Scaffolds over our facades

Been preparing for my trip to Saigon and constantly shocked by prices

Dear friends, 

A jambon beurre is sold in Saigon’s Thao Dien at $6.5. 

It’s outrageous knowing a jambon beurre baked by Yann Ledoux – former head baker of NYC’s Maison Kayser – can be bought with $7.5 in East Village. 

It’s even more outrageous when being compared to a 40-cent braised pork bánh mì I have for weekend breakfast in Quang Tri. 

Meanwhile, the average price of an apartment in the country’s economic spearhead hit the $296,000 mark, 32.5 times the average annual household income of $9,120, even higher than Beijing and Shanghai. 

That is to say it’s not common for young Vietnamese people to buy a house or an apartment in their 20s using their own money. And it’s not common elsewhere. 

Have you ever heard of fang-nu (房奴) literally translated as “house slave” – a concept initiated by urban Chinese home-buyers to describe their relationships with hefty mortgage installments? 

Two friends of mine have shared a Williamsburg loft for nearly 12 years and that’s not because they’re not making good income or they’re bad at personal finance. The city’s housing shortage is to blame. 

I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole, ranting about Vietnam’s real estate turmoil. It deserves more research, well-thought-out debate structure and transparency of where I’m coming from. What I want is to kindly remind you, and myself, of course, that don’t let self-righteous media agencies present you to those “role models” of our generation, who, in their 20s, own multiple houses, drive luxury cars and embark on brilliant careers. [insert your own hyperlinks here I know you have!] Even the concept of “self-made” is excessive. Get a dose of John Rawls and come back later. 

Supporting structures are not always visible unless we accept to choke on dust to tear down the tarpaulin. 

Social scaffolding, though transcended in tiny daily interactions, is actually making this life a bit bearable, for me, at least. 

As I was waiting for my bánh mì to be wrapped, the lady gave her chopsticks to a plumber – a frequent customer, I suppose. 

“Take as much filling as you want,” she said without even looking at him. 

Munching the bánh mì, I told mom the snippet. Responding to me, she stated: “Well, I think you should go out more and get exposed to how people are treating each other”. 

Till next time, 

T.

This week’s top picks 

This helps a lot with reducing shoulder pain. Trust me I’ve corporated it into my daily exercise for three months now. =)

In response to my friend’s recommendation of The Art of Being Born by Marcia Aldrich: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/opinion/climate-change-parenting.html

Vietnamese translation by Nguyễn Huy Hoàng: 

https://hoanghannom.com/2018/08/15/climate-change-parenting/

Poison pixels anyone? 

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/23/1082189/data-poisoning-artists-fight-generative-ai/