THE FINE ART OF GIFT GIVING

There’s no simple formula to guide you to the perfect gift. The best choices depend on knowing the recipient well: the person’s tastes, needs and dreams. Stuart Jacobson, the author of The An of Giving, who researched the subject extensively, found that the most treasured gifts don’t have to cost the earth.An inspired idea? Yes. But the best gifts are often the obvious choices. Here are some tips, on familiar categories that may be helpful to you:Flowers. Flowers are among the most frequently given gifts. There’s a traditional floral language, and a carefully selected bouquet or plant can convey a wide, range of emotions and sentiments. Red roseé symbolize love as well as the hopeful beginning of a new enterprise; violets beseech the recipient not to forget the donor: orchids and other exquisite blooms indicate that the recipient regards you as exotic, preciqus and rare.A floral gift that evokes warm recollections will be prized more than one that is simply showy and extravagant. A customer asked florist Brad Currie to deliver a bouqut of a certain variety of rose - yellow tinged with red - to a hospital where her mother lay seriously ill. “They’ve been my mother’s favorite flowers since she carried them at her wedding many years ago,” she said.A more ambitious floral gift was received by Br. Vivian Rakoff, a psychiatrist. He returned home on his 57th birthday to a dazzling display: the middle of his front lawn had been turned into a rose garden containing 57 bushes. Says Rakoff, “It was a wonderful, self-renewing gift from my wife - a constant reminder of her.”Money. In appropriate circumstances money can be a suitFlble gift. From the donor’s point of view, it’s a convenient item to give since, as the saying goes, you don’t have to shop around because it’s always the right color. A money gift is particularly welcome to people who are chronically short of funds, such as university students working their way through school.But money has drawbacks. The recipient may feel slighted. Instead of putting effort into finding the right gift, you took the easy way out and simply wrote a check. Money can also be an ephetheral gift; often there’s no trace left, once it’s spent, of your generosity.Ronbons and Bottles. Candy or liquor makes an elegant and respectable gift, provided you have some knowledge of the intended recipient’s preferences.Travel. An increasingly popular choice for a gift is a trip. It can suit any purse, ranging from a $25 gift voucher for a railway ticket to a $10,000 luxury cruise5 for Mom and Dad on their golden wedding anniversary.Travel is a special gift because it leaves the recipient with so many indelible6 memories. Canadian Sam Blyth, who heads a travel firm, vividly recalls the spectacular gift he received when he was 15. At the time, he had been living in Germany for over a year because his father was serving in the diplomatic corps. With Christmas approaching, Blyth became desperately homesick for his friends back in Canada. One unforgettable morning early in December, he awoke to find an airline ticket to Canada on the table beside his bed. The role of Santa Claus had been played by his favorite uncle.Several years later Blyth gave the same kind of gift to his ten-year-old nephew, Max, an ardent baseball fan. When the Milwaukee Brewers played in the World Series, Blyth invited Max to accompany him to some of their home games. “The kid was absolutely ecstatic,” says Blyth.Gifts for Children. A challenging and provocative gift can influence the course of a child’s life. Five-year-old Albert Einstein was one sick in bed, bored and restless. To distract him, his father gave him a small compass. The amazing insttument intrigued young Albert; no mattet which way you turned it, the dial always pointed north. This early experience with the mysterious forces of nature helped stimulate his interest in physics.There can be many occasions for gift giving. Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, pointed out that we can give a person a birthday gift only once a year, but there’s nothing to prevent us from presenting “unbirthday” gifts on any of the remaining 364 days. And knowing that someone has a special interest or hobby makes spur-of-the-moment gift giving all the more fun.

Source: "Huong dan doc va dich bao chi Tieng Anh"

THE MEKONG DELTA LEGEND AND HISTORY

Legend of FunanThe Kingdom of Funan, the earliest civilization to occupy the Mekong Delta rose to power through a successful blend of local culture and Indian influence. Long ago, so legend has it, there was a waterlogged land where in, lived a princess, the daughter of a Naga king. One day a young Brahman named Kaundinya appeared at the shore. The princess went to greet the stranger, and as she approached he shot an arrow from a magic bow into her boat. Frightened, she surrendered herself to him. They were married and Kaundinya became master of the watery realm. As a dowry?, the Naga king drank up the water that covered the country so that his new son-in-law might cultivate the soil.Historical struggle for national survivalThe delta’s’ calm, bucolic appearance belies what has at times been a violent past. From the days of the Nguyen Lords it was an area of conquest and settlement, and later resettlement as populations were shifted in the periodic upheavals of Vietnam’s turbulent history.“The delta• is the haziest area of all... It’s hairy to operate down there” was how one US Army general described it. In more flamboyant style, a 1968 National Geographic article commented: “War on any battlefield is a nightmare”. The Mekong telta compounds the horror. To fight here means tortuous slogging through snake-ridden swamps, where sucking mud grips the legs like wet concrete. The opposition may be only five feet away, yet unseen in the thick jungle.”Today, with the fertile delta once again flourishing, it is hard to believe that modern warfare once turned this placid countryside into a nightmare.Chau Doc still supports large Khmer population, as well as the largest Cham settlement in the Delta. Cambodia’s influence can be seen in the tendency for women to wear scarves instead of the non la concical hat, and in the people’s darker skin, indicating Khmer blood. The Chau Doe district (it was a separate province for a while) is the seat of the Hoa Hao religion which claims about 1-1.5 million adherents and was founded in the village of Hoa Hao in 1939.In Rach Gia, the Nguyen Trung True Pagoda is dedicated to the 19th century Vietnamese resistance leader of the same name. Nguyen Trung Truc was active in Cochin China during the 1860s, and led the raid that resulted in the firing of the French warship Esperance. As the French closed in, he retreated to the island of Phu Quoc. From here, the French only managed to dislodge him after threatening to kill his mother. He gave himself up and was executed at the market place in Rach Gia on 27 October 1868.It is from such an involved history of soda-political evolution that Vietnam gradually developed its complex national character, partly moulded by foreign cultural influences partly by a powerful nationalist and militaristic force generated by the struggle for national survival.

Source: "Huong dan doc va dich bao chi Anh-Viet"

THE BAT PAGODA

The bat pagoda is the only one of all the Khmer pagodas in the Mekong Delta to keep its original roof - a double layered structure covered with coloured tiles and topped with a tower - one of the most beautiful parts of the pagoda.Each of the pillars supporting the pagoda roof has on its top a divine being known locally as a KEMNAR or APSARA, whose clasped hands in front of her breast welcome visitors.Within the sanctuary, a statue of SAKYAMUNI carved from a single block of stone rests on a two-metre high throne.The walls are covered with murals describing the life of Buddha from when he was a baby until he achieved nirvana.In the orchard stupas hold the remains of the monks who lived at the pagoda before.Five o’clock in the morning, the bats fly back to hang themselves on the branches of the temple’s fruit trees.They never come back later than seven or eight in the morning, and they never roost in other pagodas, nor even in trees outside the pagodas grounds.More surprising is that they never touch the fruit from the temple’s orchard, but will fly hundreds of kilometers to dine on the fruit from the trees along the Tien and Hau rivers.That bats recognise tricy are at a sacred place and they always appear to respect it.For that reason... the MAHATUP temple of Soc Trang province, in the south - western corner of the Mekong Delta has been known as the Bat Pagoda.

Source: "Luyen dich Tieng Anh"