Her name seldom crops up in literature debates, but Tran Thuy Mai said that it is her different writing style, gentle yet ardent, that has won the hearts of many in Vietnam and Japan. * Most of your short stories are about love, do you have any secret to make your works genuine? Did you base them on real life situations? I have indeed been writing a lot about love and human love. But to me, every story is about love, which acts as a bridge to thinking about human destiny. In most of my stories, I describe images of people living in my world in the present and the past. When I write, I feel pity for my characters. Sometimes I feel I am living with them, sharing their pain and their happiness. Yes, I can say that their lives seem to be a part of mine. Everybody says that my stories are plainly real. Most of my stories are drawn from the lives of my friends; each of them is a window that helps me understand life better. If a writer is not able to penetrate into the emotions and … [Read more...] about Solace from ‘industrialisation of the soul’
Take care of your body
Companies should take advantage of Vietnamese’s growing tendency to shop on mobile
Data presented at the Vietnam Mobile Day 2016 event held in Hanoi last Saturday showed that m-commerce is on a steady trend of growth in Vietnam.According to Google’s statistics, the percentage of Vietnamese using their smart phones to search for information has surpassed the percentage of people using their laptops to do so. In 2016, searches on fashion, accessories, books, and household electronic appliances on mobile have surpassed those from laptops. In addition, market research company Nielsen’s data showed that smartphone users accounted for 70 per cent of the urban population and 40 per cent of the rural population of Vietnam, and the percentage of those using their phones to shop surpassed 20 per cent in 2015. Data from the Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (VECITA), working under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), showed that during the last Online Friday, the annual online shopping event held by the MoIT, 40 per cent of the … [Read more...] about Companies should take advantage of Vietnamese’s growing tendency to shop on mobile
Cheating the Lord of the Saigon River
“Why are you looking for him?” a neighbor asks, rising slowly from a plastic stool amid the din of trucks and buses racing overhead. “Did somebody die?”Nguyen Van Chuc, 58, is less known for his work as a fisherman than the man you call when you find a dead body. Everyone in this small riparian community has his phone number. Decades spent on the water in all weather have tanned his skin over aging muscles. His stubbly beard fails to conceal the wry smile forever creeping across his lips in dark moments.“Sometimes, if I'm lucky, ah no, if they are lucky, I also save people,” Ba Chuc said as I climbed aboard his small, wooden boat docked under the bridge. Paintings of the Virgin Mary and official certificates of praise line the walls of the small wheelhouse that doubles as a bedroom.Chuc steps out onto his terrace (the foredeck) and pours hot water over fresh green tea leaves. He speaks in a mish-mash of northern and southern Vietnamese.“They … [Read more...] about Cheating the Lord of the Saigon River
Trump has a history of questionable behavior with women -NY Times
The Times, which said it based the article on more than 50 interviews, quoted women who recounted episodes in which he treated women as sexual objects and made comments about their bodies. But some women said Trump had encouraged them in their careers and promoted them within his businesses, often in positions in which women tended to be excluded. When asked about the unflattering incidents described in the article, Trump either denied that they took place or disputed the details, the newspaper said. "A lot of things get made up over the years," Trump told the Times. "I have always treated women with great respect." A Trump representative did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment. Barbara Res, who oversaw construction of Trump's Manhattan business headquarters, said he would sometimes interrupt meetings with comments about women's figures. During a job interview for a Los Angeles project, for example, Trump made a random aside about Southern California women. … [Read more...] about Trump has a history of questionable behavior with women -NY Times
Working from the goodness of their hearts
Some people are just so, so good to others. Examples of such people are a doctor and a nurse who no longer work in their old jobs because they are now old. However, they run a clinic in Ha Noi to help sick people and they treat them for free. A doctor and a nurse, both retired, have provided free health checks for more than 20 years to patients in Ha Noi.— - VNS Photo Kim Thuy by Kim Thuy HA NOI (VNS) — For more than 20 years, Dang Thi Nhan, 67, has been waking up about 30 minutes earlier each day to bake cakes or prepare tea for two retired doctors in a clinic near her house in Ha Noi's Giap Bat Ward. That is all Nhan can offer as thanks to doctors who provide free health checks for herself, her paralysed husband and their 43-year-old disabled son. "If one day they cannot take care of themselves and need some one to look after them, I will do it voluntarily till the day they are gone," Nhan … [Read more...] about Working from the goodness of their hearts
Man with a heart of gold helps Vietnamese children
A very kind businessman from the United States has been good to children in Viet Nam. He has not only brought up Vietnamese children on his own. He has also paid lots of money to make the lives of unlucky children in Viet Nam a bit better. The businessman started to become interested in helping children from Viet Nam after he visited places in the country for children with problems. Loving couple: Robert Kalatschan and his wife Dorothea pose for a photo with a newborn at the Father's House – a special home for misfortunate single mothers. - Photo courtesy of Giving It Back To Children Foundation by Le Huong To hundreds of unfortunate children and young women in the central province of Quang Nam, successful American entrepreneur Robert Kalatschan and his family are more than donors, who have provided free accommodations, education, medical care and food. For they have also brought love … [Read more...] about Man with a heart of gold helps Vietnamese children
Work a massage into your holiday agenda
by Nguyen My HaWinter in Ha Noi and the northern part of the country is getting to its height as 2014 approaches its end. As everyone struggles to meet tight year-end deadlines or sales targets, you are stretched to the limit and beyond as you hustle to get work done ahead of a long-awaited holiday.Though Christmas is not a public holiday in Viet Nam, more and more Vietnamese are enjoying the happy spirit of this Christian tradition and celebrating it with their families and friends. But before all those good things happen, we have to face the reality: too much work and we catch a cold or worse. Just before this story got edited, one of my colleagues was not able to meet a deadline because he was suffering from such a bad sinusitis infection that he could not even think straight. In such a situation, pills may or may not provide some relief, but Vietnamese have a healthy way to treat a cold: a steaming hot herbal sauna. Well, not everyone can afford a sauna, you would say. That might … [Read more...] about Work a massage into your holiday agenda
Child abuse case highlights importance of good parenting
by Thu VanWhen I started these words, thinking about the things I'm going to write down, I can't help but feel my chest go tight and achey, my heart constricted and my head almost exploding.I can't even count the times I've been having these feelings in the past few days, since I read about two so-called babysitters who cruelly tortured two children at their private child care center in HCM City. I don't want to recall it, but still have to: in a video posted by local Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Le Thi Dong Phuong, 31 and Nguyen Le Thien Ly, 18, viciously slap and hit, grab and shake, and pinch noses to make two little children eat faster. The little ones try to swallow the food, in lots of tears. In the video, Ly lifts up the little girl and dunks her into a large water drum, despite her pitiful cries. And I can't get out of my head the image of the girl's quivering little hands trying to grab Ly's shirt, begging, crying, in vain. As much as I feel an intense anger and detest the two … [Read more...] about Child abuse case highlights importance of good parenting
Small pleasures come out of tragedy
A teacher from Japan is doing wonderful work with children in Đà Nẵng City. The children have problems as a result of Agent Orange. One child used to lie in bed and not even show that he noticed things around him. The teacher has taught him to wave, smile and bend his head to say “thank you”. The boy’s father is very happy with this progress. ĐÀ NẮNG – A group of ten children affected in different ways by Agent Orange look intently as “Teacher Yo” threads beads with a thin string to make bracelets. Once they get it, they start doing it on their own, and show the results to Yo with excitement. They are rewarded with a bright smile and compliments from the teacher. These were children who barely communicated with anyone before “Teacher Yo” came into the picture. Nonoyama Nobuy, a volunteer teacher with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is working with the children at the Protection and … [Read more...] about Small pleasures come out of tragedy
The Music Of a Flute
Illustration by Do Dung by Nguyen Tran BeLu threw his ta pu (traditional shirt worn by Mong boys) onto the bed of his sister-in-law.He was waiting anxiously.He was waiting to see if his shirt was hanging on his brother's coat hanger. According to Mong custom, if Lu's sister-in-law hung his shirt on his brother Po's coat hanger, it meant she had accepted his hand in marriage. If she threw the shirt out of the room, the sister-in-law did not want to marry Lu.Lu was looking intently through the crack of the earthen wall to the bed in the next room. His best ta pu was lying there behind his sister-in-law, who was holding her son Vu. At times, her back trembled slightly. She must be thinking it over. But why was she thinking for so long? His brother Po had been six feet under for one year, so why could she not forget him?After her husband was dead, she had become ever more beautiful. How strange! Did someone else want to … [Read more...] about The Music Of a Flute