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 What I quite cannot get is why the communist propaganda in vietnam is so out of date!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.