Frontier family medicine clinic

    By Hari Chathrattil* “Việt Nam News is my first family here.” This is something I have repeated innumerable times ever since I first walked into the newspaper’s office 26 years ago and met Nguyễn Khuyến, the paper’s first Editor-in-chief, an encounter as fresh in my mind today as it was then. Yesterday, an inseparable part of those halcyon days left our family forever. Robert Bicknell became a part of the Việt Nam News family as a proofreader back then, and Khuyến being Khuyến, spotted his talent and made him a columnist whose disarming, humour-laced writing unfailingly entertained all of us, not to mention legions of readers, week after week, for almost three decades. I am not a fan of golf being played in tropical countries, and Robert and I went head to head on this account, not to mention several other political issues where we never saw eye to eye on. A friend who waded into one of our heated … [Read more...] about Farewell to golf columnist Robert Bicknell, forever part of the Việt Nam News family

  By Robert Bicknell OK, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat… I have been diagnosed with cancer. I also have to say, right from the top, that I am quite humbled by the number of people who have reached out and stepped up to help me, especially in the golf community. I am quite touched by your efforts and concern. Words cannot convey the depth of my gratitude and appreciation, and for once, I am speechless. In a nutshell, what I thought was a sore back brought on by a change in my golf swing, turned out to be a whole lot more than I, or many doctors thought and, believe me, there were a few who really blew it. It was the docs at Columbia Asia who figured it out and got my ass over to FV Cancer Hospital for the full diagnosis. To them, I owe a lot. I’ve got secondary malignant cancerous tumors on my spine, and we’re still looking for the primary source, but they suspect it’s the prostate. We will see. At this time I am getting radiation … [Read more...] about Don’t putt it off, get yourself checked

  By Robert Bicknell Ahh, it’s almost time for the US Open again and that means it’s time to bash the USGA before the USGA bashes the “best players in the world” with a ridiculous course set up, but this year will be a little different because the USGA's Mike Davis has relinquished course-setup duties to John Bodenhamer, who has run USGA amateur championships since 2011. Davis is the genius who brought us such favorites as the mishandling of the Dustin Johnson ruling at Oakmont in 2016 and the ravaged greens at Chambers Bay in 2015, the set up which caused Phil Mickelson to temporarily lose his mind and intentionally hit a moving ball in last year’s US Open, the new rules for 2019, and its poor roll-out which resulted in severe mockery by the Tour players and, I’m sure, many amateurs as well. In a nutshell, the USPGA Tour players are not happy with the USGA by any stretch of the imagination and have actually considered boycotting the US Open … [Read more...] about US Open: here we go again

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – A team has been set up by the central province of Khanh Hoa to verify information and organize the salvage of a fishing ship from the province which was reported to have sunk offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.   Ship BV 95838 TS reported that it discovered the sunken KH 90208 TS with only its prow seen above the water at 10:40 on January 11. The site was about 160 nautical miles to the southeast of O Cap cape, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, but no one was seen around the area. The family of the owner of the KH 90208 TS said the ship with 10 fishermen left Hon Ro port in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, on December 27, 2018, and they last contacted the ship on December 29, 2018. Immediately after receiving the report, the Office of the Central Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue, and the Border Guard’s Staff have instructed their relevant forces to work to verify the report. Fishing vessels … [Read more...] about Team set up to salvage sunken fishing ship offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau

Drug addicts make shoes at Bau Bang Rehabilitation Centre in the central city of Da Nang (Photo: VNA)   Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Drug addiction among young people has remained high and is the main cause of crimes among them, with half of young addicts having committed crimes, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA). Nguyen Trong Dam, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the ministry estimated that there are about 222,580 drug addicts nationwide, most of them under 35. Of that, 8 percent started using drugs when they were adolescents. The rate of those using synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine, amphetamine or cannabis was rising annually, by an increase of between six and eight percent a year on average. In big cities such as Dong Nai, Da Nang and Tra Vinh, about 80 percent of drug addicts were reported to use synthetic drugs. These drugs can cause symptoms such as physical and mental malfunctions, … [Read more...] about Drug addiction drives youngsters to commit crimes