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There is a history factor as well. Vietnam was one of the first and hardest hit by SARS in 2003 and then by H5N1 (Bird flu) in 2004; and again by H1N1 (Swine flu) in 2009. Millions of dollars was spent between 2003 and 2011/12 to control the outbreaks, to build capacity of the animal and health sectors, as well as raising awareness on pandemics. UNICEF alone spent US$9m on awareness raising and behaviour change between 2004 and 2010. The country and its people had learnt it the hard way. People in Autralia, US and so on, were so unrest about isolation. They need to see the despair of Vietnamese farmers watching millions of birds, chickens, ducks, etc. culled to control the spread. That meant for millions of Vietnamese men, women, boys and girls at that time, nothing to eat the next day - opportunities for livelihood, schooling, education, marriage, hospital fees etc. just lurked away. It was wonderful to see familiar faces at the Ministry of Health who I worked with prior to 2010. Some of them were in junior positions and now in much more senior position to fight COVID-19. It was a long journey for Vietnam. They don't do it just today (or this year). So proud of Vietnam.

So follow your logic VietNam must free them do as their please and let the virus infect and kill many as possible?

An interesting blog Nematullah. It provides a counter view to The Lowy Institute's recent article on the Taliban's (selected) response to Covid-19 (https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/taliban-makes-most-covid-19-crisis-afghanistan). Alcis is mapping the spread of Covid-19 in Afghanistan using the available data (https://geoexplorer.alcis.org/portal/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/7d8372ac273d45728caf0d6d4c4db47a)

Life is a journey of many turns, twists and destinations plus experiences that gives the window to what we consider as goals and life satisfaction. An inspiring story with a memorable journey of yours. I can relate to your story. The journey has just started for you so stay focus and continue to work hard, be discipline and put our good lord first. And do not forget to inspire others.

Not sure what your beef is. I live in District 2. My building was quarantined because someone tested positive for the virus. The health authority was very professional and understanding. I didn't feel harrassed in anyway. I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights, between 2am and 4am. Getting out my my comfortable bed, looking down from the 9th floor balcony, I could see a guard sitting on a marble bench on ground level. He's there to making sure that nobody walk out from the building. He's been sitting there since 6pm, running a 24-hr shift. It's outdoor, dark, quiet, alone, uncomfortable, but luckily not under the rain. The next morning I talked to him, "You must be tired." He smiled but deflated, "Exhausted." If you think my freedom is taken away, think about those professionals couldn't go anywhere, worked 24/7 in a very uncomfortable environment. They are the ones whose freedom is way more limited than mine. They are there to make sure that society is safe. I don't always agree to their mode of operation, but they don't look like oppressors that you made them to be. They are humans doing their best to help others. In case you're wondering. I'm Canadian.

An excellent overview of the DWU experience, thanks. The PNG University of Technology however is 3 times larger and UPNG 6 times larger than DWU, which creates different challenges but also opportunities. My experience as PNGUoT's Vice Chancellor for 6 years sheds some lights on these online learning "constraints". These are not God-given but product of the socio-economic model PNGeans have chosen: crony filled SOEs unable to provide basic services, and politicized university councils, populated by people who do not understand higher education nor technology. In 2012, after 10 years the undersea cable in Madang had finally been connected. Lack of maintenance, however, meant the connection was always interrupted. The cable was literally dangling in the waves in the light house area. DWU was able to get by with a clever combination of cable, and geo-stationary satellite. Located in Lae, however, the PNGUoT was faced with a greater challenge. Due to landowner digging up the fibre cable between Madang and Lae, the cable was above ground, run over the power lines. As a result, when faced with an interruption, Telikom had to convince PNG Power to give it permission to access the power lines. This would take weeks. In addition, Telikom had no credible plan to build redundancy into its network by linking Lae to Port Moresby. For all these reasons, PNGUoT had to find a different solution. I convinced the Council to invest almost K1,5M of operational savings I had achieved, in building an earth stations for the O3B non-geo-stationary satellite system. We requested and received almost K1M to upgrade the Wifi network from PIP funding. Though initially monthly rates were high, I was able to negotiate down the price with O3B, who were willing to match price reductions given to other PNG customers. O3B access was always intended as a temporary measure, until low-cost and reliable fibre access would be available, which may or may not happen in 2021. Moreover, we used the PNG R-Net experience to procure Dell laptops internationally and sell them to all 1st year students at 50% discount. Later, I negotiated a deal with a national Dell dealership so as to assure timely delivery at a competitive price. What good is internet if students have no devices? This is how the PNGUoT became the second University after DWU to provide laptops for its students, and the first University in the world to have its own O3B installation providing free campus-wide Wifi to all students and staff: https://www.satellitetoday.com/telecom/2015/03/25/o3b-networks-signs-unitech-as-first-education-customer/ As a result, Google Classroom free Learning Management System (LMS) was quickly adopted. The main reason was that due to daily blackouts and lack of toner and paper, it was much more reliable to distribute teaching materials electronically. Moreover, the students had finally access to updated information for their assignments and projects, rather than rely on the historical collections of the decrepit Matheson Library. We started a graduate certificate on student-centred teaching, and the PVC Academic was in charge of assuring support for teaching through the LMS was put in place. When late 2017, Peter O'Neill however appointed a new Chancellor and Council members, they decided O3B internet was "too expensive", and stopped negotiations with O3B and Dell suppliers. Instead, the installation was rented out to DataCo who used it to serve commercial customers in Lae. The result is that now PNGUoT students do not have access to free wifi, and need to pay for access through Digicel or Be-Mobile. It has been amazing to see how quickly things reverted to the situation before 2012 through short-sightedness and sheer stupidity of the heavily politicized University Council and management. Regarding online learning, this is a global conversation now. Some want to make us believe a "pivot" to online learning can successfully be done in 2 week or 2 months. This is of course nonsense. First, the right conditions for zero-cost internet access, and right support services need to be in place.Secondly, Faculty must create modular courses based learning activities. Simply uploading powerpoint and video streaming their lectures is not enough. DataCo has stated it will be ready to distribute bandwidth from the new cable by Fall, so this year the PNGUoT will continue to face difficulties UMGC, the University I work for now as professor, is one of the largest online top-20 colleges in the USA delivering usually hybrid course in over 300 centers across the world. When University administrators are done congratulations themselves on their online pivot, they should consider training Faculty and staff properly. Through EdX, UMGC offers an excellent certificate and micro-masters on instructional design and technology: https://www.edx.org/micromasters/usmx-umgc-instructional-design-technology. I received similar training for 3 months and it increased my effectiveness in online teaching dramatically. Highly recommended.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's remarks on Monday that Australia will rival China in the Pacific over subsidizing foundation ventures, to guarantee that little island nations "hold their power", sounds rather unexpected given Australia's profoundly interventionist position towards the district in late decades. Be that as it may, independent of the value of Chinese foundation ventures and the maintainability of the obligation aggregated by Pacific states to pay for them, the Australian Government's choice to utilize the guide program to finance framework is welcome and long late.

In combatting the COVIC-19, Vietnamese totalitarian regime, however didn't face such problems as other western countries did. As a matter of fact, there were people in some of these countries, for instance, they protested against the governments lockdown rules complaining on limited personal freedoms. In addition, people who wore face mask were repugnant even abused in public places. But Vietnamese people do know the plague is their responsibility.

50k people have to go into isolation as of incumbent period of the virus. They do send airplane to pick up their people from other countries. Only chinese gov banned their people returning.

Thanks Steve for the very interesting comment. I agree with your points on M&E of course. Also, I think the point of sustaining learning in aid programmes where turnover (staff shifting from country-desk to country-desk) is high is crucial. Thanks again for a very helpful post. Terence

An incredible piece Dr. Bizhan as usual. Indeed, injection of Foreign Aid is vital in Fragile and conflict-affected countries. But the big concern is corruption and lack of transparency in utilizing aids in these countries particularly Afghanistan. You might have heard about problems in bread and wheat distribution recently. Now the question is how donors and financial institutions act differently in order to mitigate the associated risk and target the hardly hit groups?

People who use the authoritarianism to describe Vietnam are backward thinkers. It's not an authoritarian state if the will of the people mostly align with the government.