Crying for the Common Father
By LIEN HOANG
HO CHI MINH CITY — Vietnamese people can
find an aphorism by Ho Chi Minh for nearly any occasion. A favorite
schoolyard banner has him saying: “For the sake of 10 years, we must
plant trees; for the sake of 100 years, we should cultivate people.”
Now some cultivated people are wondering whether they have neglected the trees.
Cat Tien National Park, a hundred miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, is a protected forest with perhaps the most diverse ecosystem in Vietnam. Nominated for Unesco’s World Heritage status, it’s a habitat for vulnerable species, like the epiphytic orchid and the sun bear. But now there are plans by the Duc Long Gia Lai company to raze 400 hectares of Cat Tien to generate two hydropower dams.
More than 4,700 people have signed a Change.org petition urging the authorities to prevent construction. An open letter against the project has been sent to President Truong Tan Sang. Newspaper editorials and even the local authorities have come out opposing it.
This may seem like a familiar story: Big industry threatens a natural resource; environmentalists protest; the government must decide between profits and preservation. But there’s a twist. Vietnamese people tend to complain about environmental issues only after they’ve been directly affected.
The battle for Cat Tien is a less pragmatic, more forward-looking movement: It’s about protecting biodiversity. And that new concern marks a shift in the nature of citizen activism.
I asked Nguyen Huynh Thuat, who cofounded Saving Cat Tien, why Vietnamese should care about the park. After mentioning potential harm to the water supply, he struggled to provide concrete reasons. Thuat, a former government official who handled foreign researchers and donors involved with Cat Tien, wants people to care about biodiversity for biodiversity’s sake.
“Fail or not fail, it’s not important to me,” Thuat said of his bid to stop the dams from being built. “What matters to me is that people know about sustainable environment.”
Thuat is trying to bring a belief in collective duty back to this nominally communist country. Vietnamese keep their homes impeccable but disregard public spaces, littering the streets and urinating in canals. A popular saying goes, “Cha chung khong ai khoc,” or, “No one cries for the common father.” In other words, no one looks after what belongs to everyone.
The situation has been improving. Bui Viet Ha, a social entrepreneur who was educated in Sweden and now promotes green causes at home, told me that Vietnamese, as they travel and study abroad, are being influenced by progressive countries. Ha also said that environmental awareness was a luxury when Vietnam was a poor country, but now that it is richer, “More and more people have a sense of responsibility for society, for the environment.” Vietnamese are slowly coming out to cry for the common father.
Now some cultivated people are wondering whether they have neglected the trees.
Cat Tien National Park, a hundred miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, is a protected forest with perhaps the most diverse ecosystem in Vietnam. Nominated for Unesco’s World Heritage status, it’s a habitat for vulnerable species, like the epiphytic orchid and the sun bear. But now there are plans by the Duc Long Gia Lai company to raze 400 hectares of Cat Tien to generate two hydropower dams.
More than 4,700 people have signed a Change.org petition urging the authorities to prevent construction. An open letter against the project has been sent to President Truong Tan Sang. Newspaper editorials and even the local authorities have come out opposing it.
This may seem like a familiar story: Big industry threatens a natural resource; environmentalists protest; the government must decide between profits and preservation. But there’s a twist. Vietnamese people tend to complain about environmental issues only after they’ve been directly affected.
The battle for Cat Tien is a less pragmatic, more forward-looking movement: It’s about protecting biodiversity. And that new concern marks a shift in the nature of citizen activism.
I asked Nguyen Huynh Thuat, who cofounded Saving Cat Tien, why Vietnamese should care about the park. After mentioning potential harm to the water supply, he struggled to provide concrete reasons. Thuat, a former government official who handled foreign researchers and donors involved with Cat Tien, wants people to care about biodiversity for biodiversity’s sake.
“Fail or not fail, it’s not important to me,” Thuat said of his bid to stop the dams from being built. “What matters to me is that people know about sustainable environment.”
Thuat is trying to bring a belief in collective duty back to this nominally communist country. Vietnamese keep their homes impeccable but disregard public spaces, littering the streets and urinating in canals. A popular saying goes, “Cha chung khong ai khoc,” or, “No one cries for the common father.” In other words, no one looks after what belongs to everyone.
The situation has been improving. Bui Viet Ha, a social entrepreneur who was educated in Sweden and now promotes green causes at home, told me that Vietnamese, as they travel and study abroad, are being influenced by progressive countries. Ha also said that environmental awareness was a luxury when Vietnam was a poor country, but now that it is richer, “More and more people have a sense of responsibility for society, for the environment.” Vietnamese are slowly coming out to cry for the common father.
Lien Hoang is a writer covering Southeast Asia.
Nguồn: http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/crying-for-the-common-father/
Nguồn: http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/crying-for-the-common-father/
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