Unplugged. For Now.

A striking observation on the campus of CTU: I haven’t seen anyone with iPod earphones, as opposed to MSU, where over half of students seem to sport them. There is also a markedly smaller mobile phone presence – people aren’t walking around campus yakking on them. A handful of the workshop participants (who, you must remember, have full-time teaching and administrative jobs that they’ve left behind for our six day session) have stepped out to take calls or used cell phones on our tea breaks, but the etiquette is substantially better than in the US. And there are computers, of course, but John and I are the only ones with laptops as necessary items.

BUT…Vietnam is ten years into an economic policy called ‘Doi Moi,’ which is a market-oriented economy (think Perestroika without the grey, snowy winters). Our dinner host last night told me that the changes from agricultural to industrial to market economy in the last ten years have made a huge difference in Can Tho, a small city in the “rice belt” of the country. There is a good amount of construction in the city, and the way of life is becoming increasingly Westernized. The omnipresent Pepsi signs give testimony. I would expect that two years from now, my observation about cell phones and earphones would be different.