Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

You will see many vietnamese tourists here..... grab a chance to talk to them so that u can make 1 more vietnamese friend oversea

Vietnamese prefer foreign to local attractions
================================================== =====
VietNamNet Bridge - With domestic tours costing more than foreign trips and their country’s attractions not appealing enough to Vietnamese, many people opt for destinations like Thailand and Singapore.

Figures from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism show that the number of people travelling abroad via Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the first half rose by 30 percent year on year to 485,368.

Dang Nguyen, head of foreign travel at the HCMC-based PIT Tour, said the large number of Vietnamese visitors to Thailand recently has caused a shortage of tourist buses.

“There are sometimes 50 groups of Vietnamese tourists visiting Bangkok’s Safari World Zoo, 10 times higher than usual,” he said.

Tran The Duy, deputy CEO of Viettravel, said the number of package tours to Thailand has jumped by 30 percent.

“Viettravel sometimes has to book 170 seats on Lufthansa Airlines flights between HCMC and Bangkok,” he said, adding that four to five Thailand packages are sold every day.

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, head of Ben Thanh Tourist’s foreign travel department, said the company’s Thai partners have declined to accept any more Vietnamese tourists since there are not enough hotels or Vietnamese-speaking tour guides.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has put the number of Vietnamese tourists in the first six months at 244,882, 37 percent up from the same period last year.

Vietnamese are also visiting Singapore in huge numbers. Goh Tser Puan, director of LC Travel Planners in the island-nation, said hotels are full up until mid-August.

Vietnamese travel agencies blame the slump in domestic tourism to the high costs and the fact that Vietnamese destinations are not attractive enough.

On the other hand, international carriers constantly offer cheap tickets to Singapore and Thailand, making foreign tours cheaper.

Thai Airways International and Turkish Airlines, for instance, are offering round tickets between HCMC and Bangkok for US$245 and $215, while tickets from Hanoi to HCMC costs as much as VND4 million ($200).

La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, said the department had urged closer cooperation between travel agencies and partners like hotels and airlines to reduce prices to boost domestic tourism.

“But we have received no feedback so far,” he lamented.

Source: Tuoitrenews

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

lets go to JC
ooopppsss... only reply at this hour

At this hour JC is quiet liao. U shd go GL instead. Grab a chance to talk if you see a vietnamese tourist there. Maybe your next visit to VN he/her can show u around

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by jackbl

At this hour JC is quiet liao. U shd go GL instead. Grab a chance to talk if you see a vietnamese tourist there. Maybe your next visit to VN he/her can show u around

touring around is too tiring. i prefer stay in hotel to relax.
many tour guide in vn roi but no time to engage them

[Honey Boon]

yes, done my part to up a kind soul here

Originally Posted by jackbl

Yes, Im very touched... Thats why that night, I sleep alone, I still thought of your advice and caringness till I cant sleep.... I will up your points in 24hours times. So my friends here, please up him for giving us such a good advice.

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

touring around is too tiring. i prefer stay in hotel to relax.

I know ur pattern liao. Been to vn 30over times but go less than 5 provinces

[jackbl]

The doggedness of a Vietnamese spy
================================================== ===
Paraded before his eyes were $100,000 in cash, a villa, a car and a beautiful girl but North Vietnam’s spy Nguyen Van Thuong turned them down and refused to disclose information. The US army later cut off his legs.

On the 64th anniversary of the War Invalids' and Martyrs' Day today (Wednesday - July 27), Tuoitrenews would like to introduce to readers the story of an intelligence officer who rejected all temptations and endured the most horrifying tortures to become a true hero, a shining example for all.

The original Vietnamese story is provided by VnExpress newswire.

Thuong is now 73 years old and moves about on a wheelchair. Sometimes he casts it aside and crawls around.

At his house in a small alley off Binh Loi Street in Ward 13 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District, the brave soldier recalled his war days.

He was born in Tay Ninh Province in the South into a family with revolutionary tradition and when he was just 3 months old, his parents were off to the battlefield, leaving him to his aunt’s care.

When he was 8 years old, he received terrible news that his mother was taken to Con Dao Island by the enemy and died there.

In 1959 when Thuong was 20, he were told his father, an intelligence officer, was arrested and murdered.

In that same year, Thuong decided to join the army.

In 1961, Thuong was assigned the task of protecting comrade Vo Van Kiet, who was then secretary of the Communist Party T4 Sai Gon – Gia Dinh. A little time later, Thuong was made an intelligence officer under the direct supervision of Muoi Nho or Colonel Nguyen Nho Quy, who was at the time head of intelligence in the Sai Gon – Cho Lon area.

“I have taught you all of my experience. There’s one thing you must remember in your heart: documents are spies. Losing documents is like losing spies”, Muoi Nho once told Thuong.

On December 13, 1969, Thuong was ordered to obtain a top-secret document in Saigon. On the way, he was besieged by US army helicopters while on a rice paddy.

Sharp-minded, Thuong quickly hid the document under a furrow. He now had a gun with 21 bullets and was ready the face the enemy.

“I waited for the enemy to be 15 meters away and fired 20 shots at them, killing many. The last bullet I saved for myself. However, I thought about the oath of [Communist] Party members not to commit suicide”, he told VnExpress.

Thuong then feigned surrender.

“When they approached, I shot at one of them and snatched away his gun. I used it to fire many shots at the helicopter, causing it to be on fire”, Thuong recalled.

But other helicopters crowded in. Many descended and arrested Thuong.

Upon being arrested, Thuong lied to the enemy that he was Nguyen Truong Han and could not read.



Say ‘No’ to money, women

Contrary to initial thoughts, he was not beaten nor chained in a dungeon but instead taken to a luxury villa named Hoa Hong (roses) in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.

At the living room, an American officer wearing a colonel badge pointed at a stack of cash amounting to US$100,000, at a car and at the villa and announced “all of this is yours”.

In return, Thuong was asked to hand out the secret document that he earlier hid and tell them whether he is an intelligence courier named Nguyen Van Thuong.

The US side also procured a beautiful girl called Thuy Duong, Thuong continued his story.

This girl many times sneaked into his sleeping room in scanty clothes in hopes she could steal information.

She warned that his legs would be sawn off if he still proved strong-headed.

“Please listen to me, if you tell them everything, we will have US$10,000 to go to Japan [together]. If not, they will crush your two feet because that is the feet of an intelligence courier”, the girl told Thuong at the time.

But being a Vietnamese solider, Thuong resolutely turned them down.

After 100 days offering the carrots, the enemy resorted to extreme torture.

In 3 months: 6 major mutilations

In the three months after that, they six times sawed away Thuong’s legs, one by one.

The first time, they cut away his right ankle. A little while later, they severed his left ankle.

Every time they did the inhuman mutilation, they asked the same question “Are you Nguyen Van Thuong?”. The answer was always “No” and a headshake.

Thuong recalled that he gritted his teeth in pain and fainted many times.

“When confronting the enemy, I can bear all kinds of pain because in my heart, I have the strength of the [Communist] Party and images of my father, mother, wife, children and comrades”, the brave man said.

The torturers finally gave up and according to Thuong, a US colonel blurted out at the end that “I lost. You are a creature of steel”.

Afterwards, Thuong was jailed at the Ho Nai Prison where he wrote patriotic leaflets and distributed them among fellow prisoners.

He was caught and isolated in an iron cage for three months.

He was later imprisoned in Phu Quoc and freed in 1973 when the Paris Peace Accords were signed.

Since then, the former intelligence courier with the rank of major has been visiting his friends, companions in arms and telling kids stories of the bravery of Vietnamese soldiers.

He is always accompanied by his faithful wife, also a revolutionary soldier.


Meanwhile, cities and provinces across Vietnam are holding many events in commemoration of soldiers who sacrificed their lives and those who greatly contributed to the war on this War Invalids' and Martyrs' Day.

In Ca Mau in the south, leaders will visit war invalids, martyrs' families, and people who contributed to the war. A total of 31,000 people will receive gifts from the President.

In Gia Lai on the Central Highlands and in Tra Vinh in the south, officials have organized many activities including the gathering of 1,000 youths to burn 1,000 incense sticks for war martyrs.

In Bac Kan in the north, the secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, joined other officials to visit the war martyrs' cemetery.

Other events are being organized in Quang Nam, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Da Nang in the central region.

[jackbl]

A successful vietnamese story

'I Used to Dream I Was a Vietnamese Prince'
================================================== =====
German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler, who was adopted into a German family from Vietnam at a young age, insists that he never had problems because of his background. He spoke with SPIEGEL about integration, discrimination and what it means to be German.

SPIEGEL: Minister Rösler, you were born in Vietnam and adopted by German parents when you were nine months old. When was the first time you noticed that you looked different from other German children?

Rösler:When I was four or five, my father put me in front of a mirror together with him. He said: "Look at yourself, then look at me -- we look different. But no matter what happens and no matter what people say: I'm your father."

SPIEGEL: Were you teased as a child for the way you looked?

Rösler: No, never. I sometimes used to dream I was a lost Vietnamese prince. The idea appealed to me. At some point I asked my father whether there even were princes in Vietnam.

SPIEGEL: Given your appearance, could you as a teenager imagine one day becoming vice chancellor of Germany?

Rösler: What teenager can ever imagine becoming vice chancellor? I find that German citizens have been very tolerant and accepting about the fact that I look different from an "average German." Abroad, it does draw attention now and then. I recently accompanied the chancellor to Washington and when we were received at the White House, President Obama was curious about my political career.

SPIEGEL: Was there a reaction from Vietnam when you became chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) -- junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives -- and vice chancellor of Germany?

Rösler: I received congratulations from many governments, including Vietnam, which made me very happy. But no connection was drawn to my Vietnamese background.

SPIEGEL: Are people in Vietnam proud of Philipp Rösler?

Rösler: Vietnamese tour buses often stop at my ministry, and for many Vietnamese people it's certainly something special. If someone adopted from Germany were part of the Vietnamese government, we Germans would probably find that interesting too.

SPIEGEL: Did your father tell you much about Vietnam?

Rösler: My father met a number of Vietnamese people in his job as a helicopter pilot with the German armed forces. In the 1970s, he often went to the US for training, where pilots in the South Vietnamese Army also trained. The war in Vietnam occupied him enormously, as it did most of his generation. He saw two options back then -- either take to the streets and protest, or help in a very practical way. He chose the second option and adopted a child from Vietnam -- me.

SPIEGEL: Now, when you watch movies about the Vietnam War, which side are you on?

Rösler: No side at all. In movies such as "Platoon" by Oliver Stone, there isn't necessarily a clear division into good and bad, so I don't feel forced to take a side.

SPIEGEL:

Did you ever wish to look like a German?

Rösler: No, because I am a German and I have always felt like a German. I went to a Catholic elementary school in the Harburg district of Hamburg, where there were a lot of Spanish and Italian students. After my first day of school, I went to my father and said, "Dad, there are lots of foreigners in my class." He laughed out loud.

SPIEGEL: Is Germany as a country friendly to foreigners?

Rösler: Yes, it is. I myself have never had negative experiences.

SPIEGEL: Which groups of foreigners would you say have the hardest time in Germany?

Rösler: That's difficult to say. In general, foreignness and differentness scare a lot of people. So I imagine the people who have it the hardest are the ones who are visually the most different from a "typical German."

SPIEGEL: Does your positive view of Germany also have something to do with the fact that you grew up in a sheltered environment? A Turkish boy in a difficult neighborhood in Berlin's Neukölln district, for example, likely has a very different perspective on Germany.

Rösler: No one has ever made fun of my heritage. But Turkish boys often had their noses rubbed in the fact that they were different. I found it unfair and dangerous. How is someone supposed to become part of society when he or she is told from the beginning, "You're not really a part of us"?

SPIEGEL: Why has the climate for foreigners in Germany grown harsher?

Rösler: In the past, foreigners were seen as an enrichment for the country. West Germany needed workers, so Spaniards, Italians and Turks were welcome. As the fear of unemployment grew, so did many people's fear that immigrants might take away their jobs. In the last few years, though, the climate has gotten considerably better.

SPIEGEL:

Can you understand that people are afraid of immigrants?

Rösler: There are always two ways to deal with these kinds of fears. Either you give in to the fears and close yourself off, or you try to be open and to enlighten people. I see this second as the liberal way.

SPIEGEL:

Has your FDP done enough to enlighten people?

Rösler: Politics as a whole has done too little to address the subject of integration.

SPIEGEL: Have German policies been too indulgent with foreigners who refused to integrate?

Part 2: 'Why Is It a Problem to Be Seen as Friendly?'

Rösler: My belief is that our policies have offered too little, in terms of language courses for example. Punishment shouldn't be our first response.

SPIEGEL: As economics minister, do you plan to ease the rules on immigration to Germany?

Rösler: I will advocate for Germany moving further in this direction. Germany needs qualified immigrants and it's absurd for us to spend so much money educating foreign students and then, after they graduate, only allow them to stay in the country for one year.

SPIEGEL: In Germany, Asians are considered especially well integrated. Why is that?

Rösler: Vietnamese parents, like many others, place value on their children getting a good education.

SPIEGEL: Do you yourself run into problems in politics because of the reputation that Asians are always nice and friendly?

Rösler: Why would it be a problem to be seen as friendly?

SPIEGEL: Because friendliness, in politics, is often taken as an inability to be assertive.

Rösler: You don't need to worry about me there.

SPIEGEL: Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview that you are not only knowledgeable and likeable, but also have a great deal of humor. Did you feel Schäuble was belittling you?

Rösler: I did ask myself what the benefit of his comments was.

SPIEGEL: Are you proud to be a German?

Rösler: Actually, I am, but this sentence has been taken over by right-wing radicals. There's no need to overuse it.

SPIEGEL: Does Islam belong in Germany?

Rösler: There are around 4 million Muslims in the country and they too help to shape it, so yes, it's also correct to say that Islam belongs in Germany. That statement originated with Federal President Christian Wulff. When he said that, I sent him a text message right away: "That was courageous. This is going to make waves." And that's exactly what happened.

SPIEGEL: Why did you wait until you were 33 to visit Vietnam, your country of origin, for the first time?

Rösler: I went because my wife said to me: "We want to have children someday, and I'd like to be able to tell them what the country where you were born looks like."

SPIEGEL: How did you feel when you were there? Like any ordinary tourist?

Rösler: Perhaps like an especially interested tourist. It was sometimes clear that people there were wondering just what kind of person I was. They could tell that I didn't live in Vietnam. But I also didn't particularly look like one of the many Japanese tourists who go there. Most people thought I was an American on vacation, someone from one of the families that emigrated to the US.

SPIEGEL: Did you know details about your Vietnamese roots at that point?

Rösler: Yes, and I partly have SPIEGEL to thank for that. A man at an event in the town of Holzminden asked me where exactly I came from. I told him the name of the village where I was born, which I knew from my birth certificate. The man said that was quite a coincidence, because his daughter came from the same place. She was one of the children evacuated from Vietnam during the war, in 1975. One of the last planes out crashed and partially burned in a rice field. SPIEGEL later took a trip there with the surviving children -- and that was the city where my orphanage was. The SPIEGEL article also quoted both of the nuns who took care of a total of 3,000 orphans during that time. They thought up names for their charges, in order to be able to send them abroad.

SPIEGEL:

Do you know anything about your birth parents?

Rösler: No. The nuns at my orphanage had to take care of more than 3,000 children. They had to make up names and ancestry for the children in order to fill out their exit forms. There really are no clues to lead to my birth parents.

SPIEGEL: Have you ever thought of looking for them yourself?

Rösler: No, I haven't. To me, my father is my dad. Things are good the way they are. I'm not lacking anything.

[jackbl]

Continue from above........


SPIEGEL:

What did you like best about Vietnam?

Rösler: The scenery is wonderful, and the food. When you go to an Asian restaurant in Germany, it's all very Germanized. Many Asians don't even go to Asian restaurants here, because it simply doesn't taste like it does back home.

SPIEGEL:

And yet: Your favorite singer is the German pop star Udo Jürgens. You named your twin daughters Grietje and Gesche. You're a member of the Central Committee of German Catholics. And you registered voluntarily with the Bundeswehr. You're more than a German, you're a model German.

Rösler: Then allow me my rebuttal: It's true that I'm an avid Udo Jürgens fan, but it's certainly not because he sings in German. And I'll let you in on a secret -- we don't have a German flag hanging in our house. My private car is French, for very practical reasons -- it's the only car a twin baby carriage fits into upright. And as to our children's names: When we married, my wife took my last name, which is anything but a given nowadays. We agreed that she would take the name Rösler, and in exchange she could choose the children's names. I could make my wishes known, but my wife was the one who decided. And in fact, Grietje is more of a Dutch name, and Gesche is more Frisian.

SPIEGEL: Would you say Germany has a "leading culture?"

Rösler: That is a term that was coined by others, but yes, there's certainly a common culture we can use to communicate. It fluctuates somewhere between green-cabbage kings and modernism.

SPIEGEL: That's right, congratulations! You were crowned "green cabbage king" at this year's green cabbage festival in Oldenburg.

Rösler: The tradition of crowning a green cabbage king carries with it values that are absolutely serious, such as supporting and helping one another, and staying true to a region. I have spent many years giving talks on the subject of home and origins. I don't think that "home" is something bourgeois, straight-laced or boring.

SPIEGEL: When did you first notice that Asians lack the enzyme for metabolizing alcohol?

Rösler: During puberty, which is generally when that first contact takes place.

SPIEGEL: Were you badly drunk?

Rösler: No, I wasn't. The way it works is that most people's bodies convert alcohol first to aldehyde and then to acetic acid. But the process works differently for me, with an unpleasant result -- I don't get the buzz, just the hangover.

SPIEGEL: Sounds terrible. So you don't drink at all?

Rösler: I do. If I never drank alcohol, even a tiny amount would be enough to make me feel sick. But if I drink a little bit regularly, enzymes form that help in metabolizing it.

SPIEGEL: How much can you drink?

Rösler: A glass of wine isn't a problem.

SPIEGEL: How is it possible for someone who gets sick after just a few drops of drink to survive as a politician in the state of Lower Saxony?

Rösler: You might be thinking of some overly drastic clichés of the region. Lower Saxony is a free place, you're not forced to drink. And in any case, I believe the days are past when people thought you could only make it in politics through an enormous amount of social drinking.

SPIEGEL: Are you a role model for foreigners in Germany?

Rösler: Many people see me as a role model. Right around the time when I was about to become a minister, there was a meeting at the restaurant in the Bundestag. A dark-skinned man, who was working for the catering company, came up to me. And do you know what he said? "I think it's fantastic that one of us has made it all the way to the top."

SPIEGEL: Were you pleased?

Rösler: Yes, because it was honest and came from the heart.

SPIEGEL: Minister Rösler, thank you for this interview.

Interview conducted by Markus Feldenkirchen and René Pfister

Translated from the German by Ella Ornstein

[jackbl]

A Saigon Love Story
====================================
Since moving to Saigon last year, one of the most common questions I’ve gotten – whether from locals, other expats, or friends and family back home – has been: “Do you like Saigon?” The answer has always been quite easy. Yes, I do. In fact, I often say that I love it. Explaining that answer, though, can be a bit difficult.


To be sure, there is a lot to hate about Saigon. The absolutely insane traffic strains the patience of even the calmest individual. The honking and general noise of the metropolis is something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. The lack of good public transportation and pedestrian areas is frustrating, as is the absence of any real outdoor recreational spots. The little “parks” here, where you can’t even walk on the grass, don’t really cut it. Taxi drivers, certain xe om drivers, and other unscrupulous individuals prey on foreigners, assuming that we are all idiots that love to be parted with our money. It’s hot in the dry season, and incredibly wet in the rainy season. The streets flood, the power could go out at any time, there’s garbage all over the place, and did I mention the traffic?

Despite all of this, I find myself comfortable in calling Saigon ‘home’. Whenever I’ve traveled elsewhere in the region, I’ve always been ready to come back by the end of the trip. I haven’t connected with Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, or Singapore in the same way. So, why do I love Saigon?

Let’s start with the food and restaurants. Before moving here, I had only eaten Vietnamese food a handful of times. I loved each meal, but I was still a relative newcomer to the cuisine. I hadn’t even tried a Vietnamese dish until 2008, when I ate a banh xeo in Toronto. I had no idea how to eat it correctly, so I simply ate the pancake part with a fork and ignored all of the lettuce and other greens. Surely the restaurant staff was laughing at me behind my back.

Now, though, I’m (hopefully) a bit of a pro. The food here is so fresh and unlike almost anything we have in the U.S. Street food especially is almost nonexistent in America. Simple open-front shops, where the food is prepared right in front of you, are also a rarity. Sure, I do miss some types of food, and certain restaurants, from back home, but when I do return to the U.S., I’ll miss authentic goi cuon, bun bo hue, bun thit nuong, and bun cha just as much. And the fresh fruit smoothies. Oh, how I’ll miss them.

To be honest, the differences between life here and life in the U.S. make up most of the reasons I like living here so much. That isn’t meant as a slight to America, I simply mean that it’s fascinating to experience a culture and daily reality that is completely different from the one I spent my first 22 years in.

Another example of this is the economic growth that Saigon is experiencing. The constant rush of traffic proves that this is literally a city on the move, while the skyscrapers going up downtown show, equally literally, that this is a city on the rise. I find it absolutely fascinating to be living in a city that is on the verge of becoming a truly international metropolis. The new financial tower, the new airport in the works, the (hopefully) upcoming subway system, and areas like Phu My Hung all highlight the ambitions of the city. This may be harder for locals to understand, but seeing all of this construction and activity is a novelty for many Westerners.



Cities in the U.S. and many parts of Europe are, in a sense, ‘finished’. They’ve been fully developed for decades, and in these tough economic times most aren’t really changing at all. You can say with confidence that Saigon will look vastly different (hopefully in a good way) in a decade. You can’t really say that about most cities in the West. Sure, that is partly a sign that the economies of those nations are more advanced and wealthier, but they are also more boring. It’s an exciting time to be living in the developing world.

Finally, for an expat, Saigon can be a relatively easy to place to live. This is a rather selfish reason, but it’s true. Enough people speak English that you can cruise by even if you barely know any Vietnamese. (Guilty.) Cost of living is far lower than where I come from, and I don’t have to work all that hard to make a decent amount of money. Yes, dealing with the bureaucratic nonsense of obtaining visas and work permits can be soul-crushing, but outside of that Westerners live an, at times, obscenely easy life here. I certainly wouldn’t be able to have as many stumble-home-at-4am nights, while still holding a steady job, in the U.S. as I’ve had here.

Food, experiencing a vastly different culture firsthand, witnessing the birth of a major city, cheap drinks. What’s not to love? Well, other than the traffic…

Michael Tatarski (American, writer, teacher)

[jackbl]

80% females say domestic violence necessary
============================================

A recent survey finds that over 70 percent of males and 80 percent of female social workers think domestic violence is sometimes necessary to maintain order in the family.

The figures come from a survey on over 1,300 social workers at communal and ward levels, as announced by Vo Thi Hong Loan, chairwoman of a project to evaluate social workers’ awareness of the topic.

Of the total respondents, 15 percent of males and 14.5 percent of females do not consider husbands’ verbally abusive behaviors towards their wives as a type of domestic violence.

Similarly, husbands beating wives is not regarded as a type of domestic violence by 10 percent of men and 7 percent of women.

Parents beating children is also not seen as domestic violence by 15 percent of male and 9 percent of female respondents.

Especially, as much as 80.3 percent of women and 70.3 percent of men think that domestic violence is occasionally necessary for maintenance of the order of family life.

In addition, many young social workers do not consider sexual violence as domestic violence. They also saw domestic assaults as “normal”, arguing that everyone could sometimes lose their temper.

Meanwhile, “children are in the habit of aping grown-ups, so children living in families where domestic violence takes place are likely to act violent like their fathers or mothers. Some of such children may be afraid of marriage when they are mature, for fear of living amid domestic violence,” Loan said.



Practical actions needed

Recently, many domestic violence cases have been published on the mass media including a husband assaulting his wife with a hammer in Hanoi, another dousing his wife and three kids in petrol in Da Nang resulting in one death, or a father burning his son to death in Thanh Hoa province.

Loan said although the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control has come into effect for four years, the awareness of the social officers at grassroots levels has not improved, as shown in the said survey.

Even many members of the research group on anti-domestic violence pay more attention on propaganda than on practical actions to drive back violence, Loan said.

“I have interviewed many women on domestic violence. A woman said her husband forced her to make love the same way as in porn movies he bought and forced her to watch. She gradually fears him as a tyrant for his sexual abuse,” Loan added.

According to the first national research on domestic violence released in late 2010, one of every two women fell victim to domestic violence, but Dr. Vu Manh Loi, from the Vietnam Social Science Institute, said the actual rate could be much higher.

While victims of domestic violence badly need help from the administration to get rid of their sufferings, many local authorities even consider husbands beating wives as a “normal” thing in society, social experts said.

[jackbl]

Vietnamese should discuss HIV/AIDS openly
================================================== ======
TuoiTre News: In the following letter to Tuoi Tre, Michael Smith from Australia says only open discussions about HIV/AIDS can help reduce discrimination against people infected with the disease in Vietnam.

“Vietnam has to suffer many tangible issues: Agent Orange, polluted bottle water, sales of medicine without prescription, overuse of chemical in agriculture. Among these many ‘invisible ghosts,’ the most dangerous is HIV/AIDS.

Those having this virus do not share information and take health checkup until they are really sick. It is because they are afraid of public reaction. There have been many stories of these victims being publicly ostracized, fired from work or isolated from family and friends.

One of the best ways to kill this virus is to bring it to light so that everyone can discuss publicly and take a better look on the disease. For those who stand high infection risks, they need to approach testing services, contagion prevention measures and medical treatment rather than being isolated and judged upon by the society. For those who are already caught with HIV, they are surely having a hard time.

All of the victims need open doors for themselves. Due to lack of information on HIV/AIDS, unshared fears such as just touching can make you contaminated and other misunderstandings will increase social discrimination towards the victims.

In Vietnam, the high risk groups are identified to be drug addicts, prostitutes and homosexuals. Many do not dare to talk about their lifestyle to others, including medical staffs. They fear that family, spouse, community and the government will know the truth about them. This is a barrier! How can we nurture our hope to battle against HIV/AIDS while the virus is still hidden and not discussed about?

Obviously, there are more things needed to be done for HIV victims so that they can feel safe and supported. Consultation services, medical professionals and other helping hands are all needed in this fight.

Many are afraid of diagnose, consultation and treatment services as they do not know what to expect due to their own fear of discrimination. I think this fear is a great barrier in the process of preventing HIV/AIDS anywhere in the world. If HIV can infect anyone, regardless of their background, why do people discriminate? I do not believe there is anyone who chooses to be a drug addict, a homosexual or a prostitute. Social discrimination towards HIV/AIDS victims in Vietnam needs to be changed so that everyone can feel safe and supported when they need.”



Michael Smith (Australian)

[jackbl]

Chicken rice with gac fruit is home
==========================================
My hometown lies in the central region, which is notorious for the dry, hot summers. However, you can find delicious, refreshing fruit there all year long, such as lychees, longans and spiny bitter gourds (gac fruits).

When I was a child, I used to wonder how my mother and sister could make such delicious dishes from these small gac fruits, such as the Vietnamese red sticky rice (xoi gac), gac wine and gac oil. When we were bored of these dishes, my mother switched to chicken rice with gac fruit.

To make my favorite dish you need to choose soft, fragrant rice and a chicken raised in the garden, which has soft and delicious meat. Finding a red, fresh and ripe gac fruit is also important, as it will create the beautiful red color and the fragrant smell of the dish.

The inside of the gac fruit is mixed with wine and added to the rice, which is already washed and left to dry. This mixture is stirred with oil, and then cooked in the rice cooker with chicken broth. You can also put in pineapple leaves to create more fragrance to the dish.

When the rice is cooked, you can smell the wonderful aroma of rice, gac fruit and pineapple leaves mixed together. The chicken is cut up to be served on top of the red, delicious-looking rice together with some Vietnamese mint (rau ram) and pepper. Then the dish is enjoyed with cucumber and fish sauce (nuoc mam) with garlic and chili.

Some years have passed since I enjoyed my mother’s chicken rice with gac fruit. Suddenly I find myself wandering back in time when she calls and says that the gac fruits in my hometown have again ripened.

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Bánh cuốn indulgence
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Like bún, bánh cuốn is a gift from good rice. With its attractive and tempting appearance, the crepe-like roll catches the attention at first sight.

The white outer layer of bánh cuốn is transparent enough to hint at what makes up the mysterious filling, which is actually ground pork, minced mộc nhĩ (wood ear mushroom), spring onion and nấm hương, or shiitake mushrooms.

Bánh cuốn is mentioned in Technique du peuple Annamite by the French author Henri Oger. Of the 4,200 paintings and painted woodcuts in this sizeable tome produced in 1908 and 1909, one depicts a bánh cuốn vendor in traditional dress making her way around town with two baskets of steaming equipment and food at the ends of her shoulder pole.

It’s still very popular in Vietnam, perhaps more than ever, and many a place has its own version, invariably called “bánh cuốn” followed by the name of the pertinent town, city or province.

To give a few examples, there is bánh cuốn Hà Nội, which has the normal filling but is served with cà cuống sauce (cà cuống – an insect which provides special fragrant oil, enhancing the taste of the sauce), bánh cuốn Hải Dương, bánh cuốn Lạng Sơn and bánh cuốn Phủ Lý. Then there’s the quite different bánh cuốn Thanh Trì, with a filling of spring onion and mộc nhĩ but no pork. It is served with sweet and sour sauce.

With the rice sheets that form the wrapping of bánh cuốn, it’s a case of the thinner, the better.

In the south, there is a similar dish named bánh ướt, the chief difference being the much thicker wrapping and therefore rice content. Some vendors batter and deep-fry their bánh ướt to balance the rice, a recipe preferred by many southerners. They also like it with young bean sprouts to release the heat, particularly in the sweltering city.

Bánh cuốn showcases the flexibility of the Vietnamese people. Its taste is simple, fresh with the fragrant herbs and sauce that the vendor gives generously, as much as the customer wants really.

Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like pork filling, some like the meat-free Thanh Tri style, and some like bánh cuốn with a steamed egg inside, the way they make it in Lang Son Province in the far north. Unsurprisingly, that version is called bánh cuốn Lạng Sơn.

A good bánh cuốn cook is skillful, quick and patient. Sometimes, when passing a traditional Vietnamese restaurant in Saigon, I think of a certain bánh cuốn vendor on the sidewalk of Phan Huy Chu Street, at the corner of Hang Chuoi Street. She’s a quiet woman in her mid thirties who cycles into the center of Hanoi from the city’s outskirts in the early morning of every day. She must get up in the small hours to prepare the food and cooking gear for the busy, tiring day ahead of her.

Concentration is the key to making bánh cuốn as the same actions must be repeated again and again. It’s a busy job. First, the rice flour must be prepared. Then a spoonful of the wet batter is spread over a closely woven steaming basket and the resulting rice sheet taken outside with a tiny bamboo stick and left to cool and harden a little.

Next comes the filling of minced pork and two types of mushroom, and that requires plenty of cooking too. When the filling is ready, it is rolled in the thin rice sheet, which is then cut into shorter rolls. To these are added coriander, basil and fried spring onion to fortify the taste.

Bánh cuốn from a pavement vendor is cheap yet packed with flavor. Even in an expensive city like Hanoi, budget-constrained gourmands can treat themselves to the delicacy for VND7,000 to VND10,000. Even poor children and students can usually afford the meat-free bánh cuốn Thanh Trì with its mộc nhĩ, fried spring onion and fresh herbs.

With so many Vietnamese people living abroad, it’s not surprising to find bánh cuốn, phở and other traditional dishes along the streets of foreign cities. When I was in Paris in 2008, I had the chance to taste bánh cuốn in the thirteenth arrondissement on the Left Bank of the Seine. In this area reminiscent of Saigon, I came across several Vietnamese restaurants packed with Westerners and Asians enjoying bánh cuốn and phở.

Good bánh cuốn restaurants can be found in Saigon, for example Bánh Cuốn Lá at 57 Nguyen Du Street in District 1, opposite Notre Dame Cathedral. It has a dozen versions of bánh cuốn on the menu, like bánh cuốn Thanh Trì, bánh cuốn Hà Nội, and bánh cuốn with pork pie or lạp xưởng.

It’s a cozy little nook with only half a dozen tables, and on one wall are traditional ink drawings of a woman hawking her bánh cuốn in the streets. A serving of bánh cuốn Thanh Trì with pork pie costs around two dollars, while the other items on the menu are a bit pricier.

True, the restaurant is a tad stingy with the herbs, but the bánh cuốn itself is good.

By To Van Nga, Thanh Nien News (The story can be found in the July 22nd issue of our print edition, Thanh Nien Weekly)

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Great balls of rice
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When Vietnam was still poor, rice balls fuelled the nation.

Farmers who toiled in fields far from their homes relied on the modest snacks to recharge them at midday and power them through to sunset. Rice balls sprinkled with crushed peanuts, sesame and salt were included in the daily equipment of street vendors and businessmen, alike. We don’t know exactly when the dish was first prepared. But we do know that it has been enjoyed in Vietnam for hundreds of years since.

Nowadays, cơm nắm, or balled rice, is heralded as a specialty from a village in Van Giang in Hung Yen Province.

It continues to be sold as a snack item on the streets of Hanoi. The balls must be made from soft, aromatic rice Vietnamese have strict standards about the quality and texture of their cơm nắm. After being cooked and wrapped, the grains should remain slightly firm and intact. They should stick together to form beautiful, smooth white balls.

In addition to balled rice, other rice-based snack foods, such as bánh giò (glutinous rice wrapped around pork, black mushrooms and chopped pearl onions) remain popular throughout the country. These dishes no longer remind the urban rich of rural poverty. Instead, they are considered simple delicacies.

Those who don’t have the time to grab a full bowl of noodles for breakfast should consider a simple and filling rice ball. The dish is tasty, cheap and gets one through the day.


To welcome guests into your home, especially on a rainy day, consider offering them this hot, simple treat. Rice balls cut into slices are considered a humble hors d’oeuvre.

On the streets of Hanoi, it is not uncommon to see couples veer to the side of the road at the sight of a woman selling cơm nắm from a shoulder pole.

The dish has spread throughout the country, and is now available in Ho Chi Minh City. Com Nam Viet (Vietnamese balled rice) Restaurant, located at 151B Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1, is famous for this dish and boasts threes varieties of sesame salt.

Try it and see why the dish remained popular through so many generations.

By Ngoc Hanh, Thanh Nien News

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Vietnamese ‘pho’ and ‘goi cuon’ in world top 50 delicious cuisines
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VietNamNet Bridge – Two specialties of Vietnam – pho (Vietnamese noodle) and goi cuon occupy two middle positions in the list of the top 50 cuisines in the world by CNN. Vietnamese pho ranks the 28th while goi cuon is at 30th.

At the top of the list is Thailand’s curry, followed by Italy’s pizza, Mexico’s chocolate, Japan’s sushi, China’s Beijing roast duck and Germany’s hamburger.

Fresh maize (13th), shrimp (17th) and vanilla ice cream (22nd) do not belong to any country.

Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Vietnamese basil, lime, and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by the diner.

Pho is served in a bowl with a specific cut of white rice noodles in clear beef broth, with slim cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket). Variations feature tendon, tripe, meatballs, chicken leg, chicken breast, or other chicken organs.

The broth is generally made by simmering beef (and sometimes chicken) bones, oxtails, flank steak, charred onion, and spices, taking several hours to prepare. Seasonings can include Saigon cinnamon or other kinds of cinnamon as alternatives, star anise, roasted ginger, roasted onion, black cardamom, coriander seed, fennel seed, and clove.

Typical garnishes for pho: culantro, Thai basil, lime, bean sprouts, onions, and chilli. Vietnamese dishes are meals typically served with lots of greens, herbs, vegetables, and various other accompaniments such as dipping sauces, hot and spicy pastes, and a squeeze of lime or lemon juice. The dish is garnished with ingredients such as green onions, white onions, coriander, Thai basil, fresh chili peppers, lemon or lime wedges, bean sprouts and coriander or culantro. Fish sauce, hoisin sauce and chili sauce may be added to taste as accompaniments.

Goi cuon (summer or fresh roll) is a Vietnamese dish consisting of pork, shrimp, herbs, rice vermicelli, and other ingredients wrapped in rice paper. They are served at room temperature, and are not deep fried. Summer roll has gradually gained popularity among Vietnam's neighboring countries and in the West. Many Western restaurants serve Vietnamese summer rolls as an appetizer.

Goi cuon are easily distinguished from similar rolls by the fact that they are not fried and that the ingredients used are different from (deep-fried) Vietnamese egg rolls. Fresh rolls have gradually become more popular in many countries.

PV