Tác giả: Trần Đình Hoành

I am an attorney in the Washington DC area, with a Doctor of Law in the US, attended the master program at the National School of Administration of Việt Nam, and graduated from Sài Gòn University Law School. I aso studied philosophy at the School of Letters in Sài Gòn. . I have worked as an anti-trust attorney for Federal Trade Commission and a litigator for a fortune-100 telecom company in Washington DC. I have taught law courses for legal professionals in Việt Nam and still counsel VN government agencies on legal matters. I have founded and managed businesses for me and my family, both law and non-law. I have published many articles on national newspapers and radio stations in Việt Nam. In 1989 I was one of the founding members of US-VN Trade Council, working to re-establish US-VN relationship. Since the early 90's, I have established and managed VNFORUM and VNBIZ forum on VN-related matters; these forums are the subject of a PhD thesis by Dr. Caroline Valverde at UC-Berkeley and her book Transnationalizing Viet Nam. I translate poetry and my translation of "A Request at Đồng Lộc Cemetery" is now engraved on a stone memorial at Đồng Lộc National Shrine in VN. I study and teach the Bible and Buddhism. In 2009 I founded and still manage dotchuoinon.com on positive thinking and two other blogs on Buddhism. In 2015 a group of friends and I founded website CVD - Conversations on Vietnam Development (cvdvn.net). I study the art of leadership with many friends who are religious, business and government leaders from many countries. I have written these books, published by Phu Nu Publishing House in Hanoi: "Positive Thinking to Change Your Life", in Vietnamese (TƯ DUY TÍCH CỰC Thay Đổi Cuộc Sống) (Oct. 2011) "10 Core Values for Success" (10 Giá trị cốt lõi của thành công) (Dec. 2013) "Live a Life Worth Living" (Sống Một Cuộc Đời Đáng Sống) (Oct. 2023) I practice Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi for health, and play guitar as a hobby, usually accompanying my wife Trần Lê Túy Phượng, aka singer Linh Phượng.

Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

As bigots blame them for the coronavirus and President Trump labels it the “Chinese virus,” many Chinese-Americans say they are terrified of what could come next.

Yuanyuan Zhu said a middle-aged man started shouting at her while she was walking to her gym and then spat at her as she waited to cross the street.
Yuanyuan Zhu said a middle-aged man started shouting at her while she was walking to her gym and then spat at her as she waited to cross the street.Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York Times

By Sabrina Tavernise and Richard A. Oppel Jr. Published March 23, 2020 New York Times

WASHINGTON — Yuanyuan Zhu was walking to her gym in San Francisco on March 9, thinking the workout could be her last for a while, when she noticed that a man was shouting at her. He was yelling an expletive about China. Then a bus passed, she recalled, and he screamed after it, “Run them over.”

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KHUYẾN CÁO VỀ CÁC BIỆN PHÁP BẢO ĐẢM AN NINH, AN TOÀN CHO CÔNG DÂN VÀ CỘNG ĐỒNG NGƯỜI GỐC VIỆT TẠI HOA KỲ

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

T5, 04/01/2021 – 09:57 vietnamembassy

1. Kể từ khi đại dịch COVID-19 lan rộng toàn cầu, thái độ kỳ thị đối với cộng đồng gốc Á có dấu hiệu gia tăng ở nhiều nước. Tại Hoa Kỳ, các vụ tấn công bạo lực, kỳ thị đối với người gốc Á đã xảy ra tại nhiều tiểu bang, ảnh hưởng đến an ninh, an toàn và cuộc sống của người dân, trong đó có cộng đồng người gốc Việt và công dân Việt Nam đang sinh sống tại Hoa Kỳ.

Chính quyền các cấp của Hoa Kỳ đã áp dụng nhiều biện pháp tích cực để phòng ngừa, ngăn chặn tình trạng trên. Đại sứ quán và các cơ quan đại diện Việt Nam tại Hoa Kỳ đã vận động mạnh và thường xuyên phối hợp với các cơ quan Chính quyền và Quốc hội cấp liên bang và tiểu bang của Hoa Kỳ nhằm kịp thời bảo đảm an ninh, an toàn cho cộng đồng người gốc Việt và công dân Việt Nam tại Hoa Kỳ, đồng thời tạo thuận lợi cho cộng đồng và công dân Việt Nam được tiếp cận các dịch vụ về an ninh, y tế, giáo dục, an sinh xã hội và việc làm trong thời gian đại dịch.

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ĐẠI SỨ QUÁN VIỆT NAM TẠI HOA KỲ VẬN ĐỘNG CHÍNH QUYỀN VÀ QUỐC HỘI VỀ CHỐNG KỲ THỊ VỚI NGƯỜI GỐC Á

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

T2, 04/05/2021 – 15:25 vietnamembassy

Thời gian qua, tình trạng phân biệt chủng tộc đối với cộng đồng người gốc châu Á, trong đó có người gốc Việt và công dân Việt Nam tại Hoa Kỳ trong đại dịch Covid-19 ngày càng gia tăng. Đại sứ quán Việt Nam tại Hoa Kỳ đã nhiều lần trao đổi, vận động Chính quyền, Quốc hội liên bang và các tiểu bang của Hoa Kỳ bảo đảm an ninh, an toàn và quyền tiếp cận đầy đủ các dịch vụ về y tế, giáo dục, việc làm cho công dân và cộng đồng người gốc Việt tại Hoa Kỳ. 

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Office of Foreign Assets Control – designation for sanction

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

US and UK Join Canada in Designating Myanmar’s Military Conglomerates, with EU Considering Further Action

April 2, 2021

Click for PDF

On March 25, 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) imposed additional sanctions in response to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar (also called Burma) by designating the country’s two largest military conglomerates:  (1) Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (“MEHL”) and (2) Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (“MEC”).

Because Myanmar’s military controls significant segments of the country’s economy, including trading, natural resources, and consumer goods, through these two companies, these designations are the most consequential sanctions measures that the Biden Administration has taken to-date in response to the situation.  By operation of OFAC’s “Fifty Percent Rule,” the sanctioned status of MEHL and MEC automatically flows to the dozens of their majority-owned subsidiaries that play critical roles throughout the country’s economy, implicating the Myanmar-based operations of numerous foreign companies that have touchpoints with the United States (over which the U.S. Government has enforcement jurisdiction).  Recognizing the far-reaching impact, OFAC has concurrently issued four general licenses (regulatory exemptions) that provide blanket authorization to engage in certain categories of activities that would otherwise be prohibited—including the wind down of any existing transactions involving MEHL, MEC, or their majority-owned subsidiaries.

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One step forward, two steps back: Vietnam’s short-sighted energy vision

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Nguyen Dang Anh Thi   April 1, 2021 | 07:50 am GMT+7 vnexpress

Vietnam needs to learn the right lessons from Germany’s experience – going from protests against renewable energy to becoming one of the top five nations in clean power.

Nguyen Dang Anh Thi
Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

I choose to talk about Germany because most of the feed-in-tariff policies for Vietnam’s renewable energy have been designed using the German model and built with consultation from the Deutshe Gesellschaftür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) or German Corporation for International Cooperation, an agency that provides services in the field of international development cooperation.

30 years ago, Germany issued the FIT policy for the first time to boost the selling of renewable electricity to the national grid. In the beginning, when the proportion of wind and solar power output made up just less than 0.1 percent of the nation’s total, there were already worries about renewable energy threatening safety and stability of the national power grid.

Back then, a group of power companies in Germany had released a joint statement creating pressure on the government, saying that renewable energy from solar, wind and hydropower plants should not exceed 4 percent of the total power output, even in the long run.

For decades, many entities in Germany had advocated thermal and nuclear power, and kept calling for delays in expanding the national power grid and delivering cautions on clean energy.

But the people of Germany had said yes big time to clean energy. Their voice, luckily, had been heard, and the government had listened to them with a long-time view, adopting consistent policies with transparency and integrity.

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2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR MARCH 30, 2021 US State Department

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.

See countries and older annual reports >>

Preface

Announcement: Upcoming Addendum

Later this year, the Department of State will release an addendum to each 2020 country report that expands the subsection on women in Section 6, entitled “Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons,” to include a broader range of issues related to reproductive rights.  The addendum will cover maternal health issues such as maternal mortality, government policy adversely affecting access to contraception, access to skilled healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth, access to emergency healthcare, and discrimination against women in accessing sexual and reproductive health care, including for sexually transmitted infections.  These topics were included in previous Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, and they will be included again in future years.

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Skyscrapers force us to scrape the bottom of the barrel

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Ngo Chi Tung   March 24, 2021 | 07:38 am GMT+7 Vietnamnet

The towering symbols of progress – skyscrapers – are actually symbolic of a steadily worsening quality of life. We breathe polluted air and lose time we can never regain.

Ngo Chi Tung
Ngo Chi Tung

I wake my children up at 5:30 every weekday for our 12.5 km commute from Cau Dien Ward in Nam Tu Liem District to the city center. It takes us 1-1.5 hours.

Winter days are the worst. Dawn doesn’t break by 6 a.m., and seeing my third grader daughter shiver as she sits inside the school guard’s booth to wait for the school to open breaks my heart, each time.

It gets even worse in the afternoon. The journey home has always been long, but by 5 p.m. it is almost like a pilgrimage that would demoralize even the most devout believers. I’ve now become used to being stuck on the road for hours, while my daughter has learned to frequent the school guard’s booth, like many of her classmates, as they wait for their parents to show up.

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The State President is exemplary, asserts position as Head of State

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Chia sẻ | FaceBookTwitter Email Copy LinkInterested026/03/2021    06:00 GMT+7

In his work and all activities, the President is always responsible, exemplary, close and respectful to the people, and wholeheartedly devotes himself to serve the fatherland and the people.

The State President is exemplary, asserts position as Head of State

Party Secretary General and State President Nguyen Phu Trong meets voters

At the opening ceremony of the last session of the 14th National Assembly (NA), President Nguyen Phu Trong presented the work report for the 2016-2021 tenure of the State President.

In 2018, Mr. Trong, the Party Committee Secretary General, took office as State President. He has been fully and effectively performing his tasks and powers in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the laws, and taking responsibility before the Party, State, NA and people.

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Vietnam demands China end East Sea violations

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Vu Anh   March 25, 2021 | 08:28 pm GMT+7 VNExpressVietnam demands China end East Sea violationsThe Grierson Reef of the Spratly Islands. Photo by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).Chinese vessels operating near the Spratly Islands is a serious violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty and must be ended, Vietnam has demanded.

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Điều tra độc quyền: Sun Group, Địa Ngục Tự và ma trận chiếm lĩnh rừng quốc gia Tam Đảo (7 bài)

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ 1 bình luận

***

Điều tra độc quyền: Sun Group, Địa Ngục Tự và ma trận chiếm lĩnh rừng quốc gia Tam Đảo

23/09/2019 – 07:00

PNO – Khi được giao nhiệm vụ đi tìm hiểu thông tin về dự án của Tập đoàn Sun Group tại rừng quốc gia Tam Đảo – Tam Đảo II, có giá trị 25.000 tỷ đồng, chúng tôi đã lạc vào ‘rừng thông tin’ chính thống và không chính thống.

Xem clip: Clip sư thầy gạ gẫm phóng viên Báo Phụ Nữ TP.HCM tại link gốc của bài

Dieu tra doc quyen: Sun Group, Dia Nguc Tu va ma tran chiem linh rung quoc gia Tam Dao
Ông Toàn dẫn phóng viên vào thất định làm trò đồi bại

Lời tòa soạn: Từ Vườn Quốc gia Tam Đảo đến núi Bà Nà, núi rừng tan nát, chim muông cây cỏ bị thiêu rụi bởi mặt trời, nhưng mặt trời không phải từ trên cao, mà từ Sun Group (Tập đoàn Mặt trời).

Họ phá núi, đốn rừng, mở đường để dựng bê tông, xây khu vui chơi, đặt trạm kiểm soát, thu tiền. Sun Group xứng đáng được gọi là “trời”, bởi được che chắn từ hạ giới có tên là im lặng của chính quyền từ trung ương đến địa phương.

Và vẫn “bổn cũ soạn lại”, một mớ hư hư thực thực: trấn yểm long mạch, khởi phát tâm linh… đẻ ra từ liên kết giữa thầy chùa biến thái với doanh nghiệp hòng lùa người ta vào ma trận với đích duy nhất: kiếm tiền…

Đã từ lâu những tiếng nói phản biện, kêu cứu, uất ức về những dự án tàn phá tự nhiên của Sun Group vang lên, nhưng tất cả đều như một trò đùa. Không chặn bàn tay lông lá này lại thì long mạch đúng nghĩa sẽ bị chặt yểm, tà khí sẽ lộng hành, lòng người sẽ nát tan, non nước sẽ tả tơi.

Công bố loạt điều tra độc quyền về sự việc coi trời bằng vung của Tập đoàn Mặt trời, ngoài những con số đớn đau, những tâm sự nát lòng của giới nghiên cứu, chúng tôi cũng có lời xin lỗi bạn đọc về một số chi tiết hơi phản cảm trong bài, nhưng không còn cách nào khác, bởi sự thật chỉ có một thể tồn tại duy nhất. Tiếp tục đọc “Điều tra độc quyền: Sun Group, Địa Ngục Tự và ma trận chiếm lĩnh rừng quốc gia Tam Đảo (7 bài)” →

Vietnam takes drastic measures to clean up toxic content on social media: official

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

24/03/2021    15:28 GMT+7 vietnamnet

Popular Vietnamese TikTok user Tho Nguyen recently caused outrage online by posting videos about Kuman Thong dolls online, asking the dolls to bless her studies after “receiving many requests from children”.

Vietnam takes drastic measures to clean up toxic content on social media: official
Deputy Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information Le Quang Tu Do. — Photo vietnamnet.vn

The toxic content shocked the parents of young viewers. She was fined VND7.5 million (US$326) for her “superstitious” posts. The incident has thrown online content moderation into the spotlight.

In a recent interview with Liberated Sai Gon newspaper, Deputy Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information Le Quang Tu Do talks about measures to curb harmful content online.  

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Crude oil exports plunge as resource depletes

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Dat Nguyen   March 24, 2021 | 11:00 am GMT+7 vnexpressCrude oil exports plunge as resource depletesTam Dao 03 oil rig off Vietnam’s eastern coast. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Huy.Vietnam’s crude oil export is plunging, partly because of depleting resources. An industrialist says the situation can only improve after new fields come online in several years.

Crude exports volume from January 1 to February 15 this year fell nearly 50 percent year-on-year to 354,700 tonnes, according to Vietnam Customs.

Most of Vietnam’s oil and gas fields have been harnessed for over 20 years ago and run their course, said Hoang Ngoc Trung, deputy director of Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd.

In the last five years, crude oil prices have been falling, which has affected investment in searching for new fields, he told the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

The corporation’s output was 3.8 million tonnes last year, down marginally from 2019, and the figure is set to fall another 10 percent this year.

However, Vietnam’s crude oil prices remain higher than the global average.

The global average price of Brent crude oil last year was $41.8 per barrel, but Vietnam sold them for $43.7, 4.5 percent higher.

In the first two months, Brent crude was $58.53 per barrel, compared to $59.94 percent in Vietnam.

Trung said exploitation volume is set to recover in the next two or three years with several new fields such as Dai Hung and White Lion coming online.Related News:

Vietnam climbs up in global happiness ranking

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Nguyen Quy   March 20, 2021 | 01:31 pm GMT+7 VNExpressVietnam climbs up in global happiness rankingA family in Hanoi on their way to relatives’ homes on the first day of the Lunar New Year, February 12, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.Vietnam has climbed up four spots to 79th out of 149 countries and territories included in the 2021 World Happiness Report.

Vietnam scored 5.411 points, up from the 5.353 it got last year, according to the latest report released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a global initiative launched by the United Nations in 2012.

Using data from a Gallup World Poll, the ranking measured the happiness level in 149 economies across the world, based on six factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and absence of corruption.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s position was better than Malaysia (81), Indonesia (82), Laos (100), Cambodia (114) and Myanmar (126). It ranked behind Singapore (32), Thailand (54th) and the Philippines (61).Southeast Asia’s happiness ranking2021pointsSingaporeThailandPhilippinesVietnamMalaysiaIndonesiaLaosCambodiMyanmar01234567

Among the six factors, Vietnam performed best in freedom to make life choices, ranking 9th globally, while its generosity factor fared worst, at 112nd, with Vietnamese people deemed less generous than neighboring peers.

Life expectancy at birth in Vietnam is 68 years, putting the country in 50th place, while Singapore tops the world at 77 years, the report said.

Vietnam ranked 67th in social support and 98th in per capita GDP.

The country’s per capita income in 2020 was at $2,750, nearly 1.3 times higher than $2,109 in 2015.

In terms of corruption perception, Vietnam was in 68th place, much higher than Asian peers like South Korea and Japan.

Vietnam has been engaged in prolonged corruption spearheaded by Party chief and State President Nguyen Phu Trong. The crackdown has seen several high-profile government officials, top military officers and businessmen arrested and jailed for crimes from graft to money laundering.

Finland took the top spot in the ranking as the happiest country in the world, followed by Iceland and Denmark.

Countries at the bottom of the list were those afflicted by extreme poverty and violence, like Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Afghanistan.

This year’s ranking was collated slightly differently this time because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Not only were researchers unable to complete face-to-face interviews in a number of countries, they also had to switch things up by focusing on the relationship between well-being and Covid-19.Related News:

Vietnam’s wildlife defender fights poachers and prejudice

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By AFP   March 24, 2021 | 11:09 am GMT+7 VNExpressVietnam's wildlife defender fights poachers and prejudiceTrang Nguyen has spent much of her life trying to end the illegal wildlife trade. Photo by AFP/Nhac Nguyen.As a small girl, Trang Nguyen saw a bear stabbed through the chest with a giant needle at her neighbor’s house in northern Vietnam.

The bear, flat on its back, was being pumped for its bile, a fluid drawn from its gallbladder that has long been used in traditional medicine to treat liver disease.

“I had seen visitors to Hanoi zoo who brought sticks to poke animals and it really made my blood boil,” Trang, the founder of local conservation group WildAct, told AFP.

“But conservation wasn’t something I really wanted to do until I witnessed what happened to this bear.”

It was the first of her many encounters with a global multi-billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade that devastates species the world over, fuels corruption and threatens human health.

The 31-year-old — named by the BBC in 2019 as one of the world’s most inspiring and influential women — has spent much of her time since then trying to end the scourge.

She has gone undercover in South Africa to snare traffickers and secured a PhD in traditional medicine’s impact on wildlife.

Trang has also set up her home country’s first postgraduate course for aspiring conservationists, to help more Vietnamese make it to the top of her field.

In the 1990s, decades of war and isolation meant environmental awareness was a new notion in Vietnam.

Trang: 1 2

US backs Philippines in standoff over South China Sea reef

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The United States said it’s backing the Philippines in a new standoff with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, where Manila has asked a Chinese fishing flotilla to leave a reef.China ignored the call, insisting it owns the offshore territory.The US Embassy said it shared the concerns of the Philippines and accused China of using “maritime militia to intimidate, provoke, and threaten other nations, which undermines peace and security in the region.”“We stand with the Philippines, our oldest treaty ally in Asia,” the US Embassy in Manila said in a statement.

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