Ready to face the consequences

Engineer who exposed flaws in cars produced by the Toyota Vietnam says he would do it again, if needed

A Toyota Innova, a popular model in the country used widely by many taxi companies, runs on a street in Ho Chi Minh City. Toyota Motor Vietnam announced last week that it plans to recall nearly 9,000 Innova cars to repair flaws exposed by one of its employees.

Just one year ago Le Van Tach built a three-story, 80 square-meter house in Vinh Phuc Province to the north of Hanoi.

It took him almost seven years of hard work and saving every penny possible to afford the house.

But he has readied himself to sell it at short notice.

“Of course, I would never have thought of selling my house just a year after it was built,” said Tach, an assembly engineer at Toyota Motor Vietnam, which is based in Vinh Phuc. “But if I cannot live here anymore, I would have to sell it as a last resort.”

“I have been prepared to quit my job and move to somewhere else, if I have to.”

Tach, a 35-year-old ordinary looking man of slight build, has been in the national spotlight since late last month when he lodged a complaint with the Vietnam Register, a quality control agency, saying there were three major problems with the Innova and Fortuner models produced by his employer.

Tach alleged that the cars made in Vietnam had balance issues since some screws were not tightened in accordance with directives issued by the Japanese parent company. He also said the brake systems and seats do not meet Toyota’s safety standards.

In the wake of a public outcry that followed Tach’s whistle blowing, Toyota said last week that it plans to recall nearly 9,000 Innova cars, its bestselling seven-seater vehicle in Vietnam, to repair the three flaws including a faulty pressure cylinder for their rear wheel brakes.

Heroes vs. Villains

Before sending letters about the technical flaws in the car to the general director of Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) three times between December 2010 and this February, Tach, still a TMV employee, said he’d been telling company managers about the problems for years but his concerns fell on deaf ears.

Back in 2006 and 2009, Tach had also reported to his Vietnamese superiors some technical problems that could cause “grave consequences,” but these were not taken seriously.

“On March 1, I sent my bosses the ‘ultimatum’ to let them know that I would have to report the problems to the media if no immediate action is taken. I hoped this would make them change their mind,” Tach said. “But I heard nothing from them, and after four weeks, I felt I had no choice but to expose the case to the public.”

Tach’s action has made him a hero – a whistleblower who dared to challenge the giant automaker to protect consumers – for many people across the nation.

“Tach has set an exemplary model for younger generations in Vietnam to follow,” reader Phung Thi Ngan wrote to the Tuoi Tre newspaper. “Before getting to know Tach, I had assumed that a courageous person like him doesn’t exist in our society.”

But back in Vinh Phuc Province, where he lives and works, Tach is not a hero for colleagues who blame him for training an unflattering spotlight on them.

“A colleague of mine has just asked me why I still come to work everyday after all the damage I have done to the company,” Tach said. “I just tell him that I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Vu Huu Phuong, a colleague, declined to comment on his acts. “I’m not authorized to speak to the media on this issue. Any press inquiry in this manner must be handled by Toyota’s top management.”

An ex-colleague, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was also reluctant to discuss the ethics of Tach’s actions, but wanted to comment on the technical aspects.

“The way Tach exposed the issue is likely to make consumers think that the technical flaws stem from a systematic fault of the parent company, but in fact they were just caused by several individuals at Toyota Vietnam,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, it’s obvious that auto consumers will benefit a lot (from Tach’s actions).”

Tach said ever since the story about the flaws broke out, his wife and parents have not stopped worrying about his safety. He said several people had contacted another family member (whose identity he declined to reveal) to indirectly harass him.

“I think the message from them is clear: stop blowing the whistle,” Tach said.

‘My son is right’

However, no matter what people say, he believes in what he did, Tach said.

“If people think what I have done is just a PR job for myself, I see no need to convince them otherwise. I believe that as a human being, everyone has a conscience that asks us to do the right things by society.”

“My actions will be vindicated, sooner or later.”

His mother Nguyen Thi Thanh, who lives in a village in the northern province of Nam Dinh is also confident in the rightness of his actions, even as she worries about his crusading tendencies.

“This has caused me a lot of stress; I can’t sleep well,” said 57-year-old Thanh. “My husband and I are just farmers and we have virtually no idea about what our son has been doing. But we have taught him to be an honest person since he was a child.

“I only hope the authorities will protect my son because his safety is now my highest concern.”

Tach said he was prepared to quit TMV and work for any company which offers to hire him. He did not rule out the possibility of returning to his hometown in Nam Dinh to run an auto repair service of his own.

No matter what happens next, Tach said, he would not hesitate to expose any other wrongdoing because “that’s just the right thing to do.”

His mother thinks that is not likely to happen again, any time soon.

“I know my son is right. But I doubt if someone else will give him another chance (to do the right thing).”

Reported by An Dien 

Protesters stage mass rally against Bahrain ruler

Thousands of supporters of Bahrain’s Shiite-led opposition demonstrate in Pearl Square in Manama calling for the government’s downfall.

Tens of thousands of supporters of Bahrain’s Shiite-led opposition poured into Manama’s Pearl Square calling for the government’s downfall in the largest rally in more than a week of protests.

The capital’s streets were clogged as protesters marched from the Bahrain Mall to the square, the focal point of anti-regime demonstrations that have gripped the Gulf state since February 14.

Those leading the protest carried a large banner reading, “The march of loyalty to martyrs” which bore the pictures of seven protesters killed by security forces.

Another poster strung from a bridge read in English, “No dialogue before the downfall of the ruling regime.”

“The people want the fall of the regime,” protesters chanted in unison, waving red-and-white Bahraini flags as they swarmed into Pearl Square.

The widow of one of the victims read a statement outlining the opposition’s demands, which centre on the current government’s resignation and the replacement of the ruling Sunni Khalifa dynasty with a constitutional monarchy.

The statement also demanded an immediate, “impartial” probe to identify and try those behind the killings and reiterated opposition calls for the formation of a “national salvation” government.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency said embattled Bahraini King Hamad would head to Riyadh on Wednesday, on a visit that coincides with the expected return of Saudi King Abdullah from the United States.

The Bahraini monarch was the focus of the anger of thousands of Bahraini women, draped in black, who shouted: “May your hands be paralysed, Hamad.”

“Down, down Khalifa,” others chanted, condemning Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, the uncle of King Hamad who has been in office since 1971 and who is widely despised by the Shiites.

“Our aim is either victory or martyrdom,” said 20-year-old Mohammed, who refused to give his family name out of “fear of oppression.”

“After the massacre of Thursday … I don’t believe in any dialogue,” he said, referring to a deadly police raid on Pearl Square at dawn on Thursday.

Security forces have since been ordered to stay away from protesters who have daily crowded the square to demand the end of the Khalifa reign.

“We don’t have a problem if elections bring a Sunni or a Shiite ruler,” said 32-year-old protester Saeed.

“The most important thing is to have egalitarian distribution of wealth among both communities,” added the father of two who earns 200 dinars ($530/391 euros) per month.

Tuesday’s rally marked the first protest officially called for by political associations since the protests began in response to calls by cyber activists inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

King Hamad has agreed to one of the opposition’s demands, ordering the release of political prisoners and the end of trials against others.

An opposition Mp said Wednesday authorities had released 23 Shiite activists who were being held on charges of terrorism.

“The 23 have been released,” said MP Jassem Hussein, a member of the Islamic National Accord Association.

The 23, along with two more who were being tried in absentia, faced charges of forming an illegal organisation, engaging in and financing terrorism and spreading false and misleading information.

The Islamic National Accord Association is the main Shiite formation and controls 18 seats in the 40-member parliament. Along with other opposition groups, it had demanded the prisoners’ release as a precondition for considering a call for dialogue.

The Shiite opposition quit parliament in protest at the killing of demonstrators and has demanded a constitutional monarchy and a peaceful alternation of power.

Tuesday’s protest came a day after pro-government Sunnis rallied in their thousands at a Manama mosque, pledging loyalty to the Khalifa family, and calling on protesters to answer an invitation for dialogue by Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad.

The political upheaval has forced the cancellation of next month’s Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, and authorities fear the economy of the archipelago will be dented.

Bahrain has dwindling oil resources, while tourism from neighbouring Saudi Arabia is a significant source of revenues for many.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International urged the Bahraini authorities to ensure the safety of people participating in peaceful protests. It highlighted the case of a protester and his friend who say they were punched and beaten by police after being arrested on Friday.

Source: AFP 

Forcing hate to surrender

American connects with Vietnamese anti-war songs and reconnects two icons

Molly Hartman O’Connell performs Vietnam’s red songs in Con duong am nhac (Musical road) program on Ho Chi Minh City Television

“Mother of Vietnam, do you know your children have begun the fight?”

This was the only part of the song, the chorus, that Molly Hartman O’Connell understood, because, as she recalls, her Vietnamese was “fumbling” at best when she heard it for the first time.

But the first Vietnam War song that the Brooklyn (New York) native and former anthropology student from Columbia University heard, Tieng hat nhung dem khong ngu (Songs for sleepless nights), composed by well-known musician Pham Tuyen in 1970, left a lasting impression.

It sparked in her a desire know who the composer was and understand the role that this music played.

True to the anthropologist tradition of participatory observation, Molly decided to learn how to sing Vietnamese war songs herself and was instructed by local vocal instructor Cao Nguyet Hao, a retired member of the Hanoi National Dance and Song Ensemble.

However, “I am a student. I am not a singer,” she told Thanh Nien Weekly.

Armed with a Fulbright scholarship, Molly left her hometown in 2003 to study current women’s issues as well as the Vietnamese language in Vietnam as part of a study exchange program between the two countries.

Molly’s (Mai Ly in Vietnamese) unexpected love affair with Vietnamese revolutionary songs began while she was making friends and interviewing local women, specifically those who were former political prisoners prior to 1975.

With her parents being social workers and community activists, and her brother very aware of antiwar music movements, it was easy for Mai Ly to get hooked onto war music in Vietnam.

“I know a lot of songs from my parents who are in that generation with Bob Dylan, the Woodstock Concert in 1969. They are very interested and feel very connected whenever we talk about Vietnam, though they did not come here during that time.”

“They really lived in that period and know the whole background behind it, including Con Dao Island, famous for its prison built by the French colonial government, because at that time, everything came out in magazines and other media channels.”

Molly, who now works for a private company in HCMC, said: “Unlike them, when I hear a certain song or am told about that period, I have to imagine it. Yet, the interesting thing is that like most people in their generation, my parents never thought of or looked for information about modern Vietnam, after the war. They just know about Vietnam in the old days.

“So when I informed them that I was going to Vietnam to study, they were not afraid at all, they were excited. They said, ‘Ok, go to Vietnam and find out about the place.’”

Her journey to Vietnam and into the nation’s patriotic music has gone deeper than she might have intended.

Hao has not only taught Molly how to sing and pronounce the lyrics, but also explained the meaning and background of each song, and even introduced her American student to several Vietnam War era musicians, including Pham Tuyen, Phan Huynh Dieu, Luu Nhat Vu and Truong Tuyet Mai.

The most interesting part of Molly’s story is not about how she became famous and was invited to perform on local television channels like HTV; and it is not even that she won awards in singing contests.

It is what transpired after she first met 81-year-old composer Pham Tuyen, creator of red music classics like Nhu co Bac Ho trong ngay vui dai thang (As if there were Uncle Ho on the great victorious, happy day) and Gay dan len hoi nguoi ban My (Keep on strumming, my American friends), dedicated to Pete Seeger in 1969.

(L-R) Musician Pham Tuyen, Molly’s parents, Molly

Tuyen told her during that 2007 meeting at his house in Hanoi that the song was composed in response to the performance of “Ballad of Ho Chi Minh” by Pete Seeger, 92, an American folk singer and an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. He was also in the forefront of antiwar music, leading a march of one million people at Washington DC in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War.

Pete Seeger heard about Tuyen’s song when it was broadcast on Cuban La Habana Radio Station several months later. Touched by the song, Pete found a way to go to Hanoi and meet Pham Tuyen in the early 1970s. They had lost touch with each other until Molly visited him.

“Mai Ly is my special fan and singer, not only because she is an American who can sing Vietnamese songs, but also because of her enthusiasm and special love and appreciation for Vietnam’s traditional and revolutionary music, which is being ignored by many young local people,” said Tuyen.

Molly concurred. “A lot of young Vietnamese people like American songs, and most of them like pop music, while Americans would love to learn more about Vietnamese traditional music.

“Pop music doesn’t have real meaning, it’s just for fun. When a Vietnamese singer sings an English song, it sounds great, but it doesn’t have cultural meaning. I think that traditional music should be exchanged between the two countries, for not many people perform it in my country.”

Tuyen said he has more reasons to be grateful to Molly than her interest in Vietnamese revolutionary music.

“More than that, I’m so thankful to Molly for being a bridge for me to reconnect with Pete Seeger.”

On February 15, Tuyen received a letter containing the lyrics of Pete Seeger’s 200 anti war songs, as well as CD recordings from the American musician and singer.

After their conversation about the background for Gay dan len hoi nguoi ban My, Molly promised to help the Vietnamese musician contact Pete Seeger in the US, for her parents know a lot of artists of that generation.

“It’s amazing that Pete, who is so famous and receives a lot of mail everyday, wrote us back after we found how to contact him,” said Molly, who sent Pete her translation of four of Pham Tuyen’s songs.

With Bob Dylan set to visit Vietnam for a tribute to Trinh Cong Son, the solidarity between artists of the Vietnam War generation is being strengthened.

In his latest letter to Tuyen, the 92-year-old Pete Seeger writes: “I have lost my voice already, yet I am still working. As musicians, our art should overcome language barriers and differences in culture or politics to work for peace.”

Reported by Priscilla Aquila 

118 year old woman lost 7 sons in freedom struggle

Tran Thi Viet, 118, persevered after losing seven of eight sons to the war against foreign occupations.

She turns 119 in 2011, but Tran Thi Viet’s memores of events and people she has met over three centuries (19th, 20th and 21st) is still clear.

 

It is not just her age that makes Viet, named the oldest Vietnamese by the Vietnam Records Book Center this month, stand out.

 

The centurion with nearly 500 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, is one of the country’s greatest Heroic Mothers, with seven of her children dying battling French and American occupations.

 

Viet, a native of the southern province of Long An, said she got married when she was 21 and gave birth to ten children, including eight sons.

 

As the mother herself was illiterate and their family was too poor to afford tuition fees, all of children received very little formal education.

 

But they were aware of what they wanted to do when seeing their fellow country men killed and their villages destroyed by foreign powers.

 

All of her sons joined the Vietnamese forces to fight against occupations, and seven of them sacrificed their lives for the country.

 

In 1953, her eldest son, 37-year-old Nguyen Van Lien, was killed, leaving three children behind.

 

Seven years later another son, Nguyen Van Tao, died on duty, and a year later, her husband died of injuries sustained after joining an attack against the French colonial forces.

 

And in 1962 and 1963, Viet lost two more sons – Nguyen Van Kien and Nguyen Van Tri – to the foreign occupation.

 

In 1968, her youngest brother Nguyen Van Dau died in a campaign against the US forces.

 

On the same day in 1973, two more sons died in battle.

 

Losing seven sons to the war, including two whose bodies have never been found, didn’t stop the heartbroken mother from going on living, supporting her grandchildren and daughters-in-law who’d lost their husbands.

 

She went fishing and did all kinds of work to earn a living.

 

Now Viet lives with one of her grandsons and his wife in Long An’s Ca Gua hamlet.

 

Sometimes culture researchers come to listen to her singing southern lullaby songs which, according to them, can’t be found anywhere in books.

 

While it is a great happiness to have so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Viet’s grief has never faded away, even after so many years.

 

Nguyen Thi Nguyen, her granddaughter, said: “Many times I’ve seen grandmother lie in the hammock in tears. When I ask if she is okay, she would be silent for a moment, then say: ‘I miss your father and your uncles’.”

 

Source: Tuoi Tre  

Gunman wounds congresswoman, kills six

People gather for a vigil at University Medical Center for US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was in critical condition after being shot in the head by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona.

A gunman shot a congresswoman in the head, seriously wounding her, and killed six other people in a shooting rampage at a public meeting in Tucson on Saturday.

The attack by a suspect authorities described as having a “troubled past” took place outside a supermarket where Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, was meeting with constituents.

Among the dead were a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Officials said 12 people were wounded.

The suspected gunman, identified by a federal law enforcement official as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol at point-blank range. The suspect was tackled to the ground by two bystanders after the shooting and was in custody.

Giffords, beginning her third term in the House of Representatives, was in critical condition after surgery at Tucson University Medical Center and doctors said they were cautiously optimistic about her prospects for recovery.

The shooting shocked Washington, where Congress called off a key vote on healthcare reform next week, and a nation that went through acrimonious midterm elections in November. Some suggested the political vitriol might have played a role in the rare shooting of a federal lawmaker.

It was not known if the shooting was connected to any political stance, although Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said he believed that Giffords was the intended target of the shooting.

“(The suspect) has kind of a troubled past and we’re not convinced that he acted alone,” Dupnik told a news conference. Authorities were seeking a second man in connection with the shooting, he said.

Dupnik said the suspect had made threats to kill in the past but not against Giffords. “All I can tell you is that this person may have a mental issue,” Dupnik said.

Dr. Steven Rayle, who helped restrain the gunman, told CNN he was dressed in a shabby manner but looked focused as he fired indiscriminately into the crowd.

President Barack Obama sent FBI Director Robert Mueller to Arizona to oversee the investigation, telling reporters, “We don’t yet know what provoked this unspeakable act.”

“The surgeons I spoke to are cautiously optimistic (that Giffords will survive),” Richard Carmona, a former US surgeon general and family friend, told the Tucson news conference. “With guarded optimism I hope she will survive.”

House cancels votes

Giffords was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event — public gatherings to give her constituents a chance to talk directly with her — when the gunman attacked from about 4 feet away, National Public Radio said.

He approached Giffords from behind, firing at least 20 shots at her and others in the crowd, MSNBC said, citing law enforcement officials and witnesses.

The shooting prompted lawmakers in Washington to postpone their agenda for next week, including a vote on the repeal of Obama’s healthcare overhaul. The new Congress convened this week after November 2 elections in which the Republican Party gained control of the House.

Giffords, a supporter of healthcare reforms that passed last year, had said that heated political rhetoric had prompted violent threats against her and vandalism at her office.

In an interview last year with the MSNBC television network, Giffords cited a map of electoral targets put out by former Alaska Republican Governor and prominent conservative Sarah Palin, each marked by the crosshairs of a rifle sight.

“When people do that, they’ve got to realize that there’s consequences to that action,” Giffords told MSNBC.

Palin quickly condemned the shootings on Saturday and offered condolences to the victims.

FBI investigates videos

In several videos on the Internet site YouTube, a person who posted under the name Jared Lee Loughner criticizes the government and religion and calls for a new currency. It was not known if he was the same person as the suspect.

“The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in God!” the site said.

The FBI was investigating whether the shooting suspect was the same person who posted the videos.

In a biographical sketch on the site, the author of the post writes that he attended Tucson-area schools and that his favorite books include Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” and Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set in an insane asylum.

“My favorite activity is conscience dreaming: the greatest inspiration in my political business information,” the writer says.

CNN quoted law enforcement authorities as saying the suspect’s gun had been purchased legally. The US Army said in a statement released to the media that Loughner had tried unsuccessfully to enlist in the military.

Polarized state

Giffords, who is married to a NASA astronaut, is a rising star in the Democratic Party. She narrowly defeated a conservative opponent and was one of the few Democrats to survive the Republican sweep in swing districts in the November elections.

Her state has been at the center of a political firestorm the past year, symbolizing a bitter partisan divide across much of America.

The spark was the border state’s move to crack down on illegal immigration last summer, a bill proposed by conservative lawmakers and signed by Republican Governor Jan Brewer.

Most Arizonans supported it, but opponents and many in the large Hispanic population felt it was unconstitutional and would lead to discrimination. Giffords said it would not secure the border or stop drug smuggling and gun running.

Dupnik, who was a friend of federal judge John Roll, one of those killed, criticized the political environment in Arizona and the rest of the country, and speculated it might have had a role in the shooting.

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” Dupnik said.

“And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

House Speaker John Boehner, who holds the top post in the House of Representatives, said in statement he was horrified by the attack on Giffords and members of her staff. He called a news conference for 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Source: Reuters 

Elderly folk singer finishes career at the Hanoi Opera House

The cold winter weather could not keep people from the Hanoi Opera House to witness the last performance of singer Ha Thi Cau on Tuesday, January 4.

Cau performed xam, a type of folk music dating back to the Tran Dynasty in the 14th century, at a show entitled Xam Ha Thanh (xam in Hanoi), organized to honor the contributions of xam musicians in preserving the 700-year-old art form.

Although she was only one of ten xam singers to receive certificates of merit from the Center for Preservation and Promotion of National Culture at the event, her unique performance of Theo Dang tron doi (Following the Party for eternity) on the dan nhi (a two-stringed bowed instrument) was truly exceptional and was the highlight of the show.

The performance featured 15 songs, including Giang sang vuon che (Moonlight on tea gardens), Ba bac (three footsteps) and Bac ky vui nhat Ha thanh (Hanoi is the most lively place in the north).

Xam artists often self-accompany their singing by playing on the dan bau (a single-stringed bowed instrument) or the dan nhi.

Born in 1917 to a family that had been singing xam for three generations, as a child Ha Thi Cau wandered the countryside markets and Hanoi with her parents performing xam to earn a living.

On Tuesday, the journey of the 94-year-old artisan culminated in this final performance on possibly the grandest stage in the country.

At the rehearsal on Monday, the elderly singer, who in 2004 was given the prestigious “People’s Artist” designation, had to quit early to save her strength for the performance the next day.

According to Prof. Hoang Chuong, director of the Center for Preservation and Promotion of National Culture, it’s not easy to book the singer, who often does not have the strength to last an entire performance.

She told him that this was her last performance.

Meritorious Artist Thanh Ngoan, Cau’s protégé, founded a club named Xam Ha Thanh (Xam in Hanoi) with Cau’s other students to commemorate Cau’s contributions and to help in preserving the art form.

The most difficult thing, says club member Quang Long, “is to get people to come to our performances.”

Thanh Ngoan says there are now young xam singers waiting in the wings. Ngoc Anh from Thai Binh Province has been singing xam since she was 9. The 11-year-old girl can now sing three xam songs.

“I hope my teacher will be able to set her mind at rest now that we have a new generation of xam singers,” Ngoan said.

Source: Agencies 

Vietnamese student assaulted in Australia not of danger

19-year-old Vu Ngoc Minh, a student at Deakin University’s Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology, is in critical condition after being beaten by a group of youngsters in Australia

An overseas Vietnamese student is still in critical condition more than a week after being beaten up by a group of youngsters in Melbourne on December 26.

Doctor Patrick Dang said 19- year-old Vu Ngoc Minh’s brain injuries will take a long time to heal.

Minh’s cardiovascular system is stable but the doctors need to watch his brain closely, doctors of the Royal Melbourne Hospital told the Tuoi Tre newspaper on Tuesday (January 4).

The Melbourne crime investigation unit is still clueless about the reasons for the attack.

On December 26, Minh, a student of Deakin University’s Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology, was beaten up at the corner of Bourke and Swanton in Melbourne.

Minh’s friend, Le Thanh Tung, said they were shopping when a group of Asian-Australians insulted them. The duo requested store security to call the police but were let down.

Tung and Minh were followed even after they split up to go in separate directions. Tung said he defended himself with his belt when he was threatened with a knife.

Not far away, another group of about six young men brutally attacked Minh, Tung said, adding that his calls for help got no response.

“He was conscious when I found him. He said his head hurt and he was cold.” Minh slipped into unconsciousness in the ambulance, on his way to the hospital.

Richmond police, who started the investigation, transferred the case to the Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit. Initial investigations found that the young men were Asian-Australians but it is unclear why they attacked Tung and Minh, police said.

Vu Ngoc Diep, a cousin who is in touch with Minh’s parents in Melbourne, said on January 3 that Minh was beginning to show some response.

“When his mother held his hand and told him to grasp hers, Minh did it,” he told the Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper. “He also attempted to open his eyes.” The parents flew to Australia on December 31 after receiving news of the attack.

Tung is afraid their attackers may return. He said he keeps looking over his shoulder even though he is always accompanied by friends.

Overseas students in Australia have called for a thorough investigation and better security.

According to the Deakin University Vietnamese Student Association (DEVISE), Minh regularly participates in student activities and has never been involved in fights.

The association has donated money to support Minh’s family and has launched an online petition to call for the safety for overseas students in Australia, at http://www.petitiononline.com/safetyoz/pet ition.html.

The petition, which was also sent to the Australian government, said: “We, the overseas students come to Australia with the hope of gaining valuable knowledge for a brighter future. One of the main reasons for choosing this country is because we love Australia.

“In return, we should be assured of protection by the police and authorities. As we are living thousand miles far from our beloved country and families, we always feel to be endangered.”

Reported by Thanh Nien staff 

Police seek child abuse charges against nursery owner

According to the police, Tran Thi Phung, 52, abused three-year old Ho Thi Thuy Ngan while bathing her on November 23.

Police in the southern province of Binh Duong Monday sought to bring charges of “torturing people” against the owner of a private nursery for maltreating a three-year-old girl last month.

 

According to the police, Tran Thi Phung, 52, abused three-year old Ho Thi Thuy Ngan while bathing her on November 23. Phung gripped herhair tight, splashed water over her face, stamped and pinned her down to the floor and yelled loudly at the little girl.

 

Phung, who was running the nursery in Thuan Giao District without a license, was arrested on November 24, one day after footage of the abuse was posted online.

 

Following the arrest, Binh Duong authorities asked Thuan Giao District to censure leaders of its commune for lax management, allowing Phung’s nursery to operate despite warnings and fines.

 

Reported by H.Tuan – P.Vo