Hanoi club attracts Vietnam's elite as poor look on
HANOI - Loud, glitzy and ostentatious, Hanoi's hottest nightspot, the New
Century Discotheque, is a magnet for Vietnam's small legion of pop
stars, models, and scions of government officials.
It is easy to see the attraction. The decor is as stylish as the
hippest clubs in London or New York and artists from the southern
boomtown of Ho Chi Minh City are regularly flown up to perform their
latest hits.
Scantily clad dancers gyrating on podiums above the dance floor
provide an eye-pleasing touch, while private karaoke booths are on
hand for those feeling the urge to burst into song. With the entrance
fee set at a modest 40,000 dong (2.50 dollars), the club also attracts
university students, expatriates and middle class Hanoians keen to rub
shoulders with the capital's elite.
However, in a communist state where GDP per capita hovers around a
paltry 400 dollars a year, the contrasting lifestyles enjoyed by those
inside the multi-levelled club and those on the outside are extreme.
For the cost of a bottle of whisky -- ranging from a mere 65 dollars
up to a staggering 180 dollars -- one of the multitude of cyclo or
rickshaw drivers waiting outside could put their feet up for a couple
of months.
But in Vietnam's deeply traditional Confucian society, where
maintaining face is all important, there are few better places in the
capital to flaunt one's financial prowess than the New Century.
Indeed, why have one bottle of a 150-dollar cognac for a table of six
when you can have two or three at the same time? Such sights are as
common as the prostitutes filling the bar stools casting for
customers.
"On Friday and Saturday nights it is very busy and many of the people
are extremely rich and literally scatter money, giving us tips for
lighting their cigarettes or showing them to the toilet," said one
waiter who asked to remain anonymous.
"Some of them are children of Communist Party members and government
officials, others are businessmen," he added.
Beneath the club's flash veneer though lurks the slightly troubling
question of how people in their 20s and early 30s can afford such
extravagance in one of the world's poorest countries.
"Sometimes I ask myself how they can spend all that money in one
night," said Sonny, the club's resident Filipino DJ. "But they don't
just do it for one night, they do it often, several times a week."
The heavy security presence, which, according to several waiters,
includes undercover, gun-carrying guards hired from police ranks,
appear keen to keep observers guessing.
"Leave now," one told a reporter asking a table of young,
affluent-looking cognac sippers about their lifestyle. "You are not
allowed to talk to these people."
However, ask a cyclo driver outside and you get a wry smile and a
mumbled comment about rampant corruption in the party and the
government.
With cabinet ministers receiving an annual salary of around 1,350
dollars and the prime minister officially taking home a mere 1,640
dollars, it is easy to understand such cynicism.
Vietnam frequently ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world
in surveys carried out by anti-graft organizations.
Indeed, the issue of corruption has generated unprecedented levels of
public discontent since the arrest of the country's most infamous
mafia boss in December.
The continuing investigation into the activities of Nam Cam, the
southern "Godfather" from Ho Chi Minh City, has revealed the extent to
which corruption has enveloped the state apparatus.
Two members of the party's powerful 150-strong Central Committee were
expelled last month for their links to the gang, while scores more
party members and top police officials have been arrested or
disciplined.
Connections between the New Century and some senior-level government
officials, although not necessarily illegal, allegedly run deep. The
son of one top Communist Party leader is widely believed to be among
the investors.
However, all attempts to find out the names of the owners were met
with a stony silence, while the club's manager, who gave his name as
Minh, simply said the stakeholders were "Vietnamese people".
Whoever they are, they have influence or at least high-ranking
sponsors who have allowed the club to use the premises of the
neighbouring National Library as a carpark for their Mercedes-driving
patrons.
The owners also appear eager to remain Hanoi's only nightspot catering
to the cream of the urban elite.
Vietnam's notoriously corrupt police demand bribes from bar owners to
remain in business on a regular basis -- as one local manager of a
popular drinking hole put it: "We have to pay every month to keep our
licence, we have to pay to play loud music, we have to pay to stay
open late."
So when the rival Hale Club opened for business last August hoping to
lure people from the New Century, few were surprised when two months
later it was forced to close by police for a variety of alleged
offences.
It subsequently reopened in December but with noticeably more modest
ambitions.
By Ben Rowse - Agence France Presse - August 20, 2002.
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