Monday, May 14, 2012

This morning we visited the Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company at Highlands Coffee. They treated us all to coffee, and I got a really delicious Caramel Frozen Drink. The founder lived in Seattle during the growth of Starbucks and was inspired to bring this idea back to Vietnam. Viet Thai International was founded in 1998, and it has 3 branches: Super Foods, Consumer Lifestyle, and Distribution. VTI owns franchises in Vietnam of international companies and manages their operations and investments. Under Super Foods, VTI owns the Hard Rock Café, Jollibee (a fast food restaurant), and Pho 24. For Consumer Lifestyle, VTI sells ALDO, Debenham’s, Swarovski, and Emporio Armani. VTI distributes Highlands Coffee, Coors Light, Orangina, and Russian Standard vodka. Highlands Coffee is very popular in Vietnam because it combines the classic Vietnamese coffee with western style, which is considered high-class in Southeast Asia. VTI’s “Winning Formula” is to adopt a winning behavior, create a winning culture (with three pillars: Trust, Boldness, and Transparency), and adopt a success strategy using shared VTI experience. According to the VTI representative, the communist government has presented little difficulties for them. He did say however that, in order to succeed in Vietnamese business, you really need to have a contact within the government that is up to date on licensing requirements, etc. He told us that the government wants to economy to improve so they want businesses to be successful, but not too successful. They will use taxes and other measures to keep you in check.

After Highlands Coffee, we visited another VTI franchise, the Hard Rock Café. We talked to the manager there who told us very briefly about his business. One thing that I didn’t know was that all of the rock and roll paraphernalia that lines the walls of every Hard Rock all belongs to the main headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Whenever a new café opens, they stock it with items that are stored in a warehouse in Florida. The most expensive article that the Hard Rock owns is one of John Lennon’s suits, which costs $500,000 per year to keep in your café. No one is willing to pay that, so the suit is not on display in a café. After walking around and looking at the different memorabilia in the Ho Chi Minh City café, including a pair of Adam Levine’s jeans, one of Jimi Hendrix’s bandanas, and one of Neil Young’s guitars, we sat down to lunch in the café. We all shared some delicious American food, including nachos, a plate of appetizers (including wings, chicken tenders and onion rings), baby-back ribs, salad, and custard for dessert.

We went to the War Remnants Museum this afternoon. It was originally called the American War Crimes Museum before the relationship between Vietnam and America began to improve. The museum was filled with photographs depicting suffering and destruction caused by the Americans during the war, as well as some artifacts, including tanks, helicopters, guns, and shells. As could be expected, American soldiers were portrayed in a vicious light. The words “U.S. Aggression” were probably printed on over a hundred plates, and there was no mention of the United States’ trying to support the South Vietnamese army. A group of us were walking around looking at the photos and several times Vietnamese people tried to subtly take our picture looking at the destruction caused by our soldiers.

The first floor was filled with photos of protests around the world, including countries such as the United States, Korea, Cuba, Uruguay, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and many more. The second floor was the most disturbing. There was a room dedicated to the effect of Agent Orange, a poison sprayed on the countryside. The walls were full of pictures of children that were born disfigured because either their mother or father had been exposed to Agent Orange during the war. There was one picture of an American girl whose father had been exposed as a U.S. soldier. The worst part for me was a tank of disfigured fetuses floating around. We saw countless photos of Vietnamese peasants’ dead bodies, some mangled almost beyond recognition. There were quotations on the walls in both Vietnamese and English describing the horrors of the war. One quotation that enraged me was taken from the United States Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Next to this quotation were photos of Americans murdering Vietnamese civilians. It makes me sick to think of Vietnamese children going on field trips there during elementary school.

I don’t know what exactly to say about the whole experience. I suppose it is a lesson on the way people view history differently, how some parts are magnified and others forgotten. The museum itself certainly would be an interesting study on the psychology of war and propaganda. Some of the photos reminded me of the reason why the Milgram Shock Experiment and the Zimbardo Prison Study were conducted and their results. I felt disgusted, angry, confused, and/or horrified by everything that I saw, but I think I mostly felt sad. Sad that such atrocities were committed, sad for those that suffered from them, and sad for those that had to live with themselves afterwards.

Tonight for dinner we went to a Japanese sushi bar. I wasn’t too keen on the whole raw fish thing, so I ended up getting chicken. The restaurant was really classy-looking, and we had to take our shoes off. The tables were low to the ground with little cushions for us to sit on. There was space in the floor where our feet hung down, so we didn’t have to sit cross-legged. We got Sake to drink, which was pretty strong, but good. For dessert, we went to get ice cream at the same shop as last time. I got vanilla with chocolate chips this time.