When I was teaching English I would sometimes find reference to the Social Evils in student essays. Upon inquiring about exactly what sort of things are Social Evils, some of the responses were predictable - gambling, prostitution and drug use, while some were less predictable - littering, disrespecting your parents... Still, for me at least, when I read about somebody cracking down on Social Evils, I have to keep on reading before I have any real idea of what might be going on!
The Social Evils are having a hard time here recently. A couple months ago the New Century, Hanoi’s biggest night club, was raided and over 1000 “revellers” were taken into custody, at least for a night. The club is, for now anyway, closed down and the owners are facing drug charges.
More recently some Vietnamese were arrested for gambling. In a rather puzzling bit of logic, foreigners are allowed to gamble, but Vietnamese are not. These are the same Vietnamese who sit on street corners everywhere exchanging cash over a game of checkers, or mah-jong, or a football match, or most anything it seems.
All that is stuff I read about in the news. Not being much of a club-goer or a gambler, I’m not particularly offended or gratified by dance halls and casinos being shut down. However, Friday night I went out for some music, and discovered one new Social Evil – live music. Live music was, at least this week, verboten at the R&R Tavern, which is the place for laidback live music. The R&R is also the place for pork BBQ with coleslaw and, considering it is in Hanoi, authentic burritos with pineapple hot sauce by the guy who is supposed to be singing. Fortunately, strange foods that foreigners like have not yet been nominated to the Social Evils list. Although if I were nominating, I’d award that hot sauce a higher potential for evil than any music I’ve heard there!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment