We often evaluate the level of communism in communist societies by criteria like genocide statistics by the ruling regime, enormous military spending, high poverty affliction rates, and the crazily disproportional wealth of the few ruling elite on top who are more equal than everybody else. But such criterias are poor measures of judgement, as countries do not need to be communist to fullfill the said criteria. There are many other third-world-foreva! countries ruled by despotic tyrants and disfunctional monarchs with whom the above criterias are easily fullfilled, but they are NOT communist. These criterias may have been applicable once, but they are now fast becoming obsolete.
Thus, for communists to be truly acknowledged for their own merit, I present another criteria - adoration for the first communist of their society. Indeed, after the passing of their first communist leaders many years ago, the citizens of communism today no longer hold such devotion to their founding fathers. How many of you reading this post have a picture of Lenin, Mao,Kim Il-Sung, or Castro in your house? It is known that many communists pretend to love thier founding leaders, and the moment the escape the controlled safeguard of communism and they achieve foreign citizenship and they are confident that they are beyond the reach of their respective communist watch agencies back home, they openly denounced their first leaders.
But for one communist nation, the adoration lives on. These pictures taken at the South East Asian Games 2007 in Thailand show ardent Vietnamese fans cloaked in the unmistakable red cloth, yellow star of communist Vietnam. The game is football and Vietnam is playing Myanmar. But what truly makes these people the real Capital-C deal is the presence of the late Uncle Ho. The first of them all, the unifier of their nation, he continues to live on in their hearts and minds. He is with them in ideology and spirit until this very day, despite the rapidly changing conditions.
Today, Vietnam is experiencing what most communist dont - rapid development. And they have failed to fullfill most of the criteria above anymore. Hardly any large number of people are being killed by the government, they have not boasted the awesomeness of their militaries with public parades for quite sometime, and the wealth gap hardly seems to be an issue. Today, the mention of Vietnam is accompanied with talk of development, rising livng standards, and investment opportunities.
These pictures speak for themselves. These fans adore Uncle Ho and they cannot bear to not include him in the SEA games. Uncle Ho comes along to share in the blood, sweat and toil of his fellow countrymen on the field. Uncle Ho will not be left behind. And neither will his product of communism. He is part of the present and continues to be the future for communist Vietnam. Even the Chinese do not bring Mao to their games. Even finding authentic Maoist apparel like the green sling back with the red star/Mao's face is difficult in China these days.
Thus, for communists to be truly acknowledged for their own merit, I present another criteria - adoration for the first communist of their society. Indeed, after the passing of their first communist leaders many years ago, the citizens of communism today no longer hold such devotion to their founding fathers. How many of you reading this post have a picture of Lenin, Mao,Kim Il-Sung, or Castro in your house? It is known that many communists pretend to love thier founding leaders, and the moment the escape the controlled safeguard of communism and they achieve foreign citizenship and they are confident that they are beyond the reach of their respective communist watch agencies back home, they openly denounced their first leaders.
But for one communist nation, the adoration lives on. These pictures taken at the South East Asian Games 2007 in Thailand show ardent Vietnamese fans cloaked in the unmistakable red cloth, yellow star of communist Vietnam. The game is football and Vietnam is playing Myanmar. But what truly makes these people the real Capital-C deal is the presence of the late Uncle Ho. The first of them all, the unifier of their nation, he continues to live on in their hearts and minds. He is with them in ideology and spirit until this very day, despite the rapidly changing conditions.
Today, Vietnam is experiencing what most communist dont - rapid development. And they have failed to fullfill most of the criteria above anymore. Hardly any large number of people are being killed by the government, they have not boasted the awesomeness of their militaries with public parades for quite sometime, and the wealth gap hardly seems to be an issue. Today, the mention of Vietnam is accompanied with talk of development, rising livng standards, and investment opportunities.
These pictures speak for themselves. These fans adore Uncle Ho and they cannot bear to not include him in the SEA games. Uncle Ho comes along to share in the blood, sweat and toil of his fellow countrymen on the field. Uncle Ho will not be left behind. And neither will his product of communism. He is part of the present and continues to be the future for communist Vietnam. Even the Chinese do not bring Mao to their games. Even finding authentic Maoist apparel like the green sling back with the red star/Mao's face is difficult in China these days.
Ho at the game.
Ho at the after-party.
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