An image of a Central Committee meeting in Hanoi. Image taken from this article.
General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng implemented an anti-corruption campaign in 2016 called “blazing furnace” in shorthand. Since then, the fire has ripped through both politicians and businesses, up to even the Presidency. Nearly 200,000 party members, 36 Central Committee members, and 50 police/military generals have been disciplined since the initiative began. In 2018, Dinh La Thang, the former party chief of Ho Chi Minh City, became the first sitting Politburo member to be criminally charged, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2023, President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc was implicated in a corruption scandal and resigned. He was replaced by Võ Văn Thưởng, who was then also caught in a corruption scandal a year later in March 2024, making him the shortest serving President in Vietnamese history. The Presidency is current headed by Võ Thị Ánh Xuân while they find a new President; she also took that role in 2023.
The ousted leaders tend to also be part of the more West-friendly, technocratic faction inside Vietnam, either reflecting how these people also tend to be more easily corrupted, or how the Communist Party is slowly moving away from a foreign policy which allies itself with the West (as Vietnam has comprehensive strategic partnerships with several Western countries), or some combination. Of course, this shouldn’t be overstated - Vietnam has maintained a close friendship with China for years, and both incumbent leaders are intimately familiar with anti-corruption campaigns and how and why they must be conducted in order to deliver maximum public benefit.
America clearly desires Vietnam to pick their side, because America strongly desires another vassal state in East Asia like the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan to further encircle and isolate China. And so the headlines and commentary of Western state propaganda like Radio Free Asia, the BBC, WaPo, Business Insider, etc reveal their increasing annoyance with Vietnam’s government. They often couch this in the standard “objective” economics language); about how removing leaders who foreign investors were reassured by might mean economic pain for Vietnam ahead. As Bhadrakumar noted in 2023, perhaps the BBC revealed their intentions the best:
Reading Vietnamese politics is always difficult — the Communist Party makes its decisions behind closed doors. But hard-line General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who was given an unprecedented third term at last year’s party congress, appears to be consolidating his authority by ousting senior officials seen as more pro-Western and pro-business. Officially this is all happening in the name of fighting corruption,… but it’s indicative of a power struggle at the top of the party… the likely rise now of more security-focused officials to the top of the party will be bad news.
Even a quick google search right now will show a bunch of articles by clearly nervous Westerners: Why Vietnam’s Escalating Anti-Corruption Campaign Might Backfire because, as we all know, only authoritarian regimes are vulnerable to things like public opinion and discontent, while Western “democracies” are insulated from such petty phenomena. Leaders here can have disapproval ratings of 60-70% and not even the slightest consequence will happen to them - a real sign of democratic freedom and justice over those primitive regimes in the East! Or, take: ‘Blazing Furnace’ Turns Vietnam Into Another Chinese Province; China turning both Russia and Vietnam into their provinces in just two years was a real diplomatic masterclass. Or, back in 2022: Vietnam’s ‘blazing furnace’ crackdown burns $40 bln off stocks. Not the stocks! Anything but the stocks!
If your actions as a leader are pissing off Bloomberg, you are going in the right direction.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Vietnam! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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Last week’s thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Garuda Indonesia flight makes emergency landing after engine fire
Compressor stalls aren’t exactly unheard of lol, sometimes engines do that but aside from all the dramatic flare it’s mostly a non-event and far from life-threatening. In the grand scheme of things and in comparison with other emergencies it happens all the time. Media making this sound like an almost-died incident is just peak aviation illiteracy. As with United Airlines, it’s probably because they’re using old ass planes. A lot of things can cause a compressor stall, it might not even be the engine
Plenty of actual Boeing fuckups to go around.
And I’m not exactly a Boeing fan. Janky ass airplanes cartel ass company. But this almost certainly has nothing to do with them.
Source: I drive airplane (including the 747 before my airline retired it)
Is it true that many pilots hide their mental illnesses (or even just autism/ADHD), or is that just a meme spread by pilots? I know that you basically can’t be diagnosed with any of that if you want to fly commercially.
CW self harm
Of course I know him, he’s me!
If you disclose any mental health conditions at all, be prepared for a years-long slog where you repeatedly beg the FAA to let you fly and hope they relent. They will make you spend tens of thousands out of pocket on a specialized doctor and specialized tests to prove that you are mentally competent. They will ask you to take these tests. You will give them the results. They will ask you to take more tests. You will give them the results. They will ask you to see this doctor and get a letter. You will send them that letter. They will ask you to see that doctor and get a letter. You will send them that letter. All of this is supposedly done through a specialized Aviation Medical Examiner with training in mental health conditions. You will be stuck in a cycle of “further evaluation required” until the FAA decides they’ve had enough fun torturing you.
If you have ADHD, you cannot fly. Period, end of story. If you’ve ever had suicidal ideation, you cannot fly. Period, end of story. If you have attempted suicide, you are done for life. They will tell you otherwise but in practice you are never going to get anywhere. If you “only” have “simple” depression, you may now engage in talk therapy so long as you are not ever diagnosed officially with any mental health condition. Your insurance will not cover your appointments if you are not diagnosed with some form of mental health condition. There are about 3 antidepressants you are allowed to take, and you are required to undergo extensive evaluation after a six-month period on the same dosage. And you will spend thousands of dollars of your own money.
Who would disclose their mental health conditions under these circumstances? Of course, you are free to drown yourself in alcohol, they don’t care about that.
99% of people with any mental health condition hide it. It isn’t worth it. Technically it’s a felony but they have no way of finding you out without a court order, and the only circumstance in which they would get one likely also involves you being dead, in which case you probably don’t care too much about prison time.
It’s literally killing people. You are not allowed to get help. What if you like to fly and that is a form of therapy for you? People have committed suicide because the FAA has barred them from flying. And if it doesn’t kill you it fucks you up.
I learned my lesson after being forced to undergo months of continuous evaluation after disclosing a generic “chest pain”, I sure as hell am not telling them anything about my mental health.
It is extremely common. I know this from personal experience with colleagues. Honesty is career suicide, why would you do it? Maybe 10% are entirely honest with the FAA.
Lie because you like to fly, and keep lying because you don’t want to lose your job. I can tell you it’s hell to keep a fundamental part of yourself a closely guarded secret because the FAA expects you to be an unthinking robot with no feelings and perfect health.
Last I checked, the FAA was citing Freud in their psychology section in the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook. That’s all you really need to know about their stance on mental health.
"The Boeing 757 had an oedipal complex over it’s larger predecessor with double the amount of engines, the 747. A successful resolution of this complex led to the creation of the 777, the largest twin jet airliner at the time. Unsuccessful resolution of this complex led to the creation of the 737 MAX 8 and 9, and Boeing’s subsequent issues "
Relative of mine can’t be on antidepressants for that reason. Unsure if that was a military rule or civ airline rule tbh
FAA rule, you can be on ~3 different antidepressants. I know one of them is Prozac. But have fun putting your life on hold for six months and not knowing if you’ll have anything to show for it at the end of the line. Any other drug that has anything to do with mental health is strictly forbidden, including ADHD medication even if it completely “cures” the person.
They take away our 747 bubble and leave us no coping mechanisms