- Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Festival Founders Sign Strategic Alliance Agreement and Announce Long-Term Cultural Partnership
- Doha's Museum of Islamic Art to Host Film Festival
Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), the organization dedicated to developing the cultural resources of this Arabian Gulf state as a platform for international dialogue and understanding, has announced a groundbreaking agreement with New York's world-renowned Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), to launch a world-class international film festival, Tribeca Film Festival Doha. The first festival will take place November 10 - 14, 2009 and be presented at Doha's celebrated new Museum of Islamic Art and in cinemas across Doha.
The announcement of the cultural partnership was made at a special ceremony at the new Museum of Islamic Art, which was attended by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority Board of Trustees, and Abdullah Al Najjar, Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar Museums Authority. Joining on behalf of the Tribeca Film Festival were the co-founders, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff.
H.E. Sheikha Mayassa expressed her confidence that the Tribeca Film Festival Doha will bring together people from around the globe and help to build international awareness and understanding of Arab culture and the Arab world.
"I invite film enthusiasts from every country to share their passion for this art by visiting the Tribeca Film Festival Doha," Her Excellency stated. "In today's increasingly globalized world, creative initiatives like this
Festival can play a truly inspirational role by bringing cultures closer together."
Tribeca Film Festival Doha will be modeled after the annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, which is going into its eighth year. Like the New York event, it will welcome the community, diverse audiences and the global filmmaking industry. As a result of an extensive collaboration between TFF and QMA, the Festival has been designed to showcase the local Qatari community, as well as the broader Arab culture.
Tribeca Film Festival Doha will feature new work from established filmmakers, alongside film debuts from newly discovered directing talents. The program will include approximately 40 films, as well as special events. The Festival will launch "The Doha Conversations", thought-provoking and insightful dialogues between icons of world culture set in intimate environments, with the goal of fostering discussion in Qatar and around the globe. Full details of the festival program and guests will be announced at a later date.
"The Tribeca Film Festival Doha is destined to become a major annual event in world cinema," stated Abdullah Al Najjar. "The Festival will include a wide range of programming, from outdoor screenings to movies for children, from documentaries to new Hollywood releases and from independent films to showcases of the very best works by Arab filmmakers."
"We are honored to create an enduring cultural partnership with QMA and to announce the launch of the Tribeca Film Festival Doha next November. Qatar's transformational vision for the 21st century with its emphasis on culture and education is uniquely consistent with the goals and aspirations of the Tribeca Film Festival," said TFF co-founder, Jane Rosenthal.
"We hope that film will not only be used as a form of entertainment at Tribeca Film Festival Doha but play a role in bridging cultures closer together. By learning each other's stories, we can see how much we share in common as well as explore and better understand our differences," said Robert De Niro.
"In addition to the positive cultural implications, this initiative underscores the enormous potential of the entertainment market in the Middle East and the strategic importance of the region to the future of the film industry," said TFF co-founder Craig Hatkoff. "We think the key to success will be understanding and respecting one another's cultures and traditions. We believe this Festival will lead to many other important and educational initiatives in Doha and beyond."
"The Tribeca Film Festival has become a world-renowned event, and its new partnership with the Qatar Museums Authority will leverage that success and help further its mission of introducing films and filmmakers to a global audience," said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "The Festival's substantial cultural and economic impact in New York City is unequivocal, and our hope is that Doha will reap similar benefits. The expansion of a New York institution like the Tribeca Film Festival to Doha is a sign of the international significance of New York City cinema and will help foster new relationships between our two cities."
Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2001 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in response to the events of September 11. The festival's initial purpose was to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of Lower Manhattan through an annual celebration of film, music and culture.
Up to date festival information can be found by visiting the official Tribeca Film Festival Doha website -- www.tffdoha.com
Notes to the Editor
About Qatar Museums Authority
The Museum of Islamic Art opening 1 December 2008 is a pioneering project, setting apart the cultural vision of the State of Qatar, both in the region and across the world. Under the guiding vision of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority
Board of Trustees, the project sets the founding stone in the cultural blueprint to transform the State of Qatar into a global capital of culture.
The Museum stands as an architectural masterpiece 60m off Doha's Corniche on an island made of reclaimed land. Pritzker Prize laureate, I.M. Pei, was commissioned to design the 35,500sq m Museum; inspiration for which he found in the 13th century sabil (ablutions fountain) of the 9th century Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun in Cairo, Egypt.
The stone-clad Museum is composed of a five-storey Main Building and a two-storey Education Wing, which are connected across a central courtyard. The Main Building's angular volumes step back progressively as they rise around a 50m high central domed atrium. The dome is concealed from outside view by the walls of a central tower. A glass curtain wall rises to a height of 45m on the north side of the Museum offering stunning views of the Gulf and West Bay area of Doha from all five floors of the atrium.
Collected from three continents including countries across the Middle East and as far reaching as Spain and India, the Museum's artworks date from the 7th through to the 19th century. Representing the full scope of Islamic art, the collection includes manuscripts, ceramics, metal, glass, ivory, textiles, wood and precious stones, and are of superior quality.
Qatar Museums Authority was created in December 2005 to combine the resources of all museums in the State of Qatar. The Authority's vision revolves around the provision of a comprehensive umbrella under which future plans will be drawn for the development of national museums and the establishment of an
effective system for collecting, protecting, preserving and interpreting historic sites, monuments and artefacts.
About the Tribeca Film Festival
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of the lower Manhattan district through an annual celebration of film, music and culture. The Festival's mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center.
-- Tribeca Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors.
-- Tribeca Film Festival has screened over 1100 films from over 80 countries since its first festival in 2002.
-- The Festival has held cultural exchange programs in Milan, Beijing and with the Rome Film Festival.
-- The Festival supports multiple educational programs and filmmakers funding programs through its affiliated non-profit organization, the Tribeca Film Institute.
-- Since its founding, the Festival in New York has attracted an international audience of more than two million attendees and has generated over $530 million in economic activity for New York City.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
KSEC TAKES ITS CLIENTOS TO THE MOVIES
One might wonder what benefits the world-renowned detective Sherlock Holmes or a woolly mammoth from Ice Age could bring to a financial firm during an economic malaise.
At Kasikorn Securities, they could make a difference.
Since the beginning of this year, the investment arm of Kasikornbank has pinned its hopes on entertainment marketing to gets its name to stand out above its business rivals.
Prasong Rungsmaithong, KSEC's assistant managing director for corporate strategy, was brought in earlier this year to take the wheel for strategy.
"In the financial industry, especially the securities business, it's hard to differentiate yourself as we are all sales representatives offering similar products," said Mr Prasong.
"Clients tend to weigh their decisions on the skills of marketing staff over the company."
To create client loyalty through an emotional connection, KSEC wants to give its clients what they cannot find elsewhere - which is where entertainment marketing comes in.
"At a time when the securities business is not doing so well as people delay their investment decisions, we don't have to always focus only on our trading business,we can just find ways to take care of our clients, keeping them happy," said Mr Prasong.
"And what people seem to have in common, whether in times of a good or bad economy, is entertainment."
KSEC this year kicked off the KSEC Privilege Premiere campaign offering tickets for film premieres to clients chosen at random.
The 14 films in its campaign this year include 20th Century Fox's Avatar , with draw winners going to London to see the premiere alongside Hollywood stars.
For the Thai film Pai In Love , two clients will join the director, crew and cast in a three-day trip to Mae Hong Son's Pai district.
"It's true that other companies can also give out free movie tickets. But what we offer to our clients is the privilege to be the first to see new films coupled with special and rare experiences," he said."We give them something that money can't buy."
KSEC also aims to use this approach to attract new investors in an increasingly competitive market.
Ice Age 3 drew more than 400 new clients who proved to be active investors with a trading value of more than 1 billion baht in their first three months.
The careful selection of films can also help KSEC reach its target clients, said Mr Prasong, who has worked in the film industry for several years.
Since male investors dominate in the securities market, KSEC has tried to win female investors by allowing only female clients to see the premiere of the romantic comedy The Proposal , he said. And family films such as G-Force and Ice Age 3 are used to draw clients with stable incomes.
The new film campaign has already attracted 2,000 new investors and the company hopes to have brought in 3,000 by year-end.
A new marketing approach is necessary considering the changes facing the securities industry, said Mr Prasong.Brokerage fees, now set at a minimum of 0.25%, will begin to fall from next year and will be fully negotiable from 2012.
"Everyone is going to be talking about who offers the lowest price. But we chose for our brand to be different by adding the value of being able to provide more,"he said.
The company plans to organise a film campaign at least once a month next year as well as to add entertainment genres including music, sports, concerts and travel.
The new approach also covers lifestyle privileges such as discounts at restaurants and shopping malls.
Mr Prasong said entertainment marketing costs less and is more effective at capturing the right market than conventional methods such as booths in fairs.
Campaigns are done through partnerships with film or product companies,which offers a win-win situation to all parties, he said.
"Our partners are looking to sell their products or want as many people to watch their films as possible. Our wellto-do clients, whose opinions tend to be valued, can help pass on their thoughts on the products to others," he said.
The campaign is part of KSEC's efforts to be one of the country's top three securities firms by 2011.
Mr Prasong added the campaign had proved its success when a client asked what would be the next film to see.
"The right connection that links us to the lifestyle of investors will embed our brand in the top of their minds," he said.
At Kasikorn Securities, they could make a difference.
Since the beginning of this year, the investment arm of Kasikornbank has pinned its hopes on entertainment marketing to gets its name to stand out above its business rivals.
Prasong Rungsmaithong, KSEC's assistant managing director for corporate strategy, was brought in earlier this year to take the wheel for strategy.
"In the financial industry, especially the securities business, it's hard to differentiate yourself as we are all sales representatives offering similar products," said Mr Prasong.
"Clients tend to weigh their decisions on the skills of marketing staff over the company."
To create client loyalty through an emotional connection, KSEC wants to give its clients what they cannot find elsewhere - which is where entertainment marketing comes in.
"At a time when the securities business is not doing so well as people delay their investment decisions, we don't have to always focus only on our trading business,we can just find ways to take care of our clients, keeping them happy," said Mr Prasong.
"And what people seem to have in common, whether in times of a good or bad economy, is entertainment."
KSEC this year kicked off the KSEC Privilege Premiere campaign offering tickets for film premieres to clients chosen at random.
The 14 films in its campaign this year include 20th Century Fox's Avatar , with draw winners going to London to see the premiere alongside Hollywood stars.
For the Thai film Pai In Love , two clients will join the director, crew and cast in a three-day trip to Mae Hong Son's Pai district.
"It's true that other companies can also give out free movie tickets. But what we offer to our clients is the privilege to be the first to see new films coupled with special and rare experiences," he said."We give them something that money can't buy."
KSEC also aims to use this approach to attract new investors in an increasingly competitive market.
Ice Age 3 drew more than 400 new clients who proved to be active investors with a trading value of more than 1 billion baht in their first three months.
The careful selection of films can also help KSEC reach its target clients, said Mr Prasong, who has worked in the film industry for several years.
Since male investors dominate in the securities market, KSEC has tried to win female investors by allowing only female clients to see the premiere of the romantic comedy The Proposal , he said. And family films such as G-Force and Ice Age 3 are used to draw clients with stable incomes.
The new film campaign has already attracted 2,000 new investors and the company hopes to have brought in 3,000 by year-end.
A new marketing approach is necessary considering the changes facing the securities industry, said Mr Prasong.Brokerage fees, now set at a minimum of 0.25%, will begin to fall from next year and will be fully negotiable from 2012.
"Everyone is going to be talking about who offers the lowest price. But we chose for our brand to be different by adding the value of being able to provide more,"he said.
The company plans to organise a film campaign at least once a month next year as well as to add entertainment genres including music, sports, concerts and travel.
The new approach also covers lifestyle privileges such as discounts at restaurants and shopping malls.
Mr Prasong said entertainment marketing costs less and is more effective at capturing the right market than conventional methods such as booths in fairs.
Campaigns are done through partnerships with film or product companies,which offers a win-win situation to all parties, he said.
"Our partners are looking to sell their products or want as many people to watch their films as possible. Our wellto-do clients, whose opinions tend to be valued, can help pass on their thoughts on the products to others," he said.
The campaign is part of KSEC's efforts to be one of the country's top three securities firms by 2011.
Mr Prasong added the campaign had proved its success when a client asked what would be the next film to see.
"The right connection that links us to the lifestyle of investors will embed our brand in the top of their minds," he said.
"Post Grad" fails to make the grade
Post Grad , a comedy about a driven, hardworking college student who's unable to find a job after she graduates, actually might have been relevant.It might have been a satirical and insightful look into how our soured economy has dashed the dreams of a generation.
Instead, it's a flat and tonally jumbled amalgamation of Adventureland Little Miss Sunshine and Some Kind of Wonderful . In other words, it has no idea what it wants to be; as a result, it gets nothing right.
Alexis Bledel maintains a steady level of wide-eyed pluckiness as Ryden Malby (a name that looks like an anagram), who just got out of school with an English degree and dreams of working at a prestigious Los Angeles publishing house. When she doesn't get the job she applied for, she ends up back home in the San Fernando Valley with the kind
of eccentric family you only find in the movies.
Michael Keaton, as her dad, sells novelty belt buckles; Carol Burnett, as grandma, is obsessed with her own death. Then there's Ryden's little brother (Bobby Coleman), who likes to lick his classmates' heads and communicates through his sock puppet.(Actually, he seems like a pretty normal little kid.) And Jane Lynch, as her mother,plays the straight woman for once - which isn't a whole lot of fun.
Meanwhile, Ryden rebuffs the romantic advances of her best friend, the spineless and worshipful Adam (Zach Gilford), who would rather write love songs for her than fly across the country to attend law school at Columbia in New York. Instead, she enjoys a fling with her sexy Brazilian neighbor (Rodrigo
Santoro), even though - duh the guy she's supposed to be with has been right in front of her all along. Things pick up briefly with Santoro's arrival, if only because he adds some physical spark, but then that story line goes nowhere for no reason.
Ryden herself doesn't give us much more to hold onto - which is a problem, because we're supposed to be rooting for her to succeed. This is what we know about her: She's cute, she likes books and she wants a job.
Animation veteran Vicky Jenson (Shrek Shark Tale ), directing her first live-action feature from a script by first-timer Kelly Fremon, awkwardly juggles all these subplots. There's a sitcommy AP quality to the way certain scenes end abruptly on a wacky or raunchy note, or sometimes with a feel-good moment of supposed poignancy.
Jenson also squanders the comic presence of J.K.Simmons, Fred Armisen, Craig Robinson and Demetri Martin in minuscule supporting roles. If there is one funny scene in the entire movie, it's the one in which Robinson, as a funeral home director, tries to sell Burnett's character an $18,000 casket.
Then again,Post Grad itself was already dead on arrival.
Instead, it's a flat and tonally jumbled amalgamation of Adventureland Little Miss Sunshine and Some Kind of Wonderful . In other words, it has no idea what it wants to be; as a result, it gets nothing right.
Alexis Bledel maintains a steady level of wide-eyed pluckiness as Ryden Malby (a name that looks like an anagram), who just got out of school with an English degree and dreams of working at a prestigious Los Angeles publishing house. When she doesn't get the job she applied for, she ends up back home in the San Fernando Valley with the kind
of eccentric family you only find in the movies.
Michael Keaton, as her dad, sells novelty belt buckles; Carol Burnett, as grandma, is obsessed with her own death. Then there's Ryden's little brother (Bobby Coleman), who likes to lick his classmates' heads and communicates through his sock puppet.(Actually, he seems like a pretty normal little kid.) And Jane Lynch, as her mother,plays the straight woman for once - which isn't a whole lot of fun.
Meanwhile, Ryden rebuffs the romantic advances of her best friend, the spineless and worshipful Adam (Zach Gilford), who would rather write love songs for her than fly across the country to attend law school at Columbia in New York. Instead, she enjoys a fling with her sexy Brazilian neighbor (Rodrigo
Santoro), even though - duh the guy she's supposed to be with has been right in front of her all along. Things pick up briefly with Santoro's arrival, if only because he adds some physical spark, but then that story line goes nowhere for no reason.
Ryden herself doesn't give us much more to hold onto - which is a problem, because we're supposed to be rooting for her to succeed. This is what we know about her: She's cute, she likes books and she wants a job.
Animation veteran Vicky Jenson (Shrek Shark Tale ), directing her first live-action feature from a script by first-timer Kelly Fremon, awkwardly juggles all these subplots. There's a sitcommy AP quality to the way certain scenes end abruptly on a wacky or raunchy note, or sometimes with a feel-good moment of supposed poignancy.
Jenson also squanders the comic presence of J.K.Simmons, Fred Armisen, Craig Robinson and Demetri Martin in minuscule supporting roles. If there is one funny scene in the entire movie, it's the one in which Robinson, as a funeral home director, tries to sell Burnett's character an $18,000 casket.
Then again,Post Grad itself was already dead on arrival.
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
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