The United States calls the no-enrichment pledge the "gold standard" for civilian nuclear cooperation accords. It is modeled on a U.S. deal last year with the United Arab Emirates.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Science and Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science and Technology. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 August 2010
US-Vietnam nuke deal likely to allow enrichment
WASHINGTON — Congressional aides say the Obama administration has told lawmakers that a nuclear cooperation deal with Vietnam is unlikely to include a promise from Hanoi not to enrich uranium.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Vietnam's war to save Mekong from sea
By Seth Mydans Cai Rang, Vietnam
FOR centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them to disappear in the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.
But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.
In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country's rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by 3ft in the decades to come.
In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam's National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.
Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.
The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta.
Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87m people to be in the top five most threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate change.
If the sea level rises by 3ft, 11 per cent of Vietnam's population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper. If it rises by 15ft, 35 per cent of the population and 16 per cent of the country's land area could be affected, the document said.
The potential disruptions and the tremendous cost of trying to reduce their impact could slow Vietnam's drive to emerge from its postwar poverty and impede its ambitions to become one of the region's economic leaders.
Once again, this nation, which has spent much of its history struggling to free itself from foreign domination, finds itself threatened by an overpowering outside force.
"Climate change isn't caused by a developing country like Vietnam, but it is suffering the consequences," said Koos Neefjes, a policy adviser on climate change with the United Nations Development Programme in Hanoi.
In addition to rising seas in the Mekong Delta, climatologists predict more frequent, severe and southerly typhoons, heavier floods and stronger storm surges that could ultimately drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Climate refugees could swell the population of Ho Chi Minh City, on low-lying land just north of the delta, as war refugees did when it was known as Saigon.
But the city itself is also at risk, says the government study, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Up to a quarter of the city's area would be threatened by rising floodwaters if the sea level were to rise by 3ft.
"Ho Chi Minh City could have a double impact if sea levels rise and living conditions in the delta are not sustainable," Thuc, the lead author of the government report, said.
His report assesses only the climatological risks, he added, and a great deal more work needs to be done to try to determine their social and economic impacts and the probable effect on future population displacement.
Because of the uncertainties of climate change and the variables of mitigation measures, it is impossible to rank nations precisely on a scale of risk, Neefjes said.
"Among all of the indicators used in this paper, Vietnam ranks among the top five most impacted countries," the paper says. It did not include some small island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu that are also threatened with severe inundation.
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed the Mekong Delta, Bangladesh and the Nile Delta in Egypt as the world's three "hot spots" for potential migration because of their combination of sea-level rise and existing population.
As a region, Southeast Asia is disproportionately vulnerable, with only 3.3 per cent of the world's land mass but more than 11 per cent of its coastline, the Asian Development Bank said in a report it released earlier this year.
But Vietnam has at least recognised the problem and has begun to address it, Neefjes said. "Faster than any developing country, it has actually developed a sensible national programme to start responding," he said.
Those plans include an attempt to integrate environmental concerns into the development plans of ministries and enterprises, modifications that could conflict with their ambitions for growth, he said.
Experts said Vietnam's primary approach – the hugely expensive construction and reinforcement of thousands of miles of dikes – would bring its own set of problems.
In the delta, they said, the barriers will probably inhibit the self-cleansing mechanism of rivers and trap millions of cubic yards of industrial waste, hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial rubbish, and millions of tons of pesticides and fertiliser that are used in fish farms and shrimp farms.
"If one-third of the delta's area is flooded by seawater, losses would be huge," Vo Hung Dung, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Can Tho city branch, said last month in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. "But if the entire delta is polluted by waste water, the losses could be many times higher."
Here on the tiny Hau River,
Nguyen Thanh Chanh, 29, who fishes with his wife in a small boat, said that he had never heard any talk of climate change.
Life is already hard, and the rivers already flood during the monsoon season from June to November.
"Those who farm go to the fields, and those who fish go to the rivers," said Huynh Thuy, 47, a farmer.
"They don't worry much about the future."
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Vietnam Finds Itself Vulnerable if Sea Rises
The New York Times
CAI RANG, Vietnam — For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.
The rhythms of life continue from season to season though, like much of the country, the delta is moving quickly into the future, and industry has begun to pollute the air and water.
But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.
In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country’s rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by three feet in the decades to come.
In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.
Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.
The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta, up into the Central Highlands, where rising temperatures could put the coffee crop at risk, and to the Red River Delta in the north, where large areas could be inundated near the capital, Hanoi.
Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87 million people to be among the half-dozen most threatened by the weather disruptions and rising sea levels linked to climate change that are predicted in the course of this century.
If the sea level rises by three feet, 11 percent of Vietnam’s population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper.
If it rises by 15 feet, 35 percent of the population and 16 percent of the country’s land area could be affected, the document said.
The government report emphasizes that the predictions represent the threat, based on current models, if no measures are taken in the coming decades, like building dikes.
But the potential disruptions and the tremendous cost of trying to reduce their impact could slow Vietnam’s drive to emerge from its postwar poverty and impede its ambitions to become one of the region’s economic leaders.
Once again, this nation, which has spent much of its history struggling to free itself from foreign domination, finds itself threatened by an overpowering outside force.
“Climate change isn’t caused by a developing country like Vietnam, but it is suffering the consequences,” said Koos Neefjes, a policy adviser on climate change with the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi.
In addition to rising seas in the Mekong Delta, climatologists predict more frequent, severe and southerly typhoons, heavier floods and stronger storm surges that could ultimately drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Climate refugees could swell the population of Ho Chi Minh City, on low-lying land just north of the delta, as war refugees did when it was known as Saigon.
But the city itself is also at risk, says the government study, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Up to one-fourth of the city’s area would be threatened by rising floodwaters if the sea level rose by three feet.
“Ho Chi Minh City could have a double impact if sea levels rise and living conditions in the delta are not sustainable,” Mr. Thuc, the lead author of the government report, said in an interview.
His report assesses only the climatological risks, he said, and a great deal more work needs to be done to try to determine their social and economic impacts and the probable effect on population displacement.
Because of the uncertainties of climate change and the variables of mitigation measures, it is impossible to rank nations precisely on a scale of risk, Mr. Neefjes said.
However, the 2007 World Bank working paper studied 84 coastal developing countries and found Vietnam to be the most threatened in terms of percentage of population affected, and second only to the Bahamas in terms of percentage of land area affected, if no mitigating measures are taken.
“Among all of the indicators used in this paper, Vietnam ranks among the top five most impacted countries,” the paper says. It did not include some small island nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu that are also threatened with severe inundation.
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed the Mekong Delta, Bangladesh and the Nile Delta in Egypt as the world’s three “hot spots” for potential migration because of their combination of sea-level rise and existing population.
As a region, Southeast Asia is disproportionately vulnerable, with only 3.3 percent of the world’s land mass but more than 11 percent of its coastline, the Asian Development Bank said in a report it released this year.
But Vietnam has at least recognized the problem and begun to address it, Mr. Neefjes said. “Faster than any developing country, it has actually developed a sensible national program to start responding,” he said.
Those plans include an attempt to integrate environmental concerns into the development plans of ministries and enterprises, modifications that could conflict with their ambitions for growth, he said.
Experts said Vietnam’s primary approach — the hugely expensive construction and reinforcement of thousands of miles of dikes — would bring its own set of problems.
In the delta, they said, the barriers will probably inhibit the self-cleansing mechanism of rivers and trap millions of cubic yards of industrial waste, hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial rubbish, and millions of tons of pesticides and fertilizer that are used in fish farms and shrimp farms.
“If one-third of the delta’s area is flooded by seawater, losses would be huge,” Vo Hung Dung, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Can Tho city branch, said last month in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. “But if the entire delta is polluted by wastewater, the losses could be many times higher.”
Here on the tiny Hau River, which winds through shaded groves of palm, bamboo and mangrove just south of Can Tho in the heart of the delta, there seems to be little awareness of these concerns.
Nguyen Thanh Chanh, 29, who fishes with his wife in a small boat, said that he sometimes listened to the radio and sometimes drank with friends at the end of the day, but that he had never heard any talk of climate change.
Life is already hard, and the rivers already flood during the monsoon season from June to November, from the swollen currents of the Mekong, from heavy rains and from tidal flooding.
An estimated 85 percent of the people in the delta are supported by agriculture.
“Those who farm go to the fields, and those who fish go to the rivers,” said Huynh Thuy, 47, a farmer. “They don’t worry much about the future.”
CAI RANG, Vietnam — For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the sea.
The rhythms of life continue from season to season though, like much of the country, the delta is moving quickly into the future, and industry has begun to pollute the air and water.
But everything here, both the timeless and the new, is at risk now from a threat that could bring deeper and longer-lasting disruptions than the generations of warfare that ended more than 30 years ago.
In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country’s rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by three feet in the decades to come.
In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report.
Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.
The risks of climate change for Vietnam go far beyond the Mekong Delta, up into the Central Highlands, where rising temperatures could put the coffee crop at risk, and to the Red River Delta in the north, where large areas could be inundated near the capital, Hanoi.
Climate experts consider this nation of an estimated 87 million people to be among the half-dozen most threatened by the weather disruptions and rising sea levels linked to climate change that are predicted in the course of this century.
If the sea level rises by three feet, 11 percent of Vietnam’s population could be displaced, according to a 2007 World Bank working paper.
If it rises by 15 feet, 35 percent of the population and 16 percent of the country’s land area could be affected, the document said.
The government report emphasizes that the predictions represent the threat, based on current models, if no measures are taken in the coming decades, like building dikes.
But the potential disruptions and the tremendous cost of trying to reduce their impact could slow Vietnam’s drive to emerge from its postwar poverty and impede its ambitions to become one of the region’s economic leaders.
Once again, this nation, which has spent much of its history struggling to free itself from foreign domination, finds itself threatened by an overpowering outside force.
“Climate change isn’t caused by a developing country like Vietnam, but it is suffering the consequences,” said Koos Neefjes, a policy adviser on climate change with the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi.
In addition to rising seas in the Mekong Delta, climatologists predict more frequent, severe and southerly typhoons, heavier floods and stronger storm surges that could ultimately drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Climate refugees could swell the population of Ho Chi Minh City, on low-lying land just north of the delta, as war refugees did when it was known as Saigon.
But the city itself is also at risk, says the government study, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Up to one-fourth of the city’s area would be threatened by rising floodwaters if the sea level rose by three feet.
“Ho Chi Minh City could have a double impact if sea levels rise and living conditions in the delta are not sustainable,” Mr. Thuc, the lead author of the government report, said in an interview.
His report assesses only the climatological risks, he said, and a great deal more work needs to be done to try to determine their social and economic impacts and the probable effect on population displacement.
Because of the uncertainties of climate change and the variables of mitigation measures, it is impossible to rank nations precisely on a scale of risk, Mr. Neefjes said.
However, the 2007 World Bank working paper studied 84 coastal developing countries and found Vietnam to be the most threatened in terms of percentage of population affected, and second only to the Bahamas in terms of percentage of land area affected, if no mitigating measures are taken.
“Among all of the indicators used in this paper, Vietnam ranks among the top five most impacted countries,” the paper says. It did not include some small island nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu that are also threatened with severe inundation.
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed the Mekong Delta, Bangladesh and the Nile Delta in Egypt as the world’s three “hot spots” for potential migration because of their combination of sea-level rise and existing population.
As a region, Southeast Asia is disproportionately vulnerable, with only 3.3 percent of the world’s land mass but more than 11 percent of its coastline, the Asian Development Bank said in a report it released this year.
But Vietnam has at least recognized the problem and begun to address it, Mr. Neefjes said. “Faster than any developing country, it has actually developed a sensible national program to start responding,” he said.
Those plans include an attempt to integrate environmental concerns into the development plans of ministries and enterprises, modifications that could conflict with their ambitions for growth, he said.
Experts said Vietnam’s primary approach — the hugely expensive construction and reinforcement of thousands of miles of dikes — would bring its own set of problems.
In the delta, they said, the barriers will probably inhibit the self-cleansing mechanism of rivers and trap millions of cubic yards of industrial waste, hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial rubbish, and millions of tons of pesticides and fertilizer that are used in fish farms and shrimp farms.
“If one-third of the delta’s area is flooded by seawater, losses would be huge,” Vo Hung Dung, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Can Tho city branch, said last month in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. “But if the entire delta is polluted by wastewater, the losses could be many times higher.”
Here on the tiny Hau River, which winds through shaded groves of palm, bamboo and mangrove just south of Can Tho in the heart of the delta, there seems to be little awareness of these concerns.
Nguyen Thanh Chanh, 29, who fishes with his wife in a small boat, said that he sometimes listened to the radio and sometimes drank with friends at the end of the day, but that he had never heard any talk of climate change.
Life is already hard, and the rivers already flood during the monsoon season from June to November, from the swollen currents of the Mekong, from heavy rains and from tidal flooding.
An estimated 85 percent of the people in the delta are supported by agriculture.
“Those who farm go to the fields, and those who fish go to the rivers,” said Huynh Thuy, 47, a farmer. “They don’t worry much about the future.”
Fanged frog, 162 other new species found in Mekong
BANGKOK — A gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, an environmental group said Friday.
WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said.
"After millennia in hiding these species are now finally in the spotlight, and there are clearly more waiting to be discovered," said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Program.
Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species. That is on top of traditional threats such as poaching, pollution and habitat destruction.
"Some species will be able to adapt to climate change, many will not, potentially resulting in massive extinctions," Chapman said in a statement. "Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats."
Among the stars in the new list is a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.
Another unusual discovery was the Cat Ba leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Named Goniurosaurus catbaensis, it has large, orange-brown catlike eyes and leopard spots down the length of its yellowish brown body.
Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found a tiger-stripped pit viper in Vietnam described in the report while he was attempting to capture a second gecko species.
"We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper," Grismer said in a statement. "We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species."
That gecko species was not included in the WWF report because it hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. All the other species listed by the WWF have been described in journals.
Simon Mahood, a conservation adviser for BirdLife International in Indochina, welcomed WWF's attention to the new species and said more could be discovered if additional money is put into conservation and countries make it easier to do field work.
"We are seeing more reports of new discoveries and populations because this region is relatively poorly known, particularly when it comes to cryptic and less fashionable groups like fish and amphibians," said Mahood, whose group this year announced finding the first nest of white-eared night heron in Vietnam and the discovery of a baldheaded song bird in Laos called the barefaced Bulbul Pycnonotus hualon.
On Friday, it announced that it discovered three more sites where the endangered, grey-crowned crocias or Crocias langbianis can be found in Vietnam. The bird has a white underbelly and brown and slate feathers.
Other new species found are a tube-nosed bat named Murina harpioloides that lives in southeastern Vietnam and a new bird species called the Nonggang babbler that favors walking to flying and is found in the karst rainforest on the Chinese-Vietnamese border, an area of limestone fissures, sinkholes and underground streams.
Experts said a range of factors contributed to the upsurge in new species, including better access to regions that have seen decades of war and political unrest and more spending by governments on research to protect and identify plants and animals.
The WWF, which plans to publish yearly tabulations of newly discovered species in the Mekong, called for increased efforts to ensure new species are protected by preserving the large areas of forest and the free-flowing river networks they need to survive.
WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said.
"After millennia in hiding these species are now finally in the spotlight, and there are clearly more waiting to be discovered," said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Program.
Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species. That is on top of traditional threats such as poaching, pollution and habitat destruction.
"Some species will be able to adapt to climate change, many will not, potentially resulting in massive extinctions," Chapman said in a statement. "Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats."
Among the stars in the new list is a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.
Another unusual discovery was the Cat Ba leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Named Goniurosaurus catbaensis, it has large, orange-brown catlike eyes and leopard spots down the length of its yellowish brown body.
Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found a tiger-stripped pit viper in Vietnam described in the report while he was attempting to capture a second gecko species.
"We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper," Grismer said in a statement. "We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species."
That gecko species was not included in the WWF report because it hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. All the other species listed by the WWF have been described in journals.
Simon Mahood, a conservation adviser for BirdLife International in Indochina, welcomed WWF's attention to the new species and said more could be discovered if additional money is put into conservation and countries make it easier to do field work.
"We are seeing more reports of new discoveries and populations because this region is relatively poorly known, particularly when it comes to cryptic and less fashionable groups like fish and amphibians," said Mahood, whose group this year announced finding the first nest of white-eared night heron in Vietnam and the discovery of a baldheaded song bird in Laos called the barefaced Bulbul Pycnonotus hualon.
On Friday, it announced that it discovered three more sites where the endangered, grey-crowned crocias or Crocias langbianis can be found in Vietnam. The bird has a white underbelly and brown and slate feathers.
Other new species found are a tube-nosed bat named Murina harpioloides that lives in southeastern Vietnam and a new bird species called the Nonggang babbler that favors walking to flying and is found in the karst rainforest on the Chinese-Vietnamese border, an area of limestone fissures, sinkholes and underground streams.
Experts said a range of factors contributed to the upsurge in new species, including better access to regions that have seen decades of war and political unrest and more spending by governments on research to protect and identify plants and animals.
The WWF, which plans to publish yearly tabulations of newly discovered species in the Mekong, called for increased efforts to ensure new species are protected by preserving the large areas of forest and the free-flowing river networks they need to survive.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Questing for gear in hopping Ho Chi Minh City
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam--Last December, I visited Ho Chi Minh City and discovered that while Wi-Fi was ubiquitous and the Internet was fast, it was incredibly hard to get across town.
Seven months later, the traffic here is still terrible. This time, however, I found that if you are in the right place, dealing with traffic isn't necessary at all.
The right place is District 1. Other than being the center of tourism with lots of hotels, famous landmarks, restaurants, and bars, D1 is also the site where you can get pretty much anything you need, especially when it comes to technology and digital entertainment. And it's all within a short walking distance.
I actually heard about this area during my last trip here. Jasper Waale, owner of Skeye, a GPS- and GSM-based tracking company operating in Vietnam and Laos--and an avid listener of the Inside CNET Labs podcast--insisted I check it out. I took a rain check till now.
We met at Cafe Centro, a trendy yet casual coffeehouse located in the middle of D1's most bustling section. According to Jasper, this is a popular place for ex-pats to hang out for both fun and business. It offers reasonably priced refreshments and, of course, free Wi-Fi.
(By the way, there are lots of cafes in Ho Chi Minh City, and pretty much all of them offer free Wi-Fi. My other favorite is Cafe Da on Alexandre De Rhodes Street. Also in D1: the best ice milk coffee and smoothies I've ever had. If you go there, make sure you try the "Dong Tim" fruit shake. It's so good, it has my name on it!)
"You'll find me at Centro at least a couple of times a week," Jasper said. Then, in a slightly show-offy manner, he pulled out his brand-new-looking Nikon D300 camera.
"I just got a good deal on this one. I traded in my D80 and got about 80 percent of new value to put toward this new one. You'll have to come see this place," he said.
I was intrigued, partially because next to his D300, my 4-year-old D80 looked somewhat pathetic. I've considered upgrading my camera for a while, but anticipating the whole hassle of selling my D80 on eBay or Craigslist has stopped me.
He then took me to Thuong Xa Tax, a mini shopping mall that's just a five-minute walk from the cafe. "Mini" here, by the way, is according to American standards; this is actually one of the bigger trading centers here in Vietnam, and it is indeed very large.
As in most shopping malls here, you can find pretty much everything, but we walked straight to the Vinh Hung Camera shop. The owner, Hung, a friendly 40-something man, greeted Jasper like an old friend. He then took a quick look at my D80 and said, "I'll give you $600 for this one, body and lens." Now that's a very good deal, as mine is rather scratched up and dirty since I regularly carry it around in open air. It also comes with a low-end non-VR Nikkor DX 18-135mm lens. On eBay, the best I could get is probably $500 (minus all the fees).
Asked how he could evaluate the camera so quickly and what would happen if it turned out to be bad later, Hung said he generally only needs a minute with a camera to know how much it's worth. "I've been doing this so long. I can tell if there's something wrong with the body via the shutter sound," he said. "The lens, I can just see."
Hung also revealed that his business was going well because digital SLRs are getting more popular and that so far he has been able to fulfill all customer requests, whether for new purchases or exchanges. "We have a good connection, so the most you have to wait for a rare model is just a few days," he said.
I wouldn't have to wait at all since he had a brand new D300 in stock, reasonably priced at almost $1,500. What I didn't have was $900 in cash. The shop accepts Visa, but I would have to pay another 3 percent. That, plus the incredible fees Bank of America charges me for using the card abroad, would end up making it not such a good deal. So I decided to let Jasper stick with the lead in the camera competition, and he seemed very happy about it.
On the way out of the Tax mall, we stumbled upon an interesting shop selling bootleg movies. Now this is nothing new to me. However, unlike the modest-looking bootleg stores in Hanoi, this one is quite upscale. First, it takes a good amount of money to have a booth in this shopping mall, and second, the shop employs uniformed women to tend to your every movie need.
The shop has virtually any movie title you can think of, including those still out in theaters and not yet released on disc. They come in stacks organized by genres. I spotted a DVD of "Angels and Demons," which I didn't have time to see in a theater before the trip. And, no, I didn't buy it.
Cuc, one of the women in uniform, told me her job is selling and she has no idea about the legality or illegality of these movies. "All I know they are 15,000 dong (about 90 cents) per DVD and 40,000 dong (about $2.25) per Blu-ray. Anything else you will need to talk to my manager," she smiled. She wasn't so happy when I wanted to take her photo, though.
"These movies' quality really sucks, even the supposedly high-def ones," Jasper said. "If you want true high-def movies, you have to come with me here."
We got out of Tax and after a 10-minute walk, we arrived at Paster Street. This street runs from D1 to District 3 (Quan 3). However, the D1 part is where it's at. There are a lot of electronics and computer stores--the two Jasper wanted to show me are Minigame and Halo.
These two stores focus on console games and offer virtually any title. Most of these games, of course, are not original copies but bootleg versions. To play these games, the consoles themselves need to be hacked, and the shop takes care of that too.
Jasper said he once mistakenly upgraded his Wii's firmware and re-locked his console. He brought it back to Halo, and 400,000 dong later, his Wii was unlocked again. The process involved removing and reordering a memory chip. It's much like the work on the iPhone 3G that I mentioned last year.
The most popular service these two stores offer is games on thumbdrives. The shop will modify a console to make it accept game stored on portable USB drives. After that, you can just bring your thumbdrive over and buy a game for the common price of 10,000 dong (56 cents) per game, regardless of how big (in megabytes) the game is. So now, instead of having to store DVDs or game cartridges, you just have to have a big external hard drive.
Apart from games, true high-def movies in Matroska format (also known as MKV) are also on sale here for the same price: 10,000 dong per movie. You will need a computer to play these movies--or a portable media player such as the WD TV.
Though not a console gamer, I felt excited about what you can get here and how much you can get it for. Legalities aside, in a way, these stores offer much better service than GameStop or any other retailer or repair store I've run into in the U.S.
After a couple of hours hanging out with Jasper, my perspective on Ho Chi Minh City completely changed. Traumatized by its traffic, I used to compare this city of some 12 million people to Los Angeles. Now, it seems somewhat like Manhattan, where you can get virtually anywhere on foot.
What I found most interesting, however, are those people like Denmark-native Jasper--foreigners who weren't born in Vietnam and don't speak the local language very well, if at all, yet who can relate to the place better than a lot of Vietnamese including myself.
Jasper made up his mind about the place long ago. "You are not allowed to have a dull moment here," he said. "If you are bored, it's your fault. This is the most exciting place in the world."
Seven months later, the traffic here is still terrible. This time, however, I found that if you are in the right place, dealing with traffic isn't necessary at all.
The right place is District 1. Other than being the center of tourism with lots of hotels, famous landmarks, restaurants, and bars, D1 is also the site where you can get pretty much anything you need, especially when it comes to technology and digital entertainment. And it's all within a short walking distance.
I actually heard about this area during my last trip here. Jasper Waale, owner of Skeye, a GPS- and GSM-based tracking company operating in Vietnam and Laos--and an avid listener of the Inside CNET Labs podcast--insisted I check it out. I took a rain check till now.
We met at Cafe Centro, a trendy yet casual coffeehouse located in the middle of D1's most bustling section. According to Jasper, this is a popular place for ex-pats to hang out for both fun and business. It offers reasonably priced refreshments and, of course, free Wi-Fi.
(By the way, there are lots of cafes in Ho Chi Minh City, and pretty much all of them offer free Wi-Fi. My other favorite is Cafe Da on Alexandre De Rhodes Street. Also in D1: the best ice milk coffee and smoothies I've ever had. If you go there, make sure you try the "Dong Tim" fruit shake. It's so good, it has my name on it!)
"You'll find me at Centro at least a couple of times a week," Jasper said. Then, in a slightly show-offy manner, he pulled out his brand-new-looking Nikon D300 camera.
"I just got a good deal on this one. I traded in my D80 and got about 80 percent of new value to put toward this new one. You'll have to come see this place," he said.
I was intrigued, partially because next to his D300, my 4-year-old D80 looked somewhat pathetic. I've considered upgrading my camera for a while, but anticipating the whole hassle of selling my D80 on eBay or Craigslist has stopped me.
He then took me to Thuong Xa Tax, a mini shopping mall that's just a five-minute walk from the cafe. "Mini" here, by the way, is according to American standards; this is actually one of the bigger trading centers here in Vietnam, and it is indeed very large.
As in most shopping malls here, you can find pretty much everything, but we walked straight to the Vinh Hung Camera shop. The owner, Hung, a friendly 40-something man, greeted Jasper like an old friend. He then took a quick look at my D80 and said, "I'll give you $600 for this one, body and lens." Now that's a very good deal, as mine is rather scratched up and dirty since I regularly carry it around in open air. It also comes with a low-end non-VR Nikkor DX 18-135mm lens. On eBay, the best I could get is probably $500 (minus all the fees).
Asked how he could evaluate the camera so quickly and what would happen if it turned out to be bad later, Hung said he generally only needs a minute with a camera to know how much it's worth. "I've been doing this so long. I can tell if there's something wrong with the body via the shutter sound," he said. "The lens, I can just see."
Hung also revealed that his business was going well because digital SLRs are getting more popular and that so far he has been able to fulfill all customer requests, whether for new purchases or exchanges. "We have a good connection, so the most you have to wait for a rare model is just a few days," he said.
I wouldn't have to wait at all since he had a brand new D300 in stock, reasonably priced at almost $1,500. What I didn't have was $900 in cash. The shop accepts Visa, but I would have to pay another 3 percent. That, plus the incredible fees Bank of America charges me for using the card abroad, would end up making it not such a good deal. So I decided to let Jasper stick with the lead in the camera competition, and he seemed very happy about it.
On the way out of the Tax mall, we stumbled upon an interesting shop selling bootleg movies. Now this is nothing new to me. However, unlike the modest-looking bootleg stores in Hanoi, this one is quite upscale. First, it takes a good amount of money to have a booth in this shopping mall, and second, the shop employs uniformed women to tend to your every movie need.
The shop has virtually any movie title you can think of, including those still out in theaters and not yet released on disc. They come in stacks organized by genres. I spotted a DVD of "Angels and Demons," which I didn't have time to see in a theater before the trip. And, no, I didn't buy it.
Cuc, one of the women in uniform, told me her job is selling and she has no idea about the legality or illegality of these movies. "All I know they are 15,000 dong (about 90 cents) per DVD and 40,000 dong (about $2.25) per Blu-ray. Anything else you will need to talk to my manager," she smiled. She wasn't so happy when I wanted to take her photo, though.
"These movies' quality really sucks, even the supposedly high-def ones," Jasper said. "If you want true high-def movies, you have to come with me here."
We got out of Tax and after a 10-minute walk, we arrived at Paster Street. This street runs from D1 to District 3 (Quan 3). However, the D1 part is where it's at. There are a lot of electronics and computer stores--the two Jasper wanted to show me are Minigame and Halo.
These two stores focus on console games and offer virtually any title. Most of these games, of course, are not original copies but bootleg versions. To play these games, the consoles themselves need to be hacked, and the shop takes care of that too.
Jasper said he once mistakenly upgraded his Wii's firmware and re-locked his console. He brought it back to Halo, and 400,000 dong later, his Wii was unlocked again. The process involved removing and reordering a memory chip. It's much like the work on the iPhone 3G that I mentioned last year.
The most popular service these two stores offer is games on thumbdrives. The shop will modify a console to make it accept game stored on portable USB drives. After that, you can just bring your thumbdrive over and buy a game for the common price of 10,000 dong (56 cents) per game, regardless of how big (in megabytes) the game is. So now, instead of having to store DVDs or game cartridges, you just have to have a big external hard drive.
Apart from games, true high-def movies in Matroska format (also known as MKV) are also on sale here for the same price: 10,000 dong per movie. You will need a computer to play these movies--or a portable media player such as the WD TV.
Though not a console gamer, I felt excited about what you can get here and how much you can get it for. Legalities aside, in a way, these stores offer much better service than GameStop or any other retailer or repair store I've run into in the U.S.
After a couple of hours hanging out with Jasper, my perspective on Ho Chi Minh City completely changed. Traumatized by its traffic, I used to compare this city of some 12 million people to Los Angeles. Now, it seems somewhat like Manhattan, where you can get virtually anywhere on foot.
What I found most interesting, however, are those people like Denmark-native Jasper--foreigners who weren't born in Vietnam and don't speak the local language very well, if at all, yet who can relate to the place better than a lot of Vietnamese including myself.
Jasper made up his mind about the place long ago. "You are not allowed to have a dull moment here," he said. "If you are bored, it's your fault. This is the most exciting place in the world."
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Laptop gets (overly) warm welcome in Hanoi
Editor's note: CNET editor and Crave contributor Dong Ngo is spending several weeks in his homeland of Vietnam and will file occasional dispatches chronicling his adventures. To read stories from Dong's last visit, in December, click here.
HANOI, Vietnam--A word of advice for travelers: turn off your laptop when you leave the room.
This isn't the first time I've been back to Vietnam, but it's the first time since I left the country some 10 years ago that I've come back during summer. It's really hot in Hanoi during the day, often 100 degrees or more. And as it has always been the case with me when traveling, stuff happens.
After about 48 hours of traveling and coming to terms with the jetlag, I turned my laptop on for the first time. There were so many things to download: new episodes of podcasts, RSS feeds of different news sources, videos--and of course the 3.0 firmware for the iPhone.
As the Wi-Fi I got hooked up to was running at just around 60Kbps, these essential updates of my digital life (though most of them I can't find time to enjoy) would require hours to download. Like usual, I had a huge urge to download all of the data right away and decided to leave the computer running and go out for a jog. After all, it was almost midday and sunny outside.
I started the downloads, opened a pack of Orbit gum, took a piece, and left the rest on my new loaded Dell XPS M1530 (for this trip, I upgraded from the smaller XPS M1330, mostly because my eyes are worse now). Before leaving the room, being a good citizen of the world, I turned off the air conditioning.
The moment I opened the door of the room, a wave of stifling heat engulfed me. Outside, the sky was high and pure, and it was so sunny I felt I could hear how bright it was. Or maybe it was the sound of my sweat starting to ooze out.
Unlike the dry and lovely San Francisco Bay Area or somewhat humid New York City, it's so humid in Hanoi that once outside there's no way you can escape the heat during hot days. It's hot when it's calm, and it's hot when it's windy, and fans won't do anything. The breeze actually helps the heat traverse to every corner. Once in a while a quick and so-heavy-that-you-can't-see-anything downpour comes, only to accentuate the heat when the sky is clear again.
For a lot of local people, there's no way to stay away from the heat, as air conditioners are still considered a luxurious commodity that most can't afford. (Plus, they have survived many years without one.) The water in outdoor swimming pools gets so hot that by midday you can't swim in them. During some extremely hot days, you'll even find people staying inside air-conditioned ATM booths to enjoy some free cooling.
After just about a few minutes of jogging, my glasses started to get blurred by steam and sweat and I had to take them off. Four miles later, I looked and felt like I had never worked out so hard before: my T-shirt and baseball cap were completely soaked with sweat and my forehead was dripping.
As I slowly walked back, I stopped by a familiar beer stand to enjoy a few well-deserved glasses of "Bia Hoi," under a common makeshift cooling system: a net of copper pipes that spray water mist in the air. Bia Hoi is a kind of light draft beer that the Hanoi Brewery never produces enough of during summertime. It made all of my sweating and sun-hating activities worthwhile.
A couple of hours later, I returned to my room imagining a cool shower and getting my stuff synced to my iPhone. Instead, I was greeted with a sight of horror: the computer displayed a Blue Screen of Death and I heard the CPU fan roaring to life. The worst of all, the sweet mint chewing gum had melted into some mushy and sticky substance that spilled all over part of the keyboard and completely covered the biometric reader. Some even dripped onto the bedsheet. The laptop was so hot that I couldn't touch it for more than a few seconds.
I immediately turned the thing off and wondered what would have happened if I came back an hour later and especially why the machine just didn't turn off by itself before it was hot enough to melt the gum. In most of my previous over heat experiences, the computer would just shut down.
All freaked out, I brought the machine to the repair shop I relied on during my last trip. Duy, the same man I talked to seven months ago, told me he has received quite a few calls about computer overheating since summer started. "I can't even play online games at home anymore, my computer would just poop out after 15 minutes or so," he said. He did tell me, however, that my accident was very "special" and that it was a big waste of gum.
(People in Hanoi are big fans of Orbit gum, by the way. Each trip here, I bring along a plentiful supply, mostly to give away. This time I picked up a $300 batch from Costco. That's a lot of gum.)
The sticky mess turned out to be not that difficult to clean. After leaving the laptop inside a fridge for about five minutes, the gum congealed and could be removed fairly easily, though the job was time-consuming. After about an hour, my computer was back to its previous gum-free state. Unfortunately, out of panic, I forgot to bring my camera along this time around.
Duy didn't charge me for the job, but gladly took a brand new (and unmelted) pack of gum that I offered. "You wrote about me and my shop last time. My girlfriend saw the article online and was very happy... Thank you very much! And welcome to Hanoi!"
That was indeed a warm welcome. Now I just have to download my digital fix again. Or maybe I should just skip that and leave time for some real-life interactions.
CNET
HANOI, Vietnam--A word of advice for travelers: turn off your laptop when you leave the room.
This isn't the first time I've been back to Vietnam, but it's the first time since I left the country some 10 years ago that I've come back during summer. It's really hot in Hanoi during the day, often 100 degrees or more. And as it has always been the case with me when traveling, stuff happens.
After about 48 hours of traveling and coming to terms with the jetlag, I turned my laptop on for the first time. There were so many things to download: new episodes of podcasts, RSS feeds of different news sources, videos--and of course the 3.0 firmware for the iPhone.
As the Wi-Fi I got hooked up to was running at just around 60Kbps, these essential updates of my digital life (though most of them I can't find time to enjoy) would require hours to download. Like usual, I had a huge urge to download all of the data right away and decided to leave the computer running and go out for a jog. After all, it was almost midday and sunny outside.
I started the downloads, opened a pack of Orbit gum, took a piece, and left the rest on my new loaded Dell XPS M1530 (for this trip, I upgraded from the smaller XPS M1330, mostly because my eyes are worse now). Before leaving the room, being a good citizen of the world, I turned off the air conditioning.
The moment I opened the door of the room, a wave of stifling heat engulfed me. Outside, the sky was high and pure, and it was so sunny I felt I could hear how bright it was. Or maybe it was the sound of my sweat starting to ooze out.
Unlike the dry and lovely San Francisco Bay Area or somewhat humid New York City, it's so humid in Hanoi that once outside there's no way you can escape the heat during hot days. It's hot when it's calm, and it's hot when it's windy, and fans won't do anything. The breeze actually helps the heat traverse to every corner. Once in a while a quick and so-heavy-that-you-can't-see-anything downpour comes, only to accentuate the heat when the sky is clear again.
For a lot of local people, there's no way to stay away from the heat, as air conditioners are still considered a luxurious commodity that most can't afford. (Plus, they have survived many years without one.) The water in outdoor swimming pools gets so hot that by midday you can't swim in them. During some extremely hot days, you'll even find people staying inside air-conditioned ATM booths to enjoy some free cooling.
After just about a few minutes of jogging, my glasses started to get blurred by steam and sweat and I had to take them off. Four miles later, I looked and felt like I had never worked out so hard before: my T-shirt and baseball cap were completely soaked with sweat and my forehead was dripping.
As I slowly walked back, I stopped by a familiar beer stand to enjoy a few well-deserved glasses of "Bia Hoi," under a common makeshift cooling system: a net of copper pipes that spray water mist in the air. Bia Hoi is a kind of light draft beer that the Hanoi Brewery never produces enough of during summertime. It made all of my sweating and sun-hating activities worthwhile.
A couple of hours later, I returned to my room imagining a cool shower and getting my stuff synced to my iPhone. Instead, I was greeted with a sight of horror: the computer displayed a Blue Screen of Death and I heard the CPU fan roaring to life. The worst of all, the sweet mint chewing gum had melted into some mushy and sticky substance that spilled all over part of the keyboard and completely covered the biometric reader. Some even dripped onto the bedsheet. The laptop was so hot that I couldn't touch it for more than a few seconds.
I immediately turned the thing off and wondered what would have happened if I came back an hour later and especially why the machine just didn't turn off by itself before it was hot enough to melt the gum. In most of my previous over heat experiences, the computer would just shut down.
All freaked out, I brought the machine to the repair shop I relied on during my last trip. Duy, the same man I talked to seven months ago, told me he has received quite a few calls about computer overheating since summer started. "I can't even play online games at home anymore, my computer would just poop out after 15 minutes or so," he said. He did tell me, however, that my accident was very "special" and that it was a big waste of gum.
(People in Hanoi are big fans of Orbit gum, by the way. Each trip here, I bring along a plentiful supply, mostly to give away. This time I picked up a $300 batch from Costco. That's a lot of gum.)
The sticky mess turned out to be not that difficult to clean. After leaving the laptop inside a fridge for about five minutes, the gum congealed and could be removed fairly easily, though the job was time-consuming. After about an hour, my computer was back to its previous gum-free state. Unfortunately, out of panic, I forgot to bring my camera along this time around.
Duy didn't charge me for the job, but gladly took a brand new (and unmelted) pack of gum that I offered. "You wrote about me and my shop last time. My girlfriend saw the article online and was very happy... Thank you very much! And welcome to Hanoi!"
That was indeed a warm welcome. Now I just have to download my digital fix again. Or maybe I should just skip that and leave time for some real-life interactions.
CNET
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Legendary Lake In Vietnam Being Gently Cleaned For Giant Turtle
Researchers have started testing "SediTurtles," a device they say will defend a renowned Vietnamese turtle while at the same time clean the lake where it lives.
Experts debuted the sediment-consuming machines as part of a cleanup program on Hoan Kiem Lake, located at Vietnam's capital.
The Lake of the Returned Sword houses a mysterious turtle that symbolizes Vietnam's exertion for independence.
The children’s story of the 15th century rebel leader Le Loi says that he used a sword to fight off Chinese invaders. After Emperor Le Loi went boating on the lake one day, a turtle swam up, took his sword and swam to the bottom, safeguarding the weapon for the next time freedom needed a hero.
Sightings of the turtle are considered lucky, especially when they land on national events. The lake’s historical value therefore needs a special cleanup plan, and the teams of Vietnamese and German experts have plotted cleaning the turtle's home with smallest possible risk to it.
Leonhard Fechter, of Berlin's Herbst Umwelttechnik GmbH, knows that people worry about the turtle, so the SediTurtle was made with "soft" technology as not to hurt the animal.
"We are sure we won't touch the turtle," he said.
The device has a hose that floats on the water attached to a metal box. A dredging device, hidden below the surface, removes sediment from the bottom by sending it to a different machine that removes sludge from the water.
"That device is moving very slowly. That big turtle can easily escape," said Celia Hahn, the project manager at the Dresden University of Technology.
Over time, the sediment in the Hoan Kiem Lake has increased and the water level has declined, specifically in urban areas. The experts note that the lake is only five feet deep, but the majority is sludge created by industrial pollutants.
Draining the lake cannot be done because it would harm the water body's ecosystem, experts insist.
"The big turtle is living from crabs or small fish," Werner said, noting that sediment removal would occur slowly over time.
Christian Richter, from FUGRO-HGN GmbH, said his firm has already reviewed the lake's geology. They will map parts of the lake where sediment can be extracted without harming the lake.
"Even if they start immediately, they would need at least one or two years for the removal," Richter said.
Experts debuted the sediment-consuming machines as part of a cleanup program on Hoan Kiem Lake, located at Vietnam's capital.
The Lake of the Returned Sword houses a mysterious turtle that symbolizes Vietnam's exertion for independence.
The children’s story of the 15th century rebel leader Le Loi says that he used a sword to fight off Chinese invaders. After Emperor Le Loi went boating on the lake one day, a turtle swam up, took his sword and swam to the bottom, safeguarding the weapon for the next time freedom needed a hero.
Sightings of the turtle are considered lucky, especially when they land on national events. The lake’s historical value therefore needs a special cleanup plan, and the teams of Vietnamese and German experts have plotted cleaning the turtle's home with smallest possible risk to it.
Leonhard Fechter, of Berlin's Herbst Umwelttechnik GmbH, knows that people worry about the turtle, so the SediTurtle was made with "soft" technology as not to hurt the animal.
"We are sure we won't touch the turtle," he said.
The device has a hose that floats on the water attached to a metal box. A dredging device, hidden below the surface, removes sediment from the bottom by sending it to a different machine that removes sludge from the water.
"That device is moving very slowly. That big turtle can easily escape," said Celia Hahn, the project manager at the Dresden University of Technology.
Over time, the sediment in the Hoan Kiem Lake has increased and the water level has declined, specifically in urban areas. The experts note that the lake is only five feet deep, but the majority is sludge created by industrial pollutants.
Draining the lake cannot be done because it would harm the water body's ecosystem, experts insist.
"The big turtle is living from crabs or small fish," Werner said, noting that sediment removal would occur slowly over time.
Christian Richter, from FUGRO-HGN GmbH, said his firm has already reviewed the lake's geology. They will map parts of the lake where sediment can be extracted without harming the lake.
"Even if they start immediately, they would need at least one or two years for the removal," Richter said.
Monday, 1 June 2009
As Yahoo shuts down service, Vietnam bloggers seek new homes Read more: "As Yahoo shuts down service, Vietnam bloggers seek new homes
Hanoi - Yahoo's decision to close an online social networking service that had become the most popular in Vietnam has the country's bloggers scrambling to save their websites, bloggers said Monday.
The bloggers said the company's announcement that it will close its worldwide Yahoo 360 Degrees service effective July 13 disrupted Vietnam's budding political and cultural online community.
'I feel like somebody played a dirty trick on me,' said Mai Hoang, 30, who has written a personal and cultural blog for over three years.
'The Yahoo 360 Degrees community has suffered a big loss, because they were used to using that site,' said Huy Duc, who blogs on controversial political issues. 'Now if they move to a new one, they have to spend time finding each other again.'
Yahoo 360 Degrees, which debuted in 2005, attracted few users globally compared to rival services such as MySpace and Facebook. The company first announced it would close the service in early 2008.
But the site was an unexpected success in Vietnam, where it remains the dominant social networking site.
Yahoo Vietnam director Vu Minh Tri said a study last month found that 85 per cent of Vietnamese who use online social networking were on Yahoo 360 Degrees.
The closure of the site is part of a Yahoo strategy to reorient its social networking worldwide.
'Currently if you're on Yahoo 360, you can't talk to Facebook or MySpace,' Tri said. 'The big Yahoo strategy is to connect all the social networks together.'
To avoid losing Vietnamese clients, Yahoo is offering a Vietnam-only successor called Yahoo 360 Degrees Plus. Tri said efforts had been made to allow users to easily migrate their earlier content and friend lists to the new site.
Several users said making the switch was still difficult. 'I spent about three months moving data,' said novelist and literary blogger Nguyen Quang Lap.
Under Vietnam's communist system, media and the arts are controlled and regulated by the government. There are few alternative outlets for independent political and cultural commentary, creativity, or civic engagement.
Over the past four years, communities of bloggers have begun to present such an alternative. While most bloggers are moving their sites to new hosts, some of Vietnam's early blogging history may be lost when Yahoo 360 Degrees shuts down.
Huy Duc, whose blog has hosted sharp debates on sensitive issues such as Vietnamese-Chinese relations and environmental degradation, moved to a different host, Wordpress.com, in April.
'I could only move my entries, not comments,' Duc said. 'I couldn't move all of my data, I had to ask friends for help.'
Freelance journalist Trinh Thu Trang said she may not manage to move the 1,000 photos and 300 entries on her blog before the deadline.
'When Yahoo 360 shuts down, a part of me will stay there,' Trang said.
Monsters and Critics
The bloggers said the company's announcement that it will close its worldwide Yahoo 360 Degrees service effective July 13 disrupted Vietnam's budding political and cultural online community.
'I feel like somebody played a dirty trick on me,' said Mai Hoang, 30, who has written a personal and cultural blog for over three years.
'The Yahoo 360 Degrees community has suffered a big loss, because they were used to using that site,' said Huy Duc, who blogs on controversial political issues. 'Now if they move to a new one, they have to spend time finding each other again.'
Yahoo 360 Degrees, which debuted in 2005, attracted few users globally compared to rival services such as MySpace and Facebook. The company first announced it would close the service in early 2008.
But the site was an unexpected success in Vietnam, where it remains the dominant social networking site.
Yahoo Vietnam director Vu Minh Tri said a study last month found that 85 per cent of Vietnamese who use online social networking were on Yahoo 360 Degrees.
The closure of the site is part of a Yahoo strategy to reorient its social networking worldwide.
'Currently if you're on Yahoo 360, you can't talk to Facebook or MySpace,' Tri said. 'The big Yahoo strategy is to connect all the social networks together.'
To avoid losing Vietnamese clients, Yahoo is offering a Vietnam-only successor called Yahoo 360 Degrees Plus. Tri said efforts had been made to allow users to easily migrate their earlier content and friend lists to the new site.
Several users said making the switch was still difficult. 'I spent about three months moving data,' said novelist and literary blogger Nguyen Quang Lap.
Under Vietnam's communist system, media and the arts are controlled and regulated by the government. There are few alternative outlets for independent political and cultural commentary, creativity, or civic engagement.
Over the past four years, communities of bloggers have begun to present such an alternative. While most bloggers are moving their sites to new hosts, some of Vietnam's early blogging history may be lost when Yahoo 360 Degrees shuts down.
Huy Duc, whose blog has hosted sharp debates on sensitive issues such as Vietnamese-Chinese relations and environmental degradation, moved to a different host, Wordpress.com, in April.
'I could only move my entries, not comments,' Duc said. 'I couldn't move all of my data, I had to ask friends for help.'
Freelance journalist Trinh Thu Trang said she may not manage to move the 1,000 photos and 300 entries on her blog before the deadline.
'When Yahoo 360 shuts down, a part of me will stay there,' Trang said.
Monsters and Critics
Thursday, 28 May 2009
All five species of marine turtles occurring in Vietnam nearing extinction
Paper protection not enough for Vietnam's marine turtles
May 2009. Marine turtles are vanishing from Viet Nam's waters and illegal trade is largely to blame says a new study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
Large marine turtles are now virtually absent from Viet Nam's waters
An assessment of the marine turtle trade in Viet Nam, launched to mark World Turtle Day found that large marine turtles are now virtually absent from Viet Nam's waters except for Green Turtles around the Con Dao Islands National Park.
Government owned souvenir shop selling turtle products
A government-owned souvenir shop found selling illegal turtle products was a potent symbol of how a national ban on turtle products enacted in 2002 has been undermined by a lack of enforcement. Traders in all Viet Nam's coastal localities reported that catches of local marine turtles, especially Hawksbill Turtles, were becoming rare, and even the few caught were smaller than in previous years.
"Without effective enforcement of the laws, the future for marine turtles in Vietnamese waters looks very bleak." says Tom Osborn, Acting Director of TRAFFIC's Greater Mekong Programme.
Large scale exports
A 2002 TRAFFIC study found that trade in marine turtles had extended into a large-scale wholesale export market and a Ministry of Fisheries report estimated the combined take across the entire Vietnamese coastline at 4,000 marine turtles annually.
Exploitation of marine turtles banned - But continuing
Shortly after these surveys, the Viet Nam Government prohibited the exploitation of marine turtles but the current TRAFFIC survey finds the trade has continued, though at a reduced rate. Government enforcement of illegal marine turtle catching, processing and trade has been uneven at best-evidenced by a great decrease in the number of outlets and marine turtle products on display in some areas and an increase in others, particularly in some newly developing tourist areas.
In Ha Tien and Ho Chi Minh City, traders cited Indonesia and Malaysia as their main sources of turtles and raw scutes (the large scales on the turtle's carapace or shell). All international trade in marine turtles is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Totally unsustainable
Already threatened by habitat degradation, accidental or opportunistic capture by fishermen and the direct take of nesting females and their eggs, whole turtles are also stuffed and, in the case of Hawksbill Turtles, their shells turned into jewellery, fans and handbags, known as bekko.
According to the report, a lack of product more than law enforcement explains the steady downturn in the number of outlets selling marine turtle products.
Green Turtle meat was rarer than in 2002, and its price had increased significantly compared with those recorded during a 2002 TRAFFIC survey. In a Ha Tien market, after allowing for inflation, its price had more than doubled by 2008, pushing it into the luxury meat category. However, in some towns, the study found bekko workshops and stores, including a government-owned souvenir shop, selling hundreds of marine turtle products operating in plain view of authorities.
The study found that businessmen in some areas were aware that it was illegal to capture, process and sell marine turtle products but there had been no action taken to confiscate or destroy the illegal items on sale. The study said that most indicators pointed towards a falling demand, but vendors continued to report good sales for most marine turtle products indicating that the trade still posed a serious threat.
The study recommends that authorities look into finding alternative sources of income for communities dependent on the sale of marine turtle products, expand existing awareness programmes and confiscate and destroy all marine turtle products that remain on sale.
Wildlife Extra
May 2009. Marine turtles are vanishing from Viet Nam's waters and illegal trade is largely to blame says a new study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
Large marine turtles are now virtually absent from Viet Nam's waters
An assessment of the marine turtle trade in Viet Nam, launched to mark World Turtle Day found that large marine turtles are now virtually absent from Viet Nam's waters except for Green Turtles around the Con Dao Islands National Park.
Government owned souvenir shop selling turtle products
A government-owned souvenir shop found selling illegal turtle products was a potent symbol of how a national ban on turtle products enacted in 2002 has been undermined by a lack of enforcement. Traders in all Viet Nam's coastal localities reported that catches of local marine turtles, especially Hawksbill Turtles, were becoming rare, and even the few caught were smaller than in previous years.
"Without effective enforcement of the laws, the future for marine turtles in Vietnamese waters looks very bleak." says Tom Osborn, Acting Director of TRAFFIC's Greater Mekong Programme.
Large scale exports
A 2002 TRAFFIC study found that trade in marine turtles had extended into a large-scale wholesale export market and a Ministry of Fisheries report estimated the combined take across the entire Vietnamese coastline at 4,000 marine turtles annually.
Exploitation of marine turtles banned - But continuing
Shortly after these surveys, the Viet Nam Government prohibited the exploitation of marine turtles but the current TRAFFIC survey finds the trade has continued, though at a reduced rate. Government enforcement of illegal marine turtle catching, processing and trade has been uneven at best-evidenced by a great decrease in the number of outlets and marine turtle products on display in some areas and an increase in others, particularly in some newly developing tourist areas.
In Ha Tien and Ho Chi Minh City, traders cited Indonesia and Malaysia as their main sources of turtles and raw scutes (the large scales on the turtle's carapace or shell). All international trade in marine turtles is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Totally unsustainable
Already threatened by habitat degradation, accidental or opportunistic capture by fishermen and the direct take of nesting females and their eggs, whole turtles are also stuffed and, in the case of Hawksbill Turtles, their shells turned into jewellery, fans and handbags, known as bekko.
According to the report, a lack of product more than law enforcement explains the steady downturn in the number of outlets selling marine turtle products.
Green Turtle meat was rarer than in 2002, and its price had increased significantly compared with those recorded during a 2002 TRAFFIC survey. In a Ha Tien market, after allowing for inflation, its price had more than doubled by 2008, pushing it into the luxury meat category. However, in some towns, the study found bekko workshops and stores, including a government-owned souvenir shop, selling hundreds of marine turtle products operating in plain view of authorities.
The study found that businessmen in some areas were aware that it was illegal to capture, process and sell marine turtle products but there had been no action taken to confiscate or destroy the illegal items on sale. The study said that most indicators pointed towards a falling demand, but vendors continued to report good sales for most marine turtle products indicating that the trade still posed a serious threat.
The study recommends that authorities look into finding alternative sources of income for communities dependent on the sale of marine turtle products, expand existing awareness programmes and confiscate and destroy all marine turtle products that remain on sale.
Wildlife Extra
Sunday, 24 May 2009
IBM Expands Presence in Vietnam
Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service
IBM opened a new technology center and announced two research pacts with universities in Vietnam on Friday, saying it sees promise in the developing nation.
IBM's first Innovation Center in the Vietnam aims to help local developers create new technologies for digital infrastructure projects in banking, telecommunications, energy and government, the company said in a statement. It will offer training workshops, consulting services and assistance to researchers working to bring new technologies to market.
There are incredible opportunities in information in Vietnam as the country embraces technology in its transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation, IBM said.
Vietnam last week unveiled a US$8 billion government stimulus package, most of which is targeted at infrastructure and development projects.
The new innovation center is located in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.
Technology multinationals often build such technology centers in developing countries to encourage local innovators to create software using their developer kits and attract business from governments and local companies.
IBM runs 43 Innovation centers worldwide.
IBM said it will also launch the first Vietnamese language version of IBM developerWorks, a part of its Web site that provides resources to software developers and other IT professionals.
The company signed two agreements to work with Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on separate technology projects. In Ho Chi Minh City, IBM will work with academics to establish a new university cloud computing center and cloud curriculum, while in Hanoi, IBM will help with the establishment of a new department aimed at improving various segments of the services industry called service science management and engineering.
The initiatives are partly a "response to accelerated IT growth in Vietnam," IBM said. Internet use is already widespread and continues to increase in Vietnam, IBM said, while the country's IT sector has grown at 20 percent annually in recent years.
There were nearly 21.2 million Internet users in Vietnam at the end of April, 2009, according to the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center.
PC World
IBM opened a new technology center and announced two research pacts with universities in Vietnam on Friday, saying it sees promise in the developing nation.
IBM's first Innovation Center in the Vietnam aims to help local developers create new technologies for digital infrastructure projects in banking, telecommunications, energy and government, the company said in a statement. It will offer training workshops, consulting services and assistance to researchers working to bring new technologies to market.
There are incredible opportunities in information in Vietnam as the country embraces technology in its transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation, IBM said.
Vietnam last week unveiled a US$8 billion government stimulus package, most of which is targeted at infrastructure and development projects.
The new innovation center is located in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.
Technology multinationals often build such technology centers in developing countries to encourage local innovators to create software using their developer kits and attract business from governments and local companies.
IBM runs 43 Innovation centers worldwide.
IBM said it will also launch the first Vietnamese language version of IBM developerWorks, a part of its Web site that provides resources to software developers and other IT professionals.
The company signed two agreements to work with Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on separate technology projects. In Ho Chi Minh City, IBM will work with academics to establish a new university cloud computing center and cloud curriculum, while in Hanoi, IBM will help with the establishment of a new department aimed at improving various segments of the services industry called service science management and engineering.
The initiatives are partly a "response to accelerated IT growth in Vietnam," IBM said. Internet use is already widespread and continues to increase in Vietnam, IBM said, while the country's IT sector has grown at 20 percent annually in recent years.
There were nearly 21.2 million Internet users in Vietnam at the end of April, 2009, according to the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center.
PC World
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Storm may skirt Vietnam's coffee, thousands at sea
HANOI, May 5 (Reuters) - A tropical storm developing off Vietnam's central coast is steering away from the country's coffee belt but the lives of more than 4,100 fishermen now in the path of the storm are at risk, the government said on Tuesday.
Storm Chan-Hom, the first detected in Vietnam's waters this year, was in the Spratly Islands, about 300 km (190 miles) east of Khanh Hoa province as of early Tuesday, according to Tropical Storm Risks.
Chan-Hom, named after a kind of tree in the Lao language, was heading slowly north-northeast, and was on a path that would take it over the northern Philippines by Friday, according to Tropical Storm Risks.
Vietnam's National Centre for Hydro and Meteorology said Chan-Hom was packing winds of up to 102 km (60 miles) per hour. It was an early storm, as Vietnam's storm season often begins in July or August.
Khanh Hoa province lies east of Vietnam's Central Highlands coffee belt, where early light rains have been helping farmers cut watering costs. But heavy rains could cause newly formed cherries to drop should a storm hit the region directly.
By late Monday, more than 4,100 Vietnamese fishermen were at sea between the Paracels and the Spratlys in the path of Chan-Hom, which could change its course and possibly cause larger damage, the Vietnamese government said in a statement.
Chan-Hom's course could be complicated because of Storm Kujira, which emerged off the Philippines on Sunday and was heading toward Japan, the statement quoted Bui Minh Tang, head of the national weather centre, as saying.
Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains dumped by Kujira have killed 20 people and left three missing in the Philippines, the country's disaster agency said on Monday. [ID:nMAN482705]
Vietnam needed to take precautions because Chan-Hom's course was similar to that of storm Chanchu, which killed more than 100 people and left several hundred fishermen missing in the Philippines, China and Vietnam in 2006, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat told a government meeting on Monday.
Storm Chan-Hom, the first detected in Vietnam's waters this year, was in the Spratly Islands, about 300 km (190 miles) east of Khanh Hoa province as of early Tuesday, according to Tropical Storm Risks.
Chan-Hom, named after a kind of tree in the Lao language, was heading slowly north-northeast, and was on a path that would take it over the northern Philippines by Friday, according to Tropical Storm Risks.
Vietnam's National Centre for Hydro and Meteorology said Chan-Hom was packing winds of up to 102 km (60 miles) per hour. It was an early storm, as Vietnam's storm season often begins in July or August.
Khanh Hoa province lies east of Vietnam's Central Highlands coffee belt, where early light rains have been helping farmers cut watering costs. But heavy rains could cause newly formed cherries to drop should a storm hit the region directly.
By late Monday, more than 4,100 Vietnamese fishermen were at sea between the Paracels and the Spratlys in the path of Chan-Hom, which could change its course and possibly cause larger damage, the Vietnamese government said in a statement.
Chan-Hom's course could be complicated because of Storm Kujira, which emerged off the Philippines on Sunday and was heading toward Japan, the statement quoted Bui Minh Tang, head of the national weather centre, as saying.
Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains dumped by Kujira have killed 20 people and left three missing in the Philippines, the country's disaster agency said on Monday. [ID:nMAN482705]
Vietnam needed to take precautions because Chan-Hom's course was similar to that of storm Chanchu, which killed more than 100 people and left several hundred fishermen missing in the Philippines, China and Vietnam in 2006, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat told a government meeting on Monday.
Monday, 4 May 2009
Copied Paintings Plague Vietnam's Museum of Fine Arts
Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trong Niet, an 85-year-old painter who has lived most of his life in a rundown flat in Hanoi's Old Quarter, proudly says that he painted Muong Kuong Market years ago in his living room, which is also his bedroom and kitchen. The vibrant lacquer brushwork of the piece exquisitely captures the bustle of market day in a Vietnamese village. The Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, the country's national arts museum, thought so, too. Offiicals there snapped up the painting for their collection, and for the past 40 years, Niet's work has been hanging on the museum's walls.
Or has it? Niet was stunned when he came across a photograph of Muong Kuong Market in a Russian art book several years ago — the painting was allegedly hanging in the Oriental Museum in Moscow. Niet says he sent a letter to Oriental Museum officials, who confirmed they owned the original. When Niet went back to the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts to complain, "they told me that I painted two paintings and that I had sold one to Russia," he says. Sitting by her husband's side on a plastic stool, Niet's wife says she wishes that were true. "If he did paint copies," she asks bitterly, "would we be this poor?"
How many paintings and sculptures in Vietnam's national art museum are actually copies, nobody knows. But rumors have swirled for years that many treasured originals by Vietnamese artists like Niet have been either lost or sold off, and reproductions have taken their place. The copies aren't exactly forgeries. During the Vietnam War, the museum's own restoration department was a virtual copy factory — a fact that museum officials past and present freely admit.
A current exhibition of ancient Buddha statues and sculptures includes imitations made by the staff, says Nguyen Xuan Tiep, who has worked at the museum for the past 28 years and is a former deputy director there. The museum, a private collector, and the artist himself all own an "original" of New Year's Eve on Ho Guom Lakeshore, a colorful lacquer painting of crowds out in their finest dress, according to Tiep. Purported originals of Playing the O An Quan, which once hung on the museum's walls, are now in galleries in both Singapore and Japan, according to Nora Taylor, an art historian and expert in Vietnamese painters who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago.
After years of silence, artists, collectors and museum staff are demanding that Vietnam's arts officials come clean. Tiep says the museum's entire collection has been tainted because copies are not labeled. This acceptance of copying has helped devalue Vietnamese art since collectors are never sure if they are buying the real thing. Tiep accuses the museum of failing to properly display and preserve its collection, resulting in irrevocable damage and loss. "I have had to swallow my tears," says Tiep, who resigned as deputy director two years ago to protest what he claims is mismanagement. "We have a duty to raise our voices."
Ironically, Vietnam's practice of reproducing noteworthy works was originally carried out to rescue the country's artistic heritage during wartime. "The Americans said they were going to bomb Vietnam back to the stone age, to wipe out Vietnamese culture," says Nguyen Do Bao, chairman of the Hanoi Fine Arts Association, who was a young museum staffer in 1966 when the first B-52s appeared overhead. "It was a national imperative to keep the museum open." So the staff — and in some cases, the artists themselves — started to make copies. The reproductions stayed in Hanoi while the originals were spirited away and hidden in caves.
The artworks were supposed to return home after the war. Not all did. Records, if they ever existed, were lost. In cases where an artist had copied his own work, it was not always clear which one was the original. And to complicate matters, in the difficult postwar years, the culture of copying continued. The museum loaned paintings to starving artists wanting to copy their own works to sell, contributing to the problem. Did the artist return a copy to the museum or the original? And if the artist makes a copy of his or her own work, can it be called a fake?
Making matters worse, in the 1980s, the government-funded museum set up a department to make high-quality reproductions to sell, says Nguyen Truong, an art collector whose home in Hanoi has served as a salon for struggling artists for the past 30 years. The practice ended in the 1990s, but Truong says he was approached just last year by a museum employee who "offered a copy for $2,000."
Asked whether reproductions were indeed on display today, Truong Quoc Binh, director of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, acknowledges "it is possible," adding that the issue of copying "is a very difficult problem." But he declined to answer other questions.
Ministry of Culture officials declined to respond to written questions about reproductions, although they said the issue was under
discussion.
The proliferation of copies is hurting Vietnam's once hot art market. Taylor, the art historian at the Art Institute of Chicago, says that
younger artists who made a living by copying are starting to worry that the practice that once benefited them is now hurting their
prospects. Even if making copies was not originally intended to deceive, the situation is so bad now that no reputable museum will
borrow from Vietnam's national art museum, Taylor says. "The biggest damage is that now Vietnam has a bad reputation," she says.
Having lived most of their life under a system where the Communist Party dictated what they could paint and where they could exhibit,
the older generation of artists stayed quiet. But artists who are no longer under the government's thumb are increasingly urging that
the museum sort originals from copies by calling in experts to help examine paintings. They also want the museum to produce the
records of paintings, and remove pieces that are reproductions — or at least label them as such.
Luong Xuan Doan, deputy director of the Culture and Art Department at the Communist Party's Commission for Education and
Communications, says it is time to set up a panel of experts and once and for all identify which works are copies and which are
originals. "Displaying reproductions was acceptable during wartime," says Doan. "But the war has been over for 30 years."
Or has it? Niet was stunned when he came across a photograph of Muong Kuong Market in a Russian art book several years ago — the painting was allegedly hanging in the Oriental Museum in Moscow. Niet says he sent a letter to Oriental Museum officials, who confirmed they owned the original. When Niet went back to the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts to complain, "they told me that I painted two paintings and that I had sold one to Russia," he says. Sitting by her husband's side on a plastic stool, Niet's wife says she wishes that were true. "If he did paint copies," she asks bitterly, "would we be this poor?"
How many paintings and sculptures in Vietnam's national art museum are actually copies, nobody knows. But rumors have swirled for years that many treasured originals by Vietnamese artists like Niet have been either lost or sold off, and reproductions have taken their place. The copies aren't exactly forgeries. During the Vietnam War, the museum's own restoration department was a virtual copy factory — a fact that museum officials past and present freely admit.
A current exhibition of ancient Buddha statues and sculptures includes imitations made by the staff, says Nguyen Xuan Tiep, who has worked at the museum for the past 28 years and is a former deputy director there. The museum, a private collector, and the artist himself all own an "original" of New Year's Eve on Ho Guom Lakeshore, a colorful lacquer painting of crowds out in their finest dress, according to Tiep. Purported originals of Playing the O An Quan, which once hung on the museum's walls, are now in galleries in both Singapore and Japan, according to Nora Taylor, an art historian and expert in Vietnamese painters who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago.
After years of silence, artists, collectors and museum staff are demanding that Vietnam's arts officials come clean. Tiep says the museum's entire collection has been tainted because copies are not labeled. This acceptance of copying has helped devalue Vietnamese art since collectors are never sure if they are buying the real thing. Tiep accuses the museum of failing to properly display and preserve its collection, resulting in irrevocable damage and loss. "I have had to swallow my tears," says Tiep, who resigned as deputy director two years ago to protest what he claims is mismanagement. "We have a duty to raise our voices."
Ironically, Vietnam's practice of reproducing noteworthy works was originally carried out to rescue the country's artistic heritage during wartime. "The Americans said they were going to bomb Vietnam back to the stone age, to wipe out Vietnamese culture," says Nguyen Do Bao, chairman of the Hanoi Fine Arts Association, who was a young museum staffer in 1966 when the first B-52s appeared overhead. "It was a national imperative to keep the museum open." So the staff — and in some cases, the artists themselves — started to make copies. The reproductions stayed in Hanoi while the originals were spirited away and hidden in caves.
The artworks were supposed to return home after the war. Not all did. Records, if they ever existed, were lost. In cases where an artist had copied his own work, it was not always clear which one was the original. And to complicate matters, in the difficult postwar years, the culture of copying continued. The museum loaned paintings to starving artists wanting to copy their own works to sell, contributing to the problem. Did the artist return a copy to the museum or the original? And if the artist makes a copy of his or her own work, can it be called a fake?
Making matters worse, in the 1980s, the government-funded museum set up a department to make high-quality reproductions to sell, says Nguyen Truong, an art collector whose home in Hanoi has served as a salon for struggling artists for the past 30 years. The practice ended in the 1990s, but Truong says he was approached just last year by a museum employee who "offered a copy for $2,000."
Asked whether reproductions were indeed on display today, Truong Quoc Binh, director of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, acknowledges "it is possible," adding that the issue of copying "is a very difficult problem." But he declined to answer other questions.
Ministry of Culture officials declined to respond to written questions about reproductions, although they said the issue was under
discussion.
The proliferation of copies is hurting Vietnam's once hot art market. Taylor, the art historian at the Art Institute of Chicago, says that
younger artists who made a living by copying are starting to worry that the practice that once benefited them is now hurting their
prospects. Even if making copies was not originally intended to deceive, the situation is so bad now that no reputable museum will
borrow from Vietnam's national art museum, Taylor says. "The biggest damage is that now Vietnam has a bad reputation," she says.
Having lived most of their life under a system where the Communist Party dictated what they could paint and where they could exhibit,
the older generation of artists stayed quiet. But artists who are no longer under the government's thumb are increasingly urging that
the museum sort originals from copies by calling in experts to help examine paintings. They also want the museum to produce the
records of paintings, and remove pieces that are reproductions — or at least label them as such.
Luong Xuan Doan, deputy director of the Culture and Art Department at the Communist Party's Commission for Education and
Communications, says it is time to set up a panel of experts and once and for all identify which works are copies and which are
originals. "Displaying reproductions was acceptable during wartime," says Doan. "But the war has been over for 30 years."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
