Vietnam needs to choose the path less traveled

vnexpress.net

By Nguyen Dang Anh Thi   January 26, 2020 | 07:27 am GMT+7

In copying other countries’ development mistakes, Vietnam has paid a heavy price for not deploying due foresight. Now, we cannot ignore hindsight wisdom.

Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

When he was 18, my eldest brother faced a tough decision – should he go to university or take up vocational training?

Although he wanted to persist with his academic pursuit, he deferred to the family’s economic needs and decided to join the workforce to support the family.

So, instead of going to university, he decided to go to Tay Loc District in my home province, Thua Thien Hue, and learn tailoring.

One year, with a sudden surge in the need for making windcheaters in HCMC, my brother left home and headed for the southern metropolis in search of better work opportunities. He boarded the crammed bus, not daring to look behind at his sobbing family.

Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam needs to choose the path less traveled”

UN’s top court orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide

Momentous pronouncement at Hague rejects Aung San Suu Kyi’s defence of her country’s military

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh take part in prayers to mark the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar
 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh take part in prayers to mark the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar. Photograph: Rafiquar Rahman/Reuters

Myanmar has been ordered by the United Nations’ highest court to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority and preserve any evidence of past crimes.

In a momentous and unanimous decision, the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague imposed emergency “provisional measures” on the country – intervening in its domestic affairs by instructing the government of Aung San Suu Kyi to respect the requirements of the 1948 genocide convention.

Declaring that there was prima facie evidence of breaches of the convention, the court warned that the estimated 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar were “extremely vulnerable” to attacks by the military. Tiếp tục đọc “UN’s top court orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide”

Coronavirus Exposes Core Flaws, and Few Strengths, in China’s Governance

nytimes

While China can mobilize a huge national response to the outbreak, its response to the crisis is also a lesson in how the country’s political weak points can carry grave consequences for world health.

Health care workers at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital on Saturday.Credit…Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Image

  • Published Jan. 25, 2020Updated Jan. 26, 2020, 12:45 a.m. ET

It was the initial news reports that first suggested China’s political system might be getting in the way of its ability to confront the coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak seemed to already be a full-blown crisis, infecting dozens in China and even some abroad, by the time it became widely reported. Tiếp tục đọc “Coronavirus Exposes Core Flaws, and Few Strengths, in China’s Governance”

China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry

pv-magazine.com
The Chinese government will extend duties on U.S. and South Korean polysilicon for another five years from today despite committing to buy $200 billion more American goods and services in the trade deal signed on Wednesday. Poly manufacturer REC Silicon says it expects polysilicon to form part of that trade agreement.

 

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has announced the anti-dumping duties applied to U.S. and South Korean-made polysilicon will remain in place for another five years from today.

Norwegian poly producer REC Silicon, which manufactures almost all of its current output of the solar module raw material in the U.S., said this morning the extension of duties announced yesterday was expected as part of a pre-planned tariff review independent of the trade deal thrashed out by President Trump and China on Wednesday. Tiếp tục đọc “China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry”

World Consumes 100 Billion Tons of Materials Every Year

An open pit mine in Russia.

An open pit mine in Russia. RINAT GAREEV/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100 billion tons every year, report has revealed, but the proportion being recycled is falling.

The climate and wildlife emergencies are driven by the unsustainable extraction of fossil fuels, metals, building materials, and trees. The report’s authors warn that treating the world’s resources as limitless is leading towards global disaster.
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5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report

weforum.org

  • Oxfam’s Time To Care report looks at wealth inequality and how it’s partly driven by the burden placed on women to provide unpaid – and underpaid – care work.
  • The charity proposes six solutions to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite”.

“Governments around the world can, and must, build a human economy that is feminist and benefits the 99%, not only the 1%.”

That’s the message from Oxfam, the aid and development charity, in its latest report on the state of global inequality, Time To Care.

It focuses on the impact that unpaid and underpaid care work has on the prospects and livelihoods of women and girls across the world – and how that’s driving growing inequality.

Oxfam lists six recommendations to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite who have profited most from their labour”, from ending extreme wealth to challenging harmful norms and sexist beliefs. Tiếp tục đọc “5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report”

A clean energy world would support millions of new jobs

Tiếp tục đọc “A clean energy world would support millions of new jobs”

TP.HCM phát hiện 2 người Trung Quốc dương tính với virus corona

news.zing.vn

Hai cha con người Trung Quốc đến từ thành phố Vũ Hán, Trung Quốc, nhiễm virus corona gây bệnh viêm phổi cấp, đang được cách ly tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM.

Thứ trưởng Bộ Y tế nói về 2 ca nhiễm carona đầu tiên ở TP.HCM Thứ trưởng Y tế Nguyễn Trường Sơn và đoàn công tác kiểm tra và xác nhận 2 cha con người Trung Quốc nhiễm virus corona đang được cách ly tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM.

Ngày 23/1, Thứ trưởng Y tế Nguyễn Trường Sơn kiểm tra công tác chống dịch viêm phổi cấp mới tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM. Theo báo cáo của bệnh viện, hai bệnh nhân được cách ly vì dương tính với virus corona.
Tiếp tục đọc “TP.HCM phát hiện 2 người Trung Quốc dương tính với virus corona”

Oldest Confucius Institute in U.S. to Close

 

Chronicle.com 

The oldest Confucius Institute in the United States is closing. In a letter to students and faculty and staff members at the University of Maryland at College Park, President Wallace D. Loh said the 15-year-old Chinese language and cultural center would shut down because of 2018 legislation that made colleges with the institutes, which are supported by the Chinese government, ineligible for certain Defense Department funding. Maryland is among nearly two dozen American colleges to close their Confucius Institutes in the last two years. And it’s the second in little more than a week —– the University of Missouri also will shutter its center. Colleges have faced pressure over Confucius Institutes from lawmakers who say the agreements lack transparency and amount to Chinese-government propaganda on American campuses. In his letter, Loh said Maryland remained committed to education and scholarship in Chinese language and culture.

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2019

While often seen as an engine of the global economy, in terms of political integrity and governance, the region performs only marginally better than the global average. Many countries see economic openness as a way forward, however, governments across the region, from China to Cambodia to Vietnam, continue to restrict participation in public affairs, silence dissenting voices and keep decision-making out of public scrutini
 

transparency.org

CPI 2019: ASIA PACIFIC

Thủ tướng gặp mặt đại diện các tổ chức chính trị – xã hội và hội quần chúng

Festive air muted as violence-hit village limps back to normalcy

By Hoang Phuong, Gia Chinh, Vo Hai   January 21, 2020 | 11:08 am GMT+7

The gloomy aftermath of a fatal clash between police and civilians in a Hanoi village is casting a pall over locals’ Tet preparations.

Ten days after resentment over a land dispute erupted into a deadly clash that left three policemen and a civilian dead in Dong Tam Commune, My Duc District, villagers are wearily and warily returning to life as usual.

Offices in Vietnam are closed on weekends, but the committee’s office as well as the commune’s police station were open Sunday.

On Friday, barriers that had cordoned off and restricted entry to the commune were taken down, but the pall of gloom over locals is evident.

The deadly clash between protesters and law enforcement officers took place a week after some units of the Ministry of National Defense, in collaboration with local authorities, began building a fence for the Mieu Mon Military Airport at Hoanh Village in Dong Tam.

The encounter was the first time in decades that violence over a land dispute had claimed the lives of both law enforcers and civilians.

The incident disrupted normal life and preparations for the Lunar New Year, Tet, as they have begun much later than usual.

The country will enjoy a seven-day holiday for the Tet festival this year, staring January 23.

Work on the fence for the Mieu Mon Military Airport has been completed. The steel wire fence carries no trespassing signs in Vietnamese and English.

As life returns to normal, strangers to the commune are still eyed with some suspicion by the locals.

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10 Big Changes for Forests Over the Last Decade

globalforestwatch.org

The last decade was pivotal for the world’s forests. The 2010s saw the rise of unprecedented new commitments — from governments and the private sector alike — to bring deforestation to heel. The UN REDD+ framework, the New York Declaration on Forests and the Sustainable Development Goals set out ambitious targets to conserve and restore millions of hectares of forests.

But as this decade ends and a new one begins, it is also clear the world has fallen short on achieving its forest goals. While the impacts of climate change are being felt around the world, forests — an invaluable climate mitigation tool — are still being lost at high rates. Leaders in key countries are back-tracking on forest protection. Tiếp tục đọc “10 Big Changes for Forests Over the Last Decade”