[WWI] Back home again

[Karen Rychlewski]

On Jan 4, 2009, at 8:27 AM, ernest thomas wrote:

> Here's a song for you K:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI-yDxfKQw&feature=related

Well, it wasn't exactly the 'bottom' but at times it felt like one of  
the ends of the earth. Especially Laos; their "People's Democratic  
Republic" is still living in the 1970's. 6 foot satellite dishes have  
sprouted next to bamboo huts with thatched roofs and chickens and  
pigs snuffling under the raised floor, but the government is the  
provider so they only get Vietnam, China, and Thailand. Likewise with  
the internet: the gov. is also the ISP and blocks Western information  
sites: I tried CNN.com and four or five others and got only 409  
errors. Which is why tourism is important: each Western tourist  
becomes a tiny ambassador for various freedoms.

Ponder this: how would any of you answer this question, posed to me  
by one of my Laotian guides after we stopped at yet another  
hardscrabble village?
"Do you have minority villages in the US?"

But do your pondering alone--I don't want to start a political  
discussion here...

SPAD, Spandau, Snipe

Karen
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