Politics and wars and bombings etc

• Paul's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Bangkok

Trip Start Jan 08, 2004 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing Next
Entry

  Bangkok, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, July 18, 2005

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Hermann Goering




I forgot to mention in the last travel pod that I had noticed a large group of Laotian Hmong people waiting for their plane to USA while I was dropping off the volunteers at Bangkok airport

Kids in Monk Boun Savat's parent's house

. I am not usually a supporter of George Bush and his policies, but it is good to see that his government is helping these people. During the USA / Vietnam War, USA also secretly conducted a war against the Communist Government in Laos. USA planes bombed Laos, which is a tiny, poor little country between Vietnam and Thailand and gave it the amazing record of being the most bombed country per head of population ever. USA also paid for Hmong Laotians (the Hmong are a small minority group in Laos) to fight a land war against their country and government. When the USA were forced to retreat from South East Asia after being defeated, they took a small amount of Hmong refugees with them but left the rest to suffer in Laos or to get to refugee camps in Thailand were they have waited for the past 30 years for the USA government to take them in. The Laos government has not been kind to the Hmong since the war and some Hmong continued hiding and fighting up until now. So it is good that the current USA government has taken a large group of Hmong into USA, although there are still many more waiting to go.

Another large group of Hmong recently entered Thailand to seek refuge as well and it is sad to see that currently there is talk amongst the Thai government about forcing these people back to Laos. There is concern that Thailand does not have enough money or land to look after all these people and there is concern that a group such as this, that has arrived with almost nothing will easily become victims or perpetrators of crime

Laos Baby

. I do understand these concerns, but for humanitarian reasons I would prefer to see Thailand take these people in and look after them. If Thailand doesn't who will? No-one.

(By the way, apart from this issue and some other disappointingly silly politics, Laos is otherwise a very beautiful country full of wonderful people. Despite the problems mentioned above Laos is incredibly safe and the Laotians are a very polite happy people that live in a quite culturally traditional way.)


The world news I am seeing is largely concerned about the terrorist bombings in London that occurred a while ago and killed about 52 people. I had intended writing more about my thoughts regarding this, but have decided against it. I will however summarize some of my thoughts.

The events in London are definitely sad and I feel pity for the families of the victims, but also I can't help thinking of all the other people that died that day. There are plenty of other wars going on and people being killed. Why are they ignored? On the day the 52 Londoners died a quick death at the hands of some fanatical idiots about 20000 other people died as a result of poverty. Many died a slow and painful death and much of it was easily preventable. Some cheap immunizations, or mosquito nets or just some fresh drinkable water or a little food could have saved many of those people. The people were largely darker skinned, non-English speaking people living in poor countries and their death has little impact on the stock exchange, is that why they are ignored? I can't understand why their death isn't front page news

Temple in Luang Prabang

. Why don't they get a minutes silence? Today another 20000 people will die due to poverty. In the USA September 11 attacks, only 2900 people died. Yesterday in poor countries, 20000 people died from poverty, many of them young kids or elderly people. Please look around you, at all the possessions you have, at all the wasted money you see out on the streets, in the shops and on the TV. Why are 20000 people dying each day due to poverty when there is so much money around?

This annoys me more than most perhaps because I spend time in small poor villages and I see the sort of people that may become the statistics mentioned above. The people I see are usually happy, considerate people that will offer food and shelter to a guest immediately despite having little for themselves. They are often people with a colourful culture and with a good knowledge of the environment. They are good people.

Much of that money that could be going to help those people is being spent on weapons and on warfare. I have noticed that not too much positive seems to come from these wars. They don't seem to be achieving much. I am still a soldier in the Australian Army and previously when I was younger I was interested in fighting in such wars, but more and more they seem like quite silly events

Traditional dances in front of a temple in Luang P

. The end result seems to be that poor and innocent people like the Laotian Hmong or like those killed in London suffer, whilst the people that start the wars and gain from them continue without their lives negatively effected. If these wars, such as the one currently in Iraq are so important then why don't I see the leaders such as Bush, Howard and Blair going over there to fight or at least sending their kids over. Surely if the war was so vital they would want to get involved.

Anyway, that is enough on that topic. See ya

Paul

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Village in Laos

Slideshow Print this entry Share Bangkok hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry