Introduce new colleague

People’s Artist Bach Tuyet: Wishing a peaceful 2021 to all

2020 was the year when I produced the biggest number of artworks on pressing issues. After releasing a Vietnamese opera on COVID-19 pandemic, I launched a community project to encourage cai luong (Vietnamese reformed opera) singers to share a helping hand in the fight against the pandemic.

Within the project, I have composed songs and joined young artists in music videos raising up the spirits of doctors and medical workers and raising the public awareness during the anti-pandemic battle. The songs and music videos have gained much applause and interest from audiences.

At nearly 80 years of age, I always keep updated on the country’s situations and blend them into my compositions.

On the edge of the lunar New Year 2021, I hope that there will be more stages and theatres so that artists can fully devote to the art and show off their best talents and capacity to serve the audience. I have also told myself to work harder and produce more compositions to my audience. I wish a peaceful 2021 to all.

Meritorious Artist My Uyen: Hoping to bring theatrical art to wider audience

As in 2020 when everyone suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to thank my art colleagues for working side by side with me to maintain the normal operation of our 5B Theatre.

After the social distancing period, our team produced new stage plays to welcome back the audience. In May when our play ‘ Bo Cong Anh ’ (Lactuca indica) hit the stage, it attracted a large number of theatre goers, which motivated me to invest in short plays and children’s plays to meet the increasing needs of audiences.

The social distancing period also brought me interesting ideas to run our theatre in the coming time.

In 2021, I hope for more support to make theatrical art thrive again, and attract more interest from the audience in the digital era. I also hope that theatrical art can reach wider audience in the remote and mountainous areas.

Meritorious Artist, director Le Nguyen Dat: The pandemic foments creativity among artists

Debuted at a time of complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen Viet (Vietnamese Lotus) Stage was the joint effort of artists who share a common passion for cai luong.

Although COVID-19 took away opportunities to organise tours and shows in 2020 as expected, it brought us much time to promote creativity and prepare new scripts for audiences. We completed the stage for 10 plays on diverse topics, and are now ready to introduce them to audiences.

In 2021, we plan to head to the central and norther regions in order to meet and exchange experience with cai luong artists there. We will also pay more attention to seeking and training new talented cai luong singers.

Visual-impaired artist Ha Chuong: Ready to welcome 2021 with inspiring performances

In 2020, when the COVID-19 broke out, many shows and art projects of mine were cancelled. However, it was a common situation facing artists, and I had to accepted and thought that it was a time for me to improve my performing skills and refill energy. I also had more time to my family and try doing things that I hadn’t done before.

Last year, I released my autobiography titled Nham Mat Nhin Sao (Watching Stars with Closed Eyes) aiming to inspire people with disabilities. The 300-page book tells my life story since I went blind at the age of two.

I’m ready for new year 2021 with new compositions and performances that are expected to inspire young people everywhere. As a speaker of the programme entitled ‘Danh Thuc Khat Vong ’ (Awaken aspirations), I will continue to visit schools, businesses, and prisoners to share my stories and life aspirations to fuel inspiration and confidence among listeners.

Nhan Dan

Vietnam’s Tet festival in the eyes of foreign diplomats

The Ambassadors of the US and France to Vietnam have shared their experience of celebrating the biggest festival in a year of Vietnamese people – the Lunar New Year or Tet.

When Hoang Anh was cruising around flower gardens in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District at around midnight one day, he saw two boys in warm clothes and a middle-aged man sitting around a fire and decided to approach them.

At first glance the man looked like their father. But noticing that the boys seem tired, Anh and a friend decided to walk over and say hello.

“Can we sit here and talk to you guys?” he asked, and they looked up at him with suspicion.

Sitting down next to the fire, Anh looked at the two boys and said: “It is such a chilly night. Do you guys need any help?”

Two homeless boys sitting by a fire in a park in Tay Ho District, Hanoi, on January 21, 2021. Photo courtesy of Hoang Anh.

The boys, one skinny and the other chubby, remained silent while the man abruptly stood up, said he was taking his dog for a walk, and left.

Anh tried to make friends with the children and introduced himself.

“We belong to the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, which helps homeless children. I can help you guys find accommodation and a place to play football and get health checks. It is unsafe for you to be out this late at night since there are many bad people on the streets.”

He told them about some of the situations he had seen and warned them of the dangers lurking on the streets, and showed some pictures of the street children he had helped.

After seeing there were some kids they knew in the pictures and his friendly way of speaking, the boys gradually lowered their guard and opened up.

The skinny one said his identification papers had been stolen when he was sleeping in the garden a few days ago. Now he could not find a job, but still did not want to go back to his hometown. The other, who was 14 years old, said he was from the northern Bac Kan Province and his father was in prison.

Anh said: “I can help you guys find a safe place to sleep tonight. If you don’t like it, I can bring you back here.”

But they had been living on the street for long, and their survival instincts possibly kicked in, and they refused his offer immediately.

He then gave them some money to find a place to sleep and his contact information and told them to meet him at the same place the next morning.

The chubby boy turned up the next morning, and Anh took him to the foundation. He can decide to stay there with other similar children if he likes it or go and live with a foster family.

Four members of the street outreach team scouting around the capital’s My Dinh Bus Station on January 16, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Phan Duong.

Anh, 27, is the captain of the street outreach team at the Hanoi-based charity that has been assisting children in crises since 2003.

The team goes out into the streets every night to look for destitute children under bridges and in parks, bus stations and other places.

It has seven members and a large support staff. In addition to its main task of finding homeless children, the team also helps children living at the charity’s boarding houses and organizes physical activities and health checks for them.

The team members also take street children back to their homes.

The main aim is to ensure destitute children are not dragged into committing crimes and are safe from bad influences.

Earlier that night Anh and his colleague had gone to four Internet cafes in nearby My Dinh in Nam Tu Liem District to look for children and told the owners to let them know if they come across children who need assistance.

Here they gave a jacket to a boy who had run away from home in another province.

“Many homeless children from other provinces show up around the My Dinh area, especially during summer and around Lunar New Year,” Anh says.

“They are easy prey for pedophiles and job brokers. Since they have just arrived in the capital and have a little money and tend go to Internet cafes to play games.

“We always try to reach the children before they encounter bad people.”

After three years as a member of the street outreach team, Doan Cong thinks he is doing a “meaningful” job.

One day late at night in August he and his colleague Minh Hai spotted two children sitting at a bus stop near the My Dinh bus station and a middle-aged man hovering over them.

Since the children looked tired and wore stained, tattered clothes, Cong decided they were not familiar with the city. He parked his vehicle and approached them.

He found out that the boys, aged 15 and 17, had left their hometown in Ha Giang Province and worked for half a month in Hanoi before their employer closed down due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Both had used up their wages of VND400,000 ($17.30) while searching for new jobs, but had not been lucky.

After roaming the streets for three days, they ended up at the bus station.

They looked at the man and whispered to Cong: “He told us he would give us each VND100,000 if we touch his genitals. We refused, but he was insistent and is waiting for us to change our minds.”

Cong and Hai took the boys to an Internet shop, got them food and told them to spend the night there. The next morning Cong returned, reassured that their families had promised to pick them up after he had informed them.

He gave the pair some money and his contact information in case they needed help.

The young social workers have had to confront dubious people to protect homeless children. Two months ago Anh had to fight off two pedophiles who were asking three boys to go home and sleep with them.

Minh Hai, who has been on the team for two years, shares a story from last winter. One night, on a curb behind the My Dinh bus station, he saw a boy with a backpack and a cap who looked he had little strength left. He got off his motorbike and slowly walked up to the boy.

He asked him: “You look tired. Have you had dinner?”

The boy looked scared, and his eyes kept darting around.

After he walked behind him for around two kilometers, the boy became less scared of him. Hai gave him a box of sticky rice and the boy gulped it down.

After eating he revealed that he had been lured into a debt collection gang about a month ago. He was instructed to work out to look strong and go collect debts.

He managed to escape from that gang, but was now afraid its members would catch with him and mete out punishment. He also did not know where to go or who to ask for help.

Doan Cong helps out a homeless kid under a bridge near the My Dinh Stadium, Hanoi. Photo courtesy of Blue Dragon.

On average, the street outreach team helps around 100 children each year. Many of the children have returned to their families or have been put in school. Many of them now work at restaurants or hotels, in tourism and others.

About 10 percent of Blue Dragon’s workers were themselves children rescued by the charity. Having been there before, now they help children who are in a similar situation.

Anh says: “I think my job is like that of a filter: kids we rescue have the ability to rebuild their lives, but if we do not, they are easily caught up in bad situations.”

Recently the two boys from Ha Giang called Cong to say they had returned home and work in the fields with their parents, and are waiting until they are old enough to get proper works.

The team members say there are always children being pushed out into the streets for various reasons, and there are many traps awaiting them. That is why the team has been out on the streets for the last 17 years.

Blue Dragon has helped 607 street children reunite with their families, rescued 1,000 trafficked kids and helped 5,259 children go to school or get jobs.

From William Pitt to Winston Churchill, Britain’s finest prime ministers have risen to greatness in the Palace of Westminster, heightening its reputation as one of the world’s most respected parliaments.

But with nine centuries of history come traditions, and a culture that is now under fire for concentrating power in the hands of lawmakers who can make or break the careers of aides, interns and party activists.

The resignation of Britain’s defence minister, who admitted repeatedly touching a radio presenter’s knee in 2002, and a series of accusations against other members of parliament, from alleged extramarital affairs to sexual assaults, have prompted calls for change.

Parliament is an “old and famous” institution, said Brendan Chilton, a Labour activist and general secretary of Labour Leave, a pro-Brexit group.

“However it has in recent years become a den of vice. We should all seek to make parliament the envy of the world again.”

The ornate Palace of Westminster, beside the River Thames in the heart of London, is home to both the upper and lower houses of parliament and is seen by some historians as one of the birthplaces of modern democracy.

But allegations about British politicians, many of them unsubstantiated, have surfaced since sexual abuse claims against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted women and men in British politics to share stories about improper behaviour.

Claims of sexual harassment have prompted some newspapers to refer to parliament as “Pestminster”.

Michael Fallon resigned as defence minister on Wednesday over past behaviour he said had fallen “below the high standards we require of the armed forces”.

Two more ministers are under investigation by the governing Conservative Party into allegations of inappropriate behaviour and the opposition Labour Party and Scottish National Party are looking into similar reports about party members.

Awe-inspiring

The Palace of Westminster’s debating chambers, its lavish tea rooms and its maze of corridors with portraits of long-gone politicians and prime ministers can inspire and confuse in equal measure.

Like a self-contained village, it has it own post office, hairdresser, gym, restaurants and bars. There is little reason to leave and for many workers, days are spent in its offices and evenings are spent in its bars.

“Drinking culture is both fun and a bit depressing,” one parliamentary researcher wrote on the Glassdoor website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management. “You will miss out on networking if this is not something you want to do.”

It is a heady mix, and many relationships have grown in an environment where people work closely together, and often under pressure, for long hours.

But the allegations that have surfaced in recent weeks also depict it as an environment where inappropriate behaviour is widespread and a laddish culture, where what one person sees as a joke is offensive to another, prevails.

The accusations describe parliament as a place where careers of researchers, interns and aides can be decided by the member of parliament or minister they work for – and suggest some fear for their future if they refuse sexual advances.

Many female lawmakers have welcomed the opportunity to share their experiences, some of which they have kept silent about for years for fear of, if not reprisals, criticism from colleagues or officials for bringing parties into disrepute.

“There is obviously a problem, it’s a good thing that it’s been exposed,” Labour lawmaker Harriet Harman told parliament this week. “No one should have to work in the toxic atmosphere of sleazy sexist or homophobic banter.”

Scandals involving members of British politicians are not new. The Profumo Affair, involving sex, a Soviet spy and the secretary of state for war, helped bring down the Conservative government in 1963. Twenty years later, Conservative Cecil Parkinson resigned as trade and industry minister over an affair with his secretary, who became pregnant.

But Fallon told the BBC that what had been “acceptable 15, 10 years ago is clearly not acceptable now”.

The government is introducing measures to tackle sexual harassment, including measures to enforce a code of conduct and to set up an independent grievance procedure. But critics say the power disparity between lawmaker and employee will remain.

Creating a painting on the theme of 12 zodiac sign is said to be a challenge for many generations of Vietnamese artists every spring. Such paintings are often created at the end of the old year, during which the artist will paint the zodiac sign of the upcoming year to convey their wishes and hopes for new year.

Two months ahead the lunar New Year festival 2021 – the Year of the Buffalo, many artists have posted their works featuring the buffalo on social network and their personal Facebook pages, including Le Tri Dung, Nguyen Thi Mai, Tao Linh and Lam Thanh.

Others gather in groups to show off their works to their friends and art colleagues. Members of Ca Phe Bui (Street Coffee) group, which is comprised of seven veteran artists, partnered with two other clubs, Son Tay Fine Arts Club and the Mach Ngam group, to host a joint event in mid-December 2020 at Son Tay Ancient Citadel in the outskirts of Hanoi to create artworks on the theme of the buffalo.

The event has been held since 2016, the Year of the Rooster. In 2017, the Year of the Dog, the artists’ paintings were introduced to visitors at an exhibition at the Hanoi Old Quarter Cultural Exchange Centre, 50 Dao Duy Tu Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi.

“It is interesting that we have never ever run out of ideas nor creativity while working with the signs of zodiac,” said Kieu Hai, a member of the Street Coffee group.

The theme of zodiac signs provides an opportunity for artists to review their art activities throughout the year and challenge themselves with a theme that never gets old.