Terrible Tunnels

Today is one of those days I’m not quite sure how to process everything I’ve experienced.

This morning we drove about 1 ½ hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City to visit Samho Co., which is the local company that Nike contracts with to manufacture shoes. I’ve never seen a facility like this before and it was almost too much to take in. We took a tour when we first arrived and we got to step through the process of making shoes, albeit from an odd perspective seeing as we had to jump around from process to process rather than go through from beginning to end. Our tour was just before lunchtime and just as we were finishing walking by the sewing area, the lunch hour apparently began because everyone started to leave the building. We also walked by several employees who were taking naps, which is apparently very common here.

I found the plant site particularly interesting because we just had a case in our ethics class where we discussed the problems that Nike had some 10 or so years back with its labor practices in these emerging markets. We discussed several ethical questions that should’ve been addressed in order for Nike to have done its due diligence and be responsible with its contract suppliers. One of the questions was whether or not it was ethical to have people, in this case, Vietnamese workers, work in factory jobs for less than a dollar an hour to produce shoes that cost more than they make in an entire month, and which they (obviously) could never afford. Before coming here I would’ve been more inclined to believe that you really could pick either side of the argument and present a compelling case, but after seeing the alternatives people have for work, I lean heavily towards supporting the position that these large multinational corporations do a great amount of good for the local people. I found it interesting to learn that the labor market over here is actually really competitive, meaning that it’s not as easy as perhaps it once was to take advantage of the labor supply. I also found it interesting to learn that it’s not uncommon for employees to work in the factory for three or four months and then decide to go back to their former jobs, whether that be fishing, farming, basket making, or what not, only to decide a year or two down the road to come back to the factory. I guess it’s one of those things where the grass is always greener on the other side.

I have been impressed with the impact these companies have on the local economy—in a good way. They provide jobs, work with the government to shape laws and develop badly needed infrastructure, and incentivize the local people to get more education. The jobs at Nike are, for the most part, line jobs, but those who stick around can be promoted and move up and Samho Co. also provides opportunities for those who have not yet completed their high school education to do so after work. They also provide some medical care for their employees, which seems like an unheard of thing to do here. In the case of Intel yesterday, they even pay for some of their interns to go to the U.S. to complete their engineering degrees at an American university because they cannot find enough local talent with the right kinds of skills. In the long run, I see nothing but positive things coming of that kind of investment.

I’m sure that people can come up with plenty of reasons to not support large companies going into these countries, but today I vote in favor of it. I see the pros and far outweighing the cons, especially in today’s global environment where much of what these companies used to be was unknown but it now transparent (or at least much more so than ever before.)

I got some interesting pictures of the manufacturing floor.

I had no idea that making shoes was such a complex process! And, I will say that the factory could definitely benefit from some health and safety requirements. For example, every single employee I saw was wearing flip flops (and I was looking specifically for this.) In some of the areas where there isn’t heavy machinery, such as in the cutting and stitching areas, perhaps that could be okay, but you also saw young men working the rubber treatment machines with all sorts of hazards around, also wearing flip flops. Yeah, that’s not really ok, but progress is gradual and I have no doubt that eventually the legal system will catch up. I guess my take home is that the world in not a perfect place and if you waited until everything was perfect before you moved forward with anything, nothing would get done!

As a side note, it’s interesting that 70% of Vietnam is under the age of 30. Hence, most of the population has zero personal experience or firsthand knowledge about the war.

So, onto our afternoon activity… one that I’m glad I got to do, but I’m not sure I would repeat. We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, part of the network of tunnels the Viet Cong used as their base of operations during the Vietnam War. We had a chance to go down into three of them. The first two were okay, and, of course, this is where my picture was taken. I’m smiling, having absolutely no idea what I'm in for next… At some point after emerging from the last tunnel it dawned on me that this is so my metaphor for life. You’ll understand when you read below.

This picture was taken just before I entered the third and last tunnel. At this point we were already underground about 6 meters in a small room waiting for everyone to catch up and out of nowhere a bat came flying through… um…. these are not large rooms and it was funny because as people were freaking out with the bat flying around, our guide dismissed the concern and informed the group that bats have great sonar and because of that they will never fly right into you, and he thought this simple fact should put everyone at ease. Not exactly.

Anyhow, we proceeded to enter the last tunnel. We were told ahead of time that we could get out of the tunnel at three different points, that there would be two alternate exits before the last stretch, and that our bravery would be measured by how far we made it. The deal is that those who think they can move quickly through the tunnel go first so that there isn’t a backup in the tunnel. The importance of this doesn’t become obvious until you’re stuck in the tunnel behind an unknown number of people. I entered the tunnel not really knowing how far we were going or how far along any of the exits were. It’s important to note that this tunnel was unlike the first two in that this one was exceptionally narrow and short. The others were sort of narrow and short, but you could tell (especially after experiencing the last one) that the first two had been widened so more tourists could move through with greater ease. Well, in the last tunnel, you could not bend over and walk through like with the others. Instead, you literally had to crouch down and frog walk, slide down on your butt in other parts because it was so narrow and you just wouldn’t fit any other way. But you didn’t know this going in. At first it was just fine but after not very long it became really uncomfortable for me to be crouched down like that, in large part because my knee just doesn’t tolerate that position for very long, but I couldn’t do anything about it because I was in the tunnel and the only way out was through. Because we went through in one long line, the guide was at the front and I didn’t realize that I passed the two optional exits (when you’re in the tunnel it’s not obvious that they are exits—they just look like dark tunnels with no light at the end…. WHY would I choose to go down THAT kind of tunnel if I’m looking for an escape??? Especially when it’s virtually impossible to back up and completely impossible to turn around?) Anyhow, I soon realized that I was in for the long haul and about 2/3 of the way through the person in front of me stopped and all of the sudden I started to feel like I was suffocating, literally like I couldn’t get enough oxygen. It was at that point that I started getting very concerned because I had absolutely no idea how far I had to go in order to get out and my leg was really giving me problems. I stopped for a few seconds to adjust my position and since the guy ahead of me had continued on and the person behind me hadn’t caught up yet, I was completely alone in my part of the dark tunnel. That feeling was very freaky. I decided to move forward as quickly as possible… I felt like if I didn’t see light and get more air soon I really felt I was really going to be in trouble, and after what seemed like WAY TOO LONG, the guy in front of me shouted that we were nearing the end. I didn’t see any light and didn’t think that it was a very funny joke, but we were in fact almost at the end. I finally got out, having to go up some really steep steps at the end, my leg completely shaking as I went up. WOW. That was a once in a lifetime experience, not because I won’t ever come back to Vietnam, but because I will NEVER do that again. I have absolutely no idea how the Viet Cong did it. They say the tunnels were infested with spiders, ants, centipedes, and mosquitoes. I literally cannot imagine how horrible that must’ve been. I don’t even care that they were the enemy.

After we finished the tunnels we went by the display of traps the Viet Cong used against their opposition and that was sobering. Their weapons were weapons of stealth, not advanced technology. Their traps were those like you would imagine seeing in a movie about Roman times. Spikes arranged in all sorts of ways to inflict permanent injury.

I’m not really one for violence and it’s hard for me to see things like this and not be really bothered. (I didn’t even mention the large piles of artillery on display or the huge craters we passed by, each of which was labeled with the type of bomb that created it.) Here's an example of one... I wish the picture captured the size of the crater better, but at least it gives you an idea.


All I have to say about this afternoon’s educational experience is that it’s one thing to read about people and events and circumstances such as those during the war and something completely different to stand where people lost their lives and to see and experience the teeniest, tiniest part of something truly horrible, in every imaginable way. My entire experience in the tunnels today lasted at most 10 minutes and I came out calling that “horrible.” That people lived in those tunnels for years in order to fight and defend their own people is completely incomprehensible to me. I have a brand new perspective on what went on here and a lot more respect for those on both sides who lost their lives fighting in this jungle.