Lao Voices

Part 1

Part 2

Whoever said that the uneducated don’t hold much power were wrong. They really determined the last two US elections. Have a look at the chart below depicting the last election in red (primarily Cons) and blue (primarily Dems) states.

Now compare that chart with the following illustration displaying the percentage of the population that underwent less [...]

Republicans are known for their strict financial and fiscal discipline. At least, that has been the image they have carefully built themselves. Contrary, Republicans have brought the US to a soon-to-be recession through overspending and by borrowing an immense amount of money from China and the Middle East. The US has become the biggest debt [...]

A political study led by Jon P Miller, political scientist at Michigan State University, shows that people in the US are much less likely to accept the theory of evolution than other Western states.
You’ll find them on the chart just above Turkey and below Cyprus. Theory replaced by Theocracy?

As a follow up to the long and prosperous post, it was time to elaborate on the costs of health care in the US. For this, I use a report of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that takes hospital charges as a proxy for the rate of increases and to show where the [...]

This article almost escaped my attention. Apparently, the Swedish government has decided to downgrade its office in Laos from an embassy to a “section office” in 2008 and by 15 August 2008 at the latest.
This implies that all consular, passport and visa services that normally run through this office will be stopped. The reason for [...]

Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous new year!
Talking about health and prosperity: below a graph where the average life expectancy is displayed per country versus the costs of health care in that particular country. Conclusion: If you want to live long at reasonable costs you might want to go to Japan.

Shorter lived and immensely [...]

Part I

Part II

Video description: The CIA decided that Laos was the key to winning the war in Vietnam. Laos has an enormous strategic position in the fight for Vietnam. The Vietnamese Communists from the north have been using a secret trail which runs through Laos to direct troops, weapons, and supplies, to fight the US troops in [...]

Building the Nam Theun 2 dam could become a very beneficial project for Laos. Not in the way you would expect. The highest expectations of Nam Theun 2 are direct financial gains for the Lao government. That remains to be seen. The investment in the Nam Theun might not be a very profitable one.
Hans Luther [...]

I saw “The Power of Nightmares” documentary by BBC a couple of weeks ago. This is a must watch. It made me wonder just how far we are capable of doing when we live in fear. From part I, introduction:
In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened [...]

English financial magazine “The Economist” published a ranking list called The Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index. of the most and least democratic regimes in the world. I bet you can guess where Laos is ranking.
The ranking is based on scores in five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation [...]

The below article is an excerpt from the article “Laos: war against an impovered state” by Willy Van Damme translated from Dutch to English by yours truly.
In short: general Vang Pao is a drug lord and CIA agent who held many Hmong hostage in his firm grip of violence and opium trades. Vang Pao’s key [...]

This is what our parents and grandparents were going through. We all know how the war ended and so much casualties on both sides. To me, this was a domestic disputes and the children suffered when the parents are divorced and can’t work things out. It was interesting for me to watch the clips because [...]