INDUSTRIALIZATION AND COSUMERISM SAVING LAOS

NYTIMES: In Laos, Chinese Motorcycles Change Lives

LONG LAO GAO, Laos — The pineapple that grows on the steep hills above the Mekong River is especially sweet, the red and orange chilies unusually spicy, and the spring onions and watercress retain the freshness of the mountain dew.

For years, getting this prized produce to market meant that someone had to carry a giant basket on a back-breaking, daylong trek down narrow mountain trails cutting through the jungle.

That is now changing, thanks in large part to China. Villagers ride their cheap Chinese motorcycles, which sell for as little as $440, down a rutted dirt road to the markets of Luang Prabang, a charming city of Buddhist temples along the Mekong that draws flocks of foreign tourists. The trip takes one and half hours.

“No one had a motorcycle before,” said Khamphao Janphasid, 43, a teacher in the local school whose extended family now has three of them. “The only motorcycles that used to be available were Japanese and poor people couldn’t afford them.”

Cheap Chinese products are flooding China’s southern neighbors like Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The products are transforming the lives of some of the poorest people in Asia, whose worldly possessions a few years ago typically consisted of not much more than a set or two of clothes, cooking utensils and a thatch-roofed house built by hand.

The concerns in the West about the safety of Chinese toys and pet food are largely moot for the people living in the remote villages here.

As the first introduction to global capitalism, Chinese products are met with deep appreciation. “Life is better because prices are cheaper,” Mr. Khamphao said.

Chinese television sets and satellite dishes connect villagers to the world, stereos fill their houses with music and the Chinese motor scooters often serve as transport for entire families.

The motor scooters, which typically have small but adequate 110cc engines, literally save lives, says Saidoa Wu, the 43-year-old village headman of Long Lao Mai, a village nestled in a valley at the end of the dirt road, adjacent to Long Lao Gao.

“Now when we have a sick person we can get to the hospital in time,” Mr. Wu said.

Improvised bamboo stretchers that villagers here used as recently as a decade ago to carry the gravely ill on foot are history. In a village of 150 families, Mr. Wu counts a total of 44 Chinese motorcycles; there were none five years ago.

• THE POSTMODERN LEFT IS - I AM SURE - OPPOSED TO THIS CONSUMERISM. ESPECIALLY THE MOPED WHICH BURN FOSSIL FUELS.
• THEY'D MUCH RATHER THE POOR FOLKS STAY POOR AND CARBON NEUTRAL
• AFTER ALL, THE EARTH IS IN THE BALANCE!

• ON THE OTHER HAND, I SEE THESE DEVELOPMENT IN LAOS AS PROGRESS.
• AND I'D LIKE TO SEE IT EXPANDED INTO AFRICA - WHICH NEEDS FACTORIES, SWEAT SHOPS, POWER PLANTS AND HIGHWAYS AND TRUCKS, IN ADDITION TO MOPEDS.
• IT'S SIMPLE REALLY: THE ROAD TO A BETTER LIFE BEGINS WITH CAPITALISM AND FREE ENTERPRISE AND NECESSARILY INCLUDES CONSUMERISM AND INDUSTRIALIZATION.
• IT'S WHY WE HAVE LONGER LIVES WITH BETTER LIVING STANDARDS.

ON THE OTHER HAND.... SOCIALISM IS THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.