Some leaders, in 2008 --- in a society of which those leaders proclaim
to be open, progressive, free, democratic, etc. --- drive out, in
bullet proof 2008 Mercedes Benz or BMW, or some other luxrious western
made vehicles...... no more than a few dozen kilometers from their
capital.... to see a few dozen citizens who "returned" to the country
to live like the poorest of European peasants lived in the 9th to 12th
century, IN THE YEAR 2008.... and you gentle, smart people, inside and
outside of Laos, PROUDLY BROADCASTED these pictures?

To tell the world HOW WELL THE LOVING, GENTLE LAO LEADERS are welcome
these "misguided" people,,, back to where they belong?, a country of
hope, prosperity, free, harmonious?

I mean, what is really wrong with you people?

This is the year 2008, not the year 1108 or even Fa Ngum's time.

Don't you think there is something FUNDAMENTALLY wrong with a society
--- at least at the governance level --- when the leaders can drive in
hundred thousand dollar western made luxurious vehicles to visit
citizens, no more than a few dozen miles from their capital city,,,,
citizens who look starved, frightened, disturbed (they may smile but
they are afraid, disturbed, and not sure what's going on) ....
citizens who have to use crudely made cattail-like brooms to sweep the
dirty "streets" hours before the arrival of their leaders.... citizens
who are given NOTHING MORE THAN A SACK of rice or two, worth no more
than $1.00 or two, who are told to smile, to extend their hands, to
welcome the good leaders.... citizens whose pictures are taken and
loaded into the Internet almost as soon as those pictures are
taken...to be broadcasted around the world...

You don't think there is something WRONG, fundamentally wrong --- or
not working --- with such a society?

There's really nothing fundamentally wrong with those small, starved-
looking people/children, y'know.... I was like one of those kids 30
odd years ago, living in northern Vientiane, too,,,, so perhaps not so
far away from that "welcome back" village....

But in my country ---- through a series of circumstances I had no
country over I found myself growing and maturing in a society in MY
COUNTRY here in the USA --- I and even the poorest children have
access to all the things in the world, the bad, the good, and the
ugly. And we get to make choices, even very poor choices....

I can't believe y'all who took these pictures are so proudly
exhibiting them, with the mighty and benevolent leaders of such a
twisted little isolated communist country smiling so generously toward
such starved-looking, desperate citizens, who LIVE --- not just look
like it but actually live