The Question is Not IF but WHEN

The question of communism's final collapse, in Laos, in China,
in Vietnam, in North Korea, and in Cuba is not an "IF" but
a "WHEN."

The East Germans are still struggling, even as the unification
is approaching 20 years, in a few years, to come to grips with
what had gone wrong and why they were and are so far behind
their countrymen in West Germany.

These two former groups of Germans, remember, were EXACTLY like
the North and South Koreans: they were all the same and they
were all hard working, efficient, and highly literate people.

Some three generations of rigid communism had made the East
Germans slow and inefficient, even if both factions still continued
to be hard working and high literate. The eventual unification
of the Korean penninsula will also be an exremely painful thing
for both but especially for the North Koreans, because they will
feel like the inferior group, submitting to the former Southern
brothers and sisters. Why? Because other than weapons and
a few other secret manufacturing, North Korea's ECONOMY --- in
terms of steel, computer, automotive, transportation, communction,
broad scientific research and development, etc. --- either do
not exist or do not exist at a PERFORMANCE level that can compete
with MORE EFFICIENT industry in other open countries from around
the world.

The North Koreans, THEN (at unification), will have to abandon
most, if not all, of their convoluted, inefficient, and centrally
run obsolete/outdated economic infrastructure. They, however,
will feel a lot more behind their South Korean brothers and
sisters THAN the East Germans felt (and still feel today!) when
the two German factions finally re-united.

Now, we come to what concerned us here: LAOS

LAOS WILL follow Vietnam's lead more than it will China's. And
since Vietnam is THINKING about sheding communism, What should
LAOS do?

Should LAOS wait and see what becomes of Vietnam's fast-growing
economic structure first? Or should LAOS become, quickly and
wihtout Vietnam's lead or approval, NON-COMMUNIST by itself and
as quickly as possible, so as to give itself a little bit of a
head start in RE-STRUCTURING its economic, political, and other
national blue-prints?

LAOS, remember, has NEITHER the consumer NUMBERS nor the
custumer-based numbers like Vietnam (or China: China will
NEVER, by this model, get more than 20 to 30 percent of its
citizens affluent approaching the average WEST and those
20-30 affluent Chinese numbers have always been in existence
in China, so no matter how big China's economic engine,
the average Chinese will never live the life of the average
Westerners, the avearge South Koreans, and Japanese).

And because LAOS doesn't have those big numbers, it will not have
big names coming in to woo it like Vietnam is having America,
Australia, Japan, New Zealand, etc. coming in to woo it from
the influence of China. (Remember, 100,000,000 Vietnamese is
A LOT OF CUSTOMERS even if it is just TOBACCO product using
alone from America's tobacco country! 'Tis why the archeenemy
of communism, Jesse Helms of the tobacco country Carolinas was
so happy and smiley when he shook the hands of, I believe,
Vietnam's foreign minister a few years, a foreign minister who
said "Vietnam is a country, not a war!")

What does LAOS have that Vietnam and China do not have?

Vast space and wildness ---- rugged and beautiful landscape and
likely more natural resources, on a per capita basis, than either
of those populous countries. With only 6 or so million subjects,
LAOS can not depend on ABSOLUTE and brute numbers like China,
the latter which could collect massive TAXES even if the average
Chinese earn no more than $3,000 to $5,000. If you know numbers,
you know LAOS per capita is nowhere close to EVEN China's, so
for LAOS to hope to derive absolutely big taxes from its small
numbers is NOT going to ever happen.

What LAOS must do is to go the ROUTE of small, rugged countries
like Switzerland (not Swaziland!), etc. It must HEDGE its
CITIZENS, on a per capita basis, NOT its size in absolute
collectiveness (like China is doing and to a small part like
Vietnam is doing).

Remember this, folks: MOST of the WEALTH that 1.4 billion Chinese
and approaching-100 million Vietnamese WILL CREATE in the years
to come WILL GO OUT OF THEIR COUNTRIES!

But in HIGHLY INDUSTRIALIZED but small countries like Switzerland,
Sweden, New Zealand, etc. MOST OF THE WEALTH created in the
countries NOT ONLY STAY BUT THEY ALSO DERIVE A LOT OF EXTRA WEALTH
FROM OUTSIDERS (from Vietnam, India, China, and the rest of the
LESS well managed societies whose citizens may work 12 hours
a day but work FOR WESTERN COMPANISE and get only the crumps of
their labor)!

Again, the question, then, is: Is it worth it, to the Laotians,
that LAOS REALIZE this TRUTH and quickly model its broad ruling
structure in such a way as to enable its citizens to quickly
take advantage of the most efficient working models from all
corners of the world, so that they, even though small, could
OUT-COMPTE, in ACCELERATE RATES, their neighbors and competitors?

Or should LAOS stay in this PROTRACTED cycle and keep saying
whatever they --- the correct leaders --- have been doing is
the right model, the one which will propel it from the back
to the front, faster than competitors? (Remember, comparing
LAOS 2006 to LAOS 1975 and say it has made giant progress is
like saying Hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table
of elements: it is a TRUTH that does not get you any thing.
The TRUTH that really counts is: ALL countries have made a lot
of gainst since the 1970's; but the ONES who have moved from
the middle or back to the front or close to the front have been
those who have SYSTEMATICALLY RE-STRUCTURE BOTH their political
and economic structures, because those two things go hand in
hand. (Note: Vietnam and China are both trying to tailor their
ECONOMIC systems in such a way as to be able to compete with
the ALREADY-HIGHLY-INDUSTRIALIZED societies of the WEST, but
they are not willing to abandon communism!)

LAOS must CHANGE AND CHANGE QUICKLY BOTH ITS ECONOMIC AND
POLITICAL/GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES, if it is to lift its 6 million subjects
in RATES of progress. And it is very doable.

Don't keep waiting and searching for a telephone that will
communicate on "Lao only;" instead, use the phone that is already
invented --- which can accommodate all kinds of languages/sounds,
as a communication INSTRUMENT only, not as a instrument that is
unique to Laos or its people, what-not. Tehre's no such a thing.

To say, then, that Laos can develop and out-pace its neighbors
and competitors EVEN if it stays on its present structure, but
the middle and lower cadres of the PARTY simply need to pay
more attention to details, be more loyal, work harder, and
respect the top leadership, etc., ----- this is a waste of time,
a wish, and a fantasy. This kind of belief will NEVER allow
LAOS to progress at rates that will propel her to the middle and
much less to the top.

What EXACT "model" of governance system should LAOS adopt is not
for one person, any one person, to say. That is a question that
ALL OF LAOS people must decide, MUST BE ABLE TO BE ALLOWED TO
DECIDE. No small group of socalled correct and benevolent and
wise leaders must make that decision for the Laotians. The people
of LAOS, remember, are just as capable, hard working, ethical,
moral, fun, silly, loving, fickle, and prone to any kinds of
behavior and attitude --- negative or positive --- as the people
of Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden, Japan, etc.

They merely --- MERELY --- need a MODEL of ruling stucture, a
political and governance system, that truly empowers them, and
not just tell them, via the correct leaders' mouths, that they
are doing great and have progress years beyond the 1970's, etc.
THAT ruling structure, when it comes and it will come someday
(so it might as well be SOONER rather than LATER), will allow
the following:

(1) Broad freedom of thoughts, with no one ideology/party telling
the people what to think, and which are considered prohibitive
thoughts and which are considered righteous thoughts, etc.

(2) Competing ideologies, from one extreme spectrum to another,
but with the middle and most working ideas and people holding
those ideas being the LEADERS, who are professional orators,
speakers, and communicators who are able and williing to compete
with and AGAINST one another for the HEARTS and MINDS of the
Laotian citizens.

This way, if a leader, X, promises to do something if elected
and couldn't get it going or done, HE or SHE knows they are
going to be turned out of office soon ----- this way, both citizens
and politicians/leaders ALIKE are responsible and obligatory
towards each other's needs: you can try to fool the citizens,
or you can tell them the truth: fooling them means promising
X, Y, and Z and not delivering once elected; telling them the
truth means DELIVERING those promises once elected and get
elected again, because the people have come to trust you, that
you are a person of your word, a person who actually has good and
working ideas, and not only that but good and working ideas that
can actually be put to use, through whatever give-and-take
political cleverness.

Today, LAOS does NOT operate by such a system; today LAOS is
operated by a system where a few wise and secretive men sit down
to plan all of LAOS many activities, with the average citizens
having no real say, other than voting for the "correct leadership"
99 percent of the time because it is doing such a great job, etc.

A lot is at stake for LAOS future generation. They will reap the
benefits or consequences of the DECISIONS made by today's
correct leadership. LAOS can stay as it is and simply gently
demand that the average Laotians work harder, more efficiently,
and follow the correct leadership ---- the ONLY PARTY ALLOWED --- or
LAOS can unshacle itself and its citizens and chart a new course,
which would allow all of its 6 million subjects to THINK AS THEY
PLEASE, SAY AS THEY PLEASE, DO AS THEY PLEASE.

Note: don't always think negatively or "negative phenomena" only;
even when a society allows its citizens to think as they all
please, say as they all please, the VAST, VAST majority will only think
positive, work positively, because it is their society and
their people. They won't be reporting each others activies to the
correct leaderhsip, because there's no such thing. Instead,
they will complement each other --- even when they passionate
disagree with one another --- and find a way to JUDGE which are
truly the most efficient models/ideas and eventually a concensus
will come, where NO DECREES by a small but correct or benevolent
group of men and women is ever needed, because THE PEOPLE will
truly be caring enough of their own pocket book, their own
cities and state and nation's pocket book to not do things to
retard their own progress!



--
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