The Pitfalls and Promise of America’s Founding Myths

Maintaining a shared sense of nationhood has always been a struggle for a country defined not by organic ties, but by a commitment to a set of ideals

Smthsonian

Westward Course of Empire
For generations, Americans have sought to understand the sense of shared destiny—or perhaps, civic obligation—that forged the nation. (Emanuel Leutze via Wikimedia Commons under Public domain)

By Colin Woodard SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
FEBRUARY 22, 202122332

Alexander Hamilton had no illusions about what would happen to Americans if the United States collapsed.

If the newly drafted Constitution wasn’t ratified, he warned in Federalist No. 8, a “War between the States,” fought by irregular armies across unfortified borders, was imminent. Large states would overrun small ones. “Plunder and devastation” would march across the landscape, reducing the citizenry to “a state of continual danger” that would nourish authoritarian, militarized

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Which sectors in Vietnam are dominated by Thai companies?

VNE – By Minh Son   February 24, 2021 | 08:00 pm GMT+7Which sectors in Vietnam are dominated by Thai companies?Shoppers look at fruits at the Central Group Vietnam’s Big C supermarket in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

Though Thailand is not the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, its companies dominate a number of sectors like retail, beverage, packaging, livestock, and solar energy.

In the last decade .their investments in Vietnam swelled by an average of 13 percent a year. Tiếp tục đọc “Which sectors in Vietnam are dominated by Thai companies?”

Remittances to HCMC rise to record $6.1 bln

VNE – By Nguyen Quy   February 19, 2021 | 02:00 pm GMT+7Remittances to HCMC rise to record $6.1 blnAn employee counts U.S. banknotes at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

HCMC received inward remittances worth $6.1 billion last year, a record high and up 12 percent from the previous year, despite the economic slump caused by Covid-19.

The figure exceeded the forecast of $5.5 billion, Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the city branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, said. Tiếp tục đọc “Remittances to HCMC rise to record $6.1 bln”

The United States’ Enhanced & Enduring Commitment to the Pacific Islands Region

East West Center in Washington

Key officials engaged in United States relations with Pacific Islands countries discussed expanding presence and engagement in the region from development, military, and congressional policy perspectives. They explained how these moves position the United States to deepen strategic partnership with Pacific Island nations in support of a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific. Opening comments followed by moderated discussion covered the development trajectories of Pacific Island countries, COVID-19’s impacts on the region, and US-China dynamics.

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VNExpress: 20 năm trước

Thứ sáu, 26/2/2021, 00:00 (GMT+7) VNExpress

“Ngày thành lập ư, có thật quan trọng không?”, tôi đã nghĩ thế… Nhưng hôm nay, chợt nhớ về 20 năm trước, kỷ niệm lần lượt hiện về.

Lần đầu tiên tôi “nhìn thấy” Internet là vào năm 1998, nửa năm sau khi Việt Nam chính thức kết nối. Ấn tượng đầu tiên là hầu như không có gì bằng tiếng Việt để đọc. Đang làm biên tập viên báo Lao Động, tôi nhận ra đây sẽ là phương tiện phát hành mới, mảnh đất chưa khai phá cho báo chí. “Mình có thể là người đầu tiên làm điều đó?”, từ lâu tôi mong ước làm một tờ báo thực sự hữu ích cho người dùng.

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Party Secretariat has new permanent member

Saturday, 13:48, 06/02/2021

VOV.VNThe Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam has assigned Politburo member Vo Van Thuong to hold the post of the permanent member of the Party’s Secretariat of the new tenure.

Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong (R) on February 6 hands over the Politburo’s decision to assign the new post to Vo Van Thuong
Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong (R) on February 6 hands over the Politburo’s decision to assign the new post to Vo Van Thuong

Thuong, 51, was re-elected to the Party’s Political Bureau at the freshly-concluded 13th National Party Congress in Hanoi.

He used to work as the First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Secretary of the Quang Ngai provincial Party Committee, and the Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee. Tiếp tục đọc “Party Secretariat has new permanent member”

Massive boats dredge sand, threaten erosion on rivers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 17:42 GMT+7 tuoitre

Massive boats dredge sand, threaten erosion on rivers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta
Two sand-mining boats with dredgers extract sand from the Tra On River, only 100 meters away from the shore, in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam, February 23, 2021. Photo: Chi Hanh / Tuoi Tre

Despite facing furious opposition from local residents, a big barge equipped with dredgers is publicly extracting sand off the Tra On River in Vinh Long Province, located in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The barge has mined sand on the river for a few days, residents of My An Village in the province’s Binh Minh Town, said in a report to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday.

As witnessed by Tuoi Tre, a massive boat numbered LA-07135 appeared at the junction of the Hau River and the Tra On River.

It was accompanied by another boat with registration number BTr-7402, with a perceived load capacity of hundreds of cubic meters of sand.

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How can Mekong Delta fly high if no one gives it wings?

By Nguyen Trong Binh   February 22, 2021 | 07:51 am GMT+7 vnexpress

On the morning of May 21, 2000, I woke up to a scene I had never witnessed before.

Nguyen Trong Binh
Nguyen Trong Binh
Những hình ảnh tuyệt đẹp về mưu sinh mùa nước nổi ở miền Tây - Báo Người  lao động

An endless stream of people driving motorbikes and cars from various provinces in the Mekong Delta like Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, and An Giang flooded the roads near my sister’s house in Vinh Long Province: They had come to see the inauguration of the My Thuan Bridge.

I was one of them.

Excited at the prospect of seeing the country’s first cable-stayed bridge, one that spans the Tien River, a major branch of the Mekong, to link Vinh Long and Tien Giang, I had gone to my sister’s house, eight kilometers from the bridge, the previous day, and got up early the next day for the inauguration.

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Red River’s clear colors blamed on dams, pollution

By Gia Chinh   February 25, 2021 | 08:09 am GMT+7 vnexpress

With the Red River turning a surprisingly clear blue-green shade in its upstream sections, experts have blamed it on dams and polluting factories.

The Red River as flows through Lao Cai Town in February 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Ngoc Trien
The Red River flowing through Lao Cai Province in February 2021 is clear and not murky. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Ngoc Trien.

For a week now, the Red River section that flows through Lao Cai Province has become so clear that there are some shallow areas towards the banks where the river bed can be seen at a depth of one meter.

The Red River, over 1,100 km long, originates in China and flows through Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc and Hanoi. The river section that flows through Vietnam is about 510 km long.

Nguyen Thi Lan, a resident of Lao Cai, said the water of the Red River in her town was normally a thick brown color, and if seen from afar, it looked like a pinkish strip.

“It is really strange now that the river has such a clear green shade,” she said.

Local people swim in the water full of silt in 2017. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh
Locals people swim in the Red River in 2017. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

Vu Dinh Thuy, deputy director of Lao Cai’s Natural Resources and Environment Department, said this is not the first time the Red River has changed into such a color and this phenomenon has happened around this time of year for the past five years.

“Maybe the reason is that the natural alluvium that has always flowed down naturally from further upstream has been absent; and also northern Vietnam has had no rainfall this season (to muddy the waters).”

Dao Trong Tu, chairman of the Vietnam Rivers Network, also set out two possible reasons for the changes seen in the Red River.

He said a series of hydropower plants and reservoirs operated by China further upstream could have held back alluvium.

The other reason, he said, could be the pollution caused by factories operating in upstream areas and along the banks of the river.

Tu added that theory of pollution would require specific monitoring and study of the water samples to arrive at a final conclusion.Related News:

Thang Long Imperial Citadel expected to become Heritage Park

Chia sẻ | FaceBookTwitter Email Copy LinkInterested024/02/2021    20:32 GMT+7

The Thang Long Imperial Citadel in the centre of Hanoi should be preserved and developed with a vision to become a Heritage Park, said Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Vuong Dinh Hue.

Bac Mon (northern gate) – one of the gates of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. Photos: VNA

The Hanoi leader said at a working session with its management body – the Thang Long-Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre on February 23 that along with the Co Loa Relic Site, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel is a precious heritage of Hanoi. He stressed the need to promote the citadel relic site’s values in line with tourism development.

He also underscored the importance of strengthening international cooperation in restoring and promoting the values of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel.

The Thang Long Imperial Citadel was built in the 11th century by the Ly Viet Dynasty, marking the independence of the Dai Viet.

The Centre Sector of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel was recognised as a special national relic site in 2009 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2010. So far, the city has showed strong performance in implementing seven out of eight commitments to the UNESCO and continued realising the commitment in unification of management.

Currently, five projects to restore and develop the site have been underway and planned.

At the meeting, experts, scientists and researchers held that unifying management is a focus of the UNESCO and Vietnam. They advised Hanoi to coordinate with relevant agencies to speed up the hand over of the remaining area of 1,729 hectares and archaeological items, while focusing on prioritsed projects at the 18 Hoang Dieu Archaeological Site and the Kinh Thien Palace restoration.

Luu Tran Tieu, Chairman of the National Cultural Heritage Council, suggested that Hanoi should add a number of additional items to the construction of an outdoor museum at the site to draw visitors.  VNA

Vietnamese Tet Programme at Thang Long Imperial Citadel

A Vietnamese Tet (Lunar New Year) Programme with folk rituals and games took place at the Thang Long ….

Evening tour to introduce visitors to the best of Thang Long Imperial Citadel

An evening tour named “Decoding the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long” is scheduled to be launched later ….

National Assembly to elect state leaders in late March

POLITICSFace BookTwitterBình luậnTin nóng

24/02/2021    08:17 GMT+7 vietnamnet

The upcoming National Assembly session, which will take place from March 24 to April 7, will elect a number of positions in the State apparatus for the 2016-2021 term.

Quốc hội bầu lãnh đạo nhà nước vào cuối tháng 3
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

National Assembly Chair Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said at the 53rd session of the 14th National Assembly Standing Committee which concluded on February 23 that the upcoming National Assembly session, which will take place from March 24 to April 7, will elect a number of positions in the State apparatus for the 2016-2021 term.

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Tiếng Việt từ thế kỉ 17 – từ Luận Phép Học đến Khoa Học (phần 27)

Các thừa sai Dòng Tên đầu thế kỷ 17 học và ký âm tiếng Việt

Nguyễn Cung Thông[1] 

Phần này bàn về cụm danh từ “khoa học” trong tiếng Việt từ thời bình minh của chữ quốc ngữ đến nay.

Các tài liệu tham khảo chính của bài viết này là cuốn “The Emergence of the Modern Sino-Japnese Lexicon – Seven Studies” (chủ biên/dịch giả Joshua A. Fogel – NXB Brill – Leiden/London 2015), và bốn tác phẩm của LM de Rhodes soạn: (a) cuốn Phép Giảng Tám Ngày (viết tắt là PGTN), (b) Bản Báo Cáo vắn tắt về tiếng An Nam hay Đông Kinh (viết tắt là BBC), (c) Lịch Sử Vương Quốc Đàng Ngoài 1627-1646 và (d) tự điển Annam-Lusitan-Latinh (thường gọi là Việt-Bồ-La, viết tắt là VBL) có thể tra tự điển này trên mạng, như trang http://books.google.fr/books?id=uGhkAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.

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The Role of Long-Duration Energy Storage in Deep Decarbonization: Policy Considerations

WRI.org

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  • A recent growth in targets for ambitious clean energy use and net zero greenhouse gas emissions has increased interest in the role of utility-scale storage, including long-duration energy storage, to achieve deep decarbonization of the power sector.
  • In future deep-decarbonization scenarios, energy storage holds the potential to address multiday weather-related events that lower the production of renewable energy, as well as seasonal differences in renewable energy resource availability that can last for weeks.
  • Today’s storage technologies provide only hours of storage, though with design and operational changes, compressed air energy storage and pumped hydro storage capacity could be stretched into days.
  • Other, less mature storage technologies may evolve to provide long-duration storage that compensate for seasonal variations in renewable energy supply, for example, technologies that create hydrogen through low-carbon processes.
  • Recent storage deployments in the United States have been driven by state storage mandates, utility investment, frequency regulation markets and declining battery costs.
  • Policymakers can play an important role in driving innovation, encouraging cost reductions and assessing the benefits of storage to provide greater options for maintaining reliability in future decarbonized grids through research and development, demonstration projects and regional studies. New approaches to financing, planning and procurement could reduce barriers to the adoption of long-duration storage technologies.

 

Mực nước sông Mekong thấp ‘đáng lo ngại’, TQ cần cấp thêm dữ liệu về đập

Đập Đại Triều Sơn chặn sông Mekong ở tỉnh Vân Nam, TQ.

Ủy hội sông Mekong (MRC) hôm thứ Sáu 12/2 cho hay mực nước của sông Mekong đã hạ thấp xuống mức “đáng lo ngại”, một phần do lượng xả bị hạn chế từ các đập thủy điện của Trung Quốc ở thượng nguồn. MRC kêu gọi Bắc Kinh chia sẻ tất cả dữ liệu của họ về lưu lượng nước.

Dòng sông cũng là tuyến đường thủy quan trọng đã chuyển sang màu xanh lam dọc theo biên giới Thái-Lào, thay vì có màu nâu đục thường thấy. Điều này báo hiệu về mực nước nông và lượng phù sa giàu dinh dưỡng bị giảm xuống thấp – một phần do hạn chế về lượng nước xả từ đập Cảnh Hồng ở tỉnh Vân Nam của Trung Quốc, ủy hội liên chính phủ MRC nói.

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