Editor’s Note: Vietnamese-Canadian Huynh Anh Tuan has sent us his opinions in response to the story “On the origin of Vietnamese’s bad habits” published on April 21. The views expressed herein are his own.

The first reason that Prof. Hoa raised was the lack of continuity in the social and cultural development (lack of continuous heritage). Although Prof. Hoa pointed to a strong heritage displayed by Japanese, there is no proof that such heritage or lack of it is the reason behind the turmoil behaviors of Vietnamese.

Using a reverse reasoning with a couple of examples, the Chinese did have strong continuous heritage at many times in [their] history. Yet Chinese do display similar bad habits to Vietnamese’s like nose-picking, spitting in public, disobeying rules and laws, lack of respect for community facilities, avoid[ing] queuing, and many other poor habits in public. While Canada has only 150 years of celebrations, Canadians do have a very strong respect [for] whatever belongs to the public and communities. 

They respect the cleanliness in public facilities [such] as public washrooms [and] common areas used by all. You hardly see a display of nose-picking/spitting in public. Rules of the road are mostly respected. Queuing is normal behavior when needed. 

With the Canadian example, I want to point out that Canadians are comprised of heavy multicultural backgrounds, i.e. Canadians are people from all over the world, with different cultural and history background[s]. Yet when they come to Canada, they display a strong respect for what the Canadian society, laws, culture [have] to offer. They do not have the "Japanese desirable qualities" that Prof. Hoa raised but still they do not have the bad habits of Vietnamese and Chinese.

The second reason as explained by Prof. Hoa also tends to be too simplistic. Canada did not undergo such periods as described by Prof. Hoa: slavery [and] capitalism. Canada's laws are developed based on the benefits for the society as a whole. Even currently, we could describe Canada society rules as developed to benefit the society rather than any other groups: the sets of tax laws, the benefits that society provides to the poor or elderly, all work hand-in-hand. The richer pay more in taxes. The elderly get old-age benefits.

How to curb family violence?

Regarding [the] habits of using violence in the family or in society, Canada has laws dealing with such violence quite effectively: even a verbal threat of violence is not acceptable and would be dealt with seriously by the police services. This is to show that law-enforcement is also a very important contribution to the health of the society as a whole. So the second reason that Prof. Hoa raised is not too convincing.

As an example, in Vietnam, violence is easily resorted to solve issues in the family, at schools or out on the streets. In order to help with the elimination of such issues, we need to have programs to educate citizens that there are alternatives to violence. Awareness programs would be needed at every level of schooling, from daycare to university. Related education programs should be available for broadcast on TV, using many ways of propaganda (comedies, dramas, movies....). 

At the same time, specific laws are needed to be applied strictly to cases where violence is involved. Even verbal threats of violence must be [taken] very serious and [considered] potentially a criminal offence and punished severely. In a society where the concept of "husband is king, wife is servant" seems to be the norm, changes to eliminate such concept is very challenging. [So is the elimination of] family violence. 

Family violence often occurs in all walks of life: educated and less-educated, therefore the police services must be allowed by law to do their work when calls for help are logged. The elimination of corruption is also an important factor in the success of such programs: if the violator could use money to buy him or her out of trouble then the violation will certainly be repeated. It is no doubt that effective changes to human behavior is highly challenging. In order to have an environment where mutual respect is nurtured, governments at all levels must be involved to take the lead in initiating, guiding and acting as the "brain" to plan and to facilitate the successful implementation of related programs. 

"Bad habits" do not just show up overnight. They have been entrenched for years, if not decades, from society turmoil, instability, poor conditions and neglect. Because of their public-related characteristics, it would take time for those bad habits to be "undone". Strong leadership and well-thought-out programs are also necessary. The society leaders - like ministries of social development, education, justice, public safety - should have teams of researchers working together to develop long term strategies with the goal to reduce - if not eliminate - those undesired habits.

Some bad habits can also be blamed on the poor conditions of physical assets like poor infrastructure or poor roads. These "bad habits" would be cleared by themselves when the facilities/roads improve. 

In the meantime, awareness of such bad habits can be expressed in schools, public banners, ads on TV, etc. so [as] to slowly program the citizens' mind to have stronger self-respect and respect for others.

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