In the 1990 movie, The Grifters, a distinction is made between the short and long con. The short con being the quick variety in which the transaction happens (or not) in a short period of time, usually on the order of minutes or even seconds. The long con on the other hand involves more buttering up and gaining of confidence and can take place over multiple meetings and interactions over weeks or months of time. While the Filipinos operate what could be considered a long or medium con, most cons around Sai Gon fall into the short category.
One tried and true tactic used by scammers all over the world, especially those that target foreign tourists, is to employ children in their nefarious schemes. I truly doubt there's a single human being that's ever walked the face of our planet that isn't somehow affected at least a little on some level by the sight of a young child that appears to be in need of help. It's deeply embedded in our DNA and our encoded mission of survival of the species to help out the young and seemingly vulnerable members of our societies. And for most of us when an appeal from one is directed at us personally it summons up an almost involuntary reflexive impulse to respond. The temptation to help is further reinforced when the appropriate response is nicely pre-packaged for us in the form of a request of a small monetary donation with no additional strings attached that leaves us with a satisfied feeling of having done something good with relatively little cost or effort. Yes, the scammers are well aware of this vulnerability in all of us and are making a nice living off it.
Children are often seen acting as direct selling agents walking the streets around the tourist areas of Sai Gon and others in Viet Nam. They sell small items like toiletries, chewing gun, cheap adornments, the types of items you would find in a gift shop or drug store. Another common ploy is for a child selling flowers to approach any couple sitting in an open cafe, bar, restaurant, etc. and to pressure the man to buy a flower or 2 for 'his lady'. Around Pham Ngu Lao, there's a young boy, I'd guess his age at about 7 or 8, whom I see every night I'm there who uses this tactic. He seems to make about a one-hour circuit.
There is always an adult influence behind the children taking most or all of what they bring in. In the best case the child is helping his own family but there's no way to know. In any case, the children shouldn't be out there doing it and as hard as it may be, tourists shouldn't encourage it by buying or giving. Once in Nha Trang I was eating something on the street when I was approached by a child chewing gum vendor, a girl of maybe only 6 or 7. I declined the gum, but offered her some of what I was eating. It was interesting watching the change in her face and demeanor as she accepted and devoured it. I don't think she was starving, just a little hungry at the time, but I watched her drop her street persona and become for a minute just a little girl again.
I remember one poignant incident that happened when I was in Cambodia in February 2010. I was returning to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap by bus and we had stopped at a rest stop with the usual assortment of vendors. There was a young Cambodian boy, maybe about 9 or 10, selling bananas and I was in the market for some and was negotiating with him over the price. He wanted $1 US for a small bunch which was a really high price and I was trying to talk him down. In the middle of this up walks a western backpacker type wearing the uniform that so many of them wear consisting of those droopy sack pants and T shirt and sandals. This one even had the pony tail so he was uber hip. He had apparently been watching the negotiations between myself and the banana boy and thought he should intervene and take control of the situation by handing the boy $1 for the bananas I was trying to buy. After taking the bananas in hand his equally hip female companion walked up and they proceeded to question and admonish the boy as to why he wasn't in school that day. After they walked away, no doubt feeling they deserved credit for helping make the world a better and more just place, the boy turned smugly to me and smiled and I could do nothing but laugh and hand him $1 for some bananas. We then joked a little about selling more overpriced bananas to the hippies. Often when people try to help out they're really doing it more for themselves and their own egos and their need for validation and actually achieve quite the opposite of what they think they did. I'm sure banana boy rushed straight home and got himself enrolled in full-time school after another fruitless (ha ha) day of selling at the rest stop.
In my opinion the worst abusers of children are the sleeping baby women. This is a scam that's seen all over Southeast Asia and beyond. It's very simple. A woman holds a sleeping baby and projects an image of helplessness and need and solicits money. Of course what the woman wants us all to believe is that the baby is her child and she's just trying to be a good mother and is doing what she has to do to feed and take care of her child. I'm sure in some rare cases this is exactly what's happening, but often the baby is not really hers and even worse, the baby has been drugged to remain unconsious for a prolonged period. I was told by a Vietnamese local who had no agenda or reason to lie about it that there was a crackdown by the police around Pham Ngu Lao sometime in the last few years on women who carried drugged babies around begging for money. There is one woman who stands out whom I've often seen on Bui Vien (Bùi Viện) street who wears dirty pajamas and goes barefoot and carries a rather large sleeping baby around with her while soliciting handouts. She has a rather rough disposition and I'm certain she's dressing for the part. A Vietnamese friend of mine who knows some of the vendors in the area told me that a woman who fits that description was once given 500,000 vnd (about $24 US) by a well-meaning foreign woman and that after getting this generous handout she carried the baby over to a vendor stand and she and the vendor joked and laughed about what an idiot the foreigner was. Whether they actually joked about it or not, the foreigner was indeed an idiot.
Just about 1 week ago I was sitting in one of the nicer open-air Vietnamese restaurants in the Pham Ngu Lao area having lunch with a Vietnamese friend when I was solicited by an older Vietnamese woman carrying a sleeping baby on her hip. I had actually never seen this one before, but I sensed she had a particularly unpleasant attitude underneath her thinly veiled pleas for money. Of course her disposition made no difference as there was no way I was going to give her anything. After my repeated refusals she walked away muttering audible obscenities about me in Vietnamese which my friend reluctantly translated for me. Not that I really needed a translation to get the message. And not that I needed to hear her say it to understand what she was all about.
One more common beggar type one will see around Pham Ngu Lao is the old shaky woman who can barely walk who holds out her plastic cup for your donations. It's almost comical to see how her back straightens and her gait suddenly perks up and quickens, almost as if a faith healer had instantly divined away the demons that had been plaguing her, if you watch her long enough to see her cross the street or move on to a new area!
A few times when I've been sitting with a Vietnamese I'll be solicited by beggars or vendors who then turn to my Vietnamese friend and attempt to get their assistance in getting me to fork over or buy. I can understand enough Vietnamese to pick this up, again not that a translation is really needed in such a context, but it underscores the 'foreigner is just there for money' attitude that so many of the parasites around the tourist areas have.
Another important point about the tourist areas is the presence of mafia type elements and the control they exert over the businesses, and this includes the business of begging and selling on foot. All the vendors and beggars in the Pham Ngu Lao area and probably most other tourist areas are only there because they've been approved to do so by the local mafia, meaning they pay their access fees and follow the rules. I'm sure this applies to the hookers who operate on foot, too. There's too much easy money to be made in the area and if you think about it for a minute or 2 you'd realise there's no way that a cash river like that will have free open access to its banks. Stick around long enough and sooner or later you'll see the obvious signs of it.
There are plenty of genuinely friendly and interesting Vietnamese one can meet, even around the tourist areas, but business is business and money is money, and if your interaction involves either of these I can guarantee the friendliness is skin-deep at best. But so many tourists know this and still don't care because giving makes them feel good or maybe a little less guilty about something. But the problem is that it's not really doing what they think it does. Anyone who's traveled around Viet Nam away from the tourist areas will get a glimpse of the genuine friendliness, or often complete indifference, the average Vietnamese will display toward foreign tourists. This alone should be sufficient evidence that what one sees in the tourist areas is all well-managed and designed to play upon the common tourist mindsets in order to extract money.
My point in writing about this isn't to discourage tourists from visiting. It's the same story all over Southeast Asia and we all contribute to it at times, knowingly or not. It's just the way life is. But just don't kid yourself. If you really want to help out, find a better way whether it be contributing to a school or hospital or volunteering. Of course those and others are also subject to corruption and deception. The hard cold truth is that it's really difficult to find and help those in need and even then to do so without also contributing to the forces that keep them down.
Viet Nam has begun encouraging voluntary family planning with billboards such as this that carries the message that each family having only 1 or 2 children makes for a prosperous and happy life.
Beautiful gate into the Catholic church along the river in Ben Tre (Bến Tre) in the Mekong Delta area.
Beautiful gate into the Catholic church along the river in Ben Tre (Bến Tre) in the Mekong Delta area.
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