Having attained middle-income status, Vietnam aims higher
Having been there just last week (and every 4 years or so) the speed with which society and businesses move is breathtaking.<p>In my limited, sub-30-years lifetime, every single time I have visited Vietnam it seemed like visiting a different country.<p>The first time, there were barely any cars in an ocean of scooters and bikes. Hanoi still looked very much Parisian, with its allées and surface canalisation. I also dimly remember, there was a kind of fascination with all things Western.<p>The second time, construction sites were everywhere. Also, what somehow stuck out to my teenage brain was the entrance of something. Its earlier absence only became noticeable when it now appeared: Brands. Franchises. Be it milk or Vespa, or Haprosimex, they arrived. Also, entry of the heavenly air conditioners!<p>The third time, the streets were more congested than ever before. The middle class went to their new middle class supermarkets and demand fueled the availability of foreign goods like sausages and toast. Sill tasted like crap. Mainly because they were the American variety. 
Local fresh markets were seen by many Vietnamese now as &#x27;poor people&#x27;s markets&#x27; and lacking food safety.<p>To buy any movie or PC game, you just had to walk into one of the myriads of shops and ask for the CDs or DVD(s). if you knew the Vietnamese name, that is. Which 98% of the time, has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with its original name. With the help of my cousin, I managed to buy &#x27;Mighty Defence of Medieval Fortresses&#x27; (Stronghold) and &#x27;Battle of the Three Gods&#x27; (Age of Mythology) for about 3 fiddy dollars.
Then we proceeded to play the shit out of them the whole summer.<p>This time, tourists are now relatively common. Vietnamese children (at least in HCMC and Hanoi) have gotten used to them, meaning they won&#x27;t look at you like you are an Alien if you are non-Asian looking. But they&#x27;ll still look at you and be very friendly.<p>KFC, Burger King and Popeyes have arrived.<p>The biggest change however is: EVERY SINGLE PERSON SEEMS TO HAVE A SMARTPHONE. And they do stuff with it. They use the shit out of it. From the 5 year old learning English on Duolingo, the 20 year old lurking Zalo or zing.vn, to the 80 year old granddad snapping pics of his orchids and mango tree - they are ALL on facebook. Thus, EVERYONE is on the internet. Unfortunately this time I didn&#x27;t travel to the more remote regions, so I do not know about those. But I can imagine the network effects.<p>The craziest thing is, coming from a &#x27;developed&#x27; first world country in the EU, I have to say Vietnam, and all its people are so infinitely more dynamic than most of Europe. One might say it is due to the youth of the population with the low median age, but it is more the openness of the old to technology that surprises one.<p>Here, many elders are exceptionally wary of the internet and privacy is hold in high regard (which I think is good!) while in VN everyone readily embraces its possibilities. It&#x27;s a kind of &#x27;use now, worry&#x2F;fix later&#x27; attitude. Or actually:&#x27;use if works, y worry?&#x27;.<p>What does this mean for the future of Vietnam, and the region? What does it mean for Europe; stagnating, left behind, or wisefully treading carefully? in the grand schemes of things and the world? I don&#x27;t know. Apologies to everyone, I didn&#x27;t plan to bother you with this wall of a text, maybe the recent impressions needed to be processed desperately. So to anyone who made it this far, thanks for reading dem brain spillings, dunno what to think of it.<p>What I do know is though, my highest Flappy bird score was 163, and it was the cause of two exams missed.