A Whole New World

The Saigon Times Concert, which took place last Saturday night on the occasion of Thoi bao Kinh te Sai Gon’s 20th anniversary, is a joyous melody of liberty and love

It was indeed a pleasure to immerse oneself in the mellifluous melody of Passacalia & Burleske by Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, performed by a soulful Ukrainian artist and a mesmerizing Vietnamese string orchestra under the guidance of American conductor Dean Khomik Anderson.

Amidst an intriguing and enigmatic veil of mist, the sound of Mira Khomik’s violin, which soared, tumbled and then poured into emotional waves in harmony with the artists’ deepest feelings, led the audience into Shostakovich’s tragic world. As the string orchestra’s artistic floodgates burst, the gloomy atmosphere evaporated and the boundless universe beckoned, filling everyone with the warmth of dawn. Passacalia & Burleske encapsulated Shostakovich’s journey as an artist, depicting his feelings about the vicissitudes of history. As the Government’s and his fellow composers’ vehement objections to his view of humanity pushed him into a corner, Shostakovich could turn his predicament into an overwhelming piece of music that touches the depth of human suffering and wrath in the face of devastating wars in this modern age. By virtue of her sensitivity, Mira Khomik successfully translated the agonizing, piercing and occasionally raucous sounds that once reverberated within a hapless soul, marginalized in his very country, into a hymn on life, a snapshot of history, and a work of art laden with passion for mankind and liberty. In her scarlet red, the golden-haired violinist instilled within the audience such beautiful emotions.

Antonin Dvorak’s From the New World was also a masterpiece on love for life. Composed in 1893, when African and American music started to mingle and new social trends started to emerge, the piece was the first to be heard on the moon. Conductor Dean Khomik Anderson and over 50 musicians, brimming with concentration and emotions, managed to capture the slightest sounds of the soul. Tribal drum beats and melodies from the string orchestra intertwined, reminding the more discerned members of the audience of the sound of rain falling and wind blowing. For a brief moment, petty concerns of daily life seemed to fade away, the audience’s soul turned mellow, memories of childhood and maternal embrace flashed back and beauty pervaded the auditorium. As everyone burst into applause after 40 minutes of quiet, attentive listening, an atmosphere rarely experienced at classical concerts in town pervaded the hall. Dean Khomik Anderson was clearly aware of everyone’s needs and could find the most wonderful way to touch the audience’s most profound emotions.

Whereas Dean Khomik Anderson and Mira Khomik enthralled everyone with a Western approach to music, tempered by multicultural influence, Tu Shan Xiang, a pipa maestro who has captivated many music lovers around the world, was emblematic of the charming, mysterious East, where diverse musical cultures thrive and blend into each other. Vietnam Sketch, one of his pieces, was replete with musical layers unique to Vietnam — heart-rending, simple and poetic. Through Tu Shan Xiang’s dazzling music, Vietnam emerged in all its dreamy resplendence and abounded in rustic, colorful sounds. Unlike in his debut in Vietnam, in the Saigon Times Group’s Harmony of Trust 1 Concert, Tu Shan Xiang calmly straddled across different musical realms this time around, weaving together visceral and soothing tunes that culminated in unbridled joy. In his traditional white outfit, he infused the piece with his tranquil soul, utter pleasure and an indescribably festive mood.

A highlight of the concert was Mira Khomik’s and Tu Shan Xiang’s partnership in Czardas by V. Monti, a light-hearted piece of Hungarian folk music. Originally prepared for the violin and the piano, this work of art was livened up with a new twist courtesy of the two gifted artists. Filled with happiness, Tu Shan Xiang decided to show his appreciation to the audience by means of a pipa solo performance that soaked the concert hall in a serene atmosphere.

The vision of a borderless world where love flourishes and music soars was precisely what the Saigon Times Group hoped to convey. The concert’s message revolved around trust, love and other cherished values of humanity. By endeavoring to preserve and popularize classical music, the media group wished to express its gratitude and ideals on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

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Remedies With Celeries

Celeries and celery seeds possess several nutritional and medicinal values

The celery (Apium graveolens) has been grown throughout the country for its petioles, which are consumed either raw or cooked as a vegetable, and its seeds, of which oil is used in the perfume and pharmaceutical industries. Celeries are also used in weight-loss diets, as they provide low-calorie dietary fiber bulk. Celery seeds are a good source of calcium and are regarded as a good alternative to animal products.

Remedies

In traditional Vietnamese medicine, celery petioles are used as a main ingredient to treat many illnesses.
To treat high blood pressure, boil celeries (both leaves and stalks); mince the vegetable and grind it with a blender; drink the juice twice a day, a small cup at a time. Or, boil celeries for a few minutes; mince them and prepare a salad by adding a little sesame oil, vinegar and salt; eat the salad once a day. You can also boil celeries and add a little purified sugar into the broth; drink the broth instead of tea during the day.

To lower the cholesterol level in the blood, wash celery leaves and stalks and squeeze them; add the same amount of honey to the celery juice; drink the juice thrice a day, a small cup at a time. Or, squeeze celeries; add water and boil the vegetable with 10 jujubes; drink the broth twice a day in 15-20 days for a remedy. You can also prepare porridge with celeries and rice; eat the porridge as regularly as possible.

To cure diabetes, squeeze celeries and drink the juice once or twice a day. Or, boil celeries; mince the boiled vegetable and add spices; eat the celeries during your meals. Prepare porridge with celeries and rice; eat the porridge when it is hot at breakfast and dinner every day. This porridge is also a diuretic and is good for the kidneys; it can help lower the blood sugar.

For those with hard urination, boil fresh or dried celery roots and drink the broth twice a day on an empty stomach. Drink it in three consecutive days to facilitate urination.

Those with high blood pressure and those who are trying to quit smoking can squeeze celery leaves and stalks and add a little honey to the juice; boil the juice and drink it during the day in three days in a row. Stop the remedy when your blood pressure drops to the normal figures.

Squeeze celeries; add water, sliced pumpkin and a little honey to the juice; boil the mixture again and drink the broth twice a day before lunch and dinner; drink it in 10-15 consecutive days to cure gout effectively. This drink is also good for the heart, blood vessels and kidneys.

Tinges Of Rural Life

In the very heart of this biggest city of Vietnam, several thingsare reminiscent of rural lifestyle

Several rural products can easily be found in Saigon. Bambooware and rattanware—such as baskets of all shapes and sizes—are on sale on the sidewalk or push carts. They are also sedge mats, bamboo venetian blinds, and a great variety of brooms carried on bicycles to virtually every door inside alleys in the inner city.

These rural products can also be baskets of small guavas, bình bát (wild sweetsop – Annona reticulata), cm dp (green rice flakes) and rau càng cua (Herba peperomiae), many of which have been embedded in urban children’s childhood memories. Favorite sweet soups in the countryside, especially in the Mekong Delta, have invaded many quarters of Saigon, particularly where the poor live.

At the market, in addition to vegetables which are universally accepted by urban Vietnamese are several ones specific to rural areas—rau lang (leaves and branches of sweet potato), bông súng (India red water lily), bông iên in (Sesbania), to name just a few.

They all make the urban meal more delicious because of their unusual taste. In fact, they can prompt a city dweller to feel a tinge of rural smell or taste although he or she is in the middle of the city.

It is these rural products transported by unsophisticated means that are sources of income for many families, keeping alive their children’s hope for a better future. The modern urban lifestyle can do away with these rural products. However, without them, that lifestyle would become dull and lack the taste and flavor of the native land. The predecessors of generations of today’s city dwellers came from the countryside where the above rural products were part of their daily life.

So, every time the Lunar New Year festival comes, Nguyen Hue Boulevard has a chance to turn into a street of flowers. On the boulevard, many visitors stop at the exhibits reminiscent of the countryside. That can be a scarecrow made of hay, a terra-cotta vase containing rainwater, a lift net, a small wooden boat or a clump of bamboo standing next to a cluster of banana trees.

To the Saigonese who have gained first-hand experience of rural life, images of a specific rural product may signify something. A small bamboo basket with a coat of red-brown varnish may depict a grandfather at work when he made baskets at the front yard. A man selling rural products door to door on his push cart may remind somebody of his or her father who made his living hawking around markets in the delta. A woman carrying a bamboo pole on the shoulders laden with two heavy baskets at the two ends reminisces about a mother in the countryside coming home with her baskets full of sweet potatoes, cassava and dried fish. In this regard, rural products are not only something to taste or use but also a way to revive sweet memories.

Stop for a moment to taste or touch these rural products in the hustle and bustle of the urban life. Take the chance as you may no longer be able to do so in the future when the current of urbanization will wash them all away.

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Soul Of The City

Every city has its own landmarks. The best part of the soul of a city, however, must be formed by its inhabitants.

Some years ago, an American intern at our editorial office asked Saigon Stories what we thought about the city we are living in. As a common sense, anybody is expected to love their home town or birthplace. But what makes we hold deep affection for our hometown also relates to other things in addition to the birthplace.

Saigon-HCM City celebrated its tricentennial in 1998. Three hundred years before that date, Nguyen Huu Canh (1650-1700), a high-ranking mandarin under the auspices of Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu, made an inspection trip to the south in 1698 to assert the Lord’s sovereignty over this region. Ever since, the city has earned its prestige due to its openness to the new. In other words, early in the making, Saigon has been a place of convergence where people from every corner of the country meet, do business and settle to build their home.

Saigon-HCM City is still unrivalled in Vietnam as far as population is concerned, even compared with the newly expanded Hanoi which has now outranked the second city in respect of surface area. But the soul of a city requires other elements beside grandeur and large population. Others—such as culture, architecture, living quality and the quality (conduct and education) of the inhabitants—really count as well.

A city cannot exist in human mind without some certain landmarks. In the case of New York, it is the Empire State Building. Imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower, or Kuala Lumpur lacking the Petronas Twin Towers. In Vietnam, Hanoi’s closest association is arguably the Sword Lake.

Look at these metropolitan symbols and you will see that they are not necessarily the biggest or latest or state-of-the-art structures. Well, the Petronas Towers may be among the highest or costliest buildings in Malaysia, but the Eiffel Tower is not on the same scale in Paris. Likewise, among the dozens of lakes dotting Hanoi, the 12-hectare Sword Lake looks so modest versus the West Lake whose water surface is 500 hectares and the roads circling around it are 17km in length. But the vast West Lake simply cannot compete with its tiny counterpart in the rivalry for a single symbol of Vietnam’s capital. Again, this reality shows that the soul representing a city requires more than simply being big or populous.

How about Saigon?

In February last year, HCM City authorities announced the lists of 100 things most exciting to tourists. Among the best picks ranging from best shopping places and most exciting sightseeing tours to best souvenirs and top nightlife destinations, Ben Thanh Market emerged as one of the top choices of both domestic and expatriate travelers. It is by no means the biggest in town. But when you ask a Saigonese about which market they think can symbolize their city, in most of the cases, rest assured that Ben Thanh is the first name coming to their mind. The reasons for the choice involve history, culture and the deep attachment of Saigonese to the market which has accumulated for centuries.

You can list other landmarks of Saigon—the Notre Dame Cathedral, the HCM City General Post Office, Nha Rong Wharf (Ho Chi Minh Museum) and the Reunification Palace, to name just a few. Concerning architecture, Saigon has more to offer. If you want to see a private house, it is the former residence of the late billionaire Hui Bon Hoa, now the HCM City Fine Art Museum, in District 1. How about educational institutions? Any of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Le Quy Don and Le Hong Phong high schools in districts 3 and 5 would be the answer.

Many would argue that the soul of a city should also embrace the way local inhabitants preserve historic or cultural sites. If we take this into account, Givral Café and Xuan Thu Bookstore on Dong Khoi Street in District 1, which used to register their places in Saigon’s history, should be restored to keep the soul of Saigon.

Three years ago, during a three-day visit to HCM City, Erwin Oliva, an on-line journalist from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, told Saigon Stories that downtown Saigon was like the center of a province in the Philippines. Oliva was right at the time because he might have compared Saigon’s center with the edifice-clad Makati City in Manila. But the Filipino journalist may change his mind if on his return to Saigon he visits Phu My Hung new urban area in District 7 which can be comparable to the best residential complex in the Philippines.

The best part of the soul of a city, however, must be its inhabitants. In other words, it is the lifestyle of city dwellers that matters. In this regard, Saigon has much room to improve. Violations of traffic rules are rampant, litter is almost ubiquitous, threats and acts of violence on the streets are daily stories. Meanwhile, air and noise pollution is becoming unbearable. These are the dark side of Saigon.

Regrettably, that dark side of the “Saigonse soul” has been worse over the years. Even in the “Model Urban Area,” a title given by the Ministry of Construction to Phu My Hung, disregard of traffic rules and litter are not rare.
But there is no reason for overpessimism. Life is always a mixture of the bad and the good, and life becomes better as soon as the good side prevails over the bad one.

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Losing Weight With Fruits

Along with a proper regime and physical exercise, regular intake of some fruits can help lose unexpected weight

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), called da chut in the north and da leo in the south, can be eaten fresh or used for pickling. The cucumber has abundant vitamins A, B, C and D, which can help prevent tumors and cure obesity. Intake of cucumber can help purify the blood and dilute uric acid and urate crystals in the blood, which can prevent and treat gout. Eating the fruit, either fresh or cooked, or drinking its juice, is recommended to relieve fever and sore throat, detoxify the body and facilitate urination.

Củ ấu, or water chestnut, is either of the two species: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis. The water chestnut is a diuretic with rich dietary fiber. It is an ideal food for those who want to lose their extra weight, because regular intake of water chestnuts can help lengthen the feeling of full, thus preventing one from eating snacks or fast food between the major meals. In addition, the nut’s rich vitamins B1, B2 and C can help beautify the skin.

Dragon fruit, called thanh long (literally means “blue dragon”) in Vietnamese, is widely grown in Binh Thuan Province in south-central Vietnam. The ripe, red fruit often has white flesh, but now a strain bearing fruits with red flesh has been successfully developed by many dragon fruit growers in the province. With high contents of water and dietary fiber and a low concentration of sugar, dragon fruit is highly recommended for those with obesity. Its rich vitamin C can also help beautify the skin and lower the blood sugar.

Pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), called bi in Vietnamese, is a popular fruit in southern Vietnam. Its pulp is rich in vitamins A, B1 and C. Vitamin C can help intensify the immune system. Its juice has a high content of antioxidants, which can help lower the cholesterol level in the blood. Intake of half a pomelo fruit every day before meals can help reduce the intake of other foods and therefore can help lose extra weight. The fruit pulp can be prepared into delicious salads or sweet soups.

C sn, also known as c u (Pachyrhizus erosus) contains 2.4-4.5% of glucose, 86-90% of water and 1.46% of protein. It is rich in carbohydrates in the form of dietary fiber, thus, this tuberous root is a food of choice for those who want to lose extra weight. The tuber can be consumed fresh as a fruit with a little salt and dried chili, or as an ingredient for many fried dishes or soups.

Pear (Pyrus communis) is very rich in dietary fiber, which can help those with obesity feel full and not want to eat more. Intake of three pears a day can help lose extra weight efficiently. Intake of the fruit can also help prevent constipation and certain cancer, and lower the cholesterol level in the blood.

Táo ta (literally means “our jujube” – Ziziphus mauritiana) has abundant pectin, which can help relieve the hunger quickly and eliminate the extra amount of fats in the body. Intake of this plum can also supply the body with vitamin C, which intensifies blood vessel wall and the resistance of the body. It is advised to eat the fruit with its rind because the rind contains dietary fiber.

 

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Vietnam singers steal ideas from foreign stars?

Building a personal image has been considered as a good way to promote Vietnamese artists but as more local singers have been caught copying styles from international celebrities, the situation is really alarming.  

After causing scandals with her first novel “Chain” about the sex life of a newly-wedded couple, singer and actress Le Kieu Nhu has recently been criticized for her album titled “Lac Tien” (Paradise), which is eerily the same as a poster from a well-known Chinese model’s online game.

Nhu admitted that the album, shot by photographer Coban, is her very idea and told the media the resemblance is only accidental.

Le Kieu Nhu

A famous Chinese model

Meanwhile, more and more local teen stars have rushed to copycat foreign celebrities’ styles and posture in posing for promotion photos.

Singers Truong Quynh Anh and Baggio copied Korean movie stars Bi Rain and Song Hye Kyo in their poster from the famous Korean TV series “Full House”.

Other singers Cong Khanh, Nam Cuong, Tim, Uyen Thao and Wanbi tried to look exactly the same like the five characters from Korean TV series “Boys over Flower”.

Too unnerving, too accidental!

A photo featuring teen stars Dong Nhi and Khong Tu Quynh is thought to copy the idea from a Disney Channel’s movie Princess Protection Program.

Dong Nhi is the splitting image of Selena Gomez. Wow.

A semi-nude photo of star footballer Cong Vinh and his girlfriend Thuy Tien - a celebrated singer - is criticized as imitating Calvin Klein underwear ad.

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Traders making a killing on small banknotes

Photo: http://www.fast-autos.net

The unofficial market of money exchange is currently enjoying a brisk trade because banks cannot meet the seasonal demand for newly minted small-denomination banknotes for use during Vietnamese Tet holidays, or the Lunar New Year, that falls in early February this year.

During the Tet period, Vietnamese usually put small-denomination notes in red envelopes and present them as lì xì (lucky money) to relatives, especially children, together with all their best wishes.

Despite their claims of adequate supply of small-denomination notes, most of the banks just give them to their loyal, corporate, and VIP clients. The underground market is therefore cashing in on this once-upon-a-year opportunity to charge exorbitant fees for the service.

For the 5,000 dong, 10,000 dong, and 20,000 dong notes, they charge a 20 percent commission. The smaller the note is, the higher the commission will be.

Online money exchanging also springs up this year. Service charges vary and can be as high as 45 percent.

One website quotes their fees as follows: 45 percent for the 200 dong note, 25 percent for the 500 dong note, 12 percent for the 1,000 dong and 2,000 dong notes, and 1-9 percent for notes of 5,000 to 100,000 dong denominational value.

Traders are also selling one-dollar and two-dollar bills at the moment. Depending on the uniqueness and serial numbers of the notes, those can be exchanged at various prices. For example, one trader sells a 1 dollar bill at VND25,000 and a 2 dollar bill at VND49,000 or 50,000.

The official exchange rate at present is VND19,500 to the dollar.

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