Politics

I just went out and grabbed a bag of fresh peeled and chunked pineapple to fuel my ranting for about 30 cents!
I don't know if any of you remember but when we first visited Laos I read the english language newspapers for the month we were there. Laos has only been really open to westerners in the last ten years or so. I was horrified because it seemed that there were at least 100 mining claims being considered and an overall feeling of 'come on boys, come and get it!'. Most of the applications were from outside of Laos. I aslo felt that the Chinese were like a huge beast trying to consume all the resourses around them.
Well this time it seems to me that Laos is hell bent on developing a big hydro dam across the Mekong that will be financed by Thai banks and Thailand will consume 95% of the power produced. The problem is that over 60 and yes i mean 60 million people could be affected by the dam. All those people that live below the dam and depend on the Mekong for much needed protein, calcium, fish oils and their livlihoods will be negatively affected. I've been reading the rhetoric for a few weeks now and it's really heating up. Laos is saying they may go ahead anyway and have found a Swiss Agency that is willing to say there will be no negative impact or that any negative impact can be mitigated. There is a huge meeting this week between Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand to decide the issue but even if they say no or put it off for ten years as has been suggested, it may be that Laos won't comply. There was a full page ad in the Bangkok post today against the dam.

Cambodia is also in turmoil. There is a huge UN tribunal to decide the fate of Pol Pot's top men and it seems to be running like a farce with the bad guys saying they did nothing wrong and that it was the Vietnamese who commited the atrocities and genocide against the Cambodians.

On to Burma where the first stirrings of real democracy are happening and who shows up but Hilary Clinton. She's the first US ambassador to show up in 50 years all kissy kissy and looking to protect Us interests as it trys to surround China to keep it in check. I have little faith in the US and it's foreign policies. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and the doors that are slowly opening to slam shut. How can the US talk about human rights and right to freedom of speeckh while at the same time busting the 99% camps around the country? Canada is no better with the last G- howevermany and the abuse of human rights that happened there.

The english papers here are really good and have lots of world news. I enjoy reading them because life at home takes over and I rarely read a paper.