Buk Hoo Kee wrote on 21
st Oct, 2013 at 7:54am:
It's been a while since I've visited this site. I got better things to do than to shoot the shiet with strangers.
I feel that everyone who comes to this board has some sense of Lao Pride. We all have our views of what Laos should be. I respect those views but that is a two way street my friends. Doesn't matter what you and I say, Laos is still what it is. We only sound like a bunch of old men grumbling about something we have no control over. I listen to all the arguments but that's all it is, talk. No one's walking the walk.
I just want to clarify a few things:
1) If you read my posts again - I am not against inter-racial marriages, I've said it very clearly in my posts. That being said, I also don't promote it. That is my personal view and experience. I am stating the fact that when a non-Lao and Lao person have a child, the result is not a pure 100% Lao offspring. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. For this reason, my personal preference would be towards 100% Lao but Love is not a simple matter, I realize. I am a person who upholds human rights (that's why I get mad from these accusations). The people who are not 100% Lao are still people, it is not their fault for being born ok. But just as some of you prefer and have this view of being mixed is better or whatever, I also have the right to my view of preferring 100% Lao. From the comments I've seen, I can't even be proud to be 100% Lao anymore without someone labeling me something. This is Lao Pride but everyone on here seems to be the opposite. I've been discriminated and treated unfairly many times by other races in the past and continue every day, even at work ok, but I still think positively, just remembering it in the back of my head. Race is still a factor all around the world. If you think otherwise then you can continue to live in your naïve world. Look at the recent news with the Lao Airlines crash, they categorized the people killed by nationality. Australian news focused on the Australians killed, Thai news focused on the Thai who were killed, same with the Taiwanese and so on... I just tell it like it is ok.
2) Do you guys remember when the Japanese who were living in America were treated like "Japanese" during the war and all their rights were taken away even though they were "Americans". It has happened all throughout history. I don't mean to raise this debate about race. I lived in Canada and US most of my life. I've travelled enough to know and experience the reality of different races and cultures. I remember someone at worked told me this story during the start of the Iraq war. He iterated the importance of wearing a certain type of flag on your uniform; a Canadian soldier walks through the streets of Kabul and they invite him in for dinner. An American walks the same street and they throw rocks at him. They could have been the same soldier but peoples perceptions are different. Each country was formed for a reason, to protect it's own people and ensure its survival. If we were talking about US then that's multicultural and being American is - whatever it means. But we are talking about Laos and Laotian people, not Chinese, not Vietnamese, not Thai, not White, or anything else so don't take your "Western" ideals and impose them on Laos. As a President, my views would be to enable the Lao people to flourish, the national language to be Lao, not Vietnamese/Chinese/English. Enable the Lao people to make their own decisions of how they want their country to continue into the future. Let the Lao people decide if they want immigration from other countries such as China/Vietnam/Cambodia/etc..
Right now that is not the case. Every other nationality besides Lao is making these f'king decisions. When another race is ruling over another, there will always be injustice, no freedom. Take a look at the Viets taking over parts of Cambodia and forcing them to speak Viet, over 12 million Cambodians still live there and being slaves in their own country. Look at Tibet, why do they fight for their rights and being Tibetan? Why don't the Taiwanese go back to joining the mainland? I have been waiting since 1976 to go back to Vientiane, Laos - my home. But what will it look like when I do go back? If I have to speak Viet than fack that shiet. You guys tell me if you are Lao then you would be willing to die for it, well that's how I feel too. That's the Lao Pride I'm talking about.
3) Hmong people are a part of Laos. It is also their home. They have lived there in peace, unlike many others who came to Laos. I say let them be in peace. They fought for Laos during the war, they were willing to die for Laos - they have my respect any day.
4) I said Laos needs to focus on itself first. Yes at the beginning it needs to restructure and establish the core values of Lao culture. This means establishing a sense of nationalism - made in Laos. Just like how other countries are so proud to have that on many of their products. I keep hearing Americans and how they are so patriotic saying things like "made in America" "Murcia". Well what's wrong with having that pride in Laos and it's own people. Can you guys name something that is made in Laos besides BeerLao? I want the people of Laos to have pride in themselves again instead of being looked down upon from everyone including its neighbors.
Laos also needs to develop better relationships with it's neighbors and the world. You cannot have a closed economy in this day and age. The gov't should help develop the local businesses and empower the people, give them the finances they need and open the world markets to the newly created Lao products. We have so much natural resources but only the foreigners come to exploit it and the Lao people get the shaft. We want your electricity, okay you Lao people have to give up your land and move so we can build those dams. I see plenty of this going on but no one can stop it cause Lao people don't control Laos, some other biatches do.
5) Dispose of the dictator and communism. Let the Lao people rule Laos again. Simple as that.
Look man, I had to cut your keynote speech short because I didn't agree with the tone of your rhetoric on being Lao, fearing it might inspire those looking for that sort of inspiration to jump on your band wagon. Saying mixed Lao children and the rest of their descendants are not Lao - like Miss Laos/Russia for example, is heresy to me. When you go around dichotomizing between our people saying that they're not Lao because their bloodline has been diluted, it breaks our solidarity. Lao relations can be summed up with that one word: Solidarity ຄວາມສາມັກຄີ. You even shot down "The Princess of Laos" because she didn't fit in with your stereotype of how a Lao princess should materialize. You should know, right? because you claim to have connections to the bygone aristocracy and the King of Laos is supposedly your great Uncle.
The news focused only on nationality. Nationality and race are not the same thing. There were also French passengers on board. France is very multicultural. How do you know that they weren't black French or Asian French or proper white French? How do you know the deceased Australians were not Aborigines or Arab Australians? The news reports ambiguisly as "Australians', "Thai" etc. Race had nothing to do with those reports.
You make it sound like Lao in Laos are being held back in regards to development. In the "Laos looks for more workers" topic recently posted, it states that Laos is now soliciting another 90,000 workers on top of the 20,000 already present. Do you think the Laos government would be looking for such an influx of manpower if they had the resources? Lao people are not as determined as other races and most are lazy as phuck; they just want to party and drink and drink and drink. The truth hurts BHK. Take mining for instance, how would Laos extract those natural resources without the expertise of the skilled foreign workers and their heavy machinery? You want the Commies to up-skill the village bumpkins and expect them to get the job done with spades and wheelbarrows?
I don't mind skilled workers but all these stall owners, roadside vendors construction workers and the rest of the unskilled workers doing whatever the hell it is they're doing need to go and have their possessions distributed among the poor.
"Dispose of the dictator and communism. Let the Lao people rule Laos again. Simple as that."
Now when you write stuff like this, I'm assuming you don't consider the government - even though they are Commies - Lao?
Look mate, I don't want you to feel like this is a personal attack. This is simply a response and a conveyance of my perspective. I feel I need to jot that down because you seem like a sensitive guy. I don't have an ounce of malevolence in me; but this post could be construed as such, especially from someone who is bereaving like you seem to be doing especially from your discriminations at work.
You're still my idol BHK.