I'm not trying to comment on whether or not communism is good or not. Personally I don't think that it is and the fact that Vietnam is a communist country was something the concerned me when I was relocating here. I was thinking to myself that maybe someone was going to be watching my every move and things were going to be seriously restricted as in what we are allowed to do while we are here. I just figured there was going to be a lot of rules and the constant fear of getting thrown in the gulag.
I don't know what life is like for someone that actually is Vietnamese but for those of us that live here that are not actually Vietnamese this country seems a lot more freedom filled than others I have lived in that harp on about how free they are all the time. As far as you can tell by just walking around and living here, there really aren't any rules yet is isn't lawless and crime-riddled. I have never found myself in a situation that I considered to be dangerous and I have only ever seen police a couple of times in the years that I have been here.
The idea I had in my head about big brother watching your every move doesn't really seem to be the case. I mean, I guess it could be and they are just really good at staying hidden but as far as needing to produce your papers at every corner or something really oppressive like restricting movement is concerned, that doesn't really happen here. I'm far more restricted about where I can go and what I can do in my home country of USA.
I don't think this necessarily has to do with communism being the law of the land though. It may have more to do with the fact that the government here is quite poor in comparison and they can't afford to be all up in everyone's business all the time.
I will say this: People don't get all worked up about politics and elections the way that other countries do and while not many people really want to talk about it I think that is because there can't really be an opposition party in this country. I've never seen an election sign in Vietnam so I don't even know if they even have elections.
It may actually suck for Vietnamese people but from my perspective as an outsider living here for multiple years I would prefer this governance over the "freedom" that I had back in America any day.
This is just a cool roundabout near the beach. It's been a while since I've seen hammer and sickle flag
I'm not pro communist at all. To be honest I am likely pro-a-government-that-doesn't-really-exist. All i want from a government is for them to mostly get out of the way and leave me alone. At least from my perspective in my life here now, that is what the government appears to do and I like that.