African legend brought to life on HCM City’s stage

Artist Thanh Loc plays Phu Thuy Lam Chieu (Mean Witchs)

VietNamNet Bridge - On the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a play for children, “Phu Thuy Lam Chieu” (Mean Witches), was opened by Idecaf Theater at Ben Thanh Theater, District 1, HCMC, September 25 with 25,000 tickets sold for the show’s run.

The Phu Thuy Lam Chieu’s author Minh Phuong and director, Vu Minh, was based on an African legend and aimed to heighten goodness and unity.

Huynh Anh Tuan, director of Idecaf Theater, said the performance was originally planned to be performed 25 times but they sold 25,000 tickets. Therefore, the theater increased the number of shows to 31.

Idecaf Theater will also offer 2,000 give free tickets to disadvantaged children in the city.

The play will close on November 1.

VietNamNet/SGGP

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55-year-old The Cong club eliminated

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Defense has crossed off the name of The Cong (or the military club), a famous football team in Vietnam.

The Defense Ministry made the decision on September 25, saying that the team had fallen down in recent years, although it received up to 70 billion dong a year in investments.

The team’s name has been in existence for 55 years and fans are pained by its loss. The team will continue, however, as Viettel Telecom will take over the club, complete with a new name.

Before The Cong, Saigon Port, a famous football club of HCM City also changed its name to HCM City Club after many failures. The team has fallen from V-League to the First Division tournament.

PV

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The rap on Vietnamese souvenirs: too much ‘same-same’

VietNamNet Bridge – The same foreign traveler who spends $400-500 shopping in Thailand typically spends only $90-100 in Vietnam for souvenirs. Some experts conclude Vietnam is missing an opportunity because it cannot persuade foreign tourists to loosen their purse strings further.

Tourists don’t spend money on similar products

Vietnam received 2.48 million foreign travelers in the first eight months of the year. If each one had spent $500 shopping in Vietnam like in Thailand, Vietnam would have earned nearly $1.3 billion from tourists in the first eight months of the year, which rounds up to an annual total of nearly $2 billion in revenues from ‘exports on the spot’.

However, travelers do not spend much money in Vietnam, because, some experts said, Vietnamese goods are unattractively packaged and lack variety.

A reporter for newspaper Tuoi tre related that he met an Australian tourist, Nelly, at the huge Ben Thanh Market in HCM City. Nelly very liked some small statues of young women in ao dai playing the flute. At first, Nelly thought she’d buy ten statues as gifts to relatives when she returns home. After some thought, however, she finally decided to buy only five statues, because the statues seemed repetitiously similar: all the young women had dresses of the same colour and style.

T-shirts adorned with Vietnam’s landscapes ought to be attractive souvenirs for foreign tourists, but they don’t sell well. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, who is in charge of public relations for the big travel agency, Fiditour, said that tourists do not like the T-shirts any more because the fabric is low quality and the patterns and images are done in a careless way.

Ben Thanh Market, HCM City Post Office, Dong Khoi and Le Thanh Ton Streets -- well known places for serving Westerners in HCM City, are now selling cards, embroidered pictures, handbags, brocade scarves, embroidered towels, clothes and food in big quantities. However, the products are monotonously, relentlessly similar. There is little or no diversification in designs.

A lot of foreign tourists want to purchase Vietnam’s coffee, which is getting famous on the world market, but they do not like bad packaging. Hung, who works as a tour guide in HCM City, says he knows many tourists who bought ‘Café Vietnam’ but were really perplexed because they did not know how to brew it. The packages of coffee they bought had no instructions on brewing, nor did they provide a Vietnamese style drip filter.

Many other Vietnamese specialities -- rice, fish sauce and dried food – are not well packaged or give no information about “sell-by” dates or the manufacturer.

“Foreign tourists very much like Vietnamese-styled souvenirs, but they do not have many choices,” said Nguyen Ngoc Van, the owner of ‘The Post,’ a souvenir shop at the Saigon Central Post Office.

To lure tourists, producers have to make heavier investment

Van said that he intends to change the way Vietnamese souvenirs are marketed to foreigners. The shop will sell coffee with a drip coffee filter and good packaging, including instructions on brewing. Van believes that convenience and diversification of goods are the factors that will lure tourists.

Similarly, Duong Thanh Thuy, the owner of the ‘Miss Ao Dai’ brand, says that to entice tourists to buy souvenirs, it’s important to pay attention to the quality of the packaging. Almost all of the craft products that Miss Ao Dai produces or orders are in attractive packages – often of good quality silk – and come with sufficient ‘technical information.’

Nguyen Vinh Thai of Rong Viet Values, which specializes in branding and analysis of consumer psychology, emphasizes that packaging plays a 50 to 60 percent role in consumer decisions on whether to purchase products or not.

However, it seems that Vietnamese enterprises do not want to ‘waste’ money in packaging. “They should think of good packaging as a kind of investment, not an expense,” Thai said.

VietNamNet/TT

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HCM City mother of two wins Mrs. Vietnam title

VietNamNet Bridge – Hoang Thi Yen, 33, won the Mrs. Vietnam Pageant of 2009 held in Vung Tau on September 26 to become the country's first married pageant icon. She will represent Vietnam at the international Mrs. World pageant, along with 100 other international competitors, in Vung Tau on November 22.

Yen, mother of two and director of the UBS Company in HCM City, beat out five other finalists. The pool of 64 contestants had been cut to 20 before a question-and-answer session. She received 150 million dong, the crown, plus jewelry worth $10,000 and many gifts.

Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, a 26-year-old owner of Hanoi-based medical equipment shop, finished the contest in second place, while 27-year-old Dam Thi Ly, manager of the fresh vegetable project of Nam San Ltd Co, received third place. Pham Hong Tham of HCM City won the Mrs Congeniality award.

"I must improve my strength and knowledge to prepare for the upcoming beauty contest," Mrs Vietnam 2009 stated. "I believe I will win at the Mrs World Pageant 2009."

Mrs. World 2008, Nataliia Shmarenkova, performed the song “The Phantom of the Opera” from the stage musical of same name on the final night.

The Mrs. Vietnam Pageant 2009 was organized by the Vietnam Women's Association and the CIAT Advertising and Trade Fair Management Company.

Other winners of Mrs. Vietnam 2009 pageant:

Mrs. Photo: Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, 1977 from Ha Giang province

Mrs. Self-motivation: Han Thi Phuong, 1970, Thai Nguyen

Most Beautiful Hair: Phung Thi Lan, 1977, dn

Fairest Skin: Duong Minh Quynh Lien, 1985, HCM City

Best Body, Hoang Thi Thu Huong, 1977, Lang Son

Best in Evening Gown: Duong Hoang Dieu Thu, 1979, HCM City

Best in Traditional Costume: Le Thi Tuyet Nhung, 1982, Hanoi

Mrs. Talent: Nguyen Thu Hai, 1961, HCM City

Most Charming Smile: Tran Thi Kim Huong, 1982, Ha Tinh

Most Beautiful Eyes: Ka The, 1983, Lam Dong

Most Charming Lady: Trinh Thi Van Anh, 1962, HCM City

Mrs. Sport: Mac Thi Thuy Nga, 1980, Hai Phong

Energetic Lady: Hoang Le Minh Nguyet, 1983, Lam Dong

Mrs. Communications: Nguyen Hong Ha, 1974, HCM City

Successful Lady: Truong Thi Tuyet Nga, 1961, HCM City and Nguyen Thi Tuyet, 1962, Thanh Hoa.

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Endangered birds threatened by Central Highlands development

VietNamNet Bridge – Mi Liang Biang birds, a bird indigenous to Vietnam and considered extremely endangered, has been discovered in three sites in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

This species of bird (Crocias Langbianis) has been found in Da Nhim, D’Ran and Don Duong, all within Lam Dong province.

Previously, Mi Liang Biang birds had only been sighted in the Lam Vien nature reserve, Ta Nung valley and the Chu Yang Sin National Park in Lam Dong.

Experts from BirdLife, Lam Dong’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Gia Bi Doup – Nui Ba national park, said that they found Mi Lang Biang birds in an area of the Da Nhim forest scheduled to be felled to make way for a hydroelectric power plant.

Researchers witnessed how the Da Nhim forest is also being chopped down to grow coffee and Japanese mustard, threatening the life of these endangered birds.

They also discovered three pairs of birds in the D’Ran forest and seven pairs in a forest in Don Duong, also under threat by human use.

BirdLife is working with partners to define such forests as highly worthy of preservation as part of a project funded by the Tropical Forest Foundation, an initiative of the Vietnamese government.

VietNamNet/VNE

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Poor students share their struggle

VietNamNet Bridge – The escalation of tuition and prices have put even heavier burdens on students’ shoulders. At a time when studying should be their primary concern, university students must worry about basic needs like food and housing, plus tuition costs.

Nguyen Thanh Luan has decided to withdraw from Hong Bang University in HCM City.

“I have given up. The tuition has become unaffordable. My parents cannot afford to cover my learning expenses,” he stated.

Stressed out students

Le Thi Chau Huyen feels happy that she has been accepted at Van Hien University, but worries that she may not have enough money.

“I thought that the tuition would be the same as the previous year. I could not imagine that the tuitions would increase so sharply,” Huyen recalled. “I came to the university with 5 million dong and I returned home with just 300,000 dong.”

Most private and state-owned universities have raised the tuitions for the 2009-2010 school year.

Saigon International University has set a “sky-high” tuition level of 100 million dong per year, followed by the HCM City Economics and Finance University (45 million dong per annum), Hoa Sen (19..5 million dong per annum), Hong Bang (14 million dong per annum) and Van Lang (9 million dong per annum).

Some universities have increased tuition two-fold. Hong Bang University, for example, required 4.6 million dong in previous years, but tuition for 2009-2010 is now 8 million dong.

A lot of students must study at such expensive universities, because they have no chance to enroll at more economical institutions. Students protest that they do not know where they can earn enough money to stay in HCM City for four years.

The instant noodle generation

The consumer price index has frightened many students

The consumer price index has frightened many students. Le Minh Tam, a second year student of the College of Foreign Economic Relations, calculated that in previous years, 700,000 dong per month was enough for rent and meals.

Returning to HCM City after the summer holiday, higher rental prices shocked university students, she observed.

“The rent was just 1.2 million dong per room in summer, but now it has soared to 1.5 million dong. Landlords all claimed that they raised the rent because of higher petrol prices,” declared Nguyen Minh Thuy from IT College.

Sharing a 16 square meter room with other five students, Ngo Thi Kim Hue admitted that it is very hot and inconvenient. However, she still has to stay there, because it would be more costly to stay in more comfortable rooms.

“Previously, we spent 7,000 dong only for a meal, but now we have to pay 10,000 dong and we are never full,” Hue contended.

She maintained that students do not always have breakfast because they want to save money for school. Many of them only eat instant noodles for several months.

Lucky students find part-time jobs earning 500-700,000 dong a month, which helps them to survive their difficult days at universities.

VietNamNet/VnMedia

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New life for second-hand items

VietNamNet Bridge – Used clothes, footwear, books and other goods were exchanged at the second Mottainai Festival held at the Hanoi Children’s Palace on September 26.

“Mottainai” in Japanese means “Regrettable! It is a waste!” This was the chance for Hanoians to exchange unused clothes and goods. Remaining items will be donated to the poor or given to victims of natural calamities.

A gate made of plastic bottles.

A student buys three to be named “Mr. Organic,” “Mr. Inorganic” and “Ms. Recycling.”

Mrs. Tan from Le Lai Street brings a big bag of secondhand clothes to exchange at the festival.

Books and magazines are also exchanged.

A girl is seeking for a satisfactory item in a secondhand clothes stall.

A stall for used bags.

Duong went to the festival with a group of students from Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities. She said she exchanged some used clothes.

Duc, from the University for Natural Sciences, is trying on a secondhand pair of shoes.

A young girl “wears” a dustbin with visitors’ signatures.

An old man brings a pair of glasses. They are too old to exchange, but the glasses can still be donated to the poor.

VietNamNet/VNE

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