What happened in July 2014: news and events relating to Vietnamese at home and in the diaspora.
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Events
• The Berlinale Short film festival will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on August 15 and 16 at 19B Pham Ngoc Thach Street in District 3.
• The Archaeological Institute of America’s Art & Architecture of Vietnam & Cambodia (land tour) starts in November 2014.
Viet Kieu in the news
• A “sense of the absurd permeates” around Truong Dinh Tran’s life.
• Sahra Vang Nguyen’s parents taught her “how to pioneer [her] own path” to being a storyteller.
• David Truong, a Vietnamese antiwar activist whose case “spurred passage of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” dies at 68.
• A Vietnamese immigrant achieves the American Dream in Emporia.
• Two 16-year-olds Vietnamese asylum seeker who escaped from a Darwin detention center are ‘scared for their lives.’
•A South Korean man admits to killing his Vietnamese wife and making her death seem like an accident.
News about Vietnam
• Sociologist Nguyen Phuoc Tuong advocates that Vietnam “must dispose of the myth of friendship with China” and establish close economic and military relations with the United States. Here’s news supporting Nguyen’s case.
• One news station tries rapping the news to draw in younger viewers.
• The increase price of petroleum products have led Vietnamese towards electric bike for transportation. However, there are some problems associated with electric bikes.
• Despite bans on the consumption of cats, dozens of restaurants in Hanoi still serve cats.
• A Japanese photojournalist captures “the mood of the Vietnamese people” concerning the territorial tensions between China and Vietnam.
• Pope Francis names Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Kham to become head of the Diocese of My Tho.
• Because of its cheap costs, Vietnam continues to use asbestos even though the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly warns against using it.
• Two Vietnamese sisters promote the food specialties of Da Nang to international friends through Youtube’s Helen’s Recipes. I like the way she presents her videos.
• A United Nations representative on a fact-finding mission finds evidence of serious violations of religious freedoms in Vietnam.
Other News
• Three commentators share their thoughts on the growing number of ‘spiritual but not religious’ group in America
Special thanks to Viet Thanh Nguyen for providing many of the news items.
Peace!
RP
