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» Phan Van Khai's state visit to the USA this month was the first by a Vietnamese prime minister since the end of the Vietnam War. Discussions on the agenda include bilateral trade, Vietnam's application to join the World Trade Organisation and military cooperation. Human rights organisations are also calling for President Bush to raise concerns about human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam.
» According to Radio Australia, Amnesty International has urged Vietnam to halt repression of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands. The area was the scene of widespread unrest in 2001 (sparked by land grievances and a government crackdown on their Christian faith), during which more than 1000 people fled to Cambodia.
» The 10 members of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam) plus China have signed a landmark deal agreeing to refrain from any actions that would escalate tensions in the South China Seas, which include the disputed Spratly islands. Members will also be required to come to the aid of anyone in distress in the area. Vietnam and China have twice come to blows over the islands (1988 & 1992). There are believed to be large oil and gas deposits in the surrounding area. The islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. Despite lack of progress in setting up an ASEAN Free Trade Area, China and ASEAN have agreed in principle to establishing a free trade zone. The total population covered is in excess of 1.7 billion.
» The Sunday Telegraph reported that Vietnamese film star Don Duong has been branded a "national traitor", threatened with jail and banned from filming for five years by the Vietnamese government for his portrayal of North Vietnamese General Nguyen Huu in the film We Were Soldiers (starring Mel Gibson).
» Radio Australia reports that UNHCR has begun repatriating the more than 1000 ethnic minority people from the Central Highlands who fled to Cambodia last year when Vietnamese police cracked down on protestors. Human Rights Watch say the repatriation should be halted until adequate monitoring systems are in place. 38 asylum seekers have been resettled in America.
» Vietnam's new education strategy (2001-2010) aims to make junior secondary education universal, have 18% of children under 3 in kindergartens and 65% of under 5s and 95% of 5-year-olds attending pre-school by 2010.
» Reuters reports that the Vietnamese government has actually started building a new highway which will eventually link Hanoi and HCMC as an alternative to Highway 1. The new road roughly follows the course of the "Ho Chi Minh trail" and the tourist authorities are eagerly planning new destinations, primarily battlefields and other war-related sights. One of the proposed package tours apparently goes under the wonderful title "Singing is Louder than Bombing"! :)
» The BBC reports that scientists have found a new species of conifer (Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, or the Golden Vietnamese cypress) in the limestone hills close to the Chinese border. The discovery come in the nick of time as there are very few left. Locals use the aromatic wood for shrines and coffins.
» Reuters reports that the Vietnamese government has approved a plan to route the new north-south "Ho Chi Minh Highway" through the Cuc Phuong National Park. The park is home to many rare and endangered species. It is particularly known for its tremendous plant diversity and a population of critically endangered Delacour's langur, in addition to grey-headed fish eagle, tigers, and elephants. Under the plan an existing road running through the west of the park will be upgraded. The alternative - to build a new road skirting the park - is considered too expensive.
» The Far Eastern Economic Review reports that Vietnam plans to plant an additional 5 milllion hectares of forest over the next two decades.
» Japan is helping Vietnam investigate the possibilities of nuclear power plants to prepare for when its coal reserves are exhausted some time around 2015. Apparently most of the seven sites being investigated are on the coast near the popular beach resort of Phan Thiet. The World Bank is opposed to the project.
Books
» The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam, by Martin Woodrow (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). This meticulously researched and detailed account of the battle of Dien Bien Phu is destined to become a classic on a par with Bernard Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place. Windrow's book benefits from access to new information, particularly as regards the Vietnamese view of events, and also from the passage of time. He focuses on the facts, as far as they are known, and gives an excellent account of the build up to the war, the mistakes that were made and why. But the best feature of this book is the brutally realistic picture of what it was actually like for the French soldiers (many actually Vietnamese, Thai and north African) trapped in what came to be known as the "toilet bowl". His sympathy and admiration for the soldiers - on both sides - comes across loud and clear.
» The Girl in the Picture, by Denise Chong (Scribner).
» Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew X Pham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
» From Pearl Harbour to Saigon, Toshio Whelchel (Verso)
» Down Highway One, Sue Downie (Allen & Unwin)
» The Sacred Willow, Duong Van Mai Elliot (OUP)
» Vietnamese film director Dang Nhat Minh (who directed the re-make of Graham Greene's The Quiet American) has released Mua Oi (House of Guavas), a ground-breaking film dealing with the sensitive and controversial issue of commnunist land reform which took place in the north of Vietnam in the late 1950s. The film focuses on a family of French-educated intellectuals who were forced out of their Hanoi home. The Vietnamese government was reluctant to approve the script - but the fact it eventually did so is an indication of the more liberal attitude gradually emerging - and so far the film has not been released in Vietnam.
» Summer Vertical, Tran Anh Hung
Hung's wife, Tran Nu Yen Khe (who also starred in his previous two films), plays the youngest of the three sisters. Other stars include local actresses Nhu Quynh and Le Khanh. Hung himself appears, appropriately enough, as an overseas Vietnamese film director.
» Three Seasons, Tony Bui
The film shadows the lives of three main characters. There's the flower girl, whose songs touch the heart of her reclusive employer, a priest dying from leprosy. There's the pedlo cyclist who falls for a hard currency hooker. And there's Woody, the street kid hunting for his stolen case of trinkents. On the sidelines is Hollywood hard-hitter Harvey Keitel, as the ex-GI searching for the daughter he fathered during the war. The stories all have fairly predictable outcomes, there's little in the way of dialogue and even less background information, but it doesn't matter. Bui has created a movie that captures the beauty of a country and the tenacity of a people who have moved beyond being defined soley by one of this century's most brutal wars.
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