[Buck Wolter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/world/asia/20golf.html?ref=world

Interesting article about GC development in Vietnam with the standard template NYT hit piece of how development hurts poor people, Golf Courses cause pollution and waste water, blah, blah, blah.

"Many of the new projects seem to have to do more with capitalism than with sport. Taxes on golf courses are lower than those on other forms of development, and many of the projects appear to be disguised real estate ventures."

Seems like the Times agrees Mike Young's Old Timer that golf shouldn't be about making money.

[Carl Nichols]

Seems like the Times agrees Mike Young's Old Timer that golf shouldn't be about making money.

The Times doesn't think many things should be about making money, except perhaps print media. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

We need a reality check here.  As always, I could be wrong, but some of those "facts" don't add up.....

Typically, farms are low populated areas.  How could one 150 acre golf course displace "thousands of people?"

They have lost 1.1 Million Acres of farmland, which they blame golf for. But 140 golf/housing development (with 65% devoted to golf, so if that's 200 acres, these average 300 acres.  So, 140 projects X 300 acres = 42,000 acres, not 1.1M.  Even at close to a 1000 acres each, its 110,000 acres lost, not a cool mil.  Other capitalistic piggy development must be taken the rest of the land, I guess.

The area gets about 100 inches of rain a year.  Yeah, there is some need for irrigation in summer, and I can attest that municipal water supplies are sorely underbuilt in that area of the world from my old work there.  At the same time, the Americans actually built a good water supply system in Saigon when they were there.

[David Stamm]

Seems like the Times agrees Mike Young's Old Timer that golf shouldn't be about making money.

The Times doesn't think many things should be about making money, except perhaps print media. 

Which in their case, has not been happening lately.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Jeff,
They're not just blaming golf, the article says:  "In its drive to industrialize, Vietnam has already lost large amounts of farmland to factories and other developments".

 And from a different source: "Our farming households cultivate a very small plot of land at the moment. Each five-member family owns only 0.8 hectares on average" said Pham Thi Tuoc, deputy director of the Planning Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

So every hundred acres of development displaces about 250 people. Perhaps not thousands, although the inevitable pressure to develop the surrounding land might just make that so.

Your 42,000 acre figure displaced 105, 000 people, never mind the potential collateral losses from the surrounding losses. If we use your 110,000 figure the number rises to 275, 000 displaced farmers, before the potential collateral losses.

I won't hazard a guess as to whether or not that makes good sense for the Vietnamese.

[Bill Brightly]

That article makes me sick...and want go dig out my Econ testbooks. from the basement...

I can't comment on the water issues in dry season, sounds like that needs to be adressed. But it seems pretty obvious that as Vietnam's argriculture system continues to progress and become less labor intensive, the tourist dollars golf courses, resorts and related businesses will provide much needed jobs. And if I had more time, I'd mention the multiplier effect on the economy as a whole...but its way too late at night for that.

I'll just say that golf and tourism has helped Ireland a bit....any reason why Japanese and Korean tourism dollars won't have the same postive effect in Vietnam?   

[Carl Nichols]

That article makes me sick...and want go dig out my Econ testbooks. from the basement...

I can't comment on the water issues in dry season, sounds like that needs to be adressed. But it seems pretty obvious that as Vietnam's argriculture system continues to progress and become less labor intensive, the tourist dollars golf courses, resorts and related businesses will provide much needed jobs. And if I had more time, I'd mention the multiplier effect on the economy as a whole...but its way too late at night for that.

I'll just say that golf and tourism has helped Ireland a bit....any reason why Japanese and Korean tourism dollars won't have the same postive effect in Vietnam?   

Although I don't have any personal experience with it, rice farming is supposed to be *extremely* labor-intensive.  There's an interesting discussion of it in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book. 

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