Witnessing the breakfast of rich district officials, thinking about the virtue of honesty

Early in the morning I had an appointment at a coffee shop on a corner of District 1. Across the street there were sidewalk eateries, the customers were people wearing the uniform of the Procuracy, the blue shirt of the Youth Union, a few people were wearing office clothes, some were seen walking out from the Notary Office opposite...

Everyone was slurping their noodles, hu tieu... when the waiter shouted loudly: "Police, police" causing the whole street corner to be in an uproar. Some people were holding their bowls and standing to eat, some were pulling a plastic chair back against the wall, one hand holding a bowl and the other hand holding chopsticks and a spoon in an awkward position, some were standing up to pay, their eyes staring blankly at the militia force that was rushing down from a pickup truck...

Also at this street corner, I once stopped to buy a loaf of bread, saw a man wearing an urban order uniform also stopped to buy, he came after me but the shop owner smiled "fakely", gave him priority to go to the store first...

The image of a breakfast of a few civil servants in a famously richest district in the country, taking place according to a disturbing "scenario", left me with many thoughts. Thoughts about human dignity, thoughts about an unscientific urban management institution of authorities with many terms and its consequences... I asked myself: "How long will this continue?"!

After a few minutes of "noisy noise", the restaurant owner was scolded by the urban security officers... when the car drove away, the restaurant returned to normal, customers and owners called out to order food, pay bills, people and vehicles came and went busily.

After the appointment, I walked up another street and saw a taxi driver opening his car door and urinating right on the sidewalk. A few pedestrians, including a foreign woman, quickly "turned" to walk down the street to avoid seeing the awkward scene!

Another "shot": Not long ago, I took an acquaintance to the airport to return home. When we got back "overseas", he texted me that he went to the restroom at Tan Son Nhat airport. Looking around, where the door usually hangs clothes, he saw only two nail holes. He sent a photo of the two bare nail holes and "dropped" a smile on his face!

Your story made me "mindful". Once, when I went to a famous office building, when I went to the restroom, I noticed that not only the hanger but also the door handle was gone. When I had the opportunity to eat or shop in some class A areas... the situation was the same. When asked, a security guard smiled "lightly" and said: "It's been a long time, gone without a trace"!

I once read in VietnamNet a survey by Nottingham University (UK) showing that Vietnamese people are at the bottom of the list in terms of honesty, along with Chinese, Tanzanians... The study also shows that people tend 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. Smaller levels include stealing a coat hanger, higher levels include petty corruption in public places, traffic police “enforcing the law”, higher levels include protection of gambling, corruption in disguise among those who fight crime and corruption…

In the City, many small and large projects have been and are being "created", magnificent and majestic... The dry matchbox-shaped concrete blocks are reaching very quickly to conquer heights, the higher they are, the faster they become millionaires - billionaires. The Smart City project is also being urgently completed by the City to be put into pilot, with the first implementation areas being District 1, District 12...

But the hangers in the toilets continue to be stolen, the meals of civil servants are full of insecurity, and the streets will still be filled with trash after a festival...

The city is lacking in humanistic architectural works, and seriously lacking in green parks, rivers, and lakes. Even newly built religious buildings are seen as ostentatious in form, while many "golden lands" fall into the hands of investors whose words and actions contradict each other in terms of vision and social responsibility.

I couldn't give advice to a student when he confided: The essay topic you gave is "write about a beautiful memory associated with the place where you live", I've been thinking for a long time but can't think of any place name to write, is it okay to "make it up"?

I remember, in a workshop on building Ho Chi Minh City into a “good city to live in”, an expert suggested that to build a good city to live in, it is necessary to first organize the spiritual life of urban residents well. Because according to him, the city is messy, chaotic, and uncivilized because the development of culture and people cannot keep up with the speed of urbanization, and lacks industrial style.

Indeed! Are we losing our composure in the race to meet economic targets and neglecting the task of upgrading “human infrastructure”, ignoring humanistic requirements...? No mechanical force can operate urban activities effectively when each citizen fails to master his or her own consciousness!

Truc Nguyen