Working trip

Two recent cases of xe om (motorbike taxi) drivers working for Grab  in Vietnam being attacked, with one ending in murder, have sent a shockwave through the local ride-hailing community as drivers scramble to find ways to protect themselves on the job. When technology-based ride hailing was first introduced to Vietnam in 2014, drivers rarely gave a second thought to the idea of getting robbed or assaulted during a pick-up. Now, the industry is seeing the dark side of a massive boom – more drivers means more opportunities for criminals to take advantage of unsuspecting drivers, particularly during trips to secluded areas late at night. The October 19 murder of Le Nhat Hao, a student and GrabBike driver, was a wakeup call for local drivers: times are changing and caution can no longer be thrown to the wind. From all walks of life It was only recently that xe om driving made the leap from lower-class employment to side-hustle for university students, manual workers, … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s tech-based xe om industry scrambles for safety in wake of multiple tragedies

The phone rings while Lee Kyeong Hee eats in her apartment in Hanoi's Nam Tu Liem District. "Hi Ha, how’s it going?" she beams into the phone. On the verge of tears, the Vietnamese caller responds: "I miss you so much. It’s been so long since I last held you close." Nguyen Thi Thu Ha was born in northern Hai Phong City in 1986 and met Lee as a student. Ha’s parents had just divorced, causing her to retreat into a shell. Discovering her situation, Lee took her in. Ha is one of many Vietnamese who Lee has supported financially and psychologically. Lee is a volunteer consultant at the International Youth Fellowship (IYF), which seeks to teach youth life skills and broaden their insights. Lee with local children during her Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday trip to northern Lai Chau Province in December 2018. Photo courtesy of Lee Kyeong Hee. Her fondness for Vietnam took shape over the course of years. In 2009, she brought her two sons to join her husband, … [Read more...] about S. Korean woman warms hearts in Vietnam

Lai Trong Tinh A friend texted me recently, asking: "What do you think about the story of state officials in the 'twilight of their terms'? She had reminded me of a phrase used by legislator Le Nhu Tien when he talked about how state officials take every opportunity for personal benefit just before they retire. "Several state officials speed up their corruption rate in terms of both frequency and scale at the twilight of their terms, making a sprint to operate the last dredging boats," Tien said at a National Assembly (NA) meeting on November 17, 2015. "Twilight of their terms" or the "last dredging boats," as Tien expressed them, can be seen from many different angles: signing a series of decisions to assign staff in new positions, rushing to promote staff to key positions and recruit new staff, approving a series of major projects that they would never be able to deploy within their terms, or taking any advantages they could to pocket as many as public assets as they could find, … [Read more...] about Gravy train speeds up in the twilight of officials’ careers

At 5 a.m. on every weekday, a train leaves the Yen Vien station in Hanoi for Ha Long in Quang Ninh Province, covering a distance of 160km. On a Thursday, there was just one passenger. Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, a native of Hanoi (pictured), said she and her husband were taking their son to Ha Long for a trip. She is three months pregnant and suffers from motion sickness, so she decided to take the train, while her husband and son took the car. The eight-hour journey from Yen Vien to Ha Long costs VND80,000 ($3.4). It takes around three and a half hours on road. The train has two cargo cars and one passenger car. Both cargo cars, one used for vehicles and the other for agricultural produce, were empty. Nguyen Huu Ninh, the train’s conductor, said: "The train starts early in the morning and the station is quite far from Hanoi center. It's also quite old and travel time is way too long, so very few people choose it." The train cars on this route were purchased from China decades ago. … [Read more...] about Few passengers, mounting losses, but Vietnam train route remains on track

Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology and services, announced its collaboration with Yonah, a project initiated by the alumni and students of National University of Singapore (NUS) that seeks to overcome barriers to accessing healthcare in rural regions through autonomous technologies. The project was inspired by the founding team’s trip to Papua New Guinea in 2016, where they discovered cargo logistics challenges caused by the difficult terrain and lack of road infrastructure. This also inhibited the transport of medical supplies to rural villages, causing a surge in prices for transportation and hindering supervisory medical visits by health community workers. Yonah was thus founded to help time-sensitive medical supplies reach the communities that need them. “From our hospital partner at Papua New Guinea, we learned that health workers conducting immunisation patrols at the various rural health centres have to travel 20 to 30 kilometres on foot, taking up to … [Read more...] about Bosch partners Yonah to clear healthcare barriers in Papua New Guinea