Vietnamese authorities prepare to crack down on online gaming

A young boy plays online games at an Internet shop on Tran Quang Khai Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. Vietnamese authorities are poised to issue a stringent clampdown on the online gaming industry, a move decried as unfeasible and unwise by critics.

Vietnamese authorities are poised to issue a stringent crackdown on the online gaming industry.

Authorities claim that the move is aimed at protecting the nation’s youth from perceived social ills. Critics of the measures have decried them as unfeasible and unwise.

On July 16, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, the municipal administration, submitted a proposal to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asking that he tighten the screws on online gaming.

In the request, the city government noted that the number of licensed online games has increased from only two in 2006 to more than 65 today. The city hall claimed that 43 of the currently licensed games are violent in nature.

The city government proposed a halt on the importation of new online games and an end to their advertisement “in any form.” It further proposed that all new games be screened for violent, gambling or pornographic content. All existing licenses should be re-evaluated; those that fail to meet the new content standards should be revoked, the city officials recommended.

At the same time, deputies at a meeting of the Hanoi People’s Council, the municipal legislature, called for laws that would force Internet providers to pull the plug on Internet cafés from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The snowballing municipal ire has worked; the central government is honoring many of their requests.

Starting September 1st Internet access at public cafés will cease from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. While the central government will not enact all of the proposals put forth by the Hanoi and HCMC administrations, it looks as though Vietnam’s cyber-junkies will be getting a lot more sleep this coming fall.

“How could they do that?” asked the owner of an Internet shop on Bui Vien Street in HCMC’s backpacker area. She said her business mainly depended on tourists who visit the shop after spending the day sightseeing.

Two other shop owners in the same neighborhood said they wouldn’t mind the move.

“It won’t hurt us much,” said Hung an employee at the Hoang Hao Internet shop on Do Quang Dau Street. “There aren’t many customers at night.”

Unfeasible

HCMC’S PROPOSALS ON ONLINE GAME MANAGEMENT

- All existing licenses must be reevaluated – those that fail to meet the new content standards should be revoked.

- A halt on the importation of new games

- No advertisement of online games “in any form”

- All new games must be screened for their violent, gambling or pornographic content

- Applications for the approval of new games must include a “social impact assessment” that would quantify the game’s potential for harmful social effects.

- Local online game providers must shut down online gaming servers from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. [Current regulations require Internet shops to comply with local cyber curfews, though such laws are seldom enforced.]

- Provisions for suppliers to limit each gamer to three hours of game play per day [Current law requires game providers to create virtual deterrents for players who exceed three hours of game play. Players are able to dodge these penalties by signing into different virtual profiles –they can create as many as they like.]

- The government will now encourage the development of locally-made games that educate players about Vietnamese history and culture.

Many officials, experts and gamers consider the new regulations unfeasible and unreasonable.

Luu Vu Hai, head of the Broadcasting and Electronic Information Bureau under the Ministry of Information and Communications said that even if a domestic ban on online games were to be instituted, gamers could still play games on foreign servers.

“We cannot ban the games completely,” Hai said. “We plan to come up with a solution that will maximize the benefits of online games and reduce their harmful impacts.”

He said the Ministry of Information and Communications is trying to create an initiative to encourage local firms to produce “positive and healthy” games.

According to the Vietnam Software Association (VINASA), Vietnam is the biggest online game market in Southeast Asia; 22 domestic game suppliers generated $130 million worth of revenue in 2008 alone.

Generally speaking, these companies purchase the rights to games and invest in large computer servers to run them on. Most of the games run by Vietnamese providers are produced abroad. Most of the games have their own currency. Players can enter the virtual worlds for free but, in order to advance, they purchase virtual items and powers for real-world currency.

Many of the games are designed in China and South Korea. They are streamed through Vietnamese servers that translate the language. However, Vietnamese gamers are able to download software that enables them to play foreign games on foreign servers.

Pham Tan Cong, VINASA General Secretary, said online games, like all forms of entertainment, have their good and their bad sides.

“People have vilified online game companies without considering their potential for good,” Cong said. He believes that the government should encourage domestic game developers to work on games that educate players about Vietnamese history and affirm its cultural identity.

“The concept of limiting game play time flies in the face of the borderless nature of Internet,” he said. “We can only manage games that are being run off servers inside the country,” he said.

Management failure

Khuat Thu Hong, head of the Institution for Social Development Studies, said cutting off Internet access at game shops will prove ineffective and signify a failure of the concerned management agencies.

“Online games are not guilty,” Hong said. “They are an advanced technological product. We can’t deny their entertainment value or their capacity to develop players’ reaction time and problem solving skills. Of course, any form of abuse will have negative consequences,” she said.

“We have to educate our kids about avoiding addiction to online games and select suitable games to play” Hong said, adding that many of the supporters of the new measures are parents who have ultimately failed to educate and supervise their children.

Worried companies

Domestic game providers have claimed that the proposed crackdown will prove unfeasible, impede the lawful adult enjoyment of a legal product, and damage a fledgling online gaming industry.

Hoang Trong Hieu, deputy director of VTC Games, an online game subsidiary of Vietnam Cable Television, said banning online games will not affect youth violence.

“When I was at school, there were no online games but fights still broke out. [Violence] is a big picture problem that starts with family, school and the whole society,” he said.

Nguyen Dac Viet Dung, deputy director of FPT Online, an online game supplier, said it would be difficult to issue an account for each gamer and manage their maximum game play per day. Putting online game servers on hiatus [from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night] will badly hurt providers, he said, as they will be forced to backup databases and fix errors caused by regular shut downs.

Dung added that the proposed regulations will not affect Vietnamese gamers who play online games on foreign servers, but local providers will lose foreign customers who wish to play during the new cyber curfew hours.

Gamers divided

Thanh Nien Weekly spoke to several gamers who seemed concerned about hostile behavior exhibited by the youngsters who frequently crowd Internet cafes. Beyond such concerns, however, is a large community that appears frustrated with the government plans.

Dinh Hoang Minh, 28, said he often plays online games to relax after a long day at work. “A ban on online gaming at night would deny adults [who hardly qualify as ‘addicts’] a valuable entertainment outlet,” the HCMC gamer said. “They should find another way of preventing vulnerable children from becoming addicts.”

Minh added that his friends often play games supplied by companies abroad at home and the new regulations would not have any affect on their activities.

Nguyen Thanh Luan, a 21-yearold Vietnamese student in Paris expressed his concern that he would no longer be able to play online games out of his native country – due to the time difference. “Didn’t they take Vietnamese gamers living abroad into account?”

MINISTRY HALTS THE LICENSING OF ONLINE GAMES

The Ministry of Information and Communications is about to put the hurt on the officially reviled online gaming industry.

On July 27, the central governing body held a closed government meeting discussing a draft of new restrictions on the burgeoning industry, according to Luu Vu Hai, head of the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Subsequent to the meeting, Hai said no new licenses will be issued to companies that operate online game servers inside Vietnam.

Furthermore, the ministry will instruct Internet service providers to cut service to online gaming shops in accordance with local cyber curfew laws.

“Actually, a 2008 decree requires all Internet shops to close after 11 p.m.,” Hai said. “The new measure will make its enforcement more effective.”

He added that the regulations have been in place for a long time. Due to the abundance of Internet cafes and shops, he said, the laws have been impossible to enforce until now. He believes the new measure will make enforcement more effective.

Hai told the Tien Phong newspaper that regulations on cutting Internet access for Internet shops after 11 p.m. will take effect September 1.

He said that the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are drafting regulations that will add provisions for the management of off line video games. A task force is currently in the making designed to assess the content of currently licensed online games and new games.

Hanoi’s old-school portraiture still captures the moment

75-year-old Nguyen Bao Nguyen, as one of old-Hanoi’s best portraitists, has been working at that easel in that 10.2 meter-square-room for nearly a half of century

The tiny old shop on Hang Ngang Street is surrounded by sparkling fashion boutiques crowded with hipsters.

But inside Truyen than Bao Nguyen (Bao Nguyen Portraits), it’s a different world.

The distinguished and aging artist, thin and white-haired, sits cross-legged in repose at his easel, the way he has been doing for 50 years.

Portraitist Nguyen Bao Nguyen, 75, began working at that easel in that 10.2 meter-square-room as a young man, a whimsical bohemian from a middle class family trying to make ends meet during the war years.

He was supposed to have gained a degree in 1960, but he took a severe stomach ache the day of his graduation exam as an omen, and he’s been living with ink-stained fingertips ever since.

The young Hanoian had always drawn as a self-taught artist at home, and when he decided to follow the traditional urban trade no one in his family had yet plied, Mom and Dad supported him.

The investment wasn’t much compared to the possible returns. He just needed paper, charcoal, and pencil-brushes, which he made himself with the ends of incense sticks and matches.

It turned out to be a good move, as he quickly earned a reputation as one of old-Hanoi’s best young truyen than artists. The 60s were an energetic time in downtown Hanoi, and Nguyen brought in a good deal of money with the art.

Old gold

Truyen than (Conveying the Soul) portraiture first showed its face in the small streets and alleys of Hanoi’s old quarter in the early 20th century. The simple black and white charcoal drawings were meant to convey the essence and spirit of whatever their subject was in a non-ostentatious or sensational way.

The art came about as people wanted more personal depictions of their relatives to use for ancestor worship. The artistic renditions of family members copied from old photographs quickly became popular, especially for wedding photos.

For the first time, not only the super-wealthy could decorate their homes with realistic images of their nuptials.

And some people simply wanted copies of their photos, or to create a new image as their old photos were fading.

Truyen than family portraits became a popular ornament in many Vietnamese homes. For a small price, people could easily have a high-quality, large-size portrait hung in their living-room.

Reinvention

According to Nguyen, truyen than drawers are not copycats. He said that the key was in making the viewer feel both the aura and spirit of the character in the picture, whether it is a human or still-life.

“The special features of each character must be found by the artist’s senses. The spirit could be expressed in any detail like the corner of one’s eyes, the wrinkle on the forehead, a snub nose or just a hair on the face. No one can teach you that.”

A truyen than portrait must not only look like the character but also “make viewers feel that the character is sitting there and talking to them,” said Nguyen, adding that it usually takes him a week to finish a piece.

“A 10-20 percent divergence from the character’s real face or figure is a success... but I only draw a portrait once, it’s too hard to repeat.”

He said the inspiration comes to him only once, and he does not like to copy his “emotion” again and again.

But he admitted that there were some pictures that he has had to fix four or five times before they were done.

"I looked [at the character] for a long time but the person in the drawing still couldn"t talk to me," he told Sports and Culture newspaper.

He once spent two years completing a portrait of writer Lan Khai from an old and stained photo Khai’s son had given him.

Over the period, Nguyen read Khai’s writings obsessively to find true inspiration.

Because the photo was blurry, and Nguyen also loved Khai’s writings, it took an immense amount of time, he said. He wanted to draw the perfect picture.

All paid off when he saw how moved Khai’s son was when he saw the picture of his father.

“This is him,” the son told Nguyen.

Bringing out the dead

Despite the abundance of imported ink now available in Hanoi, Nguyen still uses his own handmade ink.

To do so, he burns scraps of rubber tires with a kerosene lamp. He uses the soot collected from that smoke to create pitch-black ink that stands in stunning contrast with his white paper.

He also makes his own pencils.

He makes them with the slender end of an incense stick or match and then ties them tightly to chopstick-like bamboo stick with a little copper wire.

Nguyen said his most rewarding work was when families came to him asking for pictures of their dead parents, many of whom were killed or went missing during the war.

Many of his customers have burst into tears upon receiving their folks’ pictures. Some say the drawings have helped them through the pain of missing their loved ones.

Blogger Hoang Duc Nha said Nguyen has a guestbook full of praise, appreciation, regards and letters.

“That is the most precious gift that I’ve gotten in my career.”

But he worries the art is slowly fading away.

“The city used to have over 300 truyen than shops,” said Nguyen. “But now we can count the number of artists on two hands.”

South Korean authorities have pledged to make Korean men looking to marry foreign women undergo a cultural education program after a Vietnamese woman was allegedly killed by her husband in Busan.

“Those with a history of mental illness or a violent crime record and those who have married and divorced foreign brides three times or more will face restrictions on applying for visas for their would-be brides,” Moon Soo-Yong, a ministry deputy director, told AFP.

The move came after 20-year-old Thach Thi Hoang Ngoc was stabbed to death by her South Korean husband, Jang Do Hyo, who had a history of mental problems, on July 8, just eight days after arriving in South Korea to live with her new husband, according to the Korea Times, which cited reports from the Busan Saha Police Station.

Ngoc was beaten and stabbed to death in her house in Busan after quarreling with her 47- year-old husband, the Korea Times said, adding that the husband told police that he had been instructed by a ghost to kill her during a fight the couple was having.

Make me a match

Statistics from the South Korean Consulate General in HCMC show that around 27,500 Vietnamese women had been granted marriage visas by 2008 and around 8,000 such visas were granted in 2009 alone. This means around 35,500 Vietnamese women had migrated to South Korea for marriage by the end of 2009.

Many of these marriages were arranged by illegal brokers, who put women up on show at human supermarkets.

In a famous case, Ho Chi Minh City police arrested a man caught displaying 65 Vietnamese girls to two prospective South Korean grooms in an allegedly illegal marriage brokerage scam in 2007.

Following many such cases, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) and the South Korean government collaborated to set up a website, www.vovietchonghan.org, on Vietnamese and Korean customs laws and how they affect cross-cultural marriages.

Police requested an arrest warrant for Jang on murder charges July 9, the paper said, adding that investigators were now questioning the husband about the brutal beating and stabbing.

Ngoc married Jang without knowing he had undergone psychiatric treatment for depression and mental illness 57 times since 2005, South Korean media reported.

Ngoc’s parents, Thach Sang and his wife Truong Thi Ut, were informed of the death on July 9.

Ut told Thanh Nien Ngoc had met Jang, her husband, on February 7 via a brokerage firm, whose name has not been released. She said the wedding was held ten days later in Ho Chi Minh City.

Before the wedding, Jang’s family gave Ngoc’s family VND3.8 million (US$199) and rented a car to bring her family to HCMC.

Broken dreams

Ngoc’s family comes from Thoi Hoa B Hamlet in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho’s Co Do District, where they live with 300 other ethnic Khmer families. Most of them are poor and many in the Mekong Delta area have seen their daughters marry husbands from Taiwan and South Korea in recent years.

But several cases of Delta women marrying foreign men through brokerage services have ended in tragedy.

In 2008, Tran Thanh Lan, 22, of Hau Giang Province reportedly committed suicide in Kyongsan City just 25 days after she went to South Korea with her husband Ha Jang Su, whom she had been married to for six months.

Vietnamese media reports said she had become depressed after failing to integrate into the new society. The reports also said there were suspicious circumstances surrounding her death, pointing out that she had requested to get divorced a week earlier and that her husband had already bought her a ticket home.

In 2007, Le Thi Kim Dong of Can Tho died while allegedly attempting to escape from her husband’s house in Daegu Town, some 400 kilometers from Seoul. The pregnant woman had allegedly suffered maltreatment at the hands of her husband’s family, Vietnamese media reports said.

Emotional arbiter

In upholding the 12-year murder conviction of Huynh Mai’s husband – known only as Jang – chief justice at the Daejeon City trial Kim Sang-jun said he hoped the incident would not give Vietnamese people a poor image of South Korea, according to the local Hankyoreh newspaper.

The paper quoted him as saying: “We [the South Korean people] should cordially and sadly confess the brutality hidden in our hearts.”

“No one told Jang who his bride would be nor what her expectations would be and Jang himself did not make any effort to find out... We cannot blame Jang alone. This is something that was caused by the immaturity in our society, by which foreign women are regarded as objects that can be imported.”

“We wanted to seek forgiveness from the victim’s family for the brutality in our society. It is regrettable that we’ve had to make the ruling without informing her family.”

Regulations on the trade and processing of dog meat have been awaiting government action for over a year, according to a Ho Chi Minh City animal health official.

In the meantime, the popular food item continues to pose grave public health risks.

“We are not encouraging dog meat consumption but we need regulations to ensure food safety for the current situation [dog meat demand],” Phan Xuan Thao, head of HCMC Animal Health Agency, told Thanh Nien Weekly on July 19.

A survey conducted last year by Thao’s agency identified around 175 restaurants and eateries in HCMC that served dog meat daily. At that time, the agency found up to 350 dogs were being slaughtered per day to meet city demand.

Early last year, the city’s Animal Health Agency produced draft regulations that would require strict inspections of dog processing - from the farming to the slaughtering of the animals. According to Thao, the regulations also contained stipulations on the trade of the meat.

“[Dogs killed for human consumption] must have a clear origin,” Thao said. “They must be vaccinated against rabies and other diseases and quarantined 15 days before being slaughtered,” he said.

While the regulations await action from central authorities, the industry remains largely unregulated.

In Vietnam, dog meat has long been considered a tasty drinking food with traditional health properties. A study conducted by a Thai researcher from

Chulalonkorn University estimated that as many as 30,000 dogs are trafficked from Thailand to Vietnam every month along a single road.

At the moment, Vietnamese laws only require that dogs slaughtered for consumption have a certificate of origin and proof of rabies vaccination.

However, a 2007 study by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that 20 percent of sick dogs tested in Hanoi area slaughterhouses tested positive for rabies.

Meanwhile, the city’s enforcement wing bears a heavy load.

Thao and his officials are only permitted to inspect vaccination certificates.

Inspectors at the year-old HCMC Food Safety Agency have the authority to seize dog meat from slaughterhouses and restaurants if the owners fail to produce certificates of origin. Officials from the Food Safety Agency declined to comment on their capacity or status.

Thao said the fledgling force is restructuring to more effectively enforce existing regulations.

The trafficking of Thai dogs into Vietnam appears to be a growing problem for the country, as demand for dog continues to rise. Last year, the Global Post reported that “Hanoi’s leftover Thai dogs were once re-sold in China, according to researcher Thanyathip Sipana, but now Vietnamese consumption leaves little for the Chinese.”

Meanwhile, at home, the thriving trade in the meat is only occasionally stymied by health raids which are usually prompted by outbreaks of communicable disease.

Early this month, officials from the Hanoi Department of Health closed dozens of dog restaurants and slaughterhouses in Hoai Duc and Ha Dong districts after samples of dog meat tested positive for cholera.

In response to last year’s demand for controls, the city Agriculture Department instructed HCMC’s Animal Health Agency to draft regulations on dog meat trading. The draft proposal has been submitted to the central Department of Animal Health twice in the last year and the issue continues to be batted around like a hot potato.

In February 2009, the central Department of Animal Health declined to enact national regulations on the trade, thus shifting the onus of approving the regulations back onto the HCMC People’s Committee – the city’s municipal administration.

Seven months later, in September 2009, city officials asked Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to issue nationwide regulations on trading and slaughtering dogs. The problem is too large to be managed by city officials, they intimated. This time, city officials recommended that the ministry consider limiting or banning dog meat altogether.

The ministry told Thanh Nien Weekly that they have re-submitted the request to the central Department of Animal Health – the very organization that declined to establish national regulations in the first place.

Thao says that the city has not received any feedback from the ministry so far and that an outright ban on dog meat would be unfeasible due to existing demand. He further indicated that such a ban could exacerbate smuggling, thus complicating the prospect of effective food safety management.

“I think the ministry and department [of animal health] were afraid that [a decision] would draw opposition from international organizations for human health and animal protection,” he said.

Indeed, one such organization has publicly taken credit for defeating the measure.

Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), an international nonprofit organization, claims to have been instrumental in the central government’s decision not to enact the regulations.

AAF’s website claims that the Vietnamese government solicited their opinion in February of 2009 on a plan to extend existing standards for the slaughter of “cattle, pigs and chickens” to dogs. After writing an opinion denouncing the measure, they claim, the government relented.

“Vietnam Central Department of Animal Health (DAH) issued an official directive stating that they would not enact legislation designed to regulate the processing of dog meat for human consumption,” AAF stated in a release posted on their website.

The release quotes the organization’s Vietnam Director, Tuan Bendixsen, as saying that individual localities can still attempt to enact their own regulations. “Usually they will not go against the Central Government"s directive,” he says in the release. “I"m now looking at getting the Central Government to officially ban it [dog eating] instead of just not enacting regulation.”

Inquiry follows wave of Agent Orange interest in wake of Senators’ visit

Tran Thi Hoan, 23, with her friends at Peace Village in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tu Du Maternity Hospital, a home for Agent Orange victims. Hoan, who was born without two legs and a hand due to her mother’s dioxin exposure, is testifying about the plight of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims at the US House of Representatives this week.

The United States House of Representatives is set to hear the testimony of the first Vietnamese Agent Orange victim to ever speak on capital hill this week.

Tran Thi Hoan, a 23-year-old 2nd generation victim told Thanh Nien Weekly her testimony on July 15th would focus on the agonies she and her peers have suffered, “and the aspirations of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims to be fully redressed by the US government and chemical companies.”

Hoan’s testimony coincides with a rising tide of US interest in Vietnam and its estimated 3 million Agent Orange victims. Hoan was born without a hand and both legs, which doctors have attributed to her mother’s exposure to Agent Orange.

According to an article written by Charles Bailey, Director of the Ford Foundation’s Special initiative on Dioxin/Agent Orange: “Between 1961 and 1971, the US sprayed close to 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides over 10 percent of what was then South Vietnam.” Bailey added that the chemicals contained Dioxin, defined as a “persistent organic pollutant that even in tiny amounts (parts per trillion) can seriously harm the health of anyone exposed and potentially their offspring and future generations.”

Nearly 50 years later, members of the US government are stepping forward and taking ownership of the act.

“We as a country and a government formulated this policy of using this chemical toxic substance to supposedly fight the war in Vietnam only to find out that the consequences were just unbelievable,” Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D -Am. Samoa) chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment told Thanh Nien Weekly.

Faleomavaega used the words “chemical warfare” to describe the US spraying campaign.

The Congressman was stationed with the US Army in Nha Trang from 1967-68. He summoned the first congressional hearing on Agent Orange that included the US-Vietnam dialogue group in 2008. He called another in 2009. In this third hearing, members of the House will come face to face with the consequences of the spraying.

“When I see these children in the hospital there in Vietnam who are deformed, it’s almost like being exposed to nuclear radiation in a way,” he said.

Rep. Faleomavaega is the second US official in two weeks to acknowledge a direct moral obligation on behalf of the US government to increase aid to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.

The Samoan Congressman was unaware that a group of three US Senators had visited Vietnam last week and toured Agent Orange treatment centers in and around Da Nang.

During the delegation’s visit, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) expressed a desire to raise the current allotment of $3 million to $20-30 million.

“[What] I want to do is to get the money for the compensation for the same illnesses here as we are doing in the US,” he was quoted as saying.

In an e-mail, Sen. Harkin’s staff said they could not commit to a specific number. “Sen. Harkin is working hard to increase funding,” a spokesperson said.

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and AL Franken (D-Minn.), who accompanied Harkin to Vietnam last week, declined repeated requests for comment on the nature of their trip and plans for future action.

During the fiscal year of 2007, Congress approved $3 million for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims. The amount was approved again in 2009 and 2010.

“This 3 million is just pittance,” Rep. Faleomavaega said. “I really hope that we’re gonna see what we can do to increase our efforts.”

Both Harkin and Faleomavaega independently praised the work of the Ford Foundation, a charitable organization that has worked to develop a $300 million clean-up plan with the US – Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin. The plan requires funding largely by the US government –money that has yet to arrive.

“I don’t know where this is going to end up,” said Rep. Faleomavaega. “I’m just doing the best I can. Hopefully there will be members who will see the rightness of the issue and say we just need to correct it that’s all.”

Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, who will testify alongside Hoan and was the first Vietnamese citizen to speak on the issue before congress in 2008, said the money that comes into Vietnam for Agent Orange assistance needs to be used properly.

“The money should be directed to Vietnamese NGOs for better distribution. As far as I understand, the already meager assistance has been trimmed by US NGOs tasked with bringing the money to Vietnam,” said the former president of HCMC-based Tu Du Maternity Hospital and current vice chair of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA). Phuong has conducted extensive research on the impact of Agent Orange on breast milk in Vietnam.

“Imagine how much Vietnamese Agent Orange victims would receive given the fact that such [US] NGOs often come to Vietnam in large delegations and stay in five-star hotels.”

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Congressman Faleomavaega was the first to hold a hearing on Agent Orange that included the Vietnamese government. He served in the US Army from 1967-8 and was the first Asian-American in the history to chair a sub-committee on Asia and the Pacific.

In 1989 he was elected to Congress by the people of American Samoa. They have been re-electing him ever since.

During an extensive interview with Thanh Nien Weekly, Congressman Faleomavaega spoke on a range of issues, excerpted below.

We’re gonna spend another $100 billion on the 100,000 soldiers we’ve got on the ground in Afghanistan. And we’re right in the middle of saying, are we justified, does this smell of Vietnam again?

... Every time I read about the billions and billions of dollars that have been wasted on the war on Iraq and out of Afghanistan... that really burns me up, you know?

... We can’t account for billions and billions and we can’t spend a few million to alleviate [Agent Orange]? Billions and billions we can’t even account for? Give me a break. That’s not right.

In my review of the situation, this started under the Kennedy Administration, these major chemical companies like Monsanto... They pointed the finger at the Department of Defense. They are both responsible for what happened.

... What makes it worse is that this didn’t go on for a few months, it went on for close to 10 years!

... I have to put the ball squarely on the pentagon and those officials who conducted the war effort are responsible for what happened.

Farmers, lawyers baffled by provincial farmers’ association reluctance to take river polluter to task

A portion of the Thi Vai River in 2008, much of which was polluted by the illegal wastewater discharge of Taiwanese MSG manufacturer Vedan Vietnam.

Nguyen Lam Son was angry, puzzled and relieved.

His lawyer had just told him that he is likely to win a lawsuit against Vedan, the company that had destroyed his livelihood by dumping untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River in the southern Dong Nai Province for 14 years.

“The prospects are bright. This is totally different from what I was told a week ago,” Son said.

At a meeting between some 100 representatives of 5,000 farmers from Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts in Dong Nai on July 7, the provincial farmers’ association reiterated its stance that members stood little chance of winning a lawsuit against Vedan.

Despite the fact that province was hardest hit by the pollution caused by the Taiwanese MSG maker, the association asked affected farmers to drop the case, and continued to “negotiate” the compensation with the company.

“I was shattered by that. It seemed that we have no choice but to accept something that has already been set up,” Son told Thanh Nien Weekly.

At the July 7 meeting, all the farmers accepted that they would drop the case.

Except Son

Shrimp farmer Nguyen Lam Son of Dong Nai Province’s Nhon Trach District said he would sue Vedan on his own, despite warnings from the local farmers’ association.

“I was frustrated as the association just clung to the lack of evidence claim to talk the farmers out of pursuing the lawsuit. They kept saying that we had to present all the invoices and documents certifying that our business had suffered heavy losses due to Vedan,” Son said.

“But I would dare anyone who can find such documents as evidence. Most of the farmers in my commune are illiterate and their business transactions are based solely on mutual trust and word of mouth.”

Son, a shrimp farmer, said he decided not to drop the case because he has had enough of putting up with the “crime” Vedan has committed.

“Vedan’s crime happened right in front of me for years. Now I will never ever let them do it again,” said Son, who had been breeding shrimp by pumping water directly from the Thi Vai River since 1996.

Devious ploy

In September 2008, government inspectors found Vedan Vietnam dumping untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River in the southern province of Dong Nai. The company had avoided detection by hiding pipes under ground and in the river, and had been discharging toxic liquids through them for 14 years, massively polluting the surroundings.

A study authorized by the Institute of Environment and Natural Resources found in December 2009 that Vedan was responsible for 77 percent of the pollution then plaguing the Thi Vai River.

The report said Vedan should compensate farmers in Dong Nai Province, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and Ho Chi Minh City with a total of VND1.7 trillion (US$89.2 million) for the damages it has caused, including the destruction of marine farms and damage to land crops on the banks of the river.

But the company rejected the figures about the extent of damage as “groundless”. Vedan claimed it had inspected and assessed the damage by itself and offered far less compensation than the government-sponsored study said the farmers are entitled to.

Earlier this year, farmers’ societies from HCMC, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Dong Nai, agreed that they would take the company to court and demand fair compensation.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, who will defend HCMC farmers in the upcoming lawsuit, said he could see what Vedan was up to in trying to delay the bargaining process.

“After September 15, two years after the company was caught red-handed, if no lawsuit takes place, demanding even a penny from the company would be a tough task,” Hau said, referring to a statute of limitations.

But the Dong Nai farmers’ association made a u-turn early last month, saying it would persuade the farmers to drop the case due to lack of evidence.

The association also agreed in principle to accept “financial assistance” worth VND15 billion from Vedan without consulting the farmers.

Lawyer Hau said he found the decision of the association incomprehensible.

“I’m baffled. Dong Nai farmers are the hardest-hit and they should receive the largest support [from the association]. I just don’t understand.”

Hau said he did not think suing the Taiwanese company would be that tough.

Son’s lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous, said he has found the way out not only for Son but for other farmers hit hard by Vedan. However, he declined to spell out specific measures, saying, “Let’s just wait until we get to the court.”

The farmer’s willingness to go against the stated odds has impressed 47-year-old Hoang The Dung, another shrimp farmer in Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach District.

Dung said he would also follow Son in taking legal action against Vedan.

Dung said he was not consulted when the Dong Nai farmers’ association held a meeting on what action they should take against Vedan. “That just made me livid,” Dung said.

“I don’t trust the association anymore. I will go on my own.”

‘Certain to win’

Nguyen Van Phung, chairman of the HCMC’s farmers’ association, said he was not in a position to judge the decision of his Dong Nai counterparts.

“But I just don’t agree with them.”

Phung said he was glad that the two farmers in Dong Nai have shown their determination to take the case all the way.

“The court officials have told me that they all know about the ploy by Vedan to buy time. They urged us to expedite the process so that the court hearing could take place in time,” Phung said.

“We are certain to win.”

The Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Nguyen Quoc Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Farmers’ Association as saying that they would strongly support the farmers.

“Any farmers’ association should be protecting the right interests and benefits of the farmers,’ Cuong was quoted by Tuoi Tre as saying.

“Perhaps because Vedan is located in Dong Nai Province, the farmers’ association there need to take their relations with the company into consideration,” he surmised, referring to the reluctance of the local farmers’ association to pursue the case against the company.

For thousands of years, farmers in Vietnam’s rural communes have supplemented their incomes by producing handicrafts in the post harvest season.

These villages tended to specialize in a specific craft item: from fine crockery to baskets to traditional lacquered woodwork. The trade secrets have been passed from generation to generation.

At the moment, these villages are finding it increasingly difficult to survive in the new global economy. Complicated procedures have hindered them from accessing subsidized bank loans and government efforts to expand this cottage industry have proven ineffective. General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Craft Villages, Luu Duy Dan sat down with Thanh Nien Weekly to explore the bigger picture.

What is happening these days in Vietnam’s handicraft villages?

Vietnam’s handicraft villages have developed in line with Vietnam’s rural economic growth. According to last year’s statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam is home to 2,790 craft villages which produce 200 kinds of products.

However, these craft villages have stayed afloat largely on their own. Cooperation is weak among the small scale operations. They face a whole host of difficulties: limited production spaces, poor production infrastructure, unqualified laborers, unstable material sources, you name it. What’s more, the limited coordination between these production households has prevented some craft villages from securing big contracts.

Kids coming up in these villages often love the traditional careers, but they avoid them due to the low income involved. These children end up leaving their villages to work in cities as construction workers, motorbike taxi drivers, and stevedores.

We are not doing enough to save this crucial aspect of our society. Many of our policies are not in line with the reality these craftsmen face. Local authorities have proven unmindful and irresponsible towards these communities. As a result, some investors flinch at the prospect of investing in these villages.

In a glaring catch-22, craft firms wishing to secure government subsidized loans must employ 50 laborers or more, under current policy. Meanwhile, most of the firms are small and cannot expand production because they don’t qualify for subsidized loans.

If we don’t start paying more attention to them, many handicraft villages will be lost or continue to limp on in this half-dead manner.

What role do craft villages play in the rural economy

Craft villages have made an important contribution to the export economy. But, most importantly, they create jobs in rural areas. In 2007 craft exports accounted for only US$760 million of the country’s total export revenues of $35 billion. On the other hand, craft villages generated jobs for 11 million people, including the disabled, the elderly, and children. As more and more arable land is seized for large development projects, handicraft production is emerging as the only viable endeavor for rural farmers.

A thriving village economy can help reduce social ills, foster close sentiment among villagers, and attract visitors curious about Vietnam’s traditional culture. Many craft villages have become successful tourist destinations.

Under current policies, some craft villages are thriving, while others are stagnating. What are the reasons for this?

It all comes down to production planning. Bat Trang craft village has a pottery market. Its production is organized under existing business law and the small firms operating there have a good understanding of that law. The village market promotes trade, promotes technological advances in production, and has secured stable material sources for its manufacturers. As a result, Bat Trang has been able to net large contracts from straight-laced companies. What’s more, the village’s pottery makers have managed to infiltrate the overseas market, while at the same time attracting domestic buyers with reasonable prices.

After the economic recession (in 2008), some craft villages succeeded in tapping the domestic market, where there’s a large demand for stone, wood, and bronze products that bear cultural significance.

Don’t some craft villages become even poorer after following their traditional career?

That’s a serious problem. Some craft villages are struggling right now. Non Chuong Village is a good example. Each production household in the village makes about two or three hats per day. They cannot possibly survive in the new global economy using their traditional production model. This should be cause for alarm. We still lack many things. We have not yet developed a school that specializes in the training of craftspeople; we only have general policies [on handicraft village development]. Meanwhile, production space in the villages is shrinking. Many villages have no ponds or sewers - a circumstance that poses grave risks to the environment.

So, what should we do to deal with these issues?

The main difficulty is the trajectory of capital and development. We need to have a long-term vision for these villages.

The procedures for accessing bank loans should be simplified, advanced technology should be applied, and we should work towards tapping both the domestic and overseas markets. Current regulations on capital need to be brought in line with reality.

Craft villages also face difficulties in terms of manpower, and material sources. The government has planned to train one million laborers for craft villages between now and 2020. We (the Vietnam Association of Craft Villages) have proposed three training models: training laborers for developing new craft villages, training laborers for production of materials and improving manpower in production areas.

Now, most craftspeople are trained by skilled veterans. The training is not officially organized with the support of local authorities or the government.

We should regard the development of these villages as a rural and social development issue, which will help generate jobs, contribute to poverty reduction and reduce social evils.

From South Africa to Laos, authorities are cracking down on traders in endangered flesh

Environmental police seize two frozen tigers and one frozen panther from a house in the north-central Nghe An Province’s Dien Chau District on June 22. Conservationists have called for more efforts to stop the trade of endangered species.

Experts are lauding the recent seizure of two frozen tigers and a frozen panther in the north-central province of Nghe An. Still, they say more must be done to stop Vietnamese traffickers plundering the world’s precious fauna.

In an extensive response sent to Thanh Nien Weekly, Douglas Hendrie, technical advisor for Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV), the country"s first local nongovernmental organization (NGO) to focus on conservation of nature and the environment, said that a more holistic approach is needed to staunch the loss of wildlife.

Vietnamese authorities must collaborate across borders to take down the international networks responsible for the trade, he said. At home, they must make sure local markets are free of the illicit products.

“We are focused too much on the act and too little on the enterprise,” Hendrie said.

Thomas Osborn, coordinator of the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Program, said that the environmental police have demonstrated once again their dedication to halting the illegal trade in protected species such as tigers.

“If we hope to save the country’s remaining tigers and other threatened species, it will take ever increasing vigilance from authorities and a strong commitment by the government to support and promote existing wildlife laws.”

As few as 30 wild tigers are estimated to survive in Vietnam.

Despite their protection under Vietnamese and international law, tigers and panthers continue to be illegally hunted and traded across Vietnam and Southeast Asia. On the black market, tiger parts are sold as food, souvenirs and the components of medicine. According to a TRAFFIC statement released on July 2, tiger bone wine remains in high demand throughout the region.

Tiger farming

On June 22, environmental police entered the farm of 53- year-old Le Xuan Thoan in Dien Chau District in the north-central province of Nghe An. VietNamNet news website cited reports from the local Forest Protection Agency that Thoan’s farm housed two rhinoceroses and a host of other wild animals.

Inside his house, they discovered a menagerie of a different kind.

In addition to the trio of frozen feline carcasses, police seized the skeleton of a wild animal believed to be a lion and around five kilograms of wildlife bones.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Viet Nhi of the provincial environmental police said this was the biggest case of frozen wildlife ever to rock the region. He said police will continue to investigate the matter.

RECENT WILDLIFE
SMUGGLING CASES

From April 14 to May 19 in 2010: Seven young bears were seized in three separate cases in Dien Bien, Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces. All three cases involved smuggling from Laos to Vietnam.

From April 29 to May 28 in 2010: Hai Phong City customs officials busted four smuggling cases. They confiscated around 4.7 tons of elephant tusks in total.

March 2010: Lao Bao Border Guards in the north-central Ha Tinh Province seized the body of a 95-kilogram tiger and a 27- kilogram black panther being transported across the border to be sold in Vietnam.

October 2009: Vietnam Environmental Police seized two frozen tiger carcasses weighing a total of 130kg and arrested five suspects in Hanoi.

(Source: Education for Nature – Vietnam)

Several conservationists have said that Thoan is not the first “wildlife farmer” to be caught in the illegal trade.

ENV has taken aim at the tiger farming.

The NGO recently issued a study that found three out of seven tiger farms across Vietnam are involved in illegal tiger smuggling. Some farm owners opt not to report the number of newborn and dead tigers so they may trade them on the black market, it said.

“Tiger farming in Vietnam should be banned. Only licensed zoos and qualified and strategically planned tiger conservation facilities should be permitted to keep tigers,” ENV’s Douglas Hendrie told Thanh Nien Weekly.

“Most tiger farmers in Vietnam would be better named ‘tiger businessmen’ because they are hardly farmers like the public thinks, but rich businessmen, most of which have purchased their tigers illegally, and nearly all of which are suspected or confirmed to be illegally selling tigers out the back door of their farms, while crying to the public that they are only trying to help save tigers by breeding them for conservation,” he said.

Rhino smuggling

Though tiger numbers in Vietnam are dwindling, rhinos have been forced to the brink of extinction. This April, the carcass of a Javan rhino was found hornless and bullet-ridden in the forest in the Central Highlands Lam Dong Province.

Biologists are still trying to determine whether the corpse represents the last of its kind in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the thirst for rhino horns prevails.

On March 29, South African authorities seized a Vietnamese national named Xuan Hoang at O.R. Tambo International Airport. Of the seven rhino horns found in Hoang’s possession, several matched the DNA of a rhino that had been poached just a few days earlier.

The horns weighed 16 kilograms, and were valued at approximately US$117,000 according to a press release issued by South Africa-based NGO Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).

The South Africans hit the Vietnamese trader hard.

According to the EWT’s press release, Hoang pleaded for mercy and tried to convince the court to levy a fine for his crimes. Magistrate Prince Manyathi responded by saying that fines would no longer suffice as a measure of discouraging future such crimes.

On June 30, the magistrate sentenced Hong to ten years in prison for possessing the horns. “A message needs to be sent to Vietnam,” he said.

Last week, three Vietnamese citizens applied for bail in South Africa. The trio were arrested on the opening night of World Cup 2010 on June 11 with a total of 25 rhino horns, EWT told Thanh Nien Weekly via email. Their court case is due later in July.

“[Hoang’s] sentence will be setting a norm in the courts for future sentencing of similar cases and will hopefully be a deterring factor to the poaching. It is very significant that such a large number of horns get smuggled out of South Africa into Vietnam undetected and it is our aim to see that better detection of such horns becomes the thing of the future,” said Faan Coetzee, Executant of EWT’s Rhino Security Project.

A Son Dong sage passes on the art of Chinese calligraphy

The 69-year-old retired farmer and veteran Nghiem Quoc Dat practices writes Chinese calligraphy, which is helpful for people to perfect their character

Every Sunday afternoon, nearly a hundred students gather to listen to the teachings of Nghiem Quoc Dat.

On a recent afternoon, the old man sat in the cramped quarters of his living room—his former classroom. A blousy kerchief hangs from the slight 69 year-old man’s neck like a flag. A large plush blazer ruffles against his narrow shoulders as he paints the beautiful tapered lines of a single Chinese character.

Dat, a retired farmer and former soldier, is perhaps his village’s most vital mind.

Five years ago, he began teaching the lost art of Chinese calligraphy. “I principally began doing this because I wanted the children in my family to carry on our traditional love of learning,” Dat says. “But, what’s more, my village is famous for its lacquered boards and wood panels which are all engraved with the complex characters. The younger generation needs to know about this so they can preserve the village’s traditional trade.”

Located some 25 kilometers from Hanoi, Son Dong Village has long been a home to craftsmen and artisans. The town boasts a number of Confucian scholars still capable of rendering and interpreting the nearly 4,000 year-old pictorial alphabet.

The characters first appeared in Vietnam in the first century BC.

Because the language is character-based (each word is represented by a symbol that must be memorized to be understood) it requires intense study to master. Modern Chinese dictionaries contain more than 47,000 symbols; a “literate” adult may only know between 3,000-4,000.

Portuguese missionaries began developing the current Romanized script in Vietnam in the 16th century to advance evangelical efforts. By the late 19th century, the Chinese alphabet had all but disappeared.

Since then the art has been carried only by artisans and scholars.

Startled by the possibility of its disappearance, Dat consulted the small educational board chaired by his extended family (the Nghiem clan). They encouraged him unanimously to begin teaching at the end of 2006.

The old man shelled out a huge chunk of his meager monthly pension to buy ink and brushes for his students.

He refused to accept any money from the children’s families and cleared out his 25 square-meter living room to make space for students.

The first class was made up entirely of Nghiem kids. He called it Sao Khue, after the Chinese astrological constellation that has served as symbol of art and literature in Chinese and Vietnamese culture.

Dat had no teaching experience when he began his Sunday lectures. But he soon found himself peppering his lessons with poems, puzzles and stories. The old scholar’s lessons don’t merely focus on the technical aspects of classical calligraphy. When teaching a given character, he inevitably delves into its complex Confucian meaning. For example, the symbol for “rest” combines the symbol for “man” and “tree.” Thus, a man sitting near a tree is deemed to be at rest.

His method worked. The floor of Dat’s living room swelled with students crowding onto the floor. He was forced to cap classes at 20 pupils until a local secondary School principal offered him the use of a classroom.

Dat believes in the old Vietnamese adage: net chu net nguoi - literally, “handwriting reveals your character”.

Dat’s tutelage has won praise from satisfied parents.

“We all know that Dat has a profound knowledge and, more than that, lots of personality,” said Van Thi Duyen whose ten-year-old son attends the old teacher’s class. “We all love watching naughty children improve under Dat’s moral guidance.”

In addition to kids, Dat’s classes are frequented by teachers, artisans, farmers, and Buddhist priests who attend whenever they can. Shocked by their dedication, Dat tends to gush when speaking about his pupils.

In some cases, it seems as though the old man’s calligraphy lessons have given some men a new hope in life.

“Tien is a war invalid,” Dat said. “But for the past two years he has driven his three-wheeler some 20 kilometers to come to class. He used to be a hot-tempered man but after a while in my class, he has developed a patience that extends into all things.”

Nguyen Phuc Hiep was born to a poor family in Dong La Village— some 15 kilometers away. Though he loved to learn, Hiep had to leave school to begin working at the age of 13. He now works on construction site and is one of Sao Khue’s top students.

“Studying calligraphy is very interesting,” said Hiep, who enrolled in the class three years ago. “Besides studying the meanings behind each character, I’ve fallen in love with the act of writing them. I really enjoy every lesson and want to organize a class to teach people in my village”

Several Sao Khue alumni have gone on to pursue calligraphy professionally. Thrilled by their success, Dat has no plans of stopping. “I still want more students,” he says. “I will continue to teach free until my health forces me to stop. The biggest reward for me is seeing my students absorbed in their work.”

The authors of a ten-year plan to battle the effects of Agent Orange have witnessed the first trickle of US funding and hope for more

Two children affected by Agent Orange at Peace Village in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tu Du Maternity Hospital, a home for Agent Orange victims. Despite growing declarations of goodwill from high-level US officials, funding for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims remains elusive.

The US House of Representatives has just approved a War Spending Bill which includes US$12 million for dioxin clean-up at Da Nang Airport during this fiscal year. The bill, passed on July 27, also approved an additional $13.3 billion in funding for US Veterans affected by the same chemical. The money symbolizes the first step in funding a $300 million, decade-long effort to remediate the effects of a chemical campaign waged by the US military during the Vietnam War.

“It’s a good start,” Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS), chairman of the subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment told Thanh Nien Weekly by phone. “More needs to be done.”

In June, the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange and Dioxin, an independent consortium of scientists, private donors and policy-makers, issued a comprehensive ten-year action plan for the clean-up of highly toxic “hot spots” and the treatment of disabled people throughout Vietnam.

The group set a $30 million annual target to fund comprehensive restoration efforts - from the re-forestation of defoliated countryside to an improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. The hope was for the US to take the lead on the funding and spur private donations from American companies doing business in Vietnam.

The recent approval of spending signifies something of a victory for those who have worked hard to increase US funding to Agent Orange victims inside Vietnam - though it is unclear how far the money will travel. The language of the bill approves the $12 million in “assistance for Vietnam to support the remediation of dioxin contamination at the Da Nang Airport, which poses extreme risks to human health and welfare, and related health activities.”

In a release made subsequent to the approval, Susan Hammond, director of the US-based War Legacies Project wrote: “How much, if any, of the funding recently allocated will go towards the ‘related health activities’ is not yet known.” Hammond added that some analysts have estimated that the cost of cleaning up the former base alone will run to $34 million.

The airport has received a great deal of attention of late.

Early this month, a delegation of three US Senators visited the Da Nang Airport, where American soldiers once loaded more than 11 million gallons of the dioxin-laced defoliant to be sprayed all over the country. The senators then toured a local facility designed to assist deformed and disabled victims of the fat-soluble chemical. According to the US-Vietnam Dialogue group’s action plan, the American Institute of Medicine has linked dioxin to “cancers, diabetes, and nerve and heart disease among people directly and indirectly exposed, and to spina bifida among their offspring.”

Because the known carcinogen is slow to break down, it can persist in soil, ponds and streams for generations. One study in Vietnam discovered high concentrations of the chemical in fatty tissue samples taken from fish and livestock living in heavily sprayed areas.

In an interview with a Vietnamese newspaper, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) told reporters he was aiming to raise between $20-30 million for victims here, a sum that represented a tenfold increase of the $3 million annual allotment that the US had set aside in the fiscal years of 2007, 2009 and 2010. During a recent interview, Rep. Faleomavaega (D-AS) referred to the $3 million as “just a pittance.”

In response to a list of questions sent by Thanh Nien Weekly, Sen. Harkin’s staff backed away from an exact figure, and confirmed only that Harkin would “continue to seek funding” for AO victims. “Things can change,” a staffer noted in the response.

Meanwhile, at home, the US is trying to reconcile stark projections for the care of its retired soldiers and their offspring. Early this year, the US office of Veterans Affairs projected a $42.2 billion increase in domestic Agent Orange-related medical claims over the next decade.

Those affected in Vietnam have not been nearly as fortunate.

According to a report prepared last year by Michael Martin of the Congressional Research Service, much of the initial funding was spent on scientific research and did not reach Vietnamese victims. Since then, there has been greater interest in involving Vietnamese organizations in the effort. There is a hope among those involved in the process that future funding will have more of an impact on the day-to-day lives of the disabled and afflicted here.

Martin’s report closed with a suggestion that the United States could stand to benefit from more generous involvement in the Agent Orange remediation efforts: “US military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have undermined its global image,” it said; and to restore its image, “the United States should more actively engage in ‘soft power’ exercises, such as humanitarian assistance to Vietnam to address its ‘war legacy’ problems.”

Last week, during a visit aimed at discussing regional security, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similarly vague pledges to increase funding for Vietnamese victims.

"We"ve been working with Vietnam for about nine years to try to remedy the effects of Agent Orange,” Clinton told reporters. “I will work to increase our cooperation and make even greater progress together."

A State department spokesman declined to elaborate on any developments.

“We are increasing our funding,” P.J. Crowley told Thanh Nien Weekly. “I don’t know whether it will get to [$30 million per year].”

Phil Sparks, a spokesman for the Agent Orange in Vietnam Information Initiative, a lobbying group, said that a Senate appropriations committee has included $10 million in Vietnamese Agent Orange funding for the 2011 fiscal year. “[The $10 million] will be considered between now and the end of the year,” Sparks said.

He attributes the sudden rise in funding to the publication of the report by the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group.

“They’ve opened the dialogue,” Sparks said.

Despite a lack of firm commitments from private donors, members of the Vietnam-US Dialogue remain optimistic and hopeful.

Charles Bailey can remember arriving in Vietnam as the country liaison for the Ford Foundation in 1997, eager to take on the long-debated problem.

“It was a logjam,” Bailey said. “People [on both sides] were not allowed to talk about it for various reasons.”

Since that time, the Ford foundation has been lauded as one of the principal groups advancing the Agent Orange cause inside Vietnam. Based on figures released in the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group’s plan of action, “the Ford Foundation has provided $11.7 million in grants to develop treatments and support for affected Vietnamese, test and contain contaminated soils, restore landscapes and educate the US public and policymakers on the issue.”

Bailey said he is not concerned that no additional private funding has been committed since the plan’s publication last month: “It’s still early days.”

Bailey did stress the need for “an increased sense of urgency” on the part of policymakers and potential donor corporations.

“There’s a new spirit of hope,” he said of the atmosphere created by the publication of the action plan. “It’s good for people with disabilities; it’s good for US-Vietnam relations. It’s a window of opportunity and, as we know, windows open and they close.”

David Devlin-Foltz, director of the Advocacy Planning and Evaluation Program at the Aspen Institute (a major player in the International Dialogue group), said that he is firmly convinced of the United States’ liability in Vietnam.

On a recent visit to Da Nang Airport, Devlin-Foltz and his colleagues recounted how they had been asked to don disposable shoes to protect themselves from the toxic chemicals that continue to seep up out of the ground.

“We could see and smell how negative the impact was,” Devlin-Foltz said. Not far from where they stood, children continued to play in a pool of water.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, the US has been calling for increased research on the actual effects of the chemical on the Vietnamese population. While it has come to acknowledge 13 conditions and diseases as associated with Agent Orange exposure in its own veterans, it has not done so for those who were on the receiving end of the spraying. Devlin-Foltz has attributed the long delay in US Agent Orange money to a fear of similar claims from war victims all over the world.

“[The refusal to extend US veteran benefits to Vietnamese victims] has largely to do with concern that it could be interpreted as an admission of legal liability that could open [the US government] up to massive damage claims,” he said in a taped press conference.

Devlin-Foltz told Thanh Nien Weekly that he remains patient.

“The action plan calls for activity over a ten year period,” he said. “If it ramps up over time, that’s fine. What we are hoping to do with the [plan] is to make real change in the lives and livelihood of Vietnam.”

A young barber from Kim Lien Village cuts a customer’s hair in an open air barber shop

The next time you need a haircut in Hanoi, eschew the high-end, luxurious salons.

Instead, make your way to Kim Lien Village (Phuong Lien Ward, Dong Da District) just a twenty minute amble from Lenin Park.

If you’re lucky you’ll find a barber from the century-long birthplace of the nation’s barbers. If you’re not in the mood to wander, take my Uncle Minh’s advice and go see Pham Duy Hao. “He’s not only a good barber,” Minh told me. “He’s a cute, funny, little guy.”

Nestled behind the cluttered clothing clothes stalls in Kim Lien’s second-hand market, Duy Hao Hairdressing Shop doesn’t bear any outward signs of belonging to a local master. But once Hoa’s scissors are out and snipping, Hoa will unfold Kim Lien Village’s great legacy like a hot towel.

“I am the third generation in my family doing this work,” Hao said, as he worked. “My grandfather Pham Duy Hien was among the first barbers in Kim Lien Village; he opened the first barber shop in Hanoi nearly a century ago when he was just 19-year-old.”

Hao swelled through the tiny shop as he recalled his ancestral past. “My grandfather’s skill brought him the great honor of an invitation from King Bao Dai to come to his citadel in Hue and work as the private barber for the royal family,” he said. “The king was so pleased with his skill that he took my grandfather with him on all his trips, even abroad. Thanks to the king, my grandfather earned enough to buy a big house and provide a rich life for his family in Hanoi.”

After some political upheavals, Hao’s grandfather left the palace and opened a chain of lucrative barber shops on Hang Quat and Hang Dao streets. He soon became the man to see about a haircut.

Hao can recall his grandfather belonging to a dapper circle of barbers who dressed like silent film heartthrobs. They wore felt hats, smoked wooden pipes, and maintained meticulous bi-bop hairdos in the style of King Bao Dai – imagine a sort of slicked-back mini-pompadour sans height.

While Hanoi’s famous barber class enjoys numerous stars, no one knows precisely who pioneered it all.

“According to Tu Hinh, who used to be a famous barber and now is tending the village’s pagoda, no one knows who the ancestor of our hairdressing trade is,” Hao said.

Hao introduced Thanh Nien Weekly to a pair of veteran barbers. These old-timers said that in feudal times, when Vietnamese men twisted long, luxurious hair into chignons, Kim Lien Village became the place to come for a shave.

Most of this work was done out of the home, Mau and Hien agreed. In their eyes, the trade took off with the arrival of the French at the end of the 19th century.

“The French guys brought scissors or clippers,” 84-year-old Nguyen Van Mau remembered. “They heard about us and came to instruct us on the use of these new tools. Some of our Vietnamese customers were gradually influenced by their style.”

Sixty-nine-year-old Nguyen Duc Hien is one of the few veteran barbers still working now. He clearly recalls the heyday of Kim Lien’s barbers. “When the French came, we started to open a lot of shops in Cot Co Street to serve them,” Hien recalled. “These foreign clients were very finicky. Before working on their hair, we had to clean every tool with boiling water and alcohol. They wanted their ears covered with cotton and asked to have scented water sprayed on their hair. When finished, they demanded that not a trace of hair be left on their clothes.”

Because most of their customers were French and aristocratic Vietnamese, Kim Lien barbers at that time all learned to speak some French. “Thanks to the high standard of these foreign customers, we always strove to become perfect barbers with professional manners. These demands made Kim Lien barbers famous throughout the country,” Mau added.

Beyond all the pomp, Hien says it was their sense of humor that really hooked the city’s elite. “Besides learning hair design, we had to figure out how to make our customers feel at ease. We told jokes and funny stories while we cut their hair,” he said. “Our customers came from different cultures and varied economic and social positions; we had to learn how to be able to talk to all of them.”

From the early 1950s to the late 1960s, Kim Lien’s hairdressing trade hit its peak. The town’s barbers enjoyed so much renown, they were able to leave Hanoi and establish businesses based on their hometown’s reputation. In the capital, barbers grouped themselves into a collective managed by Hao’s father.

“I started helping my father at his barber-shop when I was just a kid,” Hao remembered. “Anyone who wanted to work there had to pass an entrance exam and attend a course. I aced the first course, but I had to pass a few advanced placement exams to become a first-class barber – the highest-paid honor.”

Hao looks much younger than his fifty-plus years. His short hair is streaked with ruby-red highlights and quick, delicate hands. He carries a fanciful, stylish air about himself. Hoa says he needs just an instant to determine what haircut you need. Today, Hao is free to improvise with hair and take his time experimenting. He remembers a time when he served around 30 customers per eight-hour shift. “At that time everyone wanted the same haircut,” Hao said. “If we were inspired by a beautiful face and added a few flourishes, they docked our pay.”

As the capital continues to open up to the global economy, Kim Lien’s youth has its sights set on white-collar work. Many of them have turned away from their ancestors’ trade.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, 80 percent of our village was still doing the job,” Hao said. “Now that figure has shrunk to around 10 percent (about 200 people).”

The remaining barbers have had to equip their shops with modern tools and techniques to meet evolving customer demands. Yesterday’s barbers are now known as hair designers. Gone are the men who would arrive at your door carrying their wooden toolboxes offering a simple shave.

Now they are confined to open sidewalk stalls struggling to continue their line.

This spring, Kim Lien’s remaining barbers went head-tohead in an exciting hair design competition. The event was held to honor their traditional trade and encourage young people to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps.

A hairdressers club was also introduced on this occasion.

The chairman of Phuong Lien Ward’s People’s Committee, Bui Minh Hoang, has expressed a desire to preserve the barbers in Kim Lien. Hoang personally called on villagers to organize the competition. When we asked what he would do next, the young chairman said that he wanted to have a small street here dedicated to the preservation of the town trade.

Veteran barber Pham Duy Hao says he’s willing to open a class to teach the traditional job to the next generation.

 Marc Moynot, 66, in his HCMC chocolate lab in Tan Binh District

Marc Moynot, 66, stands in the garden of the French General Consulate during a Bastille Day celebration.

The little old man’s soft, gentle face seems to disappear behind his trove of handmade chocolates. They are white and black, milky and dark. Some have the yielding texture of truffles. Others feature firm shells that burst open to yield tropical bonanzas: passion fruit jam, orange peel marmalade and kumquat liqueur.

Cinnamon and other piquant spices swirl through the buttery softness of these little marvels and a je ne sais quoi that is distinctly Vietnamese.

The following day, I decided to trek out to the small workshop he shares with his Vietnamese partner and her two children out in Ho Chi Minh City’s sprawling Tan Binh District.

The intoxicating aroma of 50 kilos of chocolate almost knocks me out as I step through the door of 27 Nguyen Van Mai Street – Moynot’s home and the headquarters of Astair Chocolates private company. The ground floor of the private home features Moynot’s neat laboratory. Shelf after shelf of pots and trays line the walls. The slight man slinks along a long stainless steel table and goes to work.

Moynot’s production team consists solely of his partner, Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, her two children and a maid. Together, the crew is endlessly experimenting with new fillings based on distinctly Vietnamese flavors - white honey from Da Lat, kumquat, mango, peppercorns.

The nose knows

Laurent Severac has made a living scouring Vietnam for thrilling smells. For the past 16 years, the stout Frenchman has tromped through the nation’s forests in search of seeds, leaves and aromatic woods that delight the senses. He makes his livelihood distilling his finds into essential oils and selling them to Western perfume designers.

For this olfactory epicure, Moynot’s chocolate is sui generis.

Last year, Severac ordered around 200 boxes of kumquat chocolates to give to friends and clients for the Lunar New Year. “Marc’s chocolate surprises me most with its purity and simplicity,” Severac said. “I’ve been in Asia for 22 years. Every time I come home, my father asks me to bring him two things: Tiger Balm and Astair chocolates.”

When Severac tries to slip a French-made truffle to his staff in Hanoi, they turn up their noses.

“I prefer chocolates from your friend in Saigon,” they say.

Moynot has agreed to customize chocolates to suit Severac’s thirst for Vietnamese flavors. In his small lab, he’s whipped up fillings derived from ingredients harvested in the mountains of the north: star anise, wild pepper, and wild ginger – to name just a few. “They are simply the best I’ve eaten in my life,” Severac said.

Moynot B.C. (before chocolate)

The master candy man once made his living as an Apline guide, leading ski trips, forays and search parties into the mountains in Savoir, France. He was busiest during the snow-packed four- month winter season. The rest of the year was slow and Moynot got by on taking tourists hiking and camping.

In 1993, he decided to visit Vietnam on a one-month holiday.

After returning to France, he was determined to change his life. In 1995, he moved to HCMC and took a teaching job. He didn’t care much for the work and toyed with the idea of becoming a water sports instructor in Mui Ne. During the transition, Moynot’s friend, a successful HCMC caterer tried his two standby dessert recipes: chocolate mousse and dark chocolate truffles.

His friend was blown away.

“I had these two recipes when I was in France,” Moynot says. “I learned them from a box of chocolate.”

The apprentice

Moynot’s caterer friend helped him import ingredients and supplies from France. Seeking further guidance, Moynot approached Serge Rigaredin, the former head chef of Sofitel Saigon Hotel, to learn more chocolate recipes. (Rigaredin has since returned to France and could not be reached for this article).

The budding chocolatier felt very lucky at the time. “Serge Rigaredin was a very kind, skillful and devoted teacher,” said Moynot. “He also loaned me several good books.”

In 2001, the standard for chocolate was fairly low in southern Vietnam; Moynot worked hard to change that.

Around the same time, he met his partner in Da Lat. Soon after the meeting, the two began making chocolate together. Huong said that it was difficult to enter the field at the time. Step by step, she added, things became easier.

After a few months their chocolates were being served at some of the finest restaurants and hotels in HCMC.

A tiny, happy empire

After nine years, Moynot’s empire is confined solely to the four walls of his little lab.

He has played a role in every aspect of his operation. He sketched out a design for the heated cauldron he uses to mix the chocolate and built the device he uses to cut wrapping paper.

His major problem has been marketing. “When I started I had very little money for marketing but I am conscious that we need a marketing team for our chocolate,” he said. “Many of the hotels in HCMC make their own chocolate these days.”

Moynot still takes orders from luxury hotels, but he’s on the lookout for new customers across Vietnam. Though he sometimes finds himself pining for the quiet of the Alpine forests, he remains a satisfied man in busy HCMC.

“I have a happy family here and I make something that other people like,” he said.

Officials call for more regulation amid shady dealings between Docs and Drug Suits

Inpatients at Nguyen Trai Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Several experts and policymakers have said that Vietnamese hospitals are paying unreasonably high prices for medicine.

Vietnamese hospitals are paying unreasonably high prices for medicine, according to several experts and health policymakers.

Critics have alleged that backroom deals between drug manufacturers and hospitals have resulted in doctors prescribing drugs that patients don’t need in exchange for kickbacks.

The recent dust up goes back to December of 2009 when inspections in public hospitals turned up irregularities and outright scams.

Officials and Ho Chi Minh City residents were outraged this spring when city inspectors revealed that doctors at the 115 People’s Hospital had pushed outpatients to purchase medicines at the pharmacy for inflated prices. The hospital had not complied with laws requiring it to hold competitive bidding prior to purchasing pharmaceuticals.

In March, investigators from the Drug Administration of Vietnam found that a HCMC University Medical Center physician had received VND528 million ($27,687) in July last year in kickbacks from the US Schering Plough Pharmaceutical office for selling hepatitis medicine.

He was not alone.

Legislators have found that public hospitals have purchased pharmaceuticals, particularly imported drugs, at 150-300 percent mark-ups, said Nguyen Duc Thu, deputy head of the Social Affairs Section at the National Assembly Office.

“Some hospitals have spent more on medicines than one would at local retail outlets. Such high prices have badly hurt patients and health insurance companies,” he said at a June 26 health policy seminar in the northern Vinh Phuc Province.

“Patients have not benefited from pharmaceutical promotions aimed at wholesalers and prescribing doctors,” he added. Thu claimed to have evidence that many hospitals hadn’t held competitive bids and that it was difficult to prevent backdoor deals.

In Vietnam, everything from unemployment to health insurance is regulated by a governmental body, Vietnam Social Insurance (VSI). Representatives from VSI are fuming about the rising costs of medicine.

The organization recently reported that drug costs account for 60 percent of its annual health expenditures.

“This is an unreasonably high proportion,” said the agency director Le Bach Hong. “Several countries in the region spend far less. China pays 45 percent, Indonesia pays 38 percent and Thailand pays 35 percent.”

Experts are concerned that health insurance policyholders are paying exorbitant prices for medicine due to poor management of public hospitals.

Hong said that many hospitals paid between 10-30 percent more than their retail value. “Wholesale prices are higher than retail. It is really unreasonable,” he said.

In Vietnam, the government used to cover all health costs for those who could not pay their way. This included the nation’s poor, children under six years old, orphans and those who contributed to the nation’s fight for independence.

Early this year, a new health insurance law changed all of that. Several members of this group now have to cover between 5-20 percent of their health care costs.

Where’s the bid?

In 2007 the ministries of Health and Finance passed a law requiring public hospitals to hold competitive bidding before purchasing a specific drug and prescribing it to patients.

Experts have charged that some hospitals have agreed to buy medicines at unreasonably high prices and have kicked back commissions from drug manufacturers.

Vietnam’s state insurance provider is left footing the bill.

“The insurance agencies bought these medicines,” said director Hong of VSI. “But the high prices were negotiated by the hospitals and pharmaceutical firms.”

Critics have offered, as evidence, the lack of consistency in prices. Ta Van Bang, a senior official at VSI’s Health Insurance Department, said that some public hospitals paid exponentially more for the same drug than others.

Experts also said certain doctors over-prescribe medicines in the hope of receiving large illicit dividends.

Hong said that, in a recent case, a 70-year-old man was prescribed nine different drugs—some of which he did not need. “This means patients paid more for drugs that could do more harm than good,” he said.

“The insurance agency could save VND1 trillion per year if hospitals cut 10 percent of [unreasonable] prescriptions. With that money, we could cover 2.5 million of the nation’s poor,” he said.

Poor management

In a recent report to the National Assembly, Vietnam’s legislature, the Drug Administration of Vietnam committed to take action to control medicine prices. The agency vowed to establish maximum retail prices and promotion rates.

By law, pharmaceutical companies and importers are required to report a product’s price to authorities before it goes on the market. Manufacturers are required to announce all rate increases. Authorities reserve the right to demand that manufacturers lower prices that are deemed unreasonable.

The Drug Administration has admitted, however, it could not tackle such a Herculean task.

Vietnamese authorities oversee more than 22,000 pharmaceutical products. They have not, thus far, established maximum prices for all of these drugs, much less established a definition for “unreasonable cost.”

Some members of the government are suggesting that VSI should assume control of negotiating purchases.

Dang Nhu Loi, deputy head of the NA’s Social Affairs Committee, said the Health Ministry should prevent unreasonably high drug prices at public hospitals “at the root of the problem by allowing the insurance agencies to hold open bids before public hospitals buy medicines.”

He said the arrangement could eliminate the risk of doctors favoring certain medicines for the wrong reasons.

Doctor Tran Van Ban, a member of the NA’s Social Affairs Committee, argued that the Drug Administration should be able to obtain information on the production costs of imported drugs rather easily. Based on that information, he said, they should be able to establish “reasonable” prices inside Vietnam.

Ban added that India dealt with a similar problem in 1975. Costs were reduced by making the purchasing process more transparent, he said.

Reducing drug prices benefits all: WHO official

The Vietnamese government and its people, particularly the poor, would all equally benefit from policies aiming to reduce drug prices, Dr. Jean-Marc Olivé (photo), the World Health Organization Representative for Vietnam told Thanh Nien Weekly in a phone interview.

Thanh Nien Weekly: How do drug costs in Vietnam rank, regionally

Dr. Jean-Marc Olivé: I think that there are very limited surveys [on drug prices] that have been done in Vietnam. [My] recommendation would be to continue to do surveys. It is important to analyze the insurance  claims of the expenditure on medicines, and all of this should be monitored by the government as well as the price of the top 20 medicines reimbursed by health insurance. The idea is that the government should adopt a general policy for drugs and monitor prices of medicine. That is what it is all about.

But in a recent report sent to the National Assembly, the Drug Administration of Vietnam pointed out many difficulties in monitoring the drug prices in Vietnam. Do you think the job of monitoring drug prices will be tough for Vietnam?

To adjust and monitor the price of medicine and ensure the price is affordable is a challenge faced by many countries like Vietnam that are growing very fast.  One of the recommendations that we have made to the government is to monitor drug prices. I think many of the instruments are in place, and should be used to monitor and find ways to reduce prices, as other countries have done. Just by monitoring you can achieve a lot.

Is the WHO aware of any untoward or illicit activity on the part of pharmaceutical companies selling medicines to Vietnamese public hospitals?

No, the WHO has not done any study in this area. We are giving support to the Ministry of Health, developing guidelines and regulations for appropriate drug use in hospitals. That’s the only thing we are doing. This is the business of the government, we are not involved.

We are just technical advisors. It is up to the government to implement laws and guidelines. It is not the role of the WHO.

What should the Vietnamese health authorities do to better protect poor and vulnerable patients?

I think the big challenge for the government is covering 100 percent of the Vietnamese population. One easy way would be to reduce the price of drugs seeing as they total 60 percent of reimbursement. [But] this is still far more than most developed countries where the proportion of drugs that are reimbursed overall is 10-15 percent.

It will be difficult to sustain this because of the cost of healthcare that increases regularly, and the higher proportion of drugs to be reimbursed by health insurance in the future.

One very good way to ensure sustainability and reduce costs of medical expenses would be to reduce the costs of drugs.

From what I understand, the government is trying very hard to address this issue; one of the priorities of the government is [to] increase access to healthcare for all Vietnamese while giving priority to the poorer ones. They have dramatically increased the coverage and now they are trying to ensure that the poorer people have the same access to healthcare as the wealthy. This is easier said than done. Many poor people are in remote regions and there are difficulties to do with transport and accessing healthcare. But we are on the right track. By increasing access to health insurance, you will include all the strata of the population, particularly the poor. (Reported by An Dien)

Nude photos of a provincial leader were found in the cell phone of a sex worker

Defendants are escorted out of a trial in February of a high school principal having sex with his students in the northern mountainous Ha Giang Province. The Party’s Inspection Commission has proposed dismissal of Ha Giang head while police sources accused that he had involved in the sex scandal.

Communist Party inspectors have recommended the dismissal of a provincial head due to his “unhealthy relations” and “irresponsible way of life.”

The inspectors said Nguyen Truong To, chairman of the northern province of Ha Giang’s People’s Committee, the local government, has committed several violations. Most of these violations pertained to To’s lifestyle.

According to several police sources, To might have had sexual relations with a sex worker in 2005, when he headed a department in the people’s committee. Two other sex workers earlier this year also accused To of having sexual relations with them.

During the 32nd meeting of the Party’s Inspection Committee, inspectors recommended that To be dismissed from his posts as Deputy Secretary of Ha Giang Province Party Unit, Chairman of Ha Giang People’s Committee and Deputy of Ha Giang People’s Council, which acts as the provincial legislature.

In a statement released on July 5, the Party’s Inspection Commission said that To had “seriously violated the conduct [expected] of a [good] Party member” and “negatively impacted the image of a leading official.”

The Party’s Inspection Committee had warned To about his violations but he failed to admit wrongdoing and did not seem receptive to improving his behavior, according to the statement.

The inspectors ordered the provincial Party Unit chief and director of Ha Giang Police Department to file official reports regarding their knowledge of To’s wrongdoing. In their statement, the inspectors also proposed punitive measures against the two officials who had known about To’s dalliances since 2005 but failed to report it to higher ups.

Nude photos

The inspectors did not articulate the specifics of To’s wrongdoings in their official statements, but according to the police sources, To was alleged of having patronized sex workers on two occasions.

According to the police sources, the first instance took place in November 2006 when Ha Giang police busted a prostitution ring. Police found nude photos of To posed “in different positions” saved in the phone of the sex worker, in addition to several text messages sent from his cell phone number.

The case was reported to Nguyen Binh Van, Director of Ha Giang Province Police Department and Hoang Minh Nhat, secretary of the provincial Party Unit and only resulted in internal rebuke.

Fast times at Viet Lam secondary schoo

Nguyen Truong To, deputy secretary of Ha Giang Province Party Unit, Chairman of Ha Giang People’s Committee and deputy of Ha Giang People’s Council

In the second case, a high school student accused To of having sexual relations with her when she was under 18.

Last November, the Ha Giang Court sentenced Sam Duc Xuong – former principal of Viet Lam Secondary School in Vi Xuyen District – to ten and a half years after he was found guilty of statutory rape.

Prosecutors alleged that the principal had abused his position to coerce young women into having sex with him. Two of his students, Nguyen Thi Hang, 19, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, 18, were sentenced to six and five years respectively for procuring other young girls to have sex with older men.

All three defendants appealed for more lenient sentences. Then, during their February appeals hearing, they changed their pleas. They were not guilty, they announced.

Two years earlier, the young women claimed, they were forced to have sex with local officials.

For the first time, Hang and Thuy named ten men, including To and other senior government officials, whom they claimed had had sex with them when they were underage.

The accusations came to light during the February 1 hearing of the Ha Giang Court of Appeals. The court found that last year"s trial by the Vi Xuyen District Court (as well as the supporting investigations) had "seriously violated" regulations. As a result, they ordered a fresh investigation of the case.

According to an anonymous police source, Hang has told the investigators she had sex with Xuong [the principal] and other Ha Giang officials for money between 2008 and 2009. The source says that she implicated senior officials from the Ha Giang People’s Committee, police and entrepreneurs in the province.

Tran Dinh Trien, Thuy’s defense attorney, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper on July 7 that he was not surprised by the results of the Party’s Inspection Commission.

“In the Sam Duc Xuong case, the defendants produced a black list accusing several Ha Giang officials of having sex with them,” he said. “Nguyen Truong To topped the list.”

Trien also said he heard about To’s nude photos after Xuong’s trial but he couldn’t verify the information as a lawyer. “Now the [Party’s] Central Inspection Commission has clearly concluded the issue,” he added.

Party officials call for Ha Giang leader’s ouster

A senior official has endorsed the a recent proposal by the Communist Party’s Inspection Commission to dismiss the chairman of Ha Giang Province’s People’s Committee for his alleged role in a wide-scale sex scandal.

“I think violating ethical norms is not a minor issue,” Hoang Trung Luyen, head of Ha Giang Party Unit’s Propaganda and Education Commission, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper on July 8. “There should be stricter [measures] if violations of the Penal Code were found,”

Luyen was speaking to the media about the case of Nguyen Truong To. Party inspectors recently called for To’s dismissal from his current posts as Deputy Secretary of Ha Giang Province Party Unit, Chairman of Ha Giang People’s Committee, the local government, and Deputy of Ha Giang People’s Council, the provincial legislature.

Luyen confirmed that police notified Party officials after finding To’s nude photos in a cell phone belonging to a sex worker. Luyen said that the revelation resulted in internal rebuke. He also confirmed with Thanh Nien that To remains on next term’s ballot for key posts in the province.

Nguyen Dinh Huong, former vice head of the Central Party’s Organization Commission, said To deserves to be subjected to stricter measures.

“A Party member who is the head of a locality and has deteriorated should be dismissed from the Party, not just his posts,” he said, adding that there should also be repercussions for officials who knew of To’s actions but failed to report them to higher authorities.

Meanwhile, Le Quang Trieu, head of Ha Giang Party Unit’s Inspection Department said any measures against To would be taken by the Party’s Secretariat.

About ten Vietnamese children continue to drown every day; concerned agencies scramble to address the crisis

A group of children play by the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi. Concerned agencies are seeking to reduce drowning rates among children in Vietnam as about ten children die of drowning every single day of the year on an average.

Two children drowned on July 11 while picking snails with their grandmother on a riverbank in the south-central Khanh Hoa Province.

Nguyen Thi Trang Nha, 14, and her younger sister, Nguyen Thi Anh Huyen, 10, fell into a deep underwater hole along the bank of the Tac River in Nha Trang’s Phuoc Dong Commune.

Neither child could swim.

The sisters’ horrible end is just a piece in a larger tragedy: about ten Vietnamese children die from drowning every single day. It is the leading cause of injury-related deaths in children and adolescents in Vietnam. Official statistics found that over 3,500 children and adolescents, aged 0-19, died from drowning nationwide in 2008.

“[Drowning] accounts for about 50 percent of injury-related mortalities among children and adolescents,” said Jean Dupraz, UNICEF Acting Representative in Vietnam, told a conference in Hanoi on July 16. The conference was aimed at building a communications campaign to battle the epidemic.

“They die close to their homes and close to their playgrounds, often left alone without adult supervision and care,” Dupraz said. “Compared to other countries in the region, Vietnam has the highest fatal drowning rate. This reflects the extent of the problem in Vietnam, which requires urgent and strong action from all of us.”

“Evidence has shown that creating a safe environment for children can help to save them from drowning,” he said.

Seeking solutions

At the conference, the leaders of 15 provinces where the problem is most acute signed a commitment to reducing child drowning cases.

The leaders pledged to raise community awareness about the urgent demand to prevent drowning deaths and call for the urgent action from families, community and local leaders to address the issue. In the meantime, representatives from the central government pledged their full support.

“The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs will cooperate with other ministries and mass organizations to guide and monitor the implementation of child drowning prevention activities in the 15 provinces with the highest rate of child drowning” said Dam Huu Dac, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

“It’s important that all children and adolescents live in safe and secure environments”, he added.

Dupraz said UNICEF would continue to aid Vietnam in the prevention of child drowning.

“We will continue to work closely with the government in its efforts to protect children from injury in general and from drowning in particular”, he said.

Over the last couple of years UNICEF has continued to play its part by supporting the government of Vietnam in its efforts. Recently, they helped fund programs to teach children how to swim and perform first-aid.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs reported that other countries have succeeded in reducing drowning casualties by building fences, covering water jars, and stressing child supervision.

Positive examples are found in cities and provinces such as Da Nang, An Giang, Dong Thap, where due to leadership commitment, regular swimming classes are offered to children in addition to other prevention activities. The measures have helped to dramatically reduce the number of child drowning deaths in those provinces in recent years, the ministry said.

Farmers whose lives have been ruined by pollution in the Thi Vai River are not going away, and neither are their demands that Vedan pay for the damages in full

Farmers in Thanh An Commune, an impoverished area on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City that is still reeling from 14 years of pollution from an upstream Vedan factory that destroyed sea stocks and crops

Nguyen Xuan Ty said he might as well have died several years ago along with the section of the Thi Vai River killed off by Vedan’s secret and illegal discharge of untreated wastewater.

In 2003, upon learning that his stocks of clam and blood cockle had been all but wiped out by the pollution, Ty had no idea what he would do.

“I was at a loss. I was just kneeling down [in front of the dead stocks]. It was sheer luck that I didn’t commit suicide,” Ty told Thanh Nien Weekly.

The water in which he bred his animals, mostly clams and cockle, in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thanh An Commune had been seriously polluted since 1999, Ty said. As Vedan had already paid out compensation to local farmers whose stocks it damaged with pollution in 1996, residents had been suspicious of the Taiwanese firm. But they couldn’t prove their claims with evidence until a decade later.

In September 2008, Vedan Vietnam, the Taiwanese monosodium glutamate (MSG) maker, was caught by government inspectors dumping its untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River in the southern Dong Nai Province. The company had avoided detection by hiding pipes deep in the river, and had been sending toxic liquids through those pipes for 14 years, inspectors found.

An Environment Ministry-authorized study by the Institute of Environment and Natural Resources found in December 2009 that Vedan was responsible for 90 percent of the pollution then plaguing the Thi Vai River.

The 2009 report indicated that Vedan should compensate farmers in Dong Nai Province, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and Ho Chi Minh City with a total of VND1.7 trillion (US$89.2 million) for the damages it had caused, including the destruction of sea farms and damages to land crops on the banks of the river.

But the company has dismissed the damage figures presented by the institute as groundless. Vedan already inspected and assessed the damage by itself and has offered compensation far less than the government-sponsored study said the farmers are entitled to.

The waiting game

The Institute of Environment and Natural Resources concluded that Thanh An Commune in HCMC’s Can Gio District, 60 kilometers to the southeast of the Vedan plant at the mouth of the Thi Vai River, had been hit by Vedan’s wastewater. Despite the severe damages to the area, the level of pollution there was low compared to the most affected areas, the institute said.

“I don’t know how serious the pollution is. I just know it had completely annihilated my stocks in 2003,” Ty from Thanh An Commune said.

Ty lost around VND1.3 billion he had invested in 2003 alone and has been in heavy debt since. His only income now is from a small sweet soup eatery in the commune.

Many other locals in the commune whose meal ticket used to be fishing and breeding seafood have also switched to other jobs to eke out a living, said Le Hong Phuc, chairman of the Thanh An Commune Farmers’ Society.

The commune is one of the five poorest in Can Gio District and among the 20 most impoverished in HCMC.

Thanh An Commune locals had filed complaints about the suspected pollution caused by Vedan for years before 2008, when the company was caught red-handed, Phuc said.

But they’ve been waiting in vain.

“The farmers have had enough of waiting for the compensation,” Phuc said. “Vedan said the pollution level was not that serious and they had assessed the damage by themselves. But we have never ever seen a single Vedan official come here to ‘assess.’”

Thanh An farmers have demanded compensation totaling around VND46 billion. Vedan said in a statement to the HCMC government that it would only pay VND7 billion.

Elsewhere, farmers in the provinces of Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai, where the pollution level is concluded to be much more serious than that in Thanh An Commune, are also destined for the same fate as Vedan has been offering only one-fifth of the claim to Ba Ria-Vung Tau and less than one-one-hundredth of the claim to Dong Nai.

Now or never

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet said during a meeting with locals in HCMC’s Cu Chi District on June 24 that the government would not tolerate any pollution activities of any company in the country

Triet pointed to the Vedan case.

“The US$20 billion BP pledged to compensate for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could not bail the company out of the public outcry all over the world. The crime Vedan had caused to the Vietnamese people was much more serious than just a pollution crime.”

Earlier this month, Environment Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen indicated that the government was determined to press criminal charges against major polluters in the country.

“We’ve backed into a corner in terms of protecting the environment and it’s time for strict measures against those who try to cover up acts of pollution,” he said.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, the legal consultant for Thanh An Commune farmers in the Vedan case, said everything is ready for the lawsuit he plans to file at the Can Gio District People’s Court later this month.

“They [Vedan] have defied not just the affected farmers. They have challenged the public and the country as well,” Hau told Thanh Nien Weekly.

Hau said he would first propose that HCMC farmers boycott all Vedan products at a meeting with the municipal farmers’ society on July 2.

Farmers in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai have also indicated their determination to bring the case to court, according to local media reports.

Hopes for justice

Wayne Lewis, a HCMC-based environment consultant, said he was convinced that the lawsuit would deliver solid results, given the national support behind the farmers.

[The impact of the environment pollution] here is far greater than it would be anywhere else in the world because there is no infrastructure in Vietnam for waste management,” Lewis said.

“What do Vietnamese people think about foreign companies coming over here and polluting your country? What do you feel if those major polluters are coming to kill your people, and to maim and deform your children?”

Ty of Thanh An Commune said he was also ready for the lawsuit.

“I will go to the end of it, it could be my last chance,” Ty said.

“I only hope justice will be done.”

The swelling number of state-provided cars in Vietnam is a luxury that the country’s struggling economy cannot afford, experts say

A state-provided car (C) in Ho Chi Minh City. The increasing number of state-provided cars in Vietnam is a luxury that the country’s struggling economy can ill afford, experts say.

Bureaucrats all over the world are famous for their penchant for showering themselves with largesse at the tax payers’ expense, and a recent report from the Public Asset Management Department shows Vietnam is no exception.

The department estimates that as of June 24, 2010, Vietnam had around 26,000 cars valued at about VND13 trillion (US$680 million) meant for official use. Ho Chi Minh City led the pack with around 1,000 state-provided autos, followed by Hanoi with 800 cars, the report said.

In July 2006, when around 19,300 state-provided cars were recorded nationwide, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung applied the brake on further purchases, but released it in July 2009.

The report points out that many provinces and cities have spent more money than they were allowed to on buying official vehicles. Provinces are only authorized to purchase cars that cost less than VND700 million each; many have ignored the regulation, the report said.

“The increasing number of illegitimate state-provided cars has done nothing but confirm the egregious squandering of the state budget,” said Dr. Le Dang Doanh, an economist with the Hanoi Economic College.

“This is a huge paradox compared with the size of Vietnam’s economy,” Doanh said.

Around 70 percent of all Vietnamese citizens still depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Per capita income is about $1,000 and the minimum government salary is VND730,000 ($38) per month.

The World Bank has also said that Vietnam’s budget deficit was “very high” at 8.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009. “I think this is not just a question of money. People would need a clear and transparent explanation for the use of state-provided cars bought with their tax money,” Doanh said.

Unhealthy privilege

Recent media reports have highlighted how state-provided cars have been used for different unofficial purposes.

A bunch of official cars, distinguished from others by their green license plates, were found parked in front of many schools in Hanoi and HCMC last month when the national college entrance exams took place.

In February this year, state-provided cars thronged the site of a major lunar festival in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang. The cars were spotted littering closed streets and halting traffic throughout the city.

“Ordinary people can easily spot a green-plate car parked at a restaurant or a wedding party,” Doanh said.

Those traveling in official cars are apparently immune from punishment for any traffic law violation, Doanh said.

“This is a very unhealthy privilege which should be stripped,” he added.

‘The government knows all’

“26,000 cars and VND13 trillion are indeed startling figures,” said Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a prominent parliamentarian.

Both Thuyet and Doanh urged a comprehensive probe of all state-provided cars to ensure they have been used properly.

But they remained doubtful that drastic and serious measures would be taken against the misuse of state-provided cars.

“Punitive measures will only work when they are enforced frequently and seriously. Otherwise they will turn out to be just lip service,” Thuyet said.

“I think the government knows all about the squandering of money [in buying state-provided cars] because it is nothing new,” he added.

Thuyet recalled a plenary session of the National Assembly in 2005 when the then Finance Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung took the floor to address the issue of wasting money in buying state-provided car.

Hung, now the deputy prime minister, was then quoted by the media as saying that officials who waste state money on buying cars should not get any promotion or nomination for awards.

“But I have not seen anyone punished until now,” Thuyet said.

Vietnam has just begun to enter the thriving Asian semi-conductor boom.

Some say that if Vietnam plays its cards right, the nation could compete with tech powerhouses like South Korea in the next ten years.

In the interim, Professor Hiroshi Ochi from the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan) has advised Vietnam to invest in its highly talented students.

Thanh Nien Weekly: How is the semiconductor industry going at this moment?

Hiroshi Ochi: The semiconductor market is growing worldwide thanks to smartphones, Ipods and all these electronics devices which are very popular. Today, even in developing countries, everyone has a computer. The market size is getting bigger and semiconductor manufacturing is changing: yesterday’s leading producers (like Japan and the US) are lagging. China, Taiwan’s and Korea’s are on the rise. So they compensate each other.

Those Asian economies are becoming very strong. So, as a result, we can say that semiconductor production is increasing. In the future, Vietnam and Indonesia could be the third generation of semiconductor producers. You could be the next generation.

Why do you say that?

If the government goes in the right direction Vietnam can become like Korea. You are growing. You organize high-tech conferences. The Vietnam National University (VNU) is a great university, and you have ICDREC (IC Design Research and Education Center), the design center. So there are a lot of possibilities to bring the semiconductor industry to Vietnam.

What do you predict for the IC industry over the next ten years?

China is a good example. At the beginning of their economic development, they earned a lot of money from low tech production – mass production. Then, as the next step, they invested all this money in the semiconductor segment and the automobile industry. They opened their market to the world. That’s why a lot of foreign companies decided to invest in China.

So this big investment of money stimulated the economy and education. They still don’t have big electronic companies, they just have companies for mass production, and appliances. They don’t produce high-tech semiconductors or applications like the iPod or the iPhone. Still, they have been successful. Because the government wanted to invest in this field.

So China is a success story even if they don’t have high-tech companies: the secret is the government control. If the administration decides to invest in a certain field, like semiconductors, you don’t need big companies, you have the government that can help local companies to develop. The same thing can be applicable to Vietnam. Your government is strong and, if it has the money, it can invest in this field.

So how much do we need in order to have substantial production in Vietnam for this industry

I’ll reply with another example: Taiwan. In Taiwan, the target was semiconductor fabrication plants. The company TSMC needed huge investments. At the beginning they didn’t build any plants. They waited for the foreign money. So this can be a model for you: if your government doesn’t have the money right now to invest in the semiconductor industry, wait. And while you are waiting you can educate your students and engineers.

But even if your government has the money, it should think very carefully about the right way to spend it. In Taiwan, they invested in semiconductor fabrication plants. They became successful but I don’t think you should follow Taiwan’s lead. TSMC is already a strong company, you can’t compete with them, you should avoid investing in costly plants.

Are you suggesting that Vietnam should only concentrate on design?

Exactly. And when you design something, you can ask Taiwan to make it.

What do you think of Vietnamese students?

Vietnamese students are top quality. My direct experience can better show what I’m talking about. I’m the director of the LSI (Large Scale Integrated) Design Contest. We hold it annually and we invite universities from many Asian countries. Usually Kyoto or Osaka wins first prize.

But recently things have changed. In Indonesia there is the Bandung Institute of Technology, and it is one of the top technological universities. They won three times. But the achievements of the Vietnamese students are far better than the Indonesian or Japanese students. Last time your students won. That proves that your education system and the caliber of your students are very good.