[Vnbiz] Hanoi must make choices

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear Serge & Brothers/Sisters,

Very interesting question, brother Serge.  Who would want to slow down
development?  I think we all know the answer:  No one.  It is impossible to
convince someone, least of all a developing country that is trying to get
out of poverty, to slow down development. It is a losing position to try to
convince people to slow down development.

Instead of trying to slow down, we must think about taking care of the
environment as development goes.  The truth of the matter is that in many
big cities of the world we have always had horrendous traffic jam and air
pollution, regardless how governments have tried to open new road and impose
stricter car exhaust standards.  That testifies to the natural fact that
development will always go one step ahead of environmental cleanup, just
like at home, we cook and eat and throw garbage around before we do house
cleaning.

So instead of trying to convince governments to slow down development, we
need to constantly come up with environment-friendly development ideas, like
focusing on eco-tourism and keeping the envrionment green instead of hotel
blocks and booze and gambling; focusing on public transportation like subway
and buses;  enforcing environmental regulations on factories, focusing on
waste management, running a constant "clean and beautiful city campaign,"
etc.

In this kind of task, it would be wise for environment advocates to work
with tourism and public health authorities (because environment directly
affects tourism and public health), self-help groups of citizens with
serious environment problems (such as communities adversely affected by a
major factory), consumer advocacy groups (who would be able to organize
campaigns to boycott environmentally abusive companies) and industry leaders
(who understand the wishes of a consuming public who is constantly getting
smarter by the time).

Instead of taking the position of "environment versus development," we need
to take the position of "environment-unfriendly development versus
environment friendly development."

Have a great day!

Hoanh

On 7/14/07, Serge Doussantousse <sergefabali at yahoo.fr> wrote:

> [Vietnam Public Health Forum]
>
>
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> Dear Family,
>
>
>
> I am always puzzled by such title: "Hanoi must make choices" But the
> question is *who, what is **Hanoi*... Economist, Publicist, Law Makers, UN
> officials Consumers, Citizens... are promoting / avid a kind of Development
> at all cost and there is not forum and space for alternatives... You ask the
> same people who are in power to do the opposite they were advocating 10-15
> years ago... Can they do it... Do they want?... Not sure…
>
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> Thanks for the story…
>
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>
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> Serge Doussantousse
> Research Consultant
> tel: 020 2418398
> home 856 21-21 41 49 19
> Vientiane-- Lao PDR
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
>
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