[jackbl]

Don’t go to the post office shirtless
==============================================
A couple years ago, I went back to the countryside and visited a post office. Seeing locals reading newspapers in a clean and airy space, I said to myself: “What a civilized place!”

However, while leaving the post office, I spotted a middle-aged man coming inside to use the public telephone. He only wore shorts and exposed his body, which was covered with sweat and dust.

“How could you dress like that to go to a post office?” I wondered. If the man had known that everyone was staring at him and if he had understood what they were thinking, he would have been ashamed.

Most likely, the shabby man thought the post office was just like his home, or maybe he was in too much of a rush to dress up. In rural areas, there are many who have yet to keep up with the pace of civilization and as such, his unkempt appearance in public could be forgiven.

However, at a post office near my house in Ho Chi Minh City, I recently saw a shirtless young man passing a crowd to arrive at the counter and pay his phone bill. I could not help thinking: “Living in a modern city, how could he dress in such a primitive way? Is he shameless or does he want to stand out?”

This is just what I saw in the post office. In the city’s streets, it is not hard to spot people riding bikes shirtless in congested traffic, cursing, littering or spitting in public. Seeing these “ugly people”, I feel ashamed and upset. Indirectly, they have spoiled the image of the streets, especially when Ho Chi Minh City is striving to become a civilized and modern metropolis.

In 2005 the government published a decree governing the sanction of administrative violations related to social security, order and safety, which also includes penalties of uncivilized lifestyle. The authorities should implement the decree effectively to eliminate the ugly images caused by a number of people in public.