Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/. I play table tennis as a hobby.

Soldiers Of Fortune: Mercenaries From China, Nepal Fight In Russia-Ukraine War

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

00:00 Introduction

01:54 Why one Nepali man joined into the Russian army 04:07 Is this human trafficking?

05:45 Nepali soldiers fighting for foreign armies

07:36 Chinese mercenaries share their experiences on Douyin

12:51 Fighters from Central Asia killed on the frontlines

13:55 Kyrgyz prisoners summoned to war

15:55 What happened to a fallen Kyrgyz prisoner?

19:29 A contract only in Russian with a hidden clause

22:35 Amateur soldiers face the horrors of war

25:03 Mercenaries captured by Ukraine

26:08 Inside a Ukrainian POW camp

26:58 Why one POW joined the Russian army

28:19 Infantry soldier turned POW

29:16 Russia is not claiming its POWs

30:38 Mercenary’s family hopes for his return to Nepal

33:51 Prisoners promised freedom if they survived

36:04 Arrested in Kyrgyzstan for participating in a foreign war

36:53 Russia’s influence in Central Asia

38:22 Nepali activists fight to bring their men home

39:41 Hunting for a missing Nepali mercenary

41:58 Families meet with members of parliament

43:58 What are the mercenaries doing now?

==========

About Undercover Asia: CNA’s award-winning investigative series Undercover Asia uncovers the hard truths in the underbelly of Asia, and exposes the unintended fallout of change in the fast-moving continent.

Giấc mơ trên đảo Muối

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Hồng Lĩnh: Thứ bảy 29/03/2025, 09:26 (GMT+7)

Nghề làm muối tại ấp đảo Thiềng Liềng, xã đảo Thạnh An, huyện Cần Giờ (TP Hồ Chí Minh) ra đời cùng với những cư dân đến đây khai hoang, bắt đầu vào khoảng năm 1973.

vovgiaothong.vn

Tại Thiềng Liềng, có khoảng 243 hộ dân với 152 hộ sản xuất muối trên diện tích gần 400 héc-ta. Người làm nghề muối còn được gọi là diêm dân.

——–
Ngày nắng làm, ngày mưa nghỉ, 6 tháng còn lại, diêm dân phải kiếm các công việc khác để mưu sinh. Họ làm việc trong điều kiện thời tiết nắng nóng khắc nghiệt với thu nhập ít ỏi. Hầu hết những diêm dân chỉ kiếm đủ sống.
Ngày nắng làm, ngày mưa nghỉ, 6 tháng còn lại, diêm dân phải kiếm các công việc khác để mưu sinh. Họ làm việc trong điều kiện thời tiết nắng nóng khắc nghiệt với thu nhập ít ỏi. Hầu hết những diêm dân chỉ kiếm đủ sống.

Ước tính trung bình mùa vụ thu hoạch khoảng 20.000 tấn muối, giá bán tuỳ theo thời năm và thời điểm, thấp nhất 800 đồng/kg, cao nhất 3.000 đồng/kg. Nếu được giá, mỗi héc-ta thu được từ 80 – 100 triệu đồng/vụ.

Ấp đảo Thiềng Liềng, xã đảo Thạnh An, huyện Cần Giờ, TP.HCM
Ấp đảo Thiềng Liềng, xã đảo Thạnh An, huyện Cần Giờ, TP.HCM

Tiếp tục đọc “Giấc mơ trên đảo Muối” →

Climate change and overfishing threaten Vietnam’s traditional fish sauce makers

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Overfishing and warming seas threaten stocks of anchovies, the key ingredient of the nuoc mam fish sauce villagers in central Vietnam make

SCMP.com

A villager makes fish sauce in his home in Nam O, Da Nang, Vietnam. Climate change is affecting the supply of anchovies on which the traditional trade depends. Photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 11:15am, 31 Mar 2025

Bui Van Phong faced a choice when the Vietnam war ended 50 years ago: stay in his small village and help his parents carry on the family’s centuries-old tradition of making fish sauce, or join the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing his country for a better life.

Phong chose to stay behind and nurtured a business making the beloved condiment, known as nuoc mam in Vietnam, that is now in its fourth generation with his son, Bui Van Phu, 41, at the helm.

Tiếp tục đọc “Climate change and overfishing threaten Vietnam’s traditional fish sauce makers” →

UK v Japan High Speed Rail In 1963 vs 2025

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

briliantmap.com Last Updated: March 24, 2025 

UK v Japan High Speed Rail In 1963 vs 2025

The map above shows the huge difference in the size of the UK vs Japan’s highspeed rail networks in 1963 compared to 2025.

The UK’s Stockton and Darlington Railway (25 miles; 40km long) opened in 1825 as the first passenger railway anywhere in the world.

And according to the Institution of Civil Engineers

“Allowing for stops, the first train to run on the S&DR averaged a speed of 8mph (13km/h) on its inaugural journey.”

It also cost £5.1m (in today’s money) and took only 3 years to complete.

Thus 2025, is the 200th anniversary of the existence of passenger rail.

At that time, the Tokugawa shogunate (Edo period) still ruled Japan, which remained more or less closed off to the rest of the world. And wouldn’t start opening up until it was forced to do so by the Americans from 1853.

Japan wouldn’t open it’s first railway line from Tokyo to Yokohama until 1872 almost 50 years after the UK.

Read more at https://brilliantmaps.com

What are the High Seas (and why should we care?)

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Mongbay.com Abhishyant Kidangoor 23 Oct 2024

High seas cover over half of our planet’s surface, and represent two-thirds of the entire ocean. They serve as a crucial habitat for countless marine species, many of which remain undiscovered. They also play a vital role in climate regulation. The high seas are also home to secret treasures that could potentially reshape medical science. Painkillers, antibiotics and many other drugs have been produced from genetic material found in the depths of the ocean.

Despite their immense ecological and medical importance, only 1% of these international waters are legally protected. Since they fall outside the jurisdiction of any country, high seas are not governed by anyone. This has led to patchy regulation and uncoordinated management, leaving them vulnerable to threats like overfishing, shipping traffic, and ocean acidification.

An international treaty aims to address these concerns. Last year, countries around the world agreed upon the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Treaty) after decades of discussions and negotiations. The historic treaty aims to establish legal frameworks for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. The treaty has created a blueprint for countries that want to propose and create protected areas in the high seas. It tackles prior assessment of potentially damaging activities like deep sea mining while also trying to figure out a way to share and distribute marine resources in an equitable manner. Sixty countries will have to ratify the treaty before it goes into effect.

Watch this video to learn more about the high seas, the significance of the BBNJ treaty and the questions that remain unanswered

The Role of Traceability in Critical Mineral Supply Chains

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Download report at IEA

As global demand for critical minerals grows, it will be important to anticipate and address the potential harms the mining and metals sector can have on societies, communities and the environment. Overlooking these risks can ultimately disrupt supply for clean energy technologies.

Traceability systems can, when used as part of a wider risk-based due diligence process, help meet emerging policy goals by providing ways to integrate data on origin, evolution, and ownership of minerals. Some traceability approaches can also provide a platform for embedding data on environmental, social and governance issues. To work effectively, however, traceability systems must be carefully designed – balancing standardisation and context, maintaining data quality, and adapting to varying supply chain complexities. They also require strong collaboration among companies, governments and civil society, backed by cost-sharing, reliable verification and secure data-sharing protocols. Above all, traceability should serve clear objectives rather than become an end in itself: policy makers and practitioners should adopt a measured approach, progressively deploying mechanisms where necessary while allowing for inclusive participation and access to markets and investment.

This report includes a practical eight-step roadmap, from setting policy objectives to building trust mechanisms, which can help ensure traceability systems are fit for purpose and aligned with the realities of global supply chains.

One year of global plastic waste visualized

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

voronoi.com

One year of global plastic waste visualized

The Data

Over 400 million tonnes of plastic was projected to be wasted in 2024 according to an OECD report from 2020. Further, plastic waste is expected to nearly triple worldwide by 2060, with half of all waste expected to be in landfill while less than one-fifth of it will be recycled.

Unbelievably, if all this plastic waste were put in a kitchen bin and scaled up uniformly, this would double the height of the Burj Khalifa.

Dataset

CategoryWeight of Waste (Millions of Tonnes)
Other67.7
Construction/Electronics37.5
Textiles42.9
Vehicles47.9
Consumer Products47
Packaging155.9

Data sources

OECD, Statista

https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/policy-scenarios-for-eliminating-plastic-pollution-by-2040_76400890-en/full-report.html

https://www.statista.com/chart/32385/global-plastic-waste-production-by-application/

UN exposes companies involved in Israeli settlements

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

amnesty.uk.org

TripAdvisor listing of settler-managed historical sight on Palestinian land

TripAdvisor listing of settler-managed historical sight on Palestinian land

The image above is a TripAdvisor listing of a heritage site managed by settlers in the village of Susiya – on Palestinian land. The UN has released a list of over 100 other companies that also have business interests in Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land.

But why is this a problem?

Illegal Settlements

In 1967, Israel began the process of building settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.

Firstly, what is a settlement?

It is Israel’s building of villages, towns and cities on occupied Palestinian territory.

What makes them illegal?

The transfer of Israeli civilians to these settlements is illegal under international law. In fact it is a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Hundreds of thousands Displaced

Since 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had to flee their homes to escape violence or were forcibly removed. Not just their they lost their land and businesses too. Many are remain in refugee camps till this day. Here they have become parents and even grand parents.

Suffocating laws

Some Palestinians stayed behind and refused to give up their land. Their lives have been made impossible as consecutive governments have introduced discriminatory laws and policies, in the hope they will eventually leave. But as the settlements continue to expand some are still standing their ground.

What TripAdvisor doesn’t show you

(A resident of Susiya shows us a water system installed on his land for the sole benefite of the nearby settlement)

The Palestinian village of Susiya, in the occupied West Bank is home to around 300 Palestinians. The village has a few tents and shacks, a couple of water cisterns and some sheep. There is no access to electricity or running water.

Tiếp tục đọc “UN exposes companies involved in Israeli settlements” →

Vietnam and China partner on wildlife-friendly traditional medicine practices

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này


Mongabay.com

Vietnam and China, the two largest markets for traditional medicine (TM) that uses wild plants and animals, announced a new partnership in January to adopt practices that protect wildlife while preserving the countries’ cultural heritage.

The first-of-its-kind agreement involved leading TM associations from Vietnam and China — the Vietnam Oriental Traditional Medicine Association (VOTMA) and the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CATCM) — along with researchers, policymakers and pharmaceutical leaders. TRAFFIC, an international NGO monitoring illegal wildlife trade, facilitated it.

The partnership aims to explore “several sustainable practices to make traditional medicine more conservation-friendly,” said TRAFFIC Vietnam director Trinh Nguyen in a statement to Mongabay. She said these include encouraging practitioners to switch to legal, sustainable and cultivated plant-based alternatives, and eliminating illegal wildlife ingredients in prescriptions.

Historical TM practices in the two countries have incorporated wildlife-derived ingredients, including those from threatened species, such as tiger bones, pangolin scales, rhino horns and bear bile. While many such ingredients are legal to trade inside China, the wildlife parts are often sourced from other countries to meet domestic demand. Many of the threatened species are, however, listed on CITES Appendix I, making the international trade in their parts illegal. As TM becomes popular globally, conservationists worry about its impact on wildlife.

Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam and China partner on wildlife-friendly traditional medicine practices” →

Plastic is choking the Mekong River

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

themekongeye.com By Anton L. Delgado 20 January 2025 at 10:54

Plastic is now ubiquitous in the Mekong, Asia’s Mother of Rivers, and experts and local people are struggling to contain the risks to human health, biodiversity and livelihoods

ILLUSTRATION: Sunhee Park / Dialogue Earth

On Sơn Island in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta, Le Trung Tin scatters fish feed into his ponds, where dozens of snakehead fish leap through the surface in synchronized bursts. “I taught them how to do that,” he says proudly, tossing another handful of feed at his fish.

The scene looks idyllic, but Le’s fish farm is a reluctant response to an escalating crisis. For decades, he made his living fishing the Hậu River, a distributary of the Mekong. But in recent years, plastic waste clogged his nets and strangled the fish. “I had no choice but to stop,” he says. “Everything was tangled – trash, nets, even the fish themselves. It was hopeless.”

Now, Le relies on enclosed ponds using filtered water to keep his fish alive. “I built this ecological environment free of plastic waste, chemical spills and [protected it from] extreme weather,” he says.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1037846174?dnt=1&app_id=122963VIDEO: Anton L. Delgado/Dialogue Earth

Le’s experience reflects the wider challenges facing the Mekong. Stretching over 4,300 kilometres from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea, the river supports nearly 70 million people and some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Yet, it is one of the most plastic-polluted rivers in the world and among the 10 rivers in Asia that carry the vast majority of plastic to the sea. The Mekong dumps – by some estimates – tens of thousands of tonnes each year into the ocean, with plastic waste accumulating along its banks, tributaries and lakes.

Plastic enters the Mekong in myriad ways – agricultural runoff, unregulated dumping and a flood of single-use packaging from upstream countries like China and Myanmar. It accumulates in hotspots like Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia and the wetlands of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where this plastic waste threatens biodiversity, food security and human health.

Plastics and other waste scattered along the riverbank
Plastics and other waste accumulate along the riverbank near the city of Can Tho in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region. PHOTO: Anton L. Delgado / Dialogue Earth

Tiếp tục đọc “Plastic is choking the Mekong River” →

“Cool” years are now hotter than the “warm” years of the past: tracking global temperatures through El Niño and La Niña

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

oneworldata.org

The world is warming despite natural fluctuations from the El Niño cycle.

In 2024, the world was around 1.5°C warmer than it was in pre-industrial times.1 You can see this in the chart below, which shows average warming relative to average temperatures from 1861 to 1890.2

Temperatures, as defined by “climate”, are based on temperatures over longer periods of time — typically 20-to-30-year averages — rather than single-year data points. But even when based on longer-term averages, the world has still warmed by around 1.3°C.3

But you’ll also notice, in the chart, that temperatures haven’t increased linearly. There are spikes and dips along the long-run trend.

Many of these short-term fluctuations are caused by “ENSO” — the El Niño-Southern Oscillation — a natural climate cycle caused by changes in wind patterns and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

While it’s caused by patterns in the Pacific Ocean and most strongly affects countries in the tropics, it also impacts global temperatures and climate.

There are two key phases of this cycle: the La Niña phase, which tends to cause cooler global temperatures, and the El Niño phase, which brings hotter conditions. The world cycles between El Niño and La Niña phases every two to seven years.4 There are also “neutral” periods between these phases where the world is not in either extreme.

The zig-zag trend of global temperatures becomes understandable when you are taking the phases of the ENSO cycles into account. In the chart below, we see the data on global temperatures5, but the line is now colored by the ENSO phase at that time.6

The El Niño (warm phase) is shown in orange and red, and the La Niña (cold phase) is shown in blue.

You can see that temperatures often reach a short-term peak during warm El Niño years before falling back slightly as the world moves into La Niña years, shown in blue.

Full article https://ourworldindata.org/global-temperatures-el-nino-la-nina?utm_source=OWID+Newsletter&utm_campaign=df01bb5c85-biweekly-digest-2025-03-07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0c7f305164-537125314

Myanmar’s military rule is crippling hope for young people like never before

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com Published: March 12, 2025 5.03pm GMT

Myanmar has struggled with civil war, military rule and widespread poverty for much of the past seven decades. But the country’s youth have never faced threats to their survival and future as severe as today.

The military coup of February 2021 shattered the hopes of many young people in Myanmar who had envisioned a better and more stable future under their democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

As brutal crackdowns on peaceful protests unfolded, thousands of young people fled to the jungles to take up arms. Hundreds of thousands more joined the civil disobedience movement, abandoning their studies to protest military rule through demonstrations and strikes.

A map of Myanmar showing the military situation there as of February 4.
The military situation in Myanmar as of February 4 2025. Wikimedia Commons

Myanmar’s armed opposition has made significant gains over the past year, seizing vast territories from the military – though the latter still controls major cities like Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay.

Amid the surging violence, young people in Myanmar are finding themselves even more deprived of opportunities and increasingly forced into submission.

In February 2024, Myanmar’s junta declared mandatory military service for men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27. Those who do not comply face up to five years in prison.

Tiếp tục đọc “Myanmar’s military rule is crippling hope for young people like never before” →

Why has the Philippines arrested ex-President Duterte on ICC warrant?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Aljazeera.com

Families of victims, human rights groups call for ‘expeditious surrender and transfer of custody’ of Duterte to the ICC.

Relatives of victims of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs cry during a mass for victims at a church in Manila on March 11, 2025. Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on March 11 in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs. (Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP)
Relatives of victims of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs cry during a mass for victims at a church in Manila following his arrest on Tuesday [Ted Aljibe/AFP]

By Ted Regencia Published On 11 Mar 202511 Mar 2025

Manila, Philippines – Almost three years after leaving the presidency, former President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by Philippine authorities in Manila, upon the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, which is investigating allegations of “crimes against humanity” committed during his six years in power.

Duterte was immediately taken into police custody on Tuesday at the Manila international airport following his arrival from Hong Kong, in a move hailed by human rights groups as “a critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.

His trip to Hong Kong over the weekend had whipped up speculation that he would evade arrest.

Tiếp tục đọc “Why has the Philippines arrested ex-President Duterte on ICC warrant?” →