Raw meat – not your average street café

Warning: Some pictures in this text show severely injured people. Do not continue reading this post if you find such depictions upsetting or objectionable.

Street cafe in front of a Hanoi hospital

There are some things in Vietnam I just can’t understand or get used to. I’ve written about eating dogs before. That’s one example. Here’s another one.

There’s a hospital in downtown Hanoi that has a glass showcase on its outer wall. Displayed in it are very graphic pictures of injured people. I originally thought they showed victims of traffic accidents, because reckless driving is a big problem in Vietnam. But a friend told me that the photos depict work injuries and virus or bacterial infections treated at the hospital.

Display case with graphic photos of injured people

Are these people the hospital was able to save? Or are these the cases where the doctors couldn’t help?

Are these pictures meant to show what horrible injuries the hospital doctors have to deal with? Or should they serve as a warning to people to be careful and drive cautiously and avoid such injuries?

The pictures make me sick. I try not to look at them whenever I pass that street corner.

Graphic depictions of severe injuries in front of a Hanoi hospital

I disapprove of displaying these pictures on a public intersection in the heart of Hanoi. How do the people depicted here feel about being shown like this? What about the friends and relatives of the victims? These are things that passers-by – and especially children – shouldn’t have to see.

What strikes me, though, is that Vietnamese people don’t seem to be as squeamish as me or as sensitive to the ethical questions that displaying these photographs etail. They just don’t seem to mind these pictures. They’re able to ignore them.

Hanoi street café in front of hospital display case

These days, a street cafe has even put out its chairs right underneath this traumatizing display case. Cafe patrons sit just in front of these horrible pictures of severely injured people. They eat, drink and chat as if they were sitting on the banks of a balmy lake.

There are some things in Vietnam I just can’t understand.

Say ‘cheese’, USA

This past weekend was rained out and I was basically locked up inside. So I slept in, surfed the net and enjoyed not having an agenda.

My only activity was putting together a Soundslides presentation of pictures I took during recent trips to the U.S.

Please click on the photo below to get the show going.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

USA, posted with vodpod Photos by Thorsten Cologne. Music by http://www.pacdv.com/sounds