UXO

People in Laos are ever smiling, happy, 'Bopinyang ' (Never mind) attitude and generally minding their business because it is their "Karma", honest and generally peace loving. Why then did somebody else in the world object to how they wanted to change their Governance? Well that is what had happened about 40 odd years ago.
Laos was ruled by three kings, two of whom wanted autonomy and the third wanted to hold on to his throne and betrayed the other two. He also allowed the French to colonise his country for petty favours in return.
America at this time was occupying Central Vietnam in the hope that they can stop the Vietcong. They also wanted to stop communism stepping into Laos: this is to preserve the balance of power in the world - yes it was the days of Cold war between two great powers :US and Soviet Union.
The Vietnamese were sending defense supplies to Laos through the HoChi Minh trail. So the Americans with the Royal Thai Army bombarded the Ho Chi Minh trail to stop this transport route. and they wanted to purge out the communists from the caves in teh Nort Eastern part of the country. It seems they bombed every 9 minutes a days for days on end and that they had one bomb for every citizen of Laos.
All the bombs did not explode and many got embedded into the ground: Even now years after the war, whenpeople plough their land or dig to lay foundations while building a house, a cluster bomb or a 500 pounder explodes taking many innocent lives. There are many NGOs, the Government and even the United States Army are looking for these UNEXPLODED ORDINANCE to prevet further accidents. It is like looking for a needle in the haystack as the numbers are plenty and it might take them years to find. Good luck to them and to the people of Laos. May there be no more lives lost due to some stupid political strategy of idiotic human beings.