Fishing in troubled waters

Most sewers are open rivers in Hanoi. After heavy rains, the floodgates of the countless lakes in Hanoi have to be opened. Now, mass of fish flow in the channels, where it is traped with the decreasing water level. The nearby residents only have to keep their nets into the water to make a good catch. Because everyone wants to get as much fish as possible the procedure is getting bustle. At some days this fishing method is becoming a real contest with appropriate audiences.

taking the opportunity

overlooking the scene

selfmade but effective fishing net

waiting for dinner

everybody wants to have a good catch...

....though it´s getting hectic

after few minutes some fish

the audience

a good day for a fishermen

Parcours - modern sport from vietnamese history

"Parkours" was founded by David Belle a french guy who learned it from his vietnames father. The "Parkours-Training" (the art of moving) was used within the vietnamese military. The "Méthode Naturelle" was an art of movement through the landscape with its natural obstacles. In the late 80s David Belle transferred these playful method to the urban landscape of Paris suburb from where it became a worldwide known sport. The traceur tries to overcome all barriers in a city by the shortest or most efficient route from A to self-selected target B. Because of its extrem difficult and hard movements, it is a sport mostly applied by youth people. From Paris, Parkours found its way back to Hanoi / Vietnam. 

Parcours was established by David Belle who learned the sport from his vietnamese father

A Traceur planning to overcome a wall in "The old Lenin Park" Hanoi

 

It is not important that you fall down, it is important how you fall down.

Warming up is essential for a traceur

 

International Year of Forests

The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations to raise awareness and strengthen the sustainable forest management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
Forests are an integral part of global sustainable development. According to World Bank estimates, more than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods with some 300 million live in them. The forest product industry is a source of economic growth and employment, with global forest products traded internationally is estimated at $327 billion.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that every year 130,000 km² of the world's forests are lost due to deforestation. Conversion to agricultural land, unsustainable harvesting of timber, unsound land management practices, and creation of human settlements are the most common reasons for this loss of forested areas.

The forests skin is strong but also very fragile to environmental influences such as climate change

if the forest changes, animals disappear or extinct...

... but the forest also has a high potential to recapture

Structure and order is common in the nature. A strictly life hierarchy powered by the evolution, created various forms, abilities and characters.

Forest have a high potential to mitigate climate change effects. Not only for reducing carbon. There also exist various species with a high adoptional range for dry seasons. The Pinus canariensis on the Canary Islands for example, is able to draw water out of the atmosphäre by it´s conifer leafs. Giving it the possibility to survive  in dry areas.

 

The species on our planet or countless yet, nobody knows how much will survive in the future. 

Old dead trees are not only eye candies, they have direct influence on the variety of the species in the forest and are therefore important for a balanced life-circle . 

For water storage and filter function forest are indispensable.  

  

Of cause human kind need the forests to have a stable environment it also should be possible to use the wood without destroying the forest. A sustainable way has to be identified and strictly followed to give us the opportunity to survive even in times of climate change. 

Happy Hunter / Vietnam

A portrait of a Ba Na Hunter


About eight million of Vietnam's current 89 million population comprise 53 ethnic groups divided into dozens of subgroups some with a mere hundred or so members, giving Vietnam the richest and most complex ethnic make-up in the whole of Southeast Asia.
The Ba Na group exist of 174,456 people. 

Old Ba Na in his shack

The vast majority of Vietnam's minorities live in the hilly regions of the Northern part, down the Truong Son mountain range, and in the Central Highlands - all areas which saw heavy fighting in recent wars.

Shack of the Ba Na Hunter in the Central Highlands Vietnam

Little is known about the origins of many of these people, some of whom already inhabited the area before the ancestors of the Viet arrived from Southern China around four to five thousand years ago. Other groups continued to interact with the Viet people, but either chose to maintain their independence in the highlands or were forced up into the hills, off the ever-more-crowded coastal plains.

Preparing traps for hunting small rodents

While the ethnic-Vietnamese and Chinese live mainly in urban centres and coastal areas, the remaining people, an estimated 10% of Vietnam's total population, are found primarily in the high country. This old Ba Na Hunter lived his whole live in the mountains. Though the next village is "only" one hour away by foot, he is happy with his solitude. It seems that all he need is fortune while hunting. 

Lucky Strike

The Bahnar People / Vietnam

The Ba Na Mountain People are one of the 53 ethnic groups in Vietnam. They live in houses built on stilts. In each village, there is a communal house called "rong" which stands out due to its height and beauty. 

 A "Rong" - communal house

According to matrimonial customs, a young man and woman can take the initiative in marriage, and the parents are only involved to ensure the respect of traditional principles. 

 Young Couple

After the birth of the first child, they are allowed to set up their own family environment which is often in very remoted areas. The Ba Na venerates the spirits which relate to human beings.

Schacks of a bahnar family / Central Highlands Vietnam

Their main source of income is slash-and-burn agriculture and the rearing of livestock. But also hunting with traps is very common to set up the living condition.

The Bahnar People mostly hunt small animals with traps

All the herbs they need for cooking come from the forest

The men hunt, collect the herbs and inflame the fire

while preparing the dinner is the duty of the women

but sometimes the man assists in preparing the dishes

While the children are learning by doing how to cook grashoper with peanuts

Normaly the men have tea or are just sitting around the fire after dinner...

...while the woman is on her own, not participating in the discussion

 The next Morning

Because of living far away from the next village, the children don´t go to school very often. However they get free schoolbooks from the government, but instead of forcing their children to read, the parents use the pages of the books to roll cigarettes.

This boy is making a toy aproving his ability to handicraft wooden tools like crossbows 

While the men enjoy staying at home....

...the wife is to shoulder the youngest kid...

... for going out to the fieldwork. The man stays at home preparing hunting traps.

Moonshine Family / Vietnam

In Vietnam most of the isolated families who live at the countrieside know how to prepare their own alcoholic drinks made of fruits or seeds from different plants. The preparation is easy. Just put some seeds in a clay jar and fill it up with water from the nearest river, top it with a banana leaf and wait a while... Insects will immediatly put some eggs inside and this will help starting the fermentation process.  After a couple of weeks you will get tasty Grub Grog. This might sound strange for westerners, but the fermentation leads to purrified water with better quality than just drinking the water directly from the river. Preparing alcohol is a very old tradition which varies between etnic groups. However, today this Grog is mostly and very often consumed only by the men, in the evening or just after waking up in the morning.

Family plantage near Kontum / Central Highlands Vietnam

House of the "Moonshine Family" with the kitchen outside

The head of the family and his pregnant wife. The shack has one room for the whole family.

The grandma

The children

Preparing the grog

Small grubs in the clay jar

Leaving the house for joining the neighbour at night

Nearly arrived at the neighbours house after one hour of walking.

Discussing the news while joining the alcohol. The grog is drunk with straws made of bamboo or in modern times: made of plastic.