In Vientiane, So's family consists of one brother, who is currently studying in Vietnam, an older sister and her husband, two younger fraternal twin sisters, and a cousin that all live with her parents. Seven in her household. This is modest by Lao standards.
Her older sister comes to pick us up at the bus station. I am surprised to see that she's arrived in a little yellow car. For some reason I only expect the richest people to afford such things in Laos, but I've not yet been to the big city ‘til now. Currently, So's family is considered upper middle class for the city. They own a small construction materials business right outside their home. Business has been good recently and they have been able to go from a very humble one room house to creating a kitchen, living room and four bedrooms over the last few years. Finally they don't all have to sleep in the same room.
Her older sister comes to pick us up at the bus station. I am surprised to see that she's arrived in a little yellow car. For some reason I only expect the richest people to afford such things in Laos, but I've not yet been to the big city ‘til now. Currently, So's family is considered upper middle class for the city. They own a small construction materials business right outside their home. Business has been good recently and they have been able to go from a very humble one room house to creating a kitchen, living room and four bedrooms over the last few years. Finally they don't all have to sleep in the same room.
Cheap cars are flooding Laos from China. They are revolutionizing transport here, and not in a good way. The motorbike, a more economically sound and resource efficient vehicle is slowly being upgraded to a car with all of its accompanying environmental and urban development problems. So's family car cost only $7000, making it within the range of some Lao people. I am also surprised to see SUVs on the road. Evidently some people have money here, and like in the West, they care about their status symbols.We get to So's family home. They greet me and Ramsey tells them a bit about me. They seem intrigued by the "looking for my father" subplot of my journey as most people seem to be. They are very gracious and give me a room to myself. I think all the other family members are doubled or tripled up in their beds in order to accommodate the addition of the three of us. Food is delicious as is to be expected.
They have a t.v. and it seems as if everyone in Laos who has access to a t.v. is addicted to wrestling, WWF style. There's a 24 hour channel...Ramsey says no matter how much he tries to tell the Lao people, they refuse to believe it's fake. Eh, why burst their bubble.
The movie Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet comes on and the whole family begins to watch. I remember when it came out when I was in high school and I boycotted it. Not because of some art house snobbery, but because I was so sick and tired of hearing everyone go on and on about it and because I hated Celine Dione who sings the hit song of the soundtrack My Heart Will Go On. Well, maybe there was some snobbery going on.
Everyone has watched Titanic before except me. I thought, what the hell. Halfway in the movie, it's not so bad (or good) but I can watch it without judgment. Slowly though, the movie loses its audience until it's just Ramsey and I left...which strikes the both of us as funny. And just as Rose decides she's not going to get into the life boat in order to save herself from the sinking behemoth.....zzzppptt....the cable goes out....What???!!!.... and shortly after that the electricity....Arrghh!!...which seems to be commonplace in Vientiane. I guess Titanic was never meant to be for me. I wonder what happened at the end of the movie. Is Jack exonerated for being accused of stealing the blue diamond? Did Jack get out of those handcuffs? Did Rose and Jack reunite at the end? Maybe it's best that I don't know. So tells me that when she first saw the movie it made her sad for about a month. Hmmm...a month is about the remainder of my vacation. I don't want to be in front of the most spectacular ruins of Angkor Wat and be distracted by ruminations about fictitious star-crossed lovers on an ill-conceived nautical voyage.
Though people here live with nature all around them, they have a much weaker environmental awareness and ethic than the average Canadian. The idea of ecological conservation isn't taught or engrained. The beautiful forests are being cut down at an alarming rate. Any birds or animals in the forests are being hunted to nothingness. No one's stopping it. When the majority of the people are poor, the first thought is how can the land be used to feed my family, fuel my stove, and make me some money to survive, not, we must keep this primary growth forest uncut, and sustainably manage our wild harvesting to preserve biodiversity. Environmental ethics is a luxury of the "haves", not the "have nots", though ecological disaster often effects the "have nots" the most. As well, when a country has foreign investors like China and Vietnam quickly buying up the land to siphon off resources, what control can the locals take? The final kicker is the government. They are weak and corrupt and there is no good leadership on environmental issues.
Being here makes me more appreciative of the many green initiatives in Canada. Our recycling (which I've long viewed as being the worse of the three Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle...) and composting programs, our move towards reusable bags and fees on plastic ones. The idea of carbon offsets, eating bioregionally and organically, using green cleaning products, conserving our forests, species conservation and much more. All of these ideas are becoming mainstream in the West, but they don't cross the mind of the average Lao person here. There's no push from the government, industry or education front for greater awareness - it doesn't aid their agenda.
What we need to do in Canada is use less energy (and find cleaner forms), live more meaningful and connected lives so that we don't fill that void with the idea that what we really need is stuff...the constant drive to consume stuff...stuff, stuff, stuff...stuff. Here’s a good 20 minute video that breaks it down (download is at the bottom of the page). http://www.storyofstuff.com/downloads.html .
Somehow it's all connected. The stuff we buy in Canada...a piece of electronics that contains a rubber belt...the rubber used to make that belt leads to the vast rubber plantations in Laos that are displacing subsistence farmlands, and therefore relegating the previously independent farmer into a lifetime of poverty working as a rubber tree man, poverty leads to finding food where you can, even if it's the last bird in the forest. Your wedding, the wedding industry, the prerequisite engagement ring, a diamond, a diamond mine in Sierra Leone, and children with missing hands. What trees were cut down, mountains cut open and extracted dry, animals displaced, waters poisoned, soils damaged, air polluted, and people made sick and exploited to make this three pound netbook I purchased for the luxury of writing this travel blog while on my vacation now? Like Lady Macbeth, we'll never be able to get that spot out at this point. It's too late...but hopefully we can have the grace to make that spot as small as possible with our time spent on this Earth.
Blah...who cares about the Titanic making me blue. This topic is sending me to bed.
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