This looks awesome guys. I spent a year in Vietnam about half of it in Da Nang. Much better air than Saigon! Most people rent a moped, which I think they call a motorbike or scooter. Plenty of young expats around trying to find themselves, a great chance to evangelize altruism. My dad lost a leg there in the American War, so I felt a weird bond over our shared history. I found the Vietnamese warm and hospitable at first, but hard to crack getting closer to, to do so I think would take years and fluency. So keep expectations in line.
Another interesting thing and a potential project is that as a communist country they’ve never had a history of Civil Society, that “third sector” (same with China), so the idea of people banding together to address social ills just isn’t a thing, that’s the job of the government, and doing so in the past could get you killed or jailed because it would be offensive to the government, you’re essentially saying, “Hey loser gov since you’re not doing a good job we’ll do it”, something you just couldn’t do in the past.
When I was there in 2018 the government was more chill and seemed to be slowly evolving...but they still hadn’t gotten around to creating laws to support Civil Society, like making donations tax deductible...something we so take for granted, but it’s an actual thing a society has to decide to do. So it makes it hard on nonprofits because its much harder to fundraise without that very helpful tax deduction law. And just in general the population doesn’t understand the idea of giving to charity. But I hear now, in mirroring China’s moves toward harder authoritarianism (Something Vietnam is known for doing, following the lead of China), they have begun cracking down some on nonprofits, jailing some leaders, making life harder in general...so sad to hear.
When I was there I spent time with some charities and life was hard for them, but now I hear it’s getting worse. So my suggestion is to just have conversations with locals you feel some trust with about that whole thing, it will probably be a new thing to many of them, you can share the long tradition of charity work in most of the world and just educate them on it. I’d just be a bit careful on only bringing that up if you have trust...some people might be more nationalist and not want to talk about that, but probably those people wouldn’t tend to want to talk to you as a foreigner anyways.
Don’t mistake the warm hospitality up front for openness to Western ideas, the Vietnamese are a very proud people, as you’ll agree seeing their hard work and commitment to their homeland, so communicate new ideas knowing they exist in a competition for merit, not automagically correct because you’re Western forbears told you so. When it comes to altruism, which is a form of love for strangers, the highest of human acts, it does win the competition over using power to control people, but you have to play the game with full offense and defense, not just expecting them to fold easily.
This looks awesome guys. I spent a year in Vietnam about half of it in Da Nang. Much better air than Saigon! Most people rent a moped, which I think they call a motorbike or scooter. Plenty of young expats around trying to find themselves, a great chance to evangelize altruism. My dad lost a leg there in the American War, so I felt a weird bond over our shared history. I found the Vietnamese warm and hospitable at first, but hard to crack getting closer to, to do so I think would take years and fluency. So keep expectations in line.
Another interesting thing and a potential project is that as a communist country they’ve never had a history of Civil Society, that “third sector” (same with China), so the idea of people banding together to address social ills just isn’t a thing, that’s the job of the government, and doing so in the past could get you killed or jailed because it would be offensive to the government, you’re essentially saying, “Hey loser gov since you’re not doing a good job we’ll do it”, something you just couldn’t do in the past.
When I was there in 2018 the government was more chill and seemed to be slowly evolving...but they still hadn’t gotten around to creating laws to support Civil Society, like making donations tax deductible...something we so take for granted, but it’s an actual thing a society has to decide to do. So it makes it hard on nonprofits because its much harder to fundraise without that very helpful tax deduction law. And just in general the population doesn’t understand the idea of giving to charity. But I hear now, in mirroring China’s moves toward harder authoritarianism (Something Vietnam is known for doing, following the lead of China), they have begun cracking down some on nonprofits, jailing some leaders, making life harder in general...so sad to hear.
When I was there I spent time with some charities and life was hard for them, but now I hear it’s getting worse. So my suggestion is to just have conversations with locals you feel some trust with about that whole thing, it will probably be a new thing to many of them, you can share the long tradition of charity work in most of the world and just educate them on it. I’d just be a bit careful on only bringing that up if you have trust...some people might be more nationalist and not want to talk about that, but probably those people wouldn’t tend to want to talk to you as a foreigner anyways.
Don’t mistake the warm hospitality up front for openness to Western ideas, the Vietnamese are a very proud people, as you’ll agree seeing their hard work and commitment to their homeland, so communicate new ideas knowing they exist in a competition for merit, not automagically correct because you’re Western forbears told you so. When it comes to altruism, which is a form of love for strangers, the highest of human acts, it does win the competition over using power to control people, but you have to play the game with full offense and defense, not just expecting them to fold easily.
Have a great winter.