Việt Nam News

In what can be described as an overzealous move, authorities in the capital city have seriously drafted a Code of Conduct to “guide and correct” people’s behaviour in public places.

Expressions of anguish and outrage came in thick and fast as two young teachers of the Sen Vàng Kindergarten in Hà Nội, both in their early 20s, were recorded using slippers to slap and beat children, and scolding them rudely and cruelly.

After 30 years of the Đổi mới (Renewal) reform, Việt Nam has recorded significant achievements in socio-economic development, lifting  nearly 30 million people  out of poverty. However, increasing income and wealth inequality is threatening the progress made in decades.

Here in Việt Nam, a TPP member long hyped as its largest beneficiary, the agreement is no longer an issue of major concern. The focus is on how trade liberalization will move in the coming months and years, with or without the US, and what the new directions are for smaller TPP members, especially export-driven economies like Việt Nam.

Stories about unsavoury incidents at schools have been doing the rounds a lot these days.

However, most of them have involved some kind of misbehaviour by students, followed sometimes by improper responses from teachers or school administrations. The latest one was a bit different.

There are criminals that can be rehabilitated and crimes that can be forgiven.

But child molest must absolutely not be one of them.

Imagine risking your life every day just to go to school.

If you’ve been in Viet Nam long enough, chances are that you’ve heard of all the ways many poor kids in the country, especially in remote and mountainous areas, have to take to go to school.

Aida Hadzialic became the youngest ever minister in the history of Sweden at the age of 27. Before taking office as the Minister for Upper Secondary School, Adult Education and Training in 2014, the talented, young woman who fluently speaks five languages already served as a deputy mayor of the city of Halmstad when she was only 23. Though having to resign following an alcohol limit breach while driving in August, Hadzialic basically represents a breeze of fresh air that every Vietnamese looks for in the Government filled with old men and women who seemed out of breathe catching up with the world moving too fast.

It was around this time last year that the world’s leaders came together and committed to end hunger by 2030.  The Sustainable Development Goal to achieve Zero Hunger (SDG2) is an ambitious target, especially for the countries in our Asia-Pacific region including Viet Nam. After all, nearly two-thirds of the world’s undernourished – 490 million people – live among us in what is the biggest and most dynamic yet extremely inequitable region on the planet.

When Việt Nam’s main legislative body, the National Assembly, decided on Tuesday to cancel plans to build two nuclear power plants, many lauded the “courageous” move. There is no denying that this decision would have been really tough, after so many years of planning, spending money on feasibility studies, looking for foreign collaboration, and so on.

The global stock market woke up to Wednesday shaded in a volatile red colour, with the exception of Russia, while the Mexican peso slumped to a record low against the US dollars. Elsewhere in Canada, the immigration website crashed, appeared from being overloaded with a steep spike in access as the result of the US election set to emerge. That was not pretty good omen for the 45^th President of the United States Donald Trump.

The night of Tuesday maybe the longest and creepiest night for those people who kept waiting in pain throughout the night to hear any information about their beloved ones who were believed to be among the victims of a karaoke bar blaze in Hà Nội’s Cầu Giấy District.

We’re living in a society where school violence is heard of everyday and becoming more and more serious. While my heart hurts and I almost feel outrageous seeing some kids hitting other helpless ones in some clips that went viral in Việt Nam recently, my mind goes numbing knowing that some of the bullied either died or committed suicide later.

The first draft of Việt Nam’s latest anti-corruption law was published in late June by the Government Inspectorate and has been attracting comment and debate from all sectors of society. If all goes according to schedule, the draft will be submitted to the National Assembly in November of this year.

I did some research and found that the cow belonged to a farmer in Tuyên Hóa District, Quảng Bình Province. He said the flood waters rose to a three-metre high “too quickly” and swept the cow away as he was moving stuff in his house.

Under the Finance Ministry’s newly-issued decision, from October 1, six deputy ministers and heads of the ministry departments will have taxi fares subsidised, depending on the distance from the official’s house to the Ministry of Finance.

At a meeting with HCM City People’s Council last week, a principal of a local public primary school burst into tears while talking about a harsh prohibition in which schools are no longer permitted to operate extra classes.