Cats

Hanoi is willing to take over Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line from the Ministry of Transport to prepare for its official operation.

The information was given by municipal vice chairman of the people’s committee Duong Duc Tuan. On Friday morning, Tuan spent 20 minutes travelling the whole route to experience the project in operation.

Hanoi municipal vice chairman of the people’s committee Duong Duc Tuan (first from left) travels on the train on March 19

The metro line would help shorten the time to go from Cat Linh in Dong Da District to Yen Nghia Station in Ha Dong District to 20 minutes compared to 45 minutes by car. According to the Ministry of Transport, to date, most of the project’s items have been technically checked, except for the depot. Hanoi authorities will instruct Hanoi Metro. Co. Ltd to work with concerned agencies to speed up the project for official operation, Tuan added. He, however, has not yet disclosed when the project would officially be put into operation. Tuan noted that Hanoi is ready to take the project from the Ministry of Transport. Earlier, the project was scheduled to be handed over to Hanoi before March 31. The final station of the project in Cat Linh area will be connected to Nhon-Hanoi metro line’s S10 Station. Hanoi plans to offer free tickets for people to travel on Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro project in the first two weeks of its operation. The project was initially slated to become operational in 2017, but was then delayed many times. The project’s total investment increased to VND18 trillion from the VND8.7 trillion (USD381 million).

The dance, which involves high jumps and handstands, is usually performed on the first and second days of Tet (the Lunar New Year Holiday) and on major occasions, including the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration.

Because the dance is believed to dispel bad luck and bring good luck and peace, families in Lang Son Province often invite a lion-cat dance troupe to perform in front of their house. On those occasions, the dancers are given lucky money, wine, and a red “ka hong” cloth. When performing a martial dance, the performers advance toward the head dancer and connect the red “ka hong” cloth from their mouth to the lion’s mouth.

The dance performances during festivals often include martial arts performances with knives, swords, tridents, or dual sticks. Each dance form is accompanied by a specific melody that guides the performance.

To begin a performance, the team greets the audience by bowing three times, then taking a step backwards. The simplest form of the lion-cat dance is the “passage” dance, which re-enacts the origin of the dance. Dancers move forwards and backwards in time with the rhythm of the drum, gong, and cymbals.

How did this dance come by its name? Lions were said to be both gentle and good with friends, but very fierce when disturbed or attacked. They were eventually tamed by humans and became a domestic cat and thus the lion-cat dance symbolizes the conquering of natural challenges.

The lion-cat dance of the Tay and Nung ethnic people in Lang Son Province has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, according to Decision 1852 dated May 8, 2017 of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, eligible for conservation by authorities at all levels.

Pham Tiep

Disease-carrying mosquitoes, crop-ravaging rodents, forest-eating insects and even the domestic cat are all “exotic” intruders whose cost to humanity and the environment is vast and growing, according to a sweeping study published Wednesday.

Researchers in France estimate that invasive species have cost nearly $1.3 trillion dollars to the global economy since 1970, an average of $26.8 billion per year.

And they warn that this is likely an underestimate.

In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists totted up the dizzying array of harmful effects from species carried between habitats, whether plants, insects, reptiles, birds, fish, molluscs, micro-organisms or mammals.

Beyond the “phenomenal magnitude” of these costs, there is also sign of a steady upward trend since 1970, said lead author Christophe Diagne, of the Ecology, Systematics and Evolution laboratory at the University of Paris-Saclay.

Most of the price tag is associated with the damage to ecosystems, crops or fisheries, although pest-control measures were also included in the research, an analysis of hundreds of studies that are part of a new invasive species database.

A preliminary roundup of the top ten invasive pests includes crop-eating rats and the Asian gypsy moth, which is attacking trees throughout the northern hemisphere.

It also included the tiger mosquito, native to Southeast Asia, which has become one of the worst invasive species in the world, carrying diseases like chikungunya, dengue and zika.

Average annual costs triple every decade, researchers said, in part because of an increase in scientific studies on this subject.

But there is also evidence of an “exponential increase in introduced species, due to growing international trade,” said Franck Courchamp, director of the same Paris-Saclay laboratory.

“We import lots of species, voluntarily or involuntarily,” he said.

Musseling in

It is a problem with a long history, linked to human trade, travel and colonialism.

In Australia, feral European rabbit populations were first reported in the early 1800s and their population exploded, reaching such proportions that they ravaged native species and caused billions of dollars of damage to crops.

In 1950, the government released the disease myxomatosis, which only affects rabbits, killing over 90 percent of the wild bunnies. But some have since built up immunity.

The brown tree snake has eaten nearly all of the native birds and lizards of Guam since it was accidentally introduced in the mid-twentieth century from its South Pacific habitat, as well as causing power outages by infiltrating electrical installations and menacing people in their homes.

Graphic: AFP

In the 1980s and 90s the zebra mussel, which originated in the waterways of the former Soviet Union, invaded North America’s Great Lakes, blocking pipes, threatening native species and causing billions in damages.

On land, American forests — and more recently those in Europe — have been devastated by the Asian long-horned beetle.

While in Hawaii, the Puerto Rican coqui frog has found a new home with no natural predators — except local homeowners whose property values have tumbled thanks to its ear-splitting croak, which can reach 100 decibels.

‘Incalculable’

Researchers hope that by putting a number on the cost of invasive species they can raise awareness of the enormity of the problem and push it higher on humanity’s daunting list of environmental challenges.

But beyond the monetary estimate, the study said the “ecological and health impacts of invasions are at least as significant, yet often incalculable”.

The UN’s science advisory panel for biodiversity, called IPBES, has said invasive species are among the top five culprits — all human-driven — of environmental destruction worldwide, along with changes to land use, resource exploitation, pollution and climate change.

In 2019, IPBES estimated there had been a 70 percent increase in invasive species since 1970, in the 21 countries studied.

And the worst could be to come, said Courchamp, who is taking part in upcoming IPBES research.

“International trade will cause more and more species to be introduced, while climate change will cause more and more of these introduced species to survive and become established,” he said.

Early detection, better data and preventative measures could reduce costs considerably, the study said.

Courchamp said the domestic cat also has a lot to answer for — among the worst, in fact, in the researchers’ top ten.

The animal, which has been taken across the world for hundreds of years, is now “invasive in almost all the islands of the world”, he said.

Domestic cats have been responsible for “the most killings in the world of birds, reptiles and amphibians, which are not prepared for this type of predator”, he added.

VNA

Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway will be put into commercial operation soon.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong, to prepare for the handover, the Ministry of Transport and the Hanoi administration have assigned the Hanoi Railway Project Management Board and the Hanoi Metro Company to review related documents and files from March 31. This task is expected to be completed within three to four weeks.

Based on these agencies’ reports, the Ministry of Transport and Hanoi government will set the specific date for handover and operation of the urban railway route.

Hanoi Metro Company’s General Director Vu Hong Truong said that the route would be put into commercial operation after the handover.

The Ministry of Transport said the remaining work of this project is to evaluate and get the certification for system safety. The French consultant ACT has checked and evaluated the entire work.

In January the French consultant ACT issued a test certificate along with the report, which includes 16 recommendations on risk prevention in the operation of the route, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The French consultant’s recommendations that have been completed so far this year, include certification from the Firefighting Police Agency and the consultant’s step-2 safety assessment of the signal system.

The Ministry of Transport has told the Railway Project Management Board to urgently complete the foreign consultant’s recommendations and procedures, which belong to the responsibility of the investor and the general contractor.

The Ministry has also worked with Hanoi authorities on the completion of recommendations, which belong to the responsibility of the route operator (Hanoi Metro Company) and the measures to evacuate passengers in emergency situations.

Deputy Minister of Transport Dong said that investment in construction and installation of the Cat Linh – Ha Dong railway project has been completed according to the schedule assigned by the Prime Minister.

Dong said that the project is huge and complicated, and has been carried out for many years, while the legal system, standards and even price management mechanism need further work.

“Lessons learned from this project is that for new things, it is better to study abroad and then do it. For future super-big projects, we must have a roadmap for both investment preparation and human resource training before implementation,” he said.

Running from Cat Linh in Ba Dinh district to Ha Dong district and funded with Chinese ODA, the line has total investment of about 886 million USD, following several adjustments.

It has an elevated line of more than 13 km with 12 stations and 13 trains. Each train, whose designed speed is 80 km/h, has four carriages capable of carrying over 900 passengers.

The trial run was completed in December 2020, with more than 70,000 km of tests on thousands of trips, enabling the system to operate commercially.

Vu Diep – Bat Tuan