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.

Ban tổ chức bị mời làm việc vì danh ca Khánh Ly hát ‘Gia tài của mẹ’ chưa được cấp phép

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

thanhnien.vn

Danh ca Khánh Ly đã trình diễn ca khúc Gia tài của mẹ chưa được cấp phép khiến đơn vị tổ chức bị “tuýt còi”.

Đại diện Sở VH-TT-DL Lâm Đồng xác nhận ngày 29.6 đã làm việc với ban tổ chức đêm nhạc Dấu chân địa đàng của danh ca Khánh Ly diễn ra hôm 25.6 tại sân khấu Mây – In the Nest, thuộc P.7, TP.Đà Lạt. Đây là chương trình mở màn chuỗi đêm nhạc xuyên Việt mang tên Như một lời chia tay của nữ danh ca.

Tiếp tục đọc “Ban tổ chức bị mời làm việc vì danh ca Khánh Ly hát ‘Gia tài của mẹ’ chưa được cấp phép” →

How the Sri Lankan economy run out of money to pay for food and fuel

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Posted Fri 24 Jun 2022 at 9:06amFriday 24 Jun 2022 at 9:06am

abc.net.au

A woman cooks using a firewood hearth outside her house to the right of a small alleyway of houses.
Sri Lankan residents are using firewood to cook as fuel supplies become scarce during an economic crisis.(AP: Eranga Jayawardena)

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Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister says the island nation’s debt-laden economy has “collapsed” as it runs out of money to pay for food and fuel.

Short of cash to pay for imports of such necessities and already defaulting on its debt, the country is seeking help from neighbouring India and China and from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office in May, has emphasised the monumental task he faces in turning around an economy he said was headed for “rock bottom”. 

Sri Lankans are skipping meals as they endure shortages and lining up for hours to try to buy scarce fuel.

It’s a harsh reality for a country whose economy had been growing quickly, with a growing and comfortable middle class, until the latest crisis deepened.

How serious is this crisis? 

Sri Lankan auto rickshaw drivers queue up to buy petrol near a fuel station in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan auto rickshaw drivers queue up to buy petrol in Colombo. (AP: Eranga Jayawardena)

The government owes $US51 billion ($73.9 billion) and is unable to make interest payments on its loans, let alone put a dent in the amount borrowed.

Tourism, an important part of economic growth, has sputtered because of the pandemic and concerns about safety after terror attacks in 2019.

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The World Responsible for Myanmar Becoming Failed State: National Unity Government foreign minister Minister of Myanmar

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
National Unity Government foreign minister Daw Zin Mar Aung. / The Irrawaddy

By THE IRRAWADDY 1 April 2022

Challenging the regime’s legitimacy at home and abroad, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) foreign minister Daw Zin Mar Aung, 45, has engaged with foreign governments and parliaments, international aid agencies and Myanmar’s many armed groups.

However, the elected lawmaker from the ousted National League for Democracy and winner of the 2012 International Women of Courage Award said international assistance is largely limited to moral support.

She exclusively tells The Irrawaddy about the importance of international support, including funding and arms, Myanmar’s friends and foes and how it receives different treatment from Ukraine.

It has been more than a year since the revolution against military rule was launched. We heard the revolution has received no assistance from foreign countries. Why is that?

It is mainly because the international community regards the crisis as a domestic issue if we compare it with the Ukraine war. It is widely believed that countries should not interfere in domestic affairs.

Yangon in February last year protests after the military coup.

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Sahel (Africa) violence could drive more refugees toward Europe

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
FILE- In this April 15, 2022 file photo, malnourished children wait for treatment in the pediatric department of Boulmiougou hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The U.N. is warning that 18 million people in Africa’s Sahel region face severe hunger in the next three months. Two U.N. agencies are citing the impacts of war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, climate-induced shocks and rising costs – and warning that people may try to migrate out of the affected areas. (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia, File)

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. refugee agency says “Europe should be much more worried” that more people from Africa’s Sahel region could seek to move north to escape violence, climate crises like droughts and floods and the impact of growing food shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, called for more efforts to build peace in the world as conflicts and crises like those in Ukraine, Venezuela, Myanmar, Syria and beyond have driven over 100 million people to leave their homes — both within their own countries and abroad.

UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, on Thursday issued its latest “Global Trends” report, which found over 89 million people had been displaced by conflict, climate change, violence and human rights abuses by 2021. The figure has since swelled after at least 12 million people fled their homes in Ukraine to other parts of the country or abroad following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

This year, the world is also facing growing food insecurity — Ukraine is a key European breadbasket and the war has greatly hurt grain exports

The African Union, whose continent relies on imports of wheat and other food from Ukraine, has appealed for help to access grain that is blocked in Ukrainian silos and unable to leave Ukrainian ports amid a Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg Moment’ Amid Flood of Alleged Russian War Crimes

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So many crimes are being documented that they need a new court.

foreignpolicy.com

By Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy, and Amy Mackinnon, a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. 

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16.
An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16.

JUNE 10, 2022, 3:48 PM

As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces.

Putin’s War

How the world is dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and how many accused Russian war criminals could ultimately face justice.

Tiếp tục đọc “Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg Moment’ Amid Flood of Alleged Russian War Crimes” →

Inside a Vaccination Point in Vietnam Nearly 100 Years Ago

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Wednesday, 23 February 2022. Written by Saigoneer.

Saigoneer.com

A century ago, the colonial government was active in inoculating Vietnamese citizens against a variety of diseases.

While Vietnam’s recent massive COVID-19 vaccine efforts have proven a great success in reducing deaths and returning the country to some semblance of normalcy, it is hardly the first time a government here has stepped in to inoculate the population against dangerous contagions. About 100 years ago, the French managed a vigorous campaign to inoculate indigenous Vietnamese against a variety of diseases such as smallpox, cholera and tuberculosis as part of larger health and sanitation initiatives. 

Tiếp tục đọc “Inside a Vaccination Point in Vietnam Nearly 100 Years Ago“ →

Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom

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Pristine parts of northern Kachin State are under threat as demand grows for high-tech devices that rely on rare earth.

mekongeye.com

Kachin State’s Chipwi Township in northernmost Myanmar is known for its pristine forests and crystal-clear water.

But 10 years ago, local residents started noticing the patches of land that had been cleared on the lush mountains surrounding their town, which borders China’s Yunnan province. It started with one patch of land, where all the trees were cut down. Then others followed.

Soon locals saw heavy machinery being moved through their town, heading to those barren plots of land. Then workers started flooding in. They excavated the ground and left open pits, many filled with chemically-laced water, in areas once rich in woodland. The water near those sites was no longer clean.

It became obvious at that stage that the newcomers were looking for something underneath the ground – rare earth, which contains elements widely used in high-tech products like smartphones, computer components, electric vehicles and solar cells.  

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Climate Change made devastating early heat in India and Pakistan 30 times more likely

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

“The 2022 heat wave in India and Pakistan is an extreme weather event which has resulted in the hottest March in India since 1901. The hot season arrived unusually early in the year and extended into April, affecting a large part of India’s northwest and Pakistan”. Wikipedia

worldweatherattribution.org

Since the beginning of March, India and Pakistan and large parts of South Asia experienced prolonged heat, that at the time of writing, May 2022, still hasn’t subsided.

March was the hottest in India since records began 122 years ago and in Pakistan, the highest worldwide positive temperature anomaly during March was recorded and many individual weather stations recorded monthly all-time highs through March. At the same time, March was extremely dry, with 62 percent less than normal rainfall reported over Pakistan and 71 percent below normal over India, making the conditions favourable for local heating from the land surface. The heatwave continued over the month of April and reached its preliminary peak towards the end of the month. By the 29th of April, 70 percent of India was affected by the heatwave.

While heatwaves are not uncommon in the season preceding the monsoon, the very high temperatures so early in the year coupled with much less than average rain have led to extreme heat conditions with devastating consequences for public health and agriculture. The full health and economic fallout, and cascading effects from the current heat wave will however take months to determine, including the number of excess deaths, hospitalisations, lost wages, missed school days, and diminished working hours. Early reports indicate 90 deaths in India and Pakistan, and an estimated 10-35 percent reduction in crop yields in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab due to the heatwave.

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As biomass burning surges in Japan and South Korea, where will Asia get its wood?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

by Annelise Giseburt on 19 May 2022

news.mongabay.com

  • In 2021, Japan and South Korea imported a combined 6 million metric tons of wood pellets for what proponents claim is carbon-neutral energy.
  • Large subsidies for biomass have led Japan to import massive amounts of wood pellets from Vietnam and Canada; two pellet giants, Drax and Enviva, are now eyeing Japan for growth, even as the country may be cooling to the industry.
  • South Korea imports most of its pellets from Vietnamese acacia plantations, which environmentalists fear may eventually pressure natural forests; South Korea wants to grow its native production tenfold, including logging areas with high conservation value.
  • Vietnam may soon follow Japan and South Korea’s path as it phases out coal, and experts fear all this could add massive pressure on Southeast Asian forests, which are already among the most endangered in the world.

This is part two of a two part series on the Asian biomass expansion. Part one can be found here.

Under the guise of “carbon neutral” energy, Japan and South Korea’s appetite for woody biomass for electricity generation has increased exponentially over the past decade and continues to grow. The two nations’ biomass subsidies are spurring an increase in the production of wood for burning in Southeast Asia and North America, putting pressure on forests in those regions.

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German court rules YouTube could be accountable for illegal content

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Laura Kabelka | EURACTIV.com

 euractive.com – 3 Jun 2022

“We need to examine the full details of today’s ruling to better understand how it impacts our viewers and the platform,” a YouTube spokesperson told EURACTIV. [Michael Vi/Shutterstock]

Online video sharing platforms such as YouTube could be liable for content uploads that infringe copyrights if they fail to act immediately, according to a ruling from Germany’s top court on Thursday (2 June).

The ruling is part of a larger fight of the creative and entertainment industry against illegally uploaded material, where large online platforms play an important role. Even if third parties posted the uploads, online platforms could find themselves in court.

“We need to examine the full details of today’s ruling to better understand how it impacts our viewers and the platform,” a YouTube spokesperson told EURACTIV. 

According to Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, this would also apply to shared hosting services that stored data and provided access to online users. 

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Mô thức nuôi tôm mới: Kỳ vọng phá vỡ giới hạn của ngành tôm

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

khoahocphattrien.vn

Giữa vùng ĐBSCL tưởng như đã có rất nhiều các giải pháp nông nghiệp thì tinh thần “làm đúng lại cái đang bị làm sai; làm tốt hơn cái đang tốt; làm có cái chưa có; và làm một dấu ấn tốt để lại cho cuộc sống” của TS. Nguyễn Thanh Mỹ vẫn thôi thúc ông đi tìm giải pháp giúp ngành tôm vượt qua những thách thức đang bó buộc tiềm năng của lĩnh vực này.

Giải pháp mà TS. Nguyễn Thanh Mỹ – Giám đốc điều hành Rynan Technologies và Mỹ Lan Group hướng đến ấy là một cách thức thực hành khác với những gì đã có từ trước đến nay – một “mô thức” nuôi tôm thẻ siêu thâm canh giàu oxy công nghệ số TOMGOXY (viết tắt cho chữ Tôm Giàu Oxy) mà ông và các kỹ sư ở công ty đã phát triển, dựa trên sự tích hợp các công nghệ vật lý, hóa học, sinh học và kỹ thuật số.

Tại sao cần mô thức mới?

Tiếp tục đọc “Mô thức nuôi tôm mới: Kỳ vọng phá vỡ giới hạn của ngành tôm” →

Công bố Báo cáo triển vọng năng lượng Việt Nam 2021 – Đan Mạch khuyến nghị 

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

nangluongvietnam.vn

15:09 | 02/06/2022

 – Ngày 2/6/2022, tại Hà Nội, Bộ Công Thương phối hợp với Đại sứ quán Đan Mạch tổ chức Lễ ra mắt Báo cáo triển vọng năng lượng Việt Nam 2021. Thứ trưởng Bộ Công Thương ông Đặng Hoàng An và Đại sứ Đan Mạch tại Việt Nam ông Kim Højlund Christensen đồng chủ trì sự kiện.

8 phát hiện và khuyến nghị chính của Báo cáo Triển vọng năng lượng Việt Nam 2021:

1. Hoàn toàn khả thi để phát triển một hệ thống năng lượng có mức phát thải ròng bằng không với chi phí tăng thêm chỉ 10% so với kịch bản cơ sở nếu thực hiện đúng cách.

2. Để đạt được mức phát thải ròng bằng không vào năm 2050 với chi phí thấp nhất, các nguồn năng lượng tái tạo cần là nguồn thay thế chính cho nhiên liệu hoá thạch. Hệ thống điện cần đáp ứng 70% nhu cầu năng lượng vào năm 2050. Các nguồn năng lượng tái tạo chính là điện mặt trời (75%) và điện gió (21%).

3. Quá trình chuyển đổi xanh của hệ thống điện cần nhiều vốn, tương đương mức đầu tư 167 tỷ USD/năm vào năm 2050 với kịch bản net-zero, tức là khoảng 11% GDP dự kiến năm 2050. Do đó việc tiếp cận các giải pháp tài chính chi phí thấp là tối cần thiết.

Tiếp tục đọc “Công bố Báo cáo triển vọng năng lượng Việt Nam 2021 – Đan Mạch khuyến nghị “ →

How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com

Fossil fuel companies have access to an obscure legal tool that could jeopardize worldwide efforts to protect the climate, and they’re starting to use it. The result could cost countries that press ahead with those efforts billions of dollars.

Over the past 50 years, countries have signed thousands of treaties that protect foreign investors from government actions. These treaties are like contracts between national governments, meant to entice investors to bring in projects with the promise of local jobs and access to new technologies.

Tiếp tục đọc “How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions” →

Men and their worsening drinking habits

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Dang Khoa, Xanh Le   May 27, 2022 | 07:49 am GMT+7

vnexpress.net

Men and their worsening drinking habits

People enjoy beer at a Hanoi restaurant. Photo by ReutersTran Van Minh of HCMC says he has “a knack for drinking” and feels “uneasy” if he does not drink for two or three days.

The factory worker claims he is not an alcoholic though he goes out drinking several times a week and consumes around a dozen cans of beer each time or the equivalent in hard liquor.

“Like many others, I drink because it helps me forget my problems.”

Often he blacks out after getting too drunk and wakes up the next day without remembering what happened.

Minh is one of many Vietnamese men who claim they cannot survive without drinking alcohol.

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Smuggling of sugar from Laos, Cambodia into Vietnam on the rise

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

tuoitrenews.vn

Saturday, February 05, 2022, 17:12 GMT+7

Smuggling of sugar from Laos, Cambodia into Vietnam on the rise
This image shows a field of sugar canes in Vietnam. Photo: Anh Cao / Tuoi Tre

The volume of sugar illegally imported into Vietnam from Cambodia and Laos has been increasing, with 757,000 metric tons per year in the 2015-19 period, nearly 2.8 times the quantity in the 2008-14 period, according to a recently released report.

These figures were released at a seminar on the sustainable development of Vietnam’s sugar industry co-organized by the Vietnam Sugar and Sugar Cane Association (VSSA) and U.S.-based Forest Trends, which protects critical ecosystems through creative environmental finance, markets, supply chains, and other incentive mechanisms.

Dr. Nguyen Vinh Quang, who represents Forest Trends, delivered at the workshop a report on supply chains for Vietnam’s sugar industry and issues related to the sector’s sustainable development.

About 273,571 metric tons of sugar was smuggled into Vietnam from Cambodia per year in the 2008-14 period, during which no sugar was illicitly brought into Vietnam from Laos, according to the report.

Tiếp tục đọc “Smuggling of sugar from Laos, Cambodia into Vietnam on the rise” →