by cogitASIA Staff • October 15, 2015 •
By Phuong Nguyen
For the first time since Vietnam opened up to the world in the late 1980s, the country’s trajectory could shape the future geopolitics of Southeast Asia in significant ways. What that trajectory ought to look like has been a topic of intense discussions among Vietnamese leaders in recent months, as Vietnam gears up for the twelfth Communist Party Congress, expected to take place in early 2016.
Abstract: The issue of artificial islands in the South China Sea has little been detailed discussed in the context of territorial and maritime disputes. Even in international law, the term “artificial islands” remains controversial and there is no universally accepted definition of it, though several provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea mention “artificial islands”.
With the development of science and technology and the increasing endeavors of nations States to creep over to occupy more space from the oceans, the issue of artificial islands becomes more salient. This paper attempts to discuss this issue in an international law perspective with special reference to the Spratly Islands and to provoke more discussions about it in future.
Introduction
It is difficult to find a clear answer to the question on how and to what extent artificial islands will have impacts on the disputes over the Spratly Islands. There might also be some doubts as to whether there are artificial islands really existing in the South China Sea. If yes, what are these artificial islands? This paper attempts to discuss the issue of artificial islands in an international law perspective. Although the term artificial islands also includes artificial installations and structures such as oil platforms or fishing breeding constructions (for example, abandoned or obsolete oil platforms sometimes can be used as artificial reefs for fishery habitat construction),[1]this paper mainly focuses on artificial islands per se.
Tuesday 10 December 2013 is World Human Rights Day, marking the 65th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly vote to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In recognition of this milestone, this week The Religion Factor features a series of reflections from scholars and practitioners on the relationship between religion and human rights, particularly in developing contexts. In today’s post, Erin Wilson reflects on the debate over whether human rights really are universal and the role that religions can play in relating values and rights from their particular cultural contexts to the universal and back again.
Published on Monday, 26 October 2015
One of the striking lessons from Asia’s success over the past few decades is that it makes economic sense to invest in regional infrastructure to link two or more countries to support outward-oriented development strategies.
Cross-border projects such as the Almaty-Bishkek regional road in Central Asia, the India-Bangladesh Electrical Grid Interconnection project, and the Tonga-Fiji Submarine Cable have enhanced Asia’s economic development by stimulating flows of goods, services, investment, people and technology. They have also fostered regional peace and cooperation. Negative effects such as environmental degradation, displaced people, crime and trafficking from such projects have been largely mitigated through safeguards and public policies.
TĐH: Vietnam will face this issue eventually
Should transgender students have full access to locker rooms? (Photo: Ed Sacckett/KRT/Newscom)
By Rabea Brauer | Vu Dang Tuan
Although Vietnam has very comprehensive frameworks for its climate and energy policy, there are justified doubts about the practicability of the strategy and its compatibility with economic development. This is reflected in the current climate and energy policy. Right now, it is impossible to consistently pursue the goal of balancing an effective climate policy with a low-carbon economy. This is because the goal is at odds with current developments in Vietnam’s energy sector. Germany Trade & Invest says that, in contrast to Germany’s energy policy, Vietnam has made the construction of coal-fired power plants a top priority, and this despite the fact that the country has considerable potential when it comes to renewable energies
(hydropower, biomass, nuclear energy).
CLIMATE OR THE ECONOMY? VIETNAM’S ATTEMPTS TO BALANCE GROWTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
How do you achieve harmony between economic prosperity and a decisive climate policy? Governments all over the world are facing this dilemma and trying to tackle the serious challenges presented by the reciprocal relationship between economic policy and climate policy.
Hi brothers and sisters,
I tell you a short story.
I drink coffee at a bakery & coffee shop every morning in the last few weeks. This shop is a part of Thanh Tam Specialized School (Thanh Tâm – Vietnamese). This is the school that educates, cares for and rehabilitates children with disabilities. And this school is a part of Saint Paul Convent in Da Nang.
The servants in the shop are youths (some of them can’t talk or/and can’t hear) and a soeur. Soeurs often work in order taker or cashier positions. The soeurs here are youths, maybe older than me about one to five years. Continue reading Servant
Andrew Maddocks, and –
WRI – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Power Plan has been heralded as a major step toward a low-carbon economy in the United States. By reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, the new policy is designed to promote the development of renewable energy sources nationwide.
“The earth is not just our environment. The earth is our mother.”
Jun 18, 2014
UNDP VN – Ha Noi, 18 June 2014 – “Fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out and a price set on carbon,” the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam has recommended in a discussion paper launched today.
The paper, “Green Growth and Fossil Fuel Fiscal Policies in Viet Nam – Recommendations for a Roadmap for Policy Reform” argues that despite the Government’s commitment towards green growth and restructuring the energy sector including price reform, there are still substantial indirect subsidies on fossil fuels in the country.
According to the paper, Viet Nam’s energy prices are low compared to other countries in the region. Although there have been significant price increases, average retail prices remained the same during 2008-2013, and are in fact lower than the previous five-year period, when measured against 2002 prices taking into account inflation.
Fifty years ago today, November 2, 2015, at about 5:20 p.m., a 31-year-old Quaker named Norman Morrison immolated himself 40 feet from the window of US Secretary of War Robert McNamara’s office at the Pentagon. I was a law student in Washington, DC at the time.
Most US Americans know little of our nation’s history and seldom reflect on the moral issues relating to its genocidal origins and imperial nature. And, it seems, they avoid at all costs reflection on anything that may produce “negative” feelings (i.e., the truth).
HANOI – Sunday, November 01, 2015 13:59
TNN – Vietnam has reported an alarming increase of superbugs that are resistant to powerful antibiotics and some of them are able to survive all available drugs, doctors said.
Nguyen Vu Trung, deputy director of the Central Tropical Diseases Hospital, said at a conference in Hanoi on Thursday that the resistance rate to carbapenems, the strongest group of antibiotics, has risen to 50 percent, mostly from gram-negative bacteria which have an impenetrable cell wall.
Do Thuy Nga from an Oxford study said Vietnam now ranks second out of 26 countries reporting data of carbapenem-resistant E.coli, after India.
This is one of 27 Countries of Concern included in the latest annual FCO Human Rights Report. Updates are published on the GOV.UK website every three months to highlight key human rights events in these countries, and to report on actions that the UK has taken.
Comments on the main report report or quarterly updates can be made below. They will be monitored and moderated by staff at the Human Rights and Democracy Department at the FCO who will also try and answer as many questions as possible.
September 2, 2015
Author: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Agricultural Innovation in Africa; Science, Technology, and Globalization; Science, Technology, and Public Policy
The seed industry in sub-Saharan Africa is informal in nature, with approximately 80% of farmers saving and replanting seeds from year to year. This gives them security of access. But improved varieties — including high-yielding and hybrid crops — will increase productivity and income.
To get these seeds into the hands of farmers, a better marketing and distribution system is needed. Local small and medium-sized seed enterprises have a comparative advantage in reaching this underserved market due to their size and market reach.
There has been considerable concern over the potential control of Africa’s seed sector by large corporations. While such firms continue to operate in most countries, it notable that Africa’s seed sector is currently dominated by local start-ups.
Chào các bạn,
Tiến Hùng là em ruột của mình. Em mình vừa có điểm thi TOEIC được 935/990. Đây là niềm vui lớn với em và với cả nhà mình, không hẳn vì điểm số mà vì em đã vượt qua chính mình.
Mời các bạn cùng đọc tâm sự của em để thấy con đường rèn luyện tiếng Anh bắt đầu từ con số 0 của em như thế nào nhé.
(Thầy Nguyễn Công Tiền là thầy dạy TOEIC cho em mình.
Chia sẻ dưới đây đã đăng trên trang Facebook của thầy.)
Cám ơn các bạn và chúc những ai đang và sẽ chinh phục tiếng Anh cũng thành công như vậy và thành công hơn thế nữa nhé. 🙂
Thu Hương,
GOV.UK 
Đọt Chuối Non 
Uncle Sam isn’t going to let schools place certain restrictions on how transgender students use a single-sex locker room.
A school district near Chicago, Palatine 211, provides numerous accommodations for transgender students. The district calls the students by requested names, honors selected gender (including allowing them to play on the sports teams of the gender they identify as belonging to), and permits them to use single-sex bathrooms, since stalls ensure privacy.
Continue Reading on CVD