Travels in the Land of Hunger

LAOS

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

When I was in primary school, my teachers explained–on a couple of occasions–that if extraterrestrials were to come to our planet, then logically, they would be a peaceful species for only a "higher intelligence" would be able to travel across galaxies.

Why would anyone believe such reasoning?

If extraterrestrials had achieved a level of technology to travel to Earth they would immediately define the human species as primitive and in desperate need of being brought up to their own civilized standards. Alien colonizers, scientists, adventurers, conquistadors, and missionaries would come and take possession of our lands and resources while killing, enslaving, raping, pillaging, and destroying any human who did not go along with their "higher" and more "civilized" plan.

Western developed nations have a higher material standard of living and produce more sophisticated technology than developing nations. Does the ability of these developed nations to design and produce cutting edge technology mean that they possess higher intelligence? Are developed countries today any different from the empires of the past? After being educated on the "evils" of warfare by our parents and teachers how many of us really take a stand against the unjust social, political, and/or economic conflicts and wars waged abroad by the nation to whom we are a citizen? It seems that in many cases, the majority of the voting population of many Western developed nations such as the United States, simply go along with the decisions of the political party in power. Yes, there may be protests and discontent expressed by those who do not support the war effort, but have these efforts ever really stopped prolonged acts of attrition against weaker nations? Those that speak up against the political and economic decisions of the majority can and will be marginalized.

When the United States and its "coalition of the willing" invaded Iraq in 2003, it was claimed in an effort to gain support at home that the Iraqi people would be freed from the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein. The media filled our newspapers and television sets with images of the torture chambers used by Saddam Hussein's security police to brutalize the Iraqi people.1 Now from Abu Ghraib (a U.S. military prison) we see images of Iraqi men and women being tortured by U.S. military personnel and contractors.2

This is one of many shameful moments in U.S. history. Can Americans really parade the belief that their developed country is devoted to defending the values of equality, peace, freedom, human rights, and democracy? Although there are many Americans that are ashamed of these images from Abu Ghraib prison we must also remember that in the U.S. no one is above the law. Not even the U.S. president. And that is something that Americans should be proud of if they back it up with action by holding those responsible–up to the highest command–for these crimes in Abu Ghraib to be accountable for their actions. We shall see if that is the case.

Chiang Khong, Thailand to

Huay Xai & Luang Prabang, Laos

Monday, May 10, 2004

I left my guesthouse at 8 a.m. after eating breakfast on an old wooden terrace that overlooked the Mekong River and the Lao border. I took an auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to the Chiang Khong pier and handed my passport to the Thai authorities so that I could exit the country. Once the exit procedures were done I, along with Sarah and Katie (two British women in their early twenties who I had just met), walked down to the river, hopped onto a very narrow boat and crossed over to Laos. On the other side, I walked up to the border patrol, filled out some paperwork to obtain a Laos visa, paid US$30, and in five minutes I had my visa. Next to the border patrol office there was a money exchange office where I handed over 1,500 Thai baht and received a high stack of cash worth over 360,000 Lao Kip (my first experience in seeing the effects of hyperinflation; the result–in this case–in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis–of dramatically reduced regional demand for Lao exports and thus their currency in the foreign exchange markets3). It was an unusual experience to hand over a small quantity of Thai currency and receive such an obscene number of central bank notes (due to hyperinflation there are no coins in circulation in Laos).