Adbuster blog

The article I'm blogging on can be found here:
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/74/Legacy.html

This article is a short piece on Vietnam War-era unexploded ordnance in Laos. The author, Amy Wahbe, alleges that the unexploded ordnance prevents farmers from farming and developers from developing. Wahbe implies that the bombs have single-handedly crippled Laos.

Wahbe also tacks on a paragraph describing the oblivious tourists and natural, unexploited beauty of Laos. She closes the article with a few sentences about poverty-stricken Laotians and finally leaves us with the information that although there are a few groups clearing the mines, it will take hundreds of years to remove all of them.

Overall, I'm slightly skeptical of this article. I am not a fan of overt emotional manipulation, which this article has in spades. Wahbe is constantly exhorting the lush greenery of Laos and the Laotians as if the poor peasants of Laos aspire to being nothing but idyllic farmers. Wahbe uses the paragraph on tourists to evoke feelings of resentment towards the economic gap.

I am not saying that what Wahbe wrote was incorrect, but simplifying the situation to black and white only promotes ignorance. I am absolutely positive that there are more factors involved in Laos's economic destitution than unexploded ordnance.

It is a real tragedy that Laotions have to deal with and die from unexploded ordnance. However, I think that an article that took in the multiple factors of the Laotian environment, and explored the multiple drives behind the factors, would have prmoted a more practical awareness of the Laotian situation. An awareness that could actually be funneled into action.