Brother, Can You Spare a Dong?

mike has posted something i had wanted to talk about months ago but couldn't figure out how best to express it. his is an excellent depiction of the stark duality of life here in saigon, and i would just like to comment a little on it.

i was, and still do, find myself wholly unprepared to confront the extreme welfare inequalities, manifested in myriad ways on the streets of saigon. it's there as soon as i open the gate in front of my house, one not much different than the ones that now house the growing upper classes here who, like me, must to some degree ignore the reality of the pleas of a child desperately tugging away at you mumbling for money, or the quiet despair of the disfigured holding an overturned hat at you, and look somewhere else. walk away. start up your bike and continue on your way to the club, restaurant, office, supermarket, home – the insides of which are familiar landmarks to all but the most destitute, offering seemingly essential 20th century amenities as nutritious food, entertainment, variety, purpose, and a permanent shelter. yet we coexist with such poverty, and in doing so deem such things as dispensable as our concern for the needy when the dreams and desires of one's own life have yet to be fulfilled. after all, we who have budgets are all paupers.

but is the indecent allure of consumerism really the problem? i believe we are by nature an endlessly greedy breed. but even if i know that tossing a dollar here or there will do nothing but satisfy personal guilt, i'm sure there are many sympathetic and charitable people who would offer nothing less than their life to end poverty. the real problem is that poverty cannot be abolished by one person, one corporation, or even one nation, but would require the coordinated effort of all governments worldwide. but because the homeless are rarely elected officials, or even represented by such people, it stands to reason that there will always be a child somewhere looking into the eyes of someone avoiding their gaze for fear of what they could be.

the plight of the middle class is both a struggle for social viability and a struggle to cope with the reality that we can't all achieve it, and nowhere is that more clear than it is here.