Sabaydii my fellow Satjadham, First, let's make this month be a month of "change". Anyone who wants to share this topic with us, please feel free to do so. Also, Adisack, could you rewrite the posting schedule for others to sign up? So far, Soudary, Toon and Sacki have expressed their interest to join in this round, not to mention Alisak, me and you yourself who already signed in. By the way, here is my article. ***** Satjadham presents: Change or Perish By Kongkeo Saycocie Looking at the history, I find one thing that makes or breaks a country. That thing is the acceptance of rejection of change. Saying this, we tempt to conclude that as change is of this importance, why doesn’t a country change? First, just think of ourselves. Does it come easy to make a radical change? Or does it come to a stumbling block once our habit is severely challenged? When we talk about the country, it is a hundred times harder to change. Tradition, ways of doing things, temperament of people, national characteristics, vested interest, etc… combine to make change as hard as pushing a rock up the mountain. In this article, I will talk about how change makes the West a head start, how the East was reacting to change when it first encountered it, how the East is responding to change now. Also, what kind of changes do we need to revive the once-great Lan Xang? Starting as early as 600 years ago, any countries in Europe were poorer and more fragmented than the newly formed Lan Xang, not to mention the splendor of China. Then, how come Europe or the West in general has surpassed us and left us in the dust as late as 1960s? According to my reading in history, the West captures the importance of change better than us. They are less tradition bound, ready to challenge authorities and more radical in their perception of things therefore scientific breakthrough came to them first. With a matter of only less than a century after the scientific revolution, the West was able to succumb the whole world, and reduce most of the nations to their colonies, even the highly civilized China couldn’t escape the humiliation. Of all the non-white countries, only Japan was not subjected to either humiliation or colonization. The question is: how could Japan be an exception while the rest of the world especially China couldn’t? The answer lied in how visionary and pragmatic the leaders of both countries were. As history witnessed, the Chinese leaders resisted change by ignoring the technological innovation of the West, while the Japanese leaders embraced it by sending its students to learn the technology of the West with the zeal and passion of a Samurai warrior. The tiger countries consisting of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore were the next group who enthusiastically embraced change. They made a wave by joining the industrialized nations in the 80s. Recently, it was the ASEAN such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines who joined the newly industrialized rank. Of course, the U.S. policies obsessed with the deterrence of the Communist camp played a critical role in pumping money and investment in those countries. Still, the leaders in most of these nations especially the first group were both visionary and pragmatic following the legacy of the Japanese model. As a Buddhist and a socially conscious person, I am very much appalled by the injustice and exploitation done to the majority in the name of modernization. At the same time, I have to come to terms with modernization for it is the only way to save the country and its people from being perpetually exploited in the long run. The question is not whether to modernize or not, it is how visionary and pragmatic we are especially for our little country, Laos. As we are ready to join ASEAN, it is of utmost importance for our leaders to put our country and people above their own interest. If the vision is to make Laos a second Singapore with its technocrats running the country and managing the economy, our country must have a pool of highly educated people who know the working of the global economy as the Singaporean. In terms of time, it will need another generation to assemble that pool given that the educational system is capable and resourceful enough. Here, the problem is already in place. This is not to say that Lao educational system is of a lower quality but in order to compete successfully with the more developed countries like the ASEAN, we need to ask for more, not only in terms of quantity but of quality as well. The problem is that time is running out. If our country is slow in responding to the situation, the opportunity to stand on our own economically will be gone. And once it is gone, it is gone. To me, the key issue in bringing back the once great Lan Xang is the unity of all Lao and the time is now while everything is still fresh. If Lao is Lao to the heart and soul, if Lao is really a nationalist, and if Lao blood is boiling when reading that Vientiane was razed to the ground by the Siamese army during Chao Anou’s war of independence, Lao must find a way to make use of its educated pool overseas to help build the country. I am sure many of us abroad are Lao enough to come to its help when the honor of the country is on the line. Looking at the history, we can learn a great deal from it. If change is this important to the survival or perish of the country, and we still resist it for fear of losing face, vested interest, or whatever reason it is; it will be as if we learn nothing from history. Before ending this article, let me address these questions to all Lao, its leaders and its expatriates alike: what is Lao vision? Who is in it? If some people are left out, why? Where do we get all the necessary help? How realistic is it? And when will it be realized? Also, when will Lao be Lao? How can we bring back the once great Lan Xang? Who will love Muang Lao and Quon Lao more than Quon Lao? what can you do for Muang Lao? Where are our skills and expertise most needed? Isn’t time that we ask these questions seriously? ***** -- Hak phaang, Kongkeo Saycocie http://www.cs.sonoma.edu/~saycocie/sjdnews.html