Market Capitalism on the Streets of Hanoi.

Vietnam may be a communist country (at least nominaly), but market capitalism is rampant on the streets. I'm not talking about the relentless entrepreneurialsm of the endless array of mom-and-pop stores, but about the driving etiquette displayed by its myriads of motorists.

At first it looks like chaos, then you realize that it's a self-organizing chaos, but only gradually does the true method emerge from the madness. The first rule is that everyone must ruthlessly pursue their own self-interest without regard to what others around them are doing. So you never look back, you simply drive where you want to go, honking at anyone that gets in your way, the person behind you must adjust his trajectory accordingly. And they do. If you want to make a u-turn on an extremely busy, extremely narrow street, you simply do so, turning directly into the approaching mass of traffic, forcing them to come to a sudden, wildly honking stop. Except for the motorbikes, which are free to dart between and around the cars as best they can. If there is a foot of clearance, you simply thrust your vehicle into it before anyone else does, honking to make sure your claim is heard. If someone wedges themselves in even more aggressively, fine, you simply turn into another gap, forcing those behind you to adjust.

This is cut-throat capitalism at its best. You never give a sucker an even break. If someone is motoring down the street (or walking) and you need to pull out into traffic, you simply do so, immediately, forcing them to stop or swerve wildly (honking, of course, all the while) even if by pausing briefly to allow them to go by you would have an unobstructed path to follow in their wake.

Still, the interesting part is that there's little malice involved. If someone cuts you off egregiously, no matter, no one gets angry. It's just the way it works. And in a weird way it does work, even in the major intersections jammed with rush hour traffic, somehow everyone finds a way around everyone else and goes about their business. Some of these intersections actually have signals, and sometimes some people actually do pay attention to them, but this is unusual.

It's a marvel to behold from an air-conditioned cab, but soon we must gird our loins and hurl ourselves into the fray as actual drivers. We're not there yet, though.

On a note related only in that it involves the streets, I've been fascinated by the drainage system here. We are used to having gutters that funnel the storm runoff some distance to a storm drain. That system would not work here because when it pours, there is too much water, too fast. It would flood the street before it got to the storm drain.

So here's how it works:
Most of the streets have a drainage ditch covered by three-foot long cement blocks with gaps for the water to flow through. When it pours, the water has no opportunity to accumulate. It just sinks directly into the drain, so even in the monsoon the streets rarely flood.

P.