Postal stamp set salutes ASEAN Summit

HA NOI — A stamp set entitled Viet Nam in the ASEAN Community was unveiled on Wednesday at the National Convention Centre in Ha Noi to commemorate the ASEAN Summit being hosted in Viet Nam.

Artist Nguyen Du's designs beat out 22 other entrants to be chosen for the stamps, which feature the national flags of the ten ASEAN member states arranged in the shape of a flying dragon.

The image reflected the stability and prosperity of ASEAN due to the sound policies applied during Viet Nam's ASEAN presidency in 2010, Du said.

The stamp set was offset printed on gummed standard paper by the Postal Stamps Printing Co in HCM City.

Award winning French pianist to play in Ha Noi

HA NOI — French pianist Jean Gabriel Ferlan will perform pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, Faure and Franck next Tuesday at the French Cultural Centre in Ha Noi. Ferlan has won prizes at international piano festivals in Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain and France.

HIV/AIDS exhibition to open in capital

HA NOI — An exhibition called HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam: 20 Years of Changes and Challenges will be held at the Museum of Ethnology in Ha Noi on November 22 to mark HIV/AIDS prevention month (November 10-December 10).

The event will be jointly organised by the museum, the Centre for Community Health Research and Development (CCRD), the Ford Foundation and Columbia University in New York.

According to the CCRD, the event will spotlight the HIV/AIDS problem in Viet Nam, past and present, with the recollections and experiences of HIV/AIDS victims as well as the difficulties faced by health staff, policy makers and researchers.

Since the first case of HIV was discovered in the country in 1990, the virus has quickly spread on a national scale and affected many aspects of Vietnamese society, it said.

It is just one of 10 events being held across the country to mark the 20th year of Viet Nam's HIV prevention campaign. — VNS

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Airlines transport supplies to flood victims

Vietnam’s low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific and national flagship Vietnam Airlines are transporting relief aid items for free to families in the central flood-hit areas.

Jetstar Pacific said it would deliver for free all legitimate aid supplies from organizations and agencies on its daily flight from HCMC to Vinh, for families in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces until November 15.

Vietnam Airlines said it would collect donations for flood victims on its flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Vinh, Dong Hoi, Hue and Danang. It announced it would also transport supplies donated by Vietnam Fatherland Front, the People’s Committee of cities and provinces, the Vietnam Red Cross as well as local and foreign charities.

The national carrier has collected VND1.2 billion and basic necessities from staff to help the flood victims. It has distributed VND50 million to families and donated books and notebooks to children in the region.

Every week, Vietnam Airlines has 126 flights to Danang, 49 to Hue, 28 to Vinh and eight to Dong Hoi. Jetstar Pacific currently operates a daily flight between HCMC and Vinh, but will double the service from October 31 after delivery of a new Airbus A320 brings its aircraft fleet to seven.   

Vietnam Airlines asked organizations and agencies to call either Luu Minh Viet on 0975316886 or (04) 39742808 or Nguyen Cao Cuong on 0912 827 777 or (08) 62 555 777; ext 7756 and 7776 to register for relief aid transportation.

Interested organizations and agencies can contact Jetstar Pacific via 0989609600 or visit its headquarters at 112 Hong Ha in HCMC’s Tan Binh District.

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Airlines transport supplies to flood victims

Vietnam’s low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific and national flagship Vietnam Airlines are transporting relief aid items for free to families in the central flood-hit areas.

Jetstar Pacific said it would deliver for free all legitimate aid supplies from organizations and agencies on its daily flight from HCMC to Vinh, for families in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces until November 15.

Vietnam Airlines said it would collect donations for flood victims on its flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Vinh, Dong Hoi, Hue and Danang. It announced it would also transport supplies donated by Vietnam Fatherland Front, the People’s Committee of cities and provinces, the Vietnam Red Cross as well as local and foreign charities.

The national carrier has collected VND1.2 billion and basic necessities from staff to help the flood victims. It has distributed VND50 million to families and donated books and notebooks to children in the region.

Every week, Vietnam Airlines has 126 flights to Danang, 49 to Hue, 28 to Vinh and eight to Dong Hoi. Jetstar Pacific currently operates a daily flight between HCMC and Vinh, but will double the service from October 31 after delivery of a new Airbus A320 brings its aircraft fleet to seven.   

Vietnam Airlines asked organizations and agencies to call either Luu Minh Viet on 0975316886 or (04) 39742808 or Nguyen Cao Cuong on 0912 827 777 or (08) 62 555 777; ext 7756 and 7776 to register for relief aid transportation.

Interested organizations and agencies can contact Jetstar Pacific via 0989609600 or visit its headquarters at 112 Hong Ha in HCMC’s Tan Binh District.

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Airlines transport supplies to flood victims

Vietnam’s low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific and national flagship Vietnam Airlines are transporting relief aid items for free to families in the central flood-hit areas.

Jetstar Pacific said it would deliver for free all legitimate aid supplies from organizations and agencies on its daily flight from HCMC to Vinh, for families in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces until November 15.

Vietnam Airlines said it would collect donations for flood victims on its flights from HCMC and Hanoi to Vinh, Dong Hoi, Hue and Danang. It announced it would also transport supplies donated by Vietnam Fatherland Front, the People’s Committee of cities and provinces, the Vietnam Red Cross as well as local and foreign charities.

The national carrier has collected VND1.2 billion and basic necessities from staff to help the flood victims. It has distributed VND50 million to families and donated books and notebooks to children in the region.

Every week, Vietnam Airlines has 126 flights to Danang, 49 to Hue, 28 to Vinh and eight to Dong Hoi. Jetstar Pacific currently operates a daily flight between HCMC and Vinh, but will double the service from October 31 after delivery of a new Airbus A320 brings its aircraft fleet to seven.   

Vietnam Airlines asked organizations and agencies to call either Luu Minh Viet on 0975316886 or (04) 39742808 or Nguyen Cao Cuong on 0912 827 777 or (08) 62 555 777; ext 7756 and 7776 to register for relief aid transportation.

Interested organizations and agencies can contact Jetstar Pacific via 0989609600 or visit its headquarters at 112 Hong Ha in HCMC’s Tan Binh District.

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Money exhibition marks artist’s death

An exhibition in Hanoi to mark the one year death anniversary of artist Vu Dan Tan (1946-2009) will show his pro-humanism paintings of money.

Tan created his money series over a period of nearly a decade from 1994. It’s iconography, in combination with the work’s conceptual premise of exchange, can be understood on many levels. Embodying Vu Dan Tan’s unfailing humanism, the work is pan-cultural in reach.

The artist depicted his own interpretations of the euro, Hong Kong dollar, the Iraqi dinar, and English pound, amongst others. The series also honored the connections between peoples and their cultures.

Unwilling to accept the power of real money in the real world, Vu Dan Tan fabricated their more valuable substitutes, loudly announcing his faith that it was beauty and nothing else, which would save the world, said Natasha, wife of the late artist.

Vu Dan Dan was a great innovator and craftsmen and often worked with salvaged or available materials, cryptically telling the story of the times.

The exhibition runs till November 14 at Salon Natasha at 30 Hang Bong Street in Hanoi.

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I Am Giant heats up Hard Rock Café

Four piece rock band, I Am Giant, from the U.K - Photo: Courtesy of the Hard Rock Cafe

U.K rock band, I Am Giant, will play two nights, November 10 and 11 at the Hard Rock Café in HCMC’s District 1. 

“After the first performance at Tiger Translate – a cross-cultural platform highlighting Asian creativeness and collaboration with Western visionaries in Danang City in May, we all wished to have another chance to play for more rock fans in Vietnam,”  the band said in an email.

The music of the four-piece is a quintessence of alternative/indie/melodic rock inspired by Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Muse and Rage Against the Machine.

“We have played before with two famous Vietnamese rock bands, Ngu Cung and Microwave… We could not understand their songs but we could feel the same rock language when we performed on stage with them.”

The band just finished a popular tour of New Zealand. I Am Giant has also been invited to play at surfing contests in the U.K, France and Bali.

Tickets are VND100,000 inclusive of a Coors Light Beer or a Jim Beam Cola plus a place in the draw for prizes from Hard Rock and Coors Light.

 Hard Rock Café is at 39 Le Duan Boulevard, District 1, HCMC.

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Foreign jugglers lure local children

Balls in the air: Ali Evans (right) and Fran Donovan, from Wales (right), show their skills. — Photo Thanh An

HA NOI — Lately, teenagers and children have been frequenting the Sunday afternoon circus performance of a foreign entertainment group at Ha Noi Botanical Park.

The group which includes amateur artists of many nationalities, shows each audience outstanding and original skills. One of the members of the group, Fran Donovan, a petite from Wales, England carefully juggles colourful balls of all different sizes, catching them with her skilful hands.

"When I was a child, my parents used to take me to the local circus and to festivals on weekends. Watching people and animals performing magic tricks made a strong impression on me," said Donovan.

Donovan and her boyfriend Ali Evans started the group and invited their friends to join.

"I love children a lot. It was a great idea to teach them my tricks," she says while her hands are busy playing with five fabric balls.

"Beginners should practice with two balls of the same size. First, throw one ball into the air and watch it closely, not too high or too low so you are able to focus on the ball. When the first ball is already up, continue by throwing the second ball."

After living in Viet Nam for a year and a half, Donovan and her group all come from Ha Noi Circus Club, have performed in several places in Ha Noi. Most of the audience members are children, but more and more teenagers and young adults are coming to the shows. According to Donovan, the size of the audience changes constantly. Sometimes people she's never seen before pass by to watch the group perform.

"We do not have many toys to bring to the park, so we've asked our Vietnamese friends living in the Old Quarter to make more balls for us. The staffs are made from bamboo, and the clubs are made from rattan, which makes them very strong and stiff", added Donovan.

Evans, the group's leader, as well as an English teacher at the Australian Centre for Education and Training, is capable of playing with all the toys and said that patience is necessary to study circus.

"You can juggle as many balls as you want, as long as you practice everyday. It really depends on how much you try," he said.

Like Evans, others members in the group have a main career, but they still serve audiences without pay.

One of Evans's student, Bui Thi Hong Nhung, from the Ha Noi University of Agriculture, said, "I have never tried to learn these skills before. I only saw performances of animals and people in the Ha Noi central circus. Ali is a good teacher and a brilliant artist. This could be my new hobby."

Another member from France, Franny, attracts children with her poi performance.

"Poi is a performance art in which one or more balls are suspended from a certain length of flexible material, usually a plaited cord, and swung in circular patterns by the artist," said the poi artist.

The group plans to perform more skills in Ha Noi's Thong Nhat Park so that more children can come and watch.

"We just want to meet people and have fun. Money is not of certain to us," said Donovan. — VNS

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