Floating Bridge that is Vietnam

After spending three weeks observing, traveling and admiring this amazing culture of Vietnam, I have been trying to develop insight on what I’ve experienced. In other words, I have urged myself to look past the surface of the beautiful tourist hotspots and fun activities, and see Vietnam as the struggling country it is. Although this approach seems negative, it has helped me develop a deeper insight of another, almost opposite culture from the U.S.
As a developing country, Vietnam is getting by with a flawed system and it’s prevalent in many different cases. Sweeping most of their problems under the rug, there’s pollution, poverty, corruption and a general lack of transparency in both business and government. This lack of transparency and communication has turned the Vietnamese economy into a ticking time bomb. Worrying about the short term is all the citizens of Vietnam can afford to do, but this generates a poor quality of work.
For example, the farmers in Mekong delta grow and sell fruits and vegetables, but as Dr. Robert explained, they grow the products under poor conditions (foul water or indecent quality if seed or plants) but the farmers need to sell every day. They bring their fruits or vegetables to the floating market and hope to sell at least a portion of their inventory, the rest is thrown away. Another example of the short term focus in Vietnamese culture is the sewage system and water (or lack thereof) sanitation. For an overpopulated country there are far too little water or sewage plants. The system here recycles most of its water, so in each glass, there may be a stinky hint of something…
Between these examples and a variety of others, the Vietnamese culture and society is like a floating market. Always at risk of sinking, full of products and workers, but lacks organization and clear signs for the future.
Want my advice? Education. The government should do everything in its power to be taken seriously (stop the corruption) and enforce taxes so that underprivileged citizens can go to school get an education, and stop doing things just because that’s the way their parents did it. Without education, the ticking time bomb of this floating bridge economy will ruin the future reputation of this travel hotspot and booming market.

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