Teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, 12
Five bundles wrapped in brown paper lay on one side of the table. On the other side were ten bottles. Each one had a label displaying a name in Vietnamese. “This one is for...
Category: Southeast Asia
Teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, 11
District 5. I hadn’t been there before. Other parts of Ho Chi Minh City had become familiar to me during the previous month. But in a city of 10 million people sprawling across miles...
Teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, 10
It was 8:30am on a Monday. Lan pulled to the side of Hai Bà Trưng Street and brought her motorbike to a halt in a space crowded with shoppers. I sat on the seat...
Labor Reform in Vietnam
In Vietnam, the workers who toil in the factories driving the nation’s rapid economic ascent belong to a single labor union: Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, or VGCL. As the only labor union in...
Vietnam’s Fading Free Trade Hopes
The prospects for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, in the United States do not look good, and Vietnam’s leaders are not happy. An expected rejection of the ambitious free trade accord by the U.S....
Vietnam’s Illicit Animal Trade
A taste for rare and exotic animals and a desire to flaunt newfound wealth have transformed Vietnam into the world’s largest trafficking hub for rhinoceros horn. Despite global protections the rhinoceros, which scientists classify...
Myanmar and Chinese Money
Myanmar’s new leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, finds herself at a critical juncture. As head of the nation’s first democratic government since the military seized power in 1962, she now has the chance to bring...
Indonesia Checks China’s Advances
Last Tuesday, August 16, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo appeared before the nation’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, to deliver two speeches. It was one day before the nation’s annual holiday to celebrate independence from...
Defeat in Court Upsets Xi Jinping
“China will never accept any claim or action based on those awards,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a show of defiance. It was a Tuesday in the middle of July, outside Beijing. A...
Professional Woman, Part II
I looked at Rosalie over my left shoulder from my front seat next to the taxi driver. It was a Saturday afternoon, around 4:30. We were traveling along Torres Avenue in downtown Davao and...