A lesson in Lao economics

(Examiner reporter Jessica Murphy is currently on vacation in the Far East. This is the second in a series of observations from her trip.)



Mid-morning, walking down a street in Luang Prabang, UNESCO World Heritage city in the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Laos, a young monk called 'How are you?' to me from across the street. He stood at the gate of his temple,Wat Pakkhan, wearing his orange robes and holding two books - one a lurid crime thriller set in New York City and the other, a thin Lao-English dictionary. I crossed the street towards him, answering sabaidee, the common Lao greeting. We began to chat about this-and-that, life and travel and family background, sitting at a small table outside the temple-proper, with the monk's quarters to the right, orange robes drying outside. We exchanged names and ages (Bounly, 16, was from a small village far from Luang Prabang, and chose to become a novice monk for the education) and e-mail addresses.

Then came the question: "Can you send me money to finish my education? Just $200, for the next two years. There's a Western Union, just up the street." The money question is one I'd heard before in Laos, and didn't know how to answer. I kicked myself for talking to Bounly about skiing just before - remembered telling him it cost about $150 a day.

Laos is one of the least developed countries in the world, and the most heavily bombed (by the United States military during the Vietnam war). It's communist, bordered by Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, China to the north and Cambodia to the south.There's little infrastructure - no railroads, undrinkable water, and the main capital, Vientiane, still has unpaved roads and few sidewalks. The majority of the population is rural (85 per cent in the early 1990s) and subsistence agriculture accounts for 80 per cent of the employment. Bounly grew up in one of the villages similar to the ones I passed through travelling between Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang. A curve in the road, a warning honk from the bus driver, and you come upon a cluster of houses, wood and bamboo, clothes drying outside but little inside, set along rivers, rice paddies, or roads. Fowl, goats, pigs and sometimes water buffalo wander nearby.

Money is coming into Laos as aid from the International Monetary Fund and other foreign organizations, the European Union, and increasing exports. It's affect can be seen: roads were being paved and sidewalks built in Vientiane and Vang Vieng while I was there. Tourism is also bringing money and changes: hotels are being built in Vientiane and adventure travel agencies are everywhere, offering caving, kayaking, trekking, and elephant rides. It's so cheap, and so beautiful, filled with mountains and mist and rivers, that the people I know who've been there, myself included, crave going back.

But little of the money coming in goes to the villages, and Bounly's family probably don't have the means to help him financially. But I brushed him off with a non-answer, a 'maybe, I'll see,' and left, heading up to the main road and an Internet shop, and have yet to find a good answer to the money question.