Here’s what’s behind Door #3, dear readers, as alluded to in a previous post. This is an example of things that go bump in the night in broad daylight, assuming this Frankensteinian project gets the green light. There are plans to build a VinWonders Vinpearl Safari that will occupy 80 hectares (200 acres rounded up) and cost $1.5 billion. (Follow this link to see information from the horse’s mouth, i.e., the project developer: VinWonders Gia Lam – Vingroup’s “Billion Dollar” Amusement Park in Hanoi.)

The safari/park is in the green and blue section. Most of that is currently agricultural land. The brown that you see on the left is the Red River. The part across from the safari park in light yellow, red, lilac, and blue is Vinhomes Ocean Park. You’ll notice that a highway has been constructed linking that complex with the dike near the Red River.

If you don’t read Vietnamese, use Google Translate, look at the photos in the linked article, and either weep or wait for your blood pressure to spike, assuming you care about people, animals, and the environment. If you don’t mind mega-companies reaping huge profits at their expense and have no problem with the continued chaebolization of Viet Nam’s economy, then it’s cause for celebration. Break out the champagne, or whatever you fancy.

One of my heartfelt wishes for the balance of 2021, aside from the continued success of the mass vaccination program and a merciful end to the fourth wave of COVID-19, is that this proposed project dies a quick death on the drawing board and in the money-obsessed imaginations of its creators. This is not “development”, not something of which Viet Nam should be proud, and not an example of corporate patriotism, just more environmental degradation that enhances the bottom line of a select few, and creates more cheap and meaningless diversions for the many.

Shalom (שלום), MAA