Wholegrain
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I posted this article on another thread but I want to place it here for consistency since its in the right topic. I'm not interested in starting a flame war, this is for people who are interested in the topic.
"Economy in Motion: Cham Muslim Traders in the Mekong Delta"
Philip Taylor
http://www.chamstudies.com/members/philiptaylor(chammuslimtraders).pdf
"Yet Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, who officially comprise over fifty different linguistically distinct groups and account for around 15 per cent of the population, are widely seen as the losers in the liberal reform process. Their incomes and expenditures are much lower than those of the Kinh, Vietnam’s ethnic majority group, and they have a greater incidence of poverty, lower participation in schooling and poorer health (Baulch et al. 2002; Rambo & Jamieson 2003).
Three principal explanations have been advanced to account for the failure of the economic reforms to benefit ethnic minorities in Vietnam. First, these groups are seen as physically remote from economic opportunities and government services, living as they do for the most part in the uplands and in geographically marginal areas (van de Walle & Gunewardena 2001; Vu Quoc Ngu 2004). Second, many ethnic minority peoples are thought to experience the problem of ‘cultural remoteness’ (Baulch et al. 2002, p. 17), their distinct linguistic, customary or religious heritage presenting cultural obstacles to their interactions with the wider society that inhibit economic advancement. This explanation differs little from that advanced in the pre-reform era by the ethnic Kinh-dominated state, which attempted to eradicate religious and customary practices of ethnic minority peoples that were seen as backward, divisive and harmful to socialist modernisation (McElwee 2004). Third, the state’s sponsorship of market relations, migration and infrastructure projects in ethnic minority areas and the imposition of mainstream cultural values in the name of modernisation are believed by some analysts to have been counterproductive by undermining the socio-economic standing of people in such areas (Rambo & Jamieson 2003; Taylor 2004a). As a consequence, some minority groups have disengaged culturally and socially from the mainstream (Salemink 2003; Taylor 2004b, pp. 2605), forms of resistance with the potential to compound their economic marginalisation.
The Cham Muslims of the Mekong delta exemplify in several respects the problems faced by Vietnam’s remote-dwelling ethnic minority people during the liberal reform era. A community of almost 13,000 people, the Cham, who live near Vietnam’s border with Cambodia, reside in ten small settlements where they follow a mode of life constrained significantly by the delta’s riverine ecology. Culturally distinct from their neighbours, the Cham speak their own language*Cham*as well as Vietnamese, Khmer, Malay and Arabic. They have a unique style of housing and follow a distinct matrilocal post-marital residence pattern. Unlike their Kinh neighbours, who profess a southwards social and cultural diffusion narrative, the Cham claim diverse origins from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Middle East, as well as from the kingdom of Champa, formerly located in present-day Vietnam. As a community of devout Muslims, the Cham community of the delta has been subject to recent attempts by the Vietnamese state to sponsor migration by ethnic Kinh migrants into settlements in which they previously comprised the majority. They have been encouraged to study in government schools and to learn Vietnamese. Yet Cham people’s emphasis on their cultural and religious distinctive- ness has, if anything, only increased during a period in which development policies have favoured urban-dwelling residents in particular and ethnic Kinh people in general.
Given geographical, cultural and structural factors of a kind identified in the literature as the most common constraints to the well-being of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, it may not come as a surprise to learn that many Cham people describe their standard of living as low, or subsistence-level, earning only enough to live day to day. Living in a region with the poorest system of all-weather roads in the country, their settlements are difficult enough to access in the dry season. When it floods, as it does annually, they are cut off for months from the nearest urban and commercial centres. Few of them own motorbikes and the relatively high cost of cross-river ferry transport makes it difficult to access nearby service centres regularly. Many Cham say that in comparison with the majority ethnic group they lack education, connections and access to state power, resources that might help them to engage in remunerative economic activities. They point out that recent state development initiatives have brought them few benefits as many of the new high- cost investments and technologically demanding jobs have been monopolised by non-Cham people. The Cham have resisted the state’s efforts to define them as remnants from the kingdom of Champa, a state that was annexed by the Vietnamese. Instead, they emphasise a religious-based identity and highlight Islam as the sole basis for community membership (Nakamura 1999). The pronounced emphasis on Islam within their settlements has restricted interactions with their proximate neighbours and has also heightened consciousness among the Cham of their moral exclusivity in relation to their non-Muslim neighbours."
"Les musulmans de Châu Đốc (Vietnam) à l’épreuve du salafisme"
"Châu Đốc Muslims (Vietnam) faced with Salafism"
Les musulmans de Châu Đốc (Vietnam) à l’épreuve du salafisme
This is about the economic situation of minorities (Cham, Chinese, and Khmer) in the Mekong Delta.
http://www.chamstudies.com/members/philiptaylor(redressingdisadvantage).pdf
"Economy in Motion: Cham Muslim Traders in the Mekong Delta"
Philip Taylor
http://www.chamstudies.com/members/philiptaylor(chammuslimtraders).pdf
"Yet Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, who officially comprise over fifty different linguistically distinct groups and account for around 15 per cent of the population, are widely seen as the losers in the liberal reform process. Their incomes and expenditures are much lower than those of the Kinh, Vietnam’s ethnic majority group, and they have a greater incidence of poverty, lower participation in schooling and poorer health (Baulch et al. 2002; Rambo & Jamieson 2003).
Three principal explanations have been advanced to account for the failure of the economic reforms to benefit ethnic minorities in Vietnam. First, these groups are seen as physically remote from economic opportunities and government services, living as they do for the most part in the uplands and in geographically marginal areas (van de Walle & Gunewardena 2001; Vu Quoc Ngu 2004). Second, many ethnic minority peoples are thought to experience the problem of ‘cultural remoteness’ (Baulch et al. 2002, p. 17), their distinct linguistic, customary or religious heritage presenting cultural obstacles to their interactions with the wider society that inhibit economic advancement. This explanation differs little from that advanced in the pre-reform era by the ethnic Kinh-dominated state, which attempted to eradicate religious and customary practices of ethnic minority peoples that were seen as backward, divisive and harmful to socialist modernisation (McElwee 2004). Third, the state’s sponsorship of market relations, migration and infrastructure projects in ethnic minority areas and the imposition of mainstream cultural values in the name of modernisation are believed by some analysts to have been counterproductive by undermining the socio-economic standing of people in such areas (Rambo & Jamieson 2003; Taylor 2004a). As a consequence, some minority groups have disengaged culturally and socially from the mainstream (Salemink 2003; Taylor 2004b, pp. 2605), forms of resistance with the potential to compound their economic marginalisation.
The Cham Muslims of the Mekong delta exemplify in several respects the problems faced by Vietnam’s remote-dwelling ethnic minority people during the liberal reform era. A community of almost 13,000 people, the Cham, who live near Vietnam’s border with Cambodia, reside in ten small settlements where they follow a mode of life constrained significantly by the delta’s riverine ecology. Culturally distinct from their neighbours, the Cham speak their own language*Cham*as well as Vietnamese, Khmer, Malay and Arabic. They have a unique style of housing and follow a distinct matrilocal post-marital residence pattern. Unlike their Kinh neighbours, who profess a southwards social and cultural diffusion narrative, the Cham claim diverse origins from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Middle East, as well as from the kingdom of Champa, formerly located in present-day Vietnam. As a community of devout Muslims, the Cham community of the delta has been subject to recent attempts by the Vietnamese state to sponsor migration by ethnic Kinh migrants into settlements in which they previously comprised the majority. They have been encouraged to study in government schools and to learn Vietnamese. Yet Cham people’s emphasis on their cultural and religious distinctive- ness has, if anything, only increased during a period in which development policies have favoured urban-dwelling residents in particular and ethnic Kinh people in general.
Given geographical, cultural and structural factors of a kind identified in the literature as the most common constraints to the well-being of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, it may not come as a surprise to learn that many Cham people describe their standard of living as low, or subsistence-level, earning only enough to live day to day. Living in a region with the poorest system of all-weather roads in the country, their settlements are difficult enough to access in the dry season. When it floods, as it does annually, they are cut off for months from the nearest urban and commercial centres. Few of them own motorbikes and the relatively high cost of cross-river ferry transport makes it difficult to access nearby service centres regularly. Many Cham say that in comparison with the majority ethnic group they lack education, connections and access to state power, resources that might help them to engage in remunerative economic activities. They point out that recent state development initiatives have brought them few benefits as many of the new high- cost investments and technologically demanding jobs have been monopolised by non-Cham people. The Cham have resisted the state’s efforts to define them as remnants from the kingdom of Champa, a state that was annexed by the Vietnamese. Instead, they emphasise a religious-based identity and highlight Islam as the sole basis for community membership (Nakamura 1999). The pronounced emphasis on Islam within their settlements has restricted interactions with their proximate neighbours and has also heightened consciousness among the Cham of their moral exclusivity in relation to their non-Muslim neighbours."
"Les musulmans de Châu Đốc (Vietnam) à l’épreuve du salafisme"
"Châu Đốc Muslims (Vietnam) faced with Salafism"
Les musulmans de Châu Đốc (Vietnam) à l’épreuve du salafisme
This is about the economic situation of minorities (Cham, Chinese, and Khmer) in the Mekong Delta.
http://www.chamstudies.com/members/philiptaylor(redressingdisadvantage).pdf
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