remain in prison.

Does the Prime Minister’s intervention represent a softening of Hanoi’s grip on land rights issues? The answer is a resounding no. Even while this incident continues to unfold, the Vietnam government continues to secretly demolish homes and forcibly evict religious and ethnic minorities in rural provinces such as Quang Ngai, Kon Tum, and Quang Nam. I reported on one such incident—part of a long-standing policy of burning Christian villages and destroying church buildings—only days ago.

Hanoi’s move to recognize some wrong-doing in the government’s attack on the family of Doan Van Vuon is an attempt to keep him from becoming a martyr and a modern folk hero—a status which he may already hold in the eyes of the Vietnamese public.

Above: Broken windows on a police vehicle from the Mui Ne riot last year.

The incident is merely the latest in a recent series of violent clashes between the communist government and its citizens. Several serious incidents are believed to have occurred in 2011, ranging from the alleged Muong Nhe Massacre in May of last year, an incident in which the Vietnamese military were said to have gunned down a religious gathering of ethnic Hmong, to a riot outside Danang that attacked a police station over land rights, to a riot in the beach resort of Mui Ne in which over 1000 residents gathered and attacked the local police station, burning several vehicles and injuring officers, in response to police torture of a detainee. The government responded with a squadron of over 100 riot police who launched tear gas and shock grenades to disperse crowds late at night.

Phan Thiet riot police launch tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse the Mui Ne Riot last year.


Meanwhile in 2011 the popular newspaper Tuoi Tre, in a surprising but eventually squelched move, reported constant examples of severe police brutality on a weekly basis which went on for several months. Incidents ranged from frequent cases of police torture of children, to the murder of numerous detainees in police custody. The most high profile case involved the alleged murder of Nguyen Cong Nhut, a Kumho Tire employee, in police custody. Police later admitted trying to coerce Nhut’s wife into sex for assistance with her husband’s case. It is widely believed that police faked a suicide note after murdering Nhut, who was voluntarily assisting police (and never charged with a crime) in the investigation of missing Kumho warehouse stock. A few officers were reprimanded but Nhut’s wife has never received justice for her husband’s murder at the hands of police. Incidents of police brutality continue unabated but are no longer reported by government journalists with any sort of regularity.

Above: Nguyen Thi Thanh Tuyen, holding a photo of her husband, Nguyen Cong Nhut, 

who she believes was killed by police.

In 2011 the issue of Bauxite mining in the Central Highlands by ‘illegal’ Chinese workers (brought into Vietnam through deals by government officials) was a highly controversial issue. The issue alone led to the arrest of Vietnamese bloggers and protestors, causing serious headaches for the government. When the ‘Arab Spring’ protests occurred in the Middle East last year Vietnam became concerned of a world-wide protest movement and began making a display of training squadrons of  riot police in public squares—a practice likely meant to dissuade citizens from thoughts of protest. The issue was later eclipsed by clashes with China over the South China Sea last summer.

Above: A factory worked tortured with police supervision last May. Source: Tuoi Tre.

The Vietnamese government noted a wave of disapproval from the Vietnamese public—both in terms of China’s actions and the way that Hanoi was handling the South China Sea situation—and feared that it would not be able to control demonstrations if they erupted. In a clever move the government actually organized protests themselves, orchestrated by secret police and leaders in the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Đoàn Thanh niên Cộng sản Hồ Chí Minh. The highly-controlled, weekly Sunday protests in Saigon and Hanoi had the advantage of both dissipating public frustration (until the government later ordered them to cease) as well as flush out devoted political agitators. While many legitimate activists were secretly detained during the protests, Bui Thi Minh Hang received international attention when the government sentenced her to two years in a known re-education camp (which the government terms a ‘drug rehabilitation centre), without trial. 

Fearing independent coverage from within, the Vietnam government continues to arrest and imprison Vietnamese bloggers, as well as the French citizen, Pham Minh Hoang in 2011. Several expatriate journalists were also detained in 2011 and some continue to report constant harassment from police officials.

The recent Hai Phong incident is not an isolated incident that simply got out of hand. It is symptomatic of a growing discontent among the Vietnamese public in their communist country. The question remaining is not how the Vietnam government will respond to citizens with land rights grievances; but how citizens with grievances of land and liberty will respond to the communist government.

A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Charcoal Pits of Phnom Penh From Sitting Empty

A re-application of the wisdom of Jonathan Swift.

Cambodia’s leaders, in their abundance of wisdom and uncommon sense, have seen fit to recently impose a ban on charcoal-roasted cattle on the spit. They proclaimed that such gruesome spectacles of the animal eviscerated upon the street promotes violence and offends the Buddhist sensibilities of the entire nation, as represented by an obscure minority of elite leaders.

There has been much confusion and misgiving expressed by the public, who did not realize until this very week that they were so offended by public shows of bovine bloodshed. Some in fact have yet to uncover their own respective deep-seeded religious convictions.

Fret not my dear Cambodian public! There is another alternative to beef; a beast who is far more delicious and who’s spirit is far less valued in life. Both your capital and countryside are overrun with a species of cattle that plagues your most valuable lands. Do not bother yourself with unfashionable veal. Nay, I propose a more suitable roast is made of the cattle known as “The Poor.”

The Poor come in a variety of breeds; some referred to as ‘squatters’ and others as ‘slum dwellers.’  Of course an additional benefit, not insignificant, of eating The Poor is the secession to endless controversy over forced land evictions across Cambodia.

Eating The Poor would also be an alternative to Vietnam’s solution for it’s impoverished cattle, known as ‘Nguoi Dan Toc.‘ There is no need to pressure Cambodia’s poor, ethnic minority or otherwise, to snuff out their third and fourth children in the womb, as in Vietnam.  No, let them breed as often as possible—there is already an insatiable demand for their young. The offspring of the poor are commonly feasted upon by Western tourists, visiting Asian businessmen and powerful Cambodians. It is unnecessary to barbeque the progeny of The Poor unless they thrive beyond the age of 10.

You may ask about the constitution of the flesh of The Poor and how one might season them? Do not be concerned! Look again to your neighbours, the Vietnamese, who in reclaiming land in their own country have a long history of culling The Poor and The Meek. Season them with institutional Atheism and Buddhist showmanship, drain them of liberty, trim off titles to land, drive the stake of national unity through their gizzard and then grill them on the hot coals of public good.

Cambodia, do not end this institution of grilled meat on a spit (which I’m told is actually a recent introduction by the Vietnamese). You already adopted the alternative solution long ago, you just fail to yet recognize it.

Boiling Mud Pools at Wai-O-Tapu, New Zealand

Above is a short clip of boiling thermal mud pools at the Wai-O-Tapu geothermal park just outside of Rotorua, New Zealand. It was taken on my recent visit. New Zealand is famous for thermal activity such as geysers, mud pools, sulfur steam vents, volcanos, and of course earthquakes. Though many of these phenomena occur all over New Zealand, one of the highest concentrations of such activity is around Rotorua, in the North Island. Many such areas are open to the public.

Minerals in the boiling pools create beautiful colors.

A yellow sulfur pool

For more information on travel in New Zealand, please also visit Tourism New Zealand.

Vietnam Government Hunting Christians in the Mountains

The village where authorities have been brutalizing 

the Christian ethnic minority residents recently.

On Tuesday, 7 February, Vietnamese police arrived Son Tay District, Quang Ngai Province and destroyed the homes of several Christians in an ethnic minority village. Communist authorities are hunting down the Christians because they have refused to renounce their faith, forsake meeting together and have failed to sign government documents promising to abandon their behavior as well.

The area where these Christians are being hunted is in the remote mountains of central Quang Ngai Province, just south of the popular tourist destination of Hoi An. The mountain jungles of Quang Ngai are inhabited by extremely impoverished members of the Ca Dong and Hre tribes. Local residents live in bamboo stilt houses in jungle villages and commonly suffer from malnutrition and malaria.

The Marxist authoritarian government ruthlessly governs rural areas like Quang Ngai, rooting out Christian families, who they accuse of ‘following America’ when they practice Christianity. They view the Protestants as threats to the officially atheist government’s absolute authority on society and a relic of the ‘American War.’

A secret policeman assigned to root out Protestant families. The family's home behind him was burned to the ground on government orders, then later rebuilt by the family.

Only a few years ago, Quang Ngai authorities burned down many of the bamboo homes in a Christian village located where authorities now are hunting the Christian families. In the process, Vietnamese police destroyed a church and shot the livestock of Christian families. Furthering the persecution, local police forced the families to stand and watch while the police cooked and ate their animals at their own homesteads.

Christian families must submit to constant harassment, interrogation and occasionally even prison in central Vietnam, all because of their religious beliefs.

One pastor, who spent several years in prison for refusing to renounce his faith told me that during a torture session he was told by police that ‘there is no religion in Vietnam except for the religion of Ho Chi Minh.’

As in other parts of Vietnam, Quang Ngai Province has a Department of Religion which is actually a division of the police. The department however does not protect religious freedom or promote religious diversity, as one might hope. Instead the Department of Religion is charged with rooting out Christian students, families and house churches.

In a remote village in another part of the province, the government orders a demolition squad to tear down homes and a church belonging to Christians in another ethnic group.

Officers from the Department of Religion hunt Christian students in schools and attempt to catch them holding prayer meetings or bible studies in their dorms, private homes or local cafes. Students in Quang Ngai and other rural provinces have complained of being harassed, beaten, their property stolen or destroyed and themselves detained by these religion police. Officers from the department have also ordered school teachers to report any students to the department that they feel may be Christians. Teachers and school officials are then pressured to suspend students or lower their grades as punishment for their religious practices. Victims are not only ethnic minority Christians, but also many ethnic Vietnamese living in the capital as well.

Vietnamese police charged by Quang Ngai’s Department of Religion to hunt Christians in Son Tay District include but are not limited to:

Huyen Hoang Tuan
Phan Van Tho (ID Number: 363 050)
Dinh Van Dinh
Dinh Van Vut (ID Number 362 436)
Le Quy Vi
Than Dinh Van (ID Number 362 347)
Dinh Van San (ID Number 362 655)
Dinh Xuan Sang (from Huyen Sau Tay)
Dinh Van Hanh (from Xa Son Tinh)

The brutalized families are very poor. The government excludes Christian families from foreign aid in this area. Here you can see the ground through the floor of the stilt house.

I have not been passed these names  by others. I observed these religion police in action myself in Quang Ngai. I know these things about Vietnam’s insidiously evil Departments of Religion because I was personally interrogated by the head of Quang Ngai’s Department of Religion, while I was an officially invited guest of the local government. Click here for more information about my own experience and the Vietnam Government’s brutal treatment of Christian minority groups.

UPDATE: 24/02/2012 The local police have conveyed a message to the individuals who's homes have been destroyed, saying that they may return to their village if they agree to sign government papers renouncing their religious faith.