We said good bye to Loc. She's been a great Vietnam companion full of life and eager to share her country with us.
Yesterday, garbage was on the agenda. She and her family are not rich but they are most certainly not poor. They don't go to bed hungry like many, perhaps most, in this country. This offers them a privileged place in Vietnamese society. They can travel, watch movies, have time to read and more. In other words, they can be selective. It also offers them time to study the affairs of the world. Loc knows about the USA situation but doesn't dwell on it. She also understands the logistics of being environmentally aware in a poor country like Vietnam. Most are simply trying to get through life without starving. They don't really have time to worry about the planet.
This is what the book "Learning To Die" can teach us.
About this book, Dennis Lee, poet and editor writes "Can we learn, as members of a species run amok, how to parish with a modicum of responsibility and grace?" From what we are witnessing here, "responsibility and grace" might only play well on a full stomach.
Loc's family recycles as best they can but the national situation is dire. Some of the garbage is buried but most is dumped into the ocean. She told us that Vietnam is the 6th worst polluter of the ocean in the world. Turtles and other species on the endangered list are routinely killed for food. We walked through the market in Hoi An City yesterday and saw every organ of every animal available for sale. We witnessed a similar market in Lima Peru, another woefully poor country. Not the most pleasant smell I must say. There are regions of Vietnam that have figured out how to prosper. The locals harvest pearls in a lagoon south of Danang and they seem to live a good life. It is the exception. However, the people in the mountainous regions are illiterate and desperately poor.