Good morning! Hope this finds you safe and healthy. I'd like to begin with some housekeeping: I'm planning to shift this newsletter to Substack in the near future, as it gives me more options in terms of structure. This would also mean a subscription model of some sort, but I want to hear from readers what you'd be looking for from a paid newsletter, either in terms of frequency or content. There will still be a free-to-read element, but I want to take this project to another level - any feedback on what you'd hope for is greatly appreciated!
If you're in a giving mood today, I recommend donating to Campaign Zero, an organization working to end police violence in the US. Suffice to say, it's been an incredibly upsetting week watching events transpire in America. Honestly, talking about anything else almost feels banal.
If you're reading this through a forwarded email, subscribe here.
On to the news. Newspaper Punished for Sun Group Articles
Phu Nu TPHCM (Ho Chi Minh City Women's Newspaper), a prominent publication, had its website suspended for one month, while also being fined US$2,380 for publishing alleged "false information." The move is in relation to a series of investigative articles which the newspaper ran last fall about Sun Group, a hugely powerful real estate and tourism developer.
Sun Group doesn't make international headlines like Vingroup, but its founder worked with Pham Nhat Vuong (Vingroup's head) in Ukraine, and the company is responsible for some of Vietnam's most obscene tourist developments, including Ba Na Hills (home to that 'golden hands' bridge) near Da Nang, the cable car to the top of Mt. Fansipan, a cable car and water park on an island off Phu Quoc, and a brand-new cable car to Cat Ba Island (which I partially covered in a Mongabay feature last year).
They have also built some good infrastructure, such as the Van Don Airport, but I generally have a very dim view of the business.
The Phu Nu series focused on Sun Group's activities around Ba Na and Tam Dao National Park, which isn't far from Hanoi. The articles were only published in Vietnamese, but they alleged major environmental destruction, corruption and more.
The head of the Ministry of Information and Communications' press department, who levied the punishment, said the series included "false information that caused serious consequences."
The newspaper responded by printing a four-page spread (in Vietnamese) rejecting the accusation of "false information" and laying out where its reporters got their information from. Facebook was awash with support for the paper, though the punishment stands. The Mekong Delta Continues to Wash Away
I've covered this here before, and will certainly cover it again moving forward: the Mekong Delta presents arguably Vietnam's most pressing environmental crisis moving forward.
Late last month, a 40-meter stretch of National Highway 91 collapsed into the Hau River in An Giang Province. The Hau is a major distributary of the Mekong, and this is far from the first time such an event has taken place.
Almost 30 households in the area now need to relocate, and even more people now have to decided whether to move or risk having the very ground they live on sink into the river.
Another VnExpressarticle notes that along a 3 kilometer stretch of the highway, the Hau river narrows, so the water flows faster, a situation exacerbated by the lack of sand and sediment, which is held back by upstream dams.
In response, the provincial government will spend US$3 million to fortify the riverbank along highway 91, but such solutions are only temporary at best.
Meanwhile, a deputy prime minister has called for an emergency response plan to climate change in the delta from 2021-2030, as rising seas, coastal erosion and inland subsidence are already having huge impacts.
Given the scale of the challenges facing the region, this plan will have to be a massive undertaking, one with millions of livelihoods at stake. Extra Links:
