Witnessing the breakfast of a wealthy district official, I reflected on the virtue of honesty.

Early that morning, I had an appointment at a coffee shop on a street corner in District 1. Across the street were sidewalk eateries, the customers were people wearing the uniforms of the Procuracy, the blue shirts of the Youth Union, a few in office attire, and some I saw walking out of the Notary Office opposite...

People were slurping their bowls of noodles and rice vermicelli when the waiter shouted, "Police! Police!" causing a commotion on the street corner. Some people stood eating with their bowls, others pulled their plastic chairs back against the wall, struggling to eat with one hand holding the bowl and the other holding chopsticks and a spoon, while some stopped eating, stood up to pay, their eyes wide with shock as they watched the neighborhood watch officers rushing out of a pickup truck...

At this same street corner, I once stopped to buy a loaf of bread and saw a man in a city enforcement uniform also stop to buy some. He arrived after me, but the shop owner, with a friendly smile, prioritized serving him first...

The scene of a few civil servants having breakfast in one of the country's wealthiest districts, following a chaotic "script," left me with much to ponder. Thoughts about human dignity, thoughts about the unscientific urban governance system implemented by authorities over many terms, and its consequences... I wondered: "How long will this continue?"

After a few minutes of chaos, the shop owner was reprimanded by the urban order enforcement officers... once the car drove away, everything went back to normal, customers and owners calling out orders, settling bills, and people and vehicles coming and going busily.

After we walked back down another street, we came across a taxi driver urinating right on the sidewalk with his car door open. Several pedestrians, including a foreign woman, quickly swerved into the road to avoid the embarrassing sight!

Another "photo": Not long ago, I took an acquaintance to the airport to fly back home. When we arrived, my friend texted me saying that after using the restroom at Tan Son Nhat airport, they noticed that where the coat hooks usually are, there were only two nail holes left. I sent them a picture of those two bare nail holes, and they responded with a laughing-crying face emoji!

Your story really bothered me. I once went to a famous office building, and when I used the restroom, I noticed that not only the coat hooks but also the door handles were gone. I've had similar experiences eating and shopping at some high-end areas. When I asked about it, a security guard chuckled and said, "They disappeared a long time ago!"

I once read on VietnamNet about a survey by the University of Nottingham (UK) showing that Vietnamese people were among the lowest in terms of honesty, along with the Chinese, Tanzanians, etc. The study also indicated a tendency for people to be more honest in societies with less corruption, tax evasion, and political fraud...

Dishonesty occurs at many levels, eroding trust in people and in the government. From petty theft like stealing a coat hanger to minor corruption in public office, traffic police officers "breaking the rules," and even more serious issues like protecting gambling operations and disguised corruption among those fighting crime and corruption…

In the city, numerous small and large projects have been and are being "created," grand and magnificent... These sterile, matchbox-shaped concrete structures are rapidly reaching new heights, and the higher they go, the faster they become millionaires and billionaires. The Smart City project is also being urgently finalized by the city for pilot implementation, with the first areas being District 1 and District 12...

But the coat hangers in the restrooms continue to be stolen, the meals of government officials are fraught with insecurity, and the streets will still be littered with trash after another festival...

The city is lacking in humanistic architectural works, and is severely deficient in parks, green spaces, rivers, and lakes. Even newly built religious structures seem to prioritize ostentatious displays, while many "prime land" areas fall into the hands of investors whose words and actions contradict their vision and social responsibility.

I was at a loss for words when a student confided in me: "The essay topic is 'Write about a beautiful memory associated with the place where you live,' but I can't decide which place to write about. Would it be okay to just make one up?"

I recall that at a seminar on building Ho Chi Minh City into a "livable city," an expert suggested that to build a livable city, it is first necessary to organize the spiritual life of urban residents well. According to him, the city's chaotic, disorderly, and uncivilized state stems from the fact that cultural and human development has not kept pace with the rate of urbanization, and there is a lack of industrial work ethic.

Indeed! Are we losing our composure in the race for economic targets, neglecting the task of upgrading "human infrastructure," and ignoring humanitarian demands...? No machine can operate an urban environment effectively when each citizen fails to master their own consciousness!