Vientiane on fire

I complained before, and I will not rest to rant about these fires in Vientiane. The Lao capital is already a quite dusty and dirty city, but the fires (mainly organic waste like leafs, but always mixed with some plastic parts) make it even worst. Although there is a garbage collection service, people burn like crazy. Why? Because they always did it.

And here comes one of the biggest problems Laos is facing: the refusal of change. People still like to excuse themselfs with referring to Lao tradition, culture and education. Change is only possible if there are huge benefits. Like having a mobile phone - people had no problem at all to switch to a mobile phone from landlines in short time. Or using a motobike instead of a buffalo.
Not burning trash means paying for garbage collection (what in the city they have to do anyway), but also to get rid of it in a different way.

First, for Lao people isn't a different way available. At least in their mind (beside a undeveloped neighboring plot that can be turned instantly into a waste dump site).

Composting? Not known, and more important, not taught. And there again is the education system. In some textbook it is actually taught not to burn your organic waste, but childs cant cope with their parents opinions when it comes to changes.

So change in education doesn't mean writing something nice in the textpooks of primary school students. Education - in particular in developing countries - needs to be done in all segments of society.

A government that is able to give security advice for important events like the ASEM summit down to village level has already the tool and channels for communication.

If for example the village could fine those who start fires and the fine is later used for improvments everyone on the village is benefiting from, there would be an incentive to report violations.

But maybe only when the last Laotion died of cancer or respiratory diseases, people will understand that not every tradition is something you want to keep.

Emergency exits in Children Hospital locked

Careful parents when visiting the Childrens Hospital at the Mitthapap Hospital. The doors at the main entrance facing the street are locked, although they are emergency exits. I also found emergency lights pulled off the power plug.
The childrens hospital, constructed with the support of Korean taxpayers, seems to be another example that Lao authorities don't care about these gifts, they just let it run down as any office here and then beg for a new one.

This main door is locked with a padlock.

Power is plugged off.

In this particular case they even risk the death of tens if not hundreds of people in case of a fire, because when I was there only a small backdoor in the ground floor was open. There is no excuse for that, everyone should be aware of such security risks and act. For me, publishing it in my blog is may way of acting.

I saw this once in Vietnam at Medical Family Care, when doors were locked as well and fire exits blocked. A day after I mentioned this, the problems was solved and the management apologised.  Unfortunately I couldn't find a website for the Korean-Lao Childrens Hospital.

Slash and burn: Visit foggy Laos Year 2012

I complained about the trash and burn already, but now is the season for a more serious threat, the slash and burn. Farmers in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos burning down rice fields as well as forests and any other agricultural used land. This results in a large haze. The effects: Transportation is on hold, since pilot do not have enough visibility. People in the area suffering from breathing problems, asthma, etc. Not to mention the huge amount of CO2 that is exposed, and the change for the micro climate because of the small particles the smog contains. The picture shows a satellite image from Nasa, taken over Thailand

Caption: As the 2012 agricultural fire season progressed in Indochina, smoke blanketed the region and aerosol particulates increased to potentially unhealthy levels. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of the vast amount of smoke and haze hovering over the region on February 23, 2012. The image is centered in northern Thailand, where thick ropes of gray smoke lie in each valley, obscuring the land except for the green lines of mountain ridges. To the west is Myanmar (Burma) and to the east is Laos. Fires also burn in Vietnam (far east) and southern China (northeast). Although the smoke is heaviest in valleys and near the red hot spots that mark heat from fires, no section of sky in this entire region is free of smoke. On February 19, the Bangkok Post reported that the Public Health Ministry had begun to hand out 50,000 face masks to residents of the haze-shrouded northern provinces of Thailand. The masks were to be distributed to eight provinces where the PM10 (particulate matter level of up to 10 micrometers in diameter) were found to be higher than acceptable standards. These provinces were Phayao, Nan, Phrae, Mae Hong Son, Lamphun, Lampang, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai. On February 23, the day this image was captured it was reported that the situation had clearly worsened, causing the local airport in Lampang to turn the runway lights on in daylight, to aid in the safe landing of aircraft. http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2012-02-25 All together, it is just as bad as it looks. But of course government in the effected regions are concerned, but are not able to take any action. The yearly blabla, followed by yet another NGO project to develop alternatives for the farmers who do the burning. Flights to Luang Prabang are now extremely delayed or cancelled, flights in other parts of the country are totally cancelled. Great, since this year is called the Visit Laos year 2012 ("if you can make it ever into the country) - should be the subtitle.

Trash and burn

A picture says more than thousand words. I will try to tell in at least less words. The picture was taken this morning on a busy street. Everyday Lao people, rich and poor, old and young, but also foreigners, diplomats, NGO workers, business people, are passing buy. So they know it, but may not see it. It shows a lot of Lao's problems. First of all young women with kids, often without a husband (he may have gone to Thailand or just left her, sometimes take even the kid). For women it is still hard to find a good job, if they have a kid but not married, it still is a stigma. Then, there is garbage. Vientiane is dirty, very dirty. Even if there is garbage collection, people just put their baskets and bags full of trash in front of their house, so neighbors dogs can play with it (they love to eat diapers they took out and distribute all over the street). So the trash is just out there for days. Rats like it, and other animals. Nobody cares. It seems that as long as the garbage isn't in from of the gate, it isn't bothering anyone. At last, there is the open fire. Lao people love open fire. This one had dark black smoke, indicating that ingredients are not just paper and gardening waste but plastic. So the woman with her baby just inhales this smoke without having any idea about the threats. Everyday government officials, NGO workers, diplomats see this. They don't care. They may discuss campaigns, but even if some were realized, they failed (maybe they wrote brochures in English?). The picture taken in the middle of the capital also shows, that Laos is far from becoming a modern country. It is still developing from a very low level. Education is the biggest issue. Money cannot buy knowledge and, more important, understanding of knowledge. Only if you understand what you learned you can turn this in action. All my Lao friend know about this as well. But one mentioned: "My mother insists on open fire as this is the tradition." Old habbits die hard, is a saying. In Laos, it is also a common excuse.