ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
Vietnam resumes controversial water buffalo fighting
By Hau Dinh
October 16, 2017
China catching
up to U.S. in
foreign aid flow
The Associated Press
Continued from page 2
O SON, Vietnam — Vietnam’s annual
water buffalo fighting festival resumed
last month despite calls for an end to
the traditional event because of its violence.
The tournament was halted temporarily in
July after a buffalo killed its owner on the
fighting field. It was the first human fatality,
although buffaloes have died in fights before.
More safety measures, including re-enforced
fences and tests of buffaloes for stimulants,
have since been put in place.
About 20,000 people crowded the stadium in
the resort town of Do Son in Hai Phong to watch
the finals, in which 16 buffaloes were pitted
against each other.
“I’m really happy and proud,” said Luu Dinh
Toi, whose buffalo was the winner.
Toi’s buffaloes have participated in many
festivals, but this was the first time one of his
was the winner.
“I was the one who cut grass to feed my
buffalo and stay with him overnight over the
past year,” he said. “Today, my buffalo
rewarded me for my care.”
In accordance with tradition, all losing
buffaloes were slaughtered right after the end
of the tournament. The winning buffalo was to
be killed the next day as a tribute to god.
“I’m very sad that my buffalo will be
slaughtered for god,” Toi said. “I feel like I’m
losing something, but that’s the tradition left
Heidelberg University, and
William & Mary.
“At the very top level, you
could say the U.S. and
China are now spending
rivals when it comes to
their financial transfers to
other countries,” said Aid-
Data’s executive director,
Bradley C. Parks.
China’s
secretiveness
about its spending has
fuelled complaints its aid
might prop up corrupt
regimes or undercut envi-
ronmental and human-
rights standards western
donors are trying to en-
force.
Attention to Chinese
financing has increased as
Beijing promotes its “Belt
and Road Initiative,” a
multibillion-dollar initia-
tive to expand China’s
trade links with Asia,
Africa, and the Middle East
by building ports, roads,
and other facilities.
About 23 percent of
Chinese spending met the
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Develop-
ment’s definition of aid, or
“official
development
assistance,” which requires
at least 25 percent of a
transfer to be a grant. By
contrast, 93 percent of U.S.
spending qualifies as aid.
D
CONTROVERSIAL CONTESTS. A man leads his winning buffalo off the fighting field in Do Son beach town, in Hai
Phong, Vietnam. Vietnam’s water buffalo fighting festival resumed last month amid calls for an end to the traditional annual
event because of its violence. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)
“This year’s festival is very disappointing,” he
behind by our ancestors and I have no choice.”
The death in early July sparked a heated said. “Our group had hoped that the deadly
incident would serve as a warning ... but
debate over whether to continue the festival.
Nguyen Tam Thanh of the animal-welfare regrettably, the festival still went ahead and
group Animals Asia in Vietnam said his group is the community’s ideas were not respected.”
Buffalo fighting was halted during the
opposed to events where animals are mal-
Vietnam War and resumed in the late 1980s.
treated or used to entertain people.
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