American billionaire, Bill Gates, recently took to Facebook to express his concerns about rising electricity demands in developing countries. To illustrate this, he used a picture of tangled electrical wires on a Hanoi street, a common site across not only Vietnam, but much of the developing world.
While the point of the post was to come up with solutions, it caused some waves among Vietnamese netizens, some of whom took it as a slight.
On September 9, Gates posted the image with the caption, “Energy demand in Vietnam is growing by up to 14% a year. This is putting its old power grid under considerable strain. How will countries like Vietnam tackle the growing demand? Tough decisions lie ahead”.
As of 10am this morning, the post has 42,984 likes, 6,983 comments and 6,815 shares.
According to Tuoi Tre, Vietnamese reaction to the post ranged from acceptance to hostility:
“Many comments were written in Vietnamese or in hard-to-understand English. Some even posted rude comments.
Tu Le, a Facebook user, could not stand it and called on his Vietnamese fellows to respect the so-called “comment culture”.
“Vietnamese... You guys please stop putting the stupid comments, you guys, this is a public place and many people around the world are looking at these comments. Do you want them to think "Vietnamese people are uneducated"????!!!! Please forgive them, Bill” – Tu Le wrote.”
Bad internet manners aside, the negative commenters probably won’t be invited to Gates’ money pit.
[Tuoi Tre // VietnamNet]
