TAGS: Human Development Index for Vietnam, United Nations, Quality of Life, Literacy, Poverty, Inequality, World Bank
Eden
December 2012
My eyes delight seeing the old people.
The leathery faced seniors with puckered mouths who pass on their motorcycles or their push bikes.
The grandmother, silvery hair dotting from beneath unstrapped helmet, taking her uniformed grandchildren to school. Her satin pajamas flap against the muffler of the scooter.
Even the stooped woman, barely more than a meter tall, using her bamboo cane to feel across the jutted road, delights me in her deformity. Scoliosis cracks her back, but her steady movement shows an unwillingness to be stalled by time.
The street vendors selling their drinks and homemade food along Pasteur in district three as they completely ignore a naked, middle-aged man who passes them before ducking into an alley.
The leathery faced seniors with puckered mouths who pass on their motorcycles or their push bikes.
The grandmother, silvery hair dotting from beneath unstrapped helmet, taking her uniformed grandchildren to school. Her satin pajamas flap against the muffler of the scooter.
Even the stooped woman, barely more than a meter tall, using her bamboo cane to feel across the jutted road, delights me in her deformity. Scoliosis cracks her back, but her steady movement shows an unwillingness to be stalled by time.
The street vendors selling their drinks and homemade food along Pasteur in district three as they completely ignore a naked, middle-aged man who passes them before ducking into an alley.
The octogenarian at her tiny grocery stand, waving hello, while her rheumy eyed husband in his wife-beater tank reads the newspaper. He never smiles, but her eyes beam. She is all business here, and her warmth welcomes me to tuck under the tent to buy bananas weighed on a rusted scale.
Development on the Rise
Coffee vendor on Pasteur.
The elderly continue to work, where the laws require every capable person to work six days a week. In fact, according to the United Nations, Viet Nam has seen the life expectancy increase almost twenty years since 1990. Their only social security is family, and the country's growth in mean income hasn't kept pace with an aging population, nor with its neighbors in East Asia.
The mean gross national income of Viet Nam is $2,805 (per 2005 adjusted rules), up from $855 in 1990. While Thailand and other similarly ranked countries have an gross national income double that of Viet Nam, $7,694 and $6,466 respectively.
Human development indices attempt to measure the "long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human
development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living." While the country has demonstrated great gains in life expectancy, it is still behind the other nations in terms of education. The number of years a person can be expected to receive of schooling is 10.2, but the mean years of schooling is 5.5. Parents must pay for school, and immigrant children cannot qualify for the elementary certificate that is required for all resident children. This means that there are children who roam the streets trying to earn money. Occasionally a ten year old will approach selling lottery tickets or packets of gum. Certainly, lack of educational opportunities for all is one of the factors slowing growth.
However, purely anecdotal, access to knowledge may not be fully measured by the index. According to the CIA World Factbook, Viet Nam has a literacy rate of 94%. Access to the printed word is easily available, and there is interest in reading for leisure and news. There are several newspapers produced, and widely circulated throughout Saigon. Fahasa is a retail chain, possibly owned by the government, that resembles an university bookstore. There are also numerous bookstores tucked away throughout the city. WiFi is free in cafes, and people don't just use them to check their blocked Facebook accounts. There are numerous language schools throughout the city as well, as people here know learning a western language will open doors to personal development. Being informed, whatever means (gossip, news, t.v), is important.
While the United Nations uses gross national income to measure the standard of living, it also has begun to look at the inequality within the country. (See chart below.) Viet Nam has less of a gap between between its potential for human development and its "actual" development, with a difference of 14 percent. In Thailand and other Asia countries this difference is around 20 percent. In the U.S., it is at 15.3 percent. U.S. is ranked 4th in the world for human development.
development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living." While the country has demonstrated great gains in life expectancy, it is still behind the other nations in terms of education. The number of years a person can be expected to receive of schooling is 10.2, but the mean years of schooling is 5.5. Parents must pay for school, and immigrant children cannot qualify for the elementary certificate that is required for all resident children. This means that there are children who roam the streets trying to earn money. Occasionally a ten year old will approach selling lottery tickets or packets of gum. Certainly, lack of educational opportunities for all is one of the factors slowing growth.
However, purely anecdotal, access to knowledge may not be fully measured by the index. According to the CIA World Factbook, Viet Nam has a literacy rate of 94%. Access to the printed word is easily available, and there is interest in reading for leisure and news. There are several newspapers produced, and widely circulated throughout Saigon. Fahasa is a retail chain, possibly owned by the government, that resembles an university bookstore. There are also numerous bookstores tucked away throughout the city. WiFi is free in cafes, and people don't just use them to check their blocked Facebook accounts. There are numerous language schools throughout the city as well, as people here know learning a western language will open doors to personal development. Being informed, whatever means (gossip, news, t.v), is important.
While the United Nations uses gross national income to measure the standard of living, it also has begun to look at the inequality within the country. (See chart below.) Viet Nam has less of a gap between between its potential for human development and its "actual" development, with a difference of 14 percent. In Thailand and other Asia countries this difference is around 20 percent. In the U.S., it is at 15.3 percent. U.S. is ranked 4th in the world for human development.
In daily life, this means the gap between the rich and the poor is sometimes stark. Whereas in the United States, our poor may live in highly concentrated centers or in the sparse countryside, planning rules usually dictate where the most desperate can live or if they live off the streets. In Ho Chi Minh City, along one street, people who seem to be living in the neighborhood dump in tin shacks surrounded by scrawny dogs and fidgety chickens, right next to a villa or standard urban home or apartment highrise.
The United Nations didn't provide the number of people in the US experiencing extreme poverty. This is mainly a problem of the developing world. The World Bank reports that "in 2008, 1.29 billion people lived in extreme poverty below $1.25 a day, equivalent to 22 percent of the population in the developing world. Nearly three quarters resided in South Asia (571 million) and Sub-Saharan Africa (396 million). Another 284 million lived in East Asia, and less than 50 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia combined. By contrast, in 1981, 1.94 billion people (52 percent of the population) lived in extreme poverty."
While extreme poverty is on the decline (see report referenced above for the analysis), it can be easy as a Westerner to paternalize or patronize people in Viet Nam because the disparity between the rich and the poor is not hidden. Culturally, we have a deep history of romanticising the poor and of seeing ourselves as their saviors armed with the knowldge and money to lift them out of their lowly lives. Yet, Viet Nam, according to the same United Nations analysis, and the U.S. share nearly the same gender inequality percentage of .305 and .299 respectively. A rating of 1 would indicate there is no gender gap between men and women. As it is, the United Nations views the capacity for human development stalled by gender inequality in both countries.
For the moment, I don't plan on growing old here, although I admire the seniors' tenacity and attitude. Maybe the older generation has held up reasonably well in these last ten or so years precisely because they keep moving forward, due to necessity or otherwise. Maybe their wisdom is to be learned best if I follow Ernesto Sirolli, and just shut up and listen.
While extreme poverty is on the decline (see report referenced above for the analysis), it can be easy as a Westerner to paternalize or patronize people in Viet Nam because the disparity between the rich and the poor is not hidden. Culturally, we have a deep history of romanticising the poor and of seeing ourselves as their saviors armed with the knowldge and money to lift them out of their lowly lives. Yet, Viet Nam, according to the same United Nations analysis, and the U.S. share nearly the same gender inequality percentage of .305 and .299 respectively. A rating of 1 would indicate there is no gender gap between men and women. As it is, the United Nations views the capacity for human development stalled by gender inequality in both countries.
For the moment, I don't plan on growing old here, although I admire the seniors' tenacity and attitude. Maybe the older generation has held up reasonably well in these last ten or so years precisely because they keep moving forward, due to necessity or otherwise. Maybe their wisdom is to be learned best if I follow Ernesto Sirolli, and just shut up and listen.