Gossip about reporters monitoring the traffic industry

If I am not mistaken, starting in the early 70s of the last century, the economic sectors and the press units formed the mode of reporters to follow the industry.

The press agency selects suitable reporters and introduces them to the respective branches and ministries. When the industry side and the governing ministry agree, this reporter is mainly responsible for propagating and capturing information of the branch and line ministry.

When I was assigned by the Internal Affairs Department of the Voice of Vietnam (TNVN) to monitor the traffic sector right at the time when engineer Vu Pham Chanh, former Director of Construction and Investment 120 Company, was appointed Chief of Staff. Office of the Ministry of Transport.

At that time, the Ministry of Transport also had a Propaganda Department, led by engineer Ngo Quang Huan, who took on the role of informing the press about the situation of the Ministry, contacting reporters to monitor the industry when there were events of the transport industry that needed to be announced. transmission.

Along with me, I followed the transport industry at that time at other press agencies, including Quang Tuan, the People’s newspaper, this journalist later was also responsible for following the leaders of our Party and State when visiting foreign countries. . Vietnam News Agency is Pham Manh, People’s Army newspaper has Ngoc Minh.

Vietnam Television Station, the first reporter to watch the industry was Phan Duyen, after Dao Hung replaced. Later, the radio station developed by Hanoi Television was Chu Duc Soan, the new Hanoi newspaper had Van Thanh.

At that time, there were not as many newspapers as later, so there were only seven reporters who followed the traffic industry. Later, due to increased propaganda requirements, each press agency, depending on the incident, sent more reporters to monitor. As at TNVN, there are reporters Minh Duc in the News Department, Nguyen Thi Thuong specializing in science and technology…

For me, during my official working time at Taiwan, 39 years plus 13 years of retirement, until now still being a reporter for the Bridge and Road Magazine under the Vietnam Road and Bridge Association, it can be said that I have been attached to the industry. MOT as a journalist is 52 years.

More than half of that century, during my tenure as a supervisor of the transport industry, I have experienced 10 generations of Ministers of Transport. Attend thousands of groundbreaking works, inaugurate roads and bridges, launch ships of all tonnages and travel with transport routes of many types of cars, ferries, machines. fly and have left many unforgettable memories.

The first memory imprinted in my memory is the trip accompanying Minister Dong Si Nguyen to start the construction of a 30 km long concrete road from Bac Kan through Phu Thong to the northern border in the early 80s of the century. before. Back then, Bac Kan was still wild.

The Presidium of the Presidium for delegates to the groundbreaking ceremony is made of bamboo and is built on the newly harvested field. The welcome slogan for the delegates and the groundbreaking ceremony were drawn on the mainspring and bamboo springs. After the groundbreaking ceremony, the press delegation was brought to the field by the Propaganda Department and witnessed the simple bamboo camps of female road workers in the middle of the forest.

Any unit that has a loud radio can be considered civilized. The slogan hanging on the wall of the shack has the content that reminds me forever “going to bed on time is being faithful to your lover”.

That said, the life of a female road worker in the mountains was difficult and hard back then, having a happy family is a dream for every female worker. That’s why there is an oral adage about the hard work of road workers: “Mother maintained, father drove a wheel to give birth to a boy on the street”.

Occasionally, a long-distance truck driver stops by the female road workers’ camps and makes brief love affairs. After that trip, in addition to hot articles about the groundbreaking ceremony, about the units participating in the project, I wrote the novel “Dust of the road” reflecting the hard work of road workers and truck drivers. long. This novel in 1990 won the first prize in the 2nd transportation writing contest organized by the Vietnam Writers’ Association and the Ministry of Transport.

The second most impressive trip was in the mid-90s of the last century when a delegation of reporters watching the transport industry accompanied Minister Bui Danh Luu to survey National Highway 7. Highway 7 can be said to be the backbone axis. of Nghe An province, starting from Dien Chau, connecting with National Highway 1 stretching the western districts of Nghe An from Dien Chau through Yen Thanh, Do Luong, Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son… VNA member sat in the car with engineer Vu Van Liem – Deputy General Director of Traffic Construction Corporation 8.

Now the traffic on National Highway 7 is very light and comfortable, while walking on Highway 7 will understand the torment of the road. The dust after each wheelchair trip, the car bounced around because of all kinds of potholes, elephant holes, the car engine roared when going through the narrow, winding slopes…

Occasionally, we encounter roads where people in the car feel like they are walking on rubber blocks. The bobbing, bouncing car makes people suffering from motion sickness even more miserable. When the car arrived in Vinh, we asked why there is such a rubber bump on the road.

Minister Bui Danh Luu explained that at that time we built the road according to the Soviet technological process, dredged up the mud at the foundation of the road, then dropped the stone, then put the asphalt on it… being pushed back and forth, causing the road foundation to form convex and concave, a rubber shrunk from that arises.

Later, for the first time, I witnessed ASSTO road construction technology on National Highway 5, saw the foundation treatment with sand piles and permeable walls, and then loaded the load-bearing soil enough time for the foundation to settle down. Today, walking on the roads following the new ASSTO technology, it is even more obvious that the superiority of advanced road construction technology makes the quality of the road better.

Another memorable business trip was the time when I went to write transit transport at the invitation and order of the Director of the Department of Automobile Transport Bui Quang Tuu on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the automobile transport industry.

After spending months living at the Company’s Headquarters 6 in Hoa Khanh – Da Nang, then going out to live with the transit driver brothers at the parking lot in Dong Ha – Quang Tri, witnessing the hardships of transit drivers when transporting gypsum from Dong Hen mine in Laos, crossing the Lao Bao border gate to Vietnam.

Witnessing traffickers taking advantage of transport to smuggle goods from Laos, including A Lao cigarettes, flip flops, jeans, Thai women’s underwear… I was invited by hero Cao Ba Tuyet – Director of Company 6. Let’s go to Sa Van (capital of Savannakhet province) to understand the dangerous and difficult reality of driving in transit on Route 6.

Our car went to the town of Sepon called Little Paris, when at lunch, Director Tuyet told the driver to turn around and head to Vietnam. I was surprised and asked, “Why should I do that?”. Hero Cao Ba Tuyet spoke softly “to deceive the bandits”.

As it turned out, at that time, the Dong Hen mine area in particular and route 6 in general were still active, often causing insecurity for our transit drivers. After that business trip along with a lengthy report on TNVN about the work of transit drivers, I was able to write the novel “Transit” which was printed by Tien Giang Publishing House with a quantity of 20,000 copies.

Another memorable trip in my life as a journalist monitoring the transport industry is the 6-month field trip on the ocean freighter Dien Bien 01. This trip follows the route that I have to go around twice through Thailand, Cambodia, Korea and Japan.

Half a year living with the crew of 36 officers and sailors of the Dien Bien 01 ship, I understood the hardships, hardships and dangers of seafarers.

Because of the duty to the industry and the country, sailors accept to live far away from home, suffer emotional disadvantages, lack of education, take care of elderly mothers, weak fathers… In addition, they are constantly facing head with pirates, stormy storms.

I remember once when the Dien Bien 01 train from O No Mi Chi – Japan to Busan – South Korea, when crossing Noi Hai, an inland storm suddenly arose, our ship of nearly 10,000 tons was like a boat. Bamboo leaves flutter in the wind. In that critical moment, Captain Le Ngoc Minh invited me to the bridge to witness a moment of tension caused by nature.

To this day, I still shed tears when I remember vividly the telegram that hit the mainland in the middle of a storm, “if we don’t see our electricity in 15 minutes, we would like to say goodbye to the Fatherland and loved ones.” . Fortunately, our ship did not die that time, so we overcame the danger. After that trip, I wrote the novel “The sea is full of water”. This work in 2010 was awarded by the General Confederation and the Vietnam Writers Association for writing about workers and workers.

That’s my life as a journalist tracking the transport industry for more than half a century!

Chemend of May 2022.

Nguyen Hieu