Viet pot (fwd)
sixties@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Tue, 3 Sep 1996 16:20:19 -0400
>> I've just returned after a month of interviewing farmers in the Mekong
>> Delta. John Baky's reflection on pot in Vietnam leads me to comment:
>> To my knowledge, marijuana use in the past did not suffer any
>> sanctions in Vietnamese culture. In fact, until at least 6 years ago one
>> could buy marijuana openly at the Dong Xuan market in Hanoi (most VNese
>> marijuana was grown in the north and central parts of the country and not in
>> the lowland delta areas). However, times change (John I'm sure unwittingly
>> does what so many of us tend to do: freeze VNese culture into a timeless,
>> unchanging, 'classic' form that at the least exoticizes that people) and
>> with it popular acceptance of a vice now widely (if erringly) perceived as a
>> public nuisance.
>
>
>Steve,
>
>I certainly wouldn't (couldn't, since you've just returned) disaagree
>with you. It would surprise me if what you found to be the case (no
>sanctions whatsoever in the villes) WEREN'T SO! I was only recalling
>that there seemed to be some sanctions imposed by local government simply
>to make the local American commander happy. I think that observsing that
>pov is actually the opposite of exoticizing that people. And, the much
>more stringent and puritanical sanctions now in place seem to me to be a
>result of the communist regime currently trying to make the place at least
>"look" like something it's not. I bet by about 2020 you'll see that pot
>openly marketed in the villes once again.
>
>You're trip sounds very worthwile. Have you done things similar to Lady
>Borton?
>
>
>
>
>Best regard,
>
> Baky
>
>
John S. Baky
Director of Libraries
Connelly Library
La Salle University
1900 W. Olney Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19141
Phone: (215) - 951-1285 or 1286
Fax : (215) 951-1595
e-mail Baky@alpha.lasalle.edu