Politicsprotests & movements
Vietnamese Farmers Resist Trump-Linked Golf Resort Land Acquisition
Five months after the glitzy, celebrity-studded groundbreaking ceremony that promised to transform the Vietnamese countryside just outside Hanoi into a Trump Organisation-branded, US$1. 5 billion luxury golf resort, a powerful, grassroots resistance has taken root.The site, envisioned as a monument to international investment and opulence, remains stubbornly, beautifully agrarian—fields of banana and orange trees standing in quiet defiance against the bulldozers. This is not merely a story of delayed construction; it is a profound narrative about land, livelihood, and the fierce dignity of communities pushed to the brink.The heart of the conflict pulsates in Hung Yen province, where local authorities, eager to fast-track a project wrapped in the allure of a former U. S.president's name, initiated a land recovery process. They set the compensation for these fertile, life-sustaining plots at approximately 320,000 dong (a meager US$12) per square metre.To the farmers whose families have tilled this soil for generations, this price is not just an undervaluation; it is an erasure of their heritage, their economic stability, and their very identity. This struggle echoes a painful, recurring theme in Vietnam's rapid economic development, where the state's authority over land use often collides with the rights of its citizens.The farmers' refusal to accept the compensation, their brave public challenge to the clearance plans, represents a critical test of governance and corporate accountability. It forces us to ask: who does development truly serve? Is it for the international conglomerates and their local partners, or for the people whose sweat and history are embedded in the earth? The involvement of The Trump Organisation adds a volatile layer of geopolitical complexity, intertwining local land rights with the legacy of global political power and raising urgent questions about the ethical responsibilities of foreign entities in sensitive economic landscapes.The farmers of Hung Yen, in their quiet persistence, are not just fighting for a fair price; they are defending a way of life, becoming unwitting champions for a more equitable and humane model of progress. Their stand is a powerful reminder that the most significant political battles are often fought not in parliamentary halls, but in the furrowed fields where the seeds of the future are sown.
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#Vietnam
#Trump Organization
#land dispute
#farmers
#compensation
#golf resort
#real estate development