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Boat People SOS Helps Vietnamese Workers in Jordan Flee Beatings, Abuse  Press Release Contact: Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director
February 29, 2008
(001) (703) 538-2190
Photo (vietnamese worker): Worker Tran Thi Anh was beaten although she was sick.
FALLS CHURCH, VA, February 29 – Over 170 Vietnamese sweatshop workers in Jordan have escaped abuses that included being beaten, overworked, and cheated out of wages, according to the US-based nonprofit Boat People SOS (BPSOS), which intervened on their behalf.
“Through the International Organization for Migration (IOM), we have succeeded in getting the Jordanian government to rescue these workers, who should be allowed to return home,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, the executive director of BPSOS, which in 2000 played a crucial role in rescuing more than 200 Vietnamese and Chinese held under conditions of indentured servitude by the American Samoa Daewoosa sweatshop.
The workers, all women except four, had signed a contract with W&D Apparel that set their salary at US$220 per month, and had paid a Vietnamese labor export firm an advance of nearly US$1,600. However, once they were in Jordan, their employer, a Taiwanese national, confiscated their personal documents, worked them for up to 16 hours a day, and paid them only US$80-$150 per month. The workers struck for adherence to the original contract.  |
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Movie: The Leaves of Time
[17/03/2007 - Vietnam Review]
Posted by Danny Lee in Entertainment (Wednesday February 14, 2007 at 4:04 pm)
“Những Chiếc Lá Thời Gian - The Movie” retraces the steps of a Vietnamese immigrant on the bumpy road to success in America, through sweat and tears.
The cast includes first class Vietnamese actors: Quang Dũng, and Việt Trinh, with Miss Asia USA 2006 Jenny Phạm, as a special guest star. The movie is directed by Lê Cung Bắc (in Vietnam) and Bùi Quang Đạt (in the U.S.). Screenplay by Châu Thổ and Bùi Quang Đạt.
Nguyễn, the movie’s protagonist, leaves Vietnam for the U.S., with the promise to return after three years to marry his first love, Thủy. In America, Nguyễn finds himself in various difficult situations, due to his misunderstanding of the local culture and his limited language skills. Nguyễn juggles with several menial jobs trying to put aside some savings.   |
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Buddhism in Vietnam
[02/06/2007 - Vietnam Review]
BS Trần Xuân Ninh
May 28, 2007
[TTVN: Ở dưới là bài trình bày của BS Trần Xuân Ninh tại Hội Nghị SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURE AND RELIGION (SSEASR) kỳ 2 tổ chức tại Bangkok, Thailand.]
It is not known exactly when Buddhism came to Vietnam. In his book Le Bouddhisme en annam des origines jusqu’au XIIIè siècle, believed to be from the 3rd century, Trần Văn Giáp asserts that Mâu Tử from China was the first person to preach Buddhism in Vietnam. Recent researchers maintain it is actually earlier (3 centuries BC), relying on stories of prehistoric heroines and personalities. As examples of Buddhism before the 3rd century, they cited Chử Đồng Tử the first Vietnamese Buddhist (under the 18th Hùng King), and assumed that Vietnam had a well-developed sangha by the time of Princess Bát Nàn and general Thiếu Hoa, heroines fighting under the Trung sisters against the Han armed forces in 39 BC. After the feat, Bát Nàn became a nun at Tien La pagoda; Thiếu Hoa was a nun before joining the Trung sisters. They also pointed to some pagodas like Lien Trì, which was built in the Hung Vuong era before 258 BC, and Truc Vien in Saison, Son Tay (100 BC). According to these researchers, Buddhism came to Vietnam directly from India and Mâu Tử (160-230) and Khương Tăng Hội (200-280), believed to be the first Buddhist preachers in Vietnam, actually studied Buddhism from Vietnam and went back to preach in China. They also based their theory on the word “bụt” Vietnamese used to call Buddha, while Phật is the Chinese word used by Huyen Trang in the 7th century translating Buddhist sutras. |
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Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double of Pham Xuan An
[20/09/2007 - Vietnam Review]
By Larry Berman
New York, HarperCollins, 2007
More than a secret agent, a reporter, a Communist, he was a friend to many people, a true internationalist and humanitarian. Historian Larry Berman's latest book, Perfect Spy, is a biography of Vietnam's greatest undercover operative, Pham Xuan An, multiply awarded as a hero of his country. It is the tale of a complicated man who risked his life to both save his country from foreign invasion and to save the lives of many people on both sides of the war.
Pham Xuan An joined the Communist Party in the 1940s because he believed in the Party's anti-imperialist ideals and its goal of uniting the country under a sovereign power. Because An enjoyed American culture, could speak English, and made friends with a number of prominent Americans, the leadership of the independence forces centered in the Communist Party approached him about taking on a special mission. |
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Vietnam: Beyond Fish and Ships
[19/09/2007 - Vietnam Review]
by Jago Penrose, Jonathan Pincus and Scott Cheshier
Far Eastern Economic Review
September 2007
Nguyen Huu Thanh left his university post in 1986 to take a job with a state-owned seafood processing company. After 11 years and countless administrative hurdles, he obtained a loan to set up a private seafood company to export to the Japanese market. Turnover in 2000, the company’s first year of operations, was $5 million. By 2006 Viet Foods supplied nearly 40% of the sushi shrimp consumed in Japan, recorded revenues of $63 million, and employed 3,300 workers.
One thousand kilometers away in Hai Phong, the Nam Trieu shipyard, a member company of the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin), is putting the finishing touches on another 53,000 deadweight ton vessel produced under contract to Graig Shipping of the United Kingdom. Vinashin, a state-owned conglomerate, posted $718 million in revenues in 2006 and claims to have orders worth around $10 billion. |
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Accountability and Inequality in Single-Party Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam and China
[04/06/2008 - Vietnam Review]
Published: June 4, 2008
Paper Released: May 2008
Authors: Regina Abrami, Edmund Malesky, and Yu Zheng
Executive Summary:
While both China and Vietnam have experienced rapid annual growth over the past two decades, income inequality has risen more rapidly in China than in Vietnam during the same period. Structural and socio-cultural determinants fail to account for these divergent paths, as nearly every variable predicts higher inequality in Vietnam. This paper by Regina Abrami and colleagues focuses on differences in political institutions to explain these divergent paths. In so doing, it contributes to a growing body of literature describing variation in authoritarian regimes, but focuses on variation within one authoritarian regime type. Key concepts include:
Compared with China, Vietnam's institutions empower a larger group of insiders and place far more constraints on the party leadership, both through vertical checks and through semi-competitive elections. As a result, Vietnamese economic policies must consider a larger cross section of society. |
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National Geographic Traveler: Vietnam
[19/09/2007 - Vietnam Review]
Source: Barnes & Noble
Product Details
ISBN: 0792262034
ISBN-13: 9780792262039
Format: Paperback, 272pp
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Sales Rank: 58,590
Series: National Geographic Traveler Series
From the Publisher
This authoritative guide to all the major sights you'll want to see in Vietnam-and many lesser known surprises as well-leads readers from the ancient capital of Hanoi, a lovely city of parks and lakes, to the now-silent battlefields where first France and then America met defeat, to booming Ho Chi Minh City (once Saigon) and the steamy waterworld of the Mekong Delta.
Northern highlights include magnificent coastlines and tiny villages tucked away in the mountainous jungle. North-Central Vietnam echoes with wartime memories, evoked by a visit to Vietnamese tunnels or a drive along the DMZ. Historic Hue offers a centuries-old citadel and the fabled Nguyen tombs; farther south, the Central Highlands boast national parks like Cat Tien, home to rhinoceros, crocodiles, and many species of monkeys. Ho Chi Minh City offers urban sophistication: skyscraping hotels, boutiques full of Western-style goods- and the sobering Museum of Ho Chi Minh City and Reunification Palace commemorating the North's victory in 1975. |
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A Damaged Brand
[15/11/2007 - Vietnam Review]
By Duy Hoang
Commentary, the Wall Street Journal
November 15, 2007
Founded in 1930, the Vietnamese Communist Party is struggling with its identity -- and role. Take the current debate over whether to change the party's name. This rebranding exercise stems from a recognition that the communist label is anachronistic, and reflects poorly on officials who travel abroad to pitch trade and investment. And it's not mere semantics -- the party's name says a lot about the party's perception of itself and the image it wants to project at home and abroad.
Reports of a possible name change began floating early last year, prior to the 10th Party Congress. The articles, which appeared in Vietnamese-language, state-run Web sites, were probably meant as a trial balloon to gauge public opinion. Like the tough talk on corruption, discussion of the name change ceased right after the party conclave, with no further official action. |
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