underneath the crumbling post colonial buildings and the
down beat broken roads Laos has a heart that
is resilient regardless of the post colonial mess left by the
french and destroyed by the americans!
If you don't know anything of the relatively recent
history of laos I would recommend you see a documentary
called The Betrayal. It follows the life of a Laotian family!
After the americans had dropped more bombs on N laos
than both world wars combined they then left the country
in ruins and the PDR took over. this left many Laotians
in the lurch and many died or had to goto 're-habilitation'
centres basically prison and hard labour! The name of the
documentary refers to the name these people give the
americans 'The Betrayers.' Its aname that could be applied
by many so called developing countries to the Brits and the
the so called colonial benefactors.
even though this happened the Laotians are wonderful people.
when you get out of the tourism areas and head out just a little
in the capital you see the famous smile. the wonderful surprise that
that they seem to have when they see a white face smiling.
Even though their lives are so hard and harsh and the
effects of the wars that Nixon denied and Kennedy said
Laos must be neutral whilst the bombs dropped these people
remain wonderfully upbeat. A lesson for us in our narcissistic
western state!
:-)
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