APEC

Today President Bush came to Hanoi. Maybe he got tired of Washington, for some reason. Or maybe he just wanted to hang out someplace relaxing like Hanoi :) The APEC summit is this weekend right here in Hanoi. There have been banners all over the city about this ever since I got here. About a month ago they put up a huge number of photo/billboard displays around Hoan Kiem lake in the center of Hanoi. It is a rather astonishing idea, that you can take countries as diverse as Peru, Chile, Mexico, USA, Canada, Russia, Brunei, Indonesia, Australia and obviously Vietnam and throw them all together into an organization on the basis of, what beaches facing each other? Over a some odd thousands of miles? Random facts - APEC makes up %60 of global GDP, one third of global population (obviously that does not include China). And having just joined the WTO last week, Vietnam is high on free trade. Figure that out. Anyway, I was at an exhibition this week on the event with cultural displays on Vietnam, and a photography exhibit from each member country which was truly fascinating. Chinese PM Hu Jin Tao is here. Vladimir Putin, PM Abe from Japan, etc etc. And me, I'm here too. Just thought I'd point that out. Only the hordes of policemen at every intersection carrying baseball bat-sized sticks don't jump into action and stop traffic when I blow my horn, they just ignore me. They do get pretty energetic about leaping in front of crowds of motorbikes when the rows of APEC sedans or buses goes by. That's about as close as I've gotten to the action. I see the people in suits inside their fancy cars. Vietnamese people are immensely proud of having APEC here, and more than a few people I know have glowingly informed me that my very own president is coming to HANOI. For a taste of the Vietnamese viewpoint on this, read this article. The BBC has a good article on Hanoi's preparations for the event. The NYT headline on the subject was about, of course, the war. The one in Vietnam, and the one in Iraq. An excerpt, click on the paragraph for the whole article:

If Mr. Bush is privately thinking about the war he missed, the White House is
not letting on. Asked aboard Air Force One about “the lessons of the war,”
Tony Snow, the president’s press secretary, said, “What’s interesting is
that the Vietnamese are not particularly interested in that.” He added:
“This is not going to be a look back at Vietnam. It really is going to be a
looking forward to areas of cooperation and shared concern.”

What's really interesting is that I actually agree with that! Anyway, that's about enough for today. APEC aside, it's a beautiful day with flowers and lakes and coffee and pho and so on.