Tag: vietnam

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Future

After Flappy Bird, Vietnam Gaming Takes Off

After Flappy Bird, Vietnam Gaming Takes Off
Flappy Bird's official Facebook page

If you played a game on your smartphone in February, there’s a good chance it was Flappy Bird, a Vietnamese mobile app that took the gaming world by storm. According to Mary-Anne Lee for Games in Asia in Singapore, even professional gamers in Singapore couldn’t help but take notice. “The internet just blew up with news of Flappy Bird. It was ridiculously difficult and ridiculously addictive. I think what Flappy Bird has done for the country is given it the courage to realize, hey, we may not be Japan or Korea, but we do have the ability to produce something […]

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Geopolitics

Sixty Years On, Dien Bien Phu’s Battle Against Oblivion

Reinforcements occupying positions in the dug-outs during the battle of Dien Bien Phu
Reinforcements occupying positions in the dug-outs during the battle of Dien Bien Phu Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMA

France’s May 1954 defeat in this battle in north Vietnam marked the beginning of the end of centuries of Western colonialism. A visit to the battle scene that should have been a warning to others.

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Food / Travel

McDonald’s Lands In Vietnam: History, Capitalism And Obesity

Opening day for Vietnam's first McDonald's restaurant
Opening day for Vietnam's first McDonald's restaurant Lien Hoang

A recently opened McDonald’s franchise in Ho Chi Minh City is the first in Vietnam. Symbolism aside, the ubiquitous U.S. fast food chain also raises health questions for Vietnamese.

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Future

Silicon Valley In Vietnam? Ho Chi Minh City’s High-Tech Play

Saigon Hub, an start-up incubator in Ho Chi Minh City
Saigon Hub, an start-up incubator in Ho Chi Minh City Lien Hoang

HO CHI MINH CITY — Vietnam’s latest economic experiment has both significant government funding — $110 million — and an ambitious moniker: Silicon Valley Vietnam. Though it could take years before the country sees the same kind of success as the California tech companies it hopes to emulate, Vietnam’s GDP growth is at its slowest since 1999 and it is in dire need of an economic boost. So it’s now betting on start-up companies to tap into a domestic market of over 90 million people and a burgeoning young population in particular. One popular meeting place for start-ups in Ho […]

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Economy Food / Travel

The Perks Of Vietnam’s Coffee Industry

Coffeebean collector in Da Lat
Coffeebean collector in Da Lat EverJean

DA LAT — It’s 30°C (or 86°F) on the high plateaus of Lam Dong in the southern central part of Vietnam. Hanoi is two-and-a-half hours away by car, and the damp heat envelops the coffee trees, their supple branches fanning out and loaded with green coffee cherries. As the second-largest global coffee producer, Vietnam lags […]

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Food / Travel

Mrs. Vu Of Hanoi, The Bridge Connecting Vietnam To Former East Germany

Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam Hungg Nguyen

HANOI – We are in Hanoi, sitting in Mrs. Vu’s kitchen. The table is weighed down with exotic delicacies, passion fruit, pineapple, slices of melon, litchis, dragon fruit, kumquats, grapefruit, heart-shaped pieces of watermelon and small, fat bananas. We’ve already made considerable inroads into the spread, as if we hadn’t eaten for days. Mrs. Vu, […]

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Geopolitics

Putin Lauds Record Year For Russian Weapons Exports – But Is He Overstating It?

The Russian Honor Guard in Moscow
The Russian Honor Guard in Moscow RussianTrooper

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin recently announced that this year was a record year for Russian weapons exports, with $15 billion in contracts for next year and $14 billion worth of weapons that have already been sold in 2012. This past year the main customers for Russian weapons were once again India, Algeria and Vietnam. […]

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Future

Floating Backpacks To Save Kids’ Lives In Vietnam

DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, floods are a regular part of life, with more than a half million people affected in the past year alone. Even more troubling, authorities in the worst-hit province, An Giang, note that most of the victims are children, German daily Die Welt reports. Take Nghia, 7. In […]

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Future

Sandy’s Asian Sisters: Five Superstorms You May Have Missed

Worldcrunch As Sandy pummels the United States, the Pacific typhoon season has been well underway on the other side of the world, resulting in some 500 deaths and $3.36 billion in total damages in Asia. Take a look at the five storms that you may have missed: 1. Typhoon KhanunIn mid-July, Typhoon Khanun swept over […]

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Geopolitics

Vietnam Jails Three Dissident Bloggers For Up To Twelve Years

BANGKOK POST (Thailand), AFP (France), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch HO CHI MINH CITY – The Vietnamese communist party has jailed three bloggers Monday for disseminating anti-government propaganda. The three bloggers belong to the independent media group Free Journalists Club, which sought to outline human rights violations in the southeast Asian country. The renowned dissident blogger, Nguyen […]

Categories
Society

Prudish Vietnam Makes Its Coming Out

Prudish Vietnam Makes Its Coming Out
iboy.vn

About a hundred cyclists streamed the streets of Hanoi on August 5 waving rainbow pennants and yelling “Support gay marriage!” Good Lord! Has prudish Vietnam initiated a sort of ‘social coming out,’ even before turning to democracy? The fact is that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a tightly controlled single-party state still shaped by Confucian […]

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