By Ngo Chi Tung March 24, 2021 | 07:38 am GMT+7 Vietnamnet The towering symbols of progress – skyscrapers – are actually symbolic of a steadily worsening quality of life. We breathe polluted air and lose time we can never regain. I wake my children up at 5:30 every weekday for our 12.5 km commute from Cau Dien Ward in Nam Tu Liem District to the city center. It takes us 1-1.5 hours. Winter days are the worst. Dawn doesn’t break by 6 a.m., and seeing my third grader daughter shiver as she sits inside the school guard’s booth to wait for the school to open breaks my heart, each time.