what this picture? this is xiengkuang plain of jars, right? what bad news is related with this place? what are the white boards? when i went there, there was only the brown one. Can someone tell me what writeen on the white boards?
For me, the worst 2007 news are thai and chinese projects to build big dams directly upon Mekong river... because for sure the ecological impact of such projects will be tremendous(meaning bad ecenomical consequences for all the people living along the river too).... the only hope is that this is just "projects"... nothing is decided yet. Another anoying new concern energy too: the begining of building of a coal/lignite plant in Laos. As far as i know, such plant pollute a lot... that's why thai reject the project on their own land... they prefer build it in Laos and pollute another country.... YOUR country! I don't understand how Laos could accept such project.
I also strongly regret the decision to remove all tuktuks from the streets of Vientiane. We discuss a lot about this subject on this board. I sincerely think this desision is a big mistake
Finaly, i'm little bit scared by ThatLuang Marsh development project by China: i think this can be a wonderfull or a catastrophic project... just depend of what they will really build.
That's all... i live far from Laos so i cannot see everything that happen, but according to the informations i can get via internet, here are the only important bad news i can see.... not so bad, in fact... seems Laos really go ahead and improve it's situation every year. That's a pleasure to see this and very interesting
For me, the 2007 worst news in Laos must be the the influx of the chinese population into laos. How many ? Only Buddha knows. Who made this decision ? Most likely those gods that think they OWN laos, they don't have to ask anybody. I think this is the beginning of something new for laos. The chinese has so much surplus money they can buy anything they want, do anything they want...Just look at those poor ຕາດຳໆ Touk touk drivers...they will be out of work soon, because new chinese buses need no competetion in the business. If you think money cannot buy votes in laos just wait and see how chinese can transform those officials from rags to riches in no times. Laos will have more millionaires and an abondance of chinese products, of course.
The Vang Pao coup plot was bad news, but it was followed by good news that the Americans had, yet again, betrayed the people they used as allies and finally stopped trying to undermine the legitimate government in Laos.
The Vang Pao coup plot was bad news, but it was followed by good news that the Americans had, yet again, betrayed the people they used as allies and finally stopped trying to undermine the legitimate government in Laos.
America betrayed them? The Americans gave them a home after the war, its these Hmong "Rebels" that want to cause trouble. How can you agree with such a thing? If I can remember correctly, one of them stated that they wanted the coup to look like 9/11. Could you seriously support something like that?
I think that we had not very bad news this year, I rather saw good news instead such as some hmong people in Huaynamkhao are invited to come back home, others woukd fly to european countriies and to US and some would stay in thailand, not so bad news, about dams construction neither, is not bad news when all the dams construction were completed, we`ll get a lot of money and with this money we`ll be able to buy rice, household and some food that we cannot produce from other countries and with this money we`ll be able to cope with starvation, illiteracy, poverty and bad impact to environment, so, let`s hope ! and for tuktuk I don`t think that they would be wiped out from the circulation `cos many people still need them where the minibus cannot reach.... Happy Newyear to everyone! I wish you all happiness and prosperity !
i think you seriously minimise the cost of bad environmental impact of a dam, especialy a giant dam directly over Mekong river! However, i appreciate your optimistic point of view and i agree: not many really bad news for Laos in 2007.... essentialy good news... Laos goes ahead for sure (not like my country that seams to be on the bad slope)
I doubt any profit (if any) from selling the electricity from all those dam (which doesn't really own by LPDR) will make any impact on all the problem you listed.
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"Because I criticized Laos government and it policies, it does not mean I want Laos to remain poor nor do I think Lao people are lazy or uneducated."
