Saying farewell

    By Hari Chathrattil* “Việt Nam News is my first family here.” This is something I have repeated innumerable times ever since I first walked into the newspaper’s office 26 years ago and met Nguyễn Khuyến, the paper’s first Editor-in-chief, an encounter as fresh in my mind today as it was then. Yesterday, an inseparable part of those halcyon days left our family forever. Robert Bicknell became a part of the Việt Nam News family as a proofreader back then, and Khuyến being Khuyến, spotted his talent and made him a columnist whose disarming, humour-laced writing unfailingly entertained all of us, not to mention legions of readers, week after week, for almost three decades. I am not a fan of golf being played in tropical countries, and Robert and I went head to head on this account, not to mention several other political issues where we never saw eye to eye on. A friend who waded into one of our heated … [Read more...] about Farewell to golf columnist Robert Bicknell, forever part of the Việt Nam News family

  By Robert Bicknell OK, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat… I have been diagnosed with cancer. I also have to say, right from the top, that I am quite humbled by the number of people who have reached out and stepped up to help me, especially in the golf community. I am quite touched by your efforts and concern. Words cannot convey the depth of my gratitude and appreciation, and for once, I am speechless. In a nutshell, what I thought was a sore back brought on by a change in my golf swing, turned out to be a whole lot more than I, or many doctors thought and, believe me, there were a few who really blew it. It was the docs at Columbia Asia who figured it out and got my ass over to FV Cancer Hospital for the full diagnosis. To them, I owe a lot. I’ve got secondary malignant cancerous tumors on my spine, and we’re still looking for the primary source, but they suspect it’s the prostate. We will see. At this time I am getting radiation … [Read more...] about Don’t putt it off, get yourself checked

  By Robert Bicknell Ahh, it’s almost time for the US Open again and that means it’s time to bash the USGA before the USGA bashes the “best players in the world” with a ridiculous course set up, but this year will be a little different because the USGA's Mike Davis has relinquished course-setup duties to John Bodenhamer, who has run USGA amateur championships since 2011. Davis is the genius who brought us such favorites as the mishandling of the Dustin Johnson ruling at Oakmont in 2016 and the ravaged greens at Chambers Bay in 2015, the set up which caused Phil Mickelson to temporarily lose his mind and intentionally hit a moving ball in last year’s US Open, the new rules for 2019, and its poor roll-out which resulted in severe mockery by the Tour players and, I’m sure, many amateurs as well. In a nutshell, the USPGA Tour players are not happy with the USGA by any stretch of the imagination and have actually considered boycotting the US Open … [Read more...] about US Open: here we go again

  Snow has appreared on Fansipan Mount Peak in Sa Pa Town, northern mountain province of Lạng Sơn. — VNA/VNS Photo Quốc Khánh SA PA — Tourists are flocking to Sa Pa Town in the northern mountain province of Lào Cai to enjoy the first drops of snow due to a cold spell currently overwhelming the region. The cold started to hit Sa Pa and some others nearby localities including towns of Bắc Hà and Phố Ràng since the beginning of the month and was forecast to continue in the coming days. A group of tourists are enjoying the first drops of snow on the Fansipan Mount. — VNA/VNS Photo Quốc Khánh Snow has particularly covered Fansipan Mount, Việt Nam’s highest peak, 9km southwest of Sa Pa. As of Wednesday morning, local weather services were reporting temperatures dropped to 1.2 degrees Celsius in Sa Pa Town. Snow is covering over many areas in Sa … [Read more...] about Tourists heading to Sa Pa for the snow

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has published 32 textbooks for eight subjects and experience activities, but these do not include textbooks for English. According to Tien Phong, at the workshop titled ‘Vietnam Education Publishing House and the task of renovating general education program and textbooks’, in the North, the publisher introduced four sets of sample textbooks which have been approved by the Appraisal Council. Article 5 of Circular No 33 on standards, process of compiling and editing textbooks, says that textbooks must properly and fully present the content of learning subject curricula or educational activities; and they must be basic, scientific, practical and consistent with the reality of Vietnam. Therefore, there must be specific regulations and standards on using foreign textbooks for Vietnam’s schools. If using foreign books, publishing houses only cooperate with foreign publishers to make a profit. Meanwhile, the textbook … [Read more...] about English textbooks not yet approved by Education Ministry, why?