Rich kids scorned for car-racing in Vietnam
HANOI - A 17-year-old has been jailed for three years here for organising a luxury-car race along a city street after a case that
exposed the reckless, free-spending youth in the conservative communist country.
Trinh Sam Mau was found guilty of organising the race in May and "disturbing public order" in the southern commercial hub of Ho
Chi Minh City, the Saigon Times Daily said. Six others in the race that featured a BMW, a Lexus, a Mercedes-Benz and a Toyota -
were given suspended sentences. Car ownership is way beyond the means of most of Vietnam's 80-million people.
Six others were given suspended jail sentences
Reports of the race were splashed across the front pages of newspapers when police arrested the young men. One had even tried to
bribe an officer with the equivalent of $400 - a year's income for an average Vietnamese.
News reports said most of the racers were children of wealthy businesspeople. Vietnam has been promoting private enterprise in
recent years but overt displays of wealth are still viewed with suspicion.
Reuters - September 11, 2003
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