No arms but much love | Look At Vietnam

No arms but much love 

July 7, 2012

 Nguyen Thi Son Duong and her grandfather Nguyen Van Thang, who says he is willing to donate his arms to her
It is hard for four-year-old Nguyen Thi Son Duong to keep her balance when walking around. She keeps falling, and once recently lost four front teeth.
The girl who lives in the northern Vietnamese province of Hai Duong does not have arms, but just stubs from the shoulders.
Her grandfather Nguyen Van Thang serves as her arms and is looking for a surgeon who can amputate his own arms and graft them on her.
The girl has asked him often to make her arms so that she can play, write, and help with the housework, he says.
“I have told her that when she is 20 and grown-up like me, I will ask scientists to cut my arms and give them to her.
“I just wonder if people can do that now.”
He has asked doctors at Bach Mai, a leading hospital in Hanoi, and was told foreign doctors may be able to.
Duong has learned to clean the house, pick vegetables, and paint with her feet.
Thang says: “She can also eat with her feet. But that would be dirty. As long as I am alive, I will not allow that. I will be her arms.”
Thang has prostate fibroids that once made his arms go numb. He went for several acupuncture sessions to cure it so that he can take care of Duong and give his arms to her later.
Call of devotion

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Nguyen Thi Son Duong picks water spinach, taking the young parts for cooking, with her feet.

Duong’s family was only informed of some “defect” six days before her birth. Earlier, after scans, doctors had said the baby was a healthy boy.
Thang said the village was hit by an epidemic that year. “Everyone had a fever and cold. Maybe she was deformed because her mother was sick.”
The girl and her parents live together with the families of her father’s three brothers and her grandfather. Thang has told the other couples not to have a baby so that everyone can focus on taking care of Duong at least until she is seven.
“She is suffering from one of the worst miseries possible on earth. The whole family has to be devoted to her to compensate for the bitterness she must be feeling,” Thang says.
“Her uncles also love her and know the family’s difficulties, so they would have voluntarily done it anyway.”
Thang has asked them to name their children Thuong Chi, or “love your sister,” when they have some later.
“This is a family of love.”
But it may not be a province of love, he says.
He has taken her to various agencies in his Lai Cach Commune in Cam Giang District, and to the provincial government to ask for providing her support.
Some people shed tears at seeing her and promised to do something immediately, but she only receives VND360,000 (US$17) a month.
Thang says he named the girl “Son Duong” (mountain goat) as he likes the strong animal.
“They have terrific endurance in harsh conditions. My girl will also be so.”

U.S. to Sell Taiwan Billions in Weapons

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 4 -- Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday welcomed U.S. plans to sell the island almost $6.5 billion in weaponry in a move that appeared to repair years of frayed ties between Taiwan and the Bush administration.
The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release Friday that it had notified Congress about the sale, which marks Taiwan's first purchase of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, a surface-to-air guided missile air defense system.
"We think this announcement from the U.S. government is a sign that the past eight years of discord are over," Ma said in a statement. "This symbolizes the start of a new era of security, peace and mutual trust between Taiwan and the U.S."
The sale serves as a reminder that the Taiwan Strait remains one of Asia's potential flashpoints. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province with no right to its own sovereign government and has threatened to invade in response to any moves toward independence. The United States, under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, has pledged to help Taiwan defend itself against any unprovoked Chinese attack.
The weapons sale, which also includes Apache helicopters and Harpoon missiles, comes as Taiwanese negotiators are working behind the scenes with China to arrange a visit by Chen Yunlin, the head of China's semi-official negotiating agency to Taiwan, at the end of October or in November. Chen would be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan since the Nationalists relocated to the island in 1949.
Ma, who was elected in March on a platform of détente with China, said Saturday that he still wants to develop cross-strait ties, and analysts said the sale was unlikely to derail Chen's visit.
George Tsai, a political scientist at Taipei's Chinese Culture University, said China would probably be angered by the deal but that it had become used to U.S. arms sales. "I think they understand the realities," Tsai said of the Chinese. "I don't think this will upset Chen Yunlin's visit."
The package was originally proposed by the U.S. government in 2001. But lawmakers from Ma's Nationalist party, who then were in the opposition, refused to approve procurement budgets for several years, arguing the purchase was too costly.
After Taiwan finally approved the funding, senior U.S. officials placed a de facto freeze on Taiwanese arms sales for almost a year, observers said, partially because they were irritated by the wrangling and because they needed China's help in resolving international issues, such as persuading North Korea to relinquish nuclear weapons.
Since coming to power, Nationalist officials, including Ma, have worked at improving relations with the United States.
A Taiwanese defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Taiwan would continue to lobby for two items omitted from the package announced Friday -- a feasibility study to build diesel electric submarines and 60 Black Hawk utility helicopters. Taiwan will also push the United States to sell it about 60 F-16 C/D fighters, the official said.
Andrew Yang, a military analyst with the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, said the items may have been excluded as a U.S concession to China.
Yang said the sale, which the U.S. Congress must still approve, was largely symbolic because China has more than 1,000 missiles pointed at the island and Taiwan's defensive capabilities remain limited.
"Taiwan cannot ward off Beijing's all-out strike," Yang said. "The sale is symbolic, showing the U.S. is committed to helping Taiwan defend itself."