March 29, 2014
Life of coal workers

VietNamNet Bridge – Beehive-shaped coal makers have to work 12 hours a day in hazardous environment. Most of them are rural men who flock to Hanoi in the hope of creating a better future.

The muddy, rugged road along the Red River, near the Ha Noi port is the home to many beehive-shaped coal making facilities. As the demand for coal is falling, some beehive-shaped coal making facilities were shut down. The remaining facilities have to change the business model and rely on their close customers.

 A large coal enterprise with over ten workers can produce about 10,000 beehive-shaped coal pieces per day. Coal makers start working from 6am until 8pm, in the dusty environment of coal. They earn VND80,000-VND150,000 ($4-7) per day depending on the workload.

  

This work is hard and polluted but many people take their families to Hanoi to do this job together because this job brings more stable income than farm work. Working in a toxic environment,  only a few workers use masks and gloves.

 Coal makers usually stick to this job for two or three years but Mr. Cong has been doing this job for nearly 20 years. Cong could not explain about his attachment to this job. He just knows that thanks to this job he could support his family and bring up his children.

 Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, 23 years old, has been a coal worker for three years. He said he did not study much and he could not have a job at his village so he went to Hanoi to be a coal worker. Doing this job, he feels comfort and at least he can take care of himself.

 Mr. Cuong, from Quang Binh province, has pursued this job for over ten years. He hopes to accumulate enough money to settle down in his hometown.

 Workers are trying to push the box of 2 tons of coal into the kiln.

 Soot is harmful for health but workers don’t care about it. They only wish to be able to feed themselves and their families.

 At the end of the working day, they clean the black soot from their hands. Large brushes are used to scrub the coal.

 Cough and nose-diseases are very familiar with veteran coal workers. Mr. Nam said, each time he bathed, his ears and his nose were black with coal soot.

 Coal workers cook right at their enterprise, using the beehive-shaped coal pieces they made.

 To save living costs, coal makers usually live in the coal enterprises.

March 28, 2014
Vietnam wealthy population to grow fastest in the world: forecast 

 

The n​umber of super-rich individuals with a net worth of at least US$30 million will grow faster in Vietnam than in any other country over the next decade, real estate services provider Knight Frank has said.

The UK-based firm said in a recent forecast that the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals would increase by 166 percent in the country to 293 in 2023.

Indonesia is expected to rank second with a growth of 144 percent, followed by Ivory Coast and Kazakhstan with 116 and 109 percent.

Knight Frank expects Asian cities to see the fastest growth in the number of ultra-wealthy individuals over the next decade. 

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest urban hub, would head the list with the number rising by 173 percent to 246, it said.

The government’s recent move to allow foreign investors to own larger stakes in local banks, the ongoing restructuring of the economy by shifting from agriculture to industry, and success in bringing inflation under control should help underpin growth and offer more opportunities for wealth creation, it said.

Vietnamese economist Bui Kien Thanh said the increasing number of ultra-rich people is sending a positive signal to the economy.

These people should have long-term vision for investments and “clean” financial management, he noted.

He said the government should facilitate local businesses’ growth with its interest rate tools and promote investments in science and technology.

Analysts are even hopeful that the country would see the wealthy population increase more rapidly than forecast by Knight Frank in the next 10 years. 

Vietnam has its first dollar billionaire now in the form of Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of leading property firm Vingroup, who holds Vingroup stocks valued at over VND22 trillion (US$1.04 billion).

The list the of richest people includes Doan Nguyen Duc of conglomerate Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Tran Dinh Long of steel producer Hoa Phat Group, and Dang Thanh Tam of housing developer KBC.

The total assets held by people in the top 10 list have risen by 30 percent to over VND56 trillion ($2.66 billion) this year.

 

Videos: Risky ways to cross waterways in Vietnam
Tuoitrenews

Updated : 03/18/2014 18:12 GMT + 7 

 Villagers across remote areas in Vietnam are risking their lives every day simply by crossing rivers, streams, or canals on their commutes, using their own dangerous ‘techniques.’
Here are some risky crossing ways in Kon Tum, Binh Dinh, Dien Bien, and even in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

 Wrapping themselves in plastic bags

 A strong local man holds a female teacher in one hand and swims across Nam Po stream with the other. Photo by Tuoi Tre

 

People across Vietnam have been shocked to see a video clip showing teachers and students in Sam Lang village, located in the northern province of Dien Bien, getting across a fast-flowing stream by wrapping themselves in a plastic bag to be pulled from one bank to the other on their way to school.   
In the clip, female teachers and students were seen waiting for their turn to traverse Nam Po stream in the plastic bag.
Local strong men were captured holding the bag’s mouth in one hand and swimming across the water with the other hand despite the powerful currents.
There is a bridge over Nam Po stream but it is usually swept away by annual floodwater.
The villagers said that every year the bridge is disassembled during flooding periods and it will be reconnected in the dry season.
“It’s normal! That’s the only way to cross the stream because no bridge can stand floodwater,” local kindergarten teacher Tong Thi Minh, who shot the clip, told the newspaper.
After the clip went viral, the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport said on Monday that they will build a suspension bridge in Sam Lang to ensure safety for locals.

 Using a cable system

 A man and a boy in a village in Dak Nong Commune in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum are pictured getting ready to cross a river using a cable with a pulley in May 2010. Photo by Tuoi Tre

Four years ago, people in a village in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum had to go to school, workplaces and markets by sliding across a 150-meter-long cable with a pulley over a river as if they were modern Tarzans.
According to various Tuoi Tre reports in May 2010, local residents in Dak Ang and Dak Nong Communes used this dangerous cable system, which was hung over 20 meters from the fast-flowing water of the river, for several months after a bridge had been swept away by floodwater.
This crossing ‘tactic’ attracted a lot of media attention then. More than one month later, local authorities began the construction of a bridge in that area at a cost of VND1.5 billion (US$.71,000) sponsored by a Vietnamese businesswoman.

 Rowing a raft

 A man in a village in Binh Dinh Province risks his life as he tries to cross a river on a damaged bridge. Photo by Tuoi Tre

Children go to a primary school in the O5 village in Binh Dinh Province without life jackets. Photo by Tuoi Tre

About 260 families in several far-flung villages in the central province of Binh Dinh had to cross the swift-flowing waterway aboard a weak and small raft or even a badly-damaged bridge on their daily travels, as suspension bridges over the local section of the Kôn River connecting their accommodations to the outside world had collapsed, according to a Tuoi Tre report last December.

Many people were concerned that this could pose risks to local children since there were no life jackets or rescue equipment on the raft.
A bridge connecting two banks of the river has been built in the area, according to local authorities.

 Rowing boats with a rope

A man tugs a rope to move his raft with children and women onboard in Ngoc Lieu hamlet in this photo taken in April 2013. Photo by Tuoi Tre

Suffering the same fate as the Binh Dinh villagers were more than 500 people in Ngoc Lieu hamlet, a small riverside neighborhood in Hanoi’s outlying Thuong Tin District.
They used a small boat covered in rust to ford a canal because there was no bridge, according to a Tuoi Tre article in April last year.
The boat, which was the village’s only, had no engine so someone had to stand on it and tug a rope with its ends fixed on both banks to make the vehicle move across the canal.
“The boat capsized several times and my two children and their textbooks got soaked in the water as a result. But thanks to God, they are alive because they were accompanied by adults,” said 36-year-old Nguyen Thi Man, a local resident.
Local authorities said the construction of a bridge in the area would be completed in early 2014.



 What Vietnamese spend their money on?

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese rank seventh in the world in the amount of gold consumed, the third in Asia in the volume of beer drunk and it always is one of the biggest instant noodle consumers in Asia.

Vietnamese like gold

The report of the World Gold Council (WGC) showed that while the world’s demand decreased by 51 percent in 2013, the demand for gold still increased by 23 percent and the demand for gold jewelries by 4 percent in Vietnam.

An expert noted that the WGC’s report is reliable. “The market is now quiet, but this does not mean that it is frozen. People keep buying gold. This is why 70 tons of gold put into auctions by the State Bank has been sold out,” he said.

General Director of VGB Tran Thanh Hai noted that the fear for high inflation is the main reason which prompts people to continue buying gold, even though the watchdog agency has been trying every possible way to ease the “goldenization” in the national economy.

The gold price in the domestic market is VND36.06-36.13 million per tael.

Vietnamese spend billions of Dong on beer, dog meat

 While tens of thousands of businesses have shut down in the economic downturn, breweries still have been prospering with the steady growth rate of 10 percent per annum. 

This is because breweries have a vast domestic market. Vietnam has always been among the 25 biggest beer drinkers in the world, while it is the third in Asia and leader in South East Asia.

A report showed that in 2012, Vietnam consumed 3 billion liters of beer, worth $3 billion.

In 2010, Vietnamese drank 200 million liters of H. beer, one of the best-known brands in the world, ranking third to the US and French in the list of the 170 markets where the brand has been present.

Vietnamese have also been famous in the world as eating 5 million dogs a year.

They also make records in the amounts of instant noodles consumed. A report of WINA, an instant noodle association, released in mid-2013 showed that 5 billion packs of noodles is consumed in Vietnam every year.

There are 50 instant noodle manufacturers in Vietnam which make out 50 billion packs of noodle a year, according to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2012. Every Vietnamese consumes 1-3 packs a week.

Vietnamese most sparing in ASEAN

While Vietnamese are willing to spend money on their hobbies, they tend to practice thrift in daily life.

The latest report of Nielsen, a market survey firm, showed that Vietnamese are the most sparing in ASEAN.

Seventy-four percent of polled Vietnamese said they would save money after covering basic needs. The proportions were lower in other countries – 72 percent in Indonesia, 68 percent in the Philippines, 66 percent in Thailand, 64 percent in Singapore and 63 percent in Malaysia.

Ninty percent of Vietnamese said they have changed their consumption habits to save money. Most of them have cut down expenses on clothes and entertainment services. Besides, they also try to cut down expenses on gas and electricity bills.

Dat Viet and Vietnamnet

80 percent of Vietnamese still support eating dog meat

VietNamNet Bridge - The majority of Vietnamese people still support eating dog meat because this is a nutritious traditional food in the country.

A recent survey on VietNamNet, with the participation of more than 3,000 readers, showed that only a small part of them protested eating dog meat (20 percent). The majority of people still supported eating dog meat.

Up to 66 percent of the readers said that dog meat is nutritious food and it has been traditional food for a very long time. Some 13 percent said eating dog meat is okay but dog slaughtering must be strictly controlled, avoid embarrassing images.

Most readers said foreign tourists to Vietnam should respect the country’s culture. They should not condemn or boycott the Vietnamese tourism because the Vietnamese eat dog meat. Each nation has its own culture and it is unable to bring cultural norms of this nation to impose on the others. Each nation always has the dishes that other people cannot eat, even disgusting. However, if someone expresses disdain, it is the cultural stigma.

Many people also said that civilization or culture is in human behavior, in the way people communicate with others, not depending on the eating of dog meat or not.

Each dish has its history of existence. The Vietnamese has long thought that eating dog meat in the early year or early month will bring about bad lucks. But eating dog meat at the end of the year or the end of the month after having bad lucks will help chase the bad lucks. As such, they form a "culture" in eating dog meat and Vietnamese not always eat dog meat and dog meat is not daily food.

However, considering that in some ways, if possible, Vietnamese should remove dog meat from their meals.

Today, many families raise dogs as pets and they consider them as friends. Human affection for dogs has been improved, therefore, not eating dog meat will show the friendly attitude to animal lovers at home and abroad. (Vietnamnet)