Catholics

Editor's note: Darren Chua wrote for Tuoi Tre News about his wedding following a story by Australian Ray Kuschert, who pointed out things that may ‘shock’ foreigners when it comes to attending a Vietnamese wedding , including punctuality. The Singaporean author has lived in Ho Chi Minh City since 2013 and has been happily married since 2018. He is currently a remisier and professional trader with a Malaysian bank. I’m a pragmatic person and my wife will tell you she’s the romantic one between the two of us. After all, weddings are just a show, a one-day performance for others to ‘see’ while a marriage lasts a lifetime. In fact, both my weddings were done only for the sake of my parents and parents-in-law. As the saying goes, 'four happy parents make a happy bride and groom.' Nay, I just made that up. With this mental picture of the person that I am, I asked my wife-to-be back then, “With your permission, let us spend the least amount of money possible on the wedding … [Read more...] about Punctuality at weddings in Vietnam: You need to clarify the purpose of attending

Editor’s note: The story is authored by Ray Kuschert, an Australian who has lived in Ho Chi Minh City for nearly ten years. If you come from any Western country, the idea of 'charity' is very different from what you can expect in Vietnam. This country holds the concept of giving much closer to its heart, with helping the poor being deeply entrenched in the cultural fabric of this caring society. And if you want to get involved and make a difference, it is actually much easier than you think. Whether it is young children living in orphanages, the disadvantaged or old people, the developing economy of Vietnam has a structure that allows people to help those in need. Littered across the country are privately run orphanages and homes, poor villages in far out regional communities and groups of people that really need help just to survive. In many Western countries, such as Australia, charity usually involves the act of giving money to an organization that is paid to distribute … [Read more...] about Doing charity in Vietnam from an expat’s perspective: ‘It will change your life forever’

Elections are a traditionally volatile time in a country with lax gun laws and a violent political culture, but the national police said this season has been comparatively peaceful. In one of the worst incidents, four people were killed Saturday in a gun battle between armed supporters of mayoral rivals in Magsingal town in the northern province of Ilocos Sur, said police spokesman Brigadier-General Roderick Alba. Another four were wounded. Police in the northern province of Nueva Ecija also arrested two dozen people and seized weapons, including five M-16 rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun and 15 handguns, following a shoot-out between bodyguards of two candidates running for mayor of General Tinio. Five people were wounded in the incident, which also left the same number of sports utility vehicles riddled with bullets, Alba said. More than 18,000 posts, from president to town councilor, are up for grabs in the elections. The son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos looks set to win … [Read more...] about Thousands of security forces on alert ahead of Philippine polls

TAOS, N.M. -- Miguel Gandert does not know whether his family's 19th-century log home has been burned by a New Mexico wildfire, but he fears the blaze could destroy an Indo-Hispano mountain culture far older than the United States. The wildfire is the largest now in the United States and threatens a string of villages high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains where Gandert can trace roots to European and Mexican settlers as well as Native Americans. The blaze has burned an untold number of homes in the Mora valley, and violent winds on Sunday threatened adobe mud-brick ranch houses, churches, chapels and water mills dating as far back as the early 19th century. "It's almost a form of cultural genocide that's going on and the fire is the enemy," said Gandert, a retired University of New Mexico professor who spent childhood summers fishing and helping on his family farm in the village of Mora. Some residents' families have been in New Mexico since the late 17th century, and more … [Read more...] about Wildfire threatens ‘cultural genocide’ in New Mexico villages