I had the opportunity to visit the
Vinh Moc Tunnels and the
Ben Hai River Crossing today in the
Demilitarized Zone that separated north and south Vietnam during the Vietnam War. While the visits were quick, I couldn't imagine what the Vietnamese people would have gone through. Many near the border lived in poorly ventilated tunnel systems built so deep and concealed so well that American bombs couldn't breach them. The first level was used by the soldiers, the second level was the residence of villagers and the third level the weapons, ammunition, food and medical supplies. Remember, this was also a time when electricity was uncommon, when food was hard to find and when sanitation didn't exist in its current form.
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| The Maternity Room was closest to the exit facing the sea so that it was well-ventilated |
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| The largest room in the tunnels - the only one in which I could stand upright |
The effects of war are still felt in the region. Quoting from
the MAG website, "
Vietnam remains one of the world’s most contaminated countries, with an estimated 800,000 tons of unexploded bombs leftover from the war that ended more than 40 years ago." Even today, many people live under the constant fear of explosions. MAG is one of the six organizations that work here and it alone has clear 24.8Mn square meters of land nearly 14000 unexploded mines and bombs. Some of the chemical warfare used by Americans like Agent Orange have left the lands devoid of any fertility and have left soldiers on both sites and civilians with severe bodily diseases, deformities, and defects that pass on from one generation to another.
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One of the many bomb craters - more than 7 tonnes of bombs were dropped for every person living in the tunnel
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| The unexploded ordinance has killed thousands of people since the war, with people dying even today if they stray off the trodden path |
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I walked in the cave for a whole of 20 minutes and felt suffocated and claustrophobic. Living in the tunnels, when they were far more crowded than they were today, for six years would have been difficult, to put it mildly. And then, stepping out of the tunnel with the fear of being bombed or stepping on an unexploded one would be the classic 'out of the fire into the frying pan' scenario.
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| I walked down freely this bridge connecting the two countries during the cold war, with the blue color indicating the north and the yellow color indicating the south. Back in the days, I would have been shot dead for crossing the bridge. |
Problems like health, sanitation, education become secondary when just survival is difficult. Not having lived in conflict allows me so many luxuries, that people in countries impacted by war don't have. I left the day feeling a deep sense of gratitude for all the perks that my region's freedom from scale conflict offers me. More than that, I felt an even deeper sense of empathy for those who live in battle-ravaged countries, like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
The human spirit of innovation has taken mankind forward and ahead of all other species on this planet. At the same time, the same ingenuity has caused catastrophic damage when we turn against one another. While many beauty pageant contests preach about world peace, I do think it is a hygiene condition for any change to occur on other fronts. It's
Maslow's Theory 101.
Peace out.
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| If you were living in tunnels for six years, sunshine and fresh air would seem like a gift |
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