Development Working
Posted: October 18, 2011 Filed under: change, environment, Hanoi, ho tay, Reflections | Tags: building, development, Hanoi, vietnam 1 Comment »
I always took the word “developing” from an NGO point of view to be something of a polite euphemism.
After all, “developing countries”, was a phrase that was coined to replace “third world” which had little suggestion at all of any positivity. As a kid watching Bob Geldof plug Live Aid the Third World to me was starvation and flies.
So “developing” for the most part seemed like doublespeak. Surely the whole point was that the third world wasn’t developing – that was the problem.
The year I spent in Cameroon saw a country not so much developing and unravelling.
But Vietnam, as ever is different. Even the people who introduced the use of “developing”
couldn’t have imagined anything like this.
My wife’s family home is in a small suburb on the outskirts of town. It used to be in the countryside but urban sprawl caught up with it. The footprint of the house is about the size of a badminton court and there are four floors which housed, at one time, seven of them.
As people do in Vietnam they built their own home – or rather saved for, oversaw and organised its construction. Until recently I had always assumed that the fairly grand house I saw was how it had always been.
Later I learned that, little more than a decade ago, they all lived on the ground floor. So did all their neighbours. There wasn’t one two-storey house in the neighbourhood. Beyond that toilets and washing facilities were external and often shared.
What’s amazing is not how their family has prospered but how all the families have prospered. All houses are now several stories high. Beyond that houses are now being extended further.
The location out beyond Big C is a huge growth area so the neighbourhood is ringed with high rise tower blocks.
Multiply this on a grand scale and this is what is happening in Hanoi. Relentlessly upward and outward. Coping with migration to the cities coupled with a population explosion.
A colleague tells me that, as a kid, Westlake was like the sea. They couldn’t see the other side simply because there was nothing to see. They couldn’t view it from any height because there were no tall buildings.
Development in Vietnam really means development.
Lenin Park – drained
Posted: November 21, 2009 Filed under: Hanoi, Pics | Tags: bay mau, building, environment, Hanoi, lakes, lenin park, parks 3 Comments »
Originally when I returned to Hanoi I had this idea that I would live next to Lenin Park and go jogging everyday and try and keep the weight off that I’d lost in crap food circumstances in Cameroon.
Of course that never happened – I moved instead to outer edges of the French quarter and rediscovered lethargy, beer and cakes.
But anyway, while I was checking out apartments I visited a couple with park views and I was shocked when I saw Bay Mau lake in Lenin Park had been drained.
Today I visited the park and the project is vast. I had originally feared that it would be a tacky remodelling job but it appears that it’s more of a clean-up operation. As one New Hanoian reviewer put it:
(the) new project will soon be emptying the whole lake, digging up all that lovely poo that has settled on the bottom, and re-landscaping the lake shores.
There’s not much more information on the on-site board. Bizarrely though in Vietnamese it lists the finish date as one month earlier.
After the visit I Googled to find out a little more about the work but there was next to nothing. Maybe there’s plenty in Vietnamese but it still seems strange that such a vast job could have such limited coverage. Maybe because it’s merely shit shovelling rather than beautifying or tackifying.
I also tried to get to the bottom of the fact that while everyone always refers to it as Lenin Park the maps don’t. In fact there’s a Lenin Park elsewhere. This snippet only seems to confuse the matter:
Lenin Park, including the large lake in the center, was once Hanoi’s dumping ground for household waste. Originally called Seven-Hectare Lake, the area lacked any appeal until after the French were defeated. Ho Chi Minh adorned the grounds around the lake with gardens, paths, statues and even an area for theatrical performance. The newly named Reunification Park became, and still is, one of the most beautiful parks in Hanoi. It was later renamed Lenin Park when the then Soviet Union befriended Vietnam during the American War. Every morning it fills with joggers and every evening with couples.
But I am guessing that as Soviet relations waned it was renamed Thong Nhat as it can now be seen on the map.
With or without the drained lake, Lenin Park continues to come alive as the sun starts to set. Alongside the oldies doing their exercises are fair few kids doing the hip hop thing.
Oh and for a while, when there was water, you’d see this incredible sight.
Now though while the green areas are untouched, the lake is completely drained and ground appears to be being paved – one large hand laid and grouted rock at a time.
See below for pics plus the full set here. Prettier pics of Lenin Park from the same stroll are here.
And read this from Hanoi-based journalist Helen Clark about climate change, floods and Hanoi’s disappearing lakes.
I’ll take it
Posted: November 13, 2009 Filed under: Hanoi, Pics | Tags: building, Hanoi, tho xuong 1 Comment »I’ve been watching this building take shape while drinking my coffee from across the narrow alleyway in Tho Xuong every morning.
I rather like it.
The pic is put together using Photoshop Elements’ Photomerge facility – not exactly flawlessly in this case.
I like it more the higher up and more open to the sun it gets – bet there’s a great roof terrace taking shape.
