When it comes to Da Nang, Vietnam, people typically remark about the glitz of a young city sprouting up with luxury buildings rising up on both banks of the Han River or along the seaside, along with gorgeous architecture, modern streets with bright lights. However, as in any other developed city or country, as development progresses, the divide between affluent and poor grows more pronounced. That is evident in photographs of underprivileged laborers hustling for a living in the final days of the year in order to prepare for the annual Tet celebration in Vietnam.
Today's article is the pictures that I took in the days before the Lunar New Year of the poor people working hard to make a living in the last days of the year so that we might sympathize with the hardships of those who live in poverty in Da Nang city in particular and the poor around the world, whether in rich or poor countries.
The Covid-19 epidemic is pushing the poor workers in Da Nang City to many difficulties and anxiety. They are still trying to race with work and time in order to have for a warm and pleasant Tet, but it is not easy when the covid-19 pandemic has so heavily impacted every aspect of social life.
A motorbike taxi driver is waiting for customers
The image below is the laborers who are making a living by trading in bottles; they buy discarded items such as plastic bottles, beer cans, paper and so on from city families and sell them to scrap-buying shops. Scrap-buying shops will collect the scrap, sort it, and finally deliver it to recycling facilities. After a year of hard work in the city, they usually work until nearly 30 Tet and then catch the final bus back to their hometown to reunite with their families.
Image of poor working woman busy buying bottles at people's houses on Ong Ich Khiem Street, Da Nang; the collector's fortune will be piled up on an old bike on a cold, rainy day.
The old lady must be over 70 years old, but still rummaging through the garbage dump to find the plastic bottles, paper, beer cans that people throw away during the cleaning days at the end of the lunar year near the gas station, she collects them so that after the Tet holiday, she will sell them to make money. The weather in the last days of the year turned cold, making passersby feel heartbroken.
The last days of the lunar year are the time when the poor workers have to make the most of money to wish for a happy Tet. According to Vietnamese tradition, people often spend a lot of money on buying and decorating their homes in preparation for the Tet holiday. In the years before the covid-19 pandemic, when people's economy was well off, spending on year-end shopping was often generous, but the time of the 2 year covid-19 epidemic had a heavy impact on all economic sectors in which the poor are the most vulnerable. Although, they still try to hold on to the race against time to earn an income, but this year's Tet is difficult for them to hope to have a full Tet.
In the last days of this year, many poor workers in the locality as well as in other places come to work and live with enough worries about food and money. In order to have both daily expenses and additional income for the family during Tet, many people have taken advantage of the last hours before New Year's Eve to earn extra money in order to have both daily costs and additional revenue for the family during Tet. They do more jobs such as: porter, sell lottery tickets, sell flowers, sell meat... and everything that can be sold that Vietnamese people need for Tet.
A disabled person selling lottery tickets is driving in a car for children in front of a local market. And a young man arrived to purchase some lucky lottery tickets for him.
A middle-aged man sits on the street selling cans of beans brought from the countryside in order to make some money for the day.
A street trader hides under an umbrella tree on Cu Chinh Lan Street in Thanh Khe District, where the streets are empty of passersby. Diseases, gloomy weather, trade stagnation, and worries about the livelihoods of low-wage workers are aggravated.
After a long day of work, the woman who purchased the bottles took advantage of sleeping on the porch of a resident's house in the frigid days at the end of the year.
At the Tet flower market areas, these florists are mostly poor farmers, they plant and take care of them all year and then assemble here at the end of the year to sell to the city people who want to buy flowers for Tet. The Tet flower market is sometimes very unusual; there are years when the market for ornamental plants and flowers for Tet is high. In those years, farmers have a warmer Tet. However, there are also years when the flower market is weak, and farmers suffer heavy losses. They had to throw away the flowers they had cherished for months. They must stay here for half a month, eating and sleeping on the spot in order to take care of flowers and plants.
The image of a flower seller, having to break the pot before New Year's Eve, hire a truck to carry flowers home before New Year's Eve. Compared to other years, the price of Tet flowers this year is not high, but there are still not many buyers.
Da Nang is a prosperous, busy, and luxurious city. However, in the heart of Da Nang, there are still lives with many difficulties, the lives of hard work every day, in the final days of the lunar year; these lives appear most vividly and plainly seen. Da Nang in the last days of the lunar year, hurried steps, and people busy until the last moment before New Year's Eve, cold winds hit our faces, making us shiver, making us think! When I write this post, my tears fall because of a simple thing, although my childhood was also full of tears, such events in my heart evoke grief about life, about human problems.
I just hope that this world; this life is free of wars, that everyone is happy, and that everyone has a wonderful life. But it's all a dream.