In my Dailies series I give myself 24 hours to explore notions of 'how far from our moral, ethical and spiritual centre have we fallen'? 

If you start walking from any point along Thao Dien road and keep going, you will eventually arrive back where you started. Hence it's called The Loop. Thao Dien, District 2, is regarded by Vietnamese and foreigners alike, as a salubrious neighbourhood. 

 

Its reputation is hip, cool and expensive. Some might call it the Belgravia of Ho Chi Minh city.

 

Adjacent to the Saigon river, and all around The Loop, ostentatious villas and condominiums with names like The Metropole, D'Edge, sell for US$3.5 million or more. US6,500 monthly rental prices are common. International schools in Thao Dien offer US$27,000 a year tuition fees. 

People are paying ludicrous amounts of money to live in this neighbourhood and large sums of money to the Vietnamese government in taxes. Some might say the prices are first world. Yet the overall aesthetic is 'third world'?

 

The opening image of CGI billboard sells the Saigon dream. But reality shows a different picture. There is a massive disconnect between the sales pitch and what is!

 

I've focused my camera on the details. The footpaths especially. For these are communal spaces where the citizens of this area are expected to walk.

Consider the titles and the luxury villas mentioned, and then through these images we might ask ourselves some basic questions about ignorance, ethics, the values of a nation. What are the qualities of the people who build this? Accept this? Pay for this?

 

I've drawn my own conclusions. I'd like you to do the same.

 

Richard Mark Dobson

Saigon 2022