Thứ Ba, 28 tháng 12, 2010

My very final assignment of UCHANU 2010


"What did I learn about development this semester, about how development relates to Vietnam, and about how development relates to me?"  

Introduction
Since the Doi Moi (Rennovation) in 1986 and especially these recent years, “development” has become one of the most popularly mentioned term in Vietnam. Other than being cited merely in terms of economic affairs, it also refers to changes in many different aspects, including economic, social, political, and cultural sides. The rationale is that those aspects are closely related and interdependent. Thus, the rapid development performance of Vietnam in the economic side these years[1] has brought up many changes in the other aspects, both positively and negatively. In this paper, I will focus on the cultural development of Vietnam in accordance with the commonly defined “development” in our society. In particular, the paper will reveal the effects of development on the traditionally cultural values of Vietnam. There will be some specific examples and comparison among the case of different areas of Vietnam whose levels of development are varied.

Theory
It becomes easier and easier to say that development is a good term which is desirable in every society. This term is often mentioned to appreciate the attempt of a country’s government to develop the national economy and the world standing of the country. However, sharing the same situation as the other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam is also developing another stream of ideas called “alternative visions of development” alongside with the existing mainstream.

Table 1: Mainstream versus alternative visions of development (J. Rigg, p.46)
Mainstream development                                              Alternative development
1. Treats people as “objects” of development              1. Treats people as “subjects” of development        
2. Applies exogenous theories and methods                 2. Applies endogenous theories and methods
3. Top down                                                              3. Participatory
4. Interested in ends of development                           4. Interested in means and ends of development
5. Concerned with practicalities                                  5. Concerned with ethical and moral issues as
                                                                             well as practicalities
6. Applies modern technology                                     6. Applies “appropriate”, sometimes
                                                                             “intermediate”, technology
7. Undertaken with full support of the state                 7. Bypasses the state, and is sometimes anti-state
8. Increases the role of market in people’s lives           8. Sometimes aims to decrease the role of market    and promote self-reliance
9. Centralizing                                                           9. Decentralizing
10.   Stresses the empirical                                          10. Stresses the cultural

According to this, with an alternative conception of development, people tend to think of this term from different dimensions, both positively and negatively. Development has no longer been a perfectly positive innovation of the society which indicates the improvement in many aspects. To the other extent, it reveals to be a negative force which may bring different drawbacks. One of the hottest issues related to this is the lost of many traditionally cultural values during the process of economic development.

Differences - Experiences and examples
Since the rice harvesting time in Dong Anh, we have witnessed and discovered a recent trend happening in the countryside of Vietnam, especially in the suburb of a fast-developing Hanoi. People are now heading for non-farming activities other than doing farming as traditional. Almost 50 per cent of Xuan Trach villagers have changed to jobs like factory workers, paper makers, sellers in the market in central Hanoi, electricians, or shop sellers. They are seeking for another way to earn a better living and leading their children to the urban area by encouraging them to learn and find a job in Hanoi. In other words, farming work is now losing its importance in the priority work agenda of people. Changing from an agriculture-based community to an industry or service-based community means that the customs and the habits of those people are changing as well. In the past, when doing farming, people had to depend on each other and live more closely together in a village. Therefore, communication and interaction among villagers are more frequent and their relations are warmer. Turning back to these days, when people have more chances to earn money, they put themselves in a busier routine. Communication is reduced due to a lack of free time. People tend to live more individualistic and focus almost on their own benefits rather than a traditional community-based benefit. However, in my opinion, since there has been not much industrialization and commercialization in this area (the other 50 per cent of all villagers still do farming), this village still keeps some core values in its traditional culture. The common pond and the village gate are the most obvious evidences for a typical Vietnamese village with its own cultural values.

The fact that different levels of development leading to different levels of effects on traditional culture can be proven more clearly by comparing the culture of communication in a poor commune of Ha Giang, in the Old Quarter of central Hanoi and in a new-built luxurious Ciputra to the Northern of Hanoi. I have just spent 3 weeks doing research in Nam Dich Commune, Ha Giang Province – a mountainous area inhabited almost by ethnic minorities like Tay, Nung, H’mong, Man, etc. In comparison with Hanoi and other more developed province in Vietnam, this area can be seen as “backward” and “underdeveloped”. Almost all residents are subsistence farmers. Because there are not too many families in the nearby villages, they know each other very well. In periods in between crop seasons, they have more spare time to visit each other’s house to have tea, talk, or even have lunch or dinner together. During the time I stayed there, I found it very interesting to see that it becomes a custom in that area when neighbors gather in a house and drink wine, eating something and chitchatting. Everyone is really nice with their friendliness, hospitality and generosity despite their poverty.

Let’s see what happens in the Old Quarter these days. Almost every house is a shop selling different things, traditional or non-traditional. Close neighbors still know each other and sometimes, they gather and talk but rarely come and have a meal together as warmly as in the above example. Even worse, they tend to “gossip” rather than just chitchatting for fun and compete with each other in the market. Then it comes to jealousy, prejudice and even abhorrence in their relations. Individualism in communication culture and in daily life is more evident.

The case in even more interesting in a newly-built luxurious Ciputra. We had spent an afternoon walking around in Ciputra to map this area and interestingly found out that on big roads, there were only cars moving and guards wandering. We had to walk a lot in order to find one or two residents there. In general, it is really quiet, fresh and clean. We asked an old lady on her way home about whether she knew her neighbors well and received her answer that, people living there almost concerned about themselves and their family. They are too busy to care about others. Thus, she does not know any neighbor well. They are easy to ignore the others. Apparently, individualism is a feature and a part of this area.

Taking into account those three cases about only one aspect – the amount of interaction and communication among neighbors – it is obvious that the more developed and richer people get, the less time they spend on communicating with their neighbors, thus the less warm their relations are. The traditional culture of communication has changed to different extent depending on how developed the society is.

There is another typical example about the effect of development on traditional cultural values. It comes to the case of spiritual actions of ethnic minorities groups versus science development. When the government carries campaigns to develop a local area, they often suppose that the spiritual actions of some ethnic minorities (shamanism) are superstitious and backward, trying to use science to explain. Then they tend to encourage the locals to use new technological and scientific achievements in doing farming, curing diseases and controlling the nature. This is more obvious when a group of Kinh people came to this area several decades ago with the ideal intension to help ethnic minorities people develop the commune. This approach of the government, to some extents, has cleared some of the traditional ritual values of those ethnic minorities while there is still not enough evidence to prove that all those ritual actions are ineffective. For example, when I asked a villager in Nam Dich commune about a potential prevention measure for erosion and landslides in the rainy season, she brought up the idea of inviting a shaman to carry out ritual actions and according to her, there has been a lot of evidences to prove its effectiveness. Indeed, there are still things that cannot be explained by the scientific knowledge of the human beings. In this example, the so-called “development” achieved by the government has gradually demolished the traditionally cultural values of the local people.

 Conclusions
Development can be seen as obviously as the blur of many traditional values in Vietnamese culture. It comes to the question of how to develop sustainably and alternatively, i.e. developing in various aspects at the same time with preserving core values and considering possible consequences. This might not be meaningful for the change in mind of an individual, but many individuals will create a difference.

Talking about my personal understanding about development this semester compared to that in the time before, there are not many changes but rather difference in depth. It is more difficult for me to see clearly the difference in my perceptions about Vietnam’s development in the sense that it is the country where I live and I know since I was born. The knowledge of mine has been shaped through years of education and my own exploration. Therefore, it is less possible to see the issue in an objective way other than the current subjective view. However, the theories and experiences I learnt in this course have provides me a deeper understanding about the things that are happening around me. I also see the difference between my perceptions of Vietnam’s development and that of UC students who come from another country, another culture, and with different values in their mind. It helps sharpen my understanding as well. Thus, during the course, I tried to learn how to see a particular issue from various dimensions and put myself on the boots of others to see a broader picture. It is one of the most valuable achievements of mine this semester.



[1] Vietnam’s growth rate ranks 2nd in the world, exceeded only by China 

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