Africa and the Beautiful Game: World Cup 2010 in South Africa? Yes we can!

Draft Version: Updates to follow

I grew up in a country (USA) where the sport of football (soccer) has struggled for decades to gain national attention, although as a youth I had the privilege to play on a soccer team at middle school for a few seasons like many American children. I now live in a country (Germany) where the sport of ‘Fussball’ is practically a religion (garnering more fans than the Pope on any given Sunday). I have experienced the overwhelming joy and excitement when the World Cup comes to town (FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany).

When Germany was awarded the honor of hosting the FIFA World Cup 2006 it was widely believed that South Africa (and the continent of Africa as a whole) had been cheated by FIFA executives and their powerful commercial and political friends and heads of national football associations here in Europe. To learn more about how FIFA works and the (alleged) corruption charges faced by its executive body and particularly the FIFA President Sepp ‘Gangsta’ Blatter, checkout the 2006 documentary by BBC’s award-winning investigative news program Panaroma “The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup” and read the reports by investigative journalist Andrew Jennings at the Transparency in Sports website (see related articles at the end of this post). As I do not want to dwell on the negative aspects of The Beautiful Game and the clearly criminal organization that controls it worldwide (FIFA), let’s move on to why I am writing about the World Cup 2010 in South Africa today.

Any American who has friends and relatives from a football-loving nation knows when the discussion moves to soccer the United States is always at a disadvantage; this is especially true when the World Cup competition rolls around. Team USA is the quadrennial underdog in the eyes of most of the world’s soccer fans, many claiming that the American team has about a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning a World Cup trophy in my lifetime. The constant kidding and ridicule of the U.S. National Men’s Soccer Team from my European and African friends of course makes me love the U.S. boys that much more.  The U.S. National Women's Soccer Team gets a lot more respect here in Europe and across the globe due to their winning record in international competition over the years.

Every four years during the days and weeks leading up to the final countdown to the opening game of the FIFA World Cup there is a huge amount of outrageous boasting and threats of (bloodless) combat on the soccer pitch as the world’s finest national football teams meet to compete for the golden trophy valued above all other sports trophies in the world. So my question to you, my readers out there all over the globe, are you excited that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is finally here? I’m ready!

So are more than 136,000 American soccer fans who will be attending the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, more visitors from any other country in the world outside of the host nation. Millions more of 'US' around the world and back home in the States will be rooting not only for our boys but we shall also cheer for the “underdogs” from countries that according to many football experts and pundits don’t have a chance to make it through to the second round of play. I don't know about you but I am expecting a number of surprises and upsets in the World Cup 2010 games.

This year’s competition promises to be something very special, unlike any FIFA World Cup extravaganza in the history of the game. What has caught my attention while reading various articles and viewing TV news reports leading up to the opening of the games is the importance this year’s games has for people all across the African continent. A good example of the shear joy and excitement that the South Africa 2010 games has inspired in hundreds of millions of Africans from Cairo to Cape Town is portrayed in a commercial ad by the sportswear company Puma. If you are one of my readers who enjoyed the ARTE TV (France, Germany) video links contained in my previous post about Africa’s 50 years of independence from colonialsm, you will love this short video about African football:

PUMA: ‘Journey of Football’ online video ad
PUMA Football website (videos, blog, news, features)

These games are a very big deal for people all across the African continent, despite the many controversies and negative media coverage that has been directed at the South African organizers and government officials over the past years and months. As one of South Africa’s favorite sons Bishop Desmond Tutu has offered in a recent statement to the BBC News, the hosting of the World Cup 2010 proves to the world that Africans can successfully organize and host this extremely complicated (and yes expensive) international event. It is a ‘Yes We Can’ moment for nearly 1 billion people on the African continent. Personally, I never had any doubts that they could do it. So for the next four weeks, as time allows, I am going to sit back and thoroughly enjoy together with billions of people from all around the globe some the best sports (and cultural) entertainment on the planet.

Are you excited about the World Cup 2010 in South Africa yet? Get excited by taking some time to watch these games and embrace the outreach of humanity and love from all of Africa to the world.

“Football is the reason we have feet! We love this game.”


Related articles and resources for the World Cup 2010 South Africa

BBC World Service
World Cup 2010 Africa Kicks

BBC Sport Special
BBC SPORT - Football - World Cup 2010 (full coverage)
Piers Edwards’s African Football Blog
Piers Edwards’s Blog: Algeria eager to make up for lost time
Paul Fletcher's Blog: The father and son plotting England's downfall
Andrew Harding on Africa (World Cup 2010 and other Africa news)
Africa's abandoned football legend (Ndaye Mulambe of Zaire, D.R. Congo)

BBC Programmes: Panorama
The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup by Andrew Jennings

Transparency in Sport
(personal website of BBC Panorama investigative journalist Andrew Jennings who broke the story on FIFA bribes and corruption in 2006)

The Guardian (UK)
Football: Panorama to investigate Fifa bosses

PumaFootball.com
PUMA / Orange Africa Cup of Nations, ANGOLA 2010

The New York Times
New York Times Sports - World Cup 2010 (full coverage)
Special Report - 2010 World Cup - Soccer Returns to Its Roots in Africa
Can the U.S.A. beat England on Saturday?
NY Times Point/Counterpoint interactive feature

Kenyan Pundit (Ory Okolloh blogging from Johannesburg, S.A.)
Kenyan Pundit » On Loving Football
Renowned African blogger and Harvard Law School graduate Ory Okolloh tells what it was like growing up in Nairobi, Kenya with a football-crazed father.

Spiegel Online International (German news magazine, English edition)
The Reality of the Rainbow Nation: 16 Years after Apartheid, South Africa Fights for Its Future
World Cup Jitters: Excitement and Tension Run High in South Africa
Photo Gallery: The Passion and Pleasure of African Football
A New Slave Trade?: Europe's Thirst for Young African Footballers
Photo Gallery: Dreams of Europe
The Beautiful Game in Africa: 'Football Is the Reason We Have Feet'

Reuters Africa News
Image of a continent hangs on World Cup

CNN International
World Cup South Africa 2010 - Special Coverage on CNN.com
CNN World Sport Goalmouth » 2010 World Cup blog

TIME.com
World Cup 2010 - TIME’s coverage of South Africa's festival of football
Fabio Fumes and the Diplomats Raise the — ahem — Steaks - World Cup 2010

Sports Illustrated Magazine (USA)
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (full coverage)

ESPN Sports TV Network (USA)
FIFA World Cup 2010 - Football / Soccer - ESPN Soccernet

'Half the Sky': New York Times Magazine special on how to help empower the world's women and girls

Cover: The New York Times Magazine
Sunday August 23, 2009


Saving the World’s Women: How changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything

This week’s edition of the New York Times Magazine (Aug. 23, 2009) is a special issue dedicated to women’s issues and gender equality for the world’s women. Featured on the cover of the magazine (print edition) is a photo of a woman from Burundi, a woman who could not read or write, who was able to get away from literal enslavement in her hut, escaping the grinding poverty of life in her village, with the help of a US $2 dollar micro-loan. Now she is the main breadwinner for her family and a shining example for her whole community. She is living proof of what women can achieve with even the smallest amount of help from people who care.

This special issue of the New York Times Magazine is an excellent tie-in to the series I am working on at present about US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Africa and her tour of the hospitals and clinics for violent rape victims and brutal attacks against women and girls (and now men and boys as well) in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

So I will not waste a lot of your time with my opinions on how we all can do more, much more, to support women and girls in developing countries around the globe. The New York Times Magazine writers and contributors have done such a lovely job of bringing these important issues and needs to the forefront. Here are recommended ‘must reads’ in this special issue of the magazine:

The Women’s Crusade by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn 08/17/09
Nicholas D. Kristof is a New York Times Op-Ed columnist and Sheryl WuDunn is a former Times correspondent who works in finance and philanthropy. This essay is adapted from their book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” which will be published next month by Alfred A. Knopf. You can learn more about “Half the Sky” at Nicholas Kristof’s blog ‘On the Ground’.

Related multimedia and photo slideshows:
A Powerful Truth (audio/photo slideshow: Nicholas Kristof narrates, photography by Katy Grannan, produced by Zahra Sethna)
Must See: Holding Up Half the Sky - Lens Blog
Halftheskymovement.org – official website for the book and the network

Questions for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Madame President - Interview 08/18/09
Deborah Soloman interviews Liberia’s president in the wake of Secretary Clinton’s visit, photography by photojournalist and blogger Glenna Gordon (Scarlett Lion). I shall be writing more about Glenna Gordon’s wonderful photography of the people of Uganda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in my continuing series on Hillary Clinton in Africa.

Related posts at Glenna Gordon’s blog (Scarlett Lion)
Scarlett Lion - NTYM: Interview with Madame President 08/20/09
Scarlett Lion - “Ma Ellen n Hilary Clinton r Sisters” 08/14/09
Scarlett Lion - Context Africa: village life makes it to the mainstream media 08/11/09

New York Times Magazine (continued)
A New Gender Agenda interview by Mark Landler 08/18/09
Excerpts from an interview with Secretary Clinton shortly before here Africa trip re: the Obama administration’s strategies to help empower womaen and about the violence against women and girls in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo__

Q: I’m curious about what priorities you’re setting. Will the Obama administration have a signature issue — sex trafficking or gender-based violence or maternal mortality or education for girls — in the way that H.I.V./AIDS came to symbolize the Bush-administration strategy?

Clinton: We are having as a signature issue the fact that women and girls are a core factor in our foreign policy. If you look at what has to be done, in some societies, it is a different problem than in others. In some of the societies where women are deprived of political and economic rights, they have access to education and health care. In other societies, they may have been given the vote, but girl babies are still being put out to die.

So it’s not one specific program, so much as a policy. When it comes to our global health agenda, maternal health is now part of the Obama administration’s outreach. We’re very proud of the work this country has done, through Pepfar, on H.I.V./AIDS [the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was begun by George W. Bush in 2003]. We’ve moved from an understanding of how to deal with global AIDS to recognizing it’s now a woman’s disease, because women are the most vulnerable and often have no power to protect themselves. And it’s increasingly younger women or even girls.

But women die every minute from poor maternal health care. You know, H.I.V./AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria — those are all, unfortunately, equal-opportunity killers. Maternal health is a woman’s issue; it’s a family issue; it’s a child issue. And for the United States to say to countries that have very high maternal mortality rates, “We care about the future of your children, and in order to do that, we care about the present of your women,” is a powerful statement.
…………

Q: Gender-based violence is an enormous issue in much of Africa, and in places like Congo, rape, as you know, is an instrument of war. How can you, or anybody else, hope to combat that?

Clinton: President Obama and I and the United States will not tolerate this continuation of wanton, senseless, brutal violence perpetrated against girls and women. We don’t know exactly what we can do, but we are going to be delivering some aid and some ideas about how to better organize the communities to deal with it. We’re going to sound the alarm that this is not all just unexpected and irrational.

These militias, which perpetrate a lot of these rapes and other horrific assaults on girls and women, are paid well, or realize the spoils of guarding the mines. Those mines, which are one of the great natural resources of the Congo, produce a lot of the materials that go into our cellphones and other electronics. There are tens of millions of dollars that go into these militias that, in effect, get translated into a sense of impunity that is then exercised against the weakest members of society.

The ambassador for war crimes, Steve Rapp, has the distinction of being among the first international prosecutors to win a case on gender violence, and I specifically wanted him to take on this role, because I want to highlight this issue.

End excerpts___

Related article at the New York Times:
Clinton Presses Congo on Minerals by Jeffrey Gettleman 08/10/09


Technorati tags:gender equality women's rights human rights Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Michelle Obama government foreign policy USA Africa Asia Middle East Americas Europe global voices

Laos: A Cry to Heaven Part 3 - Geopolitics & Money

Note: I was getting really bummed out for several days in trying to successfully bring this sad story about the Lao Hmong to an end and press on with new material. But then I read some news today about the continuing struggles of desperate people trying to escape the oppressive regime in Burma (CNN) only to lose their lives through suffocation in an overheated, abandoned freight container at the Thai border. The independent Thai newspaper The Nation (Bangkok) has a good editorial about the tragedy “Deaths of Burmese bring shame on us”. The Irrawady news magazine published an earlier report titled “Migrants are Not Commodities” about Thailand’s love-hate relationship with illegal and legal migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. Human trafficking for prostitution and dirt cheap (slave) labor is becoming a huge problem down in paradise.

The Lao Hmong refugees featured in this series of posts have been on the run since 1975 after suffering decades of civil war and the loss of over one third of their people, and they continue to fight for their lives to this very day. Who am I to think that I should give up on their story when they have been able to hold on for so long?

One thing that I have learned about this little known humanitarian crisis is that nothing is as simple as it seems. The historical and cultural relationships between the various ethnic groups of the Mekong region, the way governments function domestically and interact with neighboring countries, the geo-politics of foreign governments and international aid and development organizations, foreign investors and businesspeople: all play an important role in the lives of “the forgotten veterans” and the 500 million other people living in SE Asia today.

So let’s press on, shall we, and see where this interesting story leads us.

Part 3 of “Laos: A Cry to Heaven in the Land of a Million Elephants”
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series

The growing political and economic relationships between the Lao PDR, China, Thailand, and Burma (Myanmar) have been garnering attention in the international press over the past several months, especially after the successful conclusion of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Summit in Vientiane, Laos in March. According to an April 7th Associated Press article, Laos Fears China’s Footprint, the People’s Republic of China has been the subject of deep concern among citizens in the Lao capital Vientiane. Their angst is over a dubious “land for loans” deal between the Lao regime and the Chinese government in exchange for building a new sports complex on prime natural wetlands on the outskirts of the Lao capital. Reuters reports these same fears extend to villagers living in rural parts of the country because of growing foreign investment in rubber plantations and the agri-business sector. The Lao Deputy Prime Minister was forced to give a rare public news conference in February to defuse Vientiane residents’ fears of a “Chinese invasion”. KPL Lao News Agency had reported that a rumored 50,000 Chinese workers were poised to move into the capital city of 460,000 residents.

This has not been a good week for China in the world press and international news media as we all know, and to make matters worse India is continuing to move in on China’s economic and political territory in Southeast Asia.

So where does America and other countries fit into this picture of renewed economic growth and progress toward better governance in the Mekong region? I would have guessed that the U.S. has little influence over certain Mekong countries due to the terrible legacy of the Vietnam War and thorny issues such as UXO (unexploded ordnance) cleanup and MIA/POW’s. The same legacy would presumably apply to France (1st Indochina War) and America’s close allies in the Vietnam War: South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand.

Presuming that the U.S.A. has limited political and economic leverage with key GMS countries (Vietnam, Laos and Burma) would be logical, but ill informed. Here are two views from one well know Southeast Asian scholar that tell a different story.


Shifting Alliances and Economic Opportunity in Southeast Asia
(Continued from Part 2)

China is very eager to increase trade with the GMS countries and expand its influence there. In a report published in 2005 by Dr. Ian Storey, a fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, he states the following:

China and Vietnam's Tug of War over Laos by Dr. Ian Storey
AsiaMedia newsletter at UCLA Asia Institute – June 7, 2005

In at least one Southeast Asian country -- Laos -- the competition for influence is not between the US and China, but between historic rivals China and Vietnam, writes Ian Storey

Much has been written on the competition for influence in Southeast Asia among the Great Powers, particularly the United States and China, and how Beijing has made significant inroads in this respect over the past few years. However, in at least one Southeast Asian country – Laos – the competition for influence is not between the U.S. and China, but between historic rivals China and Vietnam. The United States is not a major player in Laos – its interests are narrowly focused on resolving Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) issues left over from the Vietnam War, and securing Laotian cooperation in the "war on terrorism." In fact, until December 2004 Laos was one of only three countries (the other two being North Korea and Cuba) denied Normal Trade Relations (NTR) with the United States. Although Japan is the largest provider of aid to Laos, it has not translated this largesse into political influence.

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) is a small, underdeveloped country situated in the heart of mainland Southeast Asia. As the only landlocked country in the region, it is bordered by China, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Subsistence farming employs more than 80 percent of its 5.7 million people, reducing Laos to the status of one of the poorest countries in Asia. Laos is ranked 135th in the United Nation's 2004 Human Development Index of 177 countries, the lowest of any member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Laos joined in 1997. The LPDR has a per capita income of around $300.

Laos is one of only five remaining communist countries in the world. Since its foundation in December 1975, the LPDR has been ruled by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). For the first decade of its existence, Laos had a "special relationship" with Vietnam which was built on the close links forged between the LPRP and Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) in the 1930s. These links enabled Hanoi to exercise a controlling influence over the Lao communist movement during the "thirty years struggle" (1945-1975), despite the fact that Beijing essentially underwrote the Pathet Lao's (the LPRP's military wing) war effort. In 1977, Laos and Vietnam entered an alliance which caused severe strains in Lao-PRC relations. These strains were exacerbated in 1978 when Laos supported Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia.

From the mid-1980s, however, Laos sought to decrease its dependence on Vietnam by reaching out to the United States, China, and ASEAN countries. Vientiane's motive was primarily economic: aid from the USSR and Vietnam was drying up, and Laos looked to more economically advanced countries to help rejuvenate the moribund economy. In the post-Cold War era, three countries dominate Lao foreign relations: Vietnam, Thailand, and China.

Although Vietnam is no longer the cornerstone of Lao foreign policy, close personal relations between Laotian and Vietnamese leaders have ensured the survival of the "special relationship." It was Hanoi that enabled the LPRP to achieve power, something elderly LPRP cadres are not apt to forget. Although the 1977 alliance was allowed to lapse in 2002, the two countries continue to maintain close security links. Vietnam is also Laos' second biggest trading partner.

Thailand's interests in Laos are predominantly economic. Prior to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, cultural and linguistic advantages enabled Thailand to establish itself as Laos' primary economic partner. However, this situation was not met with unbridled enthusiasm by the Lao government, which feared becoming over-dependent on the Thai economy. These fears proved prescient; when the Thai economy buckled in mid-1997, the ripple effect on Laos in terms of lost trade and investment was severe. Nevertheless, Thailand remains Laos' leading trade partner, taking nearly 50 percent of its exports. But Bangkok's political influence is limited since Laotians perceive Thais to be overbearing and arrogant, and Lao nationalism tends to orient itself against Thailand.

In 1988, Beijing and Vientiane normalized relations, and since the Asian Financial Crisis China's profile in the LPDR has increased considerably. China's interests in Laos are threefold. The first is China's strategic imperative of fostering close relations with all countries along its borders. Beijing's ultimate aim is to displace the political influence of other countries in Laos, primarily Vietnam but also Thailand. Second, Laos' geographic position makes it a useful conduit through which Chinese goods from its Southwest provinces can flow into the Thai market. Since 2000, Beijing has paid special attention to the development of Laos' transportation infrastructure, particularly highways linking China with Thailand. Vientiane itself has been keen to promote itself as a "landlinked" country rather than a landlocked one, though it recognizes that China and Thailand stand to gain the most. Third, the PRC has expressed a strong desire to increase imports of natural resources from Laos, including timber, iron ore, copper, gold, and gemstones.

END excerpts___ Links to external websites added to original text for clarity

Now have a look at the Geopolitical Strategic View of the region from the same expert two years later in a paper published for the US Army War College – Strategic Studies Institute.

The United States and China-ASEAN Relations: All Quiet on the Southeast Asian Front by Dr. Ian Storey, October 2007

Summary

While the overall security situation in Southeast Asia is something of a mixed bag with grounds for both optimism and pessimism, one of the most encouraging trends in recent years has been the development of the Association for Southeast Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) re-lations with major external powers. Relations between China and ASEAN in particular have demonstrated a marked improvement over the past decade, thanks to a combination of burgeoning economic ties, perceptions of China as a more constructive and responsible player in regional politics, and Beijing’s “charm offensive” toward Southeast Asia. Overall, the development of ASEAN-China relations poses few security challenges to the United States: Good relations between China and ASEAN enhance regional stability, and a stable Southeast Asia is clearly in America’s interests, especially with Washington focused on events in the Middle East. Although ASEAN-China relations are very positive, this does not necessarily mean the United States is losing influence in Southeast Asia, or that ASEAN members are “bandwagoning” with China. In fact, they are hedging by keeping America engaged and facilitating a continued U.S. military presence. While ASEAN-China relations are relatively benign today, several sources of potential friction could create problems in Sino-U.S. relations: these are Taiwan, Burma, and the South China Sea dispute. This monograph examines each of these scenarios in turn.
----------------------------------------

Depending on one’s perspective, Southeast Asia in the early 21st century is either a glass half full or a glass half empty. The glass is half full in the sense that for the majority of countries in Southeast Asia, these are relatively stable, peaceful, and prosperous times. The economies of the region have either recovered fully, or are well on their way to full recovery, from the disastrous 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. Singapore and Malaysia have registered strong economic growth, while Vietnam has become the darling of foreign investors, and in 2006 its gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was second only to the PRC in Asia. Indonesia and the Philippines are experiencing good levels of growth (5-6 percent), while even Laos and Cambodia are achieving respectable levels of GDP growth. At the political level, the region has witnessed smooth leadership transitions in several countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam) and, most importantly, democracy is being consolidated in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest, and arguably most important, country. Indonesia is also witnessing perhaps the world’s most successful peace process in Aceh. At the security level, although territorial disputes continue to simmer, there is no danger that any of these will result in outright conflict. Indeed the chance of interstate conflict between the ASEAN states is almost (but not entirely) unthinkable. Transnational terrorist networks such as Jemaah Islamiyah have been disrupted (but not destroyed); piracy attacks are down thanks partly to the cooperative efforts of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia; and in the Philippines, there are cautious grounds for optimism that a peace deal for Mindanao can be concluded in 2007. At the corporate level, ASEAN has embraced a vision for the future—the ASEAN Community 2015—and efforts are underway to frame a charter for the next ASEAN summit in November 2007 which will give the organization legal underpinnings for the first time ever.

However, these developments do not mean that this observer has adopted a pollyannaish view of Southeast Asia. The glass is half empty in the sense that the region faces a host of serious security challenges, particularly transnational threats such as terrorism; communal and sectarian violence; and illegal trafficking in drugs, small arms, and people. Politically, the September 19, 2006, coup in Thailand, and continued rumors of coups in the Philippines, underscored the fragility of democratic institutions in Southeast Asia. Except for one or two countries, poor governance—corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, political instability, absence of rule of law, and ineffective government—remains widespread across the region. And while Aceh is a success story, the level of violence in Southern Thailand is escalating at an alarming rate. Moreover, some countries in Southeast Asia show characteristics of near-state failure, with Burma being the leading example. And while ASEAN has adopted a clear blueprint for the future, it remains to be seen whether the radical proposals suggested at the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, in January 2007, will survive the negotiations and expected opposition from newer members such as Burma.

One area where optimism is well-founded is ASEAN’s relations with major external powers such as the United States, China, Japan, and India. Relations between ASEAN and these countries have arguably never been better, particularly at the government-to-government level. ASEAN as a group conducts regular meetings and summits with its external partners, and several—including China, Japan, and India—have already acceded to the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) which is basically a code of conduct that governs relations among the ASEAN states and external powers. ASEAN remains in the driver’s seat in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and East Asia Summit (EAS) processes. Trade between the ASEAN states and China, Japan, and the United States is booming, and free trade negotiations between the member states and these countries will likely bolster this trend. At the security level, there is unprecedented cooperation between the ASEAN members and extra-regional powers, particularly over transnational security threats.

As both sides are happy to concede, relations between ASEAN and the PRC are at an historic high. Trade and investment ties are booming, and the PRC is widely perceived in Southeast Asia as the Asian growth engine that is largely responsible for helping the ASEAN economies recover from the 1997 economic crisis. The two sides have concluded a raft of agreements, developed a roadmap for future relations, and relegated formerly contentious security issues to the backburner. Overall, the burgeoning relationship between ASEAN and China is, I would aver, good news for the United States. The United States has a vested interest in a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Southeast Asia. It allows the United States to focus on more pressing issues in the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran’s nuclear ambitions) and Northeast Asia. Indeed, the security dynamics in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia are very different. Whereas in Northeast Asia the major security issues stem from bilateral disputes and rivalries (i.e., North and South Korea, China and Taiwan, China and Japan), in Southeast Asia security issues are largely internal in nature (separatism, insurgency, and terrorism). By and large, these are not issues that create severe tensions between Southeast Asian states and external powers, and, on the contrary, they have engendered good cooperation.

There are, in my view, few potential challenges for the United States vis-à-vis improved ASEAN-China relations, at least in the short-to-medium term. Although China’s economic, political, and even military profile has been rising in Southeast Asia for more than a decade, this does not mean that the ASEAN states have lost interest in the United States, or that the PRC is on the cusp of becoming Southeast Asia’s regional hegemon. Southeast Asian countries value the United States as a trade and investment partner and, perhaps more importantly, still view it as Asia’s key off-shore balancer.

End excerpts____

At the end of the day, it’s all about the money. Commerce, trade and political stability will trump ‘human rights’ concerns every time.

Also have a look at the following articles and reports:
Heritage Foundation: Enabling ASEAN’s Economic Vision
China Development Brief: Communist capital flows downstream: China’s aid to Laos

End Part 3: A Cry to Heaven in the Land of a Million Elephants
Part 4 coming soon

Technorati tags:Southeast Asia Asia Laos Thailand Vietnam USA China Burma globalization business natural resources corruption veterans war politics foreign affairs human rights refugees Global Voices

Laos: A Cry to Heaven in the Land of a Million Elephants - Part 2

‘A Cry to Heaven in the Land of a Million Elephants’ - Part 2
(Note: Read Part 1 of this report series here)

I have to admit that despite all of the news this month about the uprising of the Tibetan people against repressive Chinese rule and all of the talk about boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the story out of Asia that I have been following is the plight of the Lao Hmong families trapped in the highland jungles of northern Laos and the thousands of Hmong refugees holdup in makeshift camps and detention centers in Thailand.

I couldn’t help but thinking as I read article after article about this humanitarian crisis that the threads of life and death for these families are in the hands of a few powerful political leaders in the region. Diligence in trying to get to the bottom of this important story has paid off. I think I can shed new light on why the brutal persecution of the Hmong along with other minority ethnic groups in Laos is taking place today with impunity. In addition to the excellent reporting by investigative journalists who have covered the story for Time Magazine, The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and most recently at Aljazeera (see Part 1 of this post series) this is what I have been able to turn up with the help of the Internet.

History of the Conflict between the Pathet Lao and the Hmong

The conflict between the Hmong and the LPRP (Lao People’s Revolutionary Party) goes back to the rise of the Pathet Lao in Laos (1961-62), a time when the country was struggling to establish a sovereign government after independence from France and the end of the 1st Indochina War. According to the master’s thesis “The Laos State and Hmong Relationship” by Dengnoi Reineke (Brown University, Department of International Studies, 2005):

Laos continues to be politically unstable. Specifically, it is the domestic situation that has been problematic for Laos’ economic, social and political development. City bombings by insurgent groups at local restaurants, tourist hotels and outside markets continue to serve as legitimate travel warnings against visiting the country issued by the US Embassy.

Although there have been reports of possibly various groups that are involved in these activities, the Hmong group has been the group highly suspected by the Lao government. Most reports and sources cite the Hmong insurgent groups as the main terrorists and speak of their arrests. These bomb threats and other forms of Hmong protests throughout the country’s history have largely been sparked by years of social, economic and political oppression. Presently, displaced by opium eradication programs which are heavily supported by the international community, the Hmong have found themselves aimlessly wandering into the cities of Laos.

Their poverty and presence are prominent in make-shift tin shacks illegally scattered all over on government land. Some of these shacks line along the Lao border with the Mekong River and obstruct views to Thailand, where thousands more Hmong expatriates from the Vietnam era and their families wait in exile for asylum abroad. Illiterate and unskilled, Hmong children and families are forced to take up menial, humiliating or dangerous jobs that pay almost nothing for a full twelve to sixteen hour work-day. Most Hmong are forced to adjust to make ends meet in their new environment that is steadily becoming more modernized.
…………..
Prior to 1975, the Lao government did not have any policies that specifically dealt with ethnic minority groups living in the country, “apart from directing them to resettle in the lowlands in order to adopt a less migratory mode of production” [Stuart-Fox 1982:208]. The state military was used to assist in this and other similar projects. The first attempt by the Pathet Lao to address Hmong displacement caused by the Vietnam War was in the 1976 Repatriation Act. So, far 1996 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that about 30,000 Hmong refugees have been returned to Laos. In 1976, those who repatriated lived under strict government control, protecting them from outside enemy infiltration, “heavy agricultural taxation, and official control on family livestock” [Stuart-Fox 1982: 209]. During this time the Hmong remained in isolation though and access to medical supplies and education were non-existent under this program.
……………
The resettled Hmong under this new regime were put through political indoctrination re-education programs and labor collectivization or “work cooperatives” were imposed upon them. Most resettled Hmong at the time were given official authority to cultivate opium, an economic sector which the Pathet Lao came to be one of the leading [suppliers] in the world market [Stuart-Fox 1982: 210].
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Because of the Hmong’s involvement in the Vietnam War, in which they fought alongside the United States against the Pathet Lao and Viet Minh soldiers, many Hmong fear for their lives. It has been suspected that the Pathet Lao has systemically persecuted and killed Hmong repatriates. It is also believed that the Pathet Lao, as a “pre-emptive” act, has also killed those Hmong suspected of possible insurgent activities, but these suspicions are not grounded on any evidence.

Many Hmong settled in the United States have been lobbying Congress, since late 1970s, to focus its attention on the Hmong people’s situation in Laos and violations of Hmong human rights. In 2005, one hundred Hmong-Americans living in Wisconsin “lobbied Congress…to draw attention to alleged human rights violations against ethnic Hmong.” The Hmong Americans have urged the United States to grant Hmong refugees asylum for their bravery in the war [Tumulty 2005]. Many Hmong, and many United States government officials, believe that the United States owes them this asylum.

Most of the Hmong refugees have lived in refugee camps since the mid 1970s. Since the year 2000 the Thai government and U.S. agencies have been forced to push the Hmong refugees back into Laos by gunpoint. The Hmong refuse to return, fearful of losing their lives to the Pathet Lao because of their allegiance to the American forces during the Vietnam War. According to medical and military [experts], these fears are not unfounded for these “experts claim that the ruling government of Laos has used Russian-made biochemical weapons against the Hmong…they are being forced to return to a nation that considers them less than human—to a fate of almost certain extermination” [LoBaido, 2000].

END excerpts___
Download the paper at The Watson Institute of International Studies
www.watsoninstitute.org/ds/thesis/Dengnoi_Reineke_NEW_THESIS.pdf

A March 2007 press release for a new report by Amnesty International titled “Hiding in the Jungle: Hmong under Threat” stated the following:

Thousands of men, women and children from the Hmong ethnic minority are living on the run from the military in Laos' mountainous jungle, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The Lao army continues to mount violent attacks on them, even though the jungle-dwellers' military capacity is all but depleted decades after some Hmong fought in the CIA-funded "Secret Army" in Laos during the Viet Nam war.The groups frequently move camp to evade the Lao military, who have attacked them with AK-47s and grenades both inside their camps and outside when they search for food. Large numbers of Hmong, including children, have scars and wounds from bullets and shrapnel. Fighting starvation, the groups spend 12-18 hours a day foraging for roots and husks. Children display the distended bellies and bleached hair of malnutrition. They have no access to healthcare, leaving the people open to diseases and infection from untreated wounds."The Hmong groups living in the jungle are destitute -- the Lao authorities have a responsibility to protect them, not least because of the children involved. Instead, their regular attacks mean the groups live in perpetual danger of their lives," said Natalie Hill, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.
………………………….
Despite numerous reports of killings and attacks by Lao security forces, Amnesty International is aware of only two cases that have been 'investigated' by the authorities -- and in both instances the authorities concluded the information about the attacks was fabricated and issued blanket denials. In one of the incidents, in April 2006, 17 children were among the 26 people who had been killed while foraging for food. Survivors said around 15-20 soldiers from the Lao People's Army had ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades.One young woman named "Pakou" described how her family was captured in the jungle when she was 18. She was taken alone to a police post where she was locked in a room for a year with two other Hmong women. They were repeatedly gang-raped by the police and made to do housework. After a year "Pakou" managed to escape, traumatised, across the border to Thailand.
…………………………
The Lao authorities refuse to allow human rights organisations unfettered access to areas of concern and only limited information is available about the fate of those Hmong who are deported back from Thailand or who choose to come down from the jungles to try to integrate into Lao society.In December 2006, 420 people emerged from the jungle in the north-eastern province of Xieng Khouang, apparently seeking to join mainstream society. Some 370 people had similarly left the jungle near the northern tourist town of Vang Vieng two months earlier. Nothing has been heard from either group since and Amnesty International is concerned for their safety."The Lao authorities must help any Hmong who want to move out of the jungle to reintegrate with mainstream society -- and they must allow UN bodies to monitor this process," said Natalie Hill.

END excerpts___
Read the full report Hiding in the Jungle: Hmong under Threat at the Amnesty International website.

Shifting Alliances Amid Economic Opportunity in Southeast Asia

Laos is a country that is “opening up to the world” after decades of rule by a secretive, repressive communist regime. Report after report tell of the progress made by the Lao government in recent years on economic reforms, attracting foreign investment and development aid, allowing more private ownership of small business, eradication of the opium trade, and increasing exports to the country’s neighbors Vietnam, Thailand, and China.

Tourism alone in Laos over the past 10 years has been increasing by as much as 30% per annum (1990 = 14,000 tourists, 2005 = 1.1 million tourists) bringing in much needed foreign currency revenue from US, European, and Asian visitors. Do an online search for “Laos” in any of the major search engines and you will come up with a zillion links to tourism and travel sites.

As reported by the International Rivers foundation, Laos has more than 70 planned hydropower dam projects, ten of which have been completed or are in various stages of construction. These hydroelectric projects are being financed by governments, private investors, and international banks. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and companies and investors from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, France, Norway, and Belgium are all in on the lucrative hydropower boom in Laos. This harnessing of the Laos’ abundant river power is helping the country to become a net exporter of electric power to its ASEAN neighbors such as Thailand. But that’s not all. Road infrastructure projects, timber, and mining are also in a boom stage in the Lao PDR.

Laos on Monday inaugurated the opening of an important new 2-lane paved highway partially financed by the Chinese government. This new road which was once part of the old opium smuggling route is an important trade and travel link in the 1800 Km long “north-south economic corridor” linking Kunming, China to Bangkok, Thailand. Thomas Fuller writing for the International Herald Tribune describes the new highway in his report of March 30th:

A highway that binds China and its neighbors

Luang Namtha, Laos: The newly refurbished Route 3 that cuts through this remote town is an ordinary strip of pavement, the type of two-lane road you might find winding through the backwoods of Vermont or sunflower fields in the French provinces.

On Leusa, 70, who lives near the road, calls it "deluxe." As a young woman, she traded opium and tiger bones along the road, which was then nothing more than a horse trail.

On Monday, the prime ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will officially inaugurate the former opium smuggling route as the final link of what they call the "north-south economic corridor," a network of roads linking the southern Chinese city of Kunming to Bangkok spanning 1,800 kilometers, or 1,100 miles.

The network, several sections of which were still unpaved as late as December, is a major milestone for China and its southern neighbors. The low-lying mountains here, the foothills of the Himalayas, served for centuries as a natural defensive boundary between Southeast Asian civilizations and the giant empire to the north. The road rarely follows a straight line as it meanders through terraced rice fields and tea plantations.

Today, those same Southeast Asian civilizations alternatively crave closer integration with that empire and fear its sway as an emerging economic giant. China, in turn, covets the land, markets and natural resources of one of Asia's least developed and most pristine regions.

END excerpts___

These are all good signs for the people of Laos. Who in their right mind would complain about economic and infrastructure improvements in this dirt poor country? Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was recently in the Lao capital Vientiane along with the PM’s of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma) attending the 3rd GMS Summit (Greater Mekong Sub-region). The Greater Mekong sub-region is a huge underdeveloped market made up of the six countries that share the Mekong River, a consumer market representing roughly 320 million people.

So there you have it. The Mekong River countries are in a period of potentially strong economic growth after decades of stagnation and political turmoil and war. The landlocked country of Laos (the Lao PDR) sits right at the center of the region’s surface transportation improvement program. In addition, Laos is abundant in natural resources such as timber, minerals, and a thousand rivers that can be harnessed for hydroelectric power generation. The country’s population is low (approx. 6.2 million people) in comparison to its size (roughly the size of the UK), and the Lao regime can pretty well do as it damn pleases without any pressure from its citizens, its ASEAN neighbors, or the international community. This is an (almost) perfect setup for maximum exploitation of life and limb if you ask me. The Hmong crisis is as about as worrisome as a tick on water buffalo’s rear-end for the regime in Vientiane. Or is it?

END Part 2____
Part 3 of “Laos: A Cry to Heaven in the Land of a Million Elephants” coming soon


Related articles and additional resources

Xinhaua News - Chinaview (People’s Republic of China)
3rd GMS Summit at Vientiane, Laos – March 30-31, 2008
Fact Sheet: Asian Development Bank and the Lao PDR
GMS Flagship Programs: North-South Economic Corridor (ADB)
Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS)

Gov.cn (official website of the People’s Republic of China)
Report on China’s Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation

U.S. Embassy in Vientiane, Laos
Ambassador’s press release on Normal Trade Relations, 12/15/04

Radio Free Asia (RFA)
U.S. Normalizes Trade Relations with Laos Amid Controversy, 12/10/04

Amnesty International – Asia Pacific - Laos
Laos: Destitute jungle dwellers living on the run from military, 03/23/07
AI Full Report: Hiding in the Jungle: Hmong under Threat, 03/27/08
Laos: Military atrocities against Hmong children are war crimes, 09/13/04

Doctors without Borders (MSF)
Fearing a Forced Return: Lao Hmong refugees in Northern Thailand, 10/01/07
MSF Field News: Laos

International Herald Tribune
A highway that binds China and its neighbors by Thomas Fuller, 03/30/08
Video report: Coming around the mountain by Thomas Fuller, 03/30/08
A desperate life for survivors of the Secret War in Laos by Thomas Fuller, 12/17/07
Note: see interviews with Hmong war veteran Xang Yang and video and photo essays

New Mandala blog – new perspectives on mainland Southeast Asia
Elephants, forests, and power – 03/20/08
The Lao resettlement controversy, 12/03/07
Internal resettlement in Laos – a response, 12/14/07
More on the Chinese in northern Laos, 10/07/07
The Nam Tha dam project in Laos, 09/30/07
Vang Pao aftermath on the upper Mekong, 09/28/07
Stranger than fiction? (arrest in U.S. of Hmong leader General Vang Pao) – 06/05/07
New Mandala Tags: Focus on Laos

Imaging Our Mekong - Mekong Currents – a monthly column about the people living in the Greater Mekong Subregion
Creating a Mekong Community by Rosalia Sciortino - Jan 2005 issue

International Rivers – protecting rivers and the people who depend upon them
Laos hydroelectric dam projects

BBC News
Vietnam ‘hub for illegal timber’, 03/19/08
(Environmental groups report on growing illegal timber trade with Laos)
Borderlines report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

Heritage Foundation (a conservative U.S. think tank)
Enabling ASEAN’s Economic Vision, 01/29/08
2008 Index of Economic Freedom: Laos
Advancing Freedom in Burma, 01/15/08
China and ASEAN: Endangered American Primacy in Southeast Asia, 10/19/05

The Boston Globe
Guerillas in Our Midst, 06/10/07
(article about the arrest of the famed Hmong General Vang Pao)

Laos Cultural Profile website - Introduction to Laos
(A portal providing detailed information about Laos. Created with support from the Rockefeller Foundation)

Wikipedia
History of Laos since 1945

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