tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435902129678181031.post1830131006563271953..comments2024-01-21T15:26:38.172+07:00Comments on Thai Girl: The Beauties of AngkorA True Friend to Chinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10953073219104650895noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435902129678181031.post-63470281201177541032010-02-02T17:32:47.445+07:002010-02-02T17:32:47.445+07:00I'm not so sure I agree that a good government...I'm not so sure I agree that a good government could pull Laos out of its poverty at a stroke.<br /><br />As a tiny land-locked country, what resources do they have to exploit? Tourism, logging and hydo-electric power (ie more big dams). All of these can cause considerable destruction.<br /><br />In fact I fear hasty development, getting rich quick. Stability is in fact the most valued factor in conservative societies. Change produces winners but even more losers. <br /><br />New tides of wealth have to be managed for the benefit of all and a young country is not generally ready to handle that. <br /><br />Perhaps Laos need a benevolent dictatorship to direct its progress. Of course that's what communists think they are!<br /><br />Keep commenting, <br /><br />AndrewA True Friend to Chinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10953073219104650895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435902129678181031.post-53410743972517117012010-01-20T00:48:42.209+07:002010-01-20T00:48:42.209+07:00I can't be certain as to the reasons of the La...I can't be certain as to the reasons of the Laotian merchant ethos vs. Cambodian, Thai, or Viet Namese merchant ethos, but a strong part of me thinks that it's because the Laotians deposed their monarchy internally for a Marxist-inspired Communist system. Viet Nam also went Communist, but that was more or less pragmatism after a major war, and of course in Cambodia you have the byproducts of the war, with less of the Communism.<br /><br />Whatever its root causes, the indolence of Laos makes some think of it as dreamy and psuedo-Hippy. It frustrates and angers me ... so many people, needing things to do. In Cambodia and Viet Nam you have people fighting desperately to better themselves (saying nothing here of Thailand, which is of course far developed than its neighbors). But Laos continues to slide into a morass. Like Burma, a responsible government could pull millions out of poverty at a stroke, if it could just get out of its own way. Sigh.Chardvignonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037138093445956012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435902129678181031.post-83354001234896032302010-01-18T21:57:14.270+07:002010-01-18T21:57:14.270+07:00Wonderful pictures - makes me dream of being there...Wonderful pictures - makes me dream of being there.StefanMuchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13041616398172997165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435902129678181031.post-33171349310023721362010-01-14T19:53:01.226+07:002010-01-14T19:53:01.226+07:00Having just crossed the Cambodian border today at ...Having just crossed the Cambodian border today at Pailin I would have to agree that the Cambodians have far better English speaking skills than the Thais. When I arrived at the bus station on the Thai side there was zero English spoken at the bus station, or the food stall, even though at every bus station in Cambodia all the tax drivers besiege you with their wares and fares - in English.<br />I don't know why Thais have such poor English speaking skills but here is a possible reason. Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation to escape colonisation. This proud resistance to invaders still lives on in a wall of legal barriers to foreign ownership. Foreigners are forbidden from owning Thai land, farming Thai soil or, outside certain exemptions, owning a business without a Thai joint venture.<br /> Education is all about attitude and motivation. What some of these underlying nationalist sentiments and fear of foreign domination could mean is that Thais are not really all that bothered to learn a foreign language either.<br />PaulineAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com