HUẾ — Prominent Buddhist monk and Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh passed away at Từ Hiếu Temple where his spiritual journey began, at midnight Saturday aged 95.
Hạnh was born in 1926 at Quảng Điền District, Thừa Thiên-Huế Province. He later joined Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế as a novice monk at the age of 16.
The famous Zen master was not only a monk but also a culturalist, writer, poet, scholar and calligrapher.
He was known for giving public lectures on mindfulness and peace to tens of thousands of people worldwide. He also founded Plum Village monasteries in France and Thailand.
He is the author of more than 120 books in Vietnamese, English and French.
Some of his famous books published in Việt Nam include ‘Đường xưa mây trắng’ (Old Path White Clouds), ‘Phép lạ của sự tỉnh thức’ (The Miracle of Mindfulness) and ‘Giận’ (Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames).
In the book “In the Buddhist World,” Prof. John Powers, an Australian Buddhist scholar, selected 13 monks who had contributed to the formation and development of world Buddhism over the past 2,500 years, and Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh was in 10th place.
In 1967, American Pastor Martin Luther King nominated Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, calling him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence.”
In 2018, Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh returned from Thailand to Từ Hiếu Communal House with the wish to live out his remaining days.
He told the monks: “If one day I die, don’t build me a tomb tower. It costs money. It costs the people’s land. Our people are still very poor. Burn me. My ashes, divide them, then give them to Plum Village’s monasteries around the world and spread them on the roads where you go to meditate every day. In doing so, you and I will still go on walking meditation together every day.”
Most Venerable Thích Nhật Từ, member of the Executive Council of the Việt Nam Buddhist Sangha, said: “Let’s stop, and take a minute of silence to remember the merits and great contributions of a venerable, compassionate and wise teacher for Vietnamese and global Buddhism.” VNS
PHNOM PENH — Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn on Thursday held talks with his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sakhonn during which both sides said they are happy to see the growing ties between the two countries.
Despite COVID-19, the bilateral trade surged nearly 80 per cent to reach US$10 billion last year.
In 2021, Vietnamese companies poured more than $88.9 million in four new projects in Cambodia.
This raised Việt Nam’s total investment to over $2.84 billion, making it one of the five largest foreign investors in the neighbouring country.
The two FMs agreed to strengthen cooperation and enforce agreements reached by both countries’ leaders on land border demarcation and marker planting.
Sơn also underscored the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability as well as freedom of navigation and aviation security in the region, saying that disputes must be settled via peaceful negotiations on the basis of international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
It is necessary to push for talks to finalise a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, he said.
Earlier, the Vietnamese diplomat paid a courtesy call to Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen.
Welcoming Sơn on the first days of the Cambodia – Việt Nam Friendship Year 2022, PM Hun Sen expressed his delight at the positive and comprehensive development of the two countries’ relations in all fields, from politics, security, defence to education-training, culture, science-technology, people-to-people exchange and cooperation between people living the shared border.
He also emphasised that the two foreign affairs ministers must coordinate well to organise celebrations of the friendship year and the 55th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties.
Minister Sơn, for his part, reaffirmed Việt Nam supports Cambodia in its role as Chair of ASEAN in 2022 and stands ready to join Cambodia and other member states to accelerate the implementation of the bloc’s agenda, particularly the five-point consensus on Myanmar.
He conveyed greetings and reiterated the invitations of Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and other Vietnamese leaders to PM Hun Sen to visit Việt Nam in 2022.
The same day, the Vietnamese foreign minister paid courtesy calls to Cambodia’s President of Senate Samdech Say Chhum and President of the National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin, and presented gifts to pandemic-hit Vietnamese people in Cambodia on the occasion of Tết, Việt Nam’s traditional Lunar New Year holiday.
Sơn is on a January 19-20 visit to Cambodia at the invitation of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn. — VNS
Thailand handed over a total of 179 Myanmar citizens including Myanmar migrant workers who went to Thailand for work and now desire to return Myanmar on each own will and those detained in Thailand for various causes and now freed from their sentences on January 20 where Myanmar authority accepted them.
The ceremony took place at the No-2 Friendship Bridge in Tachileik on 10:30 am on January 20. Health workers gave COVID-19 check to them. They will be placed under quarantine for 11 days and nasal swabs will be taken for three times. After that, they will be allowed to go to their native places, it said.
The handing over ceremony took place 13 times from July 31, 2021 to January 20, 2022. A total of 1917 people were transferred back to Myanmar.
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed Friday that the two governments will launch a “two-plus-two” framework for talks among their foreign and economic ministers to discuss economic security, infrastructure investment and other issues.
During their 80-minute video conference, Kishida and Biden confirmed their commitment to beefing up the deterrence power and response capability of the Japan-U.S. alliance. With China’s growing military pressure in mind, they underscored the significance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The Japanese and U.S. leaders also agreed to hold a summit meeting of the Quad countries, also including Australia and India, in Japan in the first half of this year. Biden will visit Japan to attend the Quad summit.
The virtual meeting marked the first full-fledged talks with the U.S. president for Kishida, who took office last autumn. They held telephone talks in October and had a short conversation in Britain in November, on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference. Kishida’s visit to the United States has yet to be realized due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The two-plus-two economic dialogue will comprise Japan’s foreign minister and economy, trade and industry minister, as well as the U.S. state and commerce secretaries.
The Japanese and U.S. governments will aim to hold promptly the first talks under the new framework, aimed at reinforcing supply chains, preventing the leakage of advanced technologies and promoting decarbonization efforts.
Also at the meeting, Kishida and Biden affirmed their countries’ close cooperation in dealing with North Korea, which has recently suggested that it could resume nuclear tests and the test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Biden expressed his country’s strong support for Japan’s efforts to resolve as soon as possible the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago.
Meanwhile, the president reconfirmed that the United States’ defense obligation under Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. security treaty covers the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China.
Kishida mentioned his administration’s intention to fundamentally strengthen Japan’s defense capacity, including through the planned update this year of its national defense strategy.
Referring to the current tensions over Ukraine, the two leaders agreeed to closely cooperate to prevent a possible invasion by Russia.
Elsewhere in the virtual meeting, Kishida and Biden affirmed Japan-U.S. cooperation toward realizing a world without nuclear weapons.
The South Korean government will lower the age minimum for COVID-19 treatment pills from 65 to 60 to better counter the spread of the omicron variant, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Friday.
Kim announced the measure during the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting, along with other changes that the government will bring into the country’s COVID-19 response system.
“(The government) will make several changes in the country’s response system to more effectively counter the spread of the omicron variant,” Kim said during the meeting.
Kim said that the government will also expand its supply of COVID-19 treatment pills to nursing facilities and medical centers specializing in infectious diseases.
The first batch of Pfizer COVID-19 treatment pills arrived in the country last week. The pills will be administered first to patients aged 65 and above, as well as those with compromised immune systems.
Kim said the government will also introduce rapid antigen tests at local testing stations to make COVID-19 tests simple and fast. Previously, testing centers mainly provided PCR-based testing to visitors.
When rapid antigen tests are introduced, PCR-based tests will be provided only to people at higher risk from the coronavirus, including older people, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women, health authorities said.
The government will introduce rapid antigen tests at airports as well, to better control the number of imported cases.
According to Kim, the government plans to allow more private hospitals to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients. The government will try the scheme to determine its effectiveness. The government will later decide whether it will expand the scheme nationwide, it added.
SINGAPORE – The maximum isolation period for fully vaccinated individuals and children below the age of 12 who have tested positive for Covid-19 will be reduced from 10 days to seven days.
This change is because of the shorter infectious period of the Omicron variant.
However, the maximum isolation period for unvaccinated individuals aged 12 years old and above will remain at 14 days for both protocols 1 and 2.
This was announced on Friday (Jan 21) at the virtual multi-ministry task force press conference.
Protocol 1 is for those who have tested positive for Covid-19 and show symptoms.
Protocol 2 is for those who have tested positive but do not show symptoms, but now, apart from asymptomatic individuals, mildly symptomatic (low-risk) individuals can also follow the protocol.
Since Jan 6 this year, Singapore’s healthcare protocols have focused on managing Covid-19 cases based on the severity of their symptoms and individual risk factors.
Lower-risk individuals with mild symptoms can now be immediately diagnosed by their primary care doctors via a healthcare provider-administered antigen rapid test (ART) and recover safely under protocol 2.
Higher risk patients, such as the elderly, pregnant women, paediatrics, immunocompromised status individuals, or with significant symptoms (such as chest pain, shortness of breath, prolonged fever) will be managed under protocol 1.
They will also be assessed for placement on the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Home Recovery Programme, or further management or monitoring in a care facility.
On the other hand, low-risk asymptomatic patients, including those who test positive on self-administered ARTs, will continue to be managed under protocol 2.
MOH said that these arrangements have worked well in ensuring that medical resources go to those who need them the most, and enabled patients to return to normal activity as soon as possible once it is safe for them to do so.
“We will therefore expand the application of protocol 2, to more patient groups and settings,” MOH said.
MOH also announced that the ministry will expand the age bracket suitable for protocol 2 to include children aged five to 11, regardless of their vaccination status. This will take immediate effect.
“We urge those with non-emergency conditions, including children, to avoid seeking treatment at hospitals and to consult their primary care doctor instead,” MOH said.
Those who test ART positive at non-clinical settings but who identify themselves as potentially at risk should still visit a doctor for medical advice even if they feel well, MOH added.
Patients who are on protocol 1, are recovering well and whose symptoms have improved, can also transit smoothly to protocol 2.
This means that they can be discharged earlier and return to normal activities if they test negative on a self administered ART taken 72 hours or more after their first positive Covid-19 test.
This will be progressively put in place in the coming couple of weeks, where protocol 2 can be applied to all low-risk, asymptomatic individuals who are in protocol 1 settings.
These include Covid-19 Treatment Facilities, those who test positive for predeparture tests, pre-event testing, rostered routine testing and mandatory traveller tests and tests taken at the end of stay-home notice periods, so long as their medical conditions allow it.
The very small flowers can close within seconds of being touched, making them the most sensitive and fast-reacting flowers in the world.
BEJING – Chinese scientists have discovered four species of Gentiana on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau whose flowers can close within seconds of being touched, making them the most sensitive flowers in the world, according to a recently published study.
Netizens on Chinese social media have affectionately dubbed the flowers the “shiest” and “most humble” flora in the world. The rapid movement of petals has always been fascinating to scientists and nature lovers, unlike animals, plants are generally perceived as static organisms.
Some specialized leaves of carnivorous plants can react to touch within a matter of seconds, such as the Venus flytrap. Prior to the Gentiana discoveries, the only other known flower to display such behaviour was the sundew plant. The sundew can contract its crown within two to 10 minutes after stimulation, according to the study in China’s English-language scientific journal, Science Bulletin.
However, the four Gentiana species take seven to 210 seconds to close their petals, making them the most sensitive and fast-reacting flowers in the world, the study said.
The flowers were discovered in 2020 near a lake in Nagchu, Tibet autonomous region. The discoveries were made during the ongoing second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research mission, which began in August 2017.
“It was startling to witness with the naked eye. The flowers disappeared momentarily in front of you,” said Dai Can, a professor at Hubei University’s School of Resources and Environmental Science, one of the scientists who led the study.
Petal-closing species found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
After visiting more than 20 sites, they found four species of Gentiana that exhibit such movements: G. pseudoaquatica; G. prostrata var. karelinii; G. clarkei, and an unidentified gentian species.
One explanation for the rapid-closure behaviour is that it could be a defence mechanism for the flower to protect itself from repeated intrusions by bumblebees.
Due to the insect’s large body size and tendency to slit open floral tubes to obtain nectar, 98.8 percent of the flowers the bumblebees visited displayed induced floral closure, the study said.
The damage caused to the flowers by bumblebees collecting nectar was substantial. Nearly 80 percent of flowers experienced exterior damage, with 6 percent showing injuries to the ovary. Therefore, the rapid-closure response may be useful in discouraging bumblebees and protecting the flower’s ovary against fatal damage, the study said.
Another explanation could be that the plant has evolved to encourage bumblebees to transfer pollen more efficiently among a wider range of flowers since a closed crown would signal to the insect that it has already been visited and the visitor should look for another candidate.
Wang Qingfeng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Botanical Garden, said both the induced defence and pollination stimulator theories are exciting and should be examined further in future studies.
Some former residents have begun “preparatory stays” in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, staying overnight for the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster, as part of preparations to return there permanently.
FUKUSHIMA — Futaba is the last municipality to remain under full evacuation following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. After the disaster, most of the town was designated as a “difficult-to-return zone” where overnight stays were not allowed in principle.
A certain area within the difficult-to-return zone was later chosen by the central government as a “reconstruction base,” or key location for reconstruction and revitalization. Under the program begun on Thursday, former Futaba residents can stay overnight in the reconstruction base area, for which the evacuation instruction is scheduled to be lifted in June.
The evacuation instruction was lifted in March 2020 for limited areas covering about 220 hectares in Futaba, including JR Futaba Station and its surroundings. Entry restrictions were also eased for the adjacent reconstruction base, covering about 555 hectares, and work began to renovate infrastructure.
At the time of the nuclear disaster, 4,376 people, or 60% of the town population, lived in what is now the reconstruction base. Due to the prolonged evacuation, many houses there have been demolished.
As of Wednesday, 15 people in 11 households had applied for preparatory stays.
A 45-year-old man who now lives in Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, returned to his house in Futaba on Thursday morning. “I can’t believe I can come back here,” he said happily.
After cleaning the house, he will start staying there on Jan. 29.
“I’ll be able to build new memories with my children in this house. I hope more and more people will come back, and more lights will shine in the town,” the man said.
Futaba is the third municipality after the village of Katsurao and the town of Okuma to start preparatory stays in reconstruction bases.
Both sides agreed that the crisis could not be resolved immediately and that a solution to the conflict must be led by Myanmar itself.
PHNOM PENH – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has expressed serious concerns over the intense clashes in Loikaw – the capital of Myanmar’s Kayah State – between the military and armed opposition forces including the state’s largest ethnic minority militia.
Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said the ongoing violence is jeopardising the progress achieved during the recent visit to Myanmar by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
During his visit to Myanmar, Hun Sen spoke of the success of Cambodia’s win-win policy that eventually brought about national reconciliation, comprehensive peace, stability, development and prosperity.
Citing the experiences and lessons learned from Cambodia’s peace process, Sounry said that a comprehensive peace and national reconciliation cannot be achieved in Myanmar without the full participation and an agreement to negotiate from all parties involved.
“In this spirit, we are of the view that all parties concerned must accept the ceasefire and end all acts of violence while exercising the utmost restraint in order to start a dialogue that will establish favourable conditions leading to the re-establishment of peace in the country,” Sounry said.
The clashes in Loikaw came as Cambodia and other ASEAN member states as well as the UN special envoy on Myanmar seek to bring about a compromise.
Foreign minister Prak Sokhonn and his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai discussed the Myanmar issue and other topics of common concerns in a phone conversation on January 19. Both sides agreed that the crisis could not be resolved immediately and that a solution to the conflict must be led by Myanmar itself.
“We concurred that there is no quick-fix for the Myanmar crisis and without a doubt, the process must be Myanmar-led. Within the ASEAN family, we stand ready to offer support. As ASEAN chair, Cambodia will continue to work on this matter,” Sokhonn said in a Facebook post after the meeting.
He added that as ASEAN chair, Cambodia will continue to approach this task in a spirit of goodwill while striving to ensure that ASEAN keeps moving forward. He thanked Don for his government’s understanding and encouragement while Cambodia shoulders this burden during its year as chair.
Don earlier met with UN special envoy on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer on January 14.
The two sides expressed their concerns about the violence that continues in Myanmar, including the recent clashes near the Thai-Myanmar border that have been taking place since mid-December of 2021 and have led to civilians from Myanmar fleeing into Thailand to escape the fighting.
In a press release, the Thai foreign ministry said that both sides stressed the importance of finding a solution to this crisis that returns Myanmar to a state of peace, stability and normalcy.
Don reiterated Thailand’s readiness to engage and cooperate constructively within the mechanisms of the UN and ASEAN for finding peaceful solutions to the situation in Myanmar, especially in pushing forward progress in the implementation of ASEAN’s five-point consensus.
According to the press release, Don also expressed support for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Myanmar initiatives undertaken as leader of Cambodia in its role as ASEAN chair.
Thong Mengdavid, a research fellow at the Asian Vision Institute’s Mekong Centre for Strategic Studies, told The Post on January 20 that in order to resolve any issue, especially the political issue in Myanmar, it takes time and a clear understanding of the causes of the problem and the demands being made by each side of the conflict.
Mengdavid said that as a member and the rotating chair of ASEAN, Cambodia continued to do its best to make the mission successful but that the Kingdom would need some favourable conditions and some luck to pull it off.
The favourable conditions, according to Mengdavid, are the parties to the conflict showing a clear political will to participate in dialogue and negotiations, Cambodia’s involvement being welcomed by all of the parties concerned, and Cambodia must be trusted by all parties in order to ensure a win-win result to ensure constructive participation.
Ro Vannak, the co-founder of the Cambodian Institute for Democracy, told The Post on January 20 that the Myanmar crisis is complex and would be difficult to solve in a short period of time.
He said Cambodia and other countries cannot effectively solve the problem without the participation of the relevant sides to the conflict in Myanmar and the support of the other ASEAN member states.
“In my view, Cambodia should focus more on providing humanitarian aid and reducing the violence there to enable Myanmar civilians to protect their lives from armed conflict between the military and those opposing them,” he said.
He said Cambodia should make any concession necessary to enable the provision of aid to vulnerable populations in Myanmar and forego more controversial moves like meeting with the ousted leader of Myanmar’s civilian government Aung San Suu Kyi until the aid is secured for those in need.
Prime Minister Hun Sen met with Vietnamese foreign minister Bui Thanh Son for wide-ranging talks on issues of mutual concern, with both sides committing to facilitating an increase in their trade volume in order to reach more than $10 billion for 2022.
The meeting was held at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on January 20 during Son’s two-day visit to Cambodia on January 19-20 for bilateral discussions on regional issues and areas of cooperation.
During the meeting, Son informed Hun Sen that the trade volume between Cambodia and Vietnam had increased to nearly $10 billion last year and that he expected the two countries would continue to strengthen their economic connections and work together to increase the trade volume in 2022 even further.
Son said he also expects that both countries will beef up cooperation across all sectors of agriculture and industry, according to Hun Sen’s Facebook post following the meeting.
“[Son] thanked [Hun Sen] for reopening direct flights between Vietnam and Cambodia recently, enabling easier travel and especially for the encouragement of mutual recognition of ‘vaccination passports’,” said the post.
“Hun Sen said that we have to continue to work on tourism investment to make our economies interconnected. He also touched on the plan of building a railway connection between Cambodia and Vietnam and said that Cambodia wanted to see this railway built in order to facilitate economic connections between the two countries,” it added.
On the ongoing Myanmar crisis, Son also praised Hun Sen’s recent visit to the country, saying it was important work for ASEAN to pursue and that it also benefitted Myanmar.
Hun Sen said that although Myanmar issue is important, ASEAN has many other issues to tackle in addition to the crisis there.
“ASEAN cannot be held hostage by this one issue, though we have to continue our efforts to help Myanmar,” he was quoted as saying.
Son also said that Vietnam will do whatever it possibly can to support Cambodia in hosting the ASEAN summit and in its role as ASEAN chair in 2022.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Son will also meet with Senate president Say Chhum and National Assembly president Heng Samrin while visiting the Kingdom.
“As 2022 marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations . . . the official visit will further strengthen and deepen the bilateral relations built upon the traditional friendship, good neighbourliness and comprehensive cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam for the mutual benefits of our two peoples,” it said.
On border issue, Hun Sen and Son agreed that both countries should promote the demarcation of the border as it helps to keep the peace.
Heng Kimkong, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland and a visiting senior research fellow at the Cambodia Development Centre, told The Post that Vietnam and Cambodia need to expedite the process of border demarcation and bring final resolution of the remaining disputed areas.
“The completion of border demarcation is critical as it will end all border disagreements and this will help to strengthen our relations,” he said.
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Petal-closing species found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
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