TADIOTO

People Who Live in My Life, oil on canvas, Nguyen Thi Chau Giang, 2002, 200cm x 210cm      
Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Viet Nam 

From June 20th to August 5th, 2007 

Art Museum, Arons Art Center, Mills College, Oakland, California 

Exhibition curated by Dr. Nora Taylor 

Artists: Dang Thi Khue, Phuong M. Do, Dinh Y Nhi, Ly Hoang [...]

Viet Nam’s Prime Minister issued a decree May 28 “banning” “everyone within government ministries from speaking to the media, except ministers, provincial governors or officially appointed spokespeople… The decree states that government spokespeople will have a monthly media briefing, and each ministry will hold a briefing at least once every six months. It also instructs [...]

 
Socialism: You have two cows, and you give one to your neighbor. 
Communism: You have two cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.   
Fascism: You have two cows. The State takes both, makes you march in a row, and forces you to buy some milk. 
Nazism: You have two cows. The state takes both, and, instead of milk, [...]

Poet and journalist Dạ Thảo Phương said yes to AFP correspondent Frank Zeller.   They were married last week in Ha Noi.      

The ride from their home to the wedding reception was short, so they took a chance on the bike, a Russian Minsk.    

From a local journalist:  A Vietnamese official visits neighboring Laos and was received at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs. The official asks: “You are a landlocked country. How can you have a Ministry of Maritime Affairs?” 
The Laotian host asks: “You have a Ministry of Culture, don’t you?” 

One hears frequent talks of assimilation in the offical media here.  Hội nhập. It’s a reference to Viet Nam joining the world, being a member of the World Trade Organization, and generally adopting international standards. That includes major business practices to more mundane habits, such as not smoking indoors.  No surprise that at last year’s Asian-Pacific Economic [...]

A diplomat visits a foreign country. 
He asks his host: “How come you’ve never had a coup d’etat in your country?” 
His host answers: “We’ve never had a U.S. embassy.” 

 
Purists among us will note that the building in the photo above isn’t of the U.S. embassy in the old Saigon, but rather a building nearby. But we’re [...]

A visitor to the U.S. asks: How come the U.S. doesn’t have a Ministry of Culture?
The American host replies: We don’t have a Ministry of War either.  Has that ever stopped us from starting wars all over the world?       
 

Amazing how one can sometimes forget how hot it gets in Ha Noi. And the worst is still to come.  So you stay indoors most days, and think of cooler days elsewhere.  Like a bitter winter in Tokyo a couple of years back, where I shot this picture.
 
And here’s a blog by Vietnamese photojournalist Na Son.  [...]