A book about Hue by Ho Vinh
To ease the strain on Ho Chi Minh City as well as easily control the situation, Thua Thien Hue and many other provinces and cities have organized programs to bring their citizens back to the localities and implemented the quarantine according to the regulations before letting them come back to their home. The concentrated isolation points have been almost full.
As per regulations, the concentrated isolation period lasts 14 days, and then people have to continue to self-isolate at home for another week. Two weeks - fourteen days might sound easy. However, if you put yourself in that situation which means you only go in and out with a mask and do social distancing within the same area, you will see how dull, time-consuming, and tasteless it is.
What to do till the end of the day in those quarantine places is something everyone considers. And in such a context, I received a phone call from Mr. Ho Vinh - a Hue cultural researcher.
With a soft voice as usual, Ho Vinh asked for the Green Lotus Fund of Thua Thien Hue Newspaper agency to donate 100 copies of books to quarantine areas. In fact, his suggestion took me by surprise.
To support the people of Ho Chi Minh City to combat the epidemic and aid people in isolation areas, Thua Thien Hue newspaper has launched, received, and transferred to places in need of assistance tens of tons of goods, including products or cash donated by people and benefactors from all over the world. However, the idea of sending books like Mr. Ho Vinh is the first case of which we have never thought.
The material value of 100 copies of the book might not be considerable, but the idea and sentimental values are really precious. This is because in the situation being put to fire and sword; when food, drink, and other essential living conditions for people in the isolation area inherently occupied the minds of people and agencies being in charge, the ideas of sending books to those in need perhaps only come from people who work in the culture field and have been attached to books for most of their life like Mr. Ho Vinh.
These books will enable people to have more options to "shorten" the reluctant 14-day period in the isolation area. Besides, they might help some people enjoy the reading passion which might be taken away from them by the worry of "bread and butter" during normal days. Moreover, this way of entertaining might evoke and inspire those who are inherently "strange and shy" with books, from which, after the isolation period, they would get used to and even like the reading culture.
Moreover, among those books, there will be the ones giving readers a chance to know and understand more about the history and culture of Hue land and people, which they can love, be proud of, and join hands to cultivate and preserve the beauty of Mount Ngu and the Perfume River. These values exceed the material worth of the 100 copies of the book that Mr. Ho Vinh supported.
That's also the reason why right after receiving these, the newspaper's Green Lotus Fund immediately delivered the books to places in need. And after Ho Vinh, Mr. Thanh Tung, a journalist, the former head of the representative office of Tien Phong Newspaper in the Central region, also contacted us to send books to quarantine areas.
By HUY KHANH