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Hàng rong Sài Gòn: ‘Con tôi sẽ không có tương lai nếu nó cũng đi bán rong giống tôi’ – Saigon street food: ‘There’s no future for my son selling food this way’

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

AA – Friday, October 9, 2015 – 10:56 – by Khai Tran AnPhoto: Vinh Dao

Hằng ngày, 6 giờ sáng, gia đình anh Trang bắt đầu chuẩn bị cho bữa trưa.

Đó là lúc họ bắt đầu chuẩn bị món gà chiên muối ớt – một món ăn được ưa chuộng tại quán cơm của gia đình tại một góc phố ở Quận 3, TP.Hồ Chí Minh suốt 30 năm nay.

Hằng ngày, gia đình anh chế biến hơn 15 món ăn khác nhau (ngoài cơm trắng, canh rau muống và trà đá) trong căn buồng bếp nhỏ trên căn hộ 3 phòng khiêm tốn của gia đình. Đến khoảng 11 giờ trưa, họ cùng nhau chuyển các món ăn cùng các đồ dùng cần thiết xuống tầng trệt bằng một hệ thống ròng rọc tự chế. Quán cơm của gia đình được dựng lên cách đó chưa đầy 100 mét dưới tán cây trên một góc vỉa hè kế bên cột biến áp. Trong suốt hai tiếng buổi trưa, có đến hơn 150 thực khách thuộc mọi tầng lớp đến ăn tại quán, từ dân công sở ăn mặc lịch sự đến các bác xe ôm đi dép lê. Giá mỗi suất là 30,000 đồng (1,4 USD). Tiếp tục đọc “Hàng rong Sài Gòn: ‘Con tôi sẽ không có tương lai nếu nó cũng đi bán rong giống tôi’ – Saigon street food: ‘There’s no future for my son selling food this way’” →

Opening borders and barriers

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Nature 527, S80–S82 (12 November 2015) doi:10.1038/527S80a
Published online
11 November 2015

Collaboration may result in higher impact science, but are government initiatives the best way to promote such international and interdisciplinary connections?

Kavli Institute

Tea time at Kavli Institute allows for an organized and informal exchange of collaborative ideas.

Nature – An American physicist, a Japanese mathematician and a German cosmologist walk into a lab; what do you get? Based on recent outcomes, you’ll get ground-breaking science. And lately, governments have begun paying heed to evidence1 that suggests international, multidisciplinary collaborations such as these will yield high-impact results.

Policymakers from diverse countries, including China, Japan, Australia, Chile and Germany, have sought to foster excellent science and technological innovation — and reap the associated economic benefits — by promoting collaboration across borders and disciplines, and setting up specialist centres with the necessary resources (see ‘Conduits to collaboration’).

Study Looks at Renewable Energy in Germany and Texas

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Holbert Janson
Dec 29, 2015

renewablenergyworld – A report published by Stanford’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance looks at three of the world’s largest economies and largest energy jurisdictions in an attempt to compare their approaches to ramping up renewable energy.  Included in the report is a comparison of electricity rates in Germany to those in Texas and California as well a discussion of how renewables contribute to overall costs.

The report compares Germany, the world’s fourth largest economy and an aggressive adopter of renewable energy, with the states of California and Texas.  California and Texas are the world’s 8th and 12th largest economies respectively, and are both leaders in the U.S. with respect to wind and solar deployment. Tiếp tục đọc “Study Looks at Renewable Energy in Germany and Texas” →

Despite $28 Billion Drop in Global Private Infrastructure Investment in Energy, Transport, and Water, Strong Showing of Renewable Energy Projects

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Worldbank.org – WASHINGTON, December 15, 2015—Despite a sharp decline in private investment in energy, transport, and water infrastructure in developing countries in the first six months of 2015, investment in renewable energy projects, mainly solar, rose to nearly half of the total investment — the highest level ever as a share of total investment, according to an update released today by the World Bank Group’s Private Participation in Infrastructure Database.

Total private infrastructure investments for the energy, transport, and water sectors  in 139 emerging economies dropped by more than half, from $53 billion in first six months of 2014 to $25 billion in the first six months of 2015, mainly due to a decline in the number of projects in Brazil, China, and India. Investments in other countries remained steady.
Tiếp tục đọc “Despite $28 Billion Drop in Global Private Infrastructure Investment in Energy, Transport, and Water, Strong Showing of Renewable Energy Projects” →

Our Energy Transformation in 2015

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Like 1973, the year 2015 marked a decisive shift in the world’s energy economy.

technologyreview – In 2015 a series of events combined to drive what may well to be profound shifts—even turning points—in the history of the energy sector.

The ongoing decline in oil prices, which began as early as 2012, accelerated noticeably in 2015. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil price fell to $34.53 a barrel on December 18, lower than it’s been since before the financial crash of 2008, with no floor in sight. Goldman Sachs has predicted that oil could fall as low as $20 a barrel, a development that would cripple most oil-producing economies and have geopolitical ripple effects for years to come. At the same time, the price of natural gas remains near historic lows. Cheap oil and natural gas are conventionally thought to be negative influences on the adoption of renewable energy, lessening the incentives of businesses and consumers to give up fossil fuels. But that doesn’t seem to have slowed the shift away from fossil fuels in 2015.
Tiếp tục đọc “Our Energy Transformation in 2015” →

What Africa can learn from Asian supply chains

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Published on Tuesday, 15 December 2015

A woman sells coffee beans in Viet Nam.
A woman sells coffee beans in Viet Nam.

blogs.ADB.org – At this week’s 10th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, trade ministers are trying to advance 15 years of Doha Development Agenda talks to reduce trade barriers. The real issue, however, is whether African economies can follow East Asia’s success in global supply chains amid “new normal” growth and rising inequality.

Global supply chains refer to the geographical location of stages of production (design, production, marketing, and service activities) in a cost-effective manner and linked by trade in intermediate inputs and final goods. For instance, the Toyota Prius—a hybrid electric mid-size hatchback car—for the US market was designed in Japan and is presently assembled there, but some parts and components are made in Southeast Asia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Tiếp tục đọc “What Africa can learn from Asian supply chains” →