Happy Holidays Seasons

New eco-project in Laos - Nam Kading!

Welcome to Nam Kading, our new eco project in Laos!

Recently, we visited a new eco project in Laos, the Nam Kading Research and Training Center,  located in Bolikhamxay Province, 3.5 hours from Vientiane. The protected area has a surface of 169,000 ha and shelters 43 species of mammals and 234 species of birds. Nam Kading is the name of the river where the center is situated and it has the purest water of Laos.

That placement needs volunteers to train the staff in English, to teach English in the nearby village, to improve the information for the eco tourists and promote the site, e.g. the creation of a website, a flyer or some board signs in English.
Nam Kading needs also volunteers with special skills to help with wildlife surveys. Katie, from Britain, who has been working with us in IT development in NongKhai, will be the first volunteer to go there. We thank her in advance and wish her good luck.

For more information about Nam Kading, please contact us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Trainee’s turnover - that’s life at OpenmindProjects

Tom from Laos left and Hak from Cambodia arrived. Trainee turnover, that’s life at OpenmindProjects Training Center in Nongkhai.

We regularly welcome young trainees from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia at our Training Center in NongKhai. They stay with us between 6 months and 1 one year, to learn English and Computing, and to help to teach local language and cooking to the volunteers, during the 3-day Cross Culture Training.
Tom improved her English a lot, and she was very helpful with the volunteers, and we all appreciated her kindness and enthusiasm. Now she got a job with the Tourist Authority back in Laos, and we wish her a lot of success and luck. Thank you Tom and see you soon!

Hak, a young man from Cambodia. We met him on a project visit to Cambodia, earlier this year where he was part time working for a NGO training landmine victims and also trying to part time study.  Hak is himself a landmine victim. Some ten years ago he laost his brother, sister and his own leg.  He arrived last month and will stay at the Training Center for one year. He’s very motivated to learn and we’re sure that he’ll be a great trainee!

Read more about Huk and landmines in our January 2009 Newsletter

http://www.openmindprojects.org/community/january-2009/haks-story.html

Elephant Tales from the Phu Wua Mountains by the Mekong River

Elephant Tales from the Phu Wua Mountains by the Mekong River, extraordinary travel and volunteer experiences.

If you like to be trapped in an uncomfortable tree top platform from mid afternoon day 1 to late morning day 2, with no chance of climbing down if you happened to need to, then Phu Wua is for you!
If you are interested in wild elephant trekking rather then the tame elephant riding around the beach resorts in touristic south Thailand then Phu Wua in the far northeast is definitely for you!
If you want to try hot Isan/Lao cuisine made by the local villagers and not adapted to the tourist palate then the Kham Pia village experience is for you too!

When we, Openmindprojects, first discussed with villagers how to try to attract visitors to their village with the help of volunteers they listened to us with incredulity. Why on earth would any ‘farangs’ (foreigners in Thai) want to come to their village, plant and harvest rice under a merciless sun, much less trek in the mountains looking for wild elephants, that are dangerous and a threat to their crops? It would take two years before they agreed it may be a good idea to try.

Birth of community based eco-tourism

Birth of community based eco-tourism for Northern and North Eastern villagers.
As eco tourism booms who is making the money?  Thai villagers often learn of the eco-tourism ideas when tour agents propose to  bring in tourists and the village people to provide hospitality and access to the nature attractions.

The idea is good if the income is shared between the agents and the villagers. But often not much, if any,  of  the cash flow from so-called eco-tourism tours arrive to the villager's pockets. The money from the tourists go to the Thai or overseas tour agents. After learning about the local trekking routes and picturesque destinations, the tour agents bring in tourists with their own guides and  the villagers end up as  photos objects and to be  studied , told about as if animals at a zoo.

Corruption

By Sven Mauleon

Corruption - the major obstacle to genuine poverty reduction? Persistent corruption in low-income countries impedes poverty reduction and constitutes a major threat to nature and wildlife. The divide in levels of corruption between  rich and poor countries is probably as sharp as the Digital Divide between rich and poor.

Corruption is one of the major impediments to poverty reduction. It is a curse and a drain on resources that should be used for poverty reduction, education, health and infrastructure to help the poor in poor countries. Without education and free information and media it is easy to manipulate the people. So called democracies are as often dysfunctional, an elite is bribing, buying their electoral majorities and then using their power to further their own interests. Countries in SE Asia, Africa elsewhere are sad examples of this fact.

IT will lead Asia's economic recovery

The IT industry will play a key role in the economic recovery in Asia, as companies take advantage of technology to improve cost base and service outcomes, according to a study released conducted by research firm IDC.

OpenmindProjects was initially conceived as an IT training initiative to bridge the so-called Digital Divide between rich and poor. The first pilot projects set up in North Thailand in 2001. See www.itinisan.org.
Since 2002 many volunteers from overseas have joined our school and other education projects to help give less privileged children in SE Asia a chance to join the modern knowledge and IT based society instead of being doomed to provide cheap labor only to the service and manufacturing industries in their own and other countries. With more and better IT skills these less privileged young people will be more employable and get better job opportunities when they are forced to move from their villages to find a job in the cities or abroad.

Read More about how IT will lead Asia's economic recovery.

Do you know what some Thais think about Westerners?

... and what some Westerners think about Thais?

You can read below and you are welcome to send us your thoughts. We will come back later with more views, hopefully contributing to better cross culture understanding and team work.
You can end you views to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What  some Thais say about their Farang bosses in Thailand,

Thais think their strengths are:

•    Willingness to discuss different views
•    Work hard and focused, results oriented
•    Listen to and respect local colleagues, subordinates. Less power distance than in Thai companies
•    Straightforward, direct
•    Reward results rather than relations

And their weaknesses:

•    Bossy, underestimate the ability of local Thais
•    Misinterpret Thai ways but think they understand. Don t understand the interactions b/w Thais
•    Generalize about all Thais
•    Stick to themselves

Global Warming - Who will suffer most and who least?

Global warming is caused those who have, can consume the most and use most energy but those who have not will suffer the effects of global warming the most. As the world warms, how different societies fare in dealing with rising seas and changing weather patterns will have as much to do with political, social, and economic factors as with a changing climate.