Longish thread on international aid: In the 90s, I was a member of a group of lawyers, retired judges, and legal academics who were funded by the Oz Govt to help bring the rule of law and legal education back to Indochina /1
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Very interesting thread Sam. I still think you should write a cookery book but I am sure that your experience of Vietnam is excellent source material for a novel.
For example. Pol Pot literally killed all lawyers in Cambodia. In the 80s and 90s (before the US lifted their embargo), Vietnamese legal scholars had to study in countries like Russia and Cuba. /2
So, the Australian Govt (and Australia lost more people per capita in the Vietnam war than the US) decided to spend a relatively small amount of money to help Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos develop legal education. So, off we went. /3
We persuaded all the largest law firms in Oz to donate their legal texts as soon they got a new version. We went to Hanoi, Vientiene, and Phnom Penh to talk to universities about how important robust legal education is. /4
We arranged academic swaps with Australian law schools and sent Oz academics to teach in Indochina. And the Oz Govt underwrote all this. It probably cost less than £20m. BUT. and this is the point pricks like writers for the Daily Mail miss, ./5
the various Governments were grateful, My law firm was the 1st foreign firm to be granted a licence to operate in Vietnam. I worked there. As the US embargo was still in place, the HK or Chinese arms of US companies hired us to provide legal advice. /6
We were hired by the Vietnamese Govt to produce the official English version of Vietnamese Foreign Investment Laws. And the Americans missed the boat By the time the embargo was lifted, countries like Australia and Sweden had a foot hold. /7
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