A Harvest of Golf Courses From Vietnam’s Farmland

This article can be found here.

October 20, 2009

It's hard to imagine the prominence of golf, the most pompous and western of all sports, in a third world nation; but golf courses have become one of the most essential of capitalist enterprises in Vietnam. To the author of this article, Seth Mydans, the association of elitism to golf courses is an apt symbol of the plight of the nation's poor farmers. These groups of people struggle to retain their land in the face of developers hungry to acquire their livelihood simply to create more golf courses. What's more is that these very sites that pushed rural peoples out of their homes, would most likely never cater to the needs of anyone other than the rich, a very minute portion of the Vietnamese population. Mydans cites the fact that at least one permit to construct these courses are issued every week. After the Vietnam War, the country had only two courses. Today there are 13. The government have tried to slow the creation of these courses because they feel there are environmental hazards and social costs to their rapid production, which there are. Over 3,000 farmers have lost their farms and their way of life. And since golf courses simultaneously provide so few jobs and suck up so much of the available land, the Vietnamese people have ultimately been placed in a lose-lose situation. Golf courses are being seen as a way for Vietnam to re-enter the global scene and change their image from one of aggression to one open to tourism. Even the strict communist leaders are having a hard time controlling wealth-driven investors. It appears that capitalism is a major motivating force behind the creation of these sites, as the golf courses aren't the only thing being constructed with these permits. Hotels, resorts, and recreational parks are also being developed on the appropriated land. New developments have reported that not only do these courses destroy the way of life of thousands of natives, but they also suck up so much water that meager amounts are available for the city-dwellers.