By Unorthodox Black Sheep VN (aka A Vietnamese Reader) for The Saker Blog
I find out that my late article “What Wrong With Vietnam Today?” is too general about the corruption in Vietnam in both so I decide to go more details on the problems. The corruption stories is what I heard from the Vietnamese who was experiences in the painful ways, including me also get experiences from it. When I review the comment in my late article, I found out that many foreigner who currently live in Vietnam right now also have experience on Vietnam corruption but possible different from mine so I encourage you guys, who currently live in Vietnam, give me feedback if you truly have experiences on Vietnam corruption because I believe we need a discussion on the problem so we can find out what is going on, and why Vietnam locals experience on corruption is different to each other. I decide to describe Vietnam Corruption more details.
By the way, I decide to give myself nick name Unorthodox Black Sheep VN because I find out, in arrogant way, that my views and knowledge pretty unorthodox to many Vietnamese, they had trigger one anonymous Vietnamese in the comment from my late article, and some people in the comment may think that I’m not Vietnamese, they think I may be a troll or the South Vietnamese Yellow/3 Stick Flag. Yellow/3 Stick Flag is the term Vietnamese, who currently live in Vietnam, use to mock the hypocrite of the so-called remnants of Republic of Vietnam who parade the stupid useless flag every years, and I hate only the parade one not the reasonable Vietnamese American I met. I know what I say is pretty arrogant or narcissistic but I afraid that very few Vietnamese like me have the unorthodox views and knowledge like I have describe in “What Wrong With Vietnam Today?”
My rambling is too long now so let begin.
Corruption in Vietnam right now is not stop only at government and police but also at the work places like health care, education, etc. Corruption in Vietnam is very rampant in the big city.
*Corruption of Vietnamese Education:
In Vietnam, Giáo Viên Chủ Nhiệm (Homeroom Teacher or Head Teacher of The Class if I translate correct) is the responsible on student behaviors at the school. For example, teacher A will take responsible for the student of the class 6A1 as the head teacher of the class, and if students from 6A1 had bad behavior, head teacher of the class must take responsible for their mistakes and solve the problem. To help you guys understand easy, let image that classes system is similar to classes system from from Harry Potter.
Every Vietnamese also know that education in Vietnam is extremely corrupted, and bribery is unwritten law in the school. Today, every parent have to give the teacher some gift or money in envelope to make sure that the teacher will teach their children well in the school. If they don’t do it, the teacher will bully the student, and make student life like will with many method like cherry picking on the smallest mistakes, giving bad grade to the homework or exam, etc. and the thing like that also happened in kindergarten.
From elementary school to high school, there is two type of class: good or bad. The good class is the class with the good teacher and the good student, and the bad class is the class with the bad teacher and the bad student. Students is selected to good or bad class base on their graduation grades, bad then go to the bad classes, good then go to the good classes. This is the reason why parents sometimes ask relative or using bribery to make sure that their children go into the good class to process their children future (Cannot blame the parent for this).
There are two type of school: private school and state school. Private school is opened by a private person, and state school is opened government. Private school is usually expensive than state school, and Vietnamese education system anti private school in many way like does not accept the degrees or transcript from the private school. For example, if student graduate from the private elementary school then transfer to the state middle school, the state middle school may now accept the private school transcript. This is reason why many parents always send their children to the state school.
Graduating to University in Vietnam is the most important moment in the life. Student must pass the graduation exams to go to the university. Students who fail the exam always don’t have other choice, and the only way to process their future is joining Vietnamese People Army volunteer. Even after finish their majors at the university, finding job is really hard to them because Vietnamese companies love foreigner degrees, especially the First World ones like USA, than their own country degrees.
*Corruption in Health Care System
The corruption is possible responsible for many unnecessary death of the patient because doctor or nurse usually try to milking money from the patient in many ways.
Example 1: doctors or nurse usually give the patient and even kid too many unnecessary drugs to make more money from this.
Example 2: doctors usually want patient spend more time in the hospital than usual to make more money from service fees with extraordinary prices.
Example 3: hospital usually hide many accident murder cases like patient death by giving wrong drugs.
Example 4: In 2018, I saw the board prices like that in a hospital (I hope my translate give you guys more ideas about this):
Check and Treat by Professor: 350,000 VND/patient (15 USD)
Check and Treat by Associate Professor: 250,000 VND/patient (11 USD)
Check and Treat by Deputy Department Head Doctor: 150,000 VND/patient (6.45 USD)
VERY CREATIVE WAY TO MILK MONEY FROM PATIENT (LAUGH OUT LOUD).
Every Vietnamese hospital, especially Hanoi, is always too crowds because many patients are not actually Hanoi ones, and they come from the poor county, or the poor town because the location does not have the health care system like the city.
In conclusion, Vietnamese health care system is very corrupted.
* Corruption in Police System
I heard many stories about Vietnamese police corruption, and I am sometimes consider the police corruption like dark humor. The corrupted police, ironically, is also the victim of the corruption of the police system, and they HAVE TO make money from bribery to pay their own taxes and fee to the their supervisor. Let get to the traffic police, before becoming traffic police, they have to bribery so much money to the high authority police so they can become traffic police. Traffic police also need to make more money as much as they can for their family, paying taxes, and paying “working fees” to their supervisor. If the traffic police does not give the supervisor enough money then they get fired (laugh and cry at the same time). In conclusion, police corruption is happened from top to low.
Let me tell a comparison between Ha Noi police and Da Nang police:
Da Nang traffic police never receive bribery but when raining, raining causes traffic crowd, they go into police station to rest.
Ha Noi Traffic police receive bribery but when raining, raining causes traffic crowd, they must go outside volunteer or not, work under heavy raining to keep traffic order.
* Corruption at Economic Project
First Example – Hanoi BRT or Hanoi Bus Rapid Transit
Hanoi BRT or Hanoi Bus Rapid Transit is a transit bus system with large roadway shelters in Hanoi, Vietnam that opened on 31 December 2016. The stupid project waste so much money and causes more traffic crowd than ever. To give you guys more ideas, let look at the picture below:
(Credit: Wikipedia)
No word on how stupid it is. You guys no need to be traffic or architecture genius can point out how ridiculous it is. According to the traffic law, only Hanoi BRT bus (The green one on the middle right in the picture) can use this lane (The right lane that is separated with solid white line on the middle right). To give you guys more ideas, let watch an youtube video:
Bài học rút ra từ BRT Hà Nội | VTC1 (Lessons fromBRT Hanoi-VTC1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYtEYKMyjb8
You guy don’t need to understand the Vietnamese, just watch the video and you guys can get more ideas on how absurd HanoiBRT is.
Example 2 – Vietnam North-South high-speed railway
The project is destroying Vietnamese Economic day by day, thank to the Vietnamese corrupted official. They don’t even know how to use the Chinese fund. In fact, they can use the funding money to fix and maintain the whole railways system in the whole Vietnam. The picture below describe why Vietnam Railways need to be maintain, repair and upgrade:
(http://cafef.vn/vi-sao-nganh-duong-sat-viet-nam-lac-hau-so-voi-the-gioi-20170816102021819.chn)
That give you more ideas about how the corrupted one only care about putting money into their bag, not using them.
Example 3 – Line 2A, Hanoi Metro (Đường Sắt Cát Linh – Hà Đông)
This is the metro that causes high polluted in Hanoi right now, it swallow so much spaces and pretty dangerous. The pictures below:
(Credit: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/the-prime-minister-asked-to-run-catlinh-hadong-railway-soon-09122019092413.html) I just use image from RFA, CIA website, not information.
You guys don’t have to be genius to tell how dangerous, stupid, and illogical Hanoi Metro is. They should use the money to fix and maintain the railways systems instead.
* Growing Immoral in Vietnamese Society.
Thank for the pro-US mind set, Vietnamese today import many immoral thing from the US or Western countries. I will quote directly the paragraph from Linh Dinh article “Multicultural, Progressive, Totalitarian Vietnam” from the Unz Review:
“With its American fast food joints, foreign models, black star athletes and the beginning of black neighborhoods, Vietnam is looking more multicultural and progressive (in the American sense) by the day.
This transformation also includes annual gay parades, of course, with the first in 2012. The Atlantic, Guardian, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, NBC, BBC and CNN have all praised Vietnam’s progress on the LGBT front. A Hanoi photographer, Maika Elan (real name Nguyễn Thanh Hải), won a World Press Photo Award for her series depicting gay couples at home, and a Saigon transgender bodybuilder, Kendy, was profiled by Narratively. Hanoi’s Kênh14 now has an annual feature, “Ten Most Beautiful Homosexual Relationships of the Year.”
In conclusion, immoral is growing in Vietnamese society.
I hope the corruption things I list above can give you guys more details and ideas how corruption Vietnam is.
That all. I hope you guys can give me feedbacks (and hate comment too because I find out, only me not anyone else, that reading hate comment is really entertainment).
What you describe sounds very much like the west. In Canada, in big cities, those special traffic lanes exist. They are only for buses or vehicles with more than two persons inside. They are trying to force us out of our private vehicles and create yet one more ‘rule’ by which a person can be financially penalized. The elements you describe in the medical profession are very western. What can we expect when every facet of life is run by corporate syndicates. It starts with the International banking system at the top, a fraudulent, enslaving system if there ever was one, based on debt. And the more debt (based on this fake currency) nations and individuals have, the more power these bankers get. Then their other cabals run everything else. There are giant agricultural corporations with their poison food. The giant pharmaceutical complex designed to push expensive chemical drugs that don’t cure anything. Giant energy companies. On and on it goes. Let me tell you a story. I had an elderly neighbour up until October 17 of this year, when he passed away. Frenchy, as he liked to be called, was part native Indian who had advanced Parkinson’s and diabetes. For the past year, he stayed in a small hospital in a small town nearby. This is rural central Ontario. He got to the point he needed care 24/7. Now here is the thing: I don’t know all that happened in his life, but Frenchy had a caustic attitude toward certain groups which include those in government, police, anyone in the medical complex. He would get worked up and call them all manner of vile names. They kicked him out of that hospital more than once and sent him hom in an ambulance, saying he was abusive. But they couldn’t find a way to see him as a man who was suffering. We went to visit him a week before he died and he was sitting in his wheelchair in the doorway to his room, unconscious. They were force drugging him. A week later he was gone. Frenchy had a local couple serving as his executor and I talked with Brian a few days after Frenchy died to find out the circumstances under which he died. He said the social worker indicated that he would be dead this coming week! I asked Brian how this person could possibly know this. A big silence followed and I looked at him and asked: “Are you telling me they killed him?” He answered, “It wouldn’t be the first time somebody was given an overdose of drugs”.
There is the idea that America was defeated in Vietnam. Were they really? Does Vietnam have a central bank connected to or part of this western financial system? At some point not far away, I believe the U.S. will decend into full-blown Fascism. Canada is a colony of Britain so as goes Britain, so goes Canada. Ask Julian Assange how just the British justice system is.
Thank you for your story! I can’t believe the thing like that can happened in Canada.
There is the idea that America was defeated in Vietnam. Were they really? Does Vietnam have a central bank connected to or part of this western financial system? At some point not far away, I believe the U.S. will decend into full-blown Fascism. Canada is a colony of Britain so as goes Britain, so goes Canada. Ask Julian Assange how just the British justice system is.
About this, I think Vietnam began to loose its independent in economic slowly to the Western Financial System since the 1990s, and the banker began to control Vietnam totally during 2000s. I don’t even know that State Bank of Vietnam is controlled by Rothschild, and I just know about this in 2017. I even went to ask some acquaintances who work for the Vietnamese Military about this, they don’t even know about that, and they even call me nuts and “reading tabloid too much.” I really don’t understand how the VN Government can let this happen.
https://dailyoddsandends.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/the-rothschild-global-banking-monopoly-they-pull-the-strings-everywhere/
About Julian Assange, I know many people is not going to agree with me about this, I can be wrong of course and I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden is fraud. We need to consider about this below:
https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/04/Julian-Assange-Arrest-is-Theatre.html
https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/11/assange-snowden-rat-traps.html
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
Reducing traffic congestion is a boon to those dwelling in cities beset by traffic congestion and pollution, particulate, noise and noxious gases. It’s all about collective benefit for all, not the individual. Why not catch a train or bus?
“HanoiBRT”
I watched the video. It seems to me that scooters are the most efficient way of transporting people in Hanoi. The idea that if cars were to use the space reserved for buses then the traffic would improve is nonsense. More people would use cards and the junctions are where the holdups are – not the straight stretches.
I have a big interest and knowledge of road transport efficiency. Here is a website of mine:
http://triptax.com/
It describes a novel way of metering road use. It is far cheaper than anything anyone else has ever proposed and self-regulating
Is OK! Vietnam people making progress!
Except those that go tranny and eliminate their genes from the future gene pool…but notice:..self correction..of Stupidity……..Problem Solved by Nature!
At least partially………even in the short term.
Stupidity might even mostly die out some day….Nature very resourceful!
Many steps forward….only a few back!
Trains way to close to shacks, chickens, pigs and Viet people and their scooters. There is need of eminent domain laws…..for the Greater Public Good. Much wider rail right of way!
Not to worry! Every problem have solution.
Chinese brothers know how to do!
Germans also used to be pretty good at it…..probably will learn again….thanks to BRI hub in Duisberg…if their brains don’t get completely clogged with Green algae and Ideology.
All in due time!
Enjoyed your article, very much Brother Black Sheep. I have Vietnamese friends here in Socal. Fountain Valley = Little Saigon (sorry Hanoi brothers). Great entrepreneurs especially Pho restaurants and nail salons!
I repeat: Don’t worry too much about your people. They work hard….and no one can defeat them…… except themselves……maybe. Same as most other people!
I heard they are now the best shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, for example!
Also, this guy, Jimmy Nguyen one of the smartest people in the world….. regarding Blockchain/Metanet/ & The Real Bitcoin (currently under $90 per BSV):
https://youtu.be/2dmR42rRXWs?t=6
Jimmy Nguyen talks Bitcoin SV’s future at Malta AI & Blockchain Summit
I am really love being positive on anything, and I hope I’m wrong. I am also happy when you find many things positive about Vietnam. However I have to disagree:
1. This thing I list in my article is not the progressive sign, and they are Darwin Award signs.
2. Vietnam and China in fact are not “brother.” I suggest you should read this:
/special-report-vietnam-between-the-us-russia-and-china/
3. Jimmy Nguyen is US citizen not Vietnamese citizen so his company is just good for USA not Vietnam and he receive education of US not Vietnamese ones (good for him, of course). I am being realistic about this because Vietnamese today is too delusional and High IQ Idiot when they see the success of oversea such as evidences to prove that Vietnamese is smart, they don’t understand that the success does not bring anything Vietnam. By the way, Vietnamese Education is too corrupted right now so they don’t make any genius right now.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
UBS VN:
The world is connected….and getting much more so….at an accelerating rate.
Look at us right here, for example!
I assume there is internet access in Vietnam???
Smart guys like you, therefore, with adequate English…(as is yours sir, as well as your sense of humor…or at least thick skin to not be too offended by mild teasing….) can learn from smart guys like Jimmy Nguyen over the internet. Regardless of what passport a human being carries, or what blood flows in his or her veins..(Jimmy looks 100% Vietnamese to me!)..that person is a human being and their valid ideas are also valid to any other human being capable of grasping an idea……..no matter what national jurisdiction they live in.
Therefore UBS VN, pay close attention to simple point Jimmy makes which 95% of Crypto-Geeks never understood….or forgot:
The REAL Bitcoin is composed of DATA (Bit)
plus Money (Coin) = Bitcoin
But currently, 10 years after release of the Bitcoin White Paper…..the Crypto “Space” is far more corrupted…..than VIETNAM!!
BTC at $7K + cannot carry any significant Data whatsoever! It is NOT what the inventor’s White Paper specified.
Even though Jimmy has a US passport….a citizen of Vietnam…..or anywhere………… CAN comprehend and put to use his knowledge!
WHY should you (and anyone else reading this) overcome your preconceptions….and get around to doing that (reviewing the video…….and looking for many more)???
I will tell you why: The REAL BItcoin….BSV envisioned by its inventor disincentivizes CRIME ….fraud …..CORRUPTION.
Isn’t that what your article is about???
Find out HOW!!!!
Then apply in Vietnam!
Thank you for you feedback. No worry, my skin really thick and I’m not offend by Jimmy Nguyen or overseas Vietnamese. My point here many Vietnamese just look the successful of oversea Vietnamese and use them as the proof to prove that Vietnamese is smart so delusional. Local Vietnamese and VN Government don’t even try to look and figure out what wrong with the VN education, why local Vietnamese cannot be good as oversea ones with Vietnamese Education, and they don’t try to find a way to make local Vietnamese better and can compete to other nations with the results of Vietnamese Education.
About Bitcoin, well, Vietnam Government still not prepare to use the BitCoin for many complicated reasons, not corrupted reasons according to my own knowledge. The main reason, in my opinion, is that many places in Vietnam right now don’t use credit/debit card when buy/sell so the VN Gov afraids that using BitCoin can cause confuse and economic chaos. You need consider this:
Bitcoin – Global Bankers scheme to ditch the Dollar? [N. Starikov]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F89zKhUu1s
JPMorgan Chase Moves to Be First Big U.S. Bank With Its Own Cryptocurrency
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/business/dealbook/jpmorgan-cryptocurrency-bitcoin.html
Bitcoin hits $10,000 – as grandpa buys in, leftists say: ‘What’s bitcoin?’
/bitcoin-hits-10000-as-grandpa-buys-in-leftists-say-whats-bitcoin/
Leftists must finally take notice of – and buy stock in – bitcoins
/leftists-must-finally-take-notice-of-and-buy-stock-in-bitcoins/
Best Regards:
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
Thank you so much for that link.
About the traffic, unfortunately from my daily review in the Hanoi road, Hanoi BRT is just a Darwin Award, and it just causes causes more traffic crowd in Hanoi especially when many Hanoi roads, street are outdated.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
‘Corruption’ is now the standard trope that the regime change industry uses to start the preparations for a Colour Revolution. Vietnam will be safe once the youth, trained by CANVAS, funded by the NED et al and those wonderful Western NGOs (who only want the Vietnamese to become ‘fully human’ by Westernising)revolt, a few get shot by ‘mysterious snipers’ and the wonder and glory of the Free World ‘liberates’ the Vietnamese, and, as naturally as the day follows the dawn, all that nassty ‘corruption’ disappears, as it has done in the glorious West. And some lucky Vietnamese compradores will be made ‘Honorary White Men’ and set up a friendly, Free Market, regime, just like South Vietnam was.
Amazing story about Vietnam Police. In Nigeria, traffic policemen collect bribes and paying a percentage of those bribes to their supervisors. In fact, if the money collected in bribes is too small, the supervisor may even punish a policeman by putting them in a place where there is little or no traffic.
No traffic = Nobody to collect bribes from
The police even mismanage the traffic to ensure traffic builds up on time and more person gets desperate to jump queue
Thank you for the article.
Living in an Asean city, I can understand your frustration with traffic congestion and the various ‘solutions’ for it. I’m no traffic expert but I agree that BRT is not a good idea because in effect it reduces car lanes but does not reduce the number of people on the road. Jakarta (population 12 million) has a BRT but for various reasons many commuters are not happy with the system and traffic has not ‘decongested’. Perhaps a better solution would be to put them in trains on elevated rails or underground like the Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City Metro. In fact most countries in Asean (learning mainly from Hong Kong) have urban rail transit systems that seem to be working, so I don’t understand your angst with regard to Hanoi Metro.
But Hanoi’s transportation congestion is trivial compared to the other corruptions you mention. The corruption in the education system is the really scary one because that is the one that’s going to destroy Vietnam’s future. I hope for you and your children’s sake that they arrest this insidious and dangerous disease. On the (slightly) bright side — and nothing to shout about because the Asean region’s performance is actually dismal except for Singapore — Vietnam’s corruption index has improved somewhat according to Transparency International’s latest report. So there is still hope yet.
On a different note I was slightly taken aback at the Vietnamese embrace of the US when I visited Hanoi a couple of years ago. Sure, we should let bygones be bygones — Japan certainly did with the US despite two atomic bombs, and my country with Japan for that matter — but the Vietnam War was a brutal one with two million Vietnamese killed, use of chemical weapons and persistent congenital defects, etc, and I had expected some residual resentment especially among the older segment of the population since the USians came to wage war on Vietnam and not the other way around, and later ostracisation by the big power loser and its reneging on promises of reconstruction aid. But no. Everything’s fine. My country was not involved with the Vietnam War but it was close and though I was a young teen at the time, somehow the particularly brutal and ugly — and to my now adult mind somewhat racist — aspect of the war stuck in my head. But I was patently wrong to underestimate the ability of time to heal injuries, and the magnificent human spirit in Vietnam’s people to rise above such horrors.
Country’s peoples kinda have short memories over long periods of time, if you didn’t witness it, it can be easily a forgotten thing. And with today’s hurry up world, there is so much to catch up too tomorrow.
Nemesis relationship between Vietnam and China
Sinophobia
First World Countries propaganda through the music, films and movies.
Bias view of oversea relatives
High IQ Idiot.
All of them created the problem today.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN
Could the author be more explicit what is so stupid about these metro systems?
I have no clue what is meant (contrary to the assertions how ridiculous it apparently is).
Let compare Fruitvale Bart Station image in the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitvale_station#/media/File:Fruitvale_station_from_garage_(2),_March_2018.JPG
Then look again the Hanoi Metro Station (Yellow building one).
Conclusion: Fruitvale Bart Station is more organized than Hanoi Metro. Hanoi Metro is built with any organized and long term plan.
Vietnam railroad system around the country is outdated, old, rusted and many of the railroad begin to break. and the money they use on the Vietnam North-South High Speed railway and Hanoi Metro can be used to fix the whole Vietnam Railway System, and they can make more profits from this. The two railway projects are wasting money for nothing, many problems during building them has appeared, and no profits in the future.
I hope my explain help you understand about what I try to say.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
nobody wants to fix old. the legacy project may not be worth the fix and cannot be really at par. if i was them i’d want a clean sheet of paper to start with.
I have to disagree with what you said above because Vietnam Rail Transport is still important to Vietnamese right now. People still use it to visit their family, friend, vacations, and etc. and two new railway projects are the example how corrupted, imcompetent, uneducation, and low foresight Vietnamese Officials are. They had ton of money, they can use to fix and update the whole Vietnam Rail Transport, that is broken continually day by day, instead using them on two useless railway projects that make Hanoi more messed up and unsafety.
Correct my typo: “Conclusion: Fruitvale Bart Station is more organized than Hanoi Metro. Hanoi Metro is not built with any organized and long term plan.”
So basically you and the powers that be in Vietnam don’t see eye to eye on rail transport: national railways improvement vs urban rail transit systems. OK, fair enough. But where’s the corruption?
Maybe the USD58 billion the North-South High Speed Rail?
I will try to explain to you about the corruption with my own knowledge, and I hope it can help you understand about the corruption.
Vietnamese Corrupted Officials receive the fund from Vietnamese Government or Chinese Gov or any foreign Gov, so they technically can do anything they want with the money they receive, and they can loot the fund.
If they use the fund to fix Vietnam Rail Transport, the old one that needs to be maintained now, they will be watched and limited on how they the fund because Vietnam Rail Transport is the thing that many people who work at the building railroad know, and they cannot make up reasons to use more money (they steal money from the fund and put into their pocket) that they were funded.
On somethings news like Hanoi Metro and North-South High Speed Rail, they can make up reasons more money (they steal money from the fund and put into their pocket) that they were funded because nobody know or understand about how two projects work. So they use two projects to loot money by make up the amount that need to be used. For example (not real), North-South High Speed Rail may need only about 15 billion but they can make the money they need to use is 58 billion. So 15 billion for the project (not calculate on repair, safety check, etc.) remain 43 bllion into their pocket.
By the way, I’m not even sure two projects can make more profits to pay foreign debts.
I hope my explain help you understand more about the corruption.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
I’m curious why the author chose the Fruitvale bart station for use as a comparison?
I just choose it randomly. By the way, read comment from Dick Lenning because Dick Lenning had point out what wrong with the Hanoi Metro.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
The school & hospital examples, sadly, are also prevalent in China. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji during the 1990s started the anti-corruption campaign, & Hu Jintao+Wen Jiabao had their hands full cleaning up Beijing & Shanghai of major corruption; hospitals & primary schools were considered petty compared to government-level & big banks.
Efficient public transportation has been vital in reducing air pollution in major Chinese cities. Based on the pictures the major problem seems to be implementing the full scope of the designs, instead of cutting corners. Light rail in China would never allow houses & parked vehicles right beside train tracks.
I will quote directly the paragraph from Linh Dinh article “Multicultural, Progressive, Totalitarian Vietnam” from the Unz Review:
“With its American fast food joints, foreign models, black star athletes and the beginning of black neighborhoods, Vietnam is looking more multicultural and progressive (in the American sense) by the day.
The Unz Review is spewing racist garbage through a fire hose everyday, thus corrupting and minimizing the validity of your other wise fine article. I have been to Vietnam a dozen times in the past few years and find the place far less corrupt than the Anglo Zionist wasteland called the west. Looks like a wonderful place to retire too.
I have to disagree with you about the Unz Review is a racist website. The controversy and taboo stuff in the website, in my opinion, help me understand more about what is going on right now.
I am really happy when you really find out many good things about my country. I really encourage people to debunk what I says and prove me wrong.
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
One could see a few of the articles on UNZ as racialist, with garbage about ‘world average IQs’ etc, and a smattering of, in my opinion, nassty articles regarding black Americans. But it certainly has many other excellent contributors, like Shamir, Atzmon, Giraldi and Guyenot, and Saker.
Its great to get info from Vietnam and if we are to understand the world we need to try and understand whats going on there.
But I want to reply to the comments on transit.
The people who own the auto industry are the same people who own the petrol and media industries. They have conditioned you to think that the private automobile is freedom, democracy, a sign of a high standard of living and of course “the American dream”. Sound familiar ?
Now lets look at the reality (If anyone cares). We are shown a picture and have been conditioned to believe that the empty space in the bus lane is a sign of “waste” and the gridlocked car lanes are an example of “efficiency”. But thats not true, the bus lane only looks empty because its efficient and the car lane is gridlocked because its a waste of space. Don’t believe me ! Here are the numbers :-
At a 30 second headway the bus lane can carry 7000 people in one hour. The same 10 foot lane can only carry 700 cars and at an average of 1.2 people per car thats only 840 people. The bus lane looks empty but is equal to the full capacity of an 8 lane highway.
Lets not forget that the bus will continue its journey but you need to park a car. At 7000 people the bus lanes frees up 5800 car parking spaces per hour, which works out at nearly two million sq feet of car parking. And thats per hour.
Should I mention that the automobile is killing one million people per year by impact, three million by air pollution and surprisingly three million killed by noise pollution. One million people per week will be injured by impact and 60% of these will be injured for life. Air pollution in some Asian cities is already so bad you can barely see across the gridlocked twelve lane motorways and of course you can forget about trying to walk from one side to the other unless your feeling suicidal.
Now I hear you scream “It saves time” – but no thats just more media programming, Most people spend a quarter of there working lives working to pay for there car.
The city (The human habitat) should be built for people and community but has been shredded to an unsustainable, shockingly expensive, anti-human and ugly mess of noise, fumes, danger, isolation and gridlock by the private automobile which serves no useful purpose in the urban environment. Working vehicles are of course different, there actually doing something useful.
This is another victory for narrative control. They build an environment for cars not people. And because the environment is built for cars its difficult or even impossible to live without one. Now that they have got you living in an degraded anti human environment and working a quarter of your life to pay for a car – they tell you that this is freedom and democracy and that no other way is possible in a “Modern” world. Same old, same old. Like a fish doesn’t know its wet. People see only there selfish interest, see only what they want to see and are therefore so easy to fool.
Thank you so much for your feedback. However, I believe you misunderstand what I try to say here (my bad, of course).
My point here that the Vietnam traffic projects that I describe above just is profitable for some individuals in the Vietnamese Government, the corrupted ones. I don’t again any traffic projects if they had been put in the very good, organized, and long term plan. The problem here is the project is started without any good plan from the beginning. Since the 80s, most of the apartments, street, road, sewers, and etc. had been built without any organized and long term plans because many factors mainly lack of funding, wars, US sanction on economic, etc. had caused the super mess up traffic, street and road system around the whole Vietnam. If they had plan to figure out how to fix the problem from the beginning with the projects above, then no problem but they don’t have, so the traffic projects above is just “pouring the oil on fire.”
Best Regards,
Unorthodox Black Sheep VN.
Your right its a mess. Its only running 14 buses per hour. If people move from motorbike to car Hanoi is going to be as bad as the rest of Asia.
I just wanted to point out that traffic problems are not caused by transit but by the lack of transit. The projects may be subject to corruption and stupidity but again this is not unique to transit and at least wasting money on transit is wasting it on something useful :-)
Thanks for bringing us up to date on Vietnam, its hard to get reliable info on whats really going on there
A friend of mine’s son lives at Hanoi, he’s 21, speaks many languages fluently and teaches English to high school students there. After an accident on a motor bike he was in hospital for a broken ankle, left after a short while, ran out of money, was given suspect money to survive and has now regained his position. However, the vulnerability of his position as a young man without family in Hanoi may not have changed very much…
In Cali, Colombia the same transport system is being utilized and of course is congesting all the roads. In Bogota, the capital is same and now the corrupt government right one month ago approved one aerial metro that doesn’t have studies for his construction, just because of corruption.