To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos.

[anan]

Thursday, Sep. 04, 2008
In Laos, children starve while the government looks away
By JOEL BRINKLEY

VIENTIANE, Laos To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos.

The United Nations classifies Laos as one of the world's "least developed" countries. And no wonder. Half of all children here are chronically malnourished during their first five years of life. They suffer "stunting" as a result.

That inelegant term means they do not grow, either physically or mentally. If these children make it to adulthood, they will be small and not very smart. And then there's the 10 percent classified as "wasting" - little children who are, essentially, starving to death.

It's quite obvious that the callous, opaque communist government here could care less about its children. Over the last 10 years, the malnourishment statistics have changed little if at all. If not for people like Karin Manente, Lao children would have nothing to hope for.

"There is so much human capacity that is lost here," she laments. Severe malnourishment in early childhood "affects you for the rest of your life."

Manente is Laos country director for the World Food Program, the underappreciated U.N. enterprise that struggles to feed the poorest people in countries governed by obdurate, uncaring leaders.

Among its programs here, the WFP delivers mid-day meals to 88,000 schoolchildren - a daunting task in a mountainous nation with almost no paved roads. Many villages can be reached only on foot, and the next settlement might be 20 miles away. The problem is, these are the places most in need. These are the children Manente tries to feed. For many of these children, that is the only meal they will get each day.

The Lao People's Democratic Republic doesn't exactly stand in the way. But each year, the WFP gives the government a plan for feeding the schoolchildren, laying out its minimal responsibilities for funding and general assistance.

"But it doesn't all materialize," Manente says, pursing her lips.

That means, to use aid-worker jargon, the school-feeding initiative is entirely "program based." Manente translates.

"It means if we stop, the program stops."

She cannot be expected to be hyper-critical of the government. Still, the most generous assessment she can muster is this: "Their people do consume staff time at meetings with us here in Vientiane."

With a government this cold, closed and uncaring, it's little surprise that the people are poor, ill-served and underfed. But no one had ever taken the time to examine exactly what that meant. The WFP weighed and measured thousands of children all over the country to produce a "food insecurity" study, published several months ago. The malnourished children, it concluded, "do badly at school and have low productivity in adulthood." That is, if they survive to adulthood. Just over 8 percent of all children born here die before they reach age 5. The others "pass on poverty and deprivation to future generations."

Part of the problem is rice. For many of the rural poor, 80 percent of the nation's population, rice is just about the only thing they eat. What happens if you eat only rice? No vegetables, no fruits, no animal protein? Stunting. Wasting.

The terrible shame is that it would take very little to save many thousands of these children. If families planted what aid workers call a "kitchen garden," in this tropical climate it could supply vegetables year round. That would help diversify a child's diet. But in the poorest areas, fewer than half the households think to do that because eating only rice is well-established custom. In one area, Manente told me, "when a baby is born, the mother can eat only rice for three months. That's the tradition."

In other words, they don't know any better. Someone needs to tell them.

The WFP is running a pilot project in four small villages, and the results are encouraging. "Once you get to them" with this nutritional information, Manente said, "they are receptive."

Aid workers aren't capable of educating the public at large. That's the government's responsibility. But that's not what it likes to talk about.

The Lao News Agency happily churns out press releases extolling President Choummaly Sayasone on the occasion of his official visits to Vietnam, North Korea, Burma.

During a five-day state visit to New Delhi last week, the service reported that the president and the Indian prime minster discussed "a wide range of subjects of bilateral interest, and issues of regional and international importance."

If the averages held, while the president was away on his fine adventure, 167 children died.

Joel Brinkley is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University. Readers may send him e-mail at: brinkley@foreign-matters.com.

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with this article, i simply hope that new generation can be more aware (if not at all) how lucky they are to be in a freedom country....

 

[lady0fdarkness]

Hmm....interesting... however, as I read this article.. I don't see any sorts of statistics or evidence of just how much Laos is starving in comparison to other poor countries, except when he mentioned that 80% of the nation eats rice. Yeah, obviously-- rice is the foundation of a traditional Lao meal. This looks like a personal article written by a guy who is anti-communist, especially to the Lao government.

The UN clarified Laos as one of the "least developed" countries. True, Laos is one of the fewest countries that is untouched by the western world, frankly... I think that's a good thing. "To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos"?? I'm sorry, but I don't think that this statement is entirely true. Laos may be undeveloped, but still the people there chooses to live within the elements, using the land and the naturaly resources surrounding them to survive. The only misfortunes of being born is Laos right now is having to deal with the many land mines that are left behind by the Americans and being labeled by westerners as a poor country, just because Laos chooses not to be influenced by the western society. And just because some villagers live in a house built using bamboo sticks, doesn't neccessarily mean that they are starving.

I won't deny that, perhaps some parts of Laos may be experiencing some kind of food issue, but so is any other countries, including the U.S.A. Imagine that, even the U.S.A; a rich country filled with liberty and food! I've seen many programs asking citizens to donate money to starving children in America who lives in poverty and whom are homeless. Now that's a shame, especially when America is supposed to be a super country??

I'm not going to completely ignore this issue, because unfortunately, starvation and malnutrition do exist; in EVERY country. This entire article seems like one man's opinions, written very poorly and completely tasteless, based on one's assumptions.

"To know misfortune is to be a child born in........" <- Fill in the blank.

 

[KEdoubleNY]

Article is stupid and doesn't really show facts. The guy that write it must of read books or just talk to people that doesn't know jacksh*t about Laos. Laos might be one of the poorest and least undeveloped nation in the world ... but people do have food to eat and a place to call home ... not like America .. lots of homeless mofo running around

 

[Liberty]

I see where he's coming from and what message he's trying to get with it, but I also see where you're coming from Lome.

It probably doesn't show stats. because it's not a news article, it's more of a literary article. The New Yorker has a lot of those, it's what makes them one of the best publications in the US. He's just trying to convey a message, I'm sure with his extensive background in journalism -- especially as a foreign correspondent he's aware that there's starving children everywhere. But the focus in this piece is on Laos and it's plights, he's trying to bring awareness which is good. As for the UN thing, it's just facts but it packs a punch for some people. It's not meant to be insulting or degrading, it's to convey where Laos stands among the rest of the world's nation. It helps to emphasize the point.

Least develop is good in some ways, I agree with that but it also hinders growth within the country.
Obviously you don't want a bunch of people coming in and start cutting down trees and building factory and smogging up the place, but you still want some business to help bring money into the country and provide jobs for the people. Jobs mean money to the indiviual and helps stimulate the economy, it also opens doors to better education due to better funding or just education in general because some people can't afford to go to school (uniforms and what not). My mom was one of those people. She sacrified her own education to work so that her younger siblings could go to school. My dad got his education from Buddhist monks at the local temple, he didn't get his education from a school.

The last time my dad went back to visit (almost 3 years ago) he met some university students, now they could definitely use some better (or at least updated) equipment, like computers or the latest software. Don't you think they deserve as good of an education as anyone else? They deserve to be up to date with the latest technological trends, especially if that's the field that interest them. I know that America gets the latest editing software and techniques and it takes most countries three years before they can get their hands on it and learn the the new stuff. Think about how much longer it takes a country like Laos to get stuff like that? It might not sound important but the latest editing software and techniques are not just used in home movies, but in movies as well as news. That industry helps bring a lot of money in for many countries, the US included. That's just one example though.

It's nothing personal but even my dad who was born and raised in Laos says that Laos is a poor country.
He lived in the city so it wasn't that bad but he says that away from the city, in the mountain areas there are children who are starving.
I agree with the writer, there needs to be education about improving their diet. Most people know that you can just live off of one source of food, it's not healthy because there's just no way you can get all the nutrients you need, especially from just rice. It's all the eat for obvious reasons but, with a little help from the government (if they're willing to) by giving the people the basic necessities to grow other crops and have some chickens or other stuff, then they'll have more to eat. Of course, when it comes to live stock there's the cost of keeping up with the animal, and frankly if they can't afford to diversify their diet they won't be able to feed their livestock to keep it alive (I've raised animals before, you can get away with feeding chickens rice grains but now cattle). So it's an endless circle unless someone offers to help.

It's not really based on assumptions, it's based on observation and research, he is a reporter afterall, and from his background it seems like he's a reputable one at that. But still, I see how you would think that. Just keep in mind, this article is probably one of a dozen that he's written about the same issues. I've read tons of articles like this, it's always a different country and I've even read a few about starving American children. It's being taken cared of here but we're not perfect, there's always going to be starving children in most of the world, whether the country is rich or poor but it happens for different reasons. In America it's usually because the families have lost their jobs and home, so they're basically homeless and have no means to take care of their children. Or they get into debt for whatever reasons, usually it's medical and they can't pull themselves out. In other countries like Laos, it's not really the lack of job but the lack of basic necessities and education about farming. Although the lack of jobs is part of it, I should know my dad's family are always struggling to make ends meet. He sends money to Laos as much as he can but we're not rich and we have our own necessities to take care of too.

The writer's not trying to be insulting with the article but trying to convey a message, it's usually articles like this that bring awareness to countries that may need a little help, whether it be with education, resources or just dealing with a bad government. As for the title, it's just one of those things that the media does to capture readers. The first line of any story either gets a reader interested or turns them off completely. The point is to grab attention. It's basic journalism. It's what we call a "lead" it leads readers to want to read more.

If everyone gets offended by articles like this -- which I must repeat is NOT as NEWS article, it's an editorial or literary piece -- then where will we be? How will anything be known? How will people's stories be told? How would anyone know there's a problem? Oh and there's always a problem somewhere. This is just one of them and I thought he was doing a good thing by bringing up the issue. Like I said, I'm pretty sure this isn't his first story like this.
Would it have been different had a Laotian person written this article (good luck by the way because there aren't many Laotian American journalists, there's barely that many Asians in general in that field)? If the answer is yes, then well it sounds like racism to me. It doesn't matter who wrote the article, the point is the message behind the words. The writer is trying to bring awareness.
I can see how it can come off offensive coming from an outsider or a non-Laotian, it probably seems like the writer is judging the country and it's people. Which isn't true, he's just judging the government and trying to bring to surface ONE of the issues going on in Laos.

 

[Liberty]

Article is stupid and doesn't really show facts. The guy that write it must of read books or just talk to people that doesn't know jacksh*t about Laos. Laos might be one of the poorest and least undeveloped nation in the world ... but people do have food to eat and a place to call home ... not like America .. lots of homeless mofo running around

Do you know why they're homeless?
Most people assume it's probably drug or alcohol problem but the truth is, most homeless people are veterans of wars, even Iraq.
What happens when you get so badly wounded you can't work? Or you're so psychologically damaged it's hard to function in society?
The government will only help them out so much and for so long, they can't keep up with everyone. There's just too many veterans and too many active soldiers to keep up with.

 

[lady0fdarkness]

Judging by what I've read, it seems to me like this Joel Brinkley does not live in Laos, nor does he know Lao traditions, nor did he travel across Laos and jot down every hungry cities or households. He is merely going by the "research" that he got from Karen Mantente who works in the food program. He can hold any high titles or any degrees from college, I still disagree with his article. You can raised awareness all you want(which is a good thing), but don't write such a bold statement about a whole nation, stating that it's a misfortune to be born in its country. If all the people of Laos were to read that statement, I am almost positive that almost all the people would disagree. What the reporter is writing about seems to be a statistic coming from the food program, feeding hungry children that perhaps really do need food, in the mountainous areas that are hard to harvest food.

I am fortunate enough to live here in the US, however... I do have Aunts.. Uncles... relatives whom are still in Laos, and unlike us.. they don't have to worry about the banks taking their homes, or the electricity being shut off, or myspace killing their kids. They live in unison; wake up, go to the farm.. raise chickens or cows, sell things at the market, and then go home make dinner and spend time with their children. I don't think living like that is considered poor, it's more of a simple life.

So my point is... I really DO NOT like the statement, "To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos." That's just wrong, because that statement has nothing to do with awareness. It's degrading and offensive, period. I may be an American citizen, but that doesn't mean I do not know the background of my birth country. In fact, I am very proud to be born a Lao and in Laos, a country torned by war that wasn't even started by the nation. A country used as a punching bag by the Americans and the communist during the Vietnam war. Despite what these high educated reporters may say about Laos, I think it is still a country with prestige and beauty, where people are a community.

 

[Liberty]

You're probably right about his approach, it probably wasn't the best way to go about it but hey, that's journalism for ya.

I did read a nice article in a Travel magazine about the Laos culture and the many things it has to offer. She use to live in Laos, she's American by the way and she finally went back as an adult to a place she considered "home". Her dad was a soldier (she's pure white, not mix or anything like if it makes any different) stationed there. She also talked about the land mines in her story, but the thing is stories like hers are show cased in less read magazines. They get picked up by Travel publications or put in the travel section of a newspaper, it's not something that will make a whole lot of a difference or bring that much awareness to the rest of the world simply because it's considered a "fluff" piece.

The writer for this story was just a writer though, she wasn't a journalist or anything (there's a difference between the two). It was beautifully written, it's just sad that not many people will read it.

I'm Laotian and I wasn't offended by the story, but like I said, I could see how it could come off as offensive.
I don't know, I guess I don't find it offensive (even though, I probably would've about 3 years ago) because I know this is just how the journalism world works and I know that there are hundreds of more stories like this written, and know why they're being written.
It's just hard for me to get offended when I break it down like that. Besides, I've actually written a story like that for school about a place that wasn't my own. All of it was based off of research, of course it was more of a news story so most of the story was stats and facts.

We don't really know how much research this man did, or how many sources he got his information from or if he's even lived in Laos. It's all assumption from one article, assumption that we're accusing him of making about Laos. He has contact information listed, if you want the truth, all you gotta do is e-mail him and ask. That's what it's for, that's the great thing too. If you don't like what he's saying, you can always e-mail him to tell him so.

It's a short story, there are only so much information and sources you can put into that story, especially if there's a word limit. Like I said, it's not a news story, it's an editorial piece, which most likely meant he had to make his point within a certain amount of words and he had to choose his words and sources precisely.

Anyway, like I said, if you guys don't like what he wrote just e-mail him to tell him so. Maybe he'll redo the story, at the least you'll be able to find out how much he actually knows about Laos and how much time he actually spent there.
Assuming things only adds fuel to the fire, but if you find out the truth you'll have some peace of mind of knowing whether your assuptions were true or not. Okay...sorry that sounded like a fortune cookie.

 

[lady0fdarkness]

LOL......... speaking of fortune cookies, I really want one right now. Hmm.....perhaps that's why I never got into journalism.

Ahh well..

the reason why I am offended by this is because I am the aftermath of war. I was a refugee, along with my mother and siblings. My father is dead trying to defend his country. I would gather around my mother and listen to beautiful stories of her life before the bombs and mines were dropped. She'd always have tears in her eyes while she told her stories. She explained to me how eventhough the French ruled them, eventhough they weren't developed, eventhough their country isn't rich like others, they were happy. They had their beautiful land.. they had their neighbors... they had their dignity... they had their freedom... they had a handful of food to eat....until, war struck them. Then there was fire and hunger and sickness and diseases; all a product of war, left behind by the American jets, by the communists' guns. The beautiful country left in shackles, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do. And now, many years later..... because of that war, Laos is now considered a third world country.

And to have a westerner say it's a misfortune to be a Lao is absurd! And thank you, I will indeed E-mail Mr. Joel Brinkley.

 

[KEdoubleNY]

Do you know why they're homeless?
Most people assume it's probably drug or alcohol problem but the truth is, most homeless people are veterans of wars, even Iraq.
What happens when you get so badly wounded you can't work? Or you're so psychologically damaged it's hard to function in society?
The government will only help them out so much and for so long, they can't keep up with everyone. There's just too many veterans and too many active soldiers to keep up with.

Yea, I know most of the homeless in America are veterans of War. But drugs and alcohol do play a row on them being homeless ... anyways, here in Minnesota ... I believe Fox 9 news did an investigation on some of these homeless people .. and you wouldn't believe what they found out. Some of the homeless guys were driving Mercedez-Benz n BMW .. live in quarter-million dollars houses...So for people who give money to the homeless ... ask urself a question .. Is it really worth my money?

 

[Liberty]

You know what would be cool? If Angelina adopted a Lao kid.
Why not, she's already got a Vietnamese and Camdodian kid, they're close to Laos.
Besides I'm sure there are kids that need a home there. My dad's younger brother was adopted. My dad told me that his dad went out one day and saw this lady trying to sell her son so my grandpa bought him before someone bad bought him and brought him home. Wala...my dad got a little brother. ^_^

 

[saobomp]

LOL......... speaking of fortune cookies, I really want one right now. Hmm.....perhaps that's why I never got into journalism.

Ahh well..

the reason why I am offended by this is because I am the aftermath of war. I was a refugee, along with my mother and siblings. My father is dead trying to defend his country. I would gather around my mother and listen to beautiful stories of her life before the bombs and mines were dropped. She'd always have tears in her eyes while she told her stories. She explained to me how eventhough the French ruled them, eventhough they weren't developed, eventhough their country isn't rich like others, they were happy. They had their beautiful land.. they had their neighbors... they had their dignity... they had their freedom... they had a handful of food to eat....until, war struck them. Then there was fire and hunger and sickness and diseases; all a product of war, left behind by the American jets, by the communists' guns. The beautiful country left in shackles, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do. And now, many years later..... because of that war, Laos is now considered a third world country.

And to have a westerner say it's a misfortune to be a Lao is absurd! And thank you, I will indeed E-mail Mr. Joel Brinkley.

strongly agree with all your statements ladyfodarkness. i too am i refugee child escaping our homeland to seek a better life. yes laos is not as develope as many others due to the government. laos have many resources but didnt have the technology to use it for money; that's y other countries claims our landminds...

i dont think laotian kids are not smart per sa they quote that the kids lack food and what not. there are so many intelligent kids but just no opportunity to educate themselves ...

yes we do eat rice; thats part of our meal; just about every asian culture eat rice. american eats a lot of bread with their food that's y most of them are fat and out of shape. yes after a child is born we eat certain things for dieting purpose so u'll heal faster. i saw many of my sisters do that; and all in good condition and shapes. wear as what american or perhaps other culture eat watever they want so it tells...

sad to say those kind of articles are out there; not even true to an extent!

 

[nina07]

LOL, that would be awesome if Angelina adopted a Lao child, Liberty. !