European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The changing face of Hanoi despite a new look old problems remain by Barbara Crossette new York times Hanoi s streets Are full of activity. In the morning people jog. Exercise in Parks an squares and seem to Dawdle on the Way to work. By evening a magician has appear Don the Steps of the Central Bank where an energetic band has swung into became Macho. Couples draw closer in the dusk streets vary bicycle a pedicab Driver explains cheerily As he swerves in the Twilight to avoid a peddling teen Ager wearing a to shirt that says Cheesch and  on a downtown Corner a Vendor with several dozen rugs is Selling Beer from a tub. Visitors returning alter six months or a Yea of absence notice a change in atmosphere. There Are still Bullock carts where other asian cities would have cars but there Are also More motorbikes More fashionably dressed Young people and More women in rainbows of soft to dais the traditional vietnamese tunics and trousers that were once seen less frequently among the Black pyjamas. Lipstick and jewelry Are making comebacks. Some of Hanoi s new look has to do with the City s Celebration in september of the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Independence from France. Squares were repaved. Buildings painted and a Cluster of picturesque but derelict shops around the City s Central Lake removed to make More room for grass and Park benches. Other changes grow out of new economic policies. Many North vietnamese have gone South Over the test decade to have a look at Saigon no to Chi Minn City and have come Back fascinated by its looser and More prosperous looking Way of life. A lot of people diplomats say also have an Eye on China s  foreign visitors Are often asked for details about developments there and whether life has improved As much As they have heard. In one of those Chance encounters a senior army officer in uniform struck up a conversation in French with a visitor in a City Park. Alter talking a Little about his relatives in Texas and California he suddenly began to Muse about his impending retirement and How. After nearly 40 years in the army he joined at the age of 17 to fight the French he could look Forward to Only More hardship in old age. There is never enough  he said patting his lean rib Cage. We live live in one room and there is no peace. Something is wrong with our  the runaway hit of the theatrical season is me and us a satire on Petty minded bureaucrats who get in the Way of Progress. Tickets like everything else Are for Sale on the Black Market and there Are reports that the company is looking Lor a bigger theater. The play by Luu Quang you got by the censors the knowledgeable say because it is essentially in line with criticisms made by Hanoi s economic pragmatists who have been in the Ascendancy since a party meeting in june. The play which originated in to Chi Minn City where it won an award and has been televised nationally ridicules the sycophancy of party officials make work jobs endless political meetings and i ritual Islic jargon. Audiences seem to empathize with the tragic hero who is clobbered by the system for showing initiative. As a line in the play puts it he was wrong to to right too  it is a lev by season in literature too with the most popular books said to be stories of life in the Countryside where the successful policies of the pragmatists coexist with unpopular political drives to collect Vize. A reporter asked a vietnamese official to describe a particular Book that is making the rounds among vietnamese in Bangkok. It s about How everything goes  he said with a wan smile. There is a building Boom of sorts in Progress in Hanoi. A Diplomat said it was a result of the government s decision to loosen controls Over construction materials and release bricks and other Long absent items Lor private Purchase. On several streets piles of waiting bricks and Cement were destined to become restaurants workers said. In the Countryside Farmers build bigger houses. The freeing of construction materials came at about the time the Central government decided to make some drastic changes in the Way its employees a Large percentage of the work Force in this strictly controlled communist Economy were paid. Ration coupons of be exchanged Lor goods were abolished and wages at least theoretically increased. Civil servants Are sometimes wary of new policies and divided about whether they will work. Several said they now had More Money to spend and valued the greater Freedom of Choice in making purchases. Others said they did not expect significant improvement in their lives. We still All have to have two jobs a government interpreter said. A Young vietnamese woman from Europe Back for the first time in More than 12 years to visit her elderly lather said she was saddened that Lile was no easier than it had been in wartime. My country is Beautiful she said. But the people have no time to look at Beautiful  having a foreign connection is becoming As much an asset in Hanoi As it has Long been in the South where relatives abroad Supply Many luxuries and sometimes the necessities of life. In Hanoi some Courno cities that Lind their Way to Market stalls Are irom the soviet bloc countries where Young people go to work or study. Vietnamese laugh at Western reports that they Are sent there As forced labor to repay the country s Mammoth debts to Moscow and its allies. On the contrary they say. So popular Are the work assignments thai people pay bribes to get them. Going to Poland or Czechoslovakia can mean a Down jacket or tape deck at the very least. More Western goods Art also finding their Way to Hanoi from Thailand. Japan Europe and the United states. In an embroidery shop a visitor startled the sales staff by saying she had come to buy a Blouse not change Money the real business of mom private traders. But there were items to buy. Stylish dresses made of american fabric were produced irom a Back room. So were to shirts embroidered with american cartoon chair actors. The shop manager spurred by the customer s comments on the High Quality o the work plunged into a display Cabinet scattering bits of cloth and emerged with a pile of fashion catalogues from Frankfurt. Stockholm and los Angeles. Everything comes from the West or Hong Kong he said. Many russian ladies shop  sometimes Hanoi s two societies the secretive government and the curious people intersect for a Brief second. One recent morning a bicyclist pulled up alongside two americans in Cycle pedicab and began the Litany of where from Russia Sweden Germany America i used to Leach  in Newark. N.j.," he said in English to came Home in 1971." he added doffing a smart Straw hat Asho cruised along. He had begun Drifting animatedly info reminiscences of new York when he suddenly halted in mid sentence and peddled Oil his lace without expression and his eyes straight Abend Asil he had never seen the strangers. Beneath the next Shade tree was a policeman. Potter in Honor comm Morof 40th Onnive Norv of the Dela ii of Fen from franc which we of m  a of Iii of  Page 14 the stars and stripes vie toll by Barbary new York tin v been prepared several cities i to Chi Munh c Calls Saigon. 1 archaeological i and River Ceuta consultant of Kane recent a delegation 0 was led by St was the Marsh veterans part Gorsel. They � sergeant a police officer. This was to and Kane said the results. Kane s com Westbury  with Vietnam his first tour a have a a get to go "