Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vietnam’s Empty Forests

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#41

Post by teekert »

baolongtrann wrote: post #3
cageface wrote: post #2

Vietnam is a stunningly beautiful country but unfortunately a love of nature doesn't seem to have really taken hold there. At least not yet. Missing from all the gorgeous photos of Mekong Delta waterways and pristine beaches is all the trash you'll find strewn in heaps everywhere. My guess is it will take another generation for people there to appreciate how blessed they are to live in such surroundings but by then i…

I'm a Viet, born and raised. My country is blessed with incredible scenery, diverse and natural. The coast line is as long as the country itself ffs. Now I won't claim that I'm an avid traveler, but from my limited traveling experience (only been to Australia, Korea, Japan and Hongkong on vacation, nothing too fancy), I have never been to a place that I would rank higher in terms of beautiful, natural scenery. Howeve…

Yes, it's a pity, I traveled to Quan Lan Island in 2010, my wife and I thought it would be unspoiled and off track. But the boat there was full of people throwing litter over board, I even saw a lady pull a diaper of a child and throw it overboard without even thinking. The beaches were littered with colorful plastic. (I have a picture on my Nextcloud but no idea how to share it and my wife is very prominent in so I won't but the picture still make me feel sad. Edit, uploaded but only downloadable for 7 days or 100 times apparently (and cropped my wife out): [0])

I also got the feeling that small bays that were labelled as nice in our perhaps a bit dated travel guide were filled with large hotels between the time since they were labeled as such and when we arrived.

Overall though I found Vietnam very, very beautiful indeed and the people were very kind as well (outside the tourist industry at least).

I guess it's an education thing, as kid I constantly heard in school: Plastic stays around for 2500 years! Birds choke on your chewing gum! The hole in the ozone layer is our fault! TBH I felt pretty burdened, sad and responsible by/for it, but I guess it has its advantages.

[0] https://send.firefox.com/download/c48c1add8b2d74a0/#qxQ-qoh-...

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#42

Post by coconut_crab »

I have tried my best to educate people around me to care more about environment to no avail, because to them "it's another guy's problem if we litter on the street, so keep doing it". What the government is doing ain't helping either, people want to make more money, to buy a car, bigger house etc... why should they care about some random monkeys in a forest that they will never see in their life? It's really depressing, maybe I should find an NGO and join them to protect the wild life.

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#43

Post by ams6110 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #32
leejoramo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a child growing up in 1970s USA, I remember the vast amount of trash along our roads, city streets, parks and beaches. It was fairly common to see people throw trash out of their car windows. What changed? I have never studied this, but I know we implemented large scale clean up projects, passed new laws and made a cultural shift in attitudes.

What changed was the environmentalism movement, usually symbolized by the crying Indian commercial. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CryingIndian >>>> My guess is it will take another generation for people there to appreciate how blessed they are to live in such surroundings but by then it will unfortunately be too late. This in the parent comment is strange. It wasn't too late everywhere else, and it obvi…

Yes, I was a kid in the 1970s and the anti-littering campaign was pervasive. I was too young to remember/notice the litter itself, but definitely remember the "Crying Indian" commercial, Woodsy Owl[1], and others. You always saw these in the Saturday morning cartoons, in particular.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodsy_Owl

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#44

Post by chinhodado »

revskill wrote: post #39

Japanese people are taught in schools: We have nothing naturally, so you have to overcome yourself to beat the disadvantages of nature. Vietnamese people are taught in schools: We have everything naturally, our forests are gold, our beaches are silver. We're proud of it. Results: Blindly and stupid education is a serious problem in Vietnam. Large percentages of past generation is lazy, not productive. I don't even me…

> Most of what was told in schools are lie.

Do you have actually examples rather than hyperboles?

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#45

Post by revskill »

chinhodado wrote: post #44
revskill wrote: post #39

Japanese people are taught in schools: We have nothing naturally, so you have to overcome yourself to beat the disadvantages of nature. Vietnamese people are taught in schools: We have everything naturally, our forests are gold, our beaches are silver. We're proud of it. Results: Blindly and stupid education is a serious problem in Vietnam. Large percentages of past generation is lazy, not productive. I don't even me…

> Most of what was told in schools are lie. Do you have actually examples rather than hyperboles?

OK, for example, they taught very bad things about Vietnam Cong Hoa party, but the fact is that: Vietnam Cong Hoa party doesn't harm anyone. Who was the bad guy here ?

The point here is that, as we grew up, we try to find out what the fact was, and it's not the same thing that they taught us.

I don't even care what's the actual truth is, i just care that, they taught us the untruthy things.

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#46

Post by [deleted] »

revskill wrote: post #45
chinhodado wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of what was told in schools are lie. Do you have actually examples rather than hyperboles?

OK, for example, they taught very bad things about Vietnam Cong Hoa party, but the fact is that: Vietnam Cong Hoa party doesn't harm anyone. Who was the bad guy here ? The point here is that, as we grew up, we try to find out what the fact was, and it's not the same thing that they taught us. I don't even care what's the actual truth is, i just care that, they taught us the untruthy things.

[deleted]

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#47

Post by chinhodado »

revskill wrote: post #45
chinhodado wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of what was told in schools are lie. Do you have actually examples rather than hyperboles?

OK, for example, they taught very bad things about Vietnam Cong Hoa party, but the fact is that: Vietnam Cong Hoa party doesn't harm anyone. Who was the bad guy here ? The point here is that, as we grew up, we try to find out what the fact was, and it's not the same thing that they taught us. I don't even care what's the actual truth is, i just care that, they taught us the untruthy things.

> Vietnam Cong Hoa party doesn't harm anyone

There is misinformation from every sides, but be careful with blanket statements like that, because they're almost always false. For example, look up the 10/59 Decree where they brought guillotines throughout the southern rural areas and executed people on the spot if they suspected them of being communists.

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#48

Post by dang »

Chico11Kidlet wrote: post #12

It's funny the way things have gone. Vietnam is supposed to be a communist country. The Vietnamese people are some of the greediest nationalities I have ever come across and the government officials and politicians are the greediest.

Nationalistic slurs will get you banned here. Please don't post like this to HN again.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Vietnam’s Empty Forests

#50

Post by maxxxxx »

leejoramo wrote: post #23
trickstra wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western tourist also immediately notice it when they come to SE Asia. It's a pity that this is such a strong memory. As a Vietnamese local, why do you think the plastic pollution is so widespread here? Sure, everything is packed in plastics, but so is in Japan. Why do people just not think twice about throwing their waste in a ditch or a river or leave their picnic at the beach? Or is most of it coming from the sea?…

As a child growing up in 1970s USA, I remember the vast amount of trash along our roads, city streets, parks and beaches. It was fairly common to see people throw trash out of their car windows. What changed? I have never studied this, but I know we implemented large scale clean up projects, passed new laws and made a cultural shift in attitudes.

Same in Germany. I remember piles of trash at almost every Autobahn stop and people burning piles of trash was normal. I think the willingness to keep the country clean is connected to prosperity. Only when the basic needs are met people care about the environment.
Post reply on HN