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Vietnam floating market struggles to stay above water

2018-07-06T00:08:12Z

BrentonCrooks:

A vendor prepares vegetables that she sold to a resident of a house boat in a canal off the Song Hau river in the floating Cai Rang market in Can Tho, a small city of the Mekong Delta Fixing weighing scales used to be good business on Vietnam's floating Cai Rang market, but the last repairman on the river now makes just a few dollars a month as modernity pushes traders to land. Surrounded by dusty old scales on his cluttered houseboat, Nguyen Van Ut says vendors are giving up their boats for better lives on terra firma where supermarkets draw the traders who once thronged the waterway. "I don't have many customers now. In the past, it was alright, but now many boats have left the floating market... people on vessels have switched to vehicles," the 71-year-old told AFP. He got into the repairs business 30 years ago on the Can Tho river to support his surviving children after his wife and two of his sons drowned in an accident. For a [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] time life was good, but now he relies on handouts from his children -- three of them work in nearby Can Tho city. A resident of a house boat yawns as he swings on a hammock on the vessel in a canal off the Song Hau river at the floating Cai Rang market in Can Tho, a small city in the Mekong Delta Once reportedly two kilometres long, the Cai Rang market is a shadow of its former self. There are about 300 boats on the water now, down from 550 in 2005, according to the local tourism office. It has fallen victim to the economic rise of the Mekong Delta, which has rapidly developed over the last decade. Industrial and construction sectors have created nearly 570,000 jobs, hauling many from poverty. But people like Ut have been left behind, unable to afford a life on shore. Even vendors making a decent wage from the tourists who flock to the market yearn for the perks of living on land: better housing, better jobs and modern amenities. Nguyen Thi Hong Tuoi started working on the water when she was a child, just like her mother and grandmother before her. Though she earns decent money, she doesn't expect her daughter to carry on the family tradition. Boats lie anchored in a canal off the Song Hau river in the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/?q=floating%20Cai floating Cai] Rang market [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] in Can Tho, a small city of the Mekong Delta "In the future, I will let my daughter live on land so she can study and have a proper job," the 34-year-old told AFP, as her elderly mother rested in a hammock surrounded by sacks of tapioca on their boat. It's a common aspiration for young people in Vietnam, where more than half the country's 93 million people are under the age of 30 and eager to move to fast-growing cities for work. - Supermarket squeeze - The origins of Cai Rang market reach back to when Vietnam and neighbouring Cambodia and Laos were occupied by the French, who readily exploited the natural resources of the colony previously called Indochina. The Mekong Delta's web of canals -- both natural and man-made -- were used to transport goods and people in the absence of a reliable road network. Kim Hui, 70, and her five-year-old granddaughter Nguyen [http://www.Melodyhome.com/category-0/?u=0&q=Thi%20Ngoc Thi Ngoc] Huyen sit inside a boat that they call home in a canal off the Song Hau river at the floating Cai Rang market in Can Tho, a small city in the Mekong Delta There are about a dozen surviving markets in Vietnam's Mekong Delta today, though like Cai Rang, many have shrivelled. "The local government is trying to keep the floating markets alive to (preserve) the culture and attract more tourists," said Nguyen Thi Huynh Phuong, a lecturer at nearby Can Tho University who has researched the market's history. It still functions as a wholesale market, with vendors waking each day before dawn to load boats with watermelons or radishes and advertising their products by spearing them to a bamboo pole on the bow of the ship. But its charm also draws millions of visitors each year who buy noodles, fruit and coffee from water traders, making it a well-established pit-stop on the Mekong tourist trail. Recognising the market as a tourism hotspot, the government designated Cai Rang as a national heritage site last year. For vendors like Ly Hung, who has lived on the water for 26 years, visitors have helped to maintain a traditional way of life. "Without tourism this floating market would disappear," he said. Advertisement

Tory rebels urged to back Theresa May in crunch Brexit votes

2018-07-05T13:24:11Z

BrentonCrooks:

Two senior Conservatives from the Leave and Remain wings of the party have come together to urge Tory MPs to back Theresa May in a series of crunch Commons votes on Brexit. Former home secretary Amber Rudd, a leading Remain supporter, and ex-party leader Iain Duncan Smith, a long-standing Brexiteer, warned defeat could lead to the fall of the Government. In a joint article for The Sunday Telegraph, they said that voting to overturn or [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] water down a series of amendments inserted by the Lords into the EU (Withdrawal) Bill should be a �no brainer�. Iain Duncan Smith was among those who backed a Leave vote (Stefan Rousseau/PA) They said Labour would be quick to exploit any setback for the Government for their own purposes. �Jeremy Corbyn will do everything he can to stop us,� they warned. �That includes cynically trying to frustrate the Brexit process for his own political ends, as he will try to do next week when the Commons votes again on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill. �So it behoves us all to demonstrate discipline and unity of purpose in support of the Prime Minister. �We cannot allow ourselves to become divided and risk losing the precious chance to go on implementing policies that transform lives.� While Amber Rudd supported the Remain side (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Ministers - who have accepted just one of the 15 amendments to legislation - are confident of winning most of the votes when the bill returns to the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, pro-EU Tory rebels believe they could be vulnerable on key measures including the customs [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] union and a requirement for Parliament to have a decisive say over what happens next if it rejects a final Brexit deal. With the Government dependent on the DUP for its majority, Tory whips are expected to crank up the pressure on potential rebels to ensure they have the numbers when it comes to the divisions. They may be boosted by support from a handful of pro-Brexit Labour MPs. Former deputy prime minister Damian Green wrote in the Sunday Express that the majority of the crucial votes would �pass easily�. He said: �The Westminster air is again full of the scent of rebellions, chaos and catastrophic Government defeats. �I predict they simply won�t materialise for one simple reason: the whips can count. �If they think that the Government won�t have a majority, they advise a change in policy.� Theresa May, in Quebec for the G7 summit, denounced the unelected peers who passed the amendments, accusing them of going far beyond their role as a revising chamber. �Let�s remember what the Withdrawal Bill is for: it�s about delivering a statute book that is ready for Brexit day,� she said. �Of course, the Lords has a revising role to play - but some of the amendments that were passed and the comments that were made went far beyond that. �You had peers talking about stopping Brexit or trying to tie the Government�s hands in the negotiations. �This [http://Dict.leo.org/?search=Government Government] is delivering on the decision made by the country in the referendum to leave the EU and we will not accept anything that prevents us from taking back control of our money, laws and borders.� Theresa May In their article, Ms Rudd and Mr Duncan Smith said the bill was not about competing visions of the future, but a �technical measure� to ensure there was �legal certainty� when Britain left the EU in March 2019. �The disagreements in the party do not extend to whether we should leave, only how we do it,� they said. �So for Conservatives of every outlook, givingour full support to the Government this week should be a no-brainer. The House of Commons backed the Withdrawal Bill [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html du lịch Bắc Kinh] at third reading with a clear majority. Not a single Conservative voted against it.� For Labour, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said pro-EU Tory MPs had a chance to alter the direction of the negotiations if they voted with the opposition on the key amendments. �If Tory MPs who care about these amendments vote with us there is a real chance for Parliament to change the course of the Brexit negotiations and bring some order where there is real chaos,� he told BBC One�s The Andrew Marr Show. Advertisement

User:BrentonCrooks

2018-07-05T13:24:04Z

BrentonCrooks: Created page with "My name is Brenton from Strangways doing my final year engineering in Creative Writing. I did my schooling, secured 84% and hope to find someone with same interests in Disc go..."

My name is Brenton from Strangways doing my final year engineering in Creative Writing. I did my schooling, secured 84% and hope to find someone with same interests in Disc golf. My website - [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội]