The Sorrow of the South

(Baonghean.vn) -Once a prosperous village of the Khmu people, Bac Ly border commune, Ky Son district. Now Keo Nam is like a “dead” village with only hut-like roofs, hunger and poverty clinging to the villagers. Even more than that, the “storm” of drugs is like a tornado that is gradually withering this village.

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Before 2012, Keo Nam was almost the most remote village in the border commune of Bac Ly, Ky Son district. Although it was a remote village, at that time Keo Nam was considered a model village of the Khmu people in the above locality. Because at that time, many villages in Bac Ly only had makeshift thatched roofs and were often hungry, but Keo Nam was one of the few villages surrounded by solid wooden stilt houses located close together. The village was always clean, every family had many buffaloes, cows, pigs and chickens. Food was always abundant all year round, so it was rare for a family to go hungry. Each family had their own motorbike, some families had up to three or four expensive motorbikes.

“In the 90s, I went to Keo Nam village to work in finance. At that time, there were only stilt houses and many trees. There were also many motorbikes and cows, some houses had dozens of cows and buffaloes,” Mr. Cut Van Long, Chairman of Bac Ly commune, recalled.

Keo Nam village today. Photo: Xuan Hoa

But now, anyone who has ever been to Keo Nam and now returns will not recognize the "model" village of the Khmu people in the past. The new Keo Nam village has now been moved closer to the commune center, about 30 minutes by motorbike from the old village. Currently, the entire Keo Nam village has 60 households but only two wooden stilt houses remain, belonging to the Party Secretary and the Village Chief. The rest are just makeshift thatched roofs like tents. Some houses are less than 10m wide.² The door is so low that one has to sit down to enter the house.

We walked along the entire village and only saw a couple of men, the rest were women, children and old people. The children wore ragged, dirty clothes, some had no pants at all. The women hid in their houses when they saw strangers, their dark, skinny faces, skin clinging to their bones.

Buffaloes and cows, which used to represent the wealth of Keo Nam, we could no longer find. Around the village, there were only a few pigs and chickens digging the ground to find food. Around the village, right under the houses of households, cattle and poultry feces were everywhere.

Most of the men and young people in the village have gone to work at the “company” to mine alluvial gold in the gold fields in Quang Nam, so at home there are mainly women and children. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Shaking our hands with a haggard face, Mr. Luong Pho Bich, Secretary of the Keo Nam village Party Cell, said: “Now, only our family and the village chief’s family still have houses. The remaining families have sold their houses, so now they have temporary houses made of bamboo and thatch. The buffaloes, cows, and motorbikes have also been sold, so now the whole village only has about 10 buffaloes and cows, and four or five motorbikes. Now, the people in the village are mainly women, children, and the elderly. The young people and men have gone to work for “companies” in Quang Nam and have not returned yet.”

Learning more, we learned that the people here go to work for "companies", but in reality they go to work for alluvial gold in gold mines in Quang Nam. Each time they go back, the most they bring back is the number of drug addicts. Also because of drugs, many of the old solid stilt houses, motorbikes and valuable items in the house have been gone by the "white ghost", leaving Keo Nam in a miserable poverty. The decline of Keo Nam has not stopped there. Previously, Keo Nam was considered a clean village of drug abuse because only a few old people had used natural opium for a long time and the whole village had almost no addicts. But now, according to preliminary data provided by village officials, there are currently 13 addicts here. But that number has not stopped because according to Mr. Luong Pho Bich, Secretary of the village Party Cell, "The whole village has 13 addicts who are currently at home, and there are many people who go to "companies" who are also addicted, but we have not yet grasped them all".

Meeting Mrs. Luong Me Xan Tay (60 years old) who is living in a damp shack made of bamboo and straw, I found out that she also has a child but because of hunger and drugs, she cannot support her mother, so she had to ask the villagers to build her a rickety shack to live here temporarily with her assets being a plastic water can, a pot and a few bowls. Not only Mrs. Xan Tay but also throughout Keo Nam village, it is not difficult to find houses like that.

Because of hunger and drug abuse, the children of Mrs. Luong Me Xan Tay could not support their mother and had to leave her in a hut of less than 10 square meters made of bamboo and thatch like this. Photo: Xuan Hoa

Looking for the reason for this frightening decline of a rich village like Keo Nam, Mr. Cut Van Long, Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Ly commune, said that in 2012, the old village was far from the commune center, causing difficulties for villagers and students to travel to the committee as well as to school. Along with that, the old village was located in a high position with a scarce water source, so the district People's Committee had a policy of moving the population of Keo Nam village to a more favorable location.

After the district People's Committee issued a policy, people misunderstood that they would be fully supported to build new houses, so they sold all their old houses. So when they moved to their new place, people had to build temporary houses made of bamboo and thatch to live. Since then, Keo Nam has taken a long step back into poverty and social evils. Up to now, 100% of households in the village are poor.

“I don’t know when Keo Nam will be able to escape poverty, because the whole village, which had a fortune like buffaloes and cows, has less than 10 left, and there are only a few motorbikes left, but they are just frames, no longer shaped like a vehicle,” Mr. Cut Van Long, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Bac Ly commune, sadly shared.

Xuan Hoa