From
WIRE REPORTS
A
70-year-old man in Ha Noi walks about three miles every day to remove numerous
ads illegally posted on utility posts and walls in his neighborhood, and hopes
to make his city cleaner, greener and more beautiful.
Nguyen
Van Minh, a war veteran living in Thanh Xuan District, started the “trivial”
job 10 years ago.
The
illegal ads irritated Minh, who was born in the capital and grew up with clean
streets and uncluttered surroundings.
“In
those days Ha Noi was very clean; there was nothing like this chaos of
advertisements, as every shop had just one signboard,” the man said.
Minh
said he decided to take on the task of removing the illegally posted ads,
thinking that since he was too old to contribute anything big to the society,
this “small” job would partly help keep his city green and clean.
Every
morning he rides a bicycle along Nguyen Trai Street to check places where ads
are newly posted as well as popular places for the illegal ads. He often can be
seen around the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the So intersection
where factories, supermarkets and universities are located.
At
4.30 p.m. he leaves his home again for a walking exercise and removes ads along
the way with a knife.
“People
now use glue or ink that is terribly sticky, so I always have a knife in my
pocket,” the man said. “On each round trip, I can remove ads on both sides of
the street.”
At
the end of the day Minh goes home with his pockets full of papers. He said
every 10 days he collects all the papers and sells them to a scrap trader for some
47 cents to spend on treats.
Even
though Minh does the job every day, his families and friends are totally
unaware of it. For motorbike taxi drivers and street cleaners, however, he is a
regular sight.
“Generally
no one knows and I don’t want to tell anyone about it. The job is not that
sophisticated,” he said.
“I’m
old already, so recognition does not mean anything. What matters is that I live
healthily and do something good for my family and the society.”
However,
things have changed since a couple of months ago when young netizens posted
photographs of Minh doing his job online. They called on young people to remove
any illegally posted ads whenever they see them.
Minh
said he was surprised when a journalism student came to ask permission to follow
him as he removed street ads, and then it became “tiring” when newspapers and
TV stations came to take photos and film him.
He
said many people must think that he is crazy to do such a “useless thing,”
because after he removes the ads, others will be posted again.
“But
I think differently: when I remove the ads, the street becomes cleaner.
Passers-by would love to see a clean tree or utility post rather than those
dirtied with messy ads.”
He
said he hoped that the government will hunt down people who illegally posted
ads in the street and fine them, and that in every neighborhood some other
veterans will do the same job of keeping local streets clean.
Minh
may not be aware of it, but he has inspired many young people.
Vu
Viet Tuan, a junior student from the Academy of Journalism and Communication,
said he does not know who first posted the photo of Minh on social networks,
but many young people appreciate it and have left positive comments.
“Honestly,
my first thought was that [Minh] must have quite a lot of spare time. But after
meeting and talking to him, I truly respect him,” Tuan said.
“Perhaps
we young people are so into our busy life that we ignored many things. [Minh]
is an example for all of us to follow.”
