Anyone who visits a foreign country, even if the visit is a short one, will inevitably make comparisons to their own way of life back home.
Some of the comparisons fall into obvious categories : the architecture, the food, the modes of transport, the clothing, the weather, the geology, just to name a few. Others require a longer period of observation and sometimes a keen desire to understand. Only after shedding one's tourist skin is it possible to see the deeper and more meaningful differences in a society. My cumulative time in Viet Nam is now approaching 18 months and while I would never to claim to fully understand Viet Nam, many of the aspects, both positive and negative, of its basic societal structure, economy, and government have become clearer to me. They offer a glimpse into basic human nature and how societies function.
When a European or North American visits pretty much anywhere in southeast Asia a number of comparisons always come up besides the ones already referred to. One is the state of the environment especially around the larger cities. Exhaust belching motorbikes, trucks, and other vehicles cause the general air quality to be far below that found in more economically developed areas. Not only is the air polluted by western standards but the waterways are not something you would want to dip even a toe into and the landscape is littered with, well, litter.
My impression on my first trip to Viet Nam was that the cities are just generally grimy and I still feel that way. But it's amazing how adaptable we are and how I now accept and rarely take note of the grime. The air pollution is the only aspect of it that really still bothers me. I've been doing a weekly bicycle ride and I restrict it to Sunday mornings. Mornings because of the lower traffic volume, heat, and possibility of rain, and Sundays because there is even less traffic than any the other days.
An important point is that even though the environmental quality is lower here in Viet Nam than in the USA and elsewhere, it's not as though it's perfect anywhere. A trap I often catch myself falling into, and based on comments I hear I'm not the only foreigner who does it, is to judge Viet Nam as if somewhere else were perfect. I think it's a basic human characteristic to ascribe a state of perfection to places we think of as our homes. As far as air pollution and almost anything else go it's a matter of degree. Depending on exactly where you are at a given time the air pollution in the USA can be worse than in Viet Nam.
Back in December when I was still in Thailand on the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok I shared a compartment with a European man and a young English woman. The woman brought up the topic of how Thailand has so many good qualities and is a nice place in so many ways, but wouldn't it be nice if they could just pick up a little more of their garbage and put it into a rubbish bin and start recycling like they do back home. The man then pointed out to her that in Thailand, as in Viet Nam and elsewhere, they already do recycle but it's done by an informal army of individuals who scour the streets and garbage cans collecting all the usual recyclable materials like aluminum, glass, cardboard, plastic bottles, etc. The non-recyclable garbage like the scourge of the earth, those disposable plastic shopping bags, well, that is another story altogether.
But the woman later made a good point that punched a big hole in my longstanding stance that all municipalities should have drinkable tap water in order to cut down on individual costs and plastic bottle use. She pointed out that some high percentage of potable tap water just ends up going down the drain and that it's a wasteful system in that regard. I don't really know the costs of maintaining a potable tap water system, but she could be right. Furthermore, when the plastic water bottles are largely being recycled, the environmental impact of bottled water goes away. Interestingly enough, in the USA with its universally potable tap water systems, many people voluntarily buy bottled water under the assumption that it's somehow better. Whether that behavior is based on status consciousness or if there's a genuine distrust of municipal water systems I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if reports start coming out about degrading tap water quality in the USA. It seems to be the trend of things there and points out that there's a cost to maintaining potable tap water systems beyond their initial setup. Here when we're living in a house or apartment we buy drinking water in 20 liter water cooler style bottles that are always reused so I can't see that it has any significant environmental impact and the cost is low, anywhere from 10,000 vnd (about 48 cents US) t0 30,000 vnd (about $1.45 US), depending on the brand you buy. So I have to admit that maintaining potable municipal tap water systems may not carry any of the benefits I long thought it did.
While sitting at one of the plethora of sidewalk cafe-bars that dot the Pham Ngu Lao (Phạm Ngũ Lão) area of Saigon, an Aussie that I'd struck up a conversation with pointed out that the Vietnamese system basically works. Specifically he pointed to the street in front of us that was clear of debris and handled a regular high volume of traffic without any significant problems. Another aspect of Vietnamese infrastructure that tourists marvel at is the tangle of power and telephone lines that hang in sagging disheveled clumps off the concrete support poles that usually stand at some disturbingly non-vertical slant exposing the truth that the support between the lines and poles is actually mutual. Yet the power in Saigon, at least in my experience, is rarely out and often when it is it was for planned maintenance. And the mobile phone systems here are an order of magnitude better than in the USA. I never even think about the quality of the signal here because it's always so good no consideration is needed.
While Viet Nam certainly has various branches of law enforcement, you rarely see them doing anything other than the traffic cops (CSGT) handing out traffic tickets. Almost all disputes are handled quickly and informally with involvement limited to the initial parties. In many ways it's similiar here to the way towns in the Wild West of the USA probably operated back in the 1800's. Groups of people, societies if you will, do and always have had the same basic needs, chief among them being sufficient infrastructure and resources for a sustainable and fair economy and the right balance of individual freedom and social order. Of course exactly where the lines are drawn to achieve these goals often leads to disagreement intense enough to destroy the possibility of having them!
Societies naturally seek out and maintain a certain level of order largely on their own. But it's also in our nature to always want more, more of anything and everything that we feel improves our individual quality of life. Got to at least keep things interesting.
One of the municipal street sweeper workforce that keeps the roadways throughout Viet Nam debris-free. You'll even see them out on busy highways. They all use the large broom and some of them hang an oil lantern on their wheeled bin to be better seen at night.
A member of Viet Nam's large and dispersed recycling army. They often call out as they make their way through the labyrinth of roads and alleyways of Saigon. I've seen only women doing this.
A member of Viet Nam's large and dispersed recycling army. They often call out as they make their way through the labyrinth of roads and alleyways of Saigon. I've seen only women doing this.
This woman has what I refer to as a 'rig'. In this case it's a bicycle kitted out with large bags containing the various forms of recyclable materials she collects. There are many different types of rigs in Viet Nam as covered in my previous post 'Xe What?!'.
Mama got rig! Same woman conducts her recycling rig through a busy Saigon intersection as seen through some of the hanging jumbled power lines characteristic of Viet Nam. Newer areas of Saigon now bury lines underground, so enjoy this view while you still can!
