VietNamNet Bridge – The number of students expelled from schools or suspended for one year has been increasing rapidly. This, in the eyes of experts, is an alarming problem.

Vietnam, students, schools, teachers, method, encouragement
The list of suspended students of the Van Tao High School

Under the current regulation, headmasters of schools have the right to suspend the study of students for one year. This is the heaviest punishment at general schools.

The news about the suspension of students nowadays does not surprise the people in Van Tao commune in Thuong Tin district of Hanoi any more. The Van Tao High School Board of Management every year signed the decision to suspend the study of a series of students for one week or one year. Some students, after experiencing the "suspension period” had to move to other schools or give up school for ever.

In the first semester of the 2012-2013 academic year alone, nearly 40 students were disciplined by the school, many of them were expelled from school, according to a teacher of the Van Tao School.

The mother of Bui Van N, one of the students who have just been expelled from school, complained that she is afraid N would become a naughty boy if he cannot continue going to school.

"His brother is a drug addict, and I am no ... Xem thêm

Apricot flower traditionally signals the arrival of Tet, Vietnam’s Lunar New Year festival. However, this is also the time to see more scams related to ornamental apricots.

Scammers understand the wish, and even the need, of every family to have at least one apricot tree for Tet, and they have used this demand to fuel their business.

These cheaters can earns dozens of millions of dong by selling fake apricot trees that are actually worth less than a million through a complicated swindle.

‘Technology’ splices apricot with stump

The ‘knowhow’ needed to create an aged ornamental apricot is generally based on ‘ingredients’ such as an apricot sapling, a stump or a wooden chunk, sawdust, glue, and pastel.

A house owned by a man named Hung, located in alley 44 in Ward 14, Go Vap district, is an example of a location where fake apricot trees are ‘grafted’. Hung’s house is full of the material needed for his work, including apricot saplings with trunks smaller than a human finger.

He is assisted by an ‘apricot artist’ named Minh. A Tuoi Tre journalist watched Minh turn a sapling into an aged ornamental bonsai.

Minh picked up a wooden stick as big as a man’s wrist and sawed off a 20cm chunk. The piece of wood was then bound between two apricot sapling trees, and he put ... Xem thêm

Pham Duy, Vietnam's most prolific songwriter, with more than 1,000 songs to his credit, died at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City at the age of 92 after years suffering from heart and liver disease and gout. His death came one month after that of his eldest son, singer Duy Quang.

Many generations of Vietnamese and fellow artists have mourned his death.

"When talking about a deceased person, people often think of ‘memories’, but when talking about Pham Duy, people will think of the future of Vietnamese music. His life is a shining example of an artist who always tried to find something new in his own way,” musician Tuan Khanh shared.

"I’m very saddened by the loss of musician Pham Duy. In my musical career, I respected him and his vast treasure of songs he left to the country. I’m planning to produce an album of his songs as a gift to him, but it is too late,” singer Anh Tuyet mourned.

"His death is a big loss for modern Vietnamese music,” singer Cam Van said.

"He is a source of inspiration to my music journey. He lays a carpet of flowers with his own colors in the country’s music garden,” musician Quoc Bao wrote on Facebook.

"Not only me, but thousands of Vietnamese music lovers mourn his death,” singer Tung Duong added.

The Hanoi-born song writer, whose musical ... Xem thêm

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday.

Armstrong died following complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent earlier this month, the family said in a statement, just two days after his birthday on August 5.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: "“That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Those words endure as one of the best known quotes in the English language.

The Apollo 11 astronauts' euphoric moonwalk provided Americans with a sense of achievement in the space race with Cold War foe the Soviet Union and while Washington was engaged in a bloody war with the communists in Vietnam.

Neil Alden Armstrong was 38 years old at the time and even though he had fulfilled one of mankind's age-old quests that placed him at the pinnacle of human achievement, he did not revel in his accomplishment. He even seemed frustrated by the acclaim it brought.

"I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of ... Xem thêm