Growth of Vietnam’s IT sector depends on its ability to combat piracy, Rebecca Ho, IP program strategist with Microsoft, tells Thanh Nien Weekly.

Thanh Nien Weekly: Where does Vietnam stand now, in terms of IT development and copyright protection?

Rebecca Ho: The IT sector and software industry are growing rapidly in Vietnam, while the piracy rate has steadily gone down since 2005. Inevitably, as we have seen in many countries around the world, there are those who will seek to exploit this thirst for technology by producing and selling inferior counterfeit products to consumers and businesses across the region.

In 2009, despite the financial crisis and consequently the general expectation that piracy will worsen, Vietnam was able to contain its piracy rate to 85 percent (according to the Seventh Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study, 2010). This is higher than the regional average piracy rate, and it will need to be further reduced in order not to impede the growth of the IT sector.

No country is immune to the impact of software piracy – it is a global issue that needs to be addressed in every market and Microsoft is working in partnership with local ecosystems, including local governments, educational and industry bodies to ensure we are focusing our efforts in a way that will make the most positive impact and increase growth opportunities for local economies.

Which products of yours are most vulnerable to piracy?

In part, today’s high rates of piracy reflect the surge in demand for software in emerging markets as the benefits of technology are realized. Usually the more popular the products, the more widely they are pirated, such as Windows, Office and Windows Server.

These high rates of piracy represent a need for continued education on the value of genuine software to individuals, business and the economy, and the risks inherent in using counterfeit software.

We are committed to supporting governments as they boost their economies by educating their communities on the value of intellectual property and the opportunity it represents.

In Vietnam, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), of which Microsoft is a member, formed a partnership with VINASA, and the Copyright Office and Inspectorate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, to protect intellectual property rights.

How does copyright infringement in Vietnam affect your company?

Counterfeit software has an enormous impact on the software industry. Microsoft invests a tremendous amount of human and monetary effort in its software development and distribution, which is impacted greatly by the effects of piracy.

Microsoft is determined to protect its customer, reseller, and partner ecosystem from the threats and losses associated with piracy, and to prevent counterfeiters from taking advantage of innocent victims and gaining an unfair advantage over our honest partners.

More importantly, copyright infringement impedes the growth of local IT industry. The government of Vietnam has a clear goal to turn Vietnam into an IT power by 2020, aspiring to export software and digital content services to the world.

To realize that goal, we believe that innovation needs to be fostered. Innovators, however, will not have sufficient incentive to innovate if their intellectual property will not be protected. Emerging economies which have strong intellectual property laws can also benefit from technology and knowledge transfer and strategic alliances with multinational companies such as Microsoft which in turn will help enhance the competitiveness and innovative capacity of the local IT industry.

Has your company sued any individuals or organizations in the country for piracy?

No, we have not. At Microsoft, we believe in first educating (the public) about the benefits of using genuine software, and working with law enforcement agencies as well as our industry association, Business Software Alliance. We believe in taking legal action as a last resort to show that there are serious consequences to the crime.

What measures do you take to minimize piracy?

We focus our activities and investments on combating software counterfeiting and other forms of piracy into a single coordinated effort, the Genuine Software Initiative (GSI). The initiative focuses on increasing investments across three strategic areas: education, engineering and enforcement.

Vietnam finds it difficult to balance the reduction of software use and respect for copyright, while prices of legitimate software are too high compared with people"s income. Does your company have any pricing strategies for the Vietnamese market?

Pricing is only one component of why people choose to pirate software, and not purchase it. Microsoft has many options for delivering value and cost savings for customers. The best pricing usually comes through either the pre-installation from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or from our home and student packages for Office, for example.

Just lowering pricing does not result in less piracy; there is more to it than that. As an example, Lac Viet, another BSA member, whose Dictionary software is priced at US$2.5, probably the same cost of a KFC meal in Vietnam, is also widely pirated. This is clear proof that pricing is not a main factor for piracy.

Many firms find it hard to implement the intellectual property law due to limited financial capacity or awareness. What would you say to them?

Intellectual property protection is an essential part of maintaining a healthy cycle of innovation in the IT industry and it is important that intellectual property rights are respected across borders.

Intellectual property rights protect legitimate businesses by making it possible for companies to focus on the areas which differentiate themselves and their products from the competition, improve product features, and speed up delivery to the market. This spurs growth and job creation that benefits consumers, industry and the economy.

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.

 For expats in Vietnam immersion is the best way to learn Vietnamese

Vincent Milliot was late, again.

“He spent at least 15 minutes trying to tell the taxi driver where to meet us,” complained his friend, Frank Picatto. “Finally the guy got it.”

Picatto didn’t understand what took so long. The fact is, his pal Milliot, a French diplomat, was practicing his Vietnamese.

Like many other expats who have just arrived in Vietnam, Milliot took every opportunity to try his hand at the language.

He is not alone.

Four expats told Thanh Nien that when they first arrived, they took language lessons at least two times per week (the price of a private lesson ranges from US$5 to $15) and sought to practice Vietnamese everywhere with everyone. But in many cases, this “fever” doesn’t last forever.

In fact, there are many expats who live in Vietnam without speaking Vietnamese.

“I think if an expat works in Vietnam for more than two years they have to study Vietnamese seriously,” said Alberto Fabeiro Linares, trade adviser of Spanish economic and commercial office in HCMC, Embassy of Spain. “My contract to work in HCMC is nine months, and at first I [studied] Vietnamese at university. Then when I tried to speak Vietnamese with people like taxi drivers, I suddenly felt like people do not understand. “English” they asked so I started speaking in English,”

Last week, Linares and his friends gathered in his apartment to watch their home team battle the Portuguese. A note pad on the door offered pointers on how to buy fruit and ask for directions. The sign offers the only trace of that initial enthusiasm to learn Vietnamese.

Alberto’s colleague, Joan Navarro, IT manager of Spanish Economic & Commercial office in HCMC agreed with him. “I studied Vietnamese for the first three months during my nine months in Vietnam. I find it is very difficult to study. I could always speak English with my friends. Now I only use Vietnamese to order food, ask for directions, and deal with money. If I lived in Vietnam for two years I would learn more.”

Joan Navarro said that he travelled from HCMC to Hanoi on train, bus, and motorbike. “These were moments that I really wished I could speak Vietnamese more than ever. During the trips to small villages, I enjoyed discovering the place but I could not speak to the people there.”

As a language with six distinct tones, Vietnamese can quickly discourage expats who work here for a short time. For those who live here for a long time, learning Vietnamese allows them to break into all aspects of Vietnamese society.

Sarah Johnson started working in HCMC two years ago as a journalist. “When I got to Vietnam, I was determined not to learn Vietnamese because at the beginning I planned to stay for just nine months,” she said. “But then I changed my mind and I found out that learning Vietnamese would make life easier. For three months, I took private lessons with a tutor. Then as I made more friends I practiced Vietnamese with them and people on the street.”

Jon Dillingham, an American editor also agreed with Sarah. For his first three years in Vietnam he kept picking up and dropping Vietnamese classes. At first, he felt very stupid for living here and not speaking the language. “You can speak English with middle and upper class people but there are so many more other people outside these classes,” Dillingham said. “At first I learned on my own and I did not pay attention to the tones and that was stupid. After two months, my tones became better. I was lucky to have lots of encouragement from my friends.”

Encouragement and help from friends are important contributing factors to learning Vietnamese. But, the main factor is you.

Chantelle Woodford is one of many expats who can speak Vietnamese quite well. When this young diplomat makes a speech in Vietnamese, she receives high praise from Vietnamese audiences.

Chantelle Woodford has been working as Vice Consul (trade, economic) to the Australian Consulate-General in HCMC for one and half years. It is her first overseas diplomatic post. She was so passionate about her job that, in her first year, she studied Vietnamese every day for three to four hours.

She says she now spends around one hour per week studying with her teacher. She makes a point of reading Vietnamese newspapers, listening the radio and watching Vietnamese TV. “Now that I can speak Vietnamese I understand people more and Vietnam is more accessible to me. I can integrate with people from all corners of life. I like to talk with children and people in the market and school.”

Woodford says she is a long way away from fully understanding Vietnamese culture but speaking the language is an essential tool.

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.

Proposed increase in prices of medical services can be too much or too little, depending on who’s paying, but affordable healthcare remains out of reach for Vietnam’s impoverished

Two patients at Nguyen Trai Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5. Many poor patients are concerned by a government plan to increase hospital fees.

Nguyen Thi Ha is slightly apprehensive as she enters the cashier’s booth, bill in hand, at the Hospital of Lung Diseases and Pneumonia in Hanoi.

The bill, for more than VND5 million (US$260), has been incurred for the treatment of her husband Nguyen Van Thong, who is suffering from tuberculosis. This does not include other daily expenses incurred staying away from home in Hanoi’s Thuong Tin District.

For a poor farming family from Thuong Tin District, this is an astronomical sum, and this is true for millions of other families in a country with a per capita income of about $1,000 and where the minimum government salary is VND730,000 ($38) per month.

A simple question about the bill has tears flowing down from Ha’s swollen eyelids. “It is really difficult for us to pay for the treatment,” she says.

Ha and her 40-year-old husband earn less than VND5 million per each rice season [three-four months] as farmers.

It is not uncommon in Vietnam’s rural areas for a family member’s illness [and subsequent death, in many instances] to plunge the household so deep in debt that they have to sell the only source of livelihood they have – their land.

Later, they subsist on hiring out their labor in surrounding areas or neighboring cities, forcing children to give up their education or parents to leave their children behind with relatives to work in cities to pay off their debt.

In fact, several NGO reports have noted that illness, accompanied by the lack of affordable healthcare, is one of the most common reasons for people to fall into poverty.

This dismal state of affairs could get worse for Thong and other patients nationwide who would have to spend a lot more on hospital fees if and when a draft document on the issue jointly prepared by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance takes effect.

The document proposes increases in hospital fees that are up to ten times more than current rates, but policymakers argue that these increases are nominal, adjusted for inflation.

Nguyen Thi Xuyen, deputy minister of Health, said the 1995 document on hospital fees that is in use now was unsuitable because it stipulates examining fees of between VND3,000 and VND5,000 and hospital beds at just VND10,000 a day.

She said the proposed fees were between VND10,000 and VND30,000 for examinations and between VND50,000 and VND100,000 per day for a hospital bed.

Such an increase would not affect many patients because up to 62 percent of Vietnamese citizens have health insurance, Xuyen said. The poor are supported with health insurance fees while others will be able to pay all their fees, she added.

The family of Ha and Thong do not qualify for any health insurance assistance.

About 49.5 million people, or 56.6 percent of the total population had health insurance by the end of last year, according to the Vietnam Social Insurance – the central agency in charge of managing social and health insurance.

Groundless factors

Pham Luong Son, head of Vietnam Health Insurance’s policy division, was not convinced about the rationale for the increase.

“There should be a clear and reasonable foundation for the increase in hospital fees. I think the draft was not based on enough technical data for such an increase,” Son was cited by the Tuoi Tre newspaper as saying on July 18.

According to Son, drafters had proposed medical examination fees of VND30,000 per person because they estimated that there are about 20 patients being examined a day and the daily cost for an examining room is VND600,000.

This is not the situation in Vietnam’s hospitals, where around 50 patients are being examined in each examining room every day, he said.

Son also said the proposed hospital bed price of between VND100,000 and VND180,000 per day was also not feasible. Most hospitals would not be able to supply such services that require actual hospital beds and facilities like televisions, while hospitals at present have simple beds that are sometimes shared by two or three patients because of overcrowding.

Better service?

A recent editorial in the Tuoi Tre newspaper said the draft document on hospital fees should have included a plan to improve medical facilities and services that are overloaded and fail to meet demand.

“The number of patients sharing beds remains high, even three or four patients sharing a bed in some cases and the current solution is shortening the treatment period for inpatients,” the paper said.

“Following an increase in hospital fees, patients should be supplied with minimum services like giving each patient a bed of her/his own and each doctor examining a maximum of 30 patients a day. But with the current demand, such simple requirements cannot be satisfied,” it added.

Local media have many times reported constant overloading at many hospitals where each doctor has to examine some 100 patients a day and doesn’t have enough time to conduct thorough examinations and offer detailed consulting services to the patients.

According to a report by the Ministry of Health about state-run hospitals, only 38 percent have nutritional departments and 51 percent have their own kitchens while 16 percent lack conditions to provide round-the-clock care for seriously ill patients.

Insurance fees follow suit

Facing a hike in reimbursement of hospital fees for patients with health insurance, the central insurance agency is looking to significantly increase insurance premiums.

Nguyen Minh Thao, deputy director of Vietnam Social Insurance, said they would increase health insurance fees by 40 percent once the draft regulations on hospital fees are approved. The current health insurance fee is VND450,000 per year.

However, Thao also said that Vietnam Social Insurance would suggest that the government supports policyholders with the surplus amount that can be taken from current subsidies granted to public hospitals.

Life and death

According to Vietnam Social Insurance, the 62 percent of patients having health insurance are mostly civil servants, workers and retired workers. People who don’t have health insurance are those who don’t have stable incomes, like households living near the poverty line, daily-wage laborers and farmers.

In April, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs had said the number of poor families in Vietnam will increase to between 17 to 22 percent if the new poverty lines are approved and take effect from next year. The ministry has submitted a proposal to the government to define poverty at a monthly average income of VND300,000 ($13.2) per person in rural areas and VND600,000 ($31.6) in urban areas. Another option is to set the threshold at VND480,000 ($25.3) and VND700,000 ($36.9), respectively.

While it is clear that an increase in hospital fees would affect those without health insurance, policyholders would also suffer.

Under the Health Insurance Law taking effect in July 2009, poor patients have to pay five percent of hospital fees, and the rest is reimbursed by the health insurance agency. Having to pay five percent will also hit many families hard, and can mean the difference between life and death.

Truong Thi Ngoc of An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta says the health insurance agency used to pay in full the hospital fees for the treatment of her six-year-old son at the HCMC Tumor Hospital. Her son suffers from leukemia, or blood cancer. With the new policy, they have to pay a portion of the costs. Ngoc and her husband have had to leave their rice fields in the Mekong Delta to work for daily wages as construction workers in HCMC to take care of their child.

“We have to borrow more money to pay for each of his treatment periods. But we can’t afford it if the hospital fees increase. Maybe we will have to take him back home to An Giang then.”

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.

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.”

 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)

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.

 A Vietnamese farmer pulls off dying rice plants in Ben Tre province

The rivers that should nourish his thirsty rice paddies are too salty, and the rains are late this year. Dang Roi does not know if he will be able to salvage anything from this spring’s crop.

Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest rice exporter and the Mekong Delta, where Roi farms, accounts for more than half of its production.

But Roi’s paddy fields in Ben Tre province are burning up during a drought which meteorologists say is the worst in decades.

The dry season should have ended already, but in the yard of Roi’s house in Que Dien commune, barrels that collect rainwater for his family’s cooking and washing show the desperate situation. They are half-full, or empty.

Experts say Vietnam is one of the countries most threatened by climate change, whose effects are seen in worsening drought, floods, typhoons, exaggerated tides, and rising sea levels.

The country is planning for a one-meter (three feet) rise in sea levels by 2100, which would flood about 31,000 square kilometers (12,400 square miles) of land – an area about the size of Belgium – unless systems such as dykes are strengthened, said a UN discussion paper released last year.

It said the threat of floods is greatest in the Mekong Delta, where 17 million people live.

If that land becomes unusable there are “serious implications” for the region, Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told AFP last month.

She said Vietnam faces a “huge challenge” from climate change.

Over the past 50 years the sea level has already risen by 20 centimeters (eight inches) along Vietnam’s coast, according to the increasingly worried communist government.

While delta farmers cope with drought, they are also challenged by sea water intrusion, which experts also link to climate change.

There is little water in the rivers near Roi’s fields “and it’s salty so we can’t pump it” for irrigation, he says.

Recalling easier times on his 1.2 hectares (three acres), Roi says, “The rice fields weren’t dying like this.”

The Vietnamese government emphasizes the role of climate change in disrupting its agricultural environment, but experts do not rule out an effect from dams upstream in China. That impact could be worsened by the opening of more dams further south in Laos and Cambodia, they say.

“The Chinese dams have made the system fragile, but the impact of the downstream dams will be cumulative,” said Marc Goichot, of the WWF.

Goichot said a delta is influenced by three forces which affect one another: subsidence, which causes the delta’s bed to fall; coastal currents; and sediment brought down by rivers.

Dams retain sediment, reducing the amount that collects where the coastal current and waves are strongest downstream, meaning the salty water can more easily penetrate, he said.

The impact of sediment needs to be better understood, Goichot added, calling for a suspension of dam projects pending further research.

China has eight planned or existing dams on the Mekong River, but rejects activists’ criticism that the hydropower dams contribute to low water levels downstream.

There are proposals for another twelve dams in the lower Mekong countries.

Vo Tong Xuan, a leading Vietnamese rice expert, said the flow of the Mekong River – whose long journey ends at the delta – is “extremely reduced” this year.

He is concerned about the impact of Chinese dams, but also blames Vietnam’s increasingly intensive methods of rice growing.

As the delta’s population has expanded, farmers have gone from planting one to two and sometimes three rice crops each year.

Xuan says that too many farmers plant three crops, draining crucial water from provinces such as Ben Tre during the dry season.

Ultimately, he says, the Delta may need new varieties of rice more adapted to a dry and salty environment.

Roi, 64, grows rice only twice a year and is not waiting for new strains.

Squatting beside his sorry-looking paddies, he points out about 30 baby palm trees he has planted along the edge of the rice field. They are better adapted to the delta’s harsh environment.

“If one day we can’t grow rice any more, we’ll grow coconut palms,” he says.

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.”

Festivals should be interactive and engage their communities in their planning, ambassador to Vietnam, Mitsuo Sakaba, told Thanh Nien Weekly as he spoke about the festivities being held to mark the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long on October 10.

Thanh Nien Weekly: Vietnam will celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in October. How should Hanoi organize the event?

Mitsuo Sakaba: A street march with the participation of 1,000 people in the costumes of the Ly Dynasty, 1,000 years ago, would be a good idea. The march led by a famous actor and actress portraying King Ly Thai To and his queen may be interesting.

To lure many visitors, the event must be big.

The organization board should coordinate with travel agents to promote the event. It is scheduled to start in October, but the detailed agenda has not yet been announced. Vietnam should announce the schedule soon, so that there is time to promote the event abroad.

To attract the participation of local youth, the event should have a history contest. Students from all high schools nationwide could participate in the Thang Long history contest. The two best teams will compete in the final round of the contest on the anniversary day. The contest will make high school students more interested in the event and the history of Thang Long. Vietnamese youths are now not so interested in Vietnam’s history.

The organizing board must coordinate with media agencies to promote the event

What’s the difference between festivals in Vietnam and Japan?

In Vietnam, people’s committees of localities often preside over festivals. Meanwhile, in Japan, people’s organizations, with the assistance of the government, hold festivals. In Japan, festival expenditures are funded only partially by local people’s committees while they are also financed by firms and individuals.

In Vietnam, if people’s committees of localities are in charge of holding festivals, people don’t have to care about expenses, about sponsors. But there are problems that could arise in holding Japanese-style festivals, and people have to solve many issues.

If people do not volunteer to plan, organize and participate in the festival, it will be difficult to hold it.

In Vietnam, residents often watch festivals, they do not directly partake in them. What should Hanoi do so that people can participate in the upcoming 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long in an active manner?

Vietnam should hold festival programs that residents can participate in. In Japan, groups of local people, not the government, hold festivals. The events are organized around participatory activities. Local residents can register to participate in the programs. Festivals in Japan often have street marches, in which people can perform traditional dances, or martial arts.

Festivals in Japan are cheerful, but they are time-consuming and difficult to prepare. It is simpler to organize festivals in the Vietnamese style, and the preparation time is also shorter.

In Vietnam, historical events are often re-enacted by actors and actresses on the stage. Is the situation in Japan the same?

Japan has two kinds of festivals, annual festivals and great festivals. There are three great festivals which lure 1-2 million of visitors each. One great festival will be held this year to celebrate the 1,300th anniversary of Nara, the ancient capital of Japan.

During some festivals in Japan, residents wear costumes of the historical period, and stage recreations of famous events in history. There is almost no usage of stages, actors and actresses, and stage directors in doing this.

This spring, I visited a festival in Bac Ninh (of Vietnam), in which more than 3,000 young people staged creations of historical events. The participation of volunteers have made the festival is very cheerful and interesting.

However, it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare for a festival with the participation of many people. In Japan, volunteers prepare for their festivals for six months. So, the problem is finding enough volunteers to prepare events for such long periods of time.

Many local and foreign visitors will rush to Hanoi during the upcoming festival of the city. So, what should Hanoi do to deal with environmental and transport issues?

When Japan holds street marches during festivals, we have to take measures to limit traffic in streets, such as banning cars and some other vehicles, so that people can comfortably partake in the events. After festivals, a lot of waste needs to be cleaned up. In Japan, the streets are cleaned up after festivals by groups of volunteers.

If Vietnam had such groups, you could deal with the environmental issue. In addition, it is necessary to improve the awareness of local people about environmental hygiene, as many people just litter all the time.

What are Japan’s contributions to the event of Vietnam?

We issued a publication of “Hanoi-Japan, towards a new vision”, and will hold a series of cultural and art events, such as a film festival, music performance and exhibitions of pictures and photos, to welcome the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long.

Shady Libyan construction firms and crooked labor brokers are allegedly exploiting Vietnamese workers!

Vietnamese workers at a construction site in Tarhoona, Libya. Hundreds of Vietnamese guest workers in the Northern African nation say they are working under harsh conditions for pay that often comes in low and late.

Every day, Dai, a 26-year- old Vietnamese construction worker, wakes up and works 11 hours under the hot Libyan sun.

For the past four months, Dai has endured sandstorms and siroccos – the notoriously hot and dusty winds blowing out of the Sahara desert. What keeps him working is the hope that he will provide a better life for his relatives back home in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

But, here in Libya, there are no guarantees that his hard work will pay off.

Dai and hundreds of Vietnamese workers in the Northern African nation are working under harsh conditions for pay that often comes late. When pay does arrive, workers said, it is lower than the contracted amount. There is no compensation for overtime.

Before arriving in Libya, some of the poor rural men said they had been fleeced by fake labor brokers in Vietnam. Others say they had bribed employees at “legitimate” personnel firms in order to secure positions with “good” companies abroad.

Long road to Libya

Can Van Chien, a 24-year-old carpenter from Hanoi, said he had faced a number of difficulties before being sent to work at a residential construction site in Souq Al Ahad, some 80 kilometers to the south-east of Tripoli.

In 2006, he said, a man posing as a labor broker took him for VND10 million. Chien had been promised a job in the Czech Republic. A year later, he failed to qualify for a mechanic’s position in Egypt with the Vinaconex Company. Chien says that Vinaconex collected application fees from Chien and promised to send him to Algeria to work. After five months of waiting, he was told that his contract in Algeria had been canceled. But there was work in Libya.

Like many other workers, Chien had to take out bank loans to cover broker fees and his plane ticket. Interest on the loans continued to accrue during the months that he waited for his assignment to come through.

Khuong, a construction worker in Souq Al Ahad, said he and seven other workers were sent to Libya last year by Vinaconex after bribing a company representative in Libya VND2 million each. Khuong said he and the others were told that the man could arrange them to work for a Turkish company in Libya that was supposed to be better than others.

Underpaid

After overcoming all odds, the workers have complained that their payment has come in low and late.

In October 2009, late payment prompted 500 Vietnamese workers (80 percent of the STFA Construction Company workforce) to strike for three days. The workers complained that the company had delayed the transfer of funds to their accounts for five consecutive months. They claimed to have lost between US$10 and $100 per transaction.

In another case, 91 Vietnamese employees at the Ahua Company said they had signed contracts to work eight hours a day for $260 a month. They claimed to have been paid just $240 a month in Lybian dinar.

“For four months we worked an extra three hours a day and weren’t paid for it,” a worker said.

At the Hadsa construction site, owned by South-Korean Halin Company, 27 Vietnamese workers reported a similar story.

Bang, a 37-year-old worker from the northern mountainous Son La Province, said he and his co-workers signed contracts for $260 a month but the company only paid 260 Lybian dinar, equaling only $208. What’s more, Libya took a 20 percent tax bite out of their checks.

Desert hope

For workers from the tropical Vietnam, Libya’s desert-like climate proved to be an unforgiving working environment.

The 41-year-old carpenter Minh prepares for his daily work by covering himself tightly, from head to toe, in ninja-like garb. “Everyone dresses like this,” he says. “You will know why when going out. The construction site is just like a pan of boiling fat. Any uncovered body part will be immediately badly burnt by the sun.”

The construction site is surrounded on all sides by endless sand dunes. Without a tree in sight, the whole place heats up quickly under the scorching sun.

Minh said that 300 workers from his village, Huong Ngai in Hanoi’s Thach That District, were sent to work as plumbers in Libya. Nearly half of them developed respiratory diseases soon after arriving due to the dusty working conditions, he said.

Khoai, a 39-year-old construction worker, said he spent his days painting a layer of mazut oil onto formwork to prevent them from sticking to plaster. “The smell of oil in the unbearable heat has made my nose bleed,” he said. “Some pass out due to sunstroke.”

Quyen, a Vietnamese plumber who has been working in Libya since early this year, said he accepted the gig despite regular underpayment in order to support his family.

“I hope my daughter will pass the university entrance exam this month so she won’t have to work hard like her parents,” he said.

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.

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.

Progress is paving its way through Vietnam’s ancient cities and no one knows what to save and what to toss.

After several debates regarding preservation efforts in Hanoi, the nation still lacks an agency capable of evaluating the historical significance of a given site. What’s more, Vietnam needs technicians who know how to preserve the relics it wants to keep.

Olivier Tessier, researcher from the French School of Asian Studies (École Française d’Extrême-Orient, EFEO), sat down with Thanh Nien Weekly to discuss what Vietnam can do to hold on to its cultural heritage.

Thanh Nien Weekly: How do you assess the historical value of a place like the Thang Long Imperial Citadel?

Olivier Tessier: The imperial citadel has great historical and cultural value. It was the capital of the Ly, Tran and Le dynasties as well as a major center for cultural and economic exchange between Vietnam, China, Champa and other countries in Southeast Asia.

A section of Hoang Hoa Tham Street, thought to be part of the citadel, was recently excavated during the construction of an overpass. What are your thoughts on that?

- Cities run into this problem all over the world – Rome, Paris, Athena, etc. We want to preserve our heritage as well as develop our cities. Meanwhile, cities can’t develop if everything is preserved. Hanoi is a city with a long history. When you build roads, you’re going to run into relics of the past – as was the case in Hoang Hoa Tham Street.

So, what can Vietnam do in this case? If you ban all construction, you’ll stymie socioeconomic development. Every year in France, some 700 square kilometers of land are set aside for the construction of roads, railways and private and public buildings. Underground relics are definitely destroyed during the construction. Inevitably this leads to disputes among politicians, scientists, residents and economic sectors. So, in 2002, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), was established to research the protection of archaeological relics.

While researching 20 percent of the 700 square kilometers, INRAP combs the project sites, work out their maps, and photograph them, before a decision on the use of the site is issued. Construction projects are seldom stopped. INRAP doesn’t make the decision, politicians do, but only after considering our findings regarding the site’s historial and cultural value. They weigh those findings against issues such as land planning, and the development demand of the surrounding community.

Such an agency can’t make everyone happy, but it can cool down disputes by establishing a legal procedure for potential construction projects. Such an agency could help Vietnamese authorities make decisions in cases like Hoang Hoa Tham Street. Once again, however, you can’t please everyone.

But, we should strive to maintain our cultural heritage for posterity...

- Right, you are right. Everyone agrees with you. But, you can’t save everything. Hanoi might not have become the capital of Vietnam if construction had been banned, a thousand years ago, to maintain historical integrity.

There are a number of ways you can approach the preservation of a given site. You can preserve relics on-site. You can study relics and then remove them to museums. Additionally, you can bury them so that future generations, with more advanced technology, can study them further.

There are different methods (for preservation) but the goal is to maintain something that scientists can continue to study and preserve evidence of the past for future generations

What should we do about the Thang Long Imperial Citadel?

- The discovery of archaeological relics at the imperial citadel is of great significance to Vietnam’s history. The relic site has two unique features. The first is that the site sits on top of five meters of sediment filled with objects that span 13 centuries (from the 8th-19th). The second is that the space above ground continues to be used.

There are older and better heritage sites in the country, but Thang Long is especially interesting because it contains a long-term history. It is here, in the space of a few hectares, that Vietnam’s political center has been established over the course of a thousand years.

This historical gem sits in the middle of Hanoi, an expensive city that’s rapidly modernizing. Moreover, it is in the center of Ba Dinh political area, adjacent to the National Assembly’s building. For that reason, its development has been widely debated in recent years.

So, what’s the best option in this case?

- Now, we must determine how to best preserve the site and develop a working plan for the project. Foreign and local experts agree that there’s no single best recipe for handling this scenario. It’s not like baking a cake.

Research proposals from the Institute of Archaeology (of Vietnam) have proposed that part of the site be left open for sightseeing, while the rest be covered with land and soil to protect it from the elements. This should be urgently implemented. In fact, the relic has been affected by rain, sunshine, and moisture since it was unearthed eight years ago.

Is there anything else Vietnam can do to preserve its cultural relics?

- I think Vietnam should train more experts in the technical aspects of preserving archaeological relics in particular, and cultural relics in general. Archaeologists cannot succeed without this technical understanding and capacity. This is a subject that is taught at many universities, especially in Europe.

 Tran Thi Hoan stands in front of the US Supreme Court in 2008. Hoan is a victim of Agent Orange, the herbicide laced with dioxin-tainted defoliant that was sprayed across huge swaths of Vietnam between in the 1960s and early 1970s, and she fears that she could pass on the poison that saw her born without legs and with a withered hand to her children.

At 23, Tran Thi Hoan dreams the dreams of a typical young woman: find a good job, start a family and, as a native of a country long ravaged by war, live in peace.

But Hoan is a victim of Agent Orange, the herbicide laced with dioxin-tainted defoliant that was sprayed across huge swaths of Vietnam between in the 1960s and early 1970s, and she fears that she could pass on the poison that saw her born without legs and with a withered hand to her children.

So she’s let go of part of her dream.

“Maybe my children will be disabled like me. So I don’t believe I can get married,” Hoan told AFP after she became the first Vietnamese victim of Agent Orange to testify before the US Congress.

“I’m worried,” she added quietly.

“I’m scared.”

Hoan had just read a three-page testimony in English to US lawmakers in a packed hearing room.

“I am not unique, but am one of hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been marked by our parents’ or grandparents’ exposure to Agent Orange,” she said.

“I was born as you see me: without legs and missing a hand.”

But in spite of her handicap, and in spite of her fears that nobody would want her as a wife, Hoan told the packed hearing called by Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, a veteran of Vietnam, to try to determine how to meet the needs of Vietnam’s victims of Agent Orange, that she was “one of the lucky ones.”

“I’m missing limbs, but my mental functioning is fine,” she said.

Some Agent Orange victims do nothing but sleep, she said. Others fall ill with a slight temperature change. Still others die young, at age 10.

“Many babies, children and young people live lives of quiet agony. They are trapped in bodies that do not work. Their brains remain in infancy even as their bodies grow.

A ribbon supporting Agent Orange victims. Today, Agent Orange and dioxin, which is known to increase the risk of cancer, immune deficiency disease, and reproductive and developmental disorders, still contaminates the land and water of Vietnam.

The American Public Health Panel estimates that some 77 million liters of herbicides, including 49.3 million liters of Agent Orange containing dioxin-contaminated defoliants, were sprayed over 5.5 million acres (2.23 million hectares) in what was then South Vietnam by the United States military.

The aim was to destroy the densely wooded hiding places of the Vietnamese liberation forces.

Today, Agent Orange and dioxin, which is known to increase the risk of cancer, immune deficiency disease, and reproductive and developmental disorders, still contaminates the land and water of Vietnam.

Vietnamese medical doctor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong told the hearing that studies she has conducted have found that up to 4.1 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange during the war and more than three million have suffered its effects.

Babies are exposed through their mother’s breast milk. Others have been exposed by living in or near contaminated areas called “hotspots,” such as Da Nang, where the United States had a base during the war.

The United States, which reestablished diplomatic ties with Vietnam 15 years ago, is funding a program to “remediate” dioxin at Da Nang, or burn it at ultra-high temperatures of 350 degrees Celsius (662 Fahrenheit), which causes it to vaporize.

Not doing anything would mean dioxin, which has a half-life of 100 years – meaning it will take 100 years for it to fall to half its initial strength – would still be tainting the land and people’s lives next century.

“My gosh,” said Faleomavaega, “We’ll all be dead and it’ll still be there.”

Though Hoan’s life has been marked by an event that happened decades before her birth, she insisted Agent Orange victims have to look to the future.

“We can look at the past and see the consequences of war, but we don’t want to stay in the past. We have to look to the future and see what we can do,” she told AFP.

And she added another wish to her wish-list.

“We want those responsible for the terrible consequences of Agent Orange to hear our pain and respond to us as humans,” she said, speaking not only for Vietnamese victims but for “the children and grandchildren of Americans who were exposed to Agent Orange and who are suffering like us.”

In the audience, a veteran of the Iraq war cried. Another applauded quietly.

One of the chemical companies that made Agent Orange, Dow, says on its website that manufacturers were compelled by the government to produce the herbicide.

In 2007, Dow said there was no evidence to link Agent Orange to Vietnam veterans’ illnesses.

And last year, a US embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi said there has been no internationally-accepted scientific study establishing a link between Agent Orange and Vietnam’s disabled and deformed.

Members of the French Vietnam-Dioxine Collective gather in Paris on June 18 to show their support on the same day the US Court of Appeals held a hearing in New York related to a lawsuit filed by Vietnamese victims of the chemical Agent Orange against several US chemical companies that manufactured the toxic material. Agent Orange, a dioxin-containing defoliant used during the Vietnam War, caused disfiguring birth defects, cancer, and many other health problems to those exposed.