It’s like a backseat driver. If you think things could be done better, then get over here and do something about it. It’s easy to point out problems from 10000 km away.
A lot of the criticism is not fact based because they aren’t actually here and just gossip about things they think might be happening, if you are actually here you see things are different and most of the criticism is unwarranted.
Certain criticisms can be boiled down to “Democracy good! Communism bad!” As the US has become a plague-infested crime-ridden burning dystopian nightmare, this is becoming less and less fact-based and more and more an opinion unsupported by the facts.
A lot of the criticism for 2 & 3 has to do with continued hatred of the losing side of the Vietnam war against the winning side, and no matter of evidence is going to change their minds because they can’t bring themselves to admit that “the enemy” could get anything right.
Vietnam has a lot of things to criticize about that it is reasonable to criticize about. Obvious things like corruption, embezzlement, red tape, poor public health care, poor environmental standards. Other things are really amazing compared to certain developed countries, how safe the country is, how fast the internet and the investment in public infrastructure, worker protections, speed of development, how reactive the government is to public opinion etc. Usually the criticism from overseas Vietnamese doesn’t highlight real problems and ignores things that are being done right. So it just feels off and ignorant.
written by Jonathan Ritchie
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