New Mandala

10 responses so far ↓

• 1 patiwat // Dec 15, 2006 at 2:30 pm

  Who are the english-language texts designed for? I can’t imagine Lao having any significant expats community. Is it for overseas non-Lao-speaking Lao or local english-speaking Lao?

• 2 Saowapha Viravong // Dec 19, 2006 at 8:05 am

  The parallel texts follow the example of so many Thai magazines today. For the Lao the obvious path for modernizing is to follow the Thailand example in most things. This is the basic answer, but there are many other aspects to your question that need to be discussed.

• 3 Paul Sidwell // Dec 19, 2006 at 11:53 am

  Astonishingly Patiwat “can’t imagine Laos having any significant expats community”, perhaps he should see for himself and give his imagination a rest. Given the strict censorship regime and other difficulties in importing or publishing in Laos, the extensive expat community is quite glad of the English language Vientiane Times and magazines with parallel texts. As for why parallel text publications exits at all, the explanation is more symbolic than practical (although with practical implications)l: putting Lao (or Thai) side by side with English gives it dignity and importance, by equating it graphically with the world’s most important language. One could write a PhD about the meanings and motivations underlying that.

• 4 Warren Mayes // Dec 19, 2006 at 3:25 pm

  The imagined expatriate community may even come second place to the tens of thousands of students in Vientiane (23,000 in higher education in 2005 with another 17,000 who could not get places) who have all been keenly learning English over the past decade. Update Magazine (cover photo above) specifically targets these students. It is filled with adverts for private colleges offering new international-style business degrees with English language components. If current trends continue, magazines like Update may not be needing an expatriate readership at all. The entire country wants to learn English.

• 5 patiwat // Dec 19, 2006 at 9:38 pm

  Paul, thanks for clarifying. While travelling in Lao, I mixed mostly with locals and Thai. I never saw the Irish pubs, coffee shops, and fancy restaurants that Bangkok and Hong Kong had led me to associated with an expat community.

  Could I ask what most expats in Lao do? In Bangkok or HK, it’s mostly in business. I wasn’t aware that there was much foreign investment in Lao.

• 6 Paul Sidwell // Dec 20, 2006 at 8:02 am

  Foreign investment in Laos is huge, it just that its run on the basis of a total captial loss, financed by governments and NGOs, rather than equity chasing a profit. Hence the expat community in Viengchan is dominated by government and NGO types rather than businessmen. As for “the Irish pubs, coffee shops, and fancy restaurants” they may not measure up to Bangkok, but they are booming compared to 10 years ago when I saw more buffalo in the streets of Vengchan than falangs. Such businesses service the newly rich Lao, as well the expat community.
  The investment model is simple – foreign financed “projects” invest in infrastructure which then becomes property of the Lao state (or its representatives) when they end. From the foreign side a project has been a success if all the money is spent and accounted for, and from the Lao side success means the project has ended and no further accounting is required. I know many stories of authorities treating foreign business ventures exactly the same way as they treat “projects” – once capital has been invested a pretext is contrived to end the venture and the investor walks away emptyhanded. Of course some businesses are allowed to succeed, and they are the only ones you can see – businesses that have come and gone are invisible.

• 7 anon // Dec 20, 2006 at 9:49 am

  Thanks for the explanation, Paul. The Build->Operate->Transfer isn’t too diferent from the model used in Thailand and other countries. Actually, Thailand uses the Build->Transfer->Operate Under Concession model a bit more, for instance in mobile telephony.

  Do the Lao authorities have rules on local management? In some countries, a foreign investor is required to use locals for a certain number or percentage of key management positions.

  Although initially inconvenient for the investor, it usually makes sense in the long run from both the investor’s perspective as well as society’s.

• 8 Saowapha Viravong // Dec 21, 2006 at 7:29 am

  Before this gets to a different issue, I just want to say that regardless of how many languages a magazine has, it is great that it is available. The bottom line is the more the better, whether it is just with Lao text or with English pararell text. Honestly I think more people will read if there are two langues, and the more publications available regardless of the price, the more chance that people will read and of course in any society the people who are in positions to buy will do that first anyway. Therefore we should be glad of the expats, the students, and everyone who is reading in the Lao PDR.

• 9 Paul Sidwell // Dec 21, 2006 at 8:03 am

  Thanks Anon. The characterisation “Build->Operate->Transfer” is, in my experience, an ideal rather than an everyday reality in Laos (frankly the expression strikes me as Orwellian New-Speak). Yes, Australia did build the Friendship Bridge, which is now operated successfully by the Lao, but this is a typical showcase project. Things are more “Lao” the further you get from the capital. Beyond the immediate view of tourists and well meaning Viengchan based expats, there is a world where projects are liquidated the moment foreigners backs are turned, and the cash/capital converted into private wealth.
  Re “Do the Lao authorities have rules on local management?” yes of course, typically projects must have a local authority appointed director, and project funds (part or all) must be administered through an account which is effectively controlled by local authorities. This is usually sufficient to ensure that things wind up fairly quickly. It all comes down to intentions of the local functionaries, who have an astonishing degree of autonomy, as long they adequately share their good fortune with their superiors. Westen conceptions of “rules” and “management” do not come into the equation.

• 10 FatPat // Mar 16, 2007 at 7:55 am

  this “Update”-magazine issue is in my opinion the work of a specific form of Lao cultural postmodernism. The fact that update “contains a special report on the Lao PDR National Assembly and the new government” (check the pictures and the layout – looks like straight from the 1970s just recoloured – hillarious!) is so interesting. The combination of sexy cover-girls and grim party-cadres in the inside is at least curious, funny or just bizarre. Is that just a crack in my perception? What do the Lao and falang readers think about that? Consumer society, fashion, life-style and the party-cadre united. This is truly the end of the grand narratives and the beginning of something new

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