Laos ahead of Thailand in innovation

[HT]

It said Asia's developing economies need to boost investments in higher education and training, innovation, information and communication technology and in improving their economic institutions to allow them to jump beyond middle-income levels,

The complete rankings: Japan, Finland, South Korea, United States, Taiwan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, Laos, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Fiji, Myanmar, Pakistan, Cambodia.....
read more -> http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/431930/adb-thailand-trails-laos-in-innovation

Lets not be too complacent about this ranking, in ICT I know we could be much further but due to lack of coordination and support, what were shown as innovation years ago still remain as R&D's and yet to see implementation. As far as technologists and technocrats Laos can do more. Education I think at 7% of GDP investment needs to be boosted to 20%, jobs and economic incentives to motivate industry experience need to be enhanced to sustain the innovation drive.

[thanouxay]

Congratulation to all. Our Nation is on good track... Everybody should deploy more energy to attain a higher plane.
Sok Dee

[HT]

I posted the article, but I have some doubts and question how the ranking was rated; surely we can not be more innovative than Singapore, even ahead of Thailand. Laos can be! now our human resources is widen to include Lao people and their descendants overseas. 50 years ago, the number of professionals would have been in the hundreds, now it is in the hundred thousands. It is the only positive outcome of post 1975 tragedy that helped mass high educate Lao people. Given the right climate and condition is the key to achieve higher level of development. However it is disappointing to see on tv recycled old propaganda instead of a more equitable and inclusive forwarding vision.

Post by thanouxay
Congratulation to all. Our Nation is on good track... Everybody should deploy more energy to attain a higher plane.
Sok Dee

[Her Lao]

On Sunday, September 14, 2014 7:34:28 PM UTC-5, HT wrote:

I posted the article, but I have some doubts and question how the ranking was rated; surely we can not be more innovative than Singapore, even ahead of Thailand. Laos can be! now our human resources is widen to include Lao people and their descendants overseas. 50 years ago, the number of professionals would have been in the hundreds, now it is in the hundred thousands. It is the only positive outcome of post 1975 tragedy that helped mass high educate Lao people. Given the right climate and condition is the key to achieve higher level of development. However it is disappointing to see on tv recycled old propaganda instead of a more equitable and inclusive forwarding vision.

++++++++++++

Unfortunately, no more than a few tiny fractions of 1-3% of Lao and Hmong whose parents were from Laos would ever "return" to help build and rebuild their former country.

It is understandable, when it is run by "correct leadership" still quite fond of Soviet's sickle and hammer flags...

And MOST of those few who "return to help Laos" are really just there to make a few quick bucks, exploiting the poorer and less educated Lao and Hmong there. Or they are there to do paper-chasing "real estate" and other property business transactions, where I sell something to you for $50,000 and you turn around and sell immediately to someone else for $70,000 and they in turn sell it to a fourth party for another $30,000 or $50,000 "profit" and pretty soon, the homes and properties of larger cities like Vientiane, Luang Prabang, etc. are OUT OF THE REACH of the average Lao and Hmong citizens living in Laos... out of reach not by a couple tens of thousands but a couple GENERATIONS!

They are not there to LIVE and to work for years and generations, becoming an integral part of Laos fabric society...

Again, a few cases --- even "successful returnees from over seas" --- is NOT going to help Laos in any fundamental way... Most of the WEALTH generated from Laoss, by Laotians, would eventually be "sucked out" of Laos anyway, to be put back in American and European savings and business accounts....

I mean, if the per capita income of Laos is only $2,500 to, at most, $3,000 (we don't know for sure, since Communists like to grab things, numbers, and ideas out of thin air to report to the masses and others), and you have the AVERAGE HOMES in bigger cities, IN LAOS, being in, say, the $50,000 to $150,000 range or so --- I grabbed those numbers out of my ass, too... but do it with wide enough of a RANGE so it'd make some minimal sense as EXAMPLES ---- it's an impossibly inflated thing and it CAN'T last...

As another example, take America:

In America, the most productive and hardest working people in all of the post-industrialized nations and people, the per capita income is around $50-$55,000 and the average homes usually range from $180,000 to $250,000 and most home owners BARELY make ends meet...

When I see Hmong and Lao, IN LAOS, working for the government, or as farmers, who are driving new Toyota Tundra's, BMWs, etc. and who own $200,000 to $1M homes, and are PAID IN CASH.... I giggle.... when, again, I know the PER CAPITA INCOME is only $2,500-$3,000.... Societies with such bizarre statistics --- in the various fundamental INDEXES --- just can't really build a real foundation for progress or development...

[HT]

SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, I estimate Lao population overseas to be about a million (UNHCR estimated 500,000 escape Laos since 1975), so 1% = 10,000.00 is already a high number that can help Lao people in terms of human resources. I like to think in terms of finance, but there is more money in Laos that people like to lead you to believe. The phase of quick money from cutting down trees, projects siphoning and land speculation is gone. The signature industry and 'consultants' embedded within every Lao business of government is well known. This phase of development demands value adding to the financial capital base. The sort of help needed is not necessary moving and working in Laos, what is possible is some sort of hand holding and mentor-ship; a peer to peer support program. I don't mean of brain surgeons but right down to factory workers and other baseline professions. It can be as simple as the workers in Laos identifying a need to uplift certain skill, and the support is given in terms of workshop or referral to other resources.

The ones flaunting their wealth are the few probably 5-10%, but our help is targeting the other 90%. We are not talking about forsaking your standard of living and lifestyle, but do some little thing that help our people.

Cheers!

Post by HT
I posted the article, but I have some doubts and question how the ranking was rated; surely we can not be more innovative than Singapore, even ahead of Thailand. Laos can be! now our human resources is widen to include Lao people and their descendants overseas. 50 years ago, the number of professionals would have been in the hundreds, now it is in the hundred thousands. It is the only positive outcome of post 1975 tragedy that helped mass high educate Lao people. Given the right climate and condition is the key to achieve higher level of development. However it is disappointing to see on tv recycled old propaganda instead of a more equitable and inclusive forwarding vision.
++++++++++++
Unfortunately, no more than a few tiny fractions of 1-3% of Lao and Hmong whose parents were from Laos would ever "return" to help build and rebuild their former country.
It is understandable, when it is run by "correct leadership" still quite fond of Soviet's sickle and hammer flags...
And MOST of those few who "return to help Laos" are really just there to make a few quick bucks, exploiting the poorer and less educated Lao and Hmong there. Or they are there to do paper-chasing "real estate" and other property business transactions, where I sell something to you for $50,000 and you turn around and sell immediately to someone else for $70,000 and they in turn sell it to a fourth party for another $30,000 or $50,000 "profit" and pretty soon, the homes and properties of larger cities like Vientiane, Luang Prabang, etc. are OUT OF THE REACH of the average Lao and Hmong citizens living in Laos... out of reach not by a couple tens of thousands but a couple GENERATIONS!
They are not there to LIVE and to work for years and generations, becoming an integral part of Laos fabric society...
Again, a few cases --- even "successful returnees from over seas" --- is NOT going to help Laos in any fundamental way... Most of the WEALTH generated from Laoss, by Laotians, would eventually be "sucked out" of Laos anyway, to be put back in American and European savings and business accounts....
I mean, if the per capita income of Laos is only $2,500 to, at most, $3,000 (we don't know for sure, since Communists like to grab things, numbers, and ideas out of thin air to report to the masses and others), and you have the AVERAGE HOMES in bigger cities, IN LAOS, being in, say, the $50,000 to $150,000 range or so --- I grabbed those numbers out of my ass, too... but do it with wide enough of a RANGE so it'd make some minimal sense as EXAMPLES ---- it's an impossibly inflated thing and it CAN'T last...
In America, the most productive and hardest working people in all of the post-industrialized nations and people, the per capita income is around $50-$55,000 and the average homes usually range from $180,000 to $250,000 and most home owners BARELY make ends meet...
When I see Hmong and Lao, IN LAOS, working for the government, or as farmers, who are driving new Toyota Tundra's, BMWs, etc. and who own $200,000 to $1M homes, and are PAID IN CASH.... I giggle.... when, again, I know the PER CAPITA INCOME is only $2,500-$3,000.... Societies with such bizarre statistics --- in the various fundamental INDEXES --- just can't really build a real foundation for progress or development...

[HT]

Sorry! correcting some typos, I am typing on the fly and Google/SCL has no editing:
SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, I estimate Lao population overseas to be about a million (UNHCR estimated 500,000 escaped Laos since 1975), so 1% = 10,000.00 is already a high number that can help Lao people in terms of human resources. I like to think not in terms of finance, since there is more money in Laos that people like to lead you to believe. The phase of quick money from cutting down trees, projects siphoning and land speculation is gone. The signature industry and 'consultants' embedded within every Lao business of government is well known. This phase of development demands value adding to the financial capital base. The sort of help needed is not necessary moving and working in Laos, what is possible is some sort of hand holding and mentor-ship; a peer to peer support program. I don't mean of brain surgeons but right down to factory workers and other baseline professions. It can be as simple as the workers in Laos identifying a need to uplift certain skill, and the support is given in terms of workshop or referral to other resources.

The ones flaunting their wealth are the few probably 5-10%, but our help is targeting the other 90%. We are not talking about forsaking your standard of living and lifestyle, but do some little thing that help our people.

Cheers!

Post by HT
SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, I estimate Lao population overseas to be about a million (UNHCR estimated 500,000 escape Laos since 1975), so 1% = 10,000.00 is already a high number that can help Lao people in terms of human resources. I like to think in terms of finance, but there is more money in Laos that people like to lead you to believe. The phase of quick money from cutting down trees, projects siphoning and land speculation is gone. The signature industry and 'consultants' embedded within every Lao business of government is well known. This phase of development demands value adding to the financial capital base. The sort of help needed is not necessary moving and working in Laos, what is possible is some sort of hand holding and mentor-ship; a peer to peer support program. I don't mean of brain surgeons but right down to factory workers and other baseline professions. It can be as simple as the workers in Laos identifying a need to uplift certain skill, and the support is given in terms of workshop or referral to other resources.
The ones flaunting their wealth are the few probably 5-10%, but our help is targeting the other 90%. We are not talking about forsaking your standard of living and lifestyle, but do some little thing that help our people.
Cheers!

Post by HT
I posted the article, but I have some doubts and question how the ranking was rated; surely we can not be more innovative than Singapore, even ahead of Thailand. Laos can be! now our human resources is widen to include Lao people and their descendants overseas. 50 years ago, the number of professionals would have been in the hundreds, now it is in the hundred thousands. It is the only positive outcome of post 1975 tragedy that helped mass high educate Lao people. Given the right climate and condition is the key to achieve higher level of development. However it is disappointing to see on tv recycled old propaganda instead of a more equitable and inclusive forwarding vision.
++++++++++++
Unfortunately, no more than a few tiny fractions of 1-3% of Lao and Hmong whose parents were from Laos would ever "return" to help build and rebuild their former country.
It is understandable, when it is run by "correct leadership" still quite fond of Soviet's sickle and hammer flags...
And MOST of those few who "return to help Laos" are really just there to make a few quick bucks, exploiting the poorer and less educated Lao and Hmong there. Or they are there to do paper-chasing "real estate" and other property business transactions, where I sell something to you for $50,000 and you turn around and sell immediately to someone else for $70,000 and they in turn sell it to a fourth party for another $30,000 or $50,000 "profit" and pretty soon, the homes and properties of larger cities like Vientiane, Luang Prabang, etc. are OUT OF THE REACH of the average Lao and Hmong citizens living in Laos... out of reach not by a couple tens of thousands but a couple GENERATIONS!
They are not there to LIVE and to work for years and generations, becoming an integral part of Laos fabric society...
Again, a few cases --- even "successful returnees from over seas" --- is NOT going to help Laos in any fundamental way... Most of the WEALTH generated from Laoss, by Laotians, would eventually be "sucked out" of Laos anyway, to be put back in American and European savings and business accounts....
I mean, if the per capita income of Laos is only $2,500 to, at most, $3,000 (we don't know for sure, since Communists like to grab things, numbers, and ideas out of thin air to report to the masses and others), and you have the AVERAGE HOMES in bigger cities, IN LAOS, being in, say, the $50,000 to $150,000 range or so --- I grabbed those numbers out of my ass, too... but do it with wide enough of a RANGE so it'd make some minimal sense as EXAMPLES ---- it's an impossibly inflated thing and it CAN'T last...
In America, the most productive and hardest working people in all of the post-industrialized nations and people, the per capita income is around $50-$55,000 and the average homes usually range from $180,000 to $250,000 and most home owners BARELY make ends meet...
When I see Hmong and Lao, IN LAOS, working for the government, or as farmers, who are driving new Toyota Tundra's, BMWs, etc. and who own $200,000 to $1M homes, and are PAID IN CASH.... I giggle.... when, again, I know the PER CAPITA INCOME is only $2,500-$3,000.... Societies with such bizarre statistics --- in the various fundamental INDEXES --- just can't really build a real foundation for progress or development...

[Her Lao]

Post by HT
SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, ...

Well, yeah, even ONE PERCENT --- of a Laotian diaspora of roughly 500,000 --- would be a lot, if it's the case.

But I said "A FEW FRACTIONS" of some whole percent. That means, and I am pulling numbers out of my ass here, no more than a few dozen to a few hundreds, at most, at any point.

That's not a threshold that is going to help Laos in anyway.

Anyway, as I said, if a few of us returned to Laos to "flip" some property deals --- or undertake similar adventures, due to our connections with the correct leadership, or officials and relatives in important places and positions, from finance and banks and technology to real estates and/or other "under the table" business activities ---- to make a few quick tens to a few hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a year or two later, we're "back home" safely, with our "hard working, smart business gains".... then we have not really contributed any thing to Laos or her people but have, INSTEAD, sucked some of her wealth out of the country, through our schemes...

I was and I am talking about REAL & long term INVESTMENT in YEARS, in persons... such as toiling, "in the trenches," along with Lao and Hmong there in Laos... being nurses, doctors, teachers, professors, researchers, civil engineers helping them build municipal sanitation pipe lines and drainage and roads and bridges, etc..... not just chasing paper trails and flipping real estates for some over-night "profits" in the tens to hundreds or may by even millions of dollars...

The fact of the matter is --- AND IT WILL SOUND INCREDIBLY UNFAIR, UNCULTURED, VULGAR, AND OBNOXIOUSLY ARROGENT... but sometimes facts are stubborn things, to use a cliché by Let's Bomb Them Before They Come and Kill us All McCain-Lindsey duo --- the fact of the matter is, VIRTUALLY everyone who've come to grow up and to be educated here in the WEST of the last 40 odd years HAVE MORE BASIC KNOWLEDGE than our cousins, relatives, friends, and neighbors "left behind" in Laos...

As you yourself, I, and others have noted here, again however haphazardly, we just have so much more, know so much more, and are so much more equipped to see the "larger picture" of cultures and societies, COMPARED to our brethren Laotians in Laos... which ideas SEEM to work better and more efficiently and which are primitive, backward, and unworkable...

And the fact of the matter is, THAT IS VERY NATURAL: even though when we first arrived in America, mid 1970s to the 80s, throughout the 90s, the absolutely majority of us and our parents started AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY, after just TWO FULL GENERATIONS (a generation is normally pegged as being 20 years), there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of us who are college educated, with THOUSANDS of Lao and Hmong having advanced degrees of one type or another, some incredibly technical, which are needed, if you want a people and a society to progress....

Of course, in every society, the poor, the less ambitious, and the less educated, and manual laborers like some of us who help raise and guide and teach other people's children or who tend to the farms and fields... we are needed, too.... but for a society to develop, you must have MANY, MANY pools of very technical people who could do industrial chemical work, fabrication work, engineering work on roads and cities and bridges, medical research and disease fighting work, mathematical and computational work, etc.

[HT]

Mentor-ship is also a 2 way street! how we can learn from each other. I was in Sekong, and I happened to stop at this little shack selling ນຳ້ຕານ not sugar but brown blocks made from palm tree syrup. They are made on the spot, so we got talking to the guy there. He showed us how it is made and everything. This guy is in his early 60's, he climbs up to 50 palm trees a day, he literally 'walk' up the trunk, I had a go and it was not easy. His wife just passed away last year, he laments how the younger generation is not willing to learn and continue on with the business. So we stayed there the whole afternoon. I think he misses his wife, he stays at the shack and his daughter delivers meals.

My point is, his trade his skill and know how should be documented on video, and use as a resource and reference to teach others. I am not sure but whether some sort of fair trade pricing and marketing is worth investigating.

Anyone with the right connections can bring some ideas into fruition? There are TOO many Lao-American/Canadian making bad name for themselves with many get rich quick schemes. That might suit some Lao people who don't like working too hard and looking for the easy way out; but as you said these schemes are not long term business. One thing Lao young people should learn is the value of a day's work, that is one thing we learn being immigrants in a new land. You can work smartly but you will still have to put in the efforts.

Reality is, LPDR has to weigh how much and how long, will it take to match the resource available now from Lao diaspora, and how to go about fostering a climate of cooperation.

Post by Her Lao

Post by HT
SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, ...

Well, yeah, even ONE PERCENT --- of a Laotian diaspora of roughly 500,000 --- would be a lot, if it's the case.
But I said "A FEW FRACTIONS" of some whole percent. That means, and I am pulling numbers out of my ass here, no more than a few dozen to a few hundreds, at most, at any point.
That's not a threshold that is going to help Laos in anyway.
Anyway, as I said, if a few of us returned to Laos to "flip" some property deals --- or undertake similar adventures, due to our connections with the correct leadership, or officials and relatives in important places and positions, from finance and banks and technology to real estates and/or other "under the table" business activities ---- to make a few quick tens to a few hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a year or two later, we're "back home" safely, with our "hard working, smart business gains".... then we have not really contributed any thing to Laos or her people but have, INSTEAD, sucked some of her wealth out of the country, through our schemes...
I was and I am talking about REAL & long term INVESTMENT in YEARS, in persons... such as toiling, "in the trenches," along with Lao and Hmong there in Laos... being nurses, doctors, teachers, professors, researchers, civil engineers helping them build municipal sanitation pipe lines and drainage and roads and bridges, etc..... not just chasing paper trails and flipping real estates for some over-night "profits" in the tens to hundreds or may by even millions of dollars...
The fact of the matter is --- AND IT WILL SOUND INCREDIBLY UNFAIR, UNCULTURED, VULGAR, AND OBNOXIOUSLY ARROGENT... but sometimes facts are stubborn things, to use a cliché by Let's Bomb Them Before They Come and Kill us All McCain-Lindsey duo --- the fact of the matter is, VIRTUALLY everyone who've come to grow up and to be educated here in the WEST of the last 40 odd years HAVE MORE BASIC KNOWLEDGE than our cousins, relatives, friends, and neighbors "left behind" in Laos...
As you yourself, I, and others have noted here, again however haphazardly, we just have so much more, know so much more, and are so much more equipped to see the "larger picture" of cultures and societies, COMPARED to our brethren Laotians in Laos... which ideas SEEM to work better and more efficiently and which are primitive, backward, and unworkable...
And the fact of the matter is, THAT IS VERY NATURAL: even though when we first arrived in America, mid 1970s to the 80s, throughout the 90s, the absolutely majority of us and our parents started AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY, after just TWO FULL GENERATIONS (a generation is normally pegged as being 20 years), there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of us who are college educated, with THOUSANDS of Lao and Hmong having advanced degrees of one type or another, some incredibly technical, which are needed, if you want a people and a society to progress....
Of course, in every society, the poor, the less ambitious, and the less educated, and manual laborers like some of us who help raise and guide and teach other people's children or who tend to the farms and fields... we are needed, too.... but for a society to develop, you must have MANY, MANY pools of very technical people who could do industrial chemical work, fabrication work, engineering work on roads and cities and bridges, medical research and disease fighting work, mathematical and computational work, etc.

[Her Lao]

The "white elephant in the room" issue that, have two decades of pissing matches we no longer care too much to "debate" about is, COMMUNISM.

And the diaspora is made up of LOSERS from the struggle from which Communists declare triumphant victory.

In politically correct dialogues, and in polite society, 99.99% of Communists in Laos, especially politicians and politician wannabe's and civil servants like Comrade "Thanouxy" say: Let the past be the past... We are moving toward the future.

But when WE DEAL WITH COMMUNISTS --- even if we don't want to call attention to it ---- we KNOW THERE IS NO ULTIMATE TRUST.

And that's MORE than just issues of business disputes on contracts, on lying about product quality, on quality control, on illegal trading practices, etc.

It's more.

With Communists, it is VERY FACT and FOUNDATIONAL knowledge that you CAN'T CRITICIZE THOSE IN POWER, in Communist countries, there is a gap, a chasm, way too big to overcome.

In advanced, PLURALISTIC societies --- whether we like them or not, whether we think they are as free as we are, as others are, or not --- you could, IF YOU SO DESIRE for whatever twisted reasons.... walk up to a politician or political leader who you think is a piece of shit and tell him or her so, to his/her face, and at worst, get a punch in the face!

In Communist countries, NOT only you can't and SHOULDN'T do that, but again CONTRACTURAL PRECEDURES and other RULES OF CONDUCT are based on DECREED LAWS, by the Communist leaders and THE PARTY, the ONLY IDEOLOGICAL PARTY ALLOWED....

So, of course, if you "keep your mouth shut" and "just follow the law (whatever the fuck it is)" then you have no problem.

Problem is, in diverse, advanced, and dynamic societies --- and WITH THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN SUCH SOCIETIES --- that kind of crude, rigid, and totalitarian attitude is just not going to sit well... with us, as WE ARE INDEED NOW from such advanced societies, where we grow up and grow old AMONG diverse people who believe in diverse and competing ideals...

As some guy named "Hans Luther" or others, he said he's a descendant of some famous family of that family name, said, some 18-20 years ago, in a piece of research or lecture we even posted here for debates: in rigid, totalitarian societies like Laos, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, etc., YOU ARE INDEED FINE IF YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT; but what happens, when the PARTY or local communist leaders have some unhealthy interest in YOU personally or in your business?

Who's gonna arbitrate? Would you simply trust that THE PARTY would decide fairly, if there's a serious disagreement between you AND ITSELF?, or between you and a communist citizen? Sure, if that communist citizen was just some Joe Blow, AND YOU WERE WELL CONNECTED with people of power and connection like Comrade "Thanouxy" or his bosses, then, no problem.

But what if it's you versus THOSE IN POWER IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY?

Would you trust a "court of law" that IS PART OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY?, deciding an issue/disagreement or legal case BETWEEN you and THE COMMUNIST PARTY or people in powerful position in THE PARTY?

I doubt it.

And such problems do NOT have to happen everyday, for an outsider to be afraid of Communist functionary; it's just the FEAR that if a problem of disagreement, ro contractual issues, arises.... that you won't get a fair deal.... that fear alone is enough for MOST ORDINARY PEOPLE not to get involved in Communist countries...

Take one hypothetical and a rather odd example:

I am no citizen of SWITZERLAND, but let's say I had some good capital and I wanted to do business there. And further, let's say I think the RULING COALITION in Switzerland, unfortunately, was really sucks or horrible. Let's say, for some twisted reason, I'd made negative comments about the ruling council... or against the powerless president, or some other high officials, of Switzerland.

Do you think A COURT IN SWITZERLAND would care much about that, if I had a contractual issue with some business man in Switzerland, or the Swiss government, when or if my case is decided? Of course not. The COURT would simply look at the case and decide ON THE MERIT what the contractual disagreement was...

That is NOT TRUE in a communist, theocratic, or similarly totalitarian society (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Laos, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, etc)... In such a society, WHAT YOU SAY AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT or a high official --- even if you simply called them retarded imbeciles who have no business running the government ---- can and will be used to decide your case, IN ADDITION TO THE MERIT at stake.

In fact, such rigid and totalitarian states, business/contractual and/or legal issues WILL TAKE SECOND SEAT to the question of whether "you have insulted our good leader, our government, our holy beliefs...." and some imaginary man from beyond the cloud who is said to be keeping THE LOCAL CITIZEN GOOD, RESPECTUFL, AND MORAL... that is, if or when you have problems WHILE INSIDE THOSE COUNTRIES....

It just don't work like that in THE REAL WORLD of complex, dynamic, & plural societies...

[ທ້າວໄຂ່ມືດ]

I've been a small part of this scl for over a decade now and from my observations I see the same talkers here still doing the talking, although the number has decreased some what. Ten years from now I bet not much will change. Talkers talk. Doers do.

[Skunk ตัวเหม็น ตัวหอม คิดถึงจัง ແຫ່ຍມົດແດງ]

Post by Her Lao

Post by HT
SBD HL
Even 1% as you said, ...

Well, yeah, even ONE PERCENT --- of a Laotian diaspora of roughly 500,000 --- would be a lot, if it's the case.
But I said "A FEW FRACTIONS" of some whole percent. That means, and I am pulling numbers out of my ass here, no more than a few dozen to a few hundreds, at most, at any point.
That's not a threshold that is going to help Laos in anyway.
Anyway, as I said, if a few of us returned to Laos to "flip" some property deals --- or undertake similar adventures, due to our connections with the correct leadership, or officials and relatives in important places and positions, from finance and banks and technology to real estates and/or other "under the table" business activities ---- to make a few quick tens to a few hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a year or two later, we're "back home" safely, with our "hard working, smart business gains".... then we have not really contributed any thing to Laos or her people but have, INSTEAD, sucked some of her wealth out of the country, through our schemes...
I was and I am talking about REAL & long term INVESTMENT in YEARS, in persons... such as toiling, "in the trenches," along with Lao and Hmong there in Laos... being nurses, doctors, teachers, professors, researchers, civil engineers helping them build municipal sanitation pipe lines and drainage and roads and bridges, etc..... not just chasing paper trails and flipping real estates for some over-night "profits" in the tens to hundreds or may by even millions of dollars...
The fact of the matter is --- AND IT WILL SOUND INCREDIBLY UNFAIR, UNCULTURED, VULGAR, AND OBNOXIOUSLY ARROGENT... but sometimes facts are stubborn things, to use a cliché by Let's Bomb Them Before They Come and Kill us All McCain-Lindsey duo --- the fact of the matter is, VIRTUALLY everyone who've come to grow up and to be educated here in the WEST of the last 40 odd years HAVE MORE BASIC KNOWLEDGE than our cousins, relatives, friends, and neighbors "left behind" in Laos...
As you yourself, I, and others have noted here, again however haphazardly, we just have so much more, know so much more, and are so much more equipped to see the "larger picture" of cultures and societies, COMPARED to our brethren Laotians in Laos... which ideas SEEM to work better and more efficiently and which are primitive, backward, and unworkable...
And the fact of the matter is, THAT IS VERY NATURAL: even though when we first arrived in America, mid 1970s to the 80s, throughout the 90s, the absolutely majority of us and our parents started AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY, after just TWO FULL GENERATIONS (a generation is normally pegged as being 20 years), there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of us who are college educated, with THOUSANDS of Lao and Hmong having advanced degrees of one type or another, some incredibly technical, which are needed, if you want a people and a society to progress....
Of course, in every society, the poor, the less ambitious, and the less educated, and manual laborers like some of us who help raise and guide and teach other people's children or who tend to the farms and fields... we are needed, too.... but for a society to develop, you must have MANY, MANY pools of very technical people who could do industrial chemical work, fabrication work, engineering work on roads and cities and bridges, medical research and disease fighting work, mathematical and computational work, etc.

REAL & long term INVESTMENT in YEARS, do NOT expect LAO NORK can suck out WEALTH out of LPDR because itgot tricks to KICK YOU OUTBEFORE you can SUCK anything out. WEsaw it happened to smalll investors to billionare CHINESE who already got their 48 ot 72 hous to get out or face commie secret agents