The Vietnamese blogger known as Mẹ Nam, or Mother Mushroom, missed meeting Melania Trump when the first lady awarded the International Women of Courage Award to 13 women in Washington on Wednesday.

Social activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh spent the day in a Khanh Hoa Province prison, where she has been held since she was detained on October 10 after posting about people dying in police custody.

Mother Mushroom, who started blogging under that name in 2006, is a founding member of the Vietnamese Bloggers Network. It is one of the few independent blogging groups in a nation where the ruling Communist Party tightly controls the media and writers.

She was charged under the Article 88 of the 1999 penal code for “spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” The government has not set a trial date, and Mother Mushroom faces a maximum prison term of 12 years. The vaguely worded law has drawn international denunciation for the power it gives the government to suppress dissent.

The United States recognized Mother Mushroom for “her bravery for raising civil society issues, inspiring peaceful change, calling for greater government transparency and access to fundamental human rights, and for being voice of freedom of expression,” said Grace Choi, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s East Asia-Pacific Office.

U.S. diplomats in Hanoi and Saigon posted news of Mother Mushroom’s recognition to Facebook, attracting thousands of “likes” before the official ceremony.

“Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh’s dedication to exposing corruption, raising awareness about environmental protection, and reporting on human rights violations in Vietnam is an inspiration for activists everywhere and has made her one of Vietnam’s best known online activists,” said Choi, adding that since its inception in 2007, the award often has gone to women in prison for their activism.

‘Timely’ recognition

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said bestowing an award on someone being investigated for breaking Vietnam’s law was “not suitable and beneficial to the development of the two countries’ relationship.”

Bui Thi Minh Hang, an activist in Saigon, told VOA that the recognition of Mother Mushroom “is very timely” because other bloggers, such as Tran Thi Thuy Nga, also are imprisoned. “All the people who dare to stand up to fight, who dare to speak the truth in an evil regime like this, these are brave people.”

Mother Mushroom’s blogging led to many arrests, but her life changed in 2009 after the government detained her for writing about a bauxite mining project that counted a state-owned Chinese company among its investors. Although Chinese influence in Vietnam’s economy is a politically charged topic, she was released without being charged after a week.

After that “landmark,” Mother Mushroom’s travel business and family life fell apart, according to her mother, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, who, like her daughter, lives in Nha Trang. Since her daughter’s arrest, the blogger’s 90-year-old grandmother has become fearful, and her children, nicknamed Mushroom and Bear, have changed.

“Our lives are really difficult and threatened without Quynh,” Nguyen told VOA on Wednesday.

“I used to feel upset sometimes, because my family is under constant surveillance and harassment,” Nguyen said. “I told my daughter ‘let it go’ but she said, ‘I cannot live irresponsibly. I might die, but at least I can do something for others and do what I want to do.”‘

Ha Tinh spill

Among her recent campaigns, Mother Mushroom has blogged about the government’s handling of a chemical spill at a Taiwanese-owned steel plant in the central Vietnam city of Ha Tinh. The spill that killed 80 tons of fish both embarrassed and worried the government. Images of piles of dead fish went viral worldwide, fishing communities lost income, and thousands of protesters demonstrated at the plant and in cities throughout Vietnam.  

The April 2016 Ha Tinh fish kill is widely seen as having raised environmental awareness and activism among Vietnamese. The movement saw an early success when the Taiwanese-owned steel company accepted full responsibility for the fish kill and pledged to pay $500 million in damages for dumping toxic wastewater into the South China Sea.

“Although the government is denouncing her and detaining her, deep inside, they know she is doing the right thing,” said Nguyen. “I am very proud of my daughter because she has overcome the common fear [of speaking up against the government]. She has overcome her fear to stand up and speak in the common voice.”

This report originated with VOA Vietnam.
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The U.S. National Hockey League (NHL) has become the latest major sports league to attempt to tap into the lucrative Chinese market.

The NHL announced it will hold two pre-season games in China, September 21 and 23 in Shanghai and Beijing, between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.  

“This is an historic moment for the National Hockey League,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in Beijing. “We look forward to our first games in China and to a variety of initiatives that will inspire generations of Chinese players and fans to enjoy our sport. We recognize the importance of helping China build a strong national hockey program and are committed to supporting that priority in every way possible.”

Beijing is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. China’s interest in ice hockey is small, but growing. Canadian-based Andong Song was drafted by the New York Islanders in 2015 as the first Chinese-born player in the NHL.

“While we fully understand the importance the government has placed on sports teams representing China in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, our partnership will extend well beyond the couple of weeks of the 2022 Olympic Games,” said Bettman.

Gregory Smyth is director and co-founder of the China Ice Hockey League. Speaking from Bangkok to VOA, he said the exhibition games being planned are a very important part of introducing the sport to China.  

“The interest in hockey is growing at an exponential rate in China,” he said.

Smyth also said China, as an Olympic host, will have to develop a competitive ice hockey team. He added that development of the sport is far more advanced today in Japan and South Korea.     

The National Basketball Association already has made headway in China, which also has its own basketball league. Several Chinese players have made the jump to the NBA, including Yao Ming, the first overall pick in the 2002 draft. Yao played for the Houston Rocket until 2011.

In 2004, the NBA became the first American sports league to play games in China.

In addition, the National Football League is looking to gain entry into the Chinese market. In December, the NFL announced an agreement with Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo to stream NFL games in China.

“We are glad to launch this strategic partnership with the NFL,” said Zhang Zhe, head of Sina Weibo Sports. “We look forward to helping the NFL grow their Chinese market and explore more commercial opportunities, while also providing our Weibo users with a better opportunity to watch and quickly share LIVE games and highlights.

The NFL said it has more than 1.5 million online viewers across China each week.
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The State Department has fired six employees at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan for allegedly using or possessing prohibited drugs, a particularly troubling infraction given the years-long U.S. effort to eradicate opium production in the country.

A senior State Department official said those who were embassy employees were fired and others who were contractors were released from their contracts.

The official declined to say what led to the investigation, but the Wall Street Journal reported it was launched after a person was wandering about in a state of confusion.

A State Department official told VOA Thursday the fired workers “were found to have been using or in possession of prohibited substances.”

Opium production in Afghanistan is a major source of income for the Taliban and other insurgents.

Afghanistan is the source of more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin.  Despite global efforts to stem the flow of narcotics, the United Nations says production reached near record levels in 2016.

The United States has spent more than $8 billion on drug interdiction in Afghanistan since the start of war against the Taliban in 2001.

 
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Afghanistan’s first – and only – all-female symphony is trying to change attitudes in a deeply conservative country where many see music as immoral, especially for women.

The symphony’s two conductors show how difficult that can be, but also how satisfying success is.

One of them, Negin Khpolwak, was supported by her father when she joined the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and then became part of its girls’ orchestra, called Zohra. But the rest of her family was deeply against it. Her uncles cut off ties with her father.

“They told him he is not their brother anymore,” said Khpolwak, now 20. “Even my grand-mother disowned my father.”

Khwolpak had learned about the music institute at the orphanage in Kabul where she spent most of her life. Her father sent her to the orphanage because he was afraid for her safety in their home province of Kunar in eastern Afghanistan, an area where Taliban militants are active.

The institute is one of the only schools in Afghanistan where girls and boys share classrooms, and it draws its students from the ranks of orphanages and street children, giving them a chance at a new life. Khpolwak studied piano and drums before becoming the orchestra’s conductor.

First international tour

More than 30 girls aged 12 to 20 play in Zohra, which is named after a goddess of music in Persian literature. In January, the orchestra, which performs traditional Afghan and Western Classical music, had its first international tour, appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos and four other cities in Switzerland and Germany.

“The formation of the orchestra is aimed at sending a positive message to the community, to send a positive message to the girls, to encourage families and girls to join the music scene of the country,” said Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the institute’s founder and director.

Sarmast has experienced firsthand the militants’ hatred of music. In 2014, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up at a concert Sarmast was attending. He was wounded and a German man in the audience died.

The Zohra orchestra was created in 2014 when one of the institute’s students, a girl named Meena, asked Sarmast if there could be a group where girls could play together. Sarmast leaped at the idea.

Since then, Meena has disappeared. Last year, the 7th grader told the school she had to attend her sister’s wedding in her family’s village in eastern Nangarhar province. She never returned, a sign of how tenuous people’s situation is in a country where war rages, communications are poor and poverty is rife. Sarmast said the school has not been in contact with her, but he’s hopeful she’ll return to the school and Zohra.

The orchestra’s other conductor, 18-year-old Zarifa Adiba, faced resistance from her family just as Khpolwak did.

Societal barriers

When she joined the school in 2014, she only told her mother and step-father, not her four brothers and her uncles, because she knew they would disapprove. Her mother and step-father tried to tell them about the importance of music – without mentioning Adiba – but they weren’t convinced.

“If my brothers and uncles had known about me learning or playing music, they 100 percent would have stopped me because they had a very negative view toward music,” Adiba said.

Her family’s opposition to music was so intense she hesitated to join the orchestra’s trip to Davos. But she ended up going, and as one of the conductors she was widely interviewed in the media there and appeared on TV.

When she returned, her uncles were the first to congratulate her. Two of her brothers are still not happy about her involvement with music but now she has the support of the rest of the family, she has more courage, and she said she is sure her brothers will eventually come around.

“I changed my family, now it is time for other girls to change their families because I am sure that slowly all Afghanistan will change,” she said.
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Malaysian officials have authorized the release of the body of the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the remains of Kim Jong Nam, the victim of an unusual murder last month at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, has been released to North Korea at the family’s request.

Najib said following the completion of an autopsy and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the remains be returned to North Korea, the coroner has approved the release of the body.

Nine Malaysians who had been detained in North Korea since the killing have also been allowed to return to Malaysia.

Kim was poisoned at the airport in a bold Cold War-style assassination with a deadly nerve agent that has been banned by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

South Korea has blamed its northern neighbor for Kim’s death, but North Korea has dismissed those allegations.

North Korea had denounced Malaysia’s investigation as an attempt to discredit a secretive regime and has insisted Kim most likely died of a heart attack.

The murder has damaged relations between Malaysia and North Korea, which have expelled each other’s ambassadors.

 
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Farmers around the world are using an unsustainable amount of well water to irrigate their crops, which could lead to an uptick in food prices as that water runs low, international researchers warned Wednesday.

Farmers are increasing their use of groundwater to grow staple crops such as rice, wheat and cotton, the scientists said. But much of that water use is unsustainable, as water is being pumped out faster than it can be naturally replenished.

“Groundwater depletion is increasing rapidly, especially in the last 10, 20 years, due to the increasing populations and also associated food production,” said Yoshihide Wada, deputy water program director at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a science organization in Austria.

The shortages are occurring in some big agricultural producers such as India, China and the United States, he said.

But they could have an impact on a much wider area of the world because “much of the agricultural production is traded internationally,” he said.

An estimated 11 percent of crops irrigated with nonrenewable groundwater are traded internationally after harvest, the researchers said in a report published in the journal Nature.

Countries such as Pakistan, Iran and India, which use the most groundwater to grow food, are already suffering from water scarcity, the report said.

For many countries “it doesn’t really make sense that you’re exporting a lot of food that comes from groundwater depletion,” Wada said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Effect on food prices

Unsustainable use of groundwater could lead to rising future food prices, as countries are forced to spend more money to find water to irrigate their crops, he said.

Depleted supplies of groundwater could also hurt local people, who rely on the water for day-to-day use and for other things, including fighting fires or dealing with other emergencies, the scientists said.

Droughts, which are expected to increase as a result of climate change, could also increase the shortages of groundwater and affect food supplies, lead author Carole Dalin added in a statement.

“Where and how the products are grown is crucial, and basic foods like rice and bread could have a damaging impact on global water supplies,” said Dalin, a research fellow at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Resources.

Unless both food producers and food buyers adopt strategies to use water more wisely, “most of the world’s population risks seeing increased food prices or disrupted food supply,” she warned.

Wada said governments should more closely monitor the use of groundwater and invest in things like drip irrigation technology, which can dramatically cut water use, to better prepare for the future and conserve natural resources.
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