by Minh Nguyễn With colours as words and patterns as metaphors, ethnic Chăm artisans in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang passionately create stories through weaving. Saymah is working on a handloom when I visit her family’s craft shop. She is among the experienced weavers of the Chăm community in Phũm Soài Village in Tân Châu District. Her husband, Mohamad, is the third generation of a family pursuing traditional handloom weaving. Their shop is small but full of handloom fabrics with colourful and charming patterns. Weaving is the language they use to create stories from threads. SPINNING TALES: The couple continue to tell stories through the tradition of Chăm weaving. VNS Photo Hồng Minh Colours as words, patterns as metaphors “Learning how to weave is like learning a language. You need to start with basic words,” the 58-year-old Saymah says. By words she means colours. The five basic colours of Chăm fabric are red, white, yellow, blue, and black. Not only do Chăm weavers learn to remember and classify these colours as warm and cold tones, they also learn to dye the yarns themselves. In the past, colour pigments were made from natural plants around their home: green from leaves, red from resin, yellow from tree bark, and black from ebony fruit (scientifically named Diospyros mollis ). According to Saymah, what sets the Chăm traditional textile art apart from, say, its northern ethnic counterpart, is the dyeing technique. Chăm people have traditionally dyed their threads before setting up the looms, while weavers in the north have usually done it the other way around. BEYOND APPEARANCE: Patterns as metaphors of nature, work, and life. VNS Photo Hồng Minh Nowadays, natural dyes are rare, with local people turning to colourants instead. But the lessons from hand-made colours help Chăm weavers select the right shades and blend them into their products. Chăm weavers also speak through patterns as metaphors of …
Creative business inholland
Science and technology contribute to help farmers escape poverty
With a low starting point and more than 70% of the population living in rural and mountainous areas, the completion of that task depends greatly on the effective application of scientific and technological achievements as well as the potentials ofeach region in order to restructure and promote the development of agriculture in the direction of commodity production, controlling the domestic market, and step by step reaching out to regional and international markets. The undertakings and policies of the Party and State all aim to affirm that the transfer of scientific and technological application in agricultural production is an especially important breakthrough in promoting agricultural production and rural economy. On October 13, 2015, the Prime Minister signed Decision No.1747/QD-TTg approving a programme on supporting the application and transfer of scientific and technological progress to promote socio-economic development in rural, mountainous and ethnic minority areas in the 2016 - 2025 period. After five years of implementation (2016 - 2020), 400 projects were approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and have been implemented in 61 provinces and cities with a total investment of more than VND3.06 trillion. According to the report of the Programme Office, after five years of implementation, the projects have brought about positive initial results in terms of science and technology. The programme is expected to transfer 2,126 turns of technologies; and trained 3,520 grassroots technicians and more than 1,800 local scientific and technological managers. It has identified suitable technologies for each region and locality, thereby building effective production models. However, during the implementation process, there are still many problems, such as a low budget for supporting projects; the mechanism of maintaining and replicating the project model is not yet effective; andseveral of the regulations being applied to manage projects are not …
[Read more...] about Science and technology contribute to help farmers escape poverty
VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 6
Vietnam records six new COVID-19 infections on March 6 evening Vietnam logged six new COVID-19 cases on March 6 evening, all in northern Hai Duong province, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control reported. All the new patients had been previously quarantined and are being treated at a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Hai Duong province. By the evening of March 6, Vietnam had recorded a total of 2,507 COVID-19 patients, including 1,584 domestically-transmitted cases. Up to 891 domestic infections have been detected since the third wave of outbreaks hit the country on January 27. The Treatment Subcommittee said that 1,920 patients have recovered from the disease to date, while the number of deaths related to COVID-19 was still kept at 35. Among active patients undergoing treatment, 65 tested negative to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once, 57 twice and 137 thrice. As many as 49,565 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are currently under quarantine nationwide, including 1,290 in hospitals, 14,199 in other establishments and 34,076 at home. In a bid to live safely with the pandemic, people should strictly follow the Ministry of Health’s 5K message: khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration)./. Hanoi police summon attackers against foreign women Attackers at the police station (Photo: VNA) They also confessed to commit the act as reported by victims. The same day, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh also asked the municipal People’s Committee to direct competent agencies to promptly verify behaviours of harassment against women around the West Lake as recently reported by the media. Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh requested local police to seriously punish offenders and take measures to prevent similar occurrence. …
