Spurred by the DOGE revelations, upon reviewing the various schemes deployed by USAID around the globe, I may have stumbled upon arguably the one noble venture the agency ever funded — one which has nothing at all to do with turning Third World children into asexual eunuchs or bankrolling migrant invasions of the First World.
Via Hanoi Times, November 16, 2022 (emphasis added):
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new project against environmental pollution worth US$11.3 million for Vietnam in the next five years…
The project will bring together different people to collaborate, identify ways to solve a shared problem, and take action. In addition, it will demonstrate clear connections between environmental benefits and other social benefits, including public health, employment, and sustainable economic growth.
To foster Vietnamese leadership in addressing environmental pollution, the project will provide grants to a series of local entities to serve as the “backbone” for each collective impact initiative. These backbone organizations will serve as the local leaders for each initiative, including gaining public support, advancing policy, and leveraging additional funding.
Through a broad consultative process with authorized government agencies, local communities, and environmental experts, the Reducing Pollution project, which reflects community leadership and the private sector’s engagement, has identified six priority collective impact initiatives.
“What U.S. national interest does cleaning up Vietnam serve?” one might ask.
A fair question, to which I don’t have a great answer.
But it does suit my personal interests, having traveled the Vietnamese countryside far and wide and witnessed unspeakable crimes against nature.
Related: My Gold-Standard Expat Memoir: Back and Better Than Ever With the Second Edition
When I first set foot outside of Noi Bai International Airport onto Vietnamese soil (pavement in a concrete jungle, technically) in 2019, I looked up, as one does when taking in one’s new surroundings.
What I saw was a jaundiced sky — pale yellow, but cloudless. The midday sun was visible, but so dim that I could look straight into it just fine.
The second thing I noticed was litter — plastic mostly — nearly everywhere one looked.
Then, on the bus ride through the northern countryside from Hanoi to Lao Cai, smoke billowed on the horizon from every side like something out of Apocalypse Now!
(Skip to 2:45 for relevant footage.)
As it turned out, what I was seeing wasn’t the Tet Offensive — it was a war on discarded rice straw, waged with fire.Related: Existential Angst in 'Nam (50 Years Late)
As I came to learn, the Vietnamese will literally burn anything in front of their eyes that they want to get off their hands: rice husks (what I saw initially in the countryside), trash, plastics, etc.
Anything at all.
More on the “six priority collective impact initiatives” the USAID funded:
The key components will be pioneering companies, community, and consumer responsibility in plastic waste reduction in Vietnam (P3CR); developing a circular economy model in medical plastic waste management; reducing air pollution from road transportation; reducing air pollution from open burning; mitigating pollution in craft villages; and developing a transparent environmental data disclosure platform…
Vietnam faces environmental pollution challenges spurred mainly by agriculture, transportation, and industrial production. Public interest in environmental quality has steadily increased, along with calls for action to improve the environment.
The great Greek-tier tragedy is that each square inch of Vietnam would be sublimely beautiful if every nook and cranny weren’t seemingly covered with trash, waiting for someone to collect it at some point to be burned.
Alas, assuming the USAID cash was ever deployed for its intended purpose, it never seemed to do much good.So perhaps it wasn’t money well spent after all.
Top-down, foreign-sourced social engineering can only go so far to changing ingrained cultural habits.
C’est la vie.
