Work on Social Evils?

Fri May 4 09:55:55 PDT 2007

Hello group!

Thanks everyone so much for their replies on my query on Mass organizations in VN.

I have another question:

Has anyone looked at the concept of contemporary Social Evils in VN? (I've looked at the archives of VSG emails and haven't found much) As in government and civic organization's (including mass organizations) work on combatting/preventing Social Evils in society?

If I were to start compiling a list of news articles, can someone recommend which Newspapers to look at? Thanh Nien, for instance?

Many thanks

Nancy

Nora Taylor nthanoi04 at yahoo.com

Fri May 4 10:02:44 PDT 2007

Nancy, I don't know if Christophe Robert is on the list but he wrote his dissertation on the topic. He may respond himself or you could look him up. He has been at Yale at the Program for Southeast Asian Studies there this past year. Nora

Cox, Pamela pamcox at essex.ac.uk

Tue May 8 02:59:10 PDT 2007

Dear Nancy I've just returned to UK after a year in Hanoi where I was doing some research on young people, social evils and youth justice. My sense was that many agencies (including MOLISA itself) are moving away from the term 'social evil' in favour of a range of other generic terms, such as 'social issues', 'social problems', 'disadvantage' or in favour of more specific discussions around drugs, delinquency, sex work, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence etc. Almost everyone I spoke to about this thought that there was a problem of translation here - and that the Vietnamese term isn't actually as drastic as it sounds in English. I also felt that there was/is a real shift going on with regard to ways of defining and dealing with social issues like those listed above. For example, a growing belief in the multiple causes of something like youth crime, the 'professionalisation' of more local/informal responses (such as a greater role for social workers, counsellors, psychologists - although this is very early days - and changes in the ways that mass orgs approach these questions) and an increasing preference for community-based responses over older-style institutional responses (such as social protection centres, centres 05 and 06 for sex workers and drug users, reform schools and orphanages). Would be happy to discuss this further off-list and would love to hear about your own project, Best wishes, Pam

Romi wearevn at yahoo.co.uk

Tue May 8 06:59:08 PDT 2007

Dear Dr. Pam and Nancy, Please Cc your discussion to my email address (wearevn at yahoo.co.uk). I'd be grateful to your sharing. I'm writing my undergrad research on the language of HIV/AIDS in Vietnamese print media, through the sampling of about 1800 issues of Tuoi tre Newspaper running from Jun. 2000 to Jan. 2007. From the analysis of the data, I've found that although there have been positive attempts to de-link such a representation in the media, the association between HIV/AIDS-related issues and "social evils" is still visible... I'm interested to learn your views on this issue. Thank you very much! Best regards, Romi (USSH Ha Noi)

Lara J. Iverson-Hamill larajiuk at yahoo.co.uk

Tue May 8 07:59:31 PDT 2007

Hello, I would also be interested in participating in this discussion since my MA dissertation at the University of London also examined the language of 'social evils,' women and HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. My e-mail address: larajiuk at yahoo.co.uk Thank you very much! Lara J. Iverson-Hamill

Nicolas Lainez niklainez at yahoo.com

Tue May 8 08:16:07 PDT 2007

Dear List, Does anyone know what is the link between the ‘social evils’ (or ‘social problems’) and human trafficking? There is a gain of interest for this issue, not only in Vietnam, but also in other Southeast Asian countries, but I wonder how MOLISA and other agencies deal with trafficking in terms of discourses, representations and practices. How are the ‘trafficking victims’ considered? As ‘social evils’ (sex workers), ‘illegal migrants’ (emigrants leaving illegally the country), ‘guilty victims’ (having left the country to engage morally sensitive activities like prostitution), ‘innocent victims’ (of deception and exploitation) in need of assistance? Does anyone know what happen to the ‘trafficking victims’ who are repatriated from China, Cambodia or Malaysia? Are they sent to same centers as sex workers do? Once repatriated, are they stigmatize as ‘social evils’? I'll be also happy to participate to any discussion about this topic, here or outside VSG list. My email is niklainez at yahoo.com Thanks and best regards. Nicolas Lainez

Andrew Wells-Dang andrewwd at gmail.com

Tue May 8 21:08:43 PDT 2007

Dear Nicolas and colleagues, >From my limited experience on the issue it seems that people returning to Vietnam after being trafficked abroad are generally viewed in either your "innocent victim" or "guilty victim" categories. There have been cases reported in the Vietnamese media over the years of returnees being mistreated or punished because of mistakes in the justice system that have then been corrected. I am sure there are other cases that have not been reported or where "mistakes" have not been corrected. But I've not heard of returning migrants or trafficking cases being held in, say, 05-06 centers for sex workers and drug users. As for te nan xa hoi/social evils, it is practices of the human traffickers themselves who would be given that label, not the people they deceive or take advantage of. A number of Vietnamese and international NGOs are working to assist people who have returned to their homes after being trafficked; reintegration is not always easy but it is possible. Best wishes, Andrew Wells-Dang

Roy Hornsby royby at royby.com

Tue May 8 21:22:05 PDT 2007

IOM in Ha Noi and the Vietnamese Women's Union are involved in a scheme to ease the repatriation of trafficked women and their re- integration back into their societies. There is also an on-going training program to help VN police understand better how to deal with returnees. you could try contacting Noortje Verhart - nverhart at iom.int or Nguyen, Thi Hong Hoa -hoanguyen at iom.int as they are directly involved and may be able to help you cheers

Nancy Nguyen sparrownezt at hotmail.com

Wed May 9 12:28:30 PDT 2007

Dear allThe Center for Women and Development, which opened on March 8th in Hanoi (International Women's Day), addresses these issues. It's the first domestic violence center in Hanoi, and it is a recieving house for repatriated women and children who were trafficked. Below is a link to a bit more info about the center. The description is sadly short and the pdf file is in German. http://vietnam.ded.de/After reading the article, I'm still not sure how (structurally) the CWD is is supposed to cooperate with branches of the WU at all levels: in the communes, districts, provinces and on the national level--esp if its a shelter. Also now, reading this over, I realize it doesn't say much about repatriation at all... I have a document on the CWD training/plannings/activities/functions from a consultant that (used to?) work there which lists what I wrote above as main functions of CWD... Anyone know anything?Thanks Nancy

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