Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Viet Nam - What the hell was it all about?

Article in today’s NY Times:

PHAN THIET, Vietnam — It may be the most capitalist enterprise in Communist Vietnam — by the rich and for the rich: a proliferation of golf courses that is displacing thousands of farmers and devouring the rice fields the country depends on.

The Dai Lai golf course drove thousands off their farmland

Until last year, according to experts who have done the calculations, licenses for new courses were being issued at an average of one a week, for a total of more than 140 projects around the country.

Promoters created the idea of a “Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail,” a series of eight courses whose label is as good a sign as any of where Vietnam seems to be headed — its heroic wartime past redefined as a sales pitch. 2,000,000+ Vietnamese civilians killed 1,100,000 N. Vietnamese soldiers killed 184,000 S. Vietnamese soldiers killed

If all those projects were completed, the number of courses would approach that of golf-mad South Korea, where there are close to 200. It would still fall well short of China, which has more than 300, and would be nowhere near the number in the United States, which has about 16,000 courses, or even Florida, with 1,260.

2,984,000 Americans served in Viet Nam. 58,156 Americans killed 303,724 Americans wounded 75,000 Americans severely disabled

“Developers and foreign investors are saying they want to make the country a tourist destination, and to do that you need to offer more amenities like golf,” said Kurt Greve, the American general manager of the Ocean Dunes Golf Club and the Dalat Palace Golf Club. Most of those tourists would come from elsewhere in Asia, especially South Korea and Japan, where golf courses are hugely overcrowded.

500+/- Vietnamese civilians murdered by US forces in My Lie massacre.

Many of the new projects seem to have to do more with capitalism than with sport. Taxes on golf courses are lower than those on other forms of development, and many of the projects appear to be disguised real estate ventures.

“Golf courses are for rich people, account for vast areas of land, cause pollution and affect food security, so taxes should be appropriately high,” he told the newspaper Tuoi Tre in July.

And when rich people play, it appears that farmers and villagers pay the price.

It would seem that when the rich people play... we all pay.

24 comments:

  1. I can't imagine losing my home for a golf course. Unbelievable.

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  2. I might need to read this again, because I can't really believe my eyes...

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  3. Wow, that's pretty frickin' sad man. Nice bloggage though. Tip O' the hat to ya.

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  4. Charlie may not surf but he has a decent handicap, it seems.

    Sobering and insightful. Funny the way 'progress' is sometimes spelt, isn't it?

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  5. It appears only the people in Vietnam are communists, the leadership is hardcore capitalist, with a good swing.

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  6. Proof, yet again, that war accomplishes nothing and that money rules the world.

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  7. those are disturbing images, Mr. C, what a waste of lives that war was, and for what?

    ...and now they wanta make golf courses out of the place? that's f**ked up.

    money talks.

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  8. whores and thieves,
    that's all we have
    in world leadership
    They are either stealin' it
    from the whores or
    whorein' it from the thieves.

    Fuck 'em all and
    the horses they rode in upon.

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  9. I am not even sure I want to comment on this. I have been ill...and this is making me sicker. Fuck. Seriously, what the fuck.

    Maybe I'll come back later and make a more un-emotional comment. Fuck.

    termis is the word...which is how I have felt the last 5 days...termis.

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  10. by the way, get rid of that chicken shit code thingie or you will have gotten rid of this ol' boy you have called chicken shit.
    done deal.

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  11. This disturbed me to the point that I stopped what I was doing and posted it.

    JJ... Glad to see you back among the living.

    Punch... I don't like the code thingy either, but it beats the shit out of spending 30 minutes deleting 45 spam comments.

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  12. I hope they miss some of the thousands of unexploded ordnance when they develop the villages and paddies. I think it would be a fitting bang up of a send off for some of the new rich swingers.

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  13. Hmmm...walking man's comment is Evil, and I concur 100%.

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  14. WM... Gives a whole new meaning to sand trap or ruff.

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  15. OK, at the behest of Punch, I'm removing the scrambled word thingy. But the next time I get 40 friggin ??????? spam comments it goes back up and fuck you if you don't like it.

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  16. I guess my scrambled word thingy keeps the Beloved Punch from commenting on my blog but I also get too much spam shit to delete and life's too short for that bullshit.

    On another note, since I don't have an email to converse with you, thanks for your comment on my last post and your sincere suggestions which I will follow up on.

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  17. Hey Peach, I am working my way to catch up on your blog after my absence...might not make it till manana though.

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  18. C---I am with walking man regards this...with the addition of a few punji pits instead of sand traps...and maybe a couple of bouncing bettys for good measure. Fuckers.

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  19. thanks man. I got spam, but they got boared after a day or so.
    PeachT it's not the word thingie, your post are just too cool and by the time i get there, all i can say is ditto, and i'm pride myself on not being a ditto head. You and your readers are sharp.

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  20. Punch - thanks and I've missed you and your comments

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  21. JJ... you're just looking for a fight. I suppose by now you're grumpy and have cabin fever so I'll overlook your shitty remark... this time.

    Punch... No sweat. But, I gotta tell you, that spam crap is a pain in the ass.

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  22. You should be updating your spam filters on your browser constantly. I have had 1 spam get through in the past year or so.

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Sorry about the comment thingy folks. Too much spam.