The pressure is real, and it is heavy

Last updated: 7/23/2010 12:00 

I’m also a student from a high school for the gifted who didn’t do well in the latest university entrance exams, so I understand what pressures there are. When the exams ended, I felt sad and empty, because if I failed, I would be listed among the 2-3 percent of my school’s students who didn’t pass the exams.

The pressure at school is heavy. While we were studying for the exams, our teachers would remind us: “The proportion of students passing university entrance exams... is very high, and we have to preserve that achievement.”

Sometimes they said: “Our school’s pass rate last year was 97 percent. Who will fall into the other 3 percent this year?”

I wonder how I can go back to school and how I can face my teachers and friends, considering I am part of the school’s shame now. I didn’t create the pressure by myself; the pressure is real and comes from my school.

Uyen Thi (cute_angel1102@....)

Students’ suicides are sounding an alarm to parents. Many parents are forcing their children to study too much. As some parents were not able to receive higher education when they were young due to financial problems, they now want the kids to get it by all means so their lives will be better.

Vietnamese society, meanwhile, considers it a matter of prestige to enter a university, making students study hard to perform well and enjoy that prestige.

The pressures are even heavier for good students who are their families’ pride and have their own pride. Therefore, when they don’t do well in the exams, they lose that pride and feel scared of their own family and those around them, and finally kill themselves.

I hope parents can “wake up” after Sy’s case. Don’t create expectations that are too high and place too much pressure on children. Instead, let them study and choose careers in accordance with their own capacities.

Professor Vu Gia Hien (psychologist)

Every parent and teacher insists that it’s a shame that a student from a gifted class or gifted school can’t pass the university entrance exams. They demand the student pass the exams to prestigious schools with high scores.

I was a student who majored in biology from a famous school in Ho Chi Minh City. Everybody around me, including my parents, friends, relatives and even neighbors, always believed that a biology major must enter a medical university.

Last year I failed the entrance exams to HCMC University of Medicine and Pharmacy, but managed to enter the HCMC University of Economics. Still, everyone looked down on me. A neighbor even told me plainly: “As a biology major, you couldn’t even enter a medical school.”

Mai Chi (kinochip@...)

Pressure from schools and society, combined with very high expectations from families and students themselves are unavoidable for a student with a good (academic) performance or a student from a school for the gifted. If that student fails the university entrance exams, he or she must have a really strong will to overcome their relatives’ disappointed look, the community’s bad comments, and their own bitter disappointment.

We say entering a university is not the only way for students. But society still attaches great importance to a person’s certificates. And, students who perform well still believe university entrance exams are a measure of their capacity, and passing it is their only target.

Hong Hanh (hoahanhdo@...)

Rare sharks released into Nha Trang waters

Last updated: 8/9/2010 15:20 

Vinpearl Land Tourism Company released 25 rare baby brownbanded bamboo sharks into the sea around the central resort town of Nha Trang Sunday.

The sharks (Chiloscyllium punctatum), aged between one and three months old, are the offspring of three pairs of sharks currently in Vinpearl aquarium, part of Vinpearl Land Resort.

Found in the Indo-West Pacific from Japan to northern Australia, the sharks are classified as “near threatened” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ Red List.

Major threats to the sharks, 1.04 metres when fully grown, include the loss of their habitat, pollution, and hunting for the aquarium trade and food.

Reported by Thien Nhan

Cross-country train collides with truck injuring three

Cross-country train collides with truck injuring three 

Last updated: 8/7/2010 10:00 

Three people were injured when a transnational train collided with a 20-ton truck in the northern province of Ha Nam Friday.
The collision occurred around 8 a.m. in Tan Tien Commune.
Witnesses said the train carrying roughly 350 people ploughed the truck full of sand over 20 meters down the line. Three cargo cars derailed.
Ha Quoc Hung, chief of Hanoi Gas Station, said the truck driver and his subordinate were rushed to hospital along with the train's driver. Hung added that the passengers were transferred to cars and driven to Hanoi.
The accident caused another three trains to be delayed for between one and two hours, according to Hung.
Pham Van Binh, chief of Vietnam Railway Traffic Safety Committee, said the crash occurred at an illegally opened crossing.
Local authorities should be held responsible for the accident, because they failed to properly manage the crossing, according to Thanh Van Thanh, chief of the National Traffic Safety Committee.
According to Thanh, a recent inspection showed that 1,140 crossings have been opened illegally across the country.
The commission has cooperated with Roads and Railway Traffic Police and local governments in tackling the problem, but outlaws across the country continue to break official barriers and open new crossings.
An investigation into the accident’s cause is now underway.
Last month northern Vietnam recorded three collisions between trains, cars and motorbikes. The spate of wrecks claimed six lives and seriously injured two.

Reported by Thanh Nien Staff 

Thang Long Royal Citadel named World Heritage site

Last updated: 8/1/2010 11:30

A dragon sculpture in the Thang Long Royal Citadel that has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO

The Thang Long Royal Citadel has been named a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the UN cultural and scientific body, according to a statement on the government website Sunday.

The decision was made Sunday morning (Vietnam time) during a 10-day meeting in Brasilia where the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization revised its list of environmentally or culturally unique sites.

“This is an invaluable and meaningful gift for Vietnamese and the people of Hanoi just ahead of the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi,” the statement said.

The Thang Long Royal Citadel met three out of six selection criteria, including exhibiting an important interchange of human values over a span of time; bearing a unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization; and being associated with events or living traditions.

Nearly 900 environmentally or culturally unique sites have been named in the World Heritage list so far.

Vietnamese entries in the list prior to the latest recognition are: the Complex of Monuments in the old imperial capital of Hue; Ha Long Bay; Hoi An Town; My Son Sanctuary and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

Source: Thanh Nien

Grilling it up Saigon style

Last updated: 8/6/2010 10:15

Grill beef at 3T Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1

Chatting over sizzling meat has become a favorite pastime of locals and tourists alike in Ho Chi Minh City.

There is nothing quite like the lazy gluttony of whiling away an evening in the comforts of the city’s “barbeque villages” - essentially carnivore-centric beer gardens where friends and family can gather for long, languorous meals.

If you’re looking to join in the fun, check out Lang Nuong Nam Bo (Southern Barbecue Village), Lang Nuong Phuong Nam (Phuong Nam Barbecue Village), and Lang Nuong Thuy Tien (Thuy Tien Barbecue Village).

Almost nothing is spared from the fire at these joints. Chickens, snakehead fish, frogs, goats, ducks, prawns and crab are all sacrificed to the gods of deliciousness.

Unlike Western grill-meisters who tend to brine, dry rub or simply slather their BBQ before slow-roasting or smoking it – Vietnamese chefs have come to cleverly cook their critters in clay or bind them up in fragrant leaves.

Scan the menus for ga nuong la chanh (grilled chicken with lemon leaves), ga nuong lu (chicken roasted in a clay jar), ech nuong sa ot (grilled frog with citronella and chili), thit de nuong (grilled goat meat), vit nuong chao (grilled duck with fermented tofu) and chim se nuong sa ot (grilled sparrow with citronella and chili).

Purists, in Vietnam, swear by clay alone.

If you relish the subtle flavor of a given animal, opt for the dishes that eschew preliminary preparations altogether.

The ultra-traditional ga nuong dat set is prepared by encasing a disemboweled chicken (feathers and all) in clay and cooking it in the coals. After being buried in coals, the bird is broken out of its shell and served with chili, salt and lime juice.

Ca loc nuong dat set employs the same method on the toothsome and startlingly resilient snakehead fish

This kind of fresh water fish has been a delicacy all over Asia for quite some time.

After baking the fish, wrapped in dat set (clay), in coal, the casing is cracked open and eaten hot in a kind of do-it-yourself wrap – fresh herbs, rice paper and nuoc cham (fish sauce mixed with lime, chili, garlic and sugar).

Those who are curious to try a few strange dishes, stop into Binh Quoi 1 Tourist Village at 1147 Binh Quoi Street, Binh Thanh District, tel: (08) 3 556 5891 or Huong Dong Restaurant at 68 Huynh Tinh Cua Street, District 3, tel: (08) 3 820 3273.

Places to go...

Those who cannot live without marinade should stop into Pho Ga Nuong Nguyen Van Nghi Go Vap (Go Vap Barbecue Chicken Street) at Le Quang Dinh Street, Go Vap District.

The folks on BBQ Chicken Street like to cook their bird in two ways - on the grill or in a clay jar with a porous bottom.

Frequenters of the establishment find the clay jar method yields a tenderer sort of meat. As the bird cooks over the flame, the fat drops slowly down through the bottom leaving the meat soft and sweet.

To ensure a richer flavor, the clay jar chicken is marinated in a savory honey both before and after grilling. The price is VND150,000-250,000/chicken.

Those BBQ fans looking for atmosphere should head to 3T Restaurant located on the 3rd floor, 29 Ton That Thiep Street, District 1. Tel: (08) 3 821 1631.

For VND65,000 apiece, diners can’t go wrong with a plate of charred frog legs or grilled goat ribs in five spices. The menu is broad and relatively cheap throughout.

Located high above the city, diners can enjoy the bright city skyline against a thicket of bamboo. Kim, manager of 3T Restaurant, says that her customers enjoy the restaurant because it evokes Vietnam’s rural landscape and because the dishes are so unique and tasty.

Reported by Nguyet Anh

Blue ear disease hits 11 provinces in Vietnam

Last updated: 7/31/2010 13:10

As of Friday (July 30), blue ear disease has affected pigs in 11 provinces across the country, the Department of Animal Health reported.

The southern provinces of Tien Giang and Soc Trang were the hardest hit, according to the department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Other problem areas include the central provinces of Nghe An and Quang Tri, the Mekong Delta province Bac Lieu, and the northern province of Cao Bang, the department said. However, it didn’t elaborate on the total number of affected pigs.

The epidemic disease, known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, is likely to spread further, Van Dang Ky, head of the department's office warned.

Ky listed a number of reasons that could have led to the outbreak, including local people and officials’ negligence regarding preventive measures as well as their lack of necessary education.

In June 2009, the department said that Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu and blue ear disease. On April 3, however, blue ear cropped up again in the northern province of Hai Duong

Source: Tuoi Tre

Blue ear disease hits southern city

Last updated: 8/7/2010 11:00
Blue ear disease has been discovered in Ho Chi Minh City, prompting local agencies to destroy 194 pigs in District 12, the city’s Animal Health Agency announced Friday.
The southern city has yet to be listed as an official outbreak site because the virus has only been found in healthy pigs, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Hoang Van Nam, chief of the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as saying.
As of Friday the disease, known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, has hit 16 provinces across the country, according to the department.
Since late last month over 43,000 pigs have been sickened, half of which have been destroyed, Duong Van Ky, an official from the department said.
In June 2009, the department annouced that Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu and blue ear disease.
On April 3, however, blue ear cropped up again in the northern province of Hai Duong.
Reported by Thanh Nien Staff