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Aftermaths of the orange agent are threatening the future development of many Vietnamese generations-What must we do?

Despite that the Vietnamese people have done many things to leave the past of the war behind, hundred thousands of victims of the orange agent have day by day recalled us of the horrible war, pushing us to take stronger actions to deal with the survival issue of the nation. Results of various studies have so far indicated that the degree of dioxin remained hidden in many fields and forests in Vietnam may be 4 times higher than previously estimated. More dangerously, this toxic substance will be overtime sucked up in the soil and underground water resources, seriously affecting live creatures, like birds, fish... that are the sources of food of the local people. As a consequence, many people living in the dioxin-contained regions have suffered from cancer, miscarriage... or mothers giving birth of monsters... The tasks we are doing now to cope with the threats to future development of many Vietnamese generations are extremely acute, urgent but at the same time long-term, as the aftermaths of the orange agent will continue to threaten many generations in Vietnam.

Comminity ecological culture

Ecological culture is the viewpoints and ecological knowledge of the relationships between living styles and the environment around, of human role and position in natural world as socio-ecological entities, and human behaviors originating from these viewpoints. Biological culture may consist of material ecological culture and intellectual biological culture. Material biological culture includes the technologies to ensure ecological sustainability of industrial production and friendly environment that are created to meet the ecological demand, for human life and for development. Intellectual ecological culture is built once the viewpoints, beliefs and habits are shaped on the basis of respecting the nature and sustaining ecological balance. In the building of an ecological culture, the role of community leadership is extremely important, which is clearly expressed in the paper, basing on results of three community surveys on three villages in Bac Giang, Hai Duong and Thua Thien Hue provinces.

G.E. Moore's conception of intrinsic value

It can be said that G.E.Moore marked a red page in the science of values in the 1920s with his conception of "Intrinsic value", when he placed it into the system of methods in the science of values in general, and its application into studies on values, building of value system and in education in particular. According to Moore, any judgments of values by this person or that person (this group or that group) are of natural and objective and empirical characters, though they contain subjective attitudes. Therefore, in the present-day sociological, psychological, educational and anthropological studies, questionnaire-based survey on values is quite a popular approach, which can tell us certain phenomena in the society. With the conception of intrinsic value, Moore helped us to affirm an ethical value, a behavior or an action of a person, that is, that ethical character or that behavior itself has contained the value. Moore's definition of value as follows: Intrinsic value is a kind of value such that when it is possessed by something, it is possessed by it solely in virtue of its intrinsic properties". Although there remain numerous debates among the scientists on Moore's theory on "intrinsic value", we can strongly conclude that Moore's conception of intrinsic value has been used for many decades as a method or an approach in the studies on values of groups of people (local, class, ethnicity...) in order to understand their intrinsic values.

Secular growth changes in body height and weight in children in Vietnam between 1975-2000

Socio-psychological factors to corruption behaviours and remedy measures

The Vietnamese people in the relationship between philosophy, ethics and religion

All the philosophies have originated from the relationship between the actual contexts and humans with their national, socio-economic distinctions. Cultural changes are an inevitable trend in responding with the developments of all civilizations. Yet, these changes are valuable only in a sense that a nation, while obtaining the values of other nations/civilizations, it still firmly preserves and strengthens its own identity and values. Our late President Ho Chi Minh, from his attitudes and actions, was a salient example of the balance between the cultural traditions of the nation with other civilizations in the world. Ho Chi Minh's success was his excellence in combining his national values with other human values in the world for building a matrix of values suitable with Vietnam's development in the new era. In font of many issues set for the nation, and the oriental values and occidental values, the Vietnamese people will remember for ever Ho Chi Minh's eternal statement: The Vietnamese culture is the influence or the quintessence of both oriental culture and occidental culture... Whether it is orient or occident, we learn what is good from them in order to create a Vietnamese culture. The Vietnamese renovation cause is the result of the renovation in thinking, based on this though of Ho Chi Minh. The promotion of all the potentialities of the nation is always associated with the slogan of "befriend with all countries in the world". Promoting our national traditions, the Vietnamese philosophers will do their best to create new thoughts on the nation and the era, so that the long-lasting relationship between philosophy, ethics and religion will continue to have strong positive impacts on the society today.

The power of culture and development of civilization (continued from the previous issue)