Tieng Viet lovers club

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American guilt
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HANOI – We were standing beside the statue of V.I. Lenin on a steamy afternoon, my boy with his skateboard and me with my thoughts. A large floral arrangement had been erected in the square to herald National Day, the latest obstruction to cramp the style of boys and men playing football and older folks playing badminton – and, sadly, the skaters, too.


Amid the frenetic scene, a gray-haired woman on crutches and a single leg, the other amputated at mid-thigh, came into view. She wore a flowered silk outfit that Westerners liken to pajamas. She inched along, as if oblivious to the frenetic footballers around her, and the young men simply played on, as if she wasn't there.

She made me think of Gracie, and of an expat sensation that, in Vietnam, is as American as apple pie: guilt.

Actually, I don’t know the woman’s name. A friend of mine dubbed her Gracie after reading a draft of an essay I wrote more than a year ago; it has been rejected once, so let’s call it a work in slow progress. Here’s how it begins:

She was slender and pretty and would have looked elegant even if she hadn’t been standing outside Gucci. Her blouse was silk and simple. She was not a shopper.

If courage is grace under pressure, this forty-something woman wore it well.

It was in her smile and the way her eyes met mine. It was in the way she carried herself, figuratively and literally, on two metal canes and a single leg, the other having been amputated close to her hip…

The narrative meandered off in an effort to describe the cognitive dissonance that greets newcomers to Vietnam – about Gucci in the land of women who wear conical hats and shoulder the yoke-like gánh, and, yes, about my patriotic brand of guilt.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether this woman was a victim of the landmines and ordnance that still lethally pollutes much of rural Vietnam. On my first visit to Vietnam, reporting about an American charity that recycles donated wheelchairs to struggling countries, I encountered dozens of Vietnamese who, long after 1975, were crippled by the explosives America left behind, as well as dozens whose birth defects were said to be the result of Agent Orange.

Of course I figured she would ask for money. She was graceful about that, too, a lilt in her English.

“Excuse me, are you living in Hanoi or visiting?” and “Where are you from?” and “Do you like Vietnam?” Her eyes never left mine – yet she seemed to sense Gucci’s security guard approaching at a just-doing-my-job pace.

“You see my circumstance,” she said quickly. She pulled a plastic bag from her purse. “I am selling mangoes. Will you buy two mangoes from me?”

Three minutes later, I was in my wife’s office, explaining how I’d just paid 100,000 dong for two mangoes – about $5, or perhaps six times the going rate on the street. Oanh laughed. For all I really knew, she pointed out, the woman might have lost her leg in Hanoi’s dangerous traffic and because of substandard medical care – that I was paying the premium for American guilt...

Well, OK, but so what? Her circumstances were her circumstances. In another country, I may have bought the mangoes for that alone. She was not playing the American angle. My experience, one shared by many, is that the Vietnamese evince little or no grudge to the mighty nation that exploited their land as the chief battleground in the global struggle of capitalism and communism.

But why was I so shy with the mango peddler? Reporters ask intrusive questions all the time. I left my wife’s office and went to the street to look for the woman with one leg and ask the obvious questions. It had occurred to me that landmine victims were country people. Her English and elegance spoke of the city. Yes, probably just a traffic accident...

Then another thought occurred to me: the “Christmas bombings” of 1972 that hammered Hanoi and Hai Phong. She’d have been a young child then. The attacks were a tactic of negotiations – a brutal prelude to what President Nixon called “peace with honor” – a phrase that Americans wanted to hear.

She was gone – but I figured I was bound to bump into her again. She must be a regular around Hoan Kiem Lake, looking for foreigners willing to buy overpriced fruit.

More than a year later, I still haven’t seen Gracie, and I still don’t know her story. But that’s what I was thinking about as I watched the old woman with one leg labor across Lenin Square. In 1972, she’d have probably been in her 20s.

[jackbl]

Food for tomorrow
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Saving has always been important in Vietnam. When people have a lot of food today, they tend to save some for tomorrow.

During the long winter, Vietnamese people (especially in the north) like to prepare food in bulk ahead of time -- enough to get them through weeks or even months.

Even today, cooks tend to opt for dishes that can get families through hard times and thrifty moms tend to use their down time to prepare fermented sauces and dried meats for the future.

Ruoc (cha bong in the south), muoi vung, muoi lac are three popular dishes designed to preserve a family through hard times.

Ruoc begins with fresh lean pork, chicken sauteed with fish sauce or steamed fish or shrimp.

(For fish and shrimp, fish sauce should be added after the steaming process).

After cooking, these ingredients are pounded by mortar and pestle and stirred evenly over a hot pan again until the fish sauce evaporates and the mixture becomes very dry.

In the past, ruoc was a precious food normally made for special members of family such as old people and children (especially in big families where food was streched thin. In such households, a jar of ruoc was usually hidden away for special needs.

Even today, ruoc served over hot steamed rice remains a cherished treat on cold winter days in the north.

Muoi lac and muoi vung were considered cheaper and suitable for everybone in the family.

Both dishes are derived from fried groundnut and sesame. To make muoi lac and muoi vung, the roasted nuts and seeds are ground, mixed with salt and then toasted again over a hot pan.

All of these dried items are usually stored in a glass jar for later use. They go well with steamed rice, xoi (sticky rice), com nam (rice cakes), and porridge. Traditionally, they're eaten with boiled vegetables and bowl of broth

Nowadays the dishes serve as a quick healthy solution for those who don't have time to cook much.

During years of scarcity and subsidy in Vietnam, these dishes sustained whole families. They continue to be given as a small gift from parents to children student who live on university campuses.

'Food for storm'

Before refridgeration, many families relied on dried ingredients such as green lentils to get them through hard times.

In the old days, in summer, before stormy days my mother would make gia (green bean sprouts) just in case we could not go to the market to buy food.

A big pot of gia is made from just a small bowl of green beans and water. It provides enough food to get you through the worst storms.

In the south, gia is a very important ingredient.

It's served with many snacks such as hu tieu noodles, bun ca (fish noodle soup ), banh xeo pancake and banh cuon( rice pancake). People in the south also make pickles from gia and serve it as a side dish to balance fried or grilled pork dishes

Nowadays, many gia makers use nasty preservatives; as a result, it can be a good idea to make bean sprouts at home.

How to make gia

Begin by soaking a small bowl of green beans in cold water for one day. After that, put them in a big ceramic pot which has a small cover.

Layer fresh bamboo leaves over each layer of green beans (the final bamboo leaves on the surface should be the thickest).

This ceramic pot must be put in a dark place where the sunlight cannot reach and covered with heavy piece of wood.

Every morning, remove the wood and rinse the contents of the pot for fifteen minutes. After that, drain the pot and return it to the shelf with the heavy wood block. After three or four days, gia will grow.

In the past, many children spent their Sundays helping their mothers prepare ruoc, muoi vung, muoi lac and gia do. For many of these children, watching raw ingredients become permanant staples provided their first "science lesson" -- a passtime that helped capture their young imaginations.

By To Van Nga

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The power of sour
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Sour flavors play an important role in Vietnamese cuisine.

In the summer time, appetites are lost due to heat and humidity. Yet naturally sour foods tend to refresh a meal.

On special occasions such as Tet (Lunar new year) or other feasts, sour flavors tend to balance rich protein dishes.

My grandmother always told me that its impotant for every meal to contain multiple tastes including sour, spicy, sweet and salty.

For thousands of years, Vietnamese cooks have known how to create sour pickles or use naturally sour fruits and vegetables to balance their meals.

Nom and goi (traditional Vietnamese salad)

Nom is a northern dish made of green papaya or banana flower. To make nom, one must begin by thinly slicing the ingredients and rinsing to release their bitter taste. After squeezing them by hand, add lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, a bit of chili and fresh herb. Finally, add ground roasted nuts or sesame to provide a crunchy texture.

Nom is an important dish, particularly on special occasions in the North. Nowadays, in Hanoi, people can buy nom as a snack in the Old quarter (nom bo kho, or green papaya salad with dried beef).

In the South, people make goi by shredding mango or pomelo and tossing the fruit in a mix of fish sauce, fresh chilies and lime juice. Shredded steamed shrimp or chicken and herbs give the dish multiple textures and flavors .

Dua (pickle)

Dua is a vegetable dish made of different kinds of cabbage, or bean sprouts.

It takes several days to make dua. First of all, the cabbage and sprouts must be washed and dried in the sun.

Dua may consist of whole or minced vegetables, depending on your taste. After rinsing and cutting the vegetable, place it in a ceramic pot filled with warm saltwater (enough to cover the vegetabe), a bit sugar and spring onion.

A clean bamboo fan should be set on top of the mixture to ensure the vegetable remains submerged. After some days, natural bacteria will give the vegetable a delicious yellow hue and sour taste.

Dua is a popular dish for ordinary meals in northern Vietnam. Nowadays, one can buy this dish at any market.

Canh chua (sour soup)

Canh chua (sour soup) is a famous dish in both the North and South of Vietnam. Using sour vegetables and fruits, mothers and grandmothers cook simple but nice sour soups that accompany rice well.

During the summer in Hanoi, people like to boil morning glory and add sour flavor to the soup with lime juice or boiled sau (a summer sour fruit in north of Vietnam).

Canh chua ca is a famous traditional sour soup made of fish and sour fruits such as green mango or pineapple, spring onions and fresh herbs.

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Breakfast for a hurried morning
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It is undeniable that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Nutritionists advise never to skip this first meal in the morning, since it provides energy to kick start a long working day. As life gets busier, it has become too luxurious for many to sit down, have a bowl of pho and drink ca phe sua da in the morning. However, in Vietnam, you still can have a healthy and tasty breakfast as takeaway, to bring to school or the office, or just to take a bite while you’re driving (some actually do so).


The most popular street food for breakfast is probably banh mi, or Vietnamese bread filled with pork liver pâté and mayonnaise combined with herbs and pickles. If you do not want to go with the tradition, you can choose other fillings like ca moi (canned sardine), bi (pork skin), thit nuong (Vietnamese marinated grilled pork), thit nguoi (cured pork cold cuts) or xa xiu (pork cooked in the style of Chinese BBQ). In Ho Chi Minh City, you actually can find banh mi carts anywhere. As soon as you step out of your house, a banh mi lady will immediately wave and smile at you. And before you arrive at her cart, she will have already finished making the banh mi in your style.

If you prefer quality over quantity, try Banh Mi Nhu Lan or Banh Mi Ha Noi for an unforgettable taste of this Vietnamese bread. Last June, banh mi was listed as one of the most lip-smacking street foods around the world by Lonely Planet. Consider how lucky you are to have one of the world’s most delicious dishes as breakfast for less than 50 US cents!

Although not as popular as banh mi, xoi or sticky rice is also a cheap and popular choice on a busy morning. There are two kinds of sticky rice: xoi man (savory) and xoi ngot (sweet). For the former, xoi ga, or sticky rice with chicken -- shredded meat, fried wing or thigh, is the all time favorite. If you want a sweet start in the morning, xoi gac (made with gac fruit), xoi bap (made with corn) or xoi vo (coated with ground peeled-and-boiled mung beans) will surely please your hungry stomach. Like banh mi, sticky rice can be found on any corner in the city or in chain shops like Xoi Che on Bui Thi Xuan Street or Xoi La Chuoi on Tran Hung Dao Street.

Last but not least, a variety of banh can fit in your bag and fill you up in the morning. Banh bao, or steamed bun, is perfect for a cold morning. Especially when winter is approaching, there is nothing like taking a bite of a warm bun filled with juicy meat. Also a hot dish, banh gio is a kind of pyramid-shaped rice dough dumpling filled with pork, shallot, and wood ear mushroom. Banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and banh day (round glutinous rice cake) are traditional delicacies which used to be served only during the Tet holiday, but now have become a year-round dish for morning takeaway.

Banh cuon, a crêpe-like roll made using a thin, wide sheet of rolled rice flour filled with ground pork and various kinds of mushrooms is a light and healthy breakfast dish. Once only served at street stands, this tasty dish now can be packed into a box, including a pair of bamboo chopsticks. As banh cuon is served with nuoc mam, or fish sauce, make sure not to eat this tasty breakfast in the middle of your office, or your colleagues may experience a distracting morning at work!

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Nearly 200 Buddhist temples cheated by a woman
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VietNamNet Bridge – A 40-year-old woman called herself a member of charity societies to swindle nearly 200 temples in northern provinces.

Police of the northern province of Hung Yen have arrested Nguyen Thi Thanh, 40, from Yen My district, Hung Yen province, for cheating Buddhist monks.

Thanh used false documents to disguise herself as a representative of charity society and disadvantaged people’s associations to come to temples to ask for donation.

The woman had successfully swindled nearly 200 monks who manage temples in Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Hanoi, etc. for tens of thousands of US dollars until she was arrested on September 29, at a temple in Khoai Chau district, Hung Yen province.

When she was arrested, the woman took with her a lot of personal papers, with different names.

The woman confessed that she disguised herself as a representative of the blind’s association to sell toothpicks. However, earnings from this job was not much so she used faked documents to turn herself into an official of charity societies and disadvantaged people’s associations to raise fund from a lot of Buddhist temples in northern provinces.

Thanh said with false documents, she could raise from VND1 million to VND10 million ($50-500) from each pagoda.

Many temples wished to raise orphans so this woman made faked files of orphans to cheat money from temples.

The woman confessed that she swindled around 200 pagodas in many provinces and cities to appropriate hundreds of millions of dong (tens of thousands of US dollars).

Compiled by Nam Nguyen

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Girl sells her hair to start school
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VietNamNet Bridge – A poor girl in Da Nang city had to sell her four-year hair for VND500,000 ($25) to pay fees for starting high school.

Vo Nguyen Hoang Chi, 15, in An Khe Ward, Thanh Khe district, Da Nang, returned home from the first school day on September 5 with her sad face. “My friends asked me why I cut my beautiful hair,” she told her mother. They looked at each others by tearful eyes.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, 50, said: “My family is poor. Chi loves me so she decided to sell her hair to pay school fees to enter the 10th class of the Thanh Khe district education center. She looked normal on the day she sold her hair but she cried at night.”

Graduating from the secondary school, Chi took an exam to Nguyen Thuong Hien high school but she failed. She has to move to Thanh Khe district education center. However, she was informed to pay four months of school fees in advance.

Chi had consulted her mother before she sold her hair for VND500,000. She paid VND325,000 of school fees and spent the remaining money in buying books and studying tools for herself and her younger brother, a 5th grade student.

Chi’s mother works for a banh beo (rice cake) restaurant while her father is a xe om (motorbike taxi driver). They work very hard but they cannot escape from poverty. Chi and her brother went to school by an old bicycle. Chi took her brother to his school in the morning. The boy came back home on foot on the afternoon.

Two months ago, Chi’s father committed assets appropriation and was arrested for four months for investigation. The family is in bigger trouble.

Knowing that Chi sold her hair to pay the school fee, the local women’s association asked the ward government to recognize Chi’s family as poor so they would enjoy social welfare. However, the family does not meet criteria to be considered as a poor household. The local administration gave Chi VND500,000 to prepare for the new school year. It also asked the schools where Chi and her brother study to exempt or reduce school fees for them.

Chi said she was not sad because her hair would grow longer. “I will seek an extra job to help my mum,” she said.

Compiled by L. Ha

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Sex in border areas: P1 The Cheap Flesh Market
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In this series, Tuoi Tre investigative journalists report on prostitution in Chinese towns bordering Vietnam; Vietnamese women being forced into the flesh market; and trafficking rings, among other issues.


We visited an area known as “Xam Cao” in Dongxing town, in Guangxi province on the border with Mong Cai of Vietnam.

Once home to many brick kilns, Xam Cao is now a run-down place Vietnamese and Chinese traders visit for cheap sex.

Pretending to be clients, we visited a girl who, after inviting us into her compartment, immediately reminded us to “pay the money as the compartment has been opened”. By this, she meant that since we had already entered her ‘room’, we had to pay no matter what happened.

We then promised to buy three sessions costing VND600,000 in total, after which her sad and exhausted face suddenly brightened. Here, one session lasts around 30 minutes and costs VND200,000, or US$10.

Whenever we asked a question, the girl replied in short, blunt answers. But in the end, we managed to learn that her name is Nga and that she is from Nam Dinh Province in northern Vietnam.

Asked if she voluntarily came to China for this job, Nga replied that she had been tricked by a Hanoi man, adding that she spent one year as a hotel prostitute in Vietnam before becoming unwanted and drifting to the other side of the border to work.

“Who wants to come here?”, she asked us.

Nga’s boss is from the same Nam Dinh hometown, we learned. She too was once tricked but later lived with a Chinese pimp and became a procuress herself.

After talking with Nga we continued exploring the area. The red light districts in Dongxing cater to both rich and poor classes. Most hotels have their own prostitutes on offer, but if they don’t clients can order them from other hotels.

Even the hotel adjacent to the restaurant we had lunch at had some 10 Vietnamese girls on hand. While enjoying the meal, the restaurant owner came over and told us “after drinking, just drop by that hotel to be served by the girls. No need to go anywhere else”.

Disguised brothels mostly come in the form of barber shops and massage parlors. Whenever we walked around, women in skimpy outfits surrounded us. When our local guide stopped us at a place he knew, one Chinese woman whisked us in.

Inside, behind a living room only small enough to contain a table and several chairs, were a series of small compartments, some with the curtains closed. The covered compartments indicate they are occupied with clients.

In Dongxing even female tram drivers are ready to recommend places where you can buy sex. We were told that China’s one-child policy and the tradition of favoring sons has led to an imbalance between the sexes, so when the indigenous supply of women ran out, Vietnamese women filled in.

More flesh markets

After leaving the red light districts in Dongxing, we took a bus to Jiangping - another town in Guangxi Province.

We were on an old bus around noon when three cute girls, probably no older than 18, stepped on. As they were hemmed in by six big men, we took a wild guess that they were prostitutes on the way to their clients or back to their brothel home.

At another town, Linh Coong, we met a 17-year-old Vietnamese girl named Nghiem Thi Thu. Thu boasts clear, fair skin, sparkling eyes and a slender body on a 1.6m tall frame. She has been working in the town for nearly a year.

We learned that she was tricked, along with three others girls, into prostitution. Now, Thu is the most sought-after girl in Linh Coong’s massage parlor, serving up to 40 guests per day.

The parlor is run by a 50-year-old Vietnamese woman from the northern province of Bac Giang. She too was once sold to a Chinese man for marriage.

At 7am, three girls called Thu, Ly and Phuong, wearing tight shorts and revealing clothes, sat in front of the shop and waved at guests passing by.

Tuoi Tre learned that they rarely get enough sleep, while their managers earn dozens of millions of dong per day. (VND10 million = $500).

To be continued

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Incredible tricks of Saigon robbers
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VietNamNet Bridge – Meeting with VietNamNet’s reporters at the police station of Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Singaporean tourist Melissa Koh, 34, said in Vietnamese with a slight accent: "So fast ...! so daredevil! ... ". She then turned to two security guards at the Ben Thanh Market to continuously say "thank you."



Robbery targeting foreign tourists

Melissa said that she walked to see the streets of Saigon in late afternoon. Upon arrival at the intersection of Le Thanh Ton - Phan Boi Chau in Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, a young man driving a motorcycle unexpectedly came from behind to jerk away her wallet, with a cell phone, VND800,000 ($40), US$80, two credit cards, etc. and sped up to escape.

Hearing Melissa’s scream for help, two security guards at the Ben Thanh market - Nguyen Van Phu and Do Tran Thanh Binh - immediately chased the robber.

The two guards promptly caught, controlled the robber and transferred him to the police. At the police station, he admitted himself as Chau Tan Hoa, 35, from District 10.

Upon receipt of the property, Melissa Koh was very happy and constantly embarked thank the two security guards of Ben Thanh Market.

However, lucky victims like Melissa are not many, especially when robbery targeting foreign tourists occurs very often in the center of Ho Chi Minh City.

An urban inspector of District 1 who guards at the 23/9 park told VietNamNet reporters that at the intersection of Pham Hong Thai - Truong Dinh - Le Lai, robbery against foreign tourists occur everyday.

Previously, many foreign tourists were robbed when they got out of the Ben Thanh Market. Recently, the guard and volunteer forces at the market has been strengthened, robbery at this are has been curbed remarkably.

However, when visitors leaving Ben Thanh Market area to the roads like Tran Hung Dao, Pham Ngu Lao, Nguyen Hue, they immediately become victims of robbery.

Another typical case that VietNamNet reported before is the case of Yan Kit Kay and Ka Kei Doris, 24, from Hong Kong whose assets were robbed at night in December 2011 on a street in Binh Thanh District.

Their tragedy caused a stir among the public opinion when they were penniless and lost their personal documents. The couple had to stay with some good-hearted people and sell postcards on Pham Ngu Lao Street to survive and to earn money to return home.

Finally, the two were lucky to get back their personal papers to return home. Before leaving Vietnam, Yan Kit Kay told reporters: "I have been to many countries, but I have to say that robbery in HCM City is too terrible!"

Not only aiming at foreign tourists in the hub of Ho Chi Minh City, local people are also victims of robbery.

Ho Chi Minh City police have arrested many robbery gangs but local people are still very frightened when they go out at night.

Tricks of robbers

According to a report of the HCM City Police Agency at the recent meeting to review anti-crime against foreigners in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City, on average, there are about 20 cases of assets infringement related to foreigners, including 16 cases of robbery.

However, this is only the number of cases that the police was reported by the victims.

Anh Tuan, a guard at the parking lot at Nguyen Trung Truc - Le Thanh Ton intersection, District 1, said that robbery against tourists usually occurs at dusk. Robbers usually go in pair, sometimes alone. They use motorbikes to approach the victim to snatch their handbags, necklaces, cell phones, etc. then run away.

Many volunteers told VietNamNet that robbers use various tricks to rob foreigners.

Specifically, a number of criminals stand around tourist attractions like the Notre Dame Cathedral, Nguyen Hue roundabout, 23/9 Park, in front of shopping malls to snatch cameras in the hands of foreign visitors and then run away with their accomplices who wait on a motorcycle.

In some cases, travelers place their camera in a fixed position to use the automatic mode; robbers snatch the camera and run away.

But the most popular trick is snatching bags, necklaces and cell phones of foreigners who are walking on the road. There are some cases that the victim resisted robbers and they were assaulted by robbers.

Talking with VietNamNet, "street knight" Nguyen Van Minh Tien, who caught many robbers, and reconnaissance policemen of the HCM City special task forces said that there are three ways to recognize robbers.

The first type: they do not drive much, only stand on the sidewalk pretending to buy food and drinks or read books but actually they observe victims.

The second type: they often drive on the road to find victims.

The third type: they disguise themselves as very smart people. They do not stare at their prey, they just glance and rob if their victims are careless.

Most of robbers in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City belong to the third category, which is very difficult to detect.

Notably, when arresting these robbers, the police seized a lot of weapons such as teargas sprayers, iron tube, knives, electric clubs, etc. from them, which they claimed to use for "self defense." However, when they are resisted by the victims, they reveal as extremely dangerous robbers.

Some robbers are also drug addicts. According to the police’s statistics, of 10 arrests, up to 7-8 robbers are drug addicts.

Dam De - Nguyen Oanh

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I was told by my fren that his fren got caught speeding in hcmc, fined 1mil dong and motor seized and hold for 10 days

Drunk, speeding drivers get much heavier fine
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Under a new decree of the Government, drunk and speeding drivers will face fines that are much higher than current rates.

According to Decree 71 that amends Decree 34, drunk drivers of motorbikes will face a fine of VND500,000-1 million (US$48) if they are found to have alcohol levels of 0.25 mg per liter of breath, or 50 mg per 100 ml of blood. Currently, the fines are just VND200,000-400,000.

With alcohol levels of over 0.4 mg per liter of breath, or 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, the new fines for motorbike drivers will range from VND2-3 million, instead of VND500-1 million as present.

As for car drivers, the fines will increase from the current 2-3 million to VND8-10 million for drivers with alcohol levels of 0.25 mg per liter of breath. In case the alcohol levels are over 0.4 mg per liter of breath, the fine will be VND10-15 million.

The new decree also stipulates new fines for speeding. Accordingly, a fine of VND600,000-800,000 is applied to drivers of cars that travel 5-10 km/h faster than the allowed speed. Currently, the fine for this violation is just VND300,000-500,000.

As for cars that move 10-20 km higher than the limit, the fine ranges from VND2-3 million, compared to the current VND800,000-1.2 million.

In case cars run 35 km/h faster than allowed, the fine is VND8-10 million, much higher than the current 4-6 million, and the car’s driver will have his driving license kept by police for 60 days.

As for drivers of motorbikes, a new fine VND500,000-1 million is applied to those who travel 10-20 km/h over the limit. And for those who run over 20 km/h higher than allowed, a new fine of VND2 - 3 million will be applied, instead of the current VND500,000-1 million.

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Most of the police will take bribe but these people are too "xui" to get caught.....

Former cop gets 3 years for taking bribe
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The Thanh Hoa Province People’s Court has sentenced a former traffic police officer and his two accomplices for taking a bribe of US$240 from a truck driver who had violated traffic rule last year.

This bribery case was exposed in an investigative article published in Tuoi Tre’s Vietnamese-language daily newspaper in early September 2011.

The exposé article, written by Nguyen Van Khuong (with pen name Hoang Khuong), was also published in English with the title “Cops blatantly take bribes, threaten drivers” on TuoiTreNews (tuoitrenews.vn) on September 6, 2011.

It was thanks to the article that led to the detention and prosecution of those involved.

At their trial yesterday, former major Le Hong Duan, 37, was sentenced to 3 years in jail while former lieutenant Nguyen Thanh Hai, 27, and Nguyen Van Doi, a local man, 49, received 30 and 24 months imprisonment respectively.

The court ordered the three defendants to return the VND5 million to Ho Tan Phuong, the owner of the truck, who had been forced to pay the bribe.

According to indictment, Duan illegally set up a checkpoint in front of Doi’s house in Tinh Gia District on July 31, 2011 to monitor vehicles travelling on National Highway 1A.

Hai stopped an overloaded truck driven by Nguyen Van Tinh and discovered that Tinh was carrying a kind of wood more precious than shown on his transport paper.

Tinh offered Hai VND200,000 ($10), begging him to ignore the violation, but Hai insisted that Tinh had to pay VND5 million.

Tinh called Phuong who arrived at the scene but since Phuong did not bring enough money with him, Doi suggested that he could give Phuong a VND5 million loan with a 10% daily interest rate (VND500,000 per day).

Phuong had no other choice than to take the loan.

Accompanying this truck, Nguyen Van Khuong (pen name Hoang Khuong) secretly recorded all details of the case and published them in his above-mentioned exposé article.

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Female rickshaw pullers in border areas
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From every early morning, a group of women gathers at Lao Bao international border gate in the central province of Quang Tri to be employed to transport goods using hand-pulled rickshaws.

From Wikipedia, hand-pulled rickshaw is defined as a mode of human-powered transport by which a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons. In fact, this kind of rickshaw is no longer in use in Vietnam and has been mainly replaced by cycle rickshaw or xích-lô (pedicab).

However, everyone can see the hand-pulled two-wheeled cart at Lao Bao gate that connects Vietnam and Laos. Different from the traditional rickshaw, the latter is mainly used for transporting goods and pulled by the weaker sex.

Every 7:00am, a group of women, most of them hail from Van Kieu ethnic minority, gathers at the gate to be hired to transport a wide range of goods from Quang Tri to Karol market in Laos and conversely in order to eke out a living.

They are paid from VND40,000 (US$2) to VND100,000 ($5) for each delivery.

Among the pullers is Ho Thi Tem, who is eight months pregnant. Tem’s husband has abandoned her and four their children to get married with another woman.

Despite her late-term pregnancy, the 28-year-old daily draws rickshaw to feed her children, the eldest of whom is about nine year olds.

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Preventing crime in the city
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The victim of a deadly recent laptop snatching case, 22-year old Hoang Ngoc Tri, was a young graduate who had dreams, ambitions and an aspiration to contribute to society. But he had to leave this life, leave the people he loves after being stabbed several times right in the middle of a Saigon street.

This is not the first time a daytime robbery has happened in the city. The stubbornness, recklessness, disregard of the law, personal belongings and people’s lives have led to the robbers’ fierce and inhuman acts. They have left people in grief, puzzled and indignant.

What we should also be concerned about is that the age of the criminals is becoming younger and younger. At 28, Cao Xuan Lap should be trusted as the pillar in his family and contribute to social development. However, he became a robber, carried a knife, rode a bike, and snatched on the street. He did not hesitate to snuff someone out if he was hindered. Now that Lap has to face a strict sentence, embarrassing his family, did he think of the consequences for himself, for the victim, families and community?

In the turbulence, there were heroes who did not turn their back to the crime, who shouted out loud and besieged the robber. I want to thank the police captain Vo Sy Hoang, from the Tan Phu District Police, who reacted in time and traced down the daredevil robber. Hoang’s braveness and a young man’s courageous act of running into the robber’s bike have proved a spirit to fight for justice that has existed for a long time, throughout our history.

Had it not been for heroic acts like these, the process of fighting and preventing evil would only exist as slogans. If each and every person in society knows how to care for each other, is alert and ready to fight and prevent evils, the robbers cannot carry out their filthy acts. We also need the involvement of the authorities, to reinforce laws to warn and punish criminals, so as to maintain a peaceful life for the citizens.

[jackbl]

Sex in border areas: P2 Wife sold for $1,500
================================================== ===========
Tuoi Tre continues its investigation into Vietnamese women forced into sexual slavery in China. First, we start with Nghiem Thi Thu, the 17-year-old girl from Part 1 of the series. She was sold by her de facto husband for as little as US$1,500.

In mid-2010, Thu, from Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province, met a boy named Nguyen Tu Anh, who was born in 1988 in the same province, online. The rural girl was immediately attracted to Anh, who she described as looking like a South Korean actor.

She was struck by love. Shortly after, the two held an online wedding ceremony and started to live together like husband and wife, though they had no official registration.

She had to play online games for six months, collecting virtual ‘gadgets’ which she could sell for real money, to earn enough money to buy a wedding dress and ring.

Before the 2011 lunar new year, Anh invited her to the Vietnam-China border with some of his friends for a romantic holiday. They all later turned out to be working for a human trafficking ring.

When they arrived at the border, they hired a local to take them through a secret shortcut to China, after which they hired a car to go to Nanning city of Guangxi province. Here, they joined a 50-year-old woman named Ngoc, whose real name is Nguyen Thi Bien and is from Bac Giang Province. Ngoc is a brothel keeper in reality, but at the time she appeared to just be a nice lady.

In tears, Thu confided to Tuoi Tre, “In Nanning, they told me to wait while they fetched some clothes…Tu Anh [her de facto ‘husband’] did not say a word”.

As she did not know she was a victim, Thu stayed at Ngoc’s house for several days, after which they took a car to Linh Coong.

It was in this town that she finally realized she had been sold to a brothel boss named Bach. Madam Bach is Vietnamese, and as mentioned in Part 1 also came from Bac Giang Province and was once sold to a Chinese man for marriage.

When Thu figured out what was going on, she tried to escape by climbing down a wall but was caught by her ‘boyfriend/husband’ and Cao Thi Hong Luong, who goes by the nickname 'fat' Linh.

Thu told Tuoi Tre that the two pushed her to the ground, after which blood spurted from her back. They slapped her while threatening, “if you try to escape again, we will slash your face and make you beg [for alms] on the street”.

The more she cried, the more violent the beatings were. They told her to stop crying as they explained that “crying is considered unlucky by the Chinese”.

They then left her with madam Bach after negotiating a price.

After locking Thu in a room for two days, Bach asked her to “go to work”.

When asked what kind of work, Bach bluntly replied “work as a prostitute. I bought you for VND100 million (US$5,000) for nothing?”

Bach threatened to let some pimps rape her and inject drugs into her if she did not ‘work’.

Thu later learned that she was actually sold for a cheap 10,000 yuan (roughly VND30 million, or $1,500, not VND100 million as claimed).



Three sold in 10 days

A few days after selling Thu, fat Linh and Anh [husband-turned-trafficker] succeeded in selling two more girls into Bach’s brothel.

21-year-old Vu Thuy Ly, one of the two said victims, hails from Thanh Hoa Province. Her family is very poor; her father is a manual worker while her mother is a farmer working in the field.

Ly told Tuoi Tre that she was an 18 year-old attending a junior college in Hanoi when she met Nguyen Tu Anh [the same handsome man who tricked Thu] and fat Linh, as well as another man called Tuan, via Internet chats.

They held offline meetings, used the same ploy and asked Ly to come to a market on the Vietnam-China border on a fully-paid trip. Ly agreed.

Ly subsequently discovered that they had taken another 18-year-old girl with them. The group arrived at Dong Dang town of Lang Son Province on December 23, 2010.

'Fat' Linh proved caring by buying two pairs of shoes for Ly and the other girl to cross over the border into China.

They spent the night at madam Ngoc’s house and then arrived at Bach’s brothel in the evening. In the morning, the two girls discovered that their friends had all left.

Sensing that something was amiss, the two insisted on going back to Vietnam, upon which Bach coldly retorted “Don’t you know you have been sold?” When they asked “sold for what?”, Bach smiled and replied “to be a prostitute for men to enjoy”.

When they begged her to let them go and promised to pay a ransom, Bach shouted “I bought you each for VND100 million. Can you pay?”

Within just 10 days, Anh and fat Linh had tricked and sold three women into sexual slavery.

To be continued................

[ilovedoggie]

Originally Posted by raidz70

so you would like to keep this thread clean clean without any new post?

ok... i go vdict and search one , two , three and so on... so it is a kind of short form?

talking about communication... she don't understand eng or mandarin and i don't understand Viet. So have to start somewhere but some senior here very GL so i have to learn it the hard way

WHAT? like that is called GL??? u r expecting us to be your translator and spoonfeed u whenever u ask?

who on earth dont know 1 = one, 2 = two ?? then u just type in "one" into the vdick or your translator then u will hv your answer lor...

whatever... u just ask everything u want here someone will definitely tell u. and see if u can learn much. i hv nothing to say.

[jackbl]

Sex in border areas: P3 Kidnap and abortion
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In Part 3 of this series, Tuoi Tre continues to explore human trafficking in border areas with the fates of more young victims, one of whom is Chu Thi Phuong of Ha Tinh Province, who was kidnapped in broad daylight when she was just 16 years old and had to undergo a forced abortion.

The mastermind behind the scheme is her boyfriend, who made her pregnant.

In a brothel managed by madam Ho in Linh Coong town of Guangdong province, 17-year-old Phuong is the youngest and the most sought-after, but also suffers the most beatings, as she always looks sad and often refuses to serve clients ‘to the fullest.’

Her dark days began in 2010, when she had to quit school in grade 9 and go to the city in search of work to support her bedridden father.

In Hai Duong province, she met Soi, a handsome, womanizing man who got her pregnant when she was just 16.

Soi often hung out with his jobless friends, the eldest of whom was Bui Van Giap, born in 1986 in Hai Duong. In August 2011, it was Giap who led the two others in kidnapping her while she was staying at a friend’s house in Tu Ky district.

When she refused, Giap took out a scimitar and threatened her. She was just two months, 10 days pregnant when she was forced onto a motorbike to be taken to an isolated house in the middle of a field in Quang Trung commune, Tu Ky district.

Here, Phuong met other girls being kept there.

They removed the battery from Phuong’s mobile phone and took her to Mong Cai border gate in Quang Ninh province, saying they needed to fetch some products there. They threatened to kill her if she refused.

On the night of August 28, 2011, upon reaching Mong Cai, she was made to cross the border and met a fat woman who took her into Dongxing town in Guangxi province where she was forced into a taxi, then a motorbike taxi.

They crossed a forest to arrive at Linh Coong in Guangdong.

At this point, the kidnappers still appeared to be nice, promising to take her home once they had collected some goods.

She was afterwards met by a Chinese man and Vietnamese woman who took her to a house where she rested and slept. When she woke up, her mobile phone and travelling companions were gone, and the Vietnamese woman shouted, “You have been sold. Why do you need a mobile phone?. Do you have 100,000 yuans [US$15,800] to pay me?”. She instructed several pimps to stand guard, not letting Phuong escape.

“But I am pregnant,” she cried.

Abortion

Upon hearing the news, the brothel manager frowned, talked to others for a time, then called someone on the phone. Phuong was sold the next day to a Chinese couple also in Linh Coong.

Phuong told Tuoi Tre that her buyers claimed to have paid VND150 million ($7,200) for her, but she actually had no idea about the exact price and suspected they had inflated it to enslave her for as long as possible.

Phuong was forced to have an abortion immediately, several days after which she was requested to serve clients. Due to insufficient recovery time, she developed infections and could not take in customers, hence angering the couple.

In this brothel, Phuong knew more Vietnamese girls with the same fate, like Linh, born in 1992 in Hanoi, or Trang, born in 1994 in Nam Dinh, Ha from Tuyen Quang…

The most deplorable case is probably Trinh, who was sold in August 2011, when she was just 14 years old. Trinh, whose parents went to jail for drugs, was born into a poor family in Thai Nguyen province.

Once out of money to pay for the Internet, she met Giap’s group, who promised to pay the Internet fee in return for her going out with them. Soon after, she was sold to a brothel in China.


Always speak Chinese

Nguyen Thi Thao, another victim, told Tuoi Tre that one of her friends was beaten to death at the age of 15 for refusing to take in customers.

Last year, Thao left her hometown in Hoa Binh province for Hanoi to find work where, similar to others, she fell in love with a Hanoi guy named Minh, who is in fact a human trafficker.

Minh tricked her into going to China and sold her into a brothel belonging to madam Xao, a Chinese woman who speaks some Vietnamese, in Linh Coong.

On her first day, Xao announced, “I bought you for 40,000 yuans (US$6,300). Try to work here for one and a half years, and then I’ll let you go home.”

Thao was kept in a small room with three other girls and was taught some basic Chinese sentences like “Welcome, handsome boss…do you use a condom? Who will pay?...”

The Chinese manager there - A Mai, Xao’s husband - told Thao that she must never reveal herself to be Vietnamese, even in front of Vietnamese customers, and always speak Chinese.

If anyone violates this rule, A Mai threatened to beat them, starve them and even sell them to crueler places.

To be continued ............