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As I liked to watch movies so much, I went to any
movie showing in town.  They liked to have a movie at
the temple when they had Boun, or when someone of
importance passed away, they also had the movie
showing right in front of their front yard.  One movie
was still very much in my mind.  It was not exactly a
movie but a documentary about the actual fighting in
the Vietnam War during the Tet offensive in 1966. 
Maybe, because of that bloody massacres on the
civilian lives, I came to hate the Communists.  At one
time, I even called Neo Lao HakXat as Neo Lao KhaiXat.
 In fact, the government did a good job in propagating
that  Communism was an evil enemy of Lao people.  Not
a few times, the government had a public showing
featuring the capture of the North Vietnamese soldiers
in Lao soil.  No wonder Lao people were so afraid of
Communism that they would fled in hordes once the
Communist force had taken Laos.  My dad, being a more
mature person, came to view Neo Lao HakXat as a
patriotic force.  He knew General Singapore
Sikhotchunlamany (later became minister of
communication) and Outama Chounlamany (later became
deputy minister of education) as they came from the
same town, Thakek.  Besides, those two were some sort
of classmates of him .  It would take me quite some
time to realize the intricacy of politics and how
things work in the real world.  Nothing was in black
and white but shaded in an intricate spectrum of
color.  Sometimes, things appeared as if they were
good in nature but later they completely took a 180
degree turn.  And sometimes, things looked so bad but
later we found out they were not so much different
than any of us. Only an understanding heart would take
us through the web of constructed realities.  I was
glad that I was in a position to do so given the good
education my parents had put me in and the culture
that I always derived strength and wisdom from.
Wonder if any of us, the Lao, could see things as they
are and still come to love the land who exiled us and
the people who betrayed us.

(to be continued)







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