Left unattended and exposed to the elements for years, thousands of works by former instructors and students of the Hue University of Arts have been seriously damaged.

Oil painting found in…the toilet

According to Nguyen Duc Huy, head of the school’s Science, Technology and International Cooperation Department, when he returned to Vietnam from France in 2009, he was shocked to find an oil painting by one of his former classmates hung in the toilet.

The instructor was later astounded to know the Painting Department had liquidated all graduating artworks of its students during the schools’ 10 training courses at a dirt cheap price.

Since then, artworks made by instructors and students at the school have still been left outdoor, unprotected and uncared-for. Plaster and cement statues are damaged, cracked, chipped away and broken, while paintings are piled up in a corner and left to gradually but irreversibly deteriorate.

“It hurts seeing valuable works of many generations of instructors and artists scattered on the school yard. Almost all of them have been damaged or ruined,” a former instructor lamented when he returned to visit the school.

55-year-old art school has no gallery

Hue University of Arts has been operating for 55 years and produced many talented artists for the local fine arts industry, such as Ton That Dao, Dinh Cuong, Pham Dang Tri, Ton That Van and Le Thanh Nhon.
However, the school has to date had no gallery to exhibit and preserve works by its instructors and students.

“The school doesn’t have any plan to preserve its artworks. This is a serious loss not only to students but also the whole school. This is definitely a lack of memory and a rejection of the school’s tradition,” Nguyen Duc Huy said angrily.

Vo Xuan Huy, instructor in the Department of Applied Arts, said graduating works of high quality are the brand name and the hallmark of the training quality of an art school.

“Fine art is a history of artworks. Without a gallery and serious preservation effort, the people will have reason to question the school’s training quality, not to mention a big waste when the school throws its artworks away,” he added.

For his part, principal Phan Thanh Binh explained that the school has never intended to sell or destroy the students’ works. He also added that most of the school paintings were damaged in a flood in 1999 so the school had to either destroy or sell them.

“So far we still haven’t got enough money to build the classrooms, let alone building a museum to display and store the works,” he explained.

source from: tuoitrenews

A court in Hanoi on May 16 sentenced 48-year-old Tran Thi Tuyet Minh, a resident in Ba Dinh District, to one year and a half behind bars for brutally mistreating her housemaid at the first instance trial.

The victim is 59-year-old Pham Thi Phuong, who was hired by Minh’s daughter to do housework in September, 2011.

Prosecutors said during the time at Minh’s house, Phuong was physically assaulted many times by family members. Complaining that Phuong was slow, Minh often beat her with shoes and even forced the poor housemaid to eat her maternal grandchild’s feces.

But the most brutal cruelty is that Minh forced Phuong to eat 200 grams of chili and then pumped hot water into her body in January 2012.

Minh hired a motorbike taxi driver to bring her back to her hometown in Ung Hoa district in Hanoi one day after that.

On January 7, Minh was put into custody for investigations.

The housemaid Pham Thi Phuong at the first-instance trial on May 16, 2012.

source from: tuoitrenews

source from: vietnamnet

The sandy statue making competition, the first of its kind in the central city, drew the participation of 70 teams.

source from: dtinews

Large discrepancy between wholesale and retail prices for vegetables

These bargain for low buying prices but increase selling rates to multiply their profits.

Lam, a vegetables grower from Dong Du Commune of Hanoi’s Gia Lam District, said, “Vegetables villages often ensure sufficient supply for the inner city but traders often tell consumers that the supply is limited. When they buy from us they complain about the decrease in demand from the city.”

A survey found that there has been a large discrepancy between wholesale and retail prices for vegetables.

In Hanoi’s outlying districts, farmers sell cabbage at VND4,500 (USD0.21) per kilo, but traders drive up retail prices to VND7,000 (USD0.33) per kilo in Hoang Mai District, and VND8,000 (USD0.38) per kilo in Nga Tu So market of Thanh Xuan District.

In the outlying districts of Tay Mo and Ha Dong, small eggplants are priced at VND13,000 (USD0.62) per kilo, but the price can reach VND20,000 (USD0.95) per kilo in Dinh Cong, Hoang Mai, and Truong Trinh Streets and VND22,000 (USD1.05) per kilo in Khuong Thuong Street.

Wholesale tomatoes are sold for between VND2,000 and VND3,000 (USD0.09-USD0.14) per kilo in vegetables villages of Tay Tuu, Minh Khai and Dong Du, but retail prices are about VND6,000 (USD0.28) per kilo in Khuong Thuong market in Thanh Xuan District and Lang Ha market in Ba Dinh District.

The same situation has been recorded for morning glories. Wholesale prices in Phu Dien of Tu Liem District and vegetables villages in Thanh Tri District are only from VND2,000-VND3,000 per bunch, but retail prices are from VND6,000-VND8,000 in Mai Dong market in Hoang Mai District and Mo market in Hai Ba Trung District.

Huyen, a vegetable trader in Mai Dong wholesale market, said that it’s normal to see that prices of vegetables and fruits higher than the prices in the countryside.

However, in fact, this leads to unfairness for the growers.

Pham Thanh Hoang, a farmer from Thanh Tri District, said, “My family has two hectares to grow on. We would like to earn money of course, but it is hard to with the low prices that traders are willing to pay.”

He added that traders often collectively set prices, forcing farmers to sell because there is no alternative.

source from: dtinews

Male model Vinh Thuy was handed a six-month suspended sentence for consuming products smuggled from Australia at a court this morning.

The model whose full name is Le Xuan Vinh Thuy was also fined VND5 million (US$250) and will undergo one year of probation after the suspended sentence ends.

Other defendants in the case, Thai Anh Tien (31) and Pham Tien Trung (30), received suspended sentences of 1.5 years and 1 year respectively on the same charge.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Hoang and Nguyen Duc Vu each received 5 years imprisonment for smuggling electronic items by plane from Australia into Vietnam.

However, the ringleader, Vietnamese-Australian Do Thanh Lam is still at large.

According to the indictment, since 2007, Lam led the ring smuggling electronic products from Australia to Ho Chi Minh City. He was in cahoots with Nguyen Minh Hoang and Nguyen Duc Vu. The latter was working for Tan Son Nhat Airport in charge of transferring baggage.

Vu bribed the airport’s baggage handlers at customs so he could bring the goods out without customs declaration and tax payment.

But the handlers were not prosecuted as “there was insufficient ground for responsibility.”

By June 2010, the ring had made 43 smuggling trips with nearly 1,000 electronic products worth more than VND 6.5 billion (US$325,000).

All the smuggled products were later sold to Vinh Thuy, Thai Anh Tien and Pham Tien Trung.

At the court, the model declared he had bought a total of 75 products from Hoang at cheap prices and then sold them for a profit of more than VND10 million. When things were discovered, Thuy surrendered the entire amount to authorities.

Vinh Thuy entered Top 15 Mister International and won Mr. Photogenic International in 2009. He has been featured in some movies including “Chuyen Tinh Dao Ngoc” (Love Story in the Pearl Island) and “Nhat Ky Bach Tuyet” (Snow White’s Diary).

source from: tuoitrenews

30.25 percent of the fires and explosions that have destroyed a number of vehicles throughout Vietnam since early 2012 were caused by short circuits in their electrical systems, the Ministry of Public Security told a press conference on April 26.

Other causes are technical problems (15.1%), negligence (9.8%), traffic accidents (4.63%) and attempted arson (4.32%), while another 35.5% of the cases are unidentified, the ministry announced in the results of its investigations into the fires.

To many people’s surprise, the quality of petrol was not identified as one of the major causes of the fires, even though it had been widely blamed before.

Regarding the fuel suspicion, Deputy Director of the Department of Standards, Metrology and Quality Tran Van Vinh said the analysis results from petrol samples of 56 burnt-out vehicles have yet to prove that poor-quality gas is the cause of the fires.

However, Vinh added that the Ministry of Sciences and Technology will continue to study the 35.5% of unknown reasons to try to determine if poor-quality gas is a cause.

Since early this year, 115 vehicles have been burst into flames, injuring three people and causing an estimated loss of VND20 billion (approximately US$1million), a report said.

Vehicles that have exploded into flames belong to various brands, including Hyundai, Daewoo, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Kia, and Toyota for cars; and SYM and Honda (Air Blade, SH, Dylan, Wave) for bikes.

source from: tuoitrenews

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stressed that the tourism industry is not just an economic industry, but is part of a profound human cultural event. Hue Festival 2012 is one of the events for National Tourism Year this year in the Northern Central Coastal Area.

The National Tourism Year will be an opportunity to promote and showcase Vietnamese culture to the world and raise public awareness of the need to preserve ancient cultural heritage sites in the northern central coastal area.

The event is a chance for local and international art troupes to perform and highlight different cultures as well as take advantage of many business and investment opportunities in various fields, added Prime Minister Dung.

This year, the biennial Hue Festival in Hue City in Thua Thien-Hue Province from April 7-15 will have 36 art troupes from 28 countries from around the world participating in the event.

A number of cultural activities such as musical performances, folk games, puppetry, martial arts and dance performances will be held during the event.

Some photos of the ceremony, taken by DTiNews:

source from: dtinews

Titled “I Love Sharing,” the event, held by Dong A Bank in collaboration with the HCMC Green Park Company, will gather young local singers who will perform their hits, as well as songs ordered by passers-by and tourists at the venue.

The first show featuring young names like Ha Okio, Thai Trinh and It’s Time Band will take place at 9am this Sunday at Gia Dinh Park in Go Vap District.

According to the organizers, Tao Dan Park and 23/9 Park in District 1 will be the next destinations of “I Love Sharing.”

The event has been organized in Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An and Nha Trang and is scheduled to spread to other provinces and cities until the end of this year.

source from: dtinews

“A historic emigration” is what Nguyen Van Cao, chairman of the People’s Committee of Thua-Thien Hue central province, called the project designed to bring 696 households living aboard junks along rivers around the province onto land.

With a total investment of VND260 billion (US$12.5 million), the project is set to be completed soon, five years after it was begun. Local authorities are entering the final phase of the project by building three resettlement areas in Huong So and Phu Hau wards in Hue city, and Phu Mau commune in Phu Vang district.

An overall report by Phan Trong Vinh, chairman of Hue city’s People’s Committee, says: “The emigrants gradually find a stable life. They are excited to have a new life in these resettlement areas. Their awareness is raised and their children are provided with opportunities to take vocational training courses or to go to school.”

Tuoi Tre correspondents visited a resettlement area in Phu Mau commune as it entered the final phase of construction. Tuoi Tre witnessed many changes in the lives of the many people who used to ‘drift’ from river to river. The area will be home to 326 households with 2,780 members. In this area, 60 young people have been provided with vocational training courses in tailoring and civil electricity. Many of them are currently working in garment factories in the south.

However, many people still live aboard junks and boats along rivers or in squalid shacks built on river banks.

A junk that local woman Vo Thi Chien has been associated with for decades becomes useless when it’s taken ashore.

Most emigrants sell their junks at cheap prices to build new houses on land. In this photo, a junk owned by Huynh Ngoc Sam, a local resident, is being offered for sale.

A woman shelters clothes from the rain using a junk.

Vo Thi Ly and Le Van Sinh are the only couple in the Phu Mau resettlement area able to purchase a sewing machine.

Le Van Cuong and his wife continue to earn their living by catching fish, just like they did in the past. 400 other couples in the Phu Mau resettlement area are stuck in the same situation.

Three years since going ashore, such old junks still remain the main method of transportation for most people in the Phu Mau resettlement area.

For the family of Vo Thi Ngot (first from R), a new life on land is not less difficult than before. She caught fish in the past and now sells fish in the market.

An 8-member family who was not allocated land for resettlement had to set up a shack along the river for shelter.

A 40 square meter structure is home to 4 couples.

Suffering the same way as 70 other households in the Phu Mau resettlement area, couple Tran Thi Lua and Nguyen Van Loi set up a squalid shack for shelter.

The future of these children remains unclear even after they ended their lives floating from river to river.

source from: tuoitrenews