English interpretations will be available through headphones, an idea trialled last year for foreign audience members at a performance of the opera Menh De Vuong (The King’s Fate), about the life of Ly Chieu Hoang (1218-78), the last empress of the Ly dynasty.

After the successful outcome last year, organisers decided to introduce cai luong to foreigners through a project which will begin next Saturday at the Ha Noi Theatre of Cai Luong, 72 Hang Bac Street, Ha Noi.

Apart from cai luong, the performance also brings a range of traditional arts such as folk songs, drama and dance to foreign audiences.

source form: dtinews

Men gather around the weekend bird market

The Bac Ha Plateau, in the northwest, is a perfect tourist attraction, with its mountains and forests. Many visitors are lured by the local markets that display an arrangement of unique products,  Bac Ha Buffalo Market, Ban Pho Wine Market, the Brocade Market, Bac Ha Love Market. Also there is the Bac Ha Bird Market.

This market, only open on Sunday, has an array of various kinds of birds. The sounds in this market are quite attractive, but the detriment to the local ecosystem bellies this beauty.

Groups of men can regularly be seen gathering around bird cages, hung on peach or plum branches, discussing the value of birds, based on their appearance and sound.

Most of the birds here have been caught from the surrounding forest and then tamed. Their owners/sellers take care that they are remain healthy-looking, colourful and have a pleasant sound in order to retain their value.

This is because the price of the birds depends on their appearance and their song. They can be sold from anywhere between VND 200,000 to tens of millions VND. The most sought-after is the nightingale, because of their song.

One salesman, named Leo Seo Lin, divulged that hunting requires knowing the habits of each type of bird.

“Nightingales usually live in couples on separate hills,” he explained. “They often fight to defend their territory from invaders, so hunters regularly use birds of prey as decoys to ensnare them.”

Bird hunting can bring in a large amount of money, so the number of hunters is increasing. Valuable birds such as nightingale are becoming more and more rare in the wild.

An experienced hunter, Vang Senh from Ban Lien Commune, said that they are having to go farther into the forests to catch their prey, and that it usually takes a week or so to trap enough of the birds to return to sell them.

For local people, this simply means less birdsong during their day.

source form: dtinews

Six years ago, Hanoi did not have just a single cinema that meets international standards, but now the number of modern box offices is five.

In late April 2006, the first MegaStar cinema complex in Vietnam inaugurated in Hanoi, with eight projection rooms. The appearance of this cinema, with American investors, has made a great change in Vietnam’s movie market. Most importantly, it has helped form a new habit: enjoying movies at box offices, not on television.

Though the ticket prices are high, compared to Vietnamese average incomes, and increase annually, MegaStar has drawn a large number of audiences. MegaStar has become a big rival of other cinemas in Hanoi. Some cinemas had to close and the remaining have had to upgrade their facilities to compete with the new rival.

The State-owned National Cinema Centre and August Cinema are in the second group. The two cinemas have upgraded their projection rooms and imported 3D equipment to catch up with the world trend. The two cinemas are running stably, since it focuses on popular audiences.

The most severely competitive segment is high-class market. Two years ago, MegaStar Vincom Hanoi built two more projection rooms to have a total of 10 rooms to meet the rising demand in Hanoi.

MegaStar’s high revenue has urged other investors to build luxurious cinema complexes in Hanoi. Platinum opened in early 2011 and Lottecinema Landmark Hanoi opened in early 2012. At the same time, MegaStar inaugurated another cinema complex – MegaStar Pico, with 7 projection rooms. Lottecinema is about to open another cinema complex in My Dinh.

Korean-invested Lottecinema proves to be a “dangerous” rival of Platinum and MegaStar because its tickets are much cheaper. LotteCinema Landmark owns the largest 3D projection room in Vietnam, with 301 seats. This projection room is equipped with the latest technology while ticket prices are lower than Platinum and MegaStar’s.

To compete with Lottecinema and MegaStar, Platinum is building its second cinema complex at Vincom Long Bien building, with 7 projection rooms. This cinema will open in late March 2012 and only screen digital 3D and 2D movies.

In a short period of time, foreign investors have built cinema complexes worth millions of USD in Hanoi, giving the audience more options.

source form: vietnamnet

 

Finishing school hours at 7 pm, feeling tired and hungry of the curricular lessons, hurriedly having loafs of bread and rushing to evening classes – this is the timetable of many high school students.

Students put under hard pressure

A lot of parents and students complain that they can see only bad things caused by the working hour changes: they have to race against the clock, feel stressed and waste money.

A high school student finishes at 7pm. However, he does not have time to rest. He has to hurriedly have a loaf of bread, or drink a carton of milk before riding bicycle to the evening classes. A lot of students say they do not have time for snack meal and go to the private tutoring classes with empty stomach.

The student can only reach home late, at 10 pm. However, he cannot go to bed immediately, because he still needs to do homework and prepare for the next day’s lessons.

Previously, the school hours finished at 5 pm. Meanwhile, with the new learning shift, 5 pm is the time when the third lesson begins. A lot of students complain that they cannot receive any knowledge in the last two periods, because the energy for a working day nearly gets exhausted at that time.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, a 10th grader of Chu Van An High School in Hanoi, said that he feels hungry when the third lesson finishes. But now, instead of relaxing or playing sports, he still has to “struggle” with two more lessons.

It would be really a burden on the students who have to attend both the morning and afternoon learning shifts. The morning shift finishes at 11.30 am, while the afternoon shift begins at 1.30 pm. As a result, students have to stay at school, which means that parents would have to spend more money for the lunches of their children.

Nguyen Thai Duong, a 11th grader of the Cau Giay High School in Hanoi, said that in the last week, since the new working hour mechanism began, he only has several hours a day to sleep.

“As I have lunch at the canteen, I have to spend more money, about 25,000-35,000 dong per serving,” he said.

Parents also feel worried stiff

The new learning shifts have not only made students, but parents suffer as well. The areas in front of the schools are always crowded in late afternoon with the parents, waiting to pick up their children. Some parents have said they have to neglect some works to take care for the children, because they get too tired these days.

Hoang Thu Hang, who lives in Cau Giay district in Hanoi, said that her son is a 12th grader and he needs to prepare intensively for the university entrance exams and go to private tutoring classes every evening.

“The evening class begins at 7.30 pm, which means that my son only has 30 minutes to travel from his school to the evening class. Therefore, I need to be here to help bring him to the class,” she explained.

Meanwhile, a woman said that she has to go picking up her daughter everyday, because she feels insecure when letting her go on the streets in the evening.

“It is so cold and dark. Meanwhile, she has too many lessons that make her tired. How can she gather energy to ride bicycle?” she said.

Some students said that their parents are too busy and do not have time to take care for them. Therefore, they have to take taxi to go home every day, which is really an additional financial burden on the parents.

source form: vietnamnet

Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe canal was dredged by the HCM City Steering Centre for Anti-flooding Programme last November. Last year the city cleared 39 out of 70 flooding spots through several measures, including dredging 92 canals and sluices. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, Nguyen Huu Tin, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, said the Steering Centre for Anti-flooding Programme should eliminate the other 21 spots by 2015 and prevent new ones.

The 10 spots are located on An Duong Vuong and Hau Giang streets in District 6, Phan Anh Street in Binh Tan, Lanh Binh Thang Street in District 11, Ung Van Khiem and Vu Tung streets in Binh Thanh, National Highway No. 1A in District 12, Quang Trung Street in Go Vap, Go Dua Street in Thu Duc, and Do Xuan Hop in District 9.

Their elimination would reduce flooding in the city significantly and the resultant losses caused to residents and damage to infrastructure, the centre said.

To stop the flooding in the 10 spots, the centre has submitted to the People’s Committee several proposals for draining the water.

For example, to eliminate the flooding in An Duong Vuong Street between Tan Hoa Dong and Ba Hom streets, the centre will build two water drainage systems, one from Ly Chieu Hoang Street to My Thuan Bridge and the other from Ba Hom Street to Mui Tau.

Nguyen Huu Thao, the centre’s director, urged the People’s Committee to approve the projects and allocate enough funds for these projects so that they can be implemented on schedule.

But he admitted that the task of preventing the reoccurrence of flooding at spots that had been cleared and the mushrooming of new spots was difficult, especially because of encroachment of canals, irrigation works, and drainage systems by residents.

Tin called on relevant departments and agencies to hasten the process of studying, approving, selecting construction sites, and issuing licenses for the anti-flooding works.

He also urged them to put a stop to the filling up of canals for building infrastructure and housing.

The heads of district people’s committees had to be held responsible for encroachments of water bodies and dumping of rubbish into canals in their localities, he said.

Last year the city cleared 39 out of 70 flooding spots through several measures, including putting into use more than 200km of sewers and dredging 92 canals and sluices.

source form: dtinews

Academic affairs officers at the HCMC-based Van Hien University are checking out applications in this photo illustration.

Nguyen Tac Anh, president of the Information Technology College Ho Chi Minh City, one of the three punished institutions, complained to Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper that he did not understand why the ministry had announced the ban on his school.

Anh pointed out that its actual student-lecturer ratio is nearly three times lower than the figure the ministry announced after its recent inspection, whereas the school’s new 1.4 ha campus, which is under construction, was not included when the education watchdog calculated its teaching space.

Many other schools which have a higher ratio than the tech school’s have not been forbidden from enrolling new students, he grumbled.

The president said the school’s management board was preparing an appeal to the ministry.

But on Wednesday Dat Viet newspaper reported that the school still accepts the ban and will not enroll new students for the next school year starting in eight months.

Nguyen Mong Hung, president of the second banned higher institution, Van Hien University, which is based in the southern hub, expressed his point-blank opposition to the enrollment prohibition imposed on his school, and asked the ministry to review its decision.

The board chairman of Dong Do University in Hanoi, the other school, told Dat Viet that the ministry had used outdated statistics when working out its number of students.

“The supervisory body did not properly count our faculty members as it did at other schools,” Nguyen Thanh Tinh, the chairman, added.

“That’s why it obtained a very high student-lecturer ratio.”

The bans are the result of the ministry’s inspections of the trio in 2011’s last quarter that showed their student-lecturer ratios well exceeded the national standards, meaning a lecturer has to teach too many students, while also failing to own an appropriate amount of teaching space.

Universities in Vietnam start enrolling students in July for the new school year that often begins two months later.

source form: dtinews

American plastic surgeon McKay McKinnon performed a surgery on Thach Thi Sanh Ly, whose whole body is covered in tumors at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh on Saturday.

Ly, 35 from Tran De, Soc Trang suffers from neurofibromatosis, the same disease with Duy Hai and My Dung’s, two patients whose operations were carried out by the American doctor on Thursday and Friday.

After Hai and Dung, Ly’s surgery which was led by McKinnon with a team of more than 20 doctors from Cho Ray was considered an initial success.

Unlike the large size tumor that both Hai and Dung had, Ly had a countless number of tumors of different sizes covering her from head to toe, a case that was rarely seen even to Dr. McKinnon and other experts at Cho Ray.

After the 6-hour ordeal, a total of 3 kilogram of tumors was removed from the patient.

Doctor Le Hanh, a member of the surgical team said all of Ly’s tumors could not be taken out in only one operation, and the team managed to remove Ly’s biggest tumors or ones that grew in her back, buttocks, hands and faces.

After removing them of her face, the team used skin from her inner thighs and leg where there were less tumors to replace her facial skin.

Cho Ray Hospital will carry out a knee operation so that the patient could walk again, the doctor said, as more than ten years of lying in a curling up position has stiffened her knee joints. The y will also take out the rest of her tumors, he added.

Thach Thi Sa Phai, Ly’s mother said she was born with a tumor in her back and more of which appeared and kept growing on her body later on.

When she was 5, they brought her to a provincial hospital but it said it was unable to treat her. The family gave up their hope then as they were too poor to afford bringing her to other places for treatment.

For 15 years now, Ly was confined in her bed, and no one, except for her family members dared to look at her, the mother said.

source form: tuoitrenews

Colonel Nguyen Nhu Tuan, director of Thai Nguyen Province’s Police Department, suspected an underground gang was the culprit of the explosion that occurred in his house yesterday.

The official, who was appointed to the post a few months ago, said the blast might have been caused by some criminal group to revenge his strong measures to crack down on crimes, including drug use and trafficking, prostitution, robberies, and illegal motorbike racing.

Duong Ngoc Long, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, had the same suspicion. Long said the provincial police had boosted their efforts to eliminate crimes in the past several months.

Particularly, in late 2011 the police busted an inter-provincial gambling gang that had operated on a large scale in Thai Nguyen and Hai Phong city.

Tuan said the province had reported this serious case to the Government and ordered local security forces to strengthen their protection of the houses of high-ranking officials. He said the Ministry of Public Security had also launched an investigation into the case.

As reported, the blast at Tuan’s house occurred at 2 am on Saturday at 191 Luong Ngoc Quyen Street, destroying part of the house and two other houses on its left and right. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Many glass windows, advertising panels, and plastic eaves of nearby houses were also damaged.

By yesterday evening, the provincial police and investigators from the ministry completed their examination of the scene and concluded that the blast had been caused by explosives, Colonel Ho Si Tien, head of the ministry’s Social Crime Investigation Police Department said.

Tien however didn’t reveal the particulars such as the type and weight of the explosives. The police are further investigating.
source form: tuoitrenews

The Government in the last regular cabinet meeting of 2011 has urged its members to join forces to curb inflation and stabilize macro economy this year.

Vietnam gained initial results from implementing the austerity package contained in Resolution No. 11 last year, with the consumer price index (CPI) growth rate slowing down from the second quarter. Lending rates also fell while export surged by 33.3 percent compared to 2010.

Vietnam achieved a GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate of 5.89 percent in 2011, of which primary industry grew 4 percent, industry and construction rose 5.53 percent while service jumped 6.99 percent.

However, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the country saw increasing signs of macro uncertainties due to drastic directions from the resolution.

Fast credit growth rate, shortcomings of the real estate market and of the banking system due to poor liquidity, and bad debts had led to higher-than-allowed capital mobilization. The gold market also suffered wild volatile developments during the year.

Despite the Government’s tightening fiscal policies, total investment still surged strongly last year. Up to over 680 projects using VND1.7 trillion of the State budget, which were not allowed to kick-start in 2011, were still implemented.

Macro uncertainties also hurt the business community as tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises went bankrupt. Many sectors like construction, cement and steel faced challenges.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also named a number of shortcomings that need to be tackled in 2012, including the low quality of legal documents, poor planning and management of natural resources, pressing environmental pollution and traffic congestion and accidents.

According to the cabinet’s latest Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP, in 2012, the Government aims to attain a GDP growth rate of 6 percent – 6.5 percent and total export turnover growth of 13 percent, keep trade deficit at 11 percent – 12 percent of total export value and the consumer price index under 10 percent.

Under the resolution, credit growth will be pulled down to around 15 percent – 17 percent, total money supply growth at 14 percent -16 percent, while budget deficit will be kept under 4.8 percent of the GDP.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Planning and Investment submitted to the Government a draft project on improving the efficiency of State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Regarding the project, Prime Minister Dung said that restructuring SOEs was solely aimed to better their performance so that they would be able to play the leading role in boosting socioeconomic development, stabilizing macro economy, securing macro indexes and others.

The ministry will be responsible for collecting comments from ministries and sectors to finalize the project.

source form: tuoitrenews

First-grade students in their class at Truong Quyen Primary School in HCM City’s District 3

Hoang Truong Giang, vice head of the HCM City University of Pedagogy’s Primary Education Faculty, said the training cooperative programmes between universities and schools were offered to graduates of teacher-training colleges or those who had graduated from other universities.

Speaking at the workshop held yesterday, Giang said the training programmes helped existing teachers improve their professional knowledge and skills and meet the Ministry of Education and Training’s requirements.

They are also offered in some provinces without universities or colleges, which has helped provide more primary-school teachers in those areas.

Giang’s university faculty has been co-operating with many educational institutes, not only in the city but also in other provinces, including Dak Lak, Binh Thuan, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Soc Trang, Ben Tre and Hau Giang.

Truong Thi Lieu, principal at Ly Chinh Thang Primary School No.2 in Hoc Mon District, who attended the HCM City University of Pedagogy’s primary teacher-training cooperation programme, said she had learned new teaching methods that had improved her teaching effectiveness.

Some of the teachers who attended the training programmes won awards in the city’s good-teacher competitions, including the Vo Truong Toaan Award, Lieu said.

Lieu said many of her teachers had benefited from the training programmes.

Currently, her school has the highest number of teachers (15 of 21 teachers at her school) at a district level that have been named a good teacher by district education offices.

In addition, the school’s reputation has improved, and parents in the district trust the school more than before, according to Lieu.

She said she hoped that more programmes would be offered to primary-school teachers who want to increase their teaching effectiveness.

Dr Nguyen Thi Lien Tam, vice rector of Binh Thuan Community College, said the teachers had also learned about using IT. The Ministry of Education and Training has encouraged teachers to use computers to make classroom study more interesting.

In recent years, the HCM City University of Pedagogy as well as many other universities, including Ha Noi University of Pedagogy, has offered such training programmes.

source form: dtinews