Vietnam's "Wild Men"

In 1972, Ho Van Thanh's home was destroyed by American bombs and his wife and two older sons were killed. In panic, he fled into Vietnam's dense jungles, taking his 1-year-old son Ho Van Loan with him. They lived in the forest for 40 years, until government officials staged a controversial "rescue" and brought them back to civilization.

The Vietnames press has been agog over the many things the men made for themselves, including clothes woven of grass and leaves, mats, bamboo containers, and tools made from wood and pieces of shrapnel. The men grew their own corn and sugarcane in a one-acre garden, gathered wild fruit, and hunted and trapped wild animals; a large quantity of mouse meet was found in their hut.

Their relatives always knew where they were, and made occasional trips into the wild to contact them, bringing gifts of salt and kerosene. But Ho Van Thanh refused to come back to civilization. His "rescue" has inspired fierce debate in Vietnam, with many people complaining that Vietnam's rapidly industrializing cities are the real wilderness. Journalist Lien Hoang wrote,

the discovery of Thanh and Lang has triggered a flurry of questions about modern life in Vietnam, especially the downsides of industrialization and urbanization. To the fresh air of the jungle, some Vietnamese are comparing the pollutants and particulates of urban life. Some cities in Vietnam rival Beijing for poor air quality, prompting many people here to wear surgical masks every day. When the journalist Dao Tuan said on the popular news site VnExpress that Thanh and Lang had the luxury to “eat when they were hungry, but didn’t worry about poisoning,” he was voicing a common concern about food safety. . . .

One commenter on a Vietnamese news site said,

Ask a wild bird that’s being kept in a cage — not having to worry about storms, not having to worry about hunger — if he’s happier than when he was free in nature?

Economic growth always comes at a price, and this is never more clear than when societies are changing very rapidly.