Phong Nha - Ke Bang

Phong Nha - Ke Bang is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the center of Quang Binh province in north-central Vietnam. It protects one of the world's two largest Karst regions with several hundred caves and grottoes.
Location
Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park is located in the Bo Trach and Minh Hoa districts in the center of Quang Binh province. The park is bordered by Laos in the west. The road distances are about 500 km south of the capital Hanoi and 260 km north of the port city of Da Nang. The geographical coordinates are 17°32′14″N, 106°9′4.5″E.

Park layout
The park covers a total area of 857.54 km² which are divided into three zones, a "strictly protected zone" (648.94 km²), an "ecological recovery zone" (174.49 km²), and an "administrative service zone" (34.11 km²).

Recognition by the UNESCO
Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park was first nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. It was recognised as a world natural heritage site at the UNESCO's 27th general assembly session being held in Paris from June 30-July 5 2003. At the session, delegates from over 160 member countries of UNESCO World Heritage Convention agreed to include Phong Nha-Ke Bang park and 30 others worldwide to the list of world heritage sites.

Geological significance
Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park is one of the world's two largest limestone regions. In comparison with 41 other world heritage sites which have karsts, Phong Nha has dissimilar geomorphic, geologic and biotic conditions. The karsts of Phong Nha can be traced back to Palaeozoic 400 million years ago. This makes Phong Nha is the oldest major karst in Asia. If the Hin Namno, bording Phong Nha on the west (in Laotian territory) was to be combined with the National park in a continuous reserve, the combined reserve would be the largest surviving karst forest in South-east Asia (317,754 ha).
The area has numerous grottoes and caves. Vietnamese and British scientists have so far surveyed a total of 20 caves with a total length of 70 km. Of these surveyed caves, 17 were in the Phong Nha area and three in the Ke Bang area.

The Phong Nha cave from which the name to the whole system and the park is derived is famous for its rock formation which have been given names such as the "Lion", the "Fairy Caves", the "Royal Court", and the "Buddha".
Besides the grotto and cave systems, Phong Nha has the longest underground river, the largest caverns and passageways. Phong Nha - Ke Bang also contains two dozens of mountain peaks with over 1,000 metres height. Noteworthy peaks are the Peak Co Rilata with ta height of 1,128 m and the Peak Co Preu with a height of 1,213 m.

Diversity in ecological system
The park is part of the Annamites eco-region. According to the results of initial surveys, the primary tropical forest in Phong Nha - Ke Bang 140 families, 427 genera, and 751 species of vascular plants, of which 36 species are endangered and listed in the Vietnam Red Book. The forest is also home to 98 families, 256 genera and 381 species of vertebrates. Sixty-six animal species are listed in the Vietnam Red Book and 23 other species in the World Red Book.
In 2005, a new species of gecko was discovered here by a group of Vietnamese biologists together with biologists working for the park, Cologne Zoo in Germany and the Saint Petersburg Wild Zoology Institute in Russia.

Historical significance
In addition to the diversity in the ecosystem, Phong Nha - Ke Bang is home to archeological and historical relics, such as an ancient hieroglyphic script of the Cham ethnic minority, King Ham Nghi's base built for the resistance war against French colonialists in the late 19th century, and the Xuan Son ferry station, Ho Chi Minh Trail and Road 20 used during the Vietnam War.

Tourism development in recent years
Central Quang Binh province has invested into upgrading the Phong Nha-Ke Bang visitor site to turn it into the country's major tourist destination.
Multiple eco-tourist projects have been licensed for development and the area is being heavily invested by the province to turn it into a major tourist site in Vietnam. Phong Nha Ke Bang is part of a tourism promotion program called: "Middle World Heritage Road" which includes the ancient capital of Hue, the Champa relics of My Son, the city of Hoi An, and the space of Gong culture in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
In order to facilitate the increasing flow of tourists to the site, the Dong Hoi Airport was constructed

En.wikipedia.com

Agent Orange

Agent Orange and "Super Orange" were the nicknames given to a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.

Agent Orange was used from 1961 to 1971, and was by far the most used of the so-called "rainbow herbicides" utilized during the program. Degradation of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) released dioxins, which have caused harm to the health of those exposed during the Vietnam War. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.

Studies of populations highly exposed to dioxin, though not necessarily Agent Orange, indicate increased risk of various types of cancer and genetic defects; the effect of long-term low-level exposure has not been established.

- Since the 1980s, several lawsuits have been filed against the companies who produced Agent Orange, among them being Dow Chemical, Monsanto and Diamond Shamrock (produced only 5%[1]). U.S. veterans obtained a $180 million settlement in 1984, most affected veterans receiving a one-time lump sum payment of $1,200. American veterans of the war on Vietnam were seeking recognition of Agent Orange, compensation and treatment for maladies that they and their children suffered from; many Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange have not been able to receive promised medical care through the VA medical system and only with rare exception have their affected children received healthcare assistance from the government. Vietnam veterans and their families who brought the original Agent Orange lawsuit stated 25 years ago that the government "is just waiting for us all to die".

They alleged that most of those still alive will succumb to the effects of toxic exposure over the next several years, before age 65. Elsewhere, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand veterans obtained compensation in and out-of-court settlement that same year. In 1999, South Korean veterans filed a lawsuit in Korea; in January 2006, the Korean Appeal Court ordered Monsanto and Dow to pay $62 million in compensation. However, no Vietnamese have obtained compensation, and on March 10, 2005 Judge Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn Federal Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against the chemical companies that produced the defoliants/herbicides.

- Agent Orange, given its name from the 55 US gallon orange-striped barrels it was shipped in, is a roughly 1:1 mixture of two phenoxy herbicides in ester form, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). These herbicides were developed during the 1940s by independent teams in England and the United States for use in controlling broad-leaf plants. Phenoxy agents work by mimicking a plant growth hormone, indoleacetic acid (IAA). When sprayed on broad-leaf plants they induce rapid, uncontrolled growth, eventually defoliating them. When sprayed on crops such as wheat or corn, it selectively kills just the broad-leaf plants in the field - the weeds - leaving the crop relatively unaffected. First introduced in 1946, these herbicides were in widespread use in agriculture by the middle of the 1950s and was first introduced in the agricultural farms of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
At the time Agent Orange was sold to the U.S. government for use in Vietnam, internal memos of its manufacturers reveal it was known that a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), is produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T, and was thus present in any of the herbicides that used it. The National Toxicology Program has classified TCDD to be a human carcinogen, frequently associated with soft-tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). 2,4,5-T has since been banned for use in the US and many other countries.

Although the herbicide 2,4-D does not contain dioxin, its impact on health and environment has not been thoroughly studied, and it remains one of the most-used herbicides in the world today.

Diseases associated with dioxin, again not necessarily Agent Orange, exposure are chloracne, soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A link has also been found to diabetes, in a study by the Institute of Medicine. Diseases with limited evidence of an association with Agent Orange are respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, Porphyria cutanea tarda (a type of skin disease), acute and subacute transient peripheral neuropathy, spina bifida, Type 2 diabetes, and acute myelogenous leukemia found only in the second or third generation. Diseases with inadequate or insufficient evidence of an association are hepatobiliary cancers, nasal or nasopharyngeal cancers, bone cancer, female reproductive cancers, renal cancer, testicular cancer, leukemia, spontaneous abortion, birth defects, neonatal or infant death and stillbirths, low birth weight, childhood cancers, abnormal sperm parameters, cognitive neuropsychiatric disorders, ataxia, peripheral nervous system disorders, circulatory disorders, respiratory disorders, skin cancers, urinary and bladder cancer. Diseases with limited or suggestive evidence of no association are gastrointestinal tumors such as stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and rectal cancer, and brain tumors.

Use Outside of Vietnam in September 2000, the United States Veteran's Association (VA) recognized that Agent Orange was used in Korea in the late 1960s. Republic of Korea troops are reported to have done the spraying, which occurred along the demilitarized zone with North Korea. The VA has also acknowledged that Agent Orange was used domestically by U.S. forces, as well as in Canada during the same time period
Effects of the program

The New Jersey Agent Orange CommissionIn 1980, New Jersey created the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first state commission created to study its effects. The Commission's research project in association with Rutgers University was called "The Pointman Project". It was disbanded by governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1996. New York Times, 3 July 1996.

During Pointman I, Commission researchers devised ways to determine small dioxin levels in blood. Prior to this, such levels could only be found in the adipose (fat) tissue. The project compared dioxin levels in a small group of Vietnam veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange with a group of matched veterans who had not served in Vietnam. The results of this project were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1988. (Vol. 259 No. 11, 18 March 1988).

The second phase of the project continued to examine and compare dioxin levels in various groups of Vietnam veterans including Army, Marines and brown water riverboat Navy personnel. In addition, the Commission was the only agency to examine such levels in women who served in Vietnam

En.wikipedia.com

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, the American War in Vietnam and the Vietnam Conflict, occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975 in Vietnam. The war was fought between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the United States-supported Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The result of the war was defeat of the Southern and American forces, and unification of Vietnam under the communist government of the North.

The U.S. deployed large numbers of troops to South Vietnam between the end of the First Indochina War in 1954, and 1973. Some U.S. allies also contributed forces. U.S. military advisers first became involved in Vietnam in 1950, assisting French colonial forces. In 1956, these advisers assumed full responsibility for training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy increased America's troop numbers from 500 to 16,000. Large numbers of combat troops were dispatched by President Lyndon Johnson beginning in 1965. Almost all U.S. military personnel departed after the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. The last American troops left the country on April 30, 1975.

At various stages the conflict involved clashes between small units patrolling the mountains and jungles, amphibious operations, guerrilla attacks on the villages, and cities and large-scale conventional battles. U.S. aircraft also conducted massive aerial bombing, targeting North Vietnam's cities, industries and logistical networks. Cambodia and Laos were drawn into the conflict. Large quantities of chemical defoliants were sprayed from the air, in an effort to reduce the cover available to the enemy.

The Vietnam War concluded on 30 April 1975, with the Fall of Saigon

Names for the conflict
Various names have been applied to the conflict and these have shifted over time, although Vietnam War is the most commonly used title in English. It has been variously called the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict, the Vietnam War, and, in Vietnamese, Chien Tranh Viet Nam (The Vietnam War) or Khang chien chong Mi(Resistance War against America).

- Second Indochina War: places the conflict into context with other distinctive, but related, and contiguous conflicts in Southeast Asia. Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are seen as the battlegrounds of a larger Indochinese conflict that began at the end of World War II and lasted until communist victory in 1975. This conflict can be viewed in terms of the demise of colonialism and its after-effects during the Cold War.

- Vietnam Conflict: largely a U.S. designation, it acknowledges that the U.S. Congress never declared war on North Vietnam. Legally, the President used his constitutional discretion—supplemented by supportive resolutions in Congress—to conduct what was said to be a "police action".

- Vietnam War: the most commonly used designation in English, it suggests that the location of the war was exclusively within the borders of North and South Vietnam, failing to recognize its wider context.

- Resistance War against the Americans to Save the Nation: the term favored by North Vietnam (and after North Vietnam's victory over South Vietnam, by Vietnam as a whole); it is more of a slogan than a name, and its meaning is self-evident. Its usage has been abolished in recent years as the government of Vietnam seeks better relations with the U.S. Official Vietnamese publications now refer to the conflict generically as "Chien Tranh Viet Nam" (Vietnam War).

En.Wikipedia.com

HIV and AIDS

HIV is a virus that damages a person's immune system, the body's defence against disease. AVERT explains how the virus is transmitted, the treatment options and how you can protect yourself against infection.

What is HIV?
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. A person infected with HIV is infected for life - there's no cure.
Over time, as the immune system weakens, a person with HIV may develop rare infections or cancers. When these are particularly serious, the person is said to have AIDS.
Half of new HIV diagnoses in the UK are people infected during heterosexual sex

How's it transmitted?
HIV can only be passed on if infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids or breast milk get inside another person's body.
The two main ways in which a person can become infected are:
- Vaginal or anal sexual intercourse (without a condom) with an infected person
- Using a needle or syringe that's already been used by someone who's infected

An infected pregnant woman can also pass the virus to her unborn baby, before or during the birth, or through breastfeeding. Improved treatment and care for women with HIV means far fewer children are now born with HIV in the UK.



Other potential routes of transmission include:
- Giving and receiving first aid, although transmission will only occur if significant amounts of HIV-infected blood pass from one person to another
- Contact with used needles and syringes, if infected blood is transferred
- Giving and receiving oral sex, although there are very few proven instances of this, and usually transmission will only occur if a person has cuts or sores in their mouth
- Seeing a dentist, doctor or nurse, although it's extremely rare for HIV to be passed from a healthcare professional to a patient, as all medical instruments are sterilised or used only once
- In extremely rare cases, through fighting or biting
- Kissing, although generally this won't pass on HIV as saliva doesn't contain a high enough concentration of HIV, and the only risk would be if both people had noticeably bleeding cuts and sores in their mouths
- Sport, if HIV-infected blood gets into a wound or cut



The risk of transmission through any of the above is small, but it exists so care should always be taken.
Although blood transfusions and use of blood products are a potential route of transmission, all blood and organ donors in the UK are screened for HIV before the blood or body organ is used. Other countries may not have the same standards as the UK, so always check if you're travelling outside the UK.



You can't get HIV...
from hugging, kissing, sneezes, coughs, sharing baths or towels, swimming pools, toilet seats or from sharing cups, plates or cutlery, and you can't get HIV from any animal or insect, including mosquitoes

Who's affected?
An estimated 63,500 adults aged 15 to 59 are living with HIV in the UK, according to the latest (2005) figures, but a third of those people haven’t been diagnosed, which means they don't know they’re infected.
In some communities in the UK, particularly gay and African communities, there are a higher number of people who have HIV.

What are the symptoms?
There are no immediate signs or symptoms after infection. Research has shown that after a few weeks some people experience flu-like symptoms, but these usually go undiagnosed. The only way to know if you have HIV is to be tested.


Getting tested
If you're worried you could have caught HIV, it's important to get tested. The test is free and available from your GP or from any genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic. GUM clinics are usually within a hospital and are completely confidential - your GP won't be informed without your consent. You can also go anonymously.

The test looks for HIV antibodies in the blood. It normally takes three months for antibodies to develop, so if you have a test soon after possible infection the result may be inaccurate. You'll need to be tested again after three months to get a definite result.


A trained counsellor will explain the test procedure and discuss possible results. You normally have to wait one week for a result.


To find a GUM clinic:
- Call the Department of Health's sexual health helpline on 0800 567123
- Use the fpa's GUM clinic search

There are also special rapid testing clinics. Pregnant women attending antenatal services and women attending some gynaecology services will be offered an HIV test.
Myth: Now better treatments are available, HIV isn't a very serious problem in the UK.Fact: If you're diagnosed with HIV it is almost certain that you'll eventually need to take anti-HIV drugs every day for the rest of your life. Unpleasant side-effects range from diarrhoea to changes in body shape. HIV can become resistant to the treatment, which means you have to switch drugs and, eventually, some people are left with no alternative drugs. AIDS still kills thousands of people in western countries.

What's the treatment?
There's no cure for HIV, but there are drugs called antiretrovirals that can help prevent someone infected with HIV from becoming ill. These drugs can significantly increase the life expectancy of someone with HIV. The drugs must be taken every day for life, otherwise the treatment will stop being effective and the person affected may become ill.
Drug treatment is free in the UK.
Treatment consists of taking several drugs together, which is known as combination therapy. Typical combinations include two drugs from the NRTI group (nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, also known as 'nukes') plus an NNRTI ('non-nuke') or a protease inhibitor.
Newer types of antiretrovirals such as entry inhibitors are usually reserved for people who have to switch treatments because of side-effects, or because the first drug combination stops working.

Research continues around the world to develop a HIV vaccine. Progress is being made, although it's likely to be a number of years before such a treatment is widely available.
Advice and support
Go to your GP, a genitourinary medicine clinic or a sexual health clinic. All services are confidential.
You can call fpa's helpline on 0845 122 8690 or THT Direct on 0845 122 1200.


Myth: If you're taking antiretroviral drugs then you can't transmit HIV to other people.Fact: Antiretroviral drugs affect parts of the body in different ways, so even if you have very low levels of HIV in your blood your sexual fluids may be much more infectious. If you have HIV, you must always avoid unprotected sex.

BBC.com

Ha Long Bay - the most beautiful bay of the world

The legend of Ha Long has it that, “Once upon a time, soon after the Viet people established their country, invaders came. The Jade Emperor sent Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons down to earth to help the Viet people fight against their enemy. Right at the time invaders’ boats were rushing to the shore, the dragons landed down on earth. The dragons immediately sent out from their mouths a lot of pearls, which then turned into thousands of stone islands emerging in the sea like great walls challenging the invaders’ boats. The fast boats couldn’t manage to stop and crashed into the islands and into each other and broke into pieces.
After the victory, Mother Dragon and Child Dragons didn’t return Heaven but stayed on earth at the place where the battle had occurred. The location Mother Dragon landed is nowadays Ha Long Bay and where Child Dragons descended is now Bai Tu Long. The dragons’ tails waving the water created Long Vi (present Tra Co peninsula) and formed a fine sand beach over ten kilometers long”.



Ha Long Bay is located in the northeastern part of Vietnam and constitutes part of the western bank of Bac Bo Gulf, including the sea area of Ha Long City and Cam Pha Town and part of Vân Đon island district. It abuts Cát Bà Island in the southwest. Toward the west is the shore with a 120 km-long coastline. It is located within 106o58’-107o22’ east longitude and within 20o45’- 20o50’ north latitude. The site is 1553 sq. km with 1969 islands of various sizes, of which 989 have been named.The islands in Ha Long Bay are mainly limestone and schist islands most lying in the two main areas: the southeastern part of Bai Tu Long Bay and southwestern part of Ha Long Bay. These islands represent the most ancient images of a geographical site having a tectonic age of from 250 million to 280 million years. They are the result of many times of rising and lowering processes of the continent to form a karst. The process of nearly full erosion and weathering of the karst created the unique Ha Long Bay in the world. In a not very large area, thousands of islands with different forms look like glittering emeralds attached to the blue scarf of a virgin. The area where many stone islands concentrate has spectacular scenes and world-famous caves and is the center of Ha Long Bay Natural Heritage, including Ha Long Bay and a part of Bai Tu Long Bay.



The area is recognized as the World Natural Heritage that is the area of 434 sq. km with 775 islands. It looks like a giant triangle with Đau Go Island (in the west), Ba Ham Lake (in the south) and Cong Tay Island (in the east) as its three angle points. The nearby area is the buffer area and areas classified as national beauty spots in 1962 by the Ministry of Culture and Information.



Viewed from above, Ha Long Bay looks like an extremely vivid huge drawing. This is a wonderful and skilful masterpiece of the Creation and of nature that turns thousands of dumb soulless stone islands into fantastic sculptural and artistic works of various graceful shapes, both familiar and strange to human beings. Thousands of islands emerging uneven in the fanciful waves look strong and magnificent but also mild and vivid. Amidst these islands we feel as if we were astray in a petrified legendary world. There are many names given to islands according to their shapes and forms. This one looks like somebody heading toward the shore: Hon Đau Nguoi (Human Head Island); that one looks like a dragon hovering above the sea surface: Hon Rong (Dragon Island); another looks like an old man sitting fishing: Hon La Vong; some look like big sails struggling amidst the wind to set off for the sea: Hon Canh Buom (Sail Island); then two islands look like a pair of chicken lovingly playing with each other above the sea: Hon Trong Mai (Male and Female Chicken Island); and amid the vast sea stands an island like a big incense burner like a ritual offering to Heaven: Hon Lu Huong (Incense Burner Island). All are so real that people are taken aback by them. Those stone islands have experienced unpredictable changes over time and they take different shapes from different angles of view. Here, we come to realize that they are not dumb inanimate things but are vivid and soulful.



Inside the stone islands are various breath-taking caves, such as Thien Cung, Đau Go, Sung Sot, Trinh Nu, Tam Cung and others. These are really magnificent palaces of the Creation on earth. Long ago, Ha Long Bay has been called by the great national poet Nguyen Trai:“a wonder of the earth erected towards the high sky”. Many men of letters from all over the world have been taken aback at the grandiose scenery of Ha Long. They seem to get puzzled and incompetent as their treasure of vocabulary is not rich enough to depict the splendor of this place.

Ha Long Bay is also attached to glorious pages of Vietnamese history, with famous sites such as Van Đon, a bustling trade port in the 12th century, charming Bai Tho Mountain, and not very far away from here is the Bach Đang River which witnessed two famous naval battles of the Viet’s ancestors against invaders. Also, Ha Long is one of the cradles of human kind with the glorious Ha Long culture in the late Neolithic age, discovered at such archeological sites as Đong Mang, Xich Tho, Soi Nhu and Thoi Gieng.

Ha Long is also home to great biodiversity with typical eco-systems like mangrove forest, coral and tropical forest. It is also home to thousands of plants and animals of numerous species, for example shrimp, fish and squid. Some species are particularly rare and can be found no where else. With such special values, at the 18th Session of UNESCO’s Council of World Heritage held on 17 December 1994 in Thailand, Ha Long Bay was officially placed on the list of the World Natural Heritage. In 2000, UNESCO recognized it as the World Heritage for the second time for its geographical and geomorphologic values. This confirms the global premier value of Ha Long Bay.

Wherever you come from, whosoever you are and however old you are, you will certainly experience the same emotion and feeling when admiring this wonder of stone and water. And great experiences will always remain even when you leave the place. The legend of Mother Dragon and Child Dragons sending out pearls to form thousands of stone islands to stop invaders still serve as the soul of this invaluable heritage of the world.Have you ever come to Ha Long, the unique wonder of the world of its kind, to admire and explore secretes implicit in the place?