Scout alarms

Air quality has been worsening in most major Vietnamese cities; and in recent times, Ho Chi Minh City has repeatedly made it to the top offenders in the world.

Since 2012, many studies have concluded that traffic was responsible for 60-70 percent of the air pollution in major cities, including HCMC.

The biggest city in Vietnam has around 7.4 million motorbikes and those that have been in use for more than 10 years account for 68 percent of the total. The carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon, both harmful to humans, that is emitted from motorbikes account for 90 percent of the total emitted by all motor vehicles operating in the city, HCMC Transport Department deputy director Bui Hoa An told VnExpress .

“From these figures, it can be said that motorbike pollution in HCMC is at an alarming level,” An said.

He was explaining the need for a pilot program to check motorbikes emissions that his department is preparing in cooperation with the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM) and the Institute of Transport Science and Technology under the Ministry of Transport.

The central government had already green lighted a pilot project to control motorbike emissions in 2010. It would be implemented first in Hanoi and HCMC from 2010 to 2013 before being expanded to other localities.

However, that project has remained on paper until now, basically because it lacked a legal framework.

Regulations on periodic emission inspections for motorbikes are not included in the Law on Road Traffic, making it difficult to put the plan into practice, An said.

Then, in December last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the national road traffic safety plan for the 2021-2030 period with vision until 2045. This plan targets the removal of all expired and illegally-modified motorbikes from the nation’s roads.

To implement this plan, the Ministry of Transport has been assigned to collaborate with related agencies and local authorities in cities and provinces to check emissions of motorbikes periodically until 2025.

That is an important premise for developing a legal framework for motorbike emission control in HCMC, An said.

Under the new pilot program, the city will be able to cut the emission of more than 56,000 tons of carbon monoxide and 4,400 tons of hydrocarbon per year.

The cost of setting up the testing system and hiring staff for the program is estimated at VND553 billion ($24 million) from now until 2023. After this period, fees and fines will start covering the program cost, An said.

The city will first build 88 inspection centers within this year and roll out regulations to test vehicles.

In the next two years (2022-2023), testing will become mandatory. The testing fee is likely to be VND50,000 ($2.16) per vehicle, but this might not be collected from poor people.

Motorbikes owned by residents of downtown districts 1, 3 and 5 that fail to meet emission standards will be fined.

In 2024 and 2025, another 78 testing centers will be built, and the fines will be extended to districts 10 and Tan Binh.

In 2026, districts 4, 6, 8, 11, Tan Phu, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan and Go Vap will also be covered.

In May last year, the department had collaborated with the VAMM to trial the program, checking motorbikes for emissions in 1, 3, Phu Nhuan, and Tan Binh districts.

More than 10,600 motorbikes were checked, and most of the vehicles older than five years failed to meet emission standards.

Apart from reducing pollution, the program is expected to ensure traffic safety via periodical maintenance and checking.

The division of zones to apply emission control measures will also contribute to reducing traffic congestion, especially in the central area because only “qualified” vehicles will be allowed to enter it, An said.

Commenting on the program, Do Van Chung, deputy head of the Binh Tan District urban management office, had said last year that it would disproportionately burden the poor since most of them drive used motorbikes.

With several million motorbikes in the city, a few hundred inspection centers would be inadequate, he added.

An said that the program will consider supporting policies such as offering free inspections for the poor and those with low income as well as helping them buy new vehicles at preferential prices.

Takahiro Shiraishi, the Japanese man who has reportedly confessed to murdering and hacking up nine young people in his Tokyo bathroom, was said to be a quiet schoolboy who would grow up to work on the fringes of the sex industry and become a suspected serial killer.

Pictures of the 27-year-old show an ordinary-looking man with neat, dark hair and glasses, who lived in a nondescript flat on a quiet residential street in one of Tokyo’s endless sprawling suburbs.

But on the morning of Halloween, police uncovered a grisly house of horrors behind Shiraishi’s front door: nine dismembered bodies with as many as 240 bone parts stashed in coolers and tool boxes, sprinkled with cat litter in a bid to hide the evidence.

People who lived in the neighborhood remembered the young Shiraishi as a “quiet child who was able to socialize with neighbors”.

At school, his grades were far from stellar but he was an attentive pupil, who “didn’t especially stand out but was not a gloomy character either”, according to a former classmate cited in the Asahi Shimbun.

He enjoyed athletics and baseball and was “a good listener rather than someone who would speak about himself”, another school contemporary told a local Tokyo paper.

One person claiming to be a former schoolmate took to Twitter saying he was so “normal, inconspicuous and low-profile” that most classmates would not even recognize him when news of his alleged crimes broke.

But the warning signs were perhaps there as one elementary-school contemporary told the private Fuji TV network that Shiraishi and his friends enjoyed choking each other for “fun”.

“He once passed out while playing the choking game,” the man, who did not wish to be identified, told the show.

The Mainichi Shimbun has reported that two of the bodies showed signs of strangulation, one had broken neck bones and another had bleeding patterns typically associated with choking.

‘Watch out!’

After graduating from high school in 2009, Shiraishi got a full-time job at a supermarket but quit just over two years later.

At that point, he began to work as a scout for sex parlors in Kabukicho, Tokyo’s biggest red-light district, seeking to lure young women into working in the clubs there.

In February, he was arrested and eventually handed a suspended jail sentence for recruiting a young woman for a sex shop in the full knowledge that she would be pressed into prostitution.

Several people tweeted about a “creepy scout”, with one person apparently employed in the same business as the suspect posting a photo of him with the caption: “Watch out for this scout.”

Shiraishi appeared to have a close relationship with his father, a designer of automobile parts, after his mother and younger sister left to live closer to the girl’s school in central Tokyo.

And a woman who said she was in a relationship with him until summer 2016 described him as a “gentle character” who was “never angry with women.”

“When I told him that I wanted to break up, he hugged me and said something like ‘Don’t go’,” the women told Fuji TV.

‘Professional hangman’

Things started going downhill for Shiraishi around June this year when he is reported to have told his father: “I don’t know why I’m alive.”

On August 22, he moved into the one-room apartment in Zama, a southwestern suburb of Tokyo, that would become the apparent scene of multiple murders.

He set up several Twitter accounts, advertising himself as a “professional hangman” and contacting young women who said they had suicidal tendencies.

He is reported to have told investigators that he killed his victims “as soon as he met them” and then “did some work on the bodies” to cover up his alleged crimes.

According to the Japan Times , he told police that the first time he dismembered a body, it took him three days but that “from the second person, I was able to do it within a day.”

Several media report the police found scissors, knives, a saw and woodwork tools in his flat.

One former hostess said on Twitter she had a lucky escape after her parlor turned down Shiraishi, who wanted to take her on a “date”.

“The parlor politely declined it but if it hadn’t, I would have been dead, wouldn’t I? I get chills,” tweeted the woman.

T.K., a high school student in Ho Chi Minh City’s Phu Nhuan District, opens his vape and adds some drops of oil.

“There are no tastes I’ve never tried. Among all, chocolate flavor is the best,” he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper after taking a long drag then exhaling slowly.

Vaping has been sneaking into schools with a kit affordably ranging from VND120,000 to VND150,000 (US$5.19 to $6.49) in form of a lipstick, pen or USB.

E-liquid is diverse in flavors, from strawberry to orange, mango which contains nicotine and cannabis.

“I tried this in my eighth grade”

On a winter day in the southern metropolis, smoke billowed an air-conditioned coffee shop on Nguyen Thai Binh Street in Tan Binh District where a group of schoolboys in their uniforms gathered for vaping.

“Your eyes must feel stinging. This place is exclusive for vapers like us,” one of those schoolboys told Tuoi Tre’s reporter.

Exhaling chillingly while spinning an e-cigarette around his fingers, T.K. said he started using vapes at eighth grade.

“I tried for fun and felt quite dope at the first time. Now I get addicted to it and become the best smoker of my group,” he said proudly.

At school, they smoke in toilets yet as teachers start inspecting, these schoolboys have to gather at cafes for vaping.

T.K. opened his vape and added some drops of oil.

“There are no tastes I’ve never tried. Among all, chocolatey flavor is the best,” K. told Tuoi Tre after taking a long drag then exhaling slowly.

He has tried almost all kinds of vapes available and traded them if no longer interested.

“I cannot stick with a vape kit for so long. I am urged to upgrade. There was a time I pledged my motorbike for VND10 million ($433) to buy this vape,” K. added.

H.T.H, an 11th grader, said he knew all about e-cigarettes’ harms.

“We buy them online, from sites certified by vaping communities which sell quality products. Is there any cigarette that not harmful? But we are young then it is going to be fine,” said H.

Like a ball pen or highlighter

It is not a strange scene to witness students smoke vapes in front of high schools in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3.

V.T.H, a 12th grader, left his school on a customized Honda motorbike, riding two other friends. Stopping by a street café, H took out a pen-like vape, having a long drag.

“Half of my classmates are vapers including girls. No matter how hard teachers try to uncover us, we manage to sneak smoking anyway,” H. laughed, showing stained teeth.  

H. said he first gave it a try as hearing vape was “on trend”. He opts to cheapest types, from VND120,000 to 150,000 a kit.

Showing a small pen-like vape, H. said it was only VND100,000 ($4.33).

“My friends used to share me theirs. As I got addicted to it, I decided to buy my own. As my vape is small, I can bring it to school and even put on my desk without having my teachers suspect,” he said.

“Boys like vapes shaped like ball pens or highlighters. For girls, they prefer those looked like lipsticks. Flavors are diverse, mostly fruity. I like grapefruit taste the most as it is fresh,” he added.

Pointing to schoolboys smoking cigarettes at a coconut juice stall nearby, H. said they started with vapes.

“As they got more addicted and could not afford expensive e-liquid, they switched to tobacco,” he said.

“In case of giving up on e-cigarettes, I will take tobacco too as I will feel a void without smoking,” said H.

Tran Quoc Toan Street in District 3 is well-known for vape shops among students. An owner of a shop opposite Tran Quang Dieu High School showed Tuoi Tre’s reporter two types of pen-like vaping kits, priced VND120,000 and 130,000 ($5.62) each, advertising that they were popular among students.

“We don’t sell e-liquid,” he said, adding the prices remained unchanged for bulk purchasing due to huge demands.

Students’ usage of e-cigarettes is an emerging issue, according to Nguyen Nho Huy, deputy head of the Department of Physical Education under Ministry of Education and Training.

The Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund is developing regulations regarding e-cigarettes for the Government. Meanwhile, the ministry is expected to enforce mechanisms to prevent students from using vapes.

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Nguyen Bich Lam, head of the General Statistics Office, said that small-scale Chinese firms are likely to eye a shift to Vietnam to avoid high tariffs imposed by the U.S.

Such firms typically use pollution causing technology, he said, adding that there have been previous warnings about such FDI projects.

The latest escalation of the U.S.-China trade war only heightens this possibility, he noted.

Vietnam needs to carefully inspect projects which were registered in the last nine months with capital lower than $1 million to prevent those with outdate technologies from harming Vietnam’s natural environment, Lam added.

Echoing Lam, Le Dang Doanh, former director of the Central Institute for Economic Management under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that a number of these companies have already entered Vietnam in recent years.

It is the responsibility of the ministry to say no to FDI projects that can harm the environment, he told VnExpress International .

Lam emphasized: “At this time, Vietnam needs to filter out FDI projects, not accepting them at any cost as it did 30 years ago.”

Other experts expressed concerns that Vietnam could end up becoming a dumping ground for Chinese goods.

Economist Nguyen Tri Hieu said that China might seek to dump its goods on Vietnam to avoid Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Cheaper Chinese goods competing with Vietnamese goods will not benefit Vietnam’s economy, he told VnExpress International .

Meanwhile, industry insiders have expressed fears that China might borrow the “made in Vietnam” label to dodge U.S. tariffs.

Diep Thanh Kiet, vice chairman of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO), said there was a “very high” possibility that Chinese bags would be exported to the U.S. through Vietnam.

Chinese businesses can do this by easily setting up a factory in Vietnam with a budget of only $200,000 to manufacture products with materials imported from China, he told local media.

If this cannot be controlled, there could be grave consequences for Vietnamese textile firms since “the U.S. might apply the same tariffs as they have done on China,” Kiet said.

The U.S. slapped tariffs of 10 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on September 24, and Beijing immediately retaliated with tariffs at 5 and 10 percent on $60 billion worth of U.S. products.

The two countries have already slapped tariffs on $50 billion worth of each other’s goods earlier this year.