Cornea donation campaign launched in Danang

A meeting was held in the central city of Danang on Tuesday to mark World Day of Vision (Oct. 11) and launch a campaign to encourage local people to donate corneas.

The drive, initiated by the Vietnam Red Cross and Orbis International in Vietnam, will be carried out in the city’s seven districts by 285 volunteers.

It aims to raise public awareness of cornea-related diseases and the significance of cornea donation, and call upon people to register for donation.

The campaign in Vietnam is being carried out on trial in 10 cities and provinces. Nearly 3,200 Red Cross volunteers are joining the drive to spread information about the cornea-related blind disease and encourage people to donate corneas after death.

More than 30,000 people have so far registered.

Vietnam now has over 300,000 blind people who are awaiting cornea transplantation operations but availability is still limited.

Since 2004, Orbis International has been assisting Vietnam to promote eye care and treatment for people and the organization has become the biggest cornea supplier to Vietnam with some 100 corneas each year.

From 2010, the Central Eye Hospital Eye Bank, supported by Orbis, will receive 330 corneas from local voluntary donors annually.

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Netherlands presents new tulip species to Hanoi

Netherlands Prime Minister Peter Balkenende (R) presents the tulips to Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung on the sidelines of ASEAM 8 meeting in Brussels on October 4, 2010

Photo: VNA

The Netherlands Government on Tuesday presented the capital city of Hanoi with a new species of tulip named after Thang Long-Hanoi, as a special gift to mark the city’s 1,000th anniversary.

At the presentation ceremony, Netherlands Ambassador to Vietnam Joop Scheffers said the new tulip strain was created by Dutch biologists.

The tulip has tone values of red and yellow, the two colors of Vietnam’s national flag.

The ambassador said the gift was a symbol of the fine traditional relations between the Netherlands and Vietnam and the Netherlands would soon transfer the technology to grow this tulip species to Hanoi.

On behalf of Hanoi authorities and people, vice chairwoman of the Municipal People’s Committee Ngo Thi Thanh Hang affirmed that the gift was significant and precious.

She said together with the fine cooperation between the countries, the two capital cities – Hanoi and Amsterdam – also enjoyed effective cooperation and exchanges during past years.

She took this occasion to present the Dutch Ambassador with two of the latest pictorial books on Thang Long-Hanoi.

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Commuters say no to buses in Vietnam metro

Rundown buses and faciliites as well as bad service is seeing public transportation deteriorate in Ho Chi Minh City despite increasing subsidies, the Saigon Tiep Thi reports.

Several dozen bus routes are operating inefficienty because of decreasing number of passengers, said Phung Dang Hai, director general of HCMC Transport Co-operative, which operates one-third of the local buses.

In fact, in the first nine months of this year, the co-operative has experienced a 10 percent decline in the number of passengers over last year, Hai said in the news source.

The decrease is “considerable”, although subsidies were raised to VND700 billion (US$35.9 million) from VND600 billion ($30.8 million) last year, Hai said.

The Saigon Tiep Thi reports that the staff's poor attitude towards passengers, the lack of safety, broken air-conditioning systems and other degraded facilities are discouraging people from opting to take a bus.

Reckless driving, including not slowing down while driving over potholes, and the disregard for passenger comfort was blatant, it reports.

“[…] it’s like torture; no one can stand it,” Hoang Vy, a student of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities told the paper. Vy used to take the popular route No.50 to school every day but now she only turns to it when she has no other choice, she said.

The same situation has been reported at other routes of high quality, and it was even worse at normal routes with bad-looking busses, according to the newspaper.

Driver Van T. Dung said that passengers using his bus has reduced sharply over the last few months. He said the buses were not in good condition.

Most local buses have run for nearly ten years and are in need of major maintenance, Hai said, adding that nearly 20 percent of his cooperative’s fleet of more than 800 buses are in the same situation.

The general director said although buses are subsidized, current subsidies aren’t sufficient for companies already mired in debt.

It was almost impossible to set aside money for re-investment when buses are damaged, he said.

He also blamed the HCMC Center of Public Passenger Transport Vehicles, which still owes businesses a total of VND30 billion ($1.54 million) in subsidies for last year’s inflation.

If the center had given them the money right from the beginning of this year, the cooperative’s members would have been able to upgrade buses, and prevented the current situation.

Hai suggested authorities force businesses to set aside part of subsidies for maintenance and repairs and allow them to access loans at preferential interest rates..

However, the HCMC Department of Transport has blamed the transportation companies, saying subsidies approved by the city authorities already included repair and maintenance fees as regulated..

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Father, son repeatedly rape girl

Police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc on Sunday arrested a father and son for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl over the last six years.

In September, doctors discovered the ninth grader was 25 weeks pregnant when she showed up to receive a tetanus vaccination at school. She was underage and didn't receive proper pregnancy care, so the belly wouldn't grow signficantly.

According to police, Nguyen Van Minh, 59, used to rape the girl at her house when her parents were away. Minh told the girl not to tell anyone, making the girl think that it would be embarassing for her.

Minh repeatedly raped the girl until his daughter-in-law, Le Thi Soan, found out and told her husband, Nguyen Van Trung, 31.

Trung immediately tried to rape the girl at her house but failed to force her into it. Then, one day in February, the girl came to his house to borrow some spices. Trung raped her after threatening to tell everyone that she had intercourse with his father.

Minh and Trung have been charged with “child rape”.

In Vietnam, individuals convicted of raping a minor are likely to face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

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Father, son repeatedly rape girl

Police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc on Sunday arrested a father and son for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl over the last six years.

In September, doctors discovered the ninth grader was 25 weeks pregnant when she showed up to receive a tetanus vaccination at school. She was underage and didn't receive proper pregnancy care, so the belly wouldn't grow signficantly.

According to police, Nguyen Van Minh, 59, used to rape the girl at her house when her parents were away. Minh told the girl not to tell anyone, making the girl think that it would be embarassing for her.

Minh repeatedly raped the girl until his daughter-in-law, Le Thi Soan, found out and told her husband, Nguyen Van Trung, 31.

Trung immediately tried to rape the girl at her house but failed to force her into it. Then, one day in February, the girl came to his house to borrow some spices. Trung raped her after threatening to tell everyone that she had intercourse with his father.

Minh and Trung have been charged with “child rape”.

In Vietnam, individuals convicted of raping a minor are likely to face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

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Slaves found in central highlands forest

Police in the central highlands province of Quang Nam on Monday said they freed 32 people who had been enslaved for six months.

Vietnamnet reported that the people, all of whom belong to the Bhnoong ethnic minority group, were recruited to grow acacias in Dak Nong Province in April.

One of the victims, Ho Van Chan, said the recruiter, Do Ngoc Lan, 44, promised to pay each of them VND1.8-2.1 million (US$92.4-107.8) a month and provide them with three meals a day.

However, they didn’t receive any pay for months and were forced to engage in heavy manual labor without proper meals, Ho Thi Bong, another victim, said.

They worked in a forest in Dak R’mang and couldn’t contact their families or leave, the victims said.

The laborers were discovered when Phuoc Son District police received reports from families and sent out a search party.  

Vietnamnet reported that Ho Van Chuong, one of the victims, died from malaria Friday, prompting Lan to flee. He was later caught.

Lan said he and his wife, 45-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, were contracted to recruit workers for Dak Lak Paper Materials Factory, the news source reported.

The married couple comes from Kon Tum province and didn’t know much about Quang Nam. They asked Ho Van Xia, chief of Hamlet No.4 in Phuoc Chanh Commune to introduce them to local laborers.

Xia was paid VND100,000 ($5.13) for each worker he introduced to Lan.

Investigations are ongoing.

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Netherlands presents new tulip to Hanoi

The Netherlands Government on Oct. 5 presented the capital city of Hanoi with a new species of tulip named after Thang Long-Hanoi, as a special gift to mark the city’s 1,000th anniversary.

At the presentation ceremony, Netherlands Ambassador to Vietnam Joop Scheffers said the new tulip strain was created by Dutch biologists.

The tulip has tone values of red and yellow, the two colours of Vietnam’s national flag.

The ambassador said the gift was a symbol of the fine traditional relations between the Netherlands and Vietnam and the Netherlands would soon transfer the technology to grow this tulip species to Hanoi .

On behalf of Hanoi authorities and people, Vice Chairperson of the Municipal People’s Committee Ngo Thi Thanh Hang affirmed that the gift was significant and precious.

She said together with the fine cooperation between the countries, the two capital cities – Hanoi and Amsterdam – also enjoyed effective cooperation and exchanges during past years.

She took this occasion to present the Dutch Ambassador with two of the latest pictorial books on Thang Long-Hanoi./.

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