Recently, many people in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa’s Ninh Hoa township have been rushing to buy currency notes valued at VND1,000 and VND2,000 carrying “70″ as the last two serial numbers.
They are responding to rumours that each note is actually worth VND100,000 (US$4.70). The words first went around mid last month in the township’s Ninh Loc Commune and has spread quickly to many others.
Nguyen Huu Phong, a resident in Ninh Loc Commune said some people in his commune even asked residents in other communes to buy the notes then sell them to collectors. Some villagers have even neglected their jobs to hunt money, he said.
Despite warnings from authorities, people are still queuing to buy. But the sad thing is that, to date, no one knows where the buyers are.
Some collectors with many “valuable” notes are still waiting. All they have at the moment is a pile of money – and a pipe dream about unidentified collectors with lots of cash.
Will those buyers please come out of the woodwork!
An education worth waiting for
Last Saturday morning, hundreds of parents in Khue Trung Ward in central Da Nang City’s Cam Le District jostled with each other to register their children for a place at Huong Duong Kindergarten.
The kindergarten is renowned for the quality of its education and low school fees of only VND1 million (US$47) per child per month.
One father told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that when they were informed that the school would start enrolling pupils at 7am on Saturday, parents flocked to the school gate at 10pm on Friday to queue up.
“We knew the school only receives applications in the morning, but we dared not go home because we were afraid of losing our positions,” said one father.
Dean of the kindergarten Trinh Thi Thu Tam said she was unhappy at seeing parents wait around all night and asked police to keep order.
“Because the number of eligible children in the ward is 1,300 and the school’s enrolment is only 500, we know we cannot satisfy all parents,” Tam said.
Maybe the education ministry should find out how Huong Duong Kindergarten does so well – and start applying the technique to other kinders. Or maybe that is far too practical!
Boom-boom, not bang bang
Vietnamese might be allowed to buy firecrackers for the next Lunar New Year festival to frighten off the devils and bring good luck – as they did before crackers were banned for safety reasons in 1995.
This follows the production of a special, almost silent firecracker produced by a company under the management of the Ministry of National Defence.
The new crackers are not only said to be safe, but also environmentally friendly. This presumably means that they won’t start fires or blow off fingers!
According to the makers, chemicals used to make the new product are safe to explode around humans and in a built-up environment.
More importantly, firing the products will only create a mild boom-boom, not the deafening explosions of the real things Mum and Dad were used to.
However, for most people, firing firecrackers that go off with a whimper and not a bang is like watching TV with the sound turned off!
Where do we go from here? Silent motorbikes that glide through the streets? Silent wedding parties that don’t annoy the neighbours? What about silent street broadcasts — yeah, yeah, yeah! — VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News
