There are some shames

The old professor looked at his students and said:

• I'm going to ask you a few questions outside today's lesson, but any student who can answer them, I will take into account when marking the exam. Class monitor, please note down which student answered with what idea. Each of you has exactly 45 seconds to give the answer, the cause and the remedy.
  The question is: which habits of the Vietnamese make foreigners think less of us?
  Before long, a great many hands went up to answer. The class monitor had to name the students one by one to keep up with the notes. Here are the opinions:
• Throwing litter everywhere in the street. The cause is people's poor awareness. The remedy is education in schools combined with administrative fines.
• Eating dog meat. The cause is custom and failing to keep up with the civilisation of the world. The remedy is to campaign and then move on to administrative fines.
• Scribbling graffiti on natural rocks in forests, heritage sites and conservation areas. The cause is an ego so big that people want to show themselves off wherever they go. The remedy is to track them down and impose quite heavy administrative fines, and use that money to restore the site to its original state.
• Swearing whenever people open their mouths to talk. The cause is the influence of surroundings, including family, friends and neighbours. The remedy is to criticise, make them apologise, make them promise before the community, and stop the spread of vulgar language to later generations.
• After a traffic collision, getting out of the vehicles and fighting. The cause is a thuggish, violent habit and poor education. The remedy is criminal punishment and a period in prison.
• Standing silent during the flag salute, refusing to sing the national anthem aloud. The cause is relying on a machine to play the song, so people won't sing and gradually forget it. The remedy is to check with camera recordings, then make offenders stand in the sun under the flag, practising until they sing loudly and know it by heart.
• Parking motorbikes or putting out goods so that they occupy the pavement meant for pedestrians, spoiling the look of the street. The cause is that people copy one another. The remedy is heavy fines for local officials.
• Going out into the street bare-chested in shorts. The cause is not having time to change, then walking past the neighbours and forgetting that the street is full of people. The remedy is to make them spend money buying lots of clothes at shops with unsold stock, helping to rescue unsold goods.
• Pestering tourists to sell them things and then taking the chance to pick their pockets. The cause is a society that is still not civilised enough and has many poor people. The remedy is to fine local officials.
• Blasting music from speakers in front of shops to attract attention, singing karaoke so that it disturbs the neighbours, street-vending carts playing loud music. The cause is poor awareness of the ethics of noise. The remedy is for the local authorities to review themselves and learn from the experience.
• Road surfaces that are uneven because of poor-quality construction. The cause is that some people with excellent digestion have eaten the asphalt. The remedy is to prosecute the body that accepted the works.
• Breaking traffic rules: pushing and shoving, driving out of one's own lane, stopping at a red light past the white line, motorbikes cutting in front of cars, rarely giving way to others crossing, parking so that the road narrows. The cause is very poor awareness. The remedy is to teach traffic offences thoroughly in schools.
• Houses built jutting out and encroaching on the pavement, especially in alleys. The cause is greed for one's own house, forgetting the public interest. The remedy is to fine local officials.
• Public toilets that are a hell on earth because they are so dirty. The cause is that nobody cares about keeping shared spaces clean. The remedy is to put attendants there to remind people.
• Talking loudly in public places and disturbing people around. The cause is thinking that one's own words are so fascinating that one wants to perform. The remedy is to send them on a week of community service holding a sign reading "please speak just loudly enough to be heard" in crowded places, such as airports and parks...
• Going abroad and treating a buffet like looting. The cause is that people have still not escaped the poverty and hunger of their home area. The remedy is to let them eat only a single portion.
  I don't know why, but the students answered so eagerly and in such numbers that the room was very lively. 👨‍🏫

There are habits of ours that make foreigners think less of us. "Think less of us" is a gentle way of putting it. In truth, they look down on our backwardness and lack of culture. We reply that not everyone is like that. But they will ask, then where are the cultured people, that they don't remind those who lack culture? Leaving the faults alone is already half a lack of culture.

Those bad behaviours are the national shame that still remains. Our forefathers fought with great heroism to wipe away that very great shame, the shame of losing the country. So as for the little shames that remain, surely we can't just leave them as they are?