January 15, 2012
A woman fans coals to heat up a cooker on the railway track in downtown Hanoi. When investment decisions are made based on corruption, it is not only the honest firms that suffer, but also the public through lower quality and higher cost works. As Vietnam sits on the cusp of becoming a middle income [...]
Tags: 40 Percent, And Higher Cost, Are Made Based, Asking Ldquo, corruption, Decisions Are Made, Decisions Are Made Based, development, Development Report, economy, Fighting Corruption, firms, Firms That Suffer, Great Strides, growth, Had Sought, Hard Working, Has Made, Has Made Great, Has Made Great Strides, higher, Higher Cost, Honest, Honest Firms, Honest Firms That, Honest Firms That Suffer, If Corruption, information, investment, Investment Decisions, Investment Decisions Are, Investment Decisions Are Made, Is Not Only, Is Not Only The, Ldquo, lower, Lower Quality, Lower Quality And, Lower Quality And Higher, Made Based, Made Great Strides, Not Only The, Not Only The Honest, Of Those That, Of Those That Had, Only The Honest, Only The Honest Firms, percent, public, Quality And Higher, Quality And Higher Cost, Rdquo, Than 40, That Had Sought, The Honest, The Honest Firms, The Honest Firms That, The world, The World Bank, The Wrong, Those That Had, Those That Had Sought, transparency, Unofficial, Unofficial Payments, Vietnam, Vietnam Development, Vietnam Development Report, Vietnam Has Made, Vietnam Has Made Great, When Investment, When Investment Decisions, When Investment Decisions Are, world, World Bank, wrong
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January 14, 2012
There has been a fair amount written recently about various institutional cartels that are thriving in the US despite antitrust laws designed to prevent their existence. My previous column compared Wall Street’s few remaining investment banks to a cartel, with explicit pricing power over its hundreds of thousands of customers, an advantage that will [...]
Tags: Against Wall, Against Wall Street, Arbitration, Arbitration Process, Arbitrators, banks, Broker, brokerage, cases, court, Court System, Dispute, disputes, Final And Binding, Finra, firms, Generally, Is Final And, Is Final And Binding, Ldquo, millions, monetary, Monetary Recovery, money, New york, Nocera, Non Monetary, Non Monetary Recovery, Of People Who, Of Wall Street, people, percent, process, Rdquo, recovery, Regulatory, resolve, Star Chamber, Street, system, The Courts, The Millions, The Ncaa, Wall Street
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January 14, 2012
“The Iron Lady,” the new biopic starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, was controversial before audiences even saw it, largely because of its portrayal of the aging former prime minister’s dementia. The current UK prime minister, David Cameron, suggested the movie was premature and shouldn’t have been made while Thatcher was alive. Her former [...]
Tags: According, ambition, Anna Quindlen, Business, Carol, children, Conservative Party, daughter, Dementia, Denis, driving, Driving Lesson, family, female, Female Characters, For Party Leader, Former, Gospel, Gospel According, Greasy Pole, Guilt, Her Ambition, Her Children, Her Daughter, Her Former, Her husband, Her Old, Her Old Age, Her Rdquo, His Wife, Hollywood, Hollywood Code, Include, Iron Lady, Iron Lady Rdquo, Karmic Payback, Lady Rdquo, Ldquo, Ldquo Don, Ldquo The Iron, Ldquo The Iron Lady, leader, Leader Ldquo, Margaret, Margaret Thatcher, Minister, Mother, movie, Never Explains, Of Ldquo The, Parliament, Party, Party Leader, Party Leader Ldquo, people, power, Prime, Prime minister, public, Quindlen, Ran For Party, Ran For Party Leader, Rdquo, Rdquo And Ldquo, Rdquo Ldquo, Real World, scene, something, South Africa, Thatcher, The car, The film, The Gospel, The Gospel According, The Iron Lady, The Iron Lady Rdquo, The Movie, The Office, The Power, The problem, think, To Anna Quindlen, Virginia Postrel, You Re
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January 14, 2012
 Director Le Hoang (L). His latest sleazy movie, Toi nay 8h! (At 8 Tonight), revolves around a straightforward question that satirizes materialistic relationships: how much does it cost to sleep with you? Le Hoang’s latest soft-porn flick, Toi nay 8h! (At 8 Tonight), just like his earlier ones, are less “cheap” than many people [...]
Tags: About Women, audiences, Bar Girl, Bar Girls, Bar Girls Rdquo, Character, Characters, cheap, Cinderella, Critics, director, female, Female Characters, Fiancé, films, Finger, first, Girls, Girls Rdquo, Has lost, Has Lost Her, Her Fiancé, Her Own, His Movies, Hoang, How Much Does, In His Movies, In Ldquo Bar, In Ldquo Bar Girls, In Vietnamese Cinema, Later Movies, Latest, Ldquo, Ldquo Bar, Ldquo Bar Girls, Ldquo Bar Girls Rdquo, Le Hoang, Many people, Materialistic, Materialistic Relationships, movie, movies, Nay 8h, Porn Movies, price, Prostitute, Prostitutes, question, Rdquo, Real Prostitute, scene, sleep, Sleep With You, Social Ills, Soft Porn, Soft Porn Movies, Straightforward Question, Street, Street Cinderella, strong, The Cinderella, The film, The Man, The Message, The Question, The world, think, To Cut Off, To Sleep With, To Sleep With You, Toi Nay, tonight, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Cinema, vulnerable, Wealthy, Wealthy Man, Who Chooses, women
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January 11, 2012
Many rice farmers work under the mistaken impression that regular insecticide applications are necessary to attain high yields. However, decades of research by scientists around the world has shown that healthy and productive rice crops can be produced with little or no insecticide applications in most years. Nonetheless, farmers continue to apply dangerous chemicals [...]
Tags: &ndash, abuse, across, Brown, Brown Planthoppers, chemicals, Creatures, crops, damage, Dr Robert, Dr Robert Zeigler, Farmers, Growing, Hoppers, Insecticide, Insecticide Abuse, Insecticide Abuse And, Insecticide Applications, Insecticides, International Rice, International Rice Research, International Rice Research Institute, Ldquo, major, numbers, outbreaks, Pest Management, Pest Outbreaks, Pests, Planthopper, Planthoppers, Practices, Rdquo, research, Research institute, Rice Crops, Rice Growing, Rice Production, Rice Research, Rice Research Institute, Rice varieties, Robert Zeigler, Simply, support, The Hoppers, The Mistaken, The Pest, The Pests, The Plan, Their Numbers, This Insecticide, Vietnam
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December 30, 2011
Earthquake damage to Christchurch Cathedral in the New Zealand South Island city is seen in September 2011. If Asians got together to name a person of the year, someone who brought surprise, intrigue and economic impact to the region, the choice would be obvious: Mother Nature. From earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand to floods [...]
Tags: award, China, corruption, Gillard, Her Brother, India, Japan, Jong Il, Kim Jong, Mother Nature, Muddy Waters, nature, New zealand, Party, power, Prime minister, Sino Forest, Thailand, The region, William Pesek, world, Yingluck
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December 30, 2011
Rarely in US history has the end of a war been marked with less fanfare than the withdrawal of the last troops from Iraq in time for Christmas. Indeed, you could almost be forgiven for failing to notice it at all, so arbitrary does the timing seem. US interests in Iraq will be no [...]
Tags: administration, Afghanistan, Afghans, Al Qaeda, Americans, believe, Civil, Civil War, Government, His Own, Immunity, Iraqi, Iraqis, Its Troops, Ldquo, military, National, National Unity, No One, Noah Feldman, Obama, Obama administration, Of National Unity, Power Sharing, President, Prime minister, Rdquo, Sunnis, Taliban, That The Taliban, The Afghans, The Americans, The country, The Iraqi, The Iraqis, The last, The Sunnis, The Taliban, The withdrawal, The world, troops, Us Military, Us Withdrawal, withdrawal, Withdrawal From Afghanistan
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December 29, 2011
Rarely in US history has the end of a war been marked with less fanfare than the withdrawal of the last troops from Iraq in time for Christmas. Indeed, you could almost be forgiven for failing to notice it at all, so arbitrary does the timing seem. US interests in Iraq will be no [...]
Tags: administration, Afghanistan, Afghans, Al Qaeda, Americans, believe, Civil, Civil War, Government, His Own, Immunity, Iraqi, Iraqis, Its Troops, Ldquo, military, National, National Unity, No One, Noah Feldman, Obama, Obama administration, Of National Unity, Power Sharing, President, Prime minister, Rdquo, Sunnis, Taliban, That The Taliban, The Afghans, The Americans, The country, The Iraqi, The Iraqis, The last, The Sunnis, The Taliban, The withdrawal, The world, troops, Us Military, Us Withdrawal, withdrawal, Withdrawal From Afghanistan
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December 23, 2011
I first met Christopher Hitchens some years ago at a panel put together by a publishing house. Our topic was, as I recall, the future of the public intellectual. We were in a hotel ballroom, and “No Smoking” signs were prominently displayed, but he had found an ashtray somewhere, and went through any number [...]
Tags: Book Ldquo, Christopher Hitchens, Despised, Expressed, Genuinely Creative, Had Little, Hated, He Abhorred, He Despised, He Sought, He Thought, His Views, Hitchens, Hitchens Did Not, Intellectual, language, Ldquo, Like Voltaire, little, military, Never Dull, Partisan, people, Politics, public, Public Intellectual, Rdquo, Religion, sought, Stephen, The Language, Those Whose Politics, thought, Voltaire, Whose Politics, Words
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December 23, 2011
Earthquake damage to Christchurch Cathedral in the New Zealand South Island city is seen in September 2011. If Asians got together to name a person of the year, someone who brought surprise, intrigue and economic impact to the region, the choice would be obvious: Mother Nature. From earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand to floods [...]
Tags: award, China, corruption, Gillard, Her Brother, India, Japan, Jong Il, Kim Jong, Mother Nature, Muddy Waters, nature, New zealand, Party, power, Prime minister, Sino Forest, Thailand, The region, William Pesek, world, Yingluck
Posted in Life in Vietnam | Comments Off
