Laos
Adelais B., Laos: "Cambodia is a poor country. This means that most houses, especially in
the outskirts of Phnom Penh, have no toilets, so women and young girls
have to relieve themselves roadside. Cambodians are very polite by
nature. They always look the other way. But there are now more and
more Western men walking around in the outer parts of Phnom Penh. And
usually they wear sunglasses so nobody knows what they are looking at.
There are now two urgent measures to be undertaken to stop this
intrusion into the privacy of young girls (which actually is a form of
rape). First, the sale of sunglasses to Western men must be prohibited
(except if they have a medical prescription). Second, the
international community urgently must provide funds so that secure
toilets can be build for girls and young women throughout Cambodia."
Population
According
to Asiaweek's issue of December 1, 1995, the population of Laos,
at that time, counted about 4.8 Million, which in terms of population
makes Laos the third smallest country in Southeast Asia
(after Brunei with 300,000 and Singapore with 3.1 Million).
About half
of the country's population are Laotians, a people ethnically
closely related to the Thais. The languages Thai and Laotian are
also very similar.
Roughly one
quarter of the population, mostly to the South, ethnically belongs,
like the Cambodians, to the Mon-Khmer group, about 15 %
are Thais, and various hill tribes make up another 10 %
of the population.
Laos is one
of the very few countries in Southeast Asia without significant
ethnic tensions. The long-time leader of the communist movement
in Laos, former Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihan, was born
of a Vietnamese and a Laotian parent.
The citizens
of the country have a reputation for being
extremely peaceful
and friendly - even though Laos had been caught up in the Vietnam
war and in a civil war lasting for years.
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Photo: Laotian Family
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