Don’t give Breivik publicity he desires so badly! He must be laughing his ass in his air- conditioned cell.

There is something horrific about way in which media (both Polish and British) report the Oslo bombing and the terrible shooting in Utaya Island. I wish they could catalyze the collective sense of European grief and give their all attention to the victims and not to the oppressor!

I am really fed up with the reports about the bloody killer’s childhood. I am also not interested in what his father thinks about his son’s behavior. Who should care when they guy killed dozens of innocent people? But first of all I am really fed up with the ongoing attempts to seek explanations of his horrible attack.

They guy is a mass murderer. He committed one of the most terrible atrocities that Europe seen in years. Honestly. There is really no need to agonize over 15000 pages of his insane ideology to know that his act is appalling! In giving the space to his fascist & xenophobic we are actually are doing what the guy dreamed about – giving him a platform from which everyone can hear his hatred talk.

I am also appalled by the way in which his anti- Islamic and racist views are commented as a sign of ‘neutral’ explanation of his mass murder without a sign of devastating critique they deserve! As if he was touching into a taboo problem that nobody dares to discuss, but everybody tends to agree in secret.

Portraying him as the fucking anti – Islam crusader without open criticism actually justifies his cause!

Makes his cause relevant in the social and European context. Which is bloody not true.

Because his voice is NOT of Europeans worried that there are too many immigrants. His act is NOT a sign that multicultural society supposedly does not work. It is NOT about anti – ISLAM feelings across Europe and NOT about state of European democracy.

His act IS a terribly crime against humanity. And this man lost the right to be treated a human being. And this is what I would love to read in media.

Instead, I will be reading in the Observer book review in 2015 that his diaries written from his cell are bestseller in number of European markets.

Ho Chi Minh never dies

Ho Chi Minh never dies, a set on Flickr.

Ho Chi Ming and official communist ideology (excuse the free market) remain very much alive ... at least in urban landscape, not sure about the hearts of Vietnamese.

If Vietnamese comerades could dump Ho in economy and keep him in vivid memory they might as well hire a spin doctor to pimp up their propaganda

No wonder why Ho Chi Minh is treated as national hero in Vietnam and supposingly called Uncle Ho by Vietnamese. After all he was a man that brought back dignity and pride to the country troubled for long by foreign powers; starting from French and finishing with Americans. Perhaps great mausoleum in Hanoi is a bit over the top and his museum in every city a slight extravagance, but ok, we've been there, I can understand. What I quite cannot get is why the communist propaganda in vietnam is so out of date! Hello comerades, you opened-up your economy, time to employ a proper spin doctor!

Travelling through Vietnam feels a bit like going back to the old postcards from my childhood's communist past. They would all which depict the idillic images of the fast developing country; new accoplishments of socialist architecture, happy families enjoying their first washing machine and overenthusiastic workers building a better future. All in faded colours- yellows, pistachio greens and faint pinks like the colour of this artificial juice available only in plastic transparent bags- sticky, sweet and silly. So if you miss the communist propaganda or want to experience it- come to Vietnam and enjoy before capitalism paints everything in 3D. The thing is that, while Vietnam in every aspect emerges as incredibly modern country - the communist party's old-school propaganda looks incerdibly odd and bizzare and so much out of fashion! On every street in every corner we see all the greatest hits of the communist standard; plackards of Ho,posters of happy mothers with children in arms looking into bright horizon, workers woving new factories and stickers celebrating anniversary of cummunist party. Every major street is decorated like for the rally with slogans glorifying progress, Vietnam and socialism ... all this in the landscape of the short-cut taking and rapidly growing capitalism. With running little vietnamese girls and boys looking like viet cong comerades.

And as much as it looks really impressive, one have to ask: Is this for real, like real real in which they think that their people think what they want them to think? Gosh, it is a rather sad reminder of how communist parties always treat own people like dumb idiots! People are not this blody stupid! ( even though we saw earlier today in Dalat city a "demonstration' of support to the regime, surely "spontanious" cause obviously people tend to rally at 6.30AM out of free will just to show how much they love Mr. President). So what is going on? Perhaps the communist guys in power are completely detached from reality and just hope that their people will believe this shit about bright communist future. But how can it be, if they opened up a free market economy not on their backyard, but at their front door- so, they must have some links to reality. Therefore, i modestly suggest that if they are cynical enough to reject Ho in economy while keep him in vivid memory, they might be cynical enough to hire a proper spin doctor that would pimp-up their outdated propaganda to "yes we can" standard.

Hanoi: Welcome to Warsaw of the Far East

Lonely Planet writes about Hanoi in terms of being 'the great dame of Far East', that confirms the idea of "Orient" as seducive, mysterious and tempting (loving the 'oriental' Lonely Planet language). Can't really find 'oriental charm' (whatever it means. Instead, what I see, is incredibly fast, mid range Asian city with welcoming people (eager to earn money, also on us ) that you can visit, but you can as well skip all together.

I cannot resist comparisons to Warsaw. It has never been a metropoly. It has some intersting mixture of colonial and chineese - influenced architecture, covered with communist monumentalism, but it's far away from Hong Kong or Macau in its 'colonial' style and far far away from Moscow in its 'communist' chic. Just like Warsaw - mid range European city, that has some nice places, but lacks amazing uniqueness that would make it a place that is hard to leave and tempting to return.

But there is something about Vietnam, including Hanoi, that is incredibly touching and moving. Its history. History that becomes meanigful once you are here. The history of Vietnamese nation is an over -2000 thousand years old story of fight against oppression and bad fortunes - against Chineese, French, Americans. And famine and plagues. Only in in last 60 years Vietnam lost twice its tenth of the population - first time, after WWII when over 10% of people died out of famine. Later, during American war wgen alomost 10 millions died or were injured... It is really impressive in how, few decades after the world most horrible atriocities, this country rise in pride and develops fast.

With no glorification of martyrs. With glorigication of one person. Ho - as the men who brought independence and a men who brings pride until today.