Why I’m Working as a Saigon Massage Girl
source: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=0275a80bb6ba04c9d71e9cbbc0...
Why I’m Working as a Saigon Massage Girl
New America Media, Commentary, Lan Pham as told to Andrew Lam, Posted: Apr 12, 2010
Lan Pham, 21, works in a massage parlour in District I of Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon. It’s where most tourists stay when they visit Vietnam. Like millions of young people from the rural, Saigon is a big magnet with promises of better life for those who come from backbreaking work in the rice fields and cycle of debts. Pham spoke with NAM editor, Andrew Lam, who visited his homeland on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - I’m from Tan Chau district in An Giang province. There are six people in my family. We’re all farmers. I’ve been to Saigon for four years.
Do you know how hard it is for farmers? The life of a farmer is a life that’s always in debt. You live dependent on the crop. All those months waiting for the rice to ripen you need to feed your family so you borrow money. When the crop’s ready you’ll pay it all back with interest. When something happens, flood or failed crop, you’ll have to borrow more money to survive. And you’ll stay in debt. After a while you end up doing things you don’t want to do.
My parents were always in debt. They couldn’t feed four kids. My sister got married at 17 to this old Taiwanese man she never met until he showed up and married her. She had to make money. She sent money home for about a year but now we don’t know what happened. It’s been several years since she’s kind of disappeared. So we fell into debt again because we started fixing the house when she was sending money but we didn’t have enough money. So it was my turn to take care my family.
read the rest at
www.NewAmericaMedia.org
New America Media, Commentary, Lan Pham as told to Andrew Lam, Posted: Apr 12, 2010
Lan Pham, 21, works in a massage parlour in District I of Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon. It’s where most tourists stay when they visit Vietnam. Like millions of young people from the rural, Saigon is a big magnet with promises of better life for those who come from backbreaking work in the rice fields and cycle of debts. Pham spoke with NAM editor, Andrew Lam, who visited his homeland on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - I’m from Tan Chau district in An Giang province. There are six people in my family. We’re all farmers. I’ve been to Saigon for four years.
Do you know how hard it is for farmers? The life of a farmer is a life that’s always in debt. You live dependent on the crop. All those months waiting for the rice to ripen you need to feed your family so you borrow money. When the crop’s ready you’ll pay it all back with interest. When something happens, flood or failed crop, you’ll have to borrow more money to survive. And you’ll stay in debt. After a while you end up doing things you don’t want to do.
My parents were always in debt. They couldn’t feed four kids. My sister got married at 17 to this old Taiwanese man she never met until he showed up and married her. She had to make money. She sent money home for about a year but now we don’t know what happened. It’s been several years since she’s kind of disappeared. So we fell into debt again because we started fixing the house when she was sending money but we didn’t have enough money. So it was my turn to take care my family.
read the rest at
www.NewAmericaMedia.org
-
- tags:
- Money, Massage, Saigon, massage girl
-
-
- YouthOutlookMultimedia
- added this
more from YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia:
from the community
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
- more
