W.Minh Tuan

Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace is located at 36-38 Ly Thai To Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, located right near Hoan Kiem Lake, near Hanoi People’s Committee, near Hanoi Opera House.

During the French period, this was the Au Tri Vien building, built by the French around the 1930s, also with the purpose of being a place for French and Vietnamese children to play.

After the August Revolution of 1945, this Au Tri Vien building was upgraded and renamed Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace, continuing its original purpose initiated by the French, as a place for entertainment, recreation, cultural and sports activities for children in Hanoi and the whole country.

The most beautiful image of the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace is the photo of Uncle Ho holding a baby, smiling, the photo is printed 2 meters large each way, hung large, splendid, and solemn outside the wall of the building of Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace, demonstrating the love of President Ho Chi Minh, and of the Party and State of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam for Vietnamese children.

And along with the image of Uncle Ho with a child hanging on the wall outside the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace, is “President Ho Chi Minh’s letter to the pupils“, on the opening day of Vietnam’s first school year of Democratic Republic, September 1945, there is a passage that almost every Vietnamese who has studied in common school knows and can recite the following statements:

“Whether the Vietnamese countryside becomes beautiful or not, whether the Vietnamese people can step to the throne of glory to compete with the great powers of the five continents or not, depends largely on the students’ hard work in studying.”

All of these things prove that Uncle Ho, the Party, and the State of Vietnam always take care of the cause of “ten years of planting trees, a hundred years of growing people“, taking care of Vietnamese children, who will be the future owner of the country of Vietnam that “should be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the powers of the five continents.”

Yet now, the so-called leaders of Hanoi, such as Secretary Hoang Trung Hai, have been disciplined to retire, Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung, have been arrested, sentenced to prison for corruption, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, was issued a warning by the Politburo, and President Truong Tan Sang had to insinuate that “comrade X-Dung”,  they with the pretext that to “reduce traffic congestion, reduce noise, reduce pollution“, to evict the Hanoi Children’s Cultural House, and many other valuable cultural and educational works out of the center of Hanoi, to replace that we don’t know what those projects will be replaced.

If it is true that the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace makes noise polution, is there any noise more beautiful and happier than the noise of children playing and singing?

If it is true that the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace causes traffic jams, then is there any traffic jam more beautiful and happier than the congestion of excited children, jostling, shoulder to shoulder, coming to the Children Cultural Palace to play, practice sports, dance, sing, meet, compete, and chat to each other, to smile together brightly?

If it is true that the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace pollutes the environment, then is there any pollution as beautiful, sacred, and happy as the dust caused by children running, playing, kicking, dancing, and singing?

What cultural and sports project do they, Hoang Trung Hai, Nguyen Duc Chung, and Nguyen Tan Dung, intend to replace the Hanoi Children Palace? To do more noise reduction?

To do more reduce pollution?

To reduce traffic congestion?

Or not at all?

Which real estate sharks were behind this eviction of the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace out of the center of Hanoi?

The Hanoi People’s Committee, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Construction, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made at least one mistake when deciding to move the Hanoi Giang Vo Exhibition Center out of the area of Giang Vo, plans to replace it with a 50-storey apartment building of Vinhome, and to build modern apartment buildings, a supermarket, and offices for rent, and if successful, will bring in several billion dollars in profit for Vinhome.

But luckily now this erroneous relocation policy has been canceled, to return the purpose of serving public benefits to this golden land of Giang Vo.

Regarding the land of Tran Hung Dao Mechanical Factory, 91 Ba Trieu, Hanoi, the Hanoi Committee and related people have also used beautiful pretexts that to prevent pollution and congestion, to move the factory to another place, but instead it is a modern apartment-supermarket-office of Vinhome-again Vinhome, to bring billions of dollars in profit to Vinhome real estate sharks, while there is no any  cultural and sports project which will serves the public be build in 91 Ba Trieu Hanoi.

If you dared to discipline Secretary of Hanoi Hoang Trung Hai, retire him, dared to imprison Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung, dared to discipline and warn “comrade X-Nguyen Tan Dung”, but now you dare not to throw away the wrong relocation decisions signed by Mr. Hai, Dung, and Chung?

Why?

It is time for the new leaders of Hanoi, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Construction, the Government, and the Politburo to seriously review all policies on moving offices and buildings out of the center of Hanoi, review which projects are relocated correctly, which projects are relocated incorrectly, which projects serve public interests, which projects serve the interests of real estate sharks?

Immediately and urgently, the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace cannot be evicted from the center of Hanoi.

Please return the location 36-38 Ly Thai To to the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace, and invest more money to upgrade it, expanding the Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace, to make it more beautiful, more modern, worthy of Hanoi Capital of thousands of years of civilization.

As for the new Cultural Palace built on the outskirts of Hanoi, let’s merge it into today’s Hanoi Children’s Cultural Palace to expand it , increase it, and increase more, not just 1, just 2, but there are 3, 4, 5,,,more Hanoi Cultural Palaces, to match the expanded modern Hanoi.

And the Cultural Palace is not just for children, but also for everyone, for the elderly, for young people, for young men and women, boys and girls, for all classes of people, so that the majority of Vietnamese people have a place to have fun, to do cultural and sports activities, to improve people’s  physical and mental health, so that people can build a strong and prosperous Vietnam “on par with the powers of the five continents“, as President Ho Chi Minh wished.

The old Hanoi only had an area of only a few dozen square kilometers, the new Hanoi now has an area of more than 2000 square kilometers, three times larger than Singapore, so there needs to be more Cultural Palaces, more Cultural Houses for everyone, every people’s class.

Comrade General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, when visiting the Vietnam army, had a very correct advice, “7 dare:

“  1-Dare to think;

2-dare to speak;

3-dare to do;

4-dare to take responsibility;

5-dare to innovate and be creative;

6-dare to face difficulties, challenges and

7-dare to act for the common good”.

So, the Hanoi Committee, Hanoi City Party Committee, Government, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Construction, let’s also carry out the 7 dares as taught by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, to:

1-Resolutely not let Hanoi Children’s Palace fall into the hands of real estate giants.

2-Resolutely not let Hanoi Children’s Palace fall into the hands of banks, rental offices, supermarkets, hotels, securities companies, foreign companies, etc.

3-Public land must serve public interests.

4-Cultural and sports land must serve cultural and sports benefits.

Hanoi with a thousand years of culture must be worthy of Hanoi with a thousand years of culture, but Hanoi is not  of Vinhome’s, not of Muong Thanh’s, not of SunGroup’s,,,,.///