Hi! Bee (my fiancée) and I visited the Dinosaur museum in Savannakhét today. No ducks there, we weren't surprised. Ducks are prehistoric indeed, look at the picture! Fantastic fowl named "Vegavis" found by an Argentinian expedition to Antarctica.
The museum had donated air-conditioning units by the Thai consulate here in Savannakhét. Next door to the prehistoric museum the main gateway for fiber optic cable from the capital; Vientiane, is being built. That building looks prehistoric already and was supposed to have been finalized in 2006. It's going to be finalized in 2010.
For the prehistoric museum(s) I really hope that they will become enlightened by the benefits of having their next door neighbor as the Internet gateway with fiber optic cable.
I this case I will offer my services to build a sitting room for children to view and learn about the history of Laos and Indochina, put it into a regional context and into a world perspective. This might be successful as the gateway will serve as a transfer point to retrieve loads of information fast. Most information retrievable over the Internet is in English (sorry for omissions), less is to be found in Lao, but Laotians are fast learners and interested as well, so I don't see any holdbacks in the population as far as I can see.
So why do we need Internet again? Our minister (Swedish) for communication once said that the Internet was just a temporary project, like a new pop artist, comes and goes. Internet is not pop. It's not religion, it's not what it is, it is what one choose to make out of it.
I think Laotians are highly capable of making use of the Internet and its well of incredible resources and the incredible networks that may be woven.
I once got a question from a 21 year old young Laotian man; "- What is Internet?".
I asked him, do you have an e-mail address, I can send you a link. It was at the end of the day, very late, after a few beers and I didn't quite understand what I've said in reply when I realized what I've just said.
I took up my laptop, connected to the Internet with my cell phone and I showed him a text (in Lao) explaining the Internet. And he asked me, "- Is that text in there?
I answered; it's presented on the screen, but where this information is from, perhaps on another big big computer and I get it by using the Internet. It's as if I call a number with my telephone and it's the same number to access information to read and understand through my own computer. http://lo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BA%AD%E0%BA%B4%E0%BA%99%E0%BB%80%E0%BA%95%E0%BA%B5%E0%BB%80%E0%BA%99%E0%BA%B1%E0%BA%94
Not sure this link works for you, but I installed Lao charset on my MacBook. If you've ever seen the letters/signs of the Lao written language, it's close to Thai.
We spent many hours looking for information available in Lao, we found some, it's like walking into the local book store here in Savannakhét, not much really, more the feeling; "is this a liquidation sale?"
With access to the Internet I really wish that Laotians will be able to communicate in English to be able to preserve the minorities and local ethnicities, it's through the availability of communication that minorities are being kept, partial truth, I'm aware of that fact.
Back to the Dinosaur museum. The manager spoke a little bit of English, very polite gentleman. He told me during tourist season, prior 2008, there would be hundreds of visitors every day! Now it's only 5-10. He blamed it on the events in Bangkok and the closing of the International airport in 2008 as well as the swineflu H1N1. Global recession sure strikes educational and conservational institutions hard these times.
Here's a good excuse for traveling to Laos and in particular to Savannakhét. If you have a limited traveling budget and you want to make sure you can come back with money in your pocket this is the place to travel to. It's inexpensive, well worth time and money to visit Laos. Sadly the clientele is not mixed. The social classes don't mix much in public. Marriage between the social classes are not so appreciated as of its "class-culture". I'm a poor man, so I'm accepted by most, in addition, I'm from the "Western hemisphere", so there again I "pass". Social classes - breaking traditions - modernity versus tradition. Super topics that I reflect upon daily, sometimes for hours. I have a glass of water, stare into the bamboo forest at my home, trying to figure out how come this goverment allow people to play cards, drink beer and being without a paid job (with survivable pay), being confined in illiteracy, many can read alright, but what is there to be read. I found a book yesterday; approx. 20 pages, compiling world tyrants inter-mingeled; Adolf Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Reagan, Castro, Che, Gorbachev and many more. Wow. I want to buy it, I'll get it and post it here, and have sections translated. It would be highly interested how those world impacting political figures are depicted/described in Lao!
Now m going to have a cigarette and a drink, calm down and reflect over our visit to the Dinosaur museum, perhaps I'll take a walk along the Mekong and watch the chocolate colors of the river.
'Til then, stay sharp!
