{"id":5184,"date":"2025-09-12T08:02:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T01:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dinhhongky.com\/uncategorized\/cham-la-co-toi\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:51:43","slug":"being-late-is-a-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dinhhongky.com\/en\/articles\/being-late-is-a-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Late Is a Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dinh Hong Ky \u2013 Published on VnExpress, September 12, 2025.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once, my wife and I attended a wedding in Ho Chi Minh City. The invitation said 5:30 p.m., and we arrived on time.
The hall was almost empty\u2014just a few family members. The bride and groom hadn\u2019t arrived either. It wasn\u2019t until 7:30 p.m. that the banquet began. At that time, I didn\u2019t know that in Ho Chi Minh City, a two-hour delay for a wedding was\u2026 perfectly normal.<\/p>\n

The host had to bear all the additional costs: renting the venue longer, staff waiting around, lights and air conditioning running idle, extra service charges, and so on. For a hall with several hundred guests, just the electricity, air conditioning, and waiting staff could cost tens of millions of VND more. A cultural habit of \u201cbeing late\u201d had turned into a very real form of waste.<\/p>\n

The mindset that \u201cbeing late is no big deal\u201d in daily life has gradually slipped into the workplace. Meetings starting late are often seen as normal. The default excuse: \u201cTraffic jams, rain.\u201d<\/em> But traffic jams don\u2019t happen to only one person. When lateness becomes \u201cnormal\u201d in the office, it\u2019s no surprise that society at large starts to rationalize\u2026 delays in public projects.<\/p>\n

The Ben Thanh \u2013 Suoi Tien Metro Line No.1<\/strong> is a typical example. Originally scheduled for operation in 2018, it will only start running at the end of 2024. Six years of delay have helped inflate costs from VND 17.4 trillion to 43.7 trillion<\/strong>. The difference could have built more than 500 schools or dozens of district-level hospitals<\/strong>. Behind those years of stagnation are not just financial losses, but millions of wasted commuting hours and missed development opportunities for the entire city.<\/p>\n

The An Phu interchange<\/strong>, a key gateway connecting to the Long Thanh Expressway, is also expected to be delayed by at least a year. About 120,000 vehicles<\/strong> pass through daily. According to JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)<\/strong>, the value of time lost due to traffic jams there is around USD 3\u20134 per vehicle per hour<\/strong>. If congestion lasts 15 minutes, that\u2019s a loss of VND 2 billion per day<\/strong>; if 30 minutes, the loss doubles.<\/p>\n

But not every province or city is slow. The Nhon Trach Bridge (Dong Nai)<\/strong>, near the An Phu roundabout, was completed 2.5 months ahead of schedule<\/strong>, thanks to efficient organization and coordination. In Hanoi<\/strong>, the National Exhibition and Convention Center<\/strong>\u2014the largest in Southeast Asia and among the top 10 globally\u2014was completed in just 10 months<\/strong>, even though the plan allowed two years. These examples show that being on time, or even early, is entirely possible\u2014with determination and strict coordination mechanisms.<\/p>\n

In developed countries, delays are never considered normal. They are treated as a violation of public trust<\/strong> and always come with strict penalties<\/strong>.<\/p>\n