Why does Vietnam look much more modern and developed than India?

为何越南看起来比印度摩登发达得多？

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Chamkan Ter

My fellow countrymen have a habit of answering every question even if they don’t have a clue. Most of the “Answers” here are Paper facts which persuaded me to answer this:

Background: In the begng of this year, I traveled some 5000 KM from north to South of Vietnam on a motorbike and in between staying in various villages,towns, cities etc.

All the time we were comparing the economy, culture, cleanliness/dirtiness, poverty etc with India.

我的同胞们有种习惯，就算不懂，也要回答每一个问题。这里的大多数答案都是说服我回答这个问题的书面事实：

背景：今年初，我骑着摩托车从越南的北部到南部，行程超过5000公里，途径了不同的村庄、城镇、城市。

一直以来，我们都在经济、文化、清洁、肮脏、贫穷等方面与印度进行比较。

Some remote village house up in the north (Lang Son Province). The owner of this house gave us free shelter and food for the night. The toilet was just a big hole in the ground. Yet, the lady had an iphone 4s. Not possible in India!

北部（谅山省）一些偏僻的乡村住宅。这房子的主人给我们提供了免费食宿。厕所就是在地上挖个大洞。但这位女士有iPhone 4S，这在印度是不可能的！

Rural village roads just like India.

乡下的路跟印度一样。

Small Town at Border. Notice the Suvs, these were rare sights compared to India.

边境的小镇。注意SUV，这在印度可是难得一见的。

Railway Station Market in Hanoi. Exactly similar to Sadar Bazar Delhi. Bit more cleaner.

The above photos shows how ,on surface, Vietnam looks similar to India.

Differences we saw and reasons I speculated :

译文来源：三泰虎       http://www.santaihu.com/46638.html    译者：Joyceliu

河内火车站市场跟萨达尔巴扎德里非常相似。更干净一些。

上面的照片说明，表面上看，越南与印度相似。

我们看到的差异和我推测的原因如下：

Inequality : On Paper Gini cofficient of both the countries are similar (39-In , 37-Vn). But you don’t need a Bird’s eye to see the reality on Ground. While travelling, I hardly encountered SUVs and Sedans. Everyone is on a motorbike! While, in India walk few Kms in a city and chances are you have seen a super rich and hand to mouth Guy.

Poverty: Again Income per capita (PPP) is simillar $6400 (Vn) and $7100(In). However, I didn’t encounter a single Beggar or roadside malnourished children in Vietnam (may be there are places). Here in India, even in the so called developed state of Tamil Nadu, you can easily find Poverty on your face (hint: Meenakshi Temple).

Reason: Low level of literacy, prevalent caste system in Rural India, Big population with inadequate resources. The later is a big reason because I didn’t see beggars and hand to mouth folks in Nagaland and Meghalaya.

不平等：两个国家的基尼指数相似（印度39，越南37）。但在现实生活中可以很明显地观察到不同。我一路很少遇到越野车和轿车。每个人都骑着摩托车！而在印度，城市里短短几公里路内，你就有可能看到超级富豪和潦倒穷人。

贫困：人均收入（PPP）差不多，（越南）6400美元，（印度）7100美元。但在越南，我没有遇到过乞丐或者路边营养不良的孩子。在印度，即使在所谓的泰米尔纳德邦的发达邦，你也可以很容易找到穷人的面孔。

原因：文化水平低，印度农村普遍存在种姓制度，人口多，资源不足。后一个原因很重要，因为在那加兰和梅加拉亚，我就没有看到过乞丐和潦倒的穷人。

Rich Poor Divide : In India, it’s easy judge a person by his Personality and attire. Rickshaw puller will mostly look like a rickshaw puller. But in Vietnam, damn… the roadside girls in trendy dresses selling corn (Bhutte wali) were so beautiful. Even girls working in small village restaurant had iphones.

Reason: I chatted with couple of people in Vietnam. A common answer was big consumerism (just like america). Earn and enjoy culture. Here in India, people start saving for their children,for their grand children, for home loan etc.

Cleanliness: Every foreign traveler knows “which is the dirtiest country in the world?”. I won’t say Vietnam is cleaner, some parts were clean some were giving close competition to our cities. (Still cities of UP are truly unconquerable )

Reason: I noticed majority of Vietnamese too don’t have civic senses just like we Indians. It’s just the population in India is (especially UP,Bihar, Bengal) huge consequently so is the trash.

贫富鸿沟：在印度，很容易通过个性和衣着来判断一个人。人力车夫大多看起来像人力车夫。但是在越南，穿着时髦衣服卖玉米的路边女孩太漂亮了。即使是在小村庄餐厅工作的女孩也有iPhone。

原因：我在越南和一些人聊天。他们给我的普遍答案是巨大的消费主义（就像美国一样）。赚钱就要享受的文化。在印度，人们会为他们的孩子、孙子孙女、家庭贷款等存钱。

清洁度：每个外国游客都知道“世界上最脏的国家是哪个”。我不会说越南更干净，有些地方挺干净，有些地方和我们差不多。（北方邦的城市是不能比的）

原因：我注意到大多数越南人没有我们印度人这样的公民意识。印度人口众多（尤其是北方邦，比哈尔，孟加拉），所以垃圾也很多。

A clean Town in Vietnam!

越南某个干净的城镇

Infrastructure: This part was more or less similar. Just the Civic infrastructure was better in small towns (with Proper sewerage etc). Hanoi was similar to Delhi. Old quarters was similar to Connaught Place (Just bit cleaner and less chaotic)

Reason: Again India is a de ocracy (somewhat flawed), so you need ‘N’ no of things before you start implementing something.

There many other difference as well like food, conservative/liberal culture etc. But I think those are not related to “modern” look!

Last thing traveling brought me out of my Nationalistic Cocoon.

基础设施：这部分或多或少相似。小城镇的城市基础设施（下水道）更好。河内和德令哈市相似。老地方与康诺特相似（也只是比较干净，不那么混乱而已）。

理由：印度也是一个民*国家（虽有些缺陷），所以在你开始实施某些东西之前，你会遇到各种阻挠。

还有很多其他的区别，像食物，保守/自由文化等等。但我认为这些与“现代”的外观无关！

最后，旅行使我挣脱了民族主义的束缚。