Silent Lonesome Man

Asia is unfortunate and fortunate in many ways. It is the largest inhabited continent in the world, and also with the largest population on the planet, nearly 4-5 billion people in a planet only has 8 billion. Asia is blessed and cursed by the diversity: it is the home to the three biggest religions: Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Three major ancient civilisations resided in Asia. The continent is also destined to become the world's main economic hub. Yet, at the same time, war, destruction, social discontent and political clashes exist in many forms, causing instabilities. Think of Vietnam as a major example, it suffered nothing but wars, occupation and destruction throughout the entire 20th century. Leave alone Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. And this situation produces vast cultural differences as well as thoughts. This is embedded in many subjects, regardless of its stance. Football isn't an exception, but football is unique for its path to give Asians breath about it, and ...

It sounds a bit insane, but let's be honest, Asian countries have the capabilities to create an earthquake in the world's football. Yet, for so long, only two continents have ruled the World Cup: Europe and the Americas - which Western Europe and South America have demonstrated their domination with 12 and 9 titles, respectively. Teams from Central America, North America, the Caribbean, and teams from Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern Europe have also been frequent participants in the World Cup and competing alongside the greatest despite having no teams from these parts to win the World Cup. This leaves only Asia and Africa very few slots: 9,5. Asia has four plus one for playoffs, and Africa has five. The upcoming 2026 World Cup will increase slots from 4,5 to 8, but comparing to Europe and the Americas, that's still nothing to say with. The Americas will have 12 slots, with CONCACAF (composing North, Central and Caribbean America) and CONMEBOL (composing South Ameri...

The United States officially recognised the Armenian Genocide in 2019, when Congress issued state recognition of the mass atrocities against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The effort was rebuffed by then-President Donald Trump, who has a harmonious relationship with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but when Trump lost in the 2020 election, Joe Biden officially broke out from the predecessors and finally stated the same on April 24, 2021. Armenians are certainly happy, while Turkish and Azerbaijani nationalists are definitely dissatisfied with what they just saw. Unfortunately for the United States, the recognition could be a reckless move, since the recognition may have also unravelled how the alliance between the West to Turkey is moving spiral backwards. And this can be even more menacing for Washington D.C. because their recognition of the genocide might leave Turkey to project its ambitions independently and clashing with even NATO, EU and in general Western world, leave alon...

I've spent most of my times trying to go to various ethnic regions across the country. But two of the most important ethnic regions in Vietnam happen to be in the western frontier of Vietnam. The first is called Northwest (Tay Bac). The second is in the south, called Central Highlands, though the Vietnamese translation is Tay Nguyen (Western Highlands) made it conflicted. The odd thing I know from them is their vary fascinating and unique history, these people are not just only different from the lowland Vietnamese by heritage, but even by culture. Yet the government of Vietnam maintains a very multifaceted relationship with both regions, but history may tell there is nothing similar outside the common background of being from the ethnic minorities' zones. Northwest Vietnam: kind of... a model... Northwest Vietnam is composed of six provinces today, they're Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Son La, Hoa Binh, Lao Cai and Yen Bai. Some provinces like Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho and Ha Giang are ...

Speaking about Viettel, one of the major telecommunication brand Vietnamese tend to feel associated and proud of recent years, the Vietnamese regime can also feel relieved about the successes of Viettel since it's operated by the Ministry of Defence, through privatisation talk has been ongoing. The Communist Party of Vietnam has been whitewashing its image to brand itself as a major partner. But this is changing. The coup d'état in February 1st by the Tatmadaw, or Burmese Armed Forces, put Viettel in jeopardy. Yet despite the deteriorating situation in Myanmar and the fear of losing revenues, the Vietnamese regime has not just silently sided with the Myanmar Generals but also appeared confidently believing, in secret, that, Myanmar would restore to stability so the Vietnamese government's investors to come back and exploit the resources. So, why won't Viettel pay attention to it? Viettel's quiet rise The company was founded in 1989 as a construction company as Vietn...

The moment Roman Abramovich, a rising Russian billionaire, took over the English club Chelsea F.C. in 2003, the small club suddenly emerged to become a superpower in English football and later Europe. And the Russian owner remains loved by the fans of the London Blue. But few people truly realise that Abramovich is a very close ally of the autocratic leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. When I'm saying "few people", I mean, they have no clear insight about how deep Abramovich and Putin connected. In fact, despite Putin may not always have great relations with various oligarchs, Abramovich, among a handful of henchmen, are never touched by Putin, if not saying the Russian dictator has tolerated Abramovich as a reward. Putin never questions Abramovich, and Abramovich transfers money back to Russia freely. Abramovich's model is being copied by other Russian billionaires, and the number is increasing. Russian government has been successfully diversifying its assets from oil ...