Conversations on Vietnam Development
Sau hơn một thế kỷ hình thành và phát triển, cà phê Việt Nam đã vững vàng đứng ở vị trí thứ hai thế giới về sản xuất, và xuất khẩu cà phê nhân. Tuy nhiên để đem lại lợi nhuận cao hơn cho người trồng, nâng kim ngạch xuất khẩu cà phê từ hơn 3 tỉ USD/năm hiện nay lên gấp đôi trong thời gian tới, toàn ngành cà phê có rất nhiều việc cần làm để thúc đẩy các giá trị gia tăng.
Tiếp tục đọc “Cà phê Việt Nam: Đã đến lúc phải chuyển từ Lượng sang Chất”
82-year-old Tran Thi Huong does what she must to survive, like walk the city streets to sell lottery tickets.
But, with the sun approaching its noon peak, their day is barely halfway through. Now comes the even more arduous task: Hawking their snacks – a menu of red bean soup, mung bean dumplings, banana cake and an iced peanut drink – in the blazing heat.
Despite her slight hunch, 70-year-old Madam Chau Chung Muoi moves just as nimbly as her younger sister Dao Muoi who is 61, and she propels the heavy-laden pushcart with surprising speed down the busy streets. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam’s ticking time-bomb of elderly poverty”
The Artex community in Malobon has been inundated for more than a decade. (Photo: Jack Board)
Maricris Ramos was 23 at the time and recalls the pure fear that struck her community in Navotas, an exposed district facing Manila Bay.
“First, the waves became big, alarmingly big. They crashed into our house, destroying it. Our house used to stand there,” she said, pointing to a spot closer to the current shorefront.
Tengson’s waterfront houses were struck hard by Typhoon Nesat in 2011.
Her family’s home – and the thousands of others in Tengson – are now further elevated above the water level and are sheltered by a dike system, which is designed to prevent flooding during powerful storm surges, as happened in 2011.
Tengson feels precarious. The houses, mostly made from flimsy metal, are stacked like Lego bricks. The passages between them are narrow and dank and plastic waste engulfs areas where adults work and children play.
Tròn 42 năm sau giải phóng, Buôn Ma Thuột vui tươi, tưng bừng với lễ hội đường phố náo nhiệt chưa từng có. Công chúng được thưởng thức sắc màu văn hóa không chỉ của 47 dân tộc anh em chung sống trên địa bàn tỉnh Đắk Lắk, hàng chục dân tộc khác trên khắp khu vực Tây Nguyên và vùng lân cận, mà còn có cả hương sắc mới lạ của những đoàn nghệ thuật đến từ nhiều quốc gia.
Tiếp tục đọc “Buôn Ma Thuột lộng lẫy sắc màu văn hóa đại ngàn”
It is also a reminder of the hard bargain the U.S. insisted upon during negotiations with Viet Nam which led to normalization of diplomatic relations in 1995. The current government of Viet Nam was required to repay an old debt of the Saigon regime which collapsed in 1975, loans which had been provided during the war totaling some $145 million US dollars. The Vietnamese eventually agreed, and repaid the first installments totaling about $15 million before then-Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John McCain intervened (and rightly so, in the opinion of many veterans) with congressional action which converted that debt to an “education” fund to provide study opportunities for Vietnamese students in the U.S. and American students in Viet Nam. That was better than an outright repayment, of course — particularly when U.S. humanitarian assistance at that time was less than $4 million a year, for efforts related to UXO cleanup and disability programs that might bring some relief to families facing the awful consequences of Agent Orange.
Sometimes simple fairness and justice, common decency, and morality must take precedence over the U.S. government’s bookkeeping requirements. (It might occur to some of us that the U.S. Ambassador in Cambodia should be reminded of that.)
CS
MARCH 11 201
Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tonnes of explosives on Cambodia’s countryside Washington wants the country to repay a $US500 million ($662 million) war debt.
The demand has prompted expressions of indignation and outrage from Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
Over 200 nights in 1973 alone, 257,456 tons of explosives fell in secret carpet-bombing sweeps – half as many as were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.
The pilots flew at such great heights they were incapable of discriminating between a Cambodian village and their targets, North Vietnamese supply lines – nicknamed the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.” Tiếp tục đọc “Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts”
Updated : 03/09/2017 17:32 GMT + 7
Vietnam needs assistance from foreign scientists in its efforts to protect the environment, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha remarked at an international conference on environmental pollution, restoration, and management on Wednesday.
Speaking to more than 200 experts from 25 nations and territories in Quy Nhon City, the capital of the south-central province of Binh Dinh, Minister Ha confirmed that Vietnam faces many environmental challenges, including rising pollution, decreasing biodiversity, limitations to environmental management, lack of forecasting capability, and insufficient resources to deal with environmental incidents. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam seeks environmental protection help from foreign scientists”
Updated : 03/10/2017 09:41 GMT + 7
A ten-meter tall model of the cinematic beast King Kong caught fire on Thursday at the Ho Chi Minh City premiere of ‘Kong: Skull Island’.
The ceremony was held in front of the SC Vivo City shopping mall in District 7, where government officials, U.S. diplomats, celebrities, and representatives from Warner Bros. Pictures gathered to celebrate the opening of the first Hollywood blockbuster to be shot mainly in Vietnam.
Towering of the ceremony’s stage was a ten-meter tall model of King Kong, the enormous fictional ape-like beast whose name was given to the film’s title.
At around 7:10 pm, when the event’s emcee was delivering a monologue following a lively performance from fire dancers in tribal costume, smoke and flames began to rise from the left hand of the Kong model. Tiếp tục đọc “Dancers set Kong’s Vietnam premiere ceremony on fire, literally”
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| Lake cleaners pour Redoxy-3C to purify a lake in Hà Nội. – Photo thanglong.chinhphu.vn |
HÀ NỘI — All lakes in the inner city and 36 of the 140 polluted lakes on the outskirts have been cleaned, the Hà Nội Water Drainage Company said on Wednesday.
Of the 36 lakes, 14 are in Đông Anh District, six are in Thạch Thất District and six are in Ba Vì District, said Phan Hoài Minh, deputy director of the company. The remaining ones are in Chương Mỹ, Gia Lâm, Sơn Tây, Thanh Oai, Ứng Hòa and Mê Linh districts.
Minh said that in 2016, following proposals submitted by district and town authorities, the company assessed the pollution level of 150 lakes on the outskirts of the capital city. Of these, 140 lakes were severely contaminated and needed urgent clean-ups to protect their bio-systems, safety levels and the surroundings. Tiếp tục đọc “Hà Nội’s lakes cleaned up”
SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-hye was fired on Friday (Mar 10) as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia.
The unanimous decision brought to a climax months of political turmoil that saw millions of people take to the streets in weekly protests, and triggers a new presidential election to be held within 60 days.
That will offer South Korea a chance to draw a line under the scandal, which has occupied its attention for months, even as the North has unleashed new missile launches and threats that have raised international alarm. Tiếp tục đọc “South Korean court confirms impeachment of President Park”
Mai An Nguyễn Anh Tuấn
Dự án sách Thơ Bạn Thơ của hai nhà thơ Nguyễn Nguyên Bảy & Lý Phương Liên đã thực hiện được 6 cuốn (dự tính là 8 cuốn) – cùng những ấn phẩm phụ trợ mà nội dung & hình thức cũng “hoành tráng” không kém, như Văn Bạn Văn, Chém Gió Muôn Màu, Vườn Thơ 5 Nhà – cho đến nay, sau gần 5 năm, đã đi tới chặng cuối. Có thể nói, đây là một công trình lớn mà lịch sử văn học Việt Nam sau này sẽ buộc phải ghi nhận và bàn đến như một “hiện tượng Văn học” đáng kể. Tiếp tục đọc “Về một bộ sưu tập văn học đồ sộ: Thơ Bạn Thơ”
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KỲ 1: THEO DẤU LÂM TẶC
Bất chấp lệnh đóng cửa rừng tự nhiên vừa được Thủ thướng Chính phủ Nguyễn Xuân Phúc tuyên bố hôm 20.6.2016, tại các cánh rừng tự nhiên thuộc lâm phần Ban Quản lý rừng phòng hộ lưu vực sông Bến Hải (huyện Vĩnh Linh, tỉnh Quảng Trị) vẫn đang “chảy máu” ồ ạt từng ngày. Lâm tặc đưa ôtô, xe trâu, cưa máy vào rừng, cây lớn, cây bé bị triệt hạ nằm ngổn ngang khắp các lối đi, trên triền đồi, giữa những vực sâu bạt ngàn, mọi việc diễn ra như thể khu rừng này chưa bao giờ có chủ!
Tiếp tục đọc “Quảng Trị, công khai đốn hạ cây gỗ trong rừng phòng hộ – 2 kỳ”
SEOUL – As South Korea begins the deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system that it says will allow it to better cope with North Korean threats, the reaction from its belligerent rival is hardly its only concern.
The plan to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, this year has angered not only North Korea, but also China, South Korea’s largest trade partner, which considers the system a security threat.
Residents in a rural South Korean town where THAAD is planned to sit have furiously protested over rumored health hazards they link to the system’s powerful radar, and some of the country’s potential presidential candidates have vowed to walk back on the deal if they win office. Tiếp tục đọc “Seoul finding looming THAAD deployment a hot potato politically, economically”
Stuart Green’s wife Mia, a lawyer, was killed in a barrage of bullets that narrowly missed his children in a hit he blames on gangsters linked to one of her cases
The two gunmen flanked the modest, family-sized Toyota at a busy intersection. Aiming at the driver, they fired a barrage of bullets, nine of which fatally hit Mia Mascariñas-Green in her head and neck.
In the back seat, her 10-year-old daughter and 23-month-old twins watched. Their nanny – who was sitting in the third row – jumped over the divide to shield the children with her body. One of the attacker’s guns jammed and they fled on motorbikes.
Stuart Green, a marine biologist from Hertfordshire in the UK, relates the last moments of his wife’s life with a mixture of anger and extraordinary grief. Tiếp tục đọc “British man on mission for justice after wife gunned down in Philippines”
Gunmen dressed as medics fought security forces for hours in assault on military hospital in Afghan capital
Michael Safi @safimichael
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Kabul military hospital by gunmen disguised as doctors who entered the facility and battled security forces for hours.
At least 38 people died and dozens more were injured, the hospital said.
The attack began with a suicide bombing at the rear of the hospital complex in the Afghan capital. Officials said at least three gunmen dressed as medical staff then entered the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan facility and took up positions on the upper floors. Tiếp tục đọc “Isis militants disguised as doctors kill 38 in Kabul hospital attack”
CVD 