Most Discussed
- Regarding the 1958 Letter by Pham Van Dong [Update]
- Press Release 6: VietWill sends its first petition to the U.N. next week
- Pictures of VietWill at the demonstration in San Francisco
- Mekong carries the runoff from China's superpower status
- The Chinese "invasion plan" articles [Update]
- China: hiding the head exposes the tail
Recently Discussed
- China at Sea: A carrier project would shift the balance of power.
- VietWill takes the South China Sea information campaign to D.C.
- [Poem] Vietnamese mountains and rivers by Ly Thuong Kiet
- Spratly oil deal on hold
- Beijing signals intent to build aircraft carrier [UPDATE]
- Press Release 6: VietWill sends its first petition to the U.N. next week
NEWS & UPDATES | Dedicated team mans isolated weather station on Truong Sa |
|
|
|
|
ThanhNienNews.com 12 May 2008 A team of Vietnamese men, living away from their families on the mainland for years at a time, operate the weather station in the Truong Sa Islands. Seven men live in a small house, which doubles as the weather station, on the coast of Truong Sa, the fourth largest island in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Sea. The men, who are from different provinces and cities around Vietnam, record data about the weather in the archipelago and send it to the mainland and the global meteorological network. Tran Van Long, 29, head of the station, said the job looks simple and monotonous but it provides important figures and forecasts to Vietnam and the global meteorology sector. The seven men at the station take turns to record the data and send it eight times everyday. At 12:30 p.m. Nguyen Tuan Thuong, 22, and Tran Van Linh, 21, the two youngest staff, go out for work with notebooks and gauges. Thuong checks the temperature, humidity, and the hours of sunshine and rain in a designated area on the island. Linh goes to the pier to gauge and record ocean conditions in his notebook. Nong Van Dinh, 34, the oldest member of the group, said in late 2006 a big earthquake occurred in Taiwan and local weather agencies sent out a tsunami warning to the Truong Sa Islands and coastal areas from Vung Tau to Da Nang. The weather team went and informed the troops and people on the island and showed them what to do in the case of a tidal wave. The memories of a tsunami that devastated South Asia two years earlier scared everyone. But the most experienced member of the weather station, Long, kept on going to the pier to gauge the waves and the sea level. “I was very worried but I could not stop the work, especially at that time when collecting figures was necessary,” Long recalled. New home Linh has worked on the Spratly Island for more than three months but he finds it “extremely beautiful and indefinitely rich.” Like other colleagues, he has made the island his home. The crystal blue seas around the island are dotted with pinkish red and pure white coral reefs abounding with fish and shrimp. On fine days, the men sit by the coast to fish and watch hundreds of dolphins swim and play in the waves. The ocean, wind and sunshine have become close to them. For Long and Dinh whose wives and children are on the mainland, the beauty of the sea and the busy work has comforted them when they miss their families. Long has never had a chance to hold his son, who is nearly one and a half years old, as he left his wife a few months after their wedding. Long said his wife works at Tuy Hoa Meteorological and Hydropological Station (Phu Yen Province), so she understands his job and sympathizes with him. Once their son had a serious illness and she took him from Phu Yen to Hanoi for treatment but she did not tell him. When his relatives left Vinh Phuc Province to see the baby in Hanoi, they informed him. He was anxious but he did not know what to do. “Here, we are sometimes very homesick,” Long said, adding they conceal their personal sorrows to not make their colleagues sad. The single men have relatives on the mainland but most of them haven’t been able to see them for three years. Linh said he earns VND2.5 million (US$156) a month, not a big amount as many people think. According to him, not everyone wants to live far from their family but their job demands they work on the island. Young people like him should sacrifice themselves for the future and go to new places to challenge themselves to gain knowledge and experience, he said. Though difficulties remain, life at the island has become better. Vegetables, pigs and chickens are raised there. There’s TV and mobile phone coverage.
With the mobile communication services of Viettel Company, Long, Dinh, Linh, Thuong and the others can telephone their relatives on the mainland, which is a great comfort compared to previous years when they could only receive calls.
Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.23
3.23 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
|||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|