Every day from 4 pm to 12 pm every day, at Xoi Man restaurant (409 Tran Phu, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City) is always crowded with customers to buy. Surely many people find it strange that around the sticky rice shop are many facilities, funeral services, even funeral homes, making the atmosphere here somewhat murky. Explaining the strange name of the dish, Mr. Luu Bao Minh, the current owner of the sticky rice shop, shared: “In the past, the restaurant was located on the corner of Nguyen Tri Phuong and Tran Phu streets, but since moving here, it is located near the funeral home. , stores that sell coffins, funeral services, and hospitals, so the shop is named like that.” The sticky rice shop is a car with a glass cabinet that looks like a bread cart that is often seen on many streets in Saigon. The pot of sticky rice is mounted on a gas stove placed in the car, the sticky rice is always smoky. Sticky rice is quite flexible, fragrant and fatty. Compared to other restaurants in the city, the address on Tran Phu street is not very prominent in taste, even less choice of side dishes than other places. However, it is not by chance that sticky rice “morgue” attracts gourmets in Saigon. According to the owner, every day people in the family will go to the market and cook by themselves from 10 am. Particularly, sausages are bought from Soc Trang, not from strange places. After buying pork sausage, it is fried and sliced ​​to taste. The shop only sells salty sticky rice, the main ingredients include: sticky rice, sausages and cotton balls. Besides, there is also onion fat and fried onions to create aroma and round taste. Where the onion fat sells, the shop will make it there because it’s ready-made, the fresh onion leaves will turn yellow and lose the characteristic pungent smell. Another plus point is that the shop also sprinkles crushed peanuts, creating a strange taste because salty sticky rice is rarely used by people. Soy sauce added to sticky rice is also mixed according to the traditional recipe. Another interesting thing is the unique way of eating sticky rice. Here, sticky rice will be wrapped in fresh banana leaves into long rolls like Tet cakes. Where customers eat, they tear banana leaves there. Never use a spoon. Explaining this way of eating, the owner said: “Because of the fear that the plastic of the spoon when meeting hot sticky rice will not be good for customers’ health”. Thanks to such a difference, in only 8 to 9 hours, all three pots of “mortar sticky rice” were quickly sold out. According to Mr. Quyen (Mr. Minh’s brother), the motorbike is the main source of income for the whole family. And with the number of customers coming to buy is too large, in order to serve customers in time, the whole family has to take turns selling continuously. With only 10,000 VND, we have in hand a delicious package of “morgue sticky rice”. With each soft, hot sticky rice. The top is covered with a layer of onion fat and heirloom soy sauce. Followed by a thick layer of scrubs, a spoonful of greasy roasted peanuts. Fried onions and pieces of red and pink sausage are placed on top, looking extremely stimulating to the taste buds. (According to GiadinhNet)

Sticky rice “morgue”: The reason there is this weird and creepy name dish is because the sticky rice car is located right opposite the funeral home on Nguyen Tri Phuong Street (District 5). Sticky rice “morgue” is left in banana leaves, when holding it hot, you want to burn your whole hand. A pack of sticky rice consists of a piece of white sticky rice with the palm of your hand, topped with thin pate, sausage, cotton balls, peanuts and sprinkled with fried onion fat… interesting. Broken rice “garbage”: There are many “top” broken rice restaurants in Saigon and when it comes to mentioning, it is impossible not to list there the famous landfill broken rice restaurant on Le Van Linh small street, behind the area. Xom Chieu market (District 4). The rice here is standard broken rice, the food comes from grilled ribs, fried chicken, skin fibers, meat rolls to omelettes, sausages, braised meat, shrimp, stuffed squid, shumai … each dish is presented. Beautifully decorated, lustrous, lustrous colors Banh mi “o-lip”: For a long time, Saigon has been considered the birthplace of the famous Vietnamese-style burger and if there is any Saigon bread address that is mentioned and recommended by many international websites. Perhaps it is the “legendary” bakery that many people know called “banh mi oh” located on Le Thi Rieng Street (District 1). With the price of up to 30,000 VND / drive, but every evening until late at night, there is always a group of people with dozens of large and small motorbikes and cars standing in the street of Le Thi Rieng to queue to buy cakes. Wild duck: In fact, “evil duck” does not exist in the world. This dish has the correct name of “mourd duck”. This type of egg is basically cancerous, so when boiled, it will be quite smelly, slightly open and rotten. However, some people are “addicted” to the smell and taste of this rotten duck egg, thinking that it is greasy, fatty, not choking like eating fresh chicken eggs. Wild ducks are sold on street vendors in every corner of Saigon. Salt and chili noodles: This is also one of the unique dishes that many people mention the name of cuisine when it comes to Saigon. This strange dish is sold in a small alley on Tran Ke Xuong street (Phu Nhuan district, HCMC). The ingredients for making a bowl of salt and pepper noodles are mainly pre-fried shrimp noodles. Noodles are dipped directly into a pot of boiling broth on a charcoal stove. After that, the noodles are picked out, put in a bowl and added with pieces of pork, seasoned with spices, fried onions, pepper, chili, fish sauce… In particular, this noodle dish cannot be without salt and chili. When eating, people will mix noodles with chili salt to create a visually appealing bowl of red noodles. Photo: IT. Invite readers to watch the video “Changing the tray of 1 million with only a few dishes, without rice and sticky rice”. Source: VTV TSTC.

A day earlier, eight similar aircraft departed from New Delhi and landed in London just hours before the UK officially put India on the “red list”. India is facing the second wave of epidemics, such as a “tsunami” with tremendous devastation. In the past 5 consecutive days, the number of new Covid-19 infections is over 300,000 cases / day. India broke down in the midst of the Covid-19 “tsunami”. Photo: QZ. The number of sick and fatalities is so great that hospitals, morgue and cremation grounds are overloaded. Severe medical oxygen scarcity has caused many patients to share a ventilator, some of whom do not survive right in front of the hospital. According to the Fortune India The epidemic has become so serious that the super-rich – those who have never been affected by poverty or natural disasters – are no longer safe. Running abroad on expensive private flights is considered the most likely option. And if they get stuck because flights have been halted and the borders closed, many people have come to realize that in the midst of this dire Covid-19 crisis, money is not going to help them buy the same perks as before. When money can’t buy oxygen Talking about the fleeing of the super-rich in recent days, journalist and historian Hindol Sengupta relates to deeper problems in Indian society: rich and poor disparities and rich people are only worried about it. live by yourself. “The long-standing bad habit in India is just to keep your house clean, you can dump trash right in front of the door. The moment the junk was out there, it was someone else’s problem. Who cares about the poor having to deal with its consequences when the well-off can still hide in their homes? ”Mr. Sengupta said. Over the years, the rich are getting richer, but their social progress and development have declined. Instead of campaigning to improve public services that serve all, the Indian elite and the middle class have found an easier way: spending money to buy private services. The Covid-19 wave left hospitals in India exhausted and depleted of oxygen. Photo: AFP. “Regardless of what happens to the rest of the country, they are comfortable with their own perks.” No matter what a crisis is, electricity, water, roads or air pollution, rich people just need to splash money. If the pollution is severe, they buy air filters at home and in the office. The city is insecure, they can hire a 24/7 private security guard. The health system is poor, they seek private doctors or quickly go abroad for treatment … “The Indian rich do not understand that not privatizing everything, a stable society, which ensures the most basic things such as health and education for everyone, is the foundation for development. sustainable, ”said Mr. Sengupta. Time of salvation The ongoing “Tsunami” of Covid-19 is said to be a landmark. Now, even the most expensive and exclusive hospitals run out of something as basic as oxygen. The elite gradually realized they could no longer spend money to get out of this crisis and had nowhere to fly to because most countries such as Canada, UAE, Thailand, Maldives, UK are in turn. processing tourists from India. The Indian super-rich flee abroad on private planes. Photo: Shutterstock. The scholar Abhinav Prakash argues that this is a time when Indians become more deeply aware of inequality in society and towards specific solutions. “Health insurance cannot help in a health crisis without infrastructure. No matter how expensive your health insurance is, it doesn’t make any sense if the hospital runs out of bed, lacks equipment, runs out of oxygen, “Prakash said. India, and most importantly, a growing rich middle class need to realize that public services are the backbone of a united society. “You can throw trash outside, but the stench of trash still gets into your closed doors and windows. It will make you suffocate. Big change comes from times like now. If the rich and relatively wealthy in India realize that their future is tied to a better public service system, it may be the time to save the country, ”wrote journalist Sengupta.

For a few days, the incident became the town’s gossip. However, police have struggled to identify the person who died from the burns that were so severe. Public interest gradually faded. The woman’s name seems to be forever unknown.

In China’s megacities, large numbers of unclaimed corpses have become a pressing problem. Although country figures are not available, the total is at least in the tens of thousands. Urban morgues, funeral homes and hospitals complain that they have been stretched to full capacity.

But Truong Dai Dung could not let the incident sink. The intelligent man who once dreamed of becoming a scientist was unable to fulfill his dream of suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a form of weakness of the spine.

According to Truong, he could not move without much pain. Zhang had to lie in bed, “detained in a home prison”. His thoughts often returned to the mysterious corpse, wondering where the woman had come from.

Then one day, Truong discovered an advertisement in a local newspaper. Post by a man searching for his missing wife, last seen wearing a red coat. Zhang contacted the man and the Luoyang police later confirmed that the body was in fact his wife.

Truong found his god.

Truong looks for information on the internet

The 57-year-old has since spent decades identifying the unidentified corpses languishing in the city’s morgues.

From his bedroom in Luoyang, Zhang built a website called an anonymous dead database, containing records of more than 3,300 corpses.

The 57-year-old has since spent decades identifying the unidentified corpses languishing in the city’s morgues.

For several hours each week, Zhang peered into the archive of press archives, police notices and public documents to update the website, moving himself around with the help of a metal ring hanging from the ceiling. Bedroom. He runs the project entirely by himself and receives little remuneration for the work.

But Truong says the website gives meaning to his life. Although he rarely hears from users, he knows the hundreds of people who regularly check the database, flipping from page to page on the list.

“I am part of a disadvantaged group,” Truong told reporters. Finding even more disadvantaged people, that at least gives me consolation. ”

However, there are many more families that Truong is helpless to help.

In China’s megacities, large numbers of unclaimed corpses have become a pressing problem. Although country figures are not available, the total is at least in the tens of thousands. Urban morgues, funeral homes and hospitals complain that they have been stretched to full capacity.

The problem is partly the result of massive internal exodus that China has experienced in recent decades. Many of the unidentified deaths are believed to be wanderers or unregistered migrants, who flooded the cities during China’s economic boom. While some died from violence, others drowned, had an accident or died in hospital.

China’s lack of a consistent system for identifying the dead and handling anonymous corpses has exacerbated the problem. Across the country, a large number of anonymous cadavers remain unresolved, and bodies are left long ago in refrigerating equipment.

China does not have a national database equivalent to the national system of missing and unidentified Americans. According to the China Newsweek, a state-run magazine, China’s Ministry of Public Security maintains internal records of missing persons and unidentified death records, but they are not linked together and cross-checking is difficult. . These records are also not accessible to the public.

When it comes to identifying victims, even the Chinese police often feel helpless – especially those in underdeveloped areas. Although forensic technology has improved significantly in recent years, the results of an investigation ultimately depend on the records investigators have access to.

Winsome Lee, a forensic anthropologist based in Hong Kong, said: “We will do a lot of analysis and modeling, but ultimately it depends on having a relative providing clues or DNA to we match or not. Our role is really limited. ”

Tian Chen, a policeman from Xining, Qinghai Province, northwest China, recalls an unsolved case he handled last year. When a male body was found in the village, Dien’s team was assigned to identify the deceased.

Officers collected samples, conducted DNA analysis, and searched Thanh Hai province records of dead bodies and unidentified people. They also posted missing person notices on China’s WeChat social app and on local media. But these things did not yield any results.

“We can only test big data within Thanh Hai province,” Dien said.

After three months of fruitless work, the group was forced to close the file and cremate the body, as the local funeral home refused to keep it. “The funeral homes here are full of corpses,” Dien said.

These problems are not unique to Tay Ninh. In cities across China, unclaimed and unidentified bodies are filling morgue and funeral homes, while authorities are arguing over how to handle them.

Vu Tu Hai, in charge of social affairs at the Luoyang Interior Bureau, said unclaimed corpses consume about 15% of the city’s funeral home capacity. Some of the bodies were there for a decade and forgotten by the police.

Vu said: “The police only sent the body there, then no one bothered to follow it.”

The problem is partly the result of massive internal exodus that China has experienced in recent decades. Many of the unidentified deaths are believed to be wanderers or unregistered migrants, who flooded the cities during China’s economic boom. While some died from violence, others drowned, had an accident or died in hospital.