Laotian people, whatever their age, are some of the loveliest I have ever encountered,

Glimpse a mother rocking her baby in a cradle strung between the stilts under the house, or watch a farmer and his family constantly bent, it seems, in the rice paddies.

Wat Paa Huak

Luang Prabang

Laos is South-east Asia's Never Never Land, offering a landscape and people seemingly untouched by this century, and in some ways barely touched by the last

According to the Lao Government, more than 450,000 Hmong live in Laos--a landlocked communist republic sandwiched between Vietnam and Thailand--constituting eight per cent of its population.

'It's been like one long, terrible bad dream,

will always be thankful for the opportunity to come and live in this great country.

In 1984, Laos finally allowed the United States and other countries to offer refugees a new beginning.

Why did we flee from Laos? To escape the same communism my father had fought in his youth.

When I was 11 years old, my family escaped from Laos.

We were told repeatedly the benefits of communism, the party and politics.

Now I am even more confused when I see the refugees at Woomera and I feel the chills run down my spine like a terrible case of dejavu

''What is China today?''

''Civil society in Laos is still very immature at the moment, but it's growing,'

The official line from the government is that Laos is a one-party democracy -- only members of the Communist Lao People's Revolutionary Party are allowed to run for election.

Officially, this sparsely populated country is still communist -- and has been since 1975. But these days, that really depends on whom you ask.

Glimpse a mother rocking her baby in a cradle strung between the stilts under the house, or watch a farmer and his family constantly bent, it seems, in the rice paddies.

The country's principal exports are logs, hydroelectric power and garments and motorcycles made here from imported materials, because of the cheap labor in Laos.

Foreign assistance financed 44 percent of the 1994 budget, 40 percent of which was devoted to the public payroll.

It is a country of 4.5 million people where a small class of entrepreneurs and members of the Communist establishment has attained a level of prosperity reminiscent of the privileged life of those who benefited from French colonialism and the years of American dominance that ended with the Communist victory.

But for the poor, there seems to be little such optimism in a country that is classified by the United Nations as a "least developed" nation.

But when a job has been positioned for decades as one of the only acceptable professions for a woman (by women as well as men), is it any surprise that women “choose” it?

it worth examining from the standpoint of gender

All work is gendered

They will continue to be bad feminists, falling short of essential ideals of this movement.

am generally called a feminist when I have the nerve to suggest that the misogyny deeply embedded in our culture is a real problem, requiring relentless vigilance

I’m not the only outspoken woman who shies away from the feminist label, who fears the consequences of accepting the label.

Really, though, I’m a woman in her thirties, struggling to accept herself.

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My eyes were swollen, nose was broke,my upper lip was cut.