Information from www.bbc.co.uk
Archive for the ‘Laos’ Category
Facts about Laos
November 14, 2009Media in Laos
November 13, 2009
The ruling communists maintain strict control over the media. The government owns all newspapers and broadcast media. Newspaper circulation figures are very low.
Slandering the state, distorting party policies and spreading false rumours are all criminal offences. A draft law which would allow the development of private media has not been implemented.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders noted in 2008 that the majority of the media “only puts out news that is favourable to the communist regime”. The group said many Laotian viewers watch TV stations from neighbouring Thailand.
There were some 100,000 internet users by March 2008 (ITU figure).
The press
- Vientiane Times – state-run, English-language
- Le Renovateur – state run, French-language
- Vientiane Mai – state-run daily
- Pasaxon – party monthly
Television
- Lao National TV (TVNL) – state-run
- Laos Television 3 – joint venture with Thai company
Radio
- Lao National Radio – state-run
News agency
- KPL – state-run
Information from www.bbc.co.uk
Leadership of Laos
November 12, 2009
President Choummaly Sayasone, the head of the ruling communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), was appointed by the National Assembly to succeed Khamtay Siphandon as president in June 2006.
He took over the party leadership from the octogenarian former president in March.
The LPRP is the only legal political party in Laos and holds 98 of the 99 seats in the assembly.
Mr Sayasone is seen as a staunch ally of his predecessor, who served three terms and oversaw the country’s entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 1997.
Choummaly Sayasone, who was born in 1936 in southern Laos, is a former defence minister and vice president.
Information from www.bbc.co.uk
Religion in Laos
November 11, 2009
The country has an area of 85,000 square miles (220,000 km2) and a population of 6.4 million. Almost all ethnic or “lowland” Lao are followers of Theravada Buddhism; however, lowland Lao constitute only 40-50 percent of the population. The remainder of the population belongs to at least 48 distinct ethnic minority groups. Most of these ethnic minorities are practitioners of animism, with beliefs that vary greatly among groups. Animism is predominant among most Sino-Thai groups, such as the Thai Dam and Thai Daeng, as well as among Mon-Khmer and Burmo-Tibetan groups. Even among lowland Lao, many pre-Buddhist animistic religious beliefs have been incorporated into Theravada Buddhist practice. Catholics and Protestants constitute approximately 2 percent of the population. Other minority religious groups include those practicing the Baha’i faith, Islam, Mahayana, Buddhism, and Confucianism. A very small number of citizens follow no religion.
Although the Government prohibits foreigners from proselytizing, some resident foreigners associated with private businesses or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) quietly engage in religious activity.
Information from www.wikipedia.org
Christianity in Laos
November 10, 2009
Christianity is a minority religion in Laos. There are three recognized Churches in Laos: the Lao Evangelical Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
There are approximately 45,000 members of the Roman Catholic Church, many of whom are ethnic Vietnamese, concentrated in major urban centers and surrounding areas along the Mekong River in the central and southern regions of the country. The Catholic Church has an established presence in five of the most populous central and southern provinces, and Catholics are able to worship openly. The Catholic Church’s activities are more circumscribed in the north. The church’s property in Luang Prabang was seized after 1975, and there is no longer a parsonage in that city. An informal Catholic training center in Thakhek prepared a small number of priests to serve the Catholic community.
Approximately 400 Protestant congregations conduct services throughout the country for a community that has grown rapidly in the past decade. Church officials estimate Protestants to number as many as 100,000. Many Protestants are members of ethnic Mon-Khmer groups, especially the Khmu in the north and the Brou in the central provinces. Numbers of Protestants also have expanded rapidly in the Hmong and Yao communities. In urban areas, Protestantism has attracted many lowland Lao followers. Most Protestants are concentrated in Vientiane Municipality, in the provinces of Vientiane, Sayaboury, Luang Prabang, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamsai, Savannakhet, Champassak, and Attapeu, as well as in the former Saisomboun Special Zone, but smaller congregations are located throughout the country. The LFNC officially recognizes only two Protestant groups – the Lao Evangelical Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church – and requires all non-Catholic Christian groups to operate under one of these organizations. Seventh-day Adventists number slightly more than 1,000 country-wide, with congregations in Vientiane Municipality as well as Bokeo, Bolikhamsai, Champassak, Luang Prabang, and Xieng Khouang provinces. Christian organisations that have some following in the country, but which are not recognized by the Government, include the Methodists, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Lutherans, and Baptists. Official membership numbers are not available.
Information from www.wikipedia.org
History of Laos
November 9, 2009
Laos was occupied during the fourth and fifth centuries AD by Chinese people from the north. It was subject to strong Indian influence from the eighth century onwards and adopted Buddhism. For 200 years from the early 11th century, Laos was part of the Khmer Angkor Empire. It was during this period that the Lao people, who originated in Thailand, invaded the area and displaced the previously dominant Chinese. However, there is some evidence that the Mongol empire had some influence over events in the region in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, probably in alliance with the Angkor kingdom.
Following the collapse of the Khmer empire, the independent kingdom of Lan Xang, which dates back to 1349, was established as a single entity bounded by Siam (Thailand), China to the north, Vietnam and the Mekong river, occupying roughly the same territory as modern-day Laos.
Populated by a mixture of ethnic Laos, Thais and various hill tribes, the Lan Xang empire lasted for three centuries while fighting off successive invasions from Vietnam, Siam (Thailand) and Burma. Internal power struggles in the 18th century were exploited by its neighbors, notably Siam which finally conquered Vientiane in 1779. The city was later destroyed by the Siamese and the remains of Lan Xang absorbed into Siam. The 19th century was a period of political turmoil in which rival powers with shifting alliances fought for control of the territory. The Siamese were the dominant power until the arrival of the French, who had already established a firm grip in neighboring Vietnam, in the 1870s. Laos then became part of French Indo-China, which lasted until the 1950s, with the exception of a brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II.
Full independence was achieved in 1953 under the rule of King Sisavang Vong. The monarchy was opposed by former nationalist guerrillas organized into the Laotian Patriotic Front (LPF) whose fighters, the Pathet Lao, formed an alliance with the Viet Minh (later Viet Cong) nationalists in neighboring Vietnam to expel the residual French, and later to counter US influence in the region and the regimes supported by them. Despite repeated efforts, both before and after the communist takeover in 1975, the Chinese failed to exert any significant influence over the country. Indeed, after 1975, Laos became dependent on military and economic assistance from Vietnam, China’s enemy. In the late 1980s, however, tension between China and Laos at last began to ease: diplomatic relations (which had been severed in the late 1970s) were restored in December 1987, and cultural and bilateral trade agreements signed.
A steady improvement has been maintained since then. Relations with Thailand and with the West have followed a similar pattern. Since 1988, there has been greatly expanded commercial contact between Thailand and Laos and the political relationship has improved. The dominant political figures in Laos since independence have been the veteran General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (the LPRP, whose armed wing is the Pathet Lao), Kaysone Phomvihane, and Prince Souphanouvong (the ‘Red Prince’). The activities of the country’s main opposition movements, the right-wing pro-royalist United Lao National Liberation Front and the United Front for the National Liberation of the Lao People, have been confined to minor armed rebellions from bases among the northern hill tribes (the cause of a series of minor bomb attacks in Vientiane during 2000 has yet to be discovered).
Souphanouvong retired from all his posts in March 1991, heralding a period of major political and economic reform. A new constitution was adopted in August 1991, under which elections for a new National Assembly took place in December 1992. A period of economic reform began as Laos sought to emulate the changes effected by its larger neighbors. The country’s relative isolation and lack of resources has made this difficult. Several regional economic co-operation agreements have been reached with Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and Laos has been admitted to the Association of South East Asian Nations, the former anti-communist regional bloc which has since reinvented itself as an economic organization. In 1995, the Americans relaxed their aid embargo which dated back to the 1975 revolution. These developments were unfortunately offset by the 1997 Asian financial crisis which brought about a collapse in the value of the kip.
But Laos has seen little political evolution and the LPRP retains tight control. In 1998, changes in the upper echelons of the regime promoted Khamtay Siphandone, one of the few remaining veterans of the original Pathet Lao leadership, to the position of president and head of the LPRP politburo in place of the retiring Phoumsavanh. Elections to the National Assembly were held in February 2002: all candidates belonged to the LPRP, bar one (who was, nonetheless, government-approved). This did nothing to help the government’s major internal problem: the growing insurgency by the Hmong people, a neglected ethnic minority located in the north of the country. A steady stream of violent attacks have been launched by the Hmong during past years.
Government
Laos has a 166-member legislature, the Sapha Heng Xat (National Assembly), members of which are elected for five-year terms and must (with a single exception) belong to the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. The assembly elects an executive president, also for a five-year term. The president appoints a prime minister and council of ministers.
Economy
Laos is one of the world’s poorest countries, and its predominantly agricultural economy is largely at a level of subsistence. The main crops are rice, pulses, fruits, sugar cane, tobacco and coffee. Laotian coffee is highly rated among connoisseurs and is now the country’s single largest export commodity.
Considerable reserves of tin, lead, zinc, iron ore, coal and timber are largely untapped. Industry is mostly concerned with textiles, basic consumer goods and processing raw materials. The tourism industry has developed since the late 1990s. It is now Laos’ single largest source of income but development is hampered by chronic shortages of skilled labor and foreign exchange.
Economic reforms began in the early 1990s but, compounded by the regional financial crisis, the economy was in serious difficulties by the beginning of 1999. Since then, something of a recovery has taken place: in 2005 the economy was growing at around 7.2% annually while inflation had been cut to 8%. The economy relies heavily on foreign aid.
Information from www.iexplore.com
Village Development in Laos
November 9, 2009
The goal of our village development is to bring together and develop the people in the villages, to equip them and work with them to improve their own commmunity.
This is the focus of what we do, we listen to the villagers, work with them to help them meet the needs they feel they have. They always own the work, and help them help themselves. After a few years working in a village, we leave and the villagers actually continue the work: genuinely sustainable development.
For example in one village in Laos we were teaching them about the need for toilets, having organised a village development committee to drive forward the work. The village agreed for health and hygiene reasons they needed toilets, but completely independently of us the same village development committee realised they needed piped water for their village and organised that themselves.
I’ll be putting on here some more training materials, for training national workers, in due course.
It is worth checking out Medical Ambassadors who are wonderful at supplying training and teaching materials helping us deliver genuinely community centred and owned development into the poorest places of the world.
Of course get in touch if you have any queries regarding village development, especially in tropical places; it is such a difficult process but even small projects if truly community lead and owned can make a huge difference to people’s lives.
Information from www.joyfullyserving.org
