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.

All You Need to Know About China’s Economic Slowdown

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

bloomberg.com

Shipping containers in China’s Jiangsu Province. The economic slowdown in recent months is sounding alarm bells across the world.
Shipping containers in China’s Jiangsu Province. The economic slowdown in recent months is sounding alarm bells across the world.Bloomberg

Today, I’ll tell you all you need to know about the slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.

If I had to use one word to describe the current situation, it would be fragile. The economic data we’ve gotten over the past few months have largely painted a gloomy picture. Chinese households are spending less than expected and saving more instead. Businesses are borrowing and investing at a reduced pace. And while the overall jobs situation has been stable, unemployment among the country’s youth has jumped so much that Beijing decided to stop releasing the data.

As downbeat as all that is, it is important to note the economy is not crashing. Economists are still expecting Chinese gross domestic product to grow 5.1% this year, 4.5% next year and 4.6% in 2025. By comparison, the US is forecast to grow 2% this year, 0.9% next year and 1.9% in 2025.

China’s Slowing Growth Trend

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Vietnam with tireless efforts to ensure right to freedom of religion for all people

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

vietnamplus.vn

The Party and State of Vietnam always affirm that belief and religion are the spiritual needs of the people, which have been and will be coexisting with the nation, and followers of all religions are part of the great national unity bloc.

Vietnam with tireless efforts to ensure right to freedom of religion for all people hinh anh 1

Peace prayer at the annual Kate festival of the Cham ethnic minority people at Po Sah Inu Cham Tower relic site in Binh Thuan province (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Party and State of Vietnam always affirm that belief and religion are the spiritual needs of the people, which have been and will be coexisting with the nation, and followers of all religions are part of the great national unity bloc.

On April 4, the Cham Brahman people in the south central province of Binh Thuan celebrated one year since the Kate festival was included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritages under Decision No. 776/ QD-BVHTTDL, dated April 4, 2022, of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

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Beliefs guide people to lead good lives

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

vietnamnews.vn August 03, 2023 – 07:34

Việt Nam, with a population of nearly 100 million, embraces a diverse culture with 54 ethnic groups, who have various beliefs and religions.

Việt Nam, with a population of nearly 100 million, embraces a diverse culture with 54 ethnic groups, who have various beliefs and religions.

A book published by the Institute for Religious Studies (IRS) defines that there are 16 religions recognised in the country including Buddhism, Catholics, Protestantism, Muslim, Cao Đài, and Hoà Hảo Buddhism.

Primary belief

But despite not following any specific religion, most of Vietnamese people instead honour and respect their ancestors and worship those family members who have passed.

In every home, you’ll find at least one altar dedicated to their ancestors despite the religion that the house owners follow.

“There is no official statistics, but I can say over 90 per cent of Vietnamese population worship their ancestors, which has existed for a long time,” Chu Văn Tuấn Director of the IRS told Việt Nam News. “This has always been the most popular religion here.”

Worshipping ancestors is the most popular belief in the country. VNS Photo Minh Phương

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Bình Thuận: Khu rừng hơn 600 ha sắp bị phá làm hồ thủy lợi

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 2 bình luận

vnexpress.vn

Tỉnh Bình Thuận chuẩn bị phá khu rừng tự nhiên hơn 600 ha ở xã Mỹ Thạnh (huyện Hàm Thuận Nam) để làm hồ chứa nước phát triển kinh tế.

Dự án hồ chứa nước Ka Pét dung tích hơn 51 triệu m3 đã được Quốc hội thông qua chủ trương đầu tư tổng vốn 874 tỷ đồng. Dự án lấy mặt bằng từ việc phá khu rừng tự nhiên rộng hơn 619 ha ở xã Mỹ Thạnh, huyện Hàm Thuận Nam.

Hồ sẽ được xây tại khu rừng sau khu dân cư hiện hữu của xã Mỹ Thạnh, cách chừng 2 km, kéo dài lên hướng núi rừng huyện Tánh Linh.

Khu rừng sắp bị cưa hạ tồn tại từ lâu đời, gắn liền không gian sống của người dân tộc Rai (Raglai) hàng trăm năm qua.

Hiện khu rừng được hai chủ rừng (Khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên Núi Ông và Ban quản lý rừng phòng hộ Sông Móng – Ka Pét) quản lý, có sự chung tay bảo vệ của cộng đồng địa phương thông qua chính sách nhận khoán.

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A controversial article praises colonialism. But colonialism’s real legacy was ugly.

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

washingtonpost.com September 19, 2017 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Women and children prepare to flee with their belongings near the Central African Republic town of Grimari on May 7, 2014. (Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

How many of today’s problems in the Global South are a direct legacy of colonialism? A recent journal article by Bruce Gilley,  “The Case for Colonialism,” kicked up great controversy by arguing that the “orthodoxy” that Western colonialism was universally harmful to colonized peoples and countries is overstated. Colonialism, Gilley writes, was “both objectively beneficial and subjectively legitimate” in many places.

Gilley, a political scientist at Portland State University, studies Chinese politics and recently made waves for resigning his membership in the American Political Science Association over its alleged lack of political diversity. His article in Third World Quarterly, however, ignores many existing studies that answer these questions with better data and more rigorous analysis, and which come to a resounding conclusion of “no.”

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What Is Colonialism and How Did It Arise?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 1 bình luận

CFR.org Last Updated February 14, 2023

Explore how colonialism enriched empires and fundamentally reshaped countries such as India.

A Hindu servant serves tea to a European colonial woman in this undated photograph.

A Hindu servant serves tea to a European colonial woman in this undated photograph. Source: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty ImagesSHARE

In the late seventeenth century, the Mughal Empire controlled almost all of the Indian subcontinent.

European visitors marveled at the empire’s wealth and grandeur. Antonio Monserrate, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, called its cities “second to none either in Asia or in Europe with regards either to size, population, or wealth.”

For centuries, merchants around the world had traveled to India, eager to trade for coveted silk, spices, and textiles. And in 1700, India’s economy was larger than all of Western Europe’s put together, making up nearly 25 percent of the global economy. By 1973, however, that number had dropped to just 3 percent. 

How did this happen?

The full story is long, winding, complex, and contentious. It involves centuries of war, technological innovation, and global trade that sent some economies soaring and brought others crashing down. But central to this story for India—and for so many countries around the world—is the history of colonialism, the practice of controlling another country or area and exploiting its people and resources.

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Vietnam issues ISO standards to realise net zero commitments

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality under the Ministry of Science and Technology has issued International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) standards regarding climate change adaption as a practical action to realise Vietnam’s net zero commitments.

VNA Wednesday, August 23, 2023 09:06  https://link.gov.vn/cxKMN5Hf

Hanoi (VNA) – The Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality under the Ministry of Science and Technology has issued International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) standards regarding climate change adaption as a practical action to realise Vietnam’s net zero commitments.

The standards named TCVN ISO 14090:2020 contain principles, requirements and guidelines to instruct organisations and sectors to adapt to climate change. They can be applied to every organisation of all sizes, local, regional, international, and at all types of business, corporation, sector, and natural resource manager.

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Nobel Foundation withdraws invitation to Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend ceremonies

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

APnews.com

FILE - The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. The Nobel Foundation has withdrawn its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision to invite them “provoked strong reactions.” Saturday's U-turn came after several Swedish lawmakers said they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)

FILE – The Nobel laureates and the royal family of Sweden during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Saturday Dec. 10 2022. The Nobel Foundation has withdrawn its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision to invite them “provoked strong reactions.” Saturday’s U-turn came after several Swedish lawmakers said they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies. (Pontus Lundahl/TT via AP, File)

Updated 4:44 AM GMT+7, September 3, 2023Share

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Foundation on Saturday withdrew its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision announced a day earlier “provoked strong reactions.”

Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its position from a year earlier and invited representatives of the three countries to attend, saying it “promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone.”

Some of the lawmakers cited Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crackdown on human rights in Iran as reasons for their boycott. Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday called on the Swedish Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Committee not to invite representatives of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s “illegitimate regime to any events.”

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1,000 years of history sandwiched between Red River and Mekong delta on the Reunification Express through Vietnam

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

scmp.com Published: 1:15pm, 3 Sep, 2023

A journey from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, via former capitals Ninh Binh and Hue, to Ho Chi Minh City, its investment capital, reveals much about the country

It’s difficult not to think about trains while in downtown Hanoi, especially at mealtimes.

Long metal caravans shunting through town in plain view of the near-ubiquitous streetside eateries contribute a periodic clappity-clap rhythm to the city’s clamorous soundtrack.

Tracks girdle the historical heart of the Vietnamese capital like the head of a question mark and in doing so, connect two of Hanoi’s most popular sites: the Long Bien Bridge, a colonial structure spanning the Red River that was bombed so many times during the Vietnam war it became a symbol of national resistance, and Ngo 224 Le Duan (better known as Train Street), an alleyway along which trains pass perilously close to houses and makeshift cafes.

However, my travel inspiration comes not from the recurrent glimpses of locomotives, but from an old propaganda poster hanging in a tourist shop opposite the Cathedrale Saint-Joseph de Hanoi.

A train nuzzles its way down “Train Street”, a modern-day tourist attraction in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: Thomas Bird
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Theravada Buddhism intheSpiritual Life ofKhmer People intheSouthern of Vietnam: Position, Role and Values

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

psychologyandeducation.net

Nguyen Huu Tho, Kien Giang University

Buddhist philosophy has long permeated the Khmer ethnic community. In this community, the relationship between ethnicity (Khmer people) and religion (Theravada Buddhism) is closely linked together. The Southern Khmer temple is a cultural center of this ethnic group. This place is associated with cultural activities and folk rituals, and at the same time is a traditional school that teaches the knowledge, human ethics, and handicraft. The pagoda is like a museum about Buddhism and the art of “Phum” and “Soc”, a place for Khmer people to rely on their souls when they live and send their ashes when they die. This study refers to the position and role of Theravada Buddhism for Khmer people. From there, state the current situation and make recommendations to the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and state management agencies, in order to contribute to preserving and promoting the values ​​of Khmer Theravada Buddhism and strengthening the great national unity bloc.

Article Details Vol. 58 No. 5 (2021): Vol. 58 No. 5 (2021)

Explain Climate Lawsuits

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

sustainability.yale.edu

Illustration of the scales of justice with earth on the left and a power plant on the right

August 16, 2023

When 16 young environmentalists won a federal lawsuit against the state of Montana in August, the ruling represented a milestone in climate change law.

The plaintiffs, who range in age from 5 to 22, successfully argued that the state’s refusal to consider climate change impacts before supporting fossil fuel development violated their right a clean environment under the Montana state constitution. Their lawsuit was the first to reach trial among several similar cases in the United States and is likely to bolster other actions seeking to use the legal system to force action on curbing emissions.

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Renewables Competitiveness Accelerates, Despite Cost Inflation

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

IRENA.org

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 29 August 2023 – The fossil fuel price crisis has accelerated the competitiveness of renewable power. Around 86 per cent (187 gigawatts) of all the newly commissioned renewable capacity in 2022 had lower costs than fossil fuel-fired electricity.

Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2022, published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) today shows that the renewable power added in 2022 reduced the fuel bill of the electricity sector worldwide. New capacity added since 2000 reduced the electricity sector fuel bill in 2022 by at least USD 520 billion. In non-OECD countries, just the saving over the lifetime of new capacity additions in 2022 will reduce costs by up to USD 580 billion. 

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‘Shadow fleet’ oil tankers pose growing risk in SEA

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

southeastasiaglobe.com

An armada of poorly regulated, scrapyard-ready tankers is hauling sanctioned oil through the region’s bustling shipping lanes. With that, they’re carrying an ever-present threat of environmental catastrophe

IAN HOLLINGER AUGUST 29, 2023

‘Shadow fleet’ oil tankers pose growing risk in SEA
Smoke rises from the oil tanker Pablo after it suffered from multiple explosions on 1 May off the coast of Malaysia. The ship was registered to Gabon and was part of the so-called “ghost fleet” of little-regulated tankers. Photo courtesy of the Malaysian coast guard.

On the morning of 3 May, residents of Batam, Indonesia, the largest city of the country’s Riau Islands, woke up to beaches black with oil. 

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Why Hanoi May Agree to a Vietnam-U.S. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Fulcrum.sg PUBLISHED 28 AUG 2023 LE HONG HIEP

If Hanoi agrees to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the U.S., it would represent a remarkable breakthrough in bilateral ties. Still, such a partnership would not represent a significant shift in Hanoi’s foreign policy.

United States President Joe Biden recently announced that he would be visiting Vietnam “shortly”, likely on his return trip from the G20 Summit in India on 9-10 September. While the specifics of the trip have not been confirmed, international media have speculated that the visit may result in an upgrade of bilateral relations. Unofficial reports suggest that the two countries, which are currently in a “comprehensive partnership”, may skip the “strategic partnership” level to move directly to the “comprehensive strategic partnership” (CSP) level.

If true, this will represent a remarkable breakthrough in bilateral ties, as the CSP is the highest level of partnership in Vietnam’s diplomatic hierarchy. The country only forms such partnerships with those that it views as of great importance for its security, prosperity, and international standing. So far, Vietnam has only established CSPs with four countries: China, India, Russia and South Korea.

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