A Viet Nam visa was required so I whizzed down to Pakse where I rested up over the weekend for the Consulate to open after the extended Lao New Year holiday. I still felt I in a state of shock not only from the extreme route I had just completed but the extreme contrast within Laos social strata. These folks along the way are so distant from attaining modern life it is a step back into another era.
Visa in hand earlier by several days than expected I took easy rides over the next days going round one mountain range just to keep on the black top to reach Attapeu. I had had enough of rough riding for a while.
These roads have been recently upgraded, some of the best I have ridden, making obvious the recovery and development of the straddling towns and villages. So too in due course will the remote regions gain their access to modern life.
This whole region is further south so the climate warmer, the terrain less rugged and access to infrastructue better. Prosperity shows through widespread land clearing, slash and burn, opening up the land to the riches of its fertile soil.
Up north, one bungalow owner who could not afford the UXO clearance payments, cut the bush and set fire to it, ducking for cover as the Cluster Bombs exploded. Who knows what still lies around his bungalows awaiting unsuspecting visitors. This is but one sample from the entire region which was carpet bombed.
Surely ALL clearance should be paid for by those who laid these atrocious weapons 40 years ago.
In Xepon, I met Tawee and his 80 strong UXO Lao clearance team, delivering more COPE's limb fitting brochures informing them of the District's Pakse office. Where they go few others approach. I saw some of their pics of 4 wheel drive vehicles up to their headlights in the rainy season, reminded me of my 4 day hazardous journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang in 1989 before the blacktop. And what my recent ride from Nong to Saravane could have been.
Project Pineapple
Remember, go to Archives for full story at bottom of picture column
SPECIAL UPDATE FOR AMERICANS
FOR NON AMERICANS PLEASE PASS ON TO YOUR US FRIENDS AND CONTACTS
PLEASE VIEW SITE
http://www.handicap-international.us/our-fight-against-landmines-and-cluster-bombs/in-brief/
AND FIND LINK TO
National Senate Call-In Day to Ban Cluster Bombs MAR 30
but keep up the pressure after this date
MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT YOUR SENATOR
ALSO for those who wish to make donations to Handicap International, a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, and now widely recognized as a key international lobbyist on weapons of war, please got to:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/285080?m=96aaaf39
Be sure to contact your political representative too wherever you are.
PROJECT PINEAPPLE INITIATED WITH A MOTORCYCLE RIDE THROUGH INDOCHINA TO PUBLICISE THE CLUSTER BOMB ISSUE.
Laos was carpet bombed along the Vietnam border to wipe out the VietCong's supply lines, the multiple trails known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Now, the issue is still being swept under a diplomatic carpet.
The Iraq war opened on 19th March, 2003, with Cluster Bombs being dropped. I was in Laos walking through remote villages on a water well project when I got the news on my short wave radio. Those same villages were carpet bombed 35 years earlier and still living under the threat of 76 million unexploded Cluster Bombs.
Billions of dollars continue to be spent on Iraq but a mere 500 thousand dollars annually on clearing unexploded Cluster Bombs in Laos.
The Vietnam War ended on 30th April 1975 when the last ten marines were choppered out.
I used the Belarusian 125cc Minsk motorcyle to ride from Hanoi, Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City between 19th March and 30th April representing respectively the start of Cluster Bombs being dropped on Iraq and the final withdrawal of US marines from Saigon.
Visits were made to various relevant projects and programs both for clearing unexploded bombs and supporting the victims.
Should you be in any of these countries it is worth
finding out what you can about this 'forgotten' problem. Rural children and adults are still dying and being maimed every day.
Please email any comments to : project.pineapple@yahoo.com
Remember to go to Blog Archives at bottom of Picture column for the full story.
See you around
Robert
SPECIAL UPDATE FOR AMERICANS
FOR NON AMERICANS PLEASE PASS ON TO YOUR US FRIENDS AND CONTACTS
PLEASE VIEW SITE
http://www.handicap-international.us/our-fight-against-landmines-and-cluster-bombs/in-brief/
AND FIND LINK TO
National Senate Call-In Day to Ban Cluster Bombs MAR 30
but keep up the pressure after this date
MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT YOUR SENATOR
ALSO for those who wish to make donations to Handicap International, a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, and now widely recognized as a key international lobbyist on weapons of war, please got to:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/285080?m=96aaaf39
Be sure to contact your political representative too wherever you are.
PROJECT PINEAPPLE INITIATED WITH A MOTORCYCLE RIDE THROUGH INDOCHINA TO PUBLICISE THE CLUSTER BOMB ISSUE.
Laos was carpet bombed along the Vietnam border to wipe out the VietCong's supply lines, the multiple trails known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Now, the issue is still being swept under a diplomatic carpet.
The Iraq war opened on 19th March, 2003, with Cluster Bombs being dropped. I was in Laos walking through remote villages on a water well project when I got the news on my short wave radio. Those same villages were carpet bombed 35 years earlier and still living under the threat of 76 million unexploded Cluster Bombs.
Billions of dollars continue to be spent on Iraq but a mere 500 thousand dollars annually on clearing unexploded Cluster Bombs in Laos.
The Vietnam War ended on 30th April 1975 when the last ten marines were choppered out.
I used the Belarusian 125cc Minsk motorcyle to ride from Hanoi, Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City between 19th March and 30th April representing respectively the start of Cluster Bombs being dropped on Iraq and the final withdrawal of US marines from Saigon.
Visits were made to various relevant projects and programs both for clearing unexploded bombs and supporting the victims.
Should you be in any of these countries it is worth
finding out what you can about this 'forgotten' problem. Rural children and adults are still dying and being maimed every day.
Please email any comments to : project.pineapple@yahoo.com
Remember to go to Blog Archives at bottom of Picture column for the full story.
See you around
Robert
One Reason for the Name Project Pineapple
Friday, April 24, 2009
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