Chiến tranh, điều không nói

Chào các bạn,

Mình đang xem vài tập đầu loạt phim tài liệu khá đình đám gần đây về Chiến tranh Việt Nam của Ken Burns và Lynn Novick. Tất nhiên dân tình còn bàn tán, bình luận, khen chê nhiều về loạt phim tài liệu này như bao phim tài liệu chiến tranh khác. Mình cũng không bàn nhiều về bộ phim ở đây.

Chỉ có một chi tiết, ở ngay tập đầu tiên nhà văn Bảo Ninh – một người lính của quân đội miền Bắc – một trong số người được phỏng vấn nói suy nghĩ của ông đại loại: chỉ có những ông không đánh nhau bao giờ mới thích đi bình luận và tự hào về chiến tranh và chuyện bắn giết. Những người thực sự tham chiến thì chẳng ai muốn nhắc đến mà tung hô tự hào.

Đúng vậy, thực sự chiến tranh, bạo lực là một sự thất bại, là thể hiện những nỗi sợ hãi của con người. Chiến tranh chẳng có ai là kẻ thắng người thua. Tất cả các bên tham chiến đều là kẻ bại trận. Có gì đáng tự hào đáng tung hô về số người lính mà bên này hay bến kia đã hay đã bị tiêu diệt? Tiếp tục đọc “Chiến tranh, điều không nói”

Hằng continues an endless journey

vietnamnews

Update: September, 17/2017 – 09:00

Friend of the war dead: Ngô Thị Thúy Hằng, Founder and Vice director of Centre of Legal Consultancy and Assistance for Families of Martyrs (MARIN). — Photo courtesy of CSIP

Viet Nam News by Nguyễn Hữu Phùng Nguyên

Ngô Thị Thúy Hằng gave up her stable, high-paid job in Hồ Chí Minh City to move to Hà Nội, almost 1,800 kilometres away. She has seemingly forsaken her youth in the quest for martyrs’ remains, leading the Centre of Legal Consultancy and Assistance for Families of War Martyrs (MARIN) through a long development journey of trials and tribulations.

The stable present

Ten years after we first met, Hằng is still a slim woman, but wrinkles have appeared in the corners of her eyes. I was startled to realise that this woman really had spent all her youth on MARIN, forsaking marriage and wealth. Hằng still lives in a rented apartment, with recognition certificates and profiles covering the walls. I know Hằng will never stop that journey. Tiếp tục đọc “Hằng continues an endless journey”

55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here

Monsanto is expanding in a country it once helped destroy.

KUNI TAKAHASHI VIA GETTY IMAGES
A Vietnamese soldier guards the contaminated site at the edge of the Da Nang Airfield on July 1, 2009 in Da Nang, Central Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military stored more than four million of gallons of herbicides, including Agent Orange, at the military base that is now a domestic and military airbase.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam ― Fifty-five years ago this month, the U.S. Army began spraying millions of gallons of the toxic defoliant known as Agent Orange over large swaths of southern Vietnam. Today, however, instead of resentment and isolation from the U.S., the country is awash with Americanophilia. Tiếp tục đọc “55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here”

Transforming war into peace: Artist turns devastating historic photos of children ravaged by violent conflict and famine into happy illustrations – Bộ ảnh: Biến Chiến tranh thành Hoà bình:

  • Gunduz Aghayev, 34, of Azerbaijan, titled his series of illustrations ‘Imagine’, showing what the lives of the children could have been like
  • He re-creates iconic photos such as ‘Napalm Girl’ from the Vietnam War and ‘The Vulture and the Little Girl’ from the Sudan famine
  • Some people have praised the artist for the ‘hopeful’ images, while other have found them ‘distasteful’ and offensive 

dailymail.co.uk_An artist is raising awareness about the horrific effects that warfare and poverty have on children in an arresting series of illustrations titled ‘Imagine’, which sees him transforming some of the world’s most iconic war-torn images into a picture filled with peace and love

Gunduz Aghayev, 34, of Azerbaijan, re-creates iconic photographs of children suffering in world conflicts, such as ‘Napalm Girl’ from the Vietnam War and a famous picture of child brides in Afghanistan, turning the devastating images into cartoons of the kids playing innocently and laughing.

The illustrator takes the horrific 1972 photo of a nine-year-old girl crying and running through the streets of Trang Bang, Vietnam, after she was severely burned by a napalm attack, and turns the image into a joyful cartoon which sees the girl holding a Statue of Liberty balloon with a smile on her face.

Art: Cartoonist Gunduz Aghayev, 34, of Azerbaijan, re-creates iconic photographs of children suffering in the world conflicts, such as 'Napalm Girl' from the Vietnam War (above), into happy illustrations

Tiếp tục đọc “Transforming war into peace: Artist turns devastating historic photos of children ravaged by violent conflict and famine into happy illustrations – Bộ ảnh: Biến Chiến tranh thành Hoà bình:”

The True Nature of John McCain’s Heroism

New Yorkers

Senators John McCain, at right, and John Kerry, both veterans of the Vietnam War, in 1985.

Photograph by CBS Photo Archive / Getty

“He’s not a war hero,” Donald Trump said two years ago, speaking at a Republican Party candidates’ forum in Iowa. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump’s insult to Senator John McCain—and, by extension, to every American P.O.W.—drew a gasp of rebuke from across the political spectrum. The initial indignation, however, did not last; in hindsight, it seems one of the final instances of a broad cultural unity that now seems lost to this country forever.

Tiếp tục đọc “The True Nature of John McCain’s Heroism”

6 killed by suspected wartime bomb explosion in central Vietnam

By Xuan Ngoc   August 18, 2017 | 02:53 pm GMT+7

6 killed by suspected wartime bomb explosion in central Vietnam

e.vnexpress.net_Police and curious people stand outside a house where an explosion killed six people in Khanh Hoa Province on Friday. Photo courtesy of Vietnam’s government news portal

Neighbors said the family had been trying to dismantle a bomb to sell as scrap metal.

Six members of a single family were killed in an explosion in the central province of Khanh Hoa on Friday morning.

Among the victims were three children. Another child was seriously injured and is receiving treatment.

Local witnesses said they rushed to the house after hearing the blast to find the roof had been blown off and the smell of explosives hanging in the air.

An official said the explosion might have been caused by ordnance left over from the war.

Local media reports cited the victims’ neighbors as saying that one member of the family had brought home a bomb that morning and they were cutting it open when it exploded.

Tiếp tục đọc “6 killed by suspected wartime bomb explosion in central Vietnam”

Bản đồ “nỗi khiếp sợ và điên cuồng của vũ khí hạt nhân” – 2053 vụ nổ bom nguyên tử trong lịch sử từ năm 1945 – 1998

Nghệ sĩ người Nhật Isao Hashimoto đã làm nên một bản đồ thời gian thật đẹp, một sự thật đáng sợ không thể phủ nhận của 2053 vụ nổ hạt nhân năm xảy ra từ năm 1945 và đến 1998, bắt đầu với thử nghiệm “Trinity” của dự án Manhattan gần Los Alamos và kết thúc với thử nghiệmhạt nhân của Pakistan vào tháng 5 năm 1998. Bản đồ này thiếy 2 vụ thử nghiệm hạt nhân của Bắc Triều Tiên trong thập niên vừa qua (do tính hợp pháp của hai vụ này chưa rõ ràng 100%).

Trong bản đồ, mỗi quốc gia đều có một đốm sáng và một chấm nhấp nháy trên bản đồ bất cứ khi nào có một vụ nổ vũ khí hạt nhân, với một thanh chạy trên cùng và dưới cùng của màn hình. Hashimoto, bắt đầu dự án vào năm 2003, nói rằng ông đã tạo ra nó với mục tiêu cho thấy “nỗi khiếp sợ và điên cuồng của vũ khí hạt nhân”. Bản đồ bắt đầu rất chậm – nếu bạn muốn xem hành động thực sự, hãy bỏ qua trước năm 1962 hoặc lâu hơn nữa – nhưng sự tích lũy trở nên quá tải.

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 – by Isao Hashimoto

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

 

US army veteran returns to Viet Nam to heal scars of war

vietnamnews

Update: August, 14/2017 – 10:13

Chuck Searcy, Vice President of Project RENEW and Co-chair of the Agent Orange Working Group. — Photo pbs.org

Việt Nam News reporter Hoàng Anh talks to Chuck Searcy, Vice President of Project RENEW and Co-chair of the Agent Orange Working Group.


When did you come to Việt Nam and what motivated your decision?

The first time I came to Việt Nam was in 1967, as a 20-year-old soldier in the US Army. The year I spent in the war had a profound impact on me. That experience made me hate war. I saw the lies used by the US government to win support from the American people to continue the war, and I saw the death and destruction, the pain and the sorrow being caused to American families, but especially the terrible and tragic costs to the Vietnamese people. When I left the war zone in 1968, I knew that someday I would return – and I hoped it would be in a time of peace and recovery for Việt Nam. Tiếp tục đọc “US army veteran returns to Viet Nam to heal scars of war”

Third generation AO victims in need of proper support

 vietnamnet

Last update 10:18 | 12/08/2017

Trinh Tran Nam Dat spends his daily life on a bamboo mat in the middle of his home.

Emaciated body, urinating and defecating onto the floor…

His father, Trinh Nam Khoa stays by him all day and night, not thinking of leaving him for a while for tens of years now. He himself is not well enough to work.

Dat’s grandfather was a former soldier. He died of cancer in 1998. His parents had no idea of Agent Orange until Dat was diagnosed cerebral palsy.

The faith of the children in AO victim families has been decided 56 years ago. However, until now there has not been any specific policy designated for the third generation victims.

Between 1961-1971, US troops sprayed some 80 million liters of defoliants over southern Vietnam, 44 million liters of which were Agent Orange. The later contained a total of nearly 370 kilograms of dioxin, the most poisonous toxin people have ever known. As many as 4.8 million Vietnamese people are exposed to AO/dioxin, of whom over 3 million are victims and hundreds of thousands of children are in the third and fourth generations. The agony lasts from generations to generations, bringing along the silent pain.

The move of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is imperative to pay tribute to generations of people who devoted themselves for the independence of the nation.

VNA

What Was Australia Doing in Vietnam?

In July 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson sent two of his principal advisers, Clark Clifford and Gen. Maxwell Taylor, to Australia and New Zealand with an urgent mission. Protests were raging in American streets and on university campuses. Hawks and doves were battling in Washington. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was heading toward resignation, an admission that his Vietnam policy had failed.

Tiếp tục đọc “What Was Australia Doing in Vietnam?”

Nghe An: More than 200 shrapnel bombs discovered on field

Last update 16:15 | 02/08/2017
VietNamNet Bridge – In a field in the central province of Nghe An, army engineers have collected 240 shrapnel bombs left from the war.

Nghe An: More than 200 shrapnel bombs discovered on field, social news, vietnamnet bridge, english news, Vietnam news, news Vietnam, vietnamnet news, Vietnam net news, Vietnam latest news, vn news, Vietnam breaking news

The army engineers in Nghe An have reported collecting up to 240 shrapnel bombs from a field in Nghi Truong commune, Nghi Loc district.

Last week, Mr. Nguyen Dang Huan found a bomb-like object while working on his field. The man handed over the object to the local authorities. Tiếp tục đọc “Nghe An: More than 200 shrapnel bombs discovered on field”

240 spots contaminated with pesticides remain in Vietnam

 vietnamnet

Last update 09:52 | 31/07/2017

VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam still has 240 pesticide-contaminated locations in 15 localities, causing serious and extremely serious pollution, according to the 2016 National Environment Report.

Pesticide-contaminated locations, extremely serious pollution, Vietnam economy, Vietnamnet bridge, English news about Vietnam, Vietnam news, news about Vietnam, English news, Vietnamnet news, latest news on Vietnam, Vietnam
There are 240 chemical-contaminated spots nationwide. — VNA/VNS Photo Duy Hung

The report was recently released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE).

Twenty three of these untreated locations are located in urban areas.

Nghe An Province, central Viet Nam, tops the list of provinces and cities with 10 chemical-contaminated spots. Tiếp tục đọc “240 spots contaminated with pesticides remain in Vietnam”

Năm Mươi Năm Nhìn Lại (1963-2013)

 

1963 – 2013
NĂM MƯƠI NĂM NHÌN LẠI
Tuyển tập của 99 tác giả
và những lời Phê phán của 100 Chứng nhân
về chế độ Ngô Đình Diệm
Nhà xuất bản Thiện Tri Thức Publications 2013
TẬP MỘT  TẬP HAI  TẬP BA 
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