Spring has come to Vientiane and other considerations

From Ed:

Spring has come to Vientiane.  Even though the temperatures have been in the high 70s and mid 80s, I guess the flowering trees respond not to temperature but to the changes in the length of the day. In any event, the trees along the roadsides are filling with lush, rich colored flowers in reds, pinks and whites.  The flowering bushes are coming into bloom, and the Bougainvillea bright red flowers cover the walls and make the city into a flowering garden.

A curious thing about Laos – the city is spotless. People sweep their sidewalk in front of their houses and shops, and wash them down, keeping the streets clean and shining.  This is quite different than the other countries in South East Asia where they either leave rubbish everywhere or sweep it to the edge of their property, making the streets almost impassable with rubbish. 

Monday we met the US Ambassador to Laos at a reception at the embassy.  There are a few thousand Americans in Vientiane, and they do their best to reach out to them.  Forty or fifty gathered for the reception.  Many of the ex-pats are ex-Viet Nam vets who have returned with their Asian wives to live in the area.  They gave the ambassador a grilling about UXO – unexploded ordinance.  You will need a little background to understand the problem.

Between the years 1964 and 1973, the United States flew more than half a million bombing missions, delivering more than two million tons of explosive ordnance, in an attempt to block the flow of North Vietnamese arms and troops through Laotian territory. The ordnance dropped include more than 266 million submunitions (known as “bombies” in Lao) released from cluster bombs.

Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. They called it carpet bombing.  US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the Second World War. Laos holds the distinction of being the most bombed country, per capita, in the world.

Of the 260 million bombs that rained down, 80 million (25%) failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy.  The shorthand reference to this unexploded ordinance is called UXO.  Here’s what you need to know:

• Approximately 25% of villages in Laos are contaminated with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)
• 41 out of the 46 poorest districts in Laos have UXO contamination
• Approximately 80 million unexploded bombies remained in Laos after the war
• Over 50,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents in the period from 1964 to 2008
• Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents post-war period, 1974 to 2008 

You would think the United States would take responsibility for this travesty, and take action to help gather up and disarm this significant hazard to human life.  And they have.  The Ambassador bragged that the US spent 5 million dollars last year to help rid Laos of the curse of UXO that we created. She was proud that this was up from 2 or 3 million spent in previous years.  At this rate, she estimated that it will be 25 years before the problem is solved. 

The Loa people are patient and forgiving.  We have been shown nothing but kindness everywhere we have gone.  Personally, I think 5 million dollars is an insult and a travesty; and as a nation, we should be ashamed.  5 million dollars to the US is nothing.  If this bothers you, you might want to contact Jorn Kerry (of Vietn Nam fame) or Scott Brown, or who ever your senators or representatives are, and let them know what you think.  Two or three hundred sappers from the US Army sent on a training mission could solve the problem in a much shorter time, and save a lot of human suffering caused by us.  Unfortunately, these are the same folks who are currently disarming roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I am a proud American, but a little less proud for what I have recently learned.

Last night we went, with four other DDD personnel and a few guests to watch the Laos National Soccer Team play Taiwan in an elimination round for the South East Asian championship.  It was in a beautiful new and modern stadium built for the SEA championships held in Laos several years ago. The crowd of 13,000 rooted hard for the home team, but the game ended up tied at 1-1. 
 
We continue to stay busy, have fun and do challenging and fulfilling work.