(VOVworld) - This week we received letters from several listeners who haven’t written to us for quite a long time. Stephen Hogan sent us a warm spring greeting from the town of Glen Innes in Australia, where spring fever is taking over the state of New South Wales. He wrote: “We received good rain on Monday. The trees, grass, and gardens are bursting back into life with the spring season and pink and white blossoms adorn many trees. August and September bring the beautiful yellow wattle trees into flower, Australia’s floral emblem.”
B: We can imagine the beautiful scene created by profuse fragrant, golden spring flowers. Here in Hanoi, we are in early winter. The average daytime temperature is 25 DC and 20 DC at night. The days are shorter and it’s getting dark early at around 5 pm. Oh, I hate this weather, cold, drizzly, and humid. I wish I were in New South Wales watching the wattle trees flower and enjoying the sunshine.
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Egg-coffee is a delicious, popular drink in the winter in Hanoi (photo: ngoisao.net)
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A: Hey, if you don’t like Vietnam’s northern winter, go to Vietnam’s southern region, where you can enjoy year-round sunshine and tropical flowers and fruits. The average temperature there is 30 DC. Now, get your feet back on the ground and these interesting letters will give you more zing. Mr. Hogan wrote: “Thank you for your past replies to me and the wonderful calendars you have sent. The 2014 calendar has brightened my lounge room wall for the year. I enjoy it every day. The year has gone by swiftly and I take this early opportunity to wish all at VOV a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2015. Thank you for your friendship and broadcasts on shortwave.”
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| Crisp shrimp pastry is appetizing to serve hot in cold days |
B: Thank you, Stephen, for your early New Year wish. That reminds me that we’re going to send New Year calendars to all of our regular listeners. We’ll also send a limited number of New Year gifts to our most loyal and active listeners. Here I have a letter from Kyriakos Dritsas of Greece, who hasn’t written to us since 2012. 62-year-old Mr. Dritsas began shortwave listening and Dxing in 1973. He lives with his wife and two children in Thessaloniki.
A: Welcome back, Kyriakos. We’re very happy to be corresponding with you again. You said: “I really enjoy listening to your station because you have a program with great variety and many times I’ve selected VOV to get information. But reception in Greece is not always feasible due to the great distance. But this time the signal was very strong and it was very pleasant for me to listen to your transmission.”
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| Some winter days bring snow to Sa Pa township, in the northern province of Ha Giang |
B: Thanks for choosing VOV as a source of information about Vietnam and Asia. Your technical remarks were also helpful. “
On 7220 khz there were many static noises, probably from a local storm, and they interfered with your broadcast. In order to eliminate the noises, I used USB mode. On the other frequency of 9730 khz, the reception was very nice.”
A: We’ll send you our verification card and wait to receive more of your feedback soon. Mitul Kansal, President of the International Radio Listeners Friendship and Fraternity Club of India, told us that in India they have a Right to Information Act, which empowers people to obtain public information and documents from the government and public officials in order to find out what the government is doing or not doing for the public’s welfare. Whether Vietnam has any similar right or not?
B: The Vietnamese Constitution acknowledges the right to information as a basic human right. The Constitution says citizens have freedom of speech and press and the legal right to be informed. That right has been specified in many laws and legal documents which refer to citizen’s right to access information, and the responsibility of functional administrative agencies to provide or refuse to provide specific information, and define accessible and inaccessible information, and public and personal information.
A: To your question about a VOV listeners’ competition, the answer is yes. We organize a competition for listeners outside Vietnam every 5 years. Next year we’ll launch a competition to celebrate VOV’s 70th anniversary. In previous competitions, we received a lot of entries and the top 3 won free trips to Vietnam. There were also many secondary prizes. We’ll release details about the coming competition as soon as we can. We hope you and your club members will join the competition.
B: I’m reading an email from Rob Fairbairn who talks about his feeings after reading some stories on Road 15 and the Dong Loc T-junction in Vietnam’s central region. He wrote “During the Vietnam war I served in the Central Highlands with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. My respect and admiration for the heroes of the People’s army is unbounded. During the 1990’s I lived and worked in Vietnam and my love for your country and respect for the heroic sacrifices made in the battle to secure your country’s release from imperialist oppression is immeasurable. This intersection is symbolic of those sacrifices. May Vietnam live in prosperity and prosper in Ho Chi Minh’s memory.”
A: I was moved to read your experience and memory of the wartime. Several war veterans have returned to Vietnam to visit the former battle fields to confront their war obsession and ease their minds. Since the war ended 40 years ago, the Dong Loc T-junction has changed a lot. Roads, houses, and orchards have been built over the ashes and bomb craters. The Dong Loc T-junction is not one of the historical sites in Quang Tri along the Truong Son trail, which is now the Ho Chi Minh Highway.
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Monument of 10 "Dong Loc girls" who were killed in a bombing while they were leveling bomb craters in 1968
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B: Here I have a reception report from Masaru Sekimoro of Japan who tuned in to our program on October 2 on 12020 khz. He marked SINPO at all 4s. Mr. Sekimoro has been listening to VOV’s Japanese program for a long time. Recently he began to listen to our English program. He wrote: “I’m interested in the culture of each Vietnamese ethnic group. It’s wonderful that Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups. Now the frequency 12020 khz is very good. I will continue to listen to your program.”
A: Another Japanese listener, Fumito Hokamura, also likes to tune in to both Japanese and English programs. He said the two programs have different content and that he has improved his English by listening to our program.
B: Our time is up. There are many letters that we were unable to read on the air due to our limited time. But we will definitely send out QSL cards to verify all your reports. If you want to hear this program again, please go to our website at www.vovworld.vn. Goodbye. We’ll see you next Wednesday.