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Vietnam and Cambodia – two countries along the Mekong River. Against the backdrop of globalisation and in pursuit of their market reforms, the governments of these two nations have placed their sights on urbanising their cities. Saigon and Phnom Penh have naturally become the focus of this development. The changes these two cities have gone through, though at different speeds, bring similar difficulties.

Vietnam is now pursuing all-out development in a bid to integrate itself into the global economy. In November 2006, the country became the 150th member of the World Trade Organisation.

Entering the stream of motorcycles in Saigon, I can feel the locals going full steam ahead on their tiny bikes, but forgetting those around them. This distance and negligence has accentuated the gap between the rich and poor in this southern Vietnamese city. Many people are getting richer – the rich decorate their houses with statues, and their children travel in private cars. In the city’s biggest trading point, the An Dong Market, customers continue to increase, prompting the government to build a new market just beside it, boasting better facilities and more efficient management. New facilities like these and chances for employment they promise contribute to the large-scale migration of farmers from the countryside. But not all manage to find a job. Many people who come seeking wealth find poverty.

There is one such poor community by the Saigon River – its residents work hard to make ends meet and their children play in the dirty river. In 50-year-old Mr Fu’s family of five, only one person is employed. Their house on stilts stands lonely on the Saigon River. Families like his receive no aid and no basic services, like sanitation, from the government. Their survival is ignored. But in my conversations with them, the locals show no hopes or bitterness and live numbly from one day to the next. This ‘begging’ for life is duplicated across many corners of today’s cities, from Saigon to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, faces the same widening gap between the rich and the poor as Saigon.

Property developers have set their sights on ‘developing’ what is now a slum in the heart of Phnom Penh – this government-approved project is to be completed by 2020. The slum’s residents will thus be evicted soon.

 

There are about 560 such poor communities in Phnom Penh and the government aims to resettle 100 of them each year, giving residents loans to buy houses. Although this project is still in its infancy, bits of optimism manage to shine through the gloom surrounding its residents.

In filthy and smelly dumpsites, girls sing; in slums pasted with posters of the government’s ban on guns, children play. Young women who enter the city to work derive happiness – through sheer optimism and grit -- even amid their poor conditions.

This Buddhist country has also retained its culture – an apsara dance school in Phnom Penh teaches poor children and orphans the traditional Khmer dance. Through dance, which helps preserve their original character as a people, the Cambodians try to hold their own against the onslaught of foreign culture brought about by urbanisation.

In the two cities, what I felt most was the will and optimism of people at the grassroots level. Economic development and progress in the cities have not brought them much benefit – the well-being of some has even been sacrificed to large-scale development. However, the people fight on, armed with their hopes. This vibrance moves me.