Who Is Big Brother Mouse?
When I first introduced Big Brother Mouse (BBM), I didn’t expect many questions over the matter and only wrote on my post here and also my blog that “I don’t know a lot about them”, but ignorance on my part is no excuse and I feel that I owe to my readers an apology for not finding out more about them.
When I first saw their web site, I was impressed with their overall appearance, well written, and very professional looking. I recently received an e-mail of concern from one of my readers, which made me decide to write this post, to be a bit more transparent, to shed more light as to who is who? So who is this BBM?
At first glance, it appears on their website of BBM as stated that “Khamla Panyasouk is the owner and publisher of Big Brother Mouse as well as the author of one of our original books. He was born in 1983 in the village of Khone Kham, about 50 kilometers from Luang Prabang. He started school when he was 8 and was the first in his family to learn to read. He showed immediate aptitude for learning and applied himself with dedication to his studies. As part of the school registration process, he coined the family’s surname. Even today, many villagers only have first names.
When he was 12, Khamla’s parents decided that he should move to Luang Prabang where he could become a novice and get a better education at the temple school. He made the journey by boat, since there was no road at the time. It was a 6 hour trip and he didn’t see his family again for 9 months.
“At first I was very unhappy and homesick, and sometimes I cried,” he recalls, but soon he began to enjoy novice life, and he now describes that period as the happiest time in his life. At age 19 he returned to lay life and lived for a year in his village. Then he went to Teacher Training College for 3 years, during which time he wrote one of our first books. He graduated in June 2006, and is now in charge of Big Brother Mouse.”
According to the Internet Directory of NGOs in the Lao PDR, last updated on 8/19/2007, the main contact person of BBM is listed as Sasha Alyson (Volunteer Advisor), and other contact as Kamla Panyasouk, with annual budget of US$90,000.
This is a lot of money that we’re talking about for a “Lao-based, Lao-owned project.” and the staffs that were listed are mostly teenagers and young men, so who is financing this project and who is the man behind this BBM, or who is the real BBM?
Before BBM, they’re also known as Lao Books, from their web page Laobooks.com, which was registered by Sasha on 5/1/2004 and the information on this web page is an intro and link to BBM.
This is what we knew about Sasha from BBM webpage, Sasha Alyson was born in the United States. He now spends most of his time in Laos as the volunteer advisor for Big Brother Mouse, where he and Khamla bring together their complementary skills to form the management team.
Sasha recalls that in first grade, he had trouble learning to read and didn’t particularly want to; the class was using a dull series called Alice and Jerry. Then his parents brought home “The Cat in the Hat”, by Dr. Seuss, and he quickly became an avid reader.
He established and managed three businesses in the United States including a publishing firm and an adventure travel company. He was also an award-winning children’s book writer, and was named Publisher of the Year by the New England Booksellers Association. Sasha sold the last of his businesses in 2002 and moved to Southeast Asia the following year. His only regret, he says, is that he didn’t come to Laos sooner.
By looking at his photo, he seems young (looks like a real old photo if comparing to the current staffs’ photos at BBM web page) but those that met him knew what he looks like now, for what ever reason(s) as to why he is not using his current photo on BBM web site, as if trying to hide his true face from potential donors on the Internet, only he can answer that question. These are some of his web pages which high light tour packages such as Biking holidays, Gay dive trips, Rafting holidays, and Gay Thailand, (and many more) all link to Alysonadventures.com
Biking through Burgundy, company founder Sasha Alyson, had an opportunity to compare biking notes with a Frenchman who was cycling along the same road.
A bit more information about the man behind BBM, from one of his tour web pages, gay-france.net/alyson: Founder Sasha Alyson has a long history in the gay community. In 1980, he started one of the country’s earliest gay publishing companies. Alyson Publications quickly became the leading producer of gay and lesbian books, with an emphasis on providing books for gay teenagers (such as Reflections of a Rock Lobster and One Teenager in Ten); and for children, including the controversial Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy’s Roommate, and The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans.
Sasha also founded Boston’s gay newspaper, Bay Windows, and in 1987 initiated an industry-wide program to publish the book You Can Do Something About AIDS, which became the most widely distributed AIDS book of the time. His varied activities have won him awards as diverse as the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement from the Greater Boston Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, and “Publisher of the Year” from the New England Booksellers Association – and a rock climbing medal at the Gay Games.
As one of the country’s leading gay entrepreneurs, he has appeared on Larry King Live; been published on the editorial pages of the New York Times; and was named to Out magazine’s “Top 100″ list of influential gay men and lesbians.
Sasha sold his publishing company in 1995. At the time, he had recently organized several bike trips in France with friends, and decided to develop those experiences into a new career.
For most of us, we wouldn’t get to read this news letter about BBM because it’s not on their web page under their News section, but here it is, NEWSLETTER XIV FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS, one section was from Sasha, BBM see below,
Greetings from Big Brother Mouse!
As we grow, I’ve often thought “I should email so-and-so about such-and-such.” And, of course, there often just isn’t time. So I decided to send an occasional newsletter to some of the people who have shown special interest in what we’re doing. If you’re not actually THAT interested, or you are but the inbox is too full, just let me know and I’ll drop you from the list.
OUR FIRST YEAR
We hit our target, barely, of getting 30 books to press in our first year. As far as I know, that’s more than any company or organization has done in Lao history. But it’s far from enough. Publishing more books remains our #1 goal, but this year, some of our attention will go to several other goals:
FUNDRAISING
Surely you’re not surprised to find this at the top of the list! I was able to pay most of the printing costs myself until now. That, plus some donations we got without doing much fundraising work, allowed us to concentrate on publishing. But from here on, each new book will need a sponsor, to help with printing costs, before we can send it to press.
We’ve also reached a point where we need to have, or to affiliate with, a non-profit (IRS 501-c-3 status) organization in the U.S. That lets us to apply to foundations for grants; one small foundation has already shown interest. It also encourages donations from American citizens, because they’ll get a tax-deduction. If anyone reading this is in a position to help with such an organization, please let me know. It requires good organizational skills but not a lot of time.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Many people come to Laos and announce great plans. In most cases, that’s the last you ever hear. For 2 reasons, I felt it was important in the first year to focus on actually publishing books: (1) So I wouldn’t be dismissed as one more talker; (2) So that people who have never been out of Laos, and have seen few if any books, could better understand just what intend to do, and what a broad range of purposes books can help fill.
But we now have to spend some time on the basics: Inventory control, bookkeeping systems, record-keeping, finding more qualified translators and writers, setting up systems for evaluating translations, and so on.
One recent job: Khamla spent most of 8 days preparing a detailed report for the tax office, to request tax-exempt educational status. They sent him back for 2 more days of gathering numbers, and I shuddered to think what we had gotten into. But when they finally got the finished report, they immediately granted the request. We weren’t making money anyway (see above; see below), so there are no immediate cash savings, but this helps assure donors that we’re legitimate. Read the rest here.
After reading this, there is no doubt in my mind that Sasha Alyson is the real BBM, as he stated in his news letter that “I was able to pay most of the printing costs myself until now… publishing more books remains our #1 goal”, his theme for BBM is “Lao Owned and Lao Operated”, I’m beginning to wonder how true is this slogan?
This interviewed by GLBTQ shed more light about what he did prior to all of this, Earlier this year [1992] Sasha Alyson announced his plans to retire from publishing in order to donate more time to AIDS work and services…In 1990 Alyson Publications began a line of children’s books called Alyson Wonderland, featuring kids with gay and lesbian parents. So far it has published ten titles with two more works pending. Lately these books have become the center of considerable controversy, raising the issue of whether public and school libraries should include books about gay families in their children’s section.
[Since this interview Alyson sold Alyson Publications to the publishers of The Advocate in 1995. He created a gay and lesbian travel business, Alyson's Adventures, which is now affiliated with Hanns Ebenstein Travel in Key West, Florida. Under the pseudonym Johnny Valentine, he is the author of children's books. Alyson was also a founder of the Boston Bay Windows, New England's largest gay and lesbian newspaper. Alyson received the first Lambda Literary Award for Publishing and was also honored as Publisher of the Year by the New England Booksellers Association.]
My anonymous reader brought up a very good point and a special thanks for bringing a lot of the above information to my attention, this is a statement from this person,
“The thing that came to my mind was that this man used to write children’s books as well but for gay teenagers. Then when I put pieces together, I thought about how he can do tourism in Laos and even do eco-tourism in Laos, perhaps even promote for the gay tourism in Laos in the future. This man is associated with gay tourism and gay ecotourism all over the world, even in Europe,…I know we are poor and desperate, but we shouldn’t sell our souls to the devil. In the end, we have to ask what’s in it for these people that are helping us?”
As for my anonymous reader and I, we’ve nothing against the gay community; this information is only to provide more information for our readers because I feel that BBM web page is not as transparent as it should be.
[...] Please read the rest of the post at Laovoices.com. [...]
Many teachers are gay and that is no problem. Being gay shouldn’t be problimized.
I haven’t read the Big Brother Mouse book but from what I hear it does not push an explicit gay agenda. That would be really pushing it (and not suitable for the targeted age group).
Yes I do agree that being gay is not a problem, but I’d oppose to publishing gay books for children that young; especially Lao children, they’re not as advanced as American children.
I somehow feel that there’s more than meets the eye, it’s not as transparent as it should be, and there must be a good reason as to why. I think it’s wonderful that Farang go into Laos to help with our education system but I’m hoping that those that go in don’t have other motive such as using Lao theme, the innocent faces of poor children just to build their credential but what they really want is to do business in Laos, and this is a good way to build goodwill for themselves. If your heart of giving is pure, I’d totally respect you, but if you’ve other motive, that is just plain selfish IMHO.
I agree with Ginger.
I looked at this site when she first posted the blog entry, but felt unsure of wanting to help. It’s a great cause, but the prices seems so outrageous for children’s books. In a country where the gross income is just a little above what they are asking for to put together a book party, I’d rather put the $200 directly in the hands of my family or village.
Maybe I’m too suspicious of people, but why does it seem that every farang that goes into Laos has a hidden agenda? And those that go there to proselytize really annoy me.
Big Brother Mouse is not the only one that is promoting literacy in Laos. There are other organizations out there with long standing reputation and a couple Japanese NGOs have been publishing books for Lao children more than ten years I think.
You just don’t hear much about other groups because of the language barrier and since they are based in Japan and Laos and has no website in English, we don’t know much about them.
In the end we have choices and it’s our rights to choose who we want to give our money to. There is nothing wrong with that.
Hi SJ, helping in any form is great, but if you want to help with books, handing $200 to the family, the money might be spent on something else because most don’t think reading materials are important since there’re other things that are more important. If your intention were reading materials for children, then I would buy $200 worth of book from bookstore or something and handing it out to the children directly, can even visit your old school, this way you know that you give books, and not $200 of not sure what?
I agree with Darly, I like choices and not monopolized by one group, as if they’re the “ONE”, I’m hoping in the near future, we’d have more people going into publishing books for children, and other reading materials. We shouldn’t be pressured into giving to certain group but for some of us that feel comfortable in giving to BBM, I’ve no problem, but for most of us living in the US or elsewhere, we’ve the freedom of choice.
Let me get this straight, the mouse isn’t gay, right?
Are you straight now? The mouse is very happy.
It’s happy because it’s a big ole gay ecocamping mouse. Enough gay jokes already
I did say in the past how I have always wanted to write children’s books for Lao kids. The future is still not written. Maybe someday we will see a Happy Ducky in print.
Happy Ducky sounds good, my will be Ginger Roots
thanks for doing the research for the sake of all of us. the gay thing does not bother me as we all should be free to be who we want. but ha, i feel pretty dumb right now that i didn’t look deeper into this company before supporting them. i think to be on the safe side i will delete my post on BBM just until i understand it all.
Ginger and Darly,
Hi, guys! I have always wanted to write children’s book myself because there is not enough Lao children’s stories out there! We should write stories about Laos and see about publishing it. Nowadays, we can even print it out of our own computers and take it to staples to bind. Anyway, what do you guys think about this idea. We can do a fundraiser or get donations and buy bare books to send to Laos. Bare books are fantastic because it gives the kids a chance to write their own stories in their own book. The book has 28 pages of blank pages, it’s hardback, and it comes with different designs. Check out this link and see for yourself:http://www.barebooks.com/books.htm. Each book is only 1.50. Instead of the kids reading stories they can write their own!.
Hi Kay, I don’t like to write a post such as this but I feel that I need to do it just for piece of mind and people can decide for themselves as to what they want to do, some might feel comfortable giving, and some might not such as yourself which is okay, and I’m sorry that it has to be this way for you, but we just have to go with our gut instincts and do what we feel is the right thing. As for me, I feel bad about writing or not writing this post, I might even get in trouble for writing this but I’m willing to take that chance because I believe it’s the right thing to do, I sleep better at night. We shouldn’t have to accept the information that people provide to us at face value.
Ginger Nye!
You seemed to be doing of lot posting on tings you do n’t on e to post.
Funny Haha.
Hi Funny, odd sense of humor you got there, you seems to like reading it. Thanks for reading
comment, and your visit. 
Hi Karmadiva, I was teasing Darly, I’ve no interested in writing books of any kind, we spoke about this before in the old Laoplanet.net forum that Darly would write and Sim would do the illustration, when that time comes, I’ll be the supporter like usual. The Bare book seems interesting; you might want to check with the Lao govn’t first before making a lot of investment in that.
[...] Funny: Ginger Nye! You seemed to be doing of lot posting on tings you do n’t on e to post. Funny Haha. [...]
I must have a GAYdar. First thing I notice about the article was the picture. That look like a gay pose. The guy look gay.
I nothing against gay people but their life style makes me uncomfortable. But this little operation he has going seems a cover for something else.
I should start a charity organization for poor people in Lao too. Ask Americans for donation. Use some money to help the people and some to fly be back and fort between Bangkok for my R&R…..I mean business trip.
I was wondering when the Gay people going to come to Lao. I was wrong. They are already there.
I have just returned from L. Prabang, visited the bookshop, met Sasha and two of his assistants/ authors. Before I met them I walked down the main street and could not find one single bookstore or newsagent – no sign of books, magazines , newspapers anywhwere. On the street a young kid begged me to give him the book I had bought from Big Mouse store – his eyes lit up at the sight of a book which was not a standard textbook! Up river at the limestone cave a young girl was selling birds to tourists so that she could have money to go to school. Think about that.
What hope have people got to be free or a nation has to grow and support its people if a generation of children cannot read ?
If you want to have a some smart point scoring debate online about the pros and cons of sexuality go ahead. For my money I would support any project that assists kids to read regardless of its origins. All of our basic rights and freedoms depend on our ability to read. QED.
Hi jazzej, thanks for commenting and a great contribution to this post. In most situation, when you dig deeper into a situation, there’re always going to be information that will surface, whether good or bad, and in this case, that’s who he is and by not posting the information after learning about the fact, then I’d be trying to hide the information and the whole point is to be a bit more transparent.
Your comment is something that I’ve been wanting to hear because I knew how poor we are and how desperate we’re in needing reading materials. I told Peter, who told me about BBM earlier that if I were to be in the area that I’d buy the books from them, this post has not changed my mind on that, but for me to support publishing a book of $1000-3000 as asked, I just don’t feel comfortable in doing so, and there’s other organizations out there that are doing what they can to help, one that comes to mind is Give the Children a Choice that I posted earlier about them, they help build school in Laos and have done a good job and I think very highly of them, I believe Sasha of BBM also donated books to help with these new schools. As far as donating money to good cause, that’s up to the individual if they’d find it in their heart to help, it’s a personal choice. Thanks again for a good comment.
I just finished reading a really good book. I would considered this book, a Lao History/Biography. The title of the book is Sixteen Years in the Land of Death by Nakhonkham Bouphanouvong. There is an engrish version but very bad translation. I learn a lot of the recent history from this book. He also is a staff at VOA and DL’s family may know him since his family has been living in KC since the early 80’s.
Does private operation like BBM report to any one? No oversight and background check?
Hi DL (sorry to have called you Darly earlier, I need to get my eyes checked, again.) it doesn’t matter because the owner appears to be Khamla Panyasouk, he is Laotian, there’s not much background on him.
jazzej – I don’t think there is anyone here debating the validity or importance of literacy and I highly doubt that anyone is against the gays. I think this entry was to tell the whole story and what we do with the information we are presented with is up to us. Freedom of choice – it’s it beautiful?
Hi Laotian Teacher aka Karmadiva. If there is a will there is a way. You can publish your book(s) just about anywhere these days and can get them looking quite good like at Kinko. Taking them to Laos, now that is more difficult.
I checked out the bare books website and like their concept. You can take them to Laos and the school can have a writing contest for the students for example. Then the winners can get prizes like school supplies and uniforms. You can have lots of prizes so more students can win.
I don’t think you need to check with the national government on this unless you are doing it on a national scale. Check with the village you are going to do this with and get an approval and cooperation.
[...] happy to see that BBM books have made their way to the National Library of Laos, as for me making the post about them is only to inform our readers as to who they are, but I think some of my readers, one in particular [...]
I cannot believe the comments on this blog. I have just returned from LP and met with Sasha personally. I was so impressed by his passion for literacy and his desire to publish children’s books ( none with gay themes for those of you who were confused).
My travelling party purchased packages of books from BBM to take to each of the villages we visited on our kayaking, biking, trekking tours. I have never seen such delighted, excited, appreciative faces on children in all my travels when we handed them BBM’s books. It was the most magical part of our trip to Laos. I congratulate Sasha and Kumlah on this venture and thank goodness there are people in this world who are dedicated enough to give their skill and professionalism to make the world a better place for our children.
In so many countries I have travelled to children have called out to me for money or candy. If I travel back to Laos in the near future ( and I am hoping that I will be fortunate enough to do so), if a child calls out to me for a book it will be music to my ears. Never in my mind can any child be too greedy for books. Good on BBM I applaud you for doing what you are doing.
To All, I can’t begin to describe what a special and touching Christmas day 2007 we (primary teachers) had in Laos. We discovered Big Brother Mouse bookshop just wandering around Luang Prabang. Rather than hosting a book party, we decided to buy their colorful, fun, and inviting books and take them on our bike trip through the villages. Inexperienced bikers that we were, we loaded up our backpacks with books from BBM to pass out books where?, we weren’t sure. The first village we were more than happy to get off our bikes, show our books and lighten our load. We were immediately surrounded by the whole village (it seemed like) hungry to look at the books. The village chief spoke English fluently and invited us to a party for his new granddaughter which consisted of thirty villagers or so sitting on the dirt floor of a hut.
What struck us was how gracious and friendly the Lao people were and how little they have. We reluctantly left on our bikes with children and adults pouring over the books. Giving out the first books made us eager to get to the next village and find more unsuspecting children to give books to, and we weren’t disappointed! Each of us in our group has our own unique stories, but I tried to find the lone kid working or playing in the dirt to hand out a book. Each time I handed out a book to a filthy dirty but beautiful child, they were more than grateful. It took some of them awhile to figure out that they were actually being given something. A smile lit up each and every face and they either ran crying "Ma!" or found a place immediately to turn the pages and pour over every picture and word.
As we rode off leaving the children with their books in the dust, every single time we turned around to wave goodbye a child, a child and his mother, or a child and his father were reading. These children do not have books, and they knew what an incredible gift that we had given them. As an American I am ashamed, saddened and embarrassed that we have forgotten how to give and accept (i.e. assuming that the previous remarks in this blog have been written by Americans). In Luang Prabang my husband and I stayed in a guest house in front of a night market. Every night we would watch a beautiful girl, Mae, help her mother set t-shirts on a mat in the street. Mae always had a smile on her face and never complained.
When we returned from our bike trip on Christmas day, my husband gave her a book from Big Brother Mouse entitled Animals of Laos (not a hot gay topic). She was, of course, thrilled. When we returned from dinner that night, there was Mae asleep on the mat with BBM’s book in her hands. It was the most rewarding Christmas day I have ever had, and it is thanks to Sasha Allyson who gave up his money and time to start publishing books for these beautiful and deserving Lao children. I am grateful and my life has been enriched to have had the experience thanks to him.
Thanks Darly for the information. Some of my family members are planning to go to Laos in ‘09 to visit my grandma so I will definitely check on the school in the village where she is.
Kaye, I agree with you that we can never say children are too greedy when it comes to books! As a teacher, I loveeeee it when my students fight over books because that is something positive! Like they say books are windows to the world, the Lao children need to have the opportunity to see what the rest of the world is like. I think this will motivate them to want a better future and to realize that they have a choice in what kind of a world they want to live in.
Kaye, thanks for such a positive feedback on BBM, this post shed a lot of light on people that I deal with whether via comments or email. I’m happy to hear that there are people such as yourself that are kind and caring enough to give to our children and thank you for your comment.
I must say that responses from "Kaye" and "Sally" are preposterous to me. I will explain why.
First of all, they are both so obviously sent to sweet coat the bitter pill of Big Brother Mouse deceit that I wonder who orchestrated this charm offense of the Big Brother Mouse clan.
Secondly, they both hold the same "oh, how we save the children" tone that Americans love to use when they attempt to convert public opinion. In the words of Kaye: "I have never seen such delighted, excited, appreciative faces on children in all my travels when we handed them BBM’s books." And again, in the same manipulative way Sally speaks: "Every night we would watch a beautiful girl, Mae, help her mother set t-shirts on a mat in the street. Mae always had a smile on her face and never complained."
This kind of talk disgusts me. It doesn’t disarm me and makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. I know it is a deliberate attempt to position oneself as good. Too obvious, and again, too obviously orchestrated by the BB Mouse clan.
Thirdly, it is great that you (Kaye and Sally) feel so fantastic about yourself buying a few books for local Lao children. You are both in love with the prestige benefit of giving a book to a child, see her/his smile, and feel warm and happy about yourself.
That does not give you the right to trivialize the serious attempts to expose dubious organizations, such as BB Mouse, who conduct business under a veil of charity, and, therefore, are very non-transparent borderline committing deceit. It is business. Of course, children are happy with your books that you bought with Aussi or American dollars. The book is probably fine. However, you bought it from a business. Do not sell it as anything else.
Fourthly, Kaye and Sally were both instructed to talk about the remarks writers have made about the gayness of mr Sasha Alyson. Their false attempt to ridicule the very valid question about Mr. Alyson’s true intentions are in vain. The issue of him being gay is very valid because Sasha literally plastered the internet with gay issues and organizations. It is everywhere, including pictures of him in tight shorts and flaunting gay lifestyle. Therefore, it is just and valid to bring this up. There is nothing to be ashamed of, right?
My final point is that I find it offensive that you are both Falang (like me) that feel they have to post in a condescending manner about local Lao people. I will quote your own repulsive sentences:
- These children do not have books, and they knew what an incredible gift that we had given them
What arrogance! Be more modest about spending a few dollars your probably won’t even miss.
- Each time I handed out a book to a filthy dirty but beautiful child, they were more than grateful.
That child might have been filthy by dust but you are filthy by lack of morality posting in such a way.
On top of that, I suggest we remove comments from people who clearly haven’t read the article in detail but are here for the sole purpose of promoting themselves and their good deeds.
Kaye and Sally? A big Falang yuk is my thought at the edge of 2007 about you.
>>>On top of that, I suggest we remove comments from people who clearly haven’t read the article in detail but are here for the sole purpose of promoting themselves and their good deeds.
I leave it up to Darly to decide, and I also suggest to close the comment section, no need to leave it open.