Squalor, hard work and stubbornness
Last week a local photographer showed me around the Thu Thiem Peninsula, across the Saigon River from downtown. This swampy region will (maybe) someday be a new financial, commercial and residential center called the Thu Thiem New Urban Area — Saigon’s version of Pudong, if all goes according to plan.
Something like this, apparently.
That plan, however is the problem. I wrote about it in a new Saigoneer piece here. Check it out and then come back to this.
At the moment the area is a complete mess. Unfinished roads, half-completed apartment blocks and mud are everywhere. Only one development — called Sala — looks anything like it’s supposed to.
What struck me most during my morning in Thu Thiem was the people: there are still residents there, and they’ve somehow held off government wishes for them to leave for years. They are being offered compensation rates to move that are far too low, and they’re refusing to take them.
The construction workers, meanwhile, are mostly from other provinces — especially Mekong Delta provinces — and their living conditions were shocking. The pictures do more justice than words.
Everyone I spoke to had a utilitarian view towards their life. They were there because work is available, and when the work is done they will move on. Thu Thiem will probably look great some day, but it’s important to remember the messy process required to make it — and the people who made it possible.
