A while back, when I was visiting my mother's ancestral village in Thai Binh province in northern Vietnam, it occurred to me that, after a barrage of questions from distant relatives, not once did anyone ask that common question in America: "So, what do you do?" Instead the questions were familial and personal: "How is your mother?" "Do you own a car?" "Are you married?" When … [Read more...] about What Do You Do? Identity vs. Work, East vs. West
Vietnamese Woman, Priscilla Dang, Beats Down Perverted Teens
We all know Vietnamese women are tough. This week in Vancouver, Washington, two teenage boys learned that the hard way. Priscilla Dang, 23, was going for a jog when two teenage boys rode up on a bike next to her. One boy rode ahead and the other snuck behind Dang and groped her bottom. Dang responded by pushing one of the teenagers to the ground and making him apologize. … [Read more...] about Vietnamese Woman, Priscilla Dang, Beats Down Perverted Teens
Health Brief: No More Public Smoking in Vietnam
Want to light up a cigarette in public? Not anymore, say lawmakers in Vietnam. Yesterday, it was confirmed that Vietnam has passed a law banning smoking in all public places. The law also prohibits tobacco advertising and bans the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18. The law is set to go into effect in May 2013. High tobacco use is certainly an issue in … [Read more...] about Health Brief: No More Public Smoking in Vietnam
Vietnam is the 2nd Happiest Country in the World?
Are you more likely to be happy living in Vietnam than in Switzerland, Norway, the U.S. and even Bhutan (the only country to measure "gross national happiness")? That's what the results of this year's Happy Planet Index (HPI) suggest. Designed by the New Economics Foundation (motto: "economics as if people and the planet mattered"), the HPI sets forth to be the "leading global … [Read more...] about Vietnam is the 2nd Happiest Country in the World?
How peaceful is Vietnam, anyway?
The Global Peace Index, an initiative of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), recently released the 2012 Global Peace rankings. The Index compares 158 countries according to their "absence of violence" across 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators (see below). This year, Vietnam came in 34th, putting it in the first tier of the world's most peaceful countries. … [Read more...] about How peaceful is Vietnam, anyway?