A man from the southwestern region of Vietnam started his business with a female buffalo that was then extended to hundreds of buffaloes, earning him annual revenue of over a billion VND. Though busy during the last days of the lunar year, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ngu, a resident of Long My district in Hau Giang province, spent time to tell us his “destiny”: becoming wealthy from buffaloes. Resting on a meadow, he shared his childhood memory about buffaloes. When he grew up, he chose the buffalo to start his business. “Twenty-seven years ago, Luong Nghia land was so heavily contaminated with alum that there was only one crop per annum. Only about 600 kilograms of grain per labor per crop were harvested. What frustrated me was thzt no buffalo was available for the crops. Back then, I had just got married. I decided to take the money and gold received from the wedding to purchase a female buffalo for VND5 million. I just thought of using the buffalo for our own crop, not yet getting rich from it,” said Ngu. The buffalo was not only used for his own farm. It was rented by his neighbors too. At the end of the harvest, Ngu bought nearly one tael of gold. A couple months later, the buffalo got pregnant. Ngu started to develop her breed. “So far, I have had a herd of hundreds of buffaloes. The first buffalo was dead after delivering 16 calves." His buffaloes are raised in different southern provinces, namely Hau Giang, An Giang, Dong Thap, etc. for trade convenience. Every day, the buffaloes are out in the grass field and soak in the water for about an hour. Then, they return to the stables for the lawn. “Cutting lawns is a hard job but does not cost much money as food does for pigs, chicken, and ducks,” said Ngu. Ngu uses 20 acres of land for grass for the buffaloes. When there is no grass on the meadow, he has to buy rice roots from newly harvested fields. During these times, the buffaloes are well fed and chubby. VND3 billion house from buffalo sale Ngu …
Gamuda land vietnam
Being stranded here due to Covid-19: Not really bad
Being stranded here due to Covid-19: Not really bad By My Huyen During the current Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam, many expatriates strained here have had to survive with the meager income they earn here. The story about a French visitor getting stuck in Vietnam during the Covid-19 pandemic who had to sell local snacks to earn a living went viral before Tet, the Lunar New Year. This story moved many social media users who showed their sympathy for the French traveler. However, to some other foreigners who became stranded here because of the pandemic, the situation was not so miserable. Several foreigners in Vietnam are not happy with the question posed to them that why they have got stuck here during the pandemic. “Why not stay in a safe place? Where should we go now?” these expatriates would reply. In fact, in some countries Covid-19 may kill thousands of people a day. What’s more, finding a job back home may be a nightmare at this moment, several of them say. Some of the expatriates who have remained in Vietnam since the outbreak of Covid-19 think differently, though. One argues that only foreigners, especially those from Western countries, who are in financial distress, did not get on board an airplane to go back home although they had no stable job in Vietnam. To this specific contingent of expatriates in Vietnam, the fear of a homecoming was so big that they chose to stay here although they could board an outbound flight to get home by the time the pandemic began to spread in the country. According to the above expatriate, foreigners who work from home, or are YouTubers, disc-jockeys or performers at bars in Vietnam’s big cities, and many others are practicing thrift to make both ends meet with their current meager income. Some are in fact dodgers of unemployment in their home countries. One of the most common occupations followed by the above expatriates in Vietnam is teaching English. This job earns them fairly enough, about US$1,200 …
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Leaving big cities: A transitory fad or a consistent trend?
Leaving big cities: A transitory fad or a consistent trend? By Nguyen Minh Hoa Living closer to nature or in the countryside is now a way of life - PHOTO: THANH HOA Titles such as “Farewell to Moscow,” “Departing Seoul,” or “Goodbye Kuala Lumpur” have made the headlines in the international press these days, suggesting a phenomenon in which many people left metropolises for the countryside. In Vietnam, a similar fact has also happened when residents departed HCMC and Hanoi to live in rural areas. Most of them did so because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, will they return to their cities after the pandemic is over? The industrial revolution which broke out in Europe and North America at the beginning of the 17th century also triggered the mass exodus from villages to cities which were huge industrial hubs. Ever since, such a move, be it fast or slow, has never halted. The world is now home to truly “megacities” that may house up to 40% of the national population with Seoul being a single example. In Europe, the urban population rate of over 70% is now the established norm. Yet big cities have been facing with mounting pressures, such as high unemployment rates, unstable income, expensive living costs, environmental pollution, and traffic jams and accidents. According to sociologists, each urbanite has to shoulder from 20 to 30 extremely high risks every day—food poisoning, drug overdose, traffic and pit accidents, fires, building collapses, dog bites, and terrorism, to name but a few. It was perhaps these piling pressures that started the big homecoming trend at the end of the 20th century. Last year, Covid-19 helped this trend swiftly gather momentum both in scale and pace. Previously, homecoming or returning to the countryside involved mostly the elderly or the retired. Nowadays, returnees are also a considerable number of young people, which makes it more hectic. Rendered jobless by the global pandemic, hundreds of millions of people …
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