Communism?

Supposedly, Vietnam is a socialist country. It's in the country's name. You see the hammer and sickle in all towns and villages. What you don't see is socialism, or communism. Vietnam is a free market country. Capitalism is alive and well here. You see it in the markets, and in the streets. Today, I finally saw some communism.

My Lovely Wife sponsors two children in an orphanage. We dropped by for a visit. When we arrived, the Buddhist nuns who run the orphanage greeted us and immediately showed us the boys' dormitory. My Lovely Wife asked about the specific children she sponsors, a boy and a girl. The boy was not in the orphanage at the time. A relative has been located, and although he still sleeps in the orphanage, he does not spend all of his days there.

The girl was surprised to be receiving gifts. As My Lovely Wife and she conversed in Vietnamese, I watched a group of boys playing in the courtyard. What wasn't happening was arguing and fighting over the toys. These were what I would call normal, healthy 4 to 11 year old boys. They were well-fed, clothed, and in good health. One boy was throwing a ball so it would land on a corrugated sheet metal roof creating a loud bang every time. As I said, they were normal in every sense except there was no pushing, shoving, or trying to establish dominance. Toys were played with, put down, and picked up by others.

The bag of gifts, for the boy who wasn't available, was given to a nun to hold for him. She said they could not treat any child special. This begs two questions.

First, what is the point of sponsoring a child if your donation doesn't go specifically to that child?

Second, is this really a commune? Are the boys not fighting over the toys because the toys truly do belong to everyone? My Lovely Wife says the nuns may have taught the children that fighting is against Buddhism. She also says the nun mentioned the word commune.

So after four trips to this surprisingly diverse country, I have finally seen communism.