Our Man in Hanoi discusses his ambivalence at being a development worker, working to change a country they love just as it is: “A friend who worked with an ethnic group in a far flung corner of Vietnam told me that visiting tourists had started to complain that the traditional old wooden huts were being replaced by “non authentic” brick buildings. But as she said…who wouldn't prefer to live in a water tight, cool home? And what right do we have to stop this progress?”