Monthly Archives: January 2016

An on bus #86 It turns out that the Ben Thanh market, which I found overwhelming, is not the real market. It is the market for tourists. The real market is Cho Lon, which means “big market.” You go into HCMC on the 86 and get off at the Ben Thanh market stop, Then you changeContinue reading “Cho Lon and Last Days”

  We told An and Vy that we wanted to see Star Wars. They weren’t sure that we were serious. However, they looked up where it was playing and it turned out that it was at an IMAX theater a 10 minute walk from TDTU, at Vivo City, a fancy new enclosed shopping mall, and that thereContinue reading “Star Wars at Vivo City IMAX”

Setting up for the TPP Seminar on January 14; Kent Wong’s delegation on the right I feel as if I am in a country that is like a box that is changing shape all the time. The walls are not at right angles to each other. Also, first something is a wall, then I walkContinue reading “The flow of information”

Joe took this on one of the first of ten or twenty tiny ferries that carried us back and forth among these islands. I was very proud to have been able to ride over 35 K that first day. The vegetation on the island behind me looks like jungle, but in fact it’s full ofContinue reading “Thanks for traveling with us”

VTUU Vietnam Trade Union University I appear to have lost my photos of the VTUU meeting on Tuesday, Jan 12. I will take some more when we’re up in Hanoi after Feb 1 Kent opened by referring to a conference that brought together TDTU, the TUU, and ULSA at the beginning of the partnership amongContinue reading “Hanoi Conversations (3, VTUU)”

Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, Director Chang-Hee Lee, Philip Hazelton, and two women whose names I did not get After the meeting with the VGCL, we met with people from the ILO, but in the VGCL offices since some kind of construction was going on at the ILO office. Present were Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, the ProjectContinue reading “Hanoi Conversations (3, ILO)”

Article in Lao Dong about this: http://laodong.com.vn/cong-doan/pho-chu-tich-tong-ldldvn-nguyen-thi-thu-hong-tiep-doan-can-bo-cd-my-414628.bld Kent Wong’s delegation of US labor leaders and labor educators arrived in Hanoi Sunday January 10. We met them in the lobby of the Rang Dong Hotel (Trade Union Hotel) and went to dinner at a place called Wild Rice, very elegant and full of what appeared to beContinue reading “Hanoi Conversations (2, VGCL)”

Kent Wong’s delegation made a visit to a Vietnamese factory on Tuesday afternoon. We drove out in a van to a town perhaps 45 minutes outside Hanoi  toward Haiphong, but still with the Hanoi address. This company is 24 years old, founded in 1992. It is a joint stock company; its capital is all Vietnamese.Continue reading “Ladoda Bags”

Last summer Joe and I were going though things in the barn attic in Vermont and found this small wooden box in the old file cabinet. When we opened it, we saw  glass slides, a booklet, a stapled pack of typed pages and a reel-to-reel audio tape. The slides were photos taken by Felix GreeneContinue reading “Felix Greene in HCMC”

Students line up to give blood at registration: campus life outside the classroom The TOP 100 aspiration is not just about TDTU. “In November 2013, the Communist Party issued a Resolution on Fundamental and Comprehensive Education Reform that aims to develop education in Viet Nam to become an advanced education system that meets regional andContinue reading “The Global Financial Crisis and TDTU Classroom Teaching Methods”