Vietnam Radio

I am one who loves to travel. I have an immense appreciation for culture and wanting to experience that culture. One of closest girlfriends is Vietnamese. I thought that since she could be my interpreter it would be really interesting to see what a Communist country would be broadcasting. So with her help I found a really interesting radio broadcast. http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/amthanh/ To be honest with you, I was expecting more propaganda than anything. As far as my interpreter and I were able to find out, it is ran by the government. But as we listened we found out that it was more like a news station. Supposedly most of the stations over in Vietnam are just like this one that I found. They are used more for broadcasting news and event and then some, but limited music unlike most of our radio stations here, atleast FM that is. During this one hour my interpreter and I listened they talked about cows being infected by mad cow desease, they talked about how the government wanted to make better relations with the Vatican and also how the government is planning on reconstructing most of the countries railway system that was first laid out during the French rule. In addition, this radio broadcast did except phone calls asking for people's input. It was also really interesting, my interpreter and I figured out that the folks doing the talking on the radio must be from Southern Vietnam because they kept refering to Ho Chi Minh City as Saigon, after the communist took over South Vietnam in April of 1975 they changed the name to Ho Chi Minh, so we concluded they must be from the South, we both were suprised by that. To conclude my blog, this radio station is allowed by the government for the people who call in to have freedom of speech, for a communist country, I find that extremely interesting.