From Laos to Richmond, local man honored by White House for environmental activism

From Laos to Richmond, local man honored by White House for environmental activism

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/west-county-times/ci_23316177/from-laos-richmond-local-man-honored-by-white

By Robert Rogers
This Story was from Contra Costa Times

Posted:   05/24/2013 09:29:56 AM PDT

Updated:   05/24/2013 10:32:07 AM PDT

RICHMOND — When Lipo Chanthanasak was honored last month at the White House for his environmental justice work, he felt he wasn’t alone.

“I didn’t take the award as just for me,” Chanthanasak said through an interpreter. “It was for all low-income communities fighting together. I received the honor for all people in Richmond.”

The 73-year-old Laotian emigre only speaks Khmu, a tribal dialect from his native Northern Laos, but his words have stirred people in Richmond since 1991. He has been a forceful critic of Chevron’s local refinery and of fossil fuel consumption generally, and is a leading member of The Asian Pacific Environmental Network’s (APEN) local chapter.

For his efforts, Chanthanasak was one of 12 recipients of the Champions of Change Award, given to people each week by The White House Council on Environmental Quality for their work raising awareness about climate change and advocating for renewable energy development. While at the White House, he also took part in a panel discussion with other award recipients.

Chanthanasak was honored again Thursday night with a ceremony at the Nevin Community Center.

“Community members like Lipo are leading the way to healthy, safe and prosperous communities for all of us,” Roger Kim, executive director of APEN, said in a prepared statement.

Chanthanasak’s small stature and soft-spoken, native tongue — he came to the United States in his 50s with little formal education and never learned English — belies a lifetime of fervent idealism and moral righteousness.

He grew up in Phoualn, a tiny village of about 200 people in Northern Laos. During the Vietnam War, he fought with a guerrilla unit alongside American troops and the CIA. When Laos fell to the communists in 1975, Chanthanasak fled to Thailand.

He returned to Laotian jungles in 1977 to join the resistance movement. In 1985, Chanthanasak returned to Thailand and landed in a refugee camp, he said.

Finally allowed into the United States in 1991, Chanthanasak faced a new reality that bore echoes of the old.

“My community faced chemical pollution, and I saw that those who suffer most are the low-income people,” Chanthanasak said. “But here they stand up and demand change. The injustice creates the resistance.”

For years, Chanthanasak has marched at rallies and spoken at City Council meetings, always with the aid of an interpreter. His dogged but largely unsung work was finally recognized in Washington, D.C., which he hopes will only intensify the spotlight on communities that suffer on the front lines of what he calls “fossil fuel dependency.”

APEN has been among Chevron’s staunchest critics, relentlessly prodding the energy giant to reduce emissions and convert more of its operations from fossil fuel refining to renewable energy production. Chanthanasak has been a key link between the group and the city’s sizable Laotian community.

“Richmond is a community that can help lead the world toward renewable energy that doesn’t harm health and the environment,” he said. “We are proving that we can produce local clean energy good for the economy and the environment, and we can continue to push our governments in that direction.”

Contact Robert Rogers at 510-262-2726 or rrogers@bayareanewsgroup.com and follow Twitter.com/roberthrogers

burning issue: Fresh ideas needed in ties with Laos

BURNING ISSUE:

Fresh ideas needed in ties with Laos

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Fresh-ideas-needed-in-ties-with-Laos-30206697.html

Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation May 22, 2013 1:00 am

Relations between Thailand and Laos in the 21st century have already moved toward a new era, which requires not only trust and cooperation, but also a new vision to make the links mutually beneficial to people of both countries.

The joint cabinet meeting between the two governments jointly chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong over the weekend in Chiang Mai reflected no clear vision for their ties in a new era. It simply followed up work which previous governments had initiated.

Many visionary and capable Thai leaders in the past were able to open new chapters in relations with Laos. Former Prime Minister Kriangsak Chamanant, together with Laotian leader Kraisone Pomvihan, managed to end mistrust in 1979 and brought the two brotherly countries into close relations, despite their different political ideologies.

Conservative forces in Bangkok halted the good ties with two military clashes in 1984 and 1987 due to boundary conflicts during Prem Tinsulanonda’s years – but such sour relations lasted for only a short time.

Visionary leader Chatichai Choonhavan dramatically led relations between Thailand and Laos into a genuine new era as he declared the policy to transform Indochina’s battle zone into a market zone at the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. Such a policy has been fundamental for the relationship until now.

Anand Panyarachun and Chuan Leekpai during their time guided relations with Laos to regionalism and regional integration when they introduced economic liberalisation, connection and integration with Asean to the two countries.

Thaksin Shinawatra might have his problems domestically but he was famous in many neighbouring countries for his brainchild projects linking them in the Mekong basin. His initiative, the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), is still active in developing infrastructure as well as providing assistance to Laos. The latest summit of ACMECS took place with participation by Yingluck in Vientiane in March this year.

However, there has been no new policy initiative in relation to Laos since the 2006 military coup, as many governments over the years since then have been busy with domestic conflicts.

This government under Yingluck is no exception. Although the current government is relatively free from domestic political tension, it offers no policy initiative for ties with Laos. The joint statement signed by foreign ministers of the two countries reflected no new vision for future relations.

One part of the statement is even locked into relations of the 1980s. It stated that Thailand would not allow any dissidents to use Thailand as their shelter or as a launching PAD against the government in Vientiane. The anti-communist movement in Thailand has not been active since the beginning of this century, but Laos continued to worry over dissidents and mistrusted Thailand.

This government was supposed to have a policy initiative on economic relations with Laos, but it was not to be. Projects on economic and transportation links were mostly created after Chatichai, Chuan and Thaksin’s administrations.

The two countries have learned already that many road links and bridges were under-utilised due to fewer economic activities in the area. Border-crossing transportation was obstructed by bureaucracy, but ideas to liberate it have never been translated into tangible projects. The schedule to implement single-stop inspection services has been repeatedly delayed.

Asia Pacific: Proposed high-speed rail network a high investment for Laos?

This story was from channelnewsasia.com

Proposed high-speed rail network a high investment for Laos?

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/proposed-high-speed-rail-network-a-high-/682812.html

• By Anasuya Sanyal
• POSTED: 21 May 2013 4:54 PM

High-speed railway lines connecting Thailand, Laos and China might soon become a reality after the Thai cabinet met with its Lao counterparts in Chiang Mai earlier this week.

File photo: Laotian boys ride on a motorcycle with a sidecar attached in Luang Prabang, Laos. (AFP/Roslan Rahman)

THAILAND: High-speed railway lines connecting Thailand, Laos and China might soon become a reality after the Thai cabinet met with its Lao counterparts in Chiang Mai earlier this week.

The proposal would have a major impact on the region as there is currently only vehicle crossing from ASEAN countries into China.

Both governments are planning to spend billions on countrywide railroad infrastructure.

But in Laos, the plan will be nothing short of radical as the country’s rail networks are practically non-existent.

The proposed massive rail projects will require loans totalling over half of the country’s GDP, which was US$8.3 billion in 2011, according to the World Bank.

Chadchart Sittipunt, Thailand’s transport minister, said: “I think the key message for Laos will be how to create value for this high-speed train for Laos. I think we need to talk because I think there will be a lot of investment for Laos. But how will they create value from this big investment? If they can do it, it will be a good connection between Kunming (China), Laos, and Thailand.”

Rail links are not a surefire benefit to Laos’ economy.

Nevertheless, Vientiane’s ambition to transform the landlocked country into an integrated regional player is gaining support from its neighbours.

Last year the Thai government agreed to finance a US$55 million project to build a short railway line bridging Laos’ capital with Thailand’s Nong Khai province, while it plans its own railway overhaul to be completed in 2020 at a cost of US$69.6 billion.

- CNA/xq

Laos government silent on abduction

Officials of one-party state likely behind disappearance although it’s unclear when Sombath Somphone became a threat

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Laos+government+silent+abduction/8320002/story.html

By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun May 1, 2013 2:10 AM

It’s hard to guess when Som-bath Somphone crossed the line from being an accepted and cherished champion of rural development in Laos, to becoming a perceived threat to the one-party Communist state.

But that’s what happened.

Early in the evening of Dec. 15 as Sombath was driving home in his Jeep from his office in the Lao capital Vientiane he was stopped at a police checkpoint on Thadeua Road, which runs by the Mekong River.

A few minutes later a man rode up on a motorcycle, parked it and drove off in Som-bath’s jeep.

Then a pickup truck arrived at the checkpoint, Sombath got in, the truck drove off and he has not been seen or heard from since.

Others have disappeared in questionable circumstances in Laos, which, after the moves to civilian rule in Burma and economic reforms in Vietnam, remains the most recalcitrant one-party state in Southeast Asia.

The government of Prime Minister Thongsing Thamma-vong was particularly alarmed by the part played by civil society organizations in the Arab Spring revolutions which rolled across the Middle East in 2011 and which continue to reverberate.

The government began looking at civil society groups with suspicion.

Sombath, 61, is a champion of grassroots development organizations, but he is no radical or wild-eyed activist.

In the early 1970s, Sombath won a scholarship to the University of Hawaii where he got a master’s degree in agriculture.

He chose to return to Laos in 1980 and began work promoting methods of sustainable agricultural development in this country of 6.5 million people that was devastated more than anywhere else during the Vietnam War.

Sombath’s first objective was to establish food security by persuading villagers to use a sustainable cycle of farming based on rice cultivation.

In 1996, he expanded his vision by founding the Participatory Development Training Centre. This was licensed by the Ministry of Education in 1996 and was the country’s first civil society organization.

Again the emphasis was on sustainable, organic agriculture, and rural development. But he expanded the mandate to include using new processing techniques and adopting marketing strategies for small businesses.

The success of PADETC won Sombath many awards and much international recognition for his work.

Sombath never tried to confront the government and he negotiated the labyrinthian corridors of power of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party with consummate, but quiet skill.

But admiration for his success also brought emulation, and this may have been the cause of Sombath’s abduction and disappearance.

Many civil society groups have sprung up in Laos and the country has become a favourite focus for international nongovernmental organizations.

In general, the Lao government does not see these groups as partners in the quest to develop one of the world’s most impoverished countries.

It sees them as adversaries and rivals for power. Civil society organizations are closely monitored and restricted by government security officials.

Occasionally, the government lashes out at one of the NGOs to remind the others that tolerance of their activities has narrow limits.

In December, just a week before Sombath’s abduction, the country head of the Swiss agricultural NGO Helvetas, Anne-Sophie Gindoz, was expelled by the government.

Her sin appears to have been sending emails to colleagues complaining about the lack of freedom of speech in Laos.

The common factor with Som-bath is that Gindoz was heavily involved in a forum for local and international civil society organizations held in Vientiane in October.

Sombath was one of the prime movers for this meeting. To the one-party state fanatics in the government, it may well have looked like the emergence of a rival power base.

That can only be speculation. But had it not been for closed circuit television cameras on Thadeua Road it would not be possible to say with reasonable certainty that government elements were involved in his abduction. Sombath would simply have disappeared.

Members of his family persuaded police to show them the video footage from the crucial time that evening.

Most important, they secretly copied the police video using a cellphone camera. The footage is easily accessible on YouTube.

Lao refugees in the U.S., especially from the Hmong ethnic group who make up 40 per cent of the population, are a vocal and effective lobby group in Washington.

They have successfully pressed Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, to urge the Laos government to investigate the disappearance.

The Lao Americans have also urged Washington to stall aid projects in Laos until Vientiane comes clean about what happened to Sombath.

Many others, including the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, have put similar pressure on Vientiane.

But so far the Laos government has said only that it doesn’t have enough information to launch an investigation.

jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Laos+government+silent+abduction/8320002/story.html#ixzz2S2chtTgl

 

Life: CleanBirth.org kits save lives of women & children in Laos (video)

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://nhregister.com/articles/2013/04/28/life/doc517af9c3f0c7d766222298.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Published: Sunday, April 28, 2013

By Jean Cherni, jeancherni@sbcglobal.net

Every once in awhile, I meet someone whose life is so dedicated to helping others, I am left in awe of their unselfish determination to make a difference. Almost four years ago, I met and wrote about Madison resident Martha Hoffman who started Call to Care Uganda that to date, through her fundraising efforts, has provided money and resources for much-needed wells and schools in several villages.

Recently, it was a special privilege to meet and get to know a similarly unique woman, Kristyn Zalota who is passionate about preventing the needless deaths of mothers and babies in Laos by training village nurses and providing simple, inexpensive birthing supplies as well as educating pregnant women.

Kristyn grew up in Cromwell and graduated from Yale with a master’s in international relations and a focus on Russia. Fluent in Russian, she traveled to foreign centers doing analysis of the political and economic climate. With her expertise, she could have had high-paying positions with the government or industry. Instead, while in Russia, she met her husband to be, Maxim, a computer scientist who had attended college in Michigan, and they both decided to volunteer to serve as teachers in Thailand.

During their teaching contract, they also were able to travel to Laos and were devastated by the poverty and the many orphaned children they saw there. Settling in England where her husband received his MBA at Oxford and Kristyn had a baby, they then came back to Connecticut where Maxim started a small software company.

However, Kristyn could not forget the many orphaned children she had seen in Laos. They were left motherless because so many women were needlessly dying in childbirth. In fact, infant and maternal mortality rates in Laos are among the world’s highest. From 2008 to 2011, Kristyn worked with Burmese, Cambodian and Ugandan women, and then, in 2012, she partnered with Our Village Association.

In some remote areas of Laos, women even give birth alone in the forest. The simple clean birth kits and training provided has been recommended by the United Nations. The sterile kits contain a padded sheet for comfort and easy clean-up, a clean cord-cutting implement for clean cord-tying, medicated soap and a sterile surgical blade and cord clips, a biodegradable bag as well as pictorial instruction.

In training, the six cleans are stressed: clean hands, clean perineum, clean delivery surface, clean cord-cutting implement, clean cord-tying and clean cord care. CleanBirth.org recognizes the critical importance that the nurses they train, who share the same culture and religion as their patients, take ownership of the project.

When you learn that worldwide, one mother dies every 90 seconds from pregnancy and birth-related complications, and that 80 percent of those deaths are preventable, you realize how essential this work is. A donation of only $5 buys one of the birthing kits. A $10 donation makes a perfect gift for Mother’s Day or a baby shower. The recipient is gifted with a beautiful card showing a photograph of a Laotian mother and child and is inscribed with these words, “You have been given a gift that saves lives and makes birth safe for mothers and babies in Laos.” Cards may be ordered on line from CleanBirth.org.

LEND A HAND Meet Kristyn Zalota at a CleanBirth.org fundraiser from 6-9 p.m. May 4 in the Eli Whitney Museum Barn, 915 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Appetizers and wine will be served, and there is a silent auction. Zalota says the goal is to raise enough to train 16 nurses, and a 2½-minute film, “$5 Saves 2 Lives in Laos,” will illustrate CleanBirth.org’s work. Suggested donation is $20. Info at 860-391-9159 or kzalota@yahoo.com.

Contact Jean Cherni, certified senior adviser for Senior Living Solutions and Pearce Plus, a helpful, full-service program for seniors contemplating a move, at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net