Dreaming for others
A Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong once dreamed to improve her family's house. After over two decades of working and getting involved in political activities, she dreamed something greater than for herself. Watch it HERE.
Struggles
Showing posts with label Struggles. Show all posts
HK labor unions say new minimum wage unreasonable
Labor leaders were dissatisfied with the city’s new statutory minimum wage rate at 32.50 Hong Kong dollars an hour, effective on May 1. They vowed to continue their fight for workers’ welfare.
The minimum wage is “unreasonable, especially if the worker is a breadwinner,” Wong Pit-man, head secretary of the Eating Establishment Employees General Union, said last Saturday.
It is short by HK$7.2 from the proposal (HK$39.7/hour) of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, Ip Wai Ming, its deputy director, said Thursday.
Both labor leaders said the minimum wage is barely for survival, “while the government thinks it is enough for one person.”
The federation has its formula in computing the minimum wage to catch up with the inflation rate for a worker and a dependent to afford a standard living.
Since the government began implementing the statutory minimum wage policy in 2011, the HKFTU proposed an increase of minimum hourly rate to HK$33 from HK$28. In 2013, it was raised to HK$30 per hour.
For establishment owners such as M. Aslam, director of the Family Provision and Fast Food Co., HK$32.5 an hour is “still not enough,” considering the high prices of commodities and housing rent.
“No one will want the job. It’s good if it’s HK$40 (an hour),” said Lam, a regular employee of grocery chain, Wellcome, in Kowloon.
Ip Wai Ming, deputy director of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, says workers are unhappy with the new minimum wage on Feb. 5 in Kowloon.
On the contrary, the minimum wage increase “will benefit tens of thousands of low-income employees and encourage more people to join the labor market,” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in his policy address in January.
Hong Kong’s total working population rose to 3.92 million as of 2014 from 3.86 million in 2013, according to government statistical data.
“Just surviving,” minimum wage earners comprise 10 percent of the total number of workers in 2013 after the minimum wage rise, Ip said.
Most of them are cleaners, security guards and health care givers. One-third of them work part time, especially in catering industries, he cited.
Despite the enforcement of statutory minimum wage rate, Wong said workers in the Chinese catering sector only had 2 percent increase of average salary over the past decade.
A large number of workers out of some 8,500 members of EEEGU are underpaid, he said, having long working hours and poor working conditions.
He cited that pantry delivery and cleaning workers have an average salary of HK$8,000 to HK$9,000, dishwashers HK$10,000, waiters/waitress HK$11,000, and Chinese chef HK$18,000.
Meanwhile, not many employers would dare to pay below minimum wage as most citizens are familiar with the labor laws, Ip said. Majority of underpaid workers are immigrants, who are hired for constructions, banquets, and other informal jobs by unregistered agents, he added.
Seeking for higher wages and improvement of working conditions of underpaid workers, the EEEGU had lobbied their concerns to the labor and welfare department. They had also organized meetings with local news reporters to inform the public of their gathered data and cases, Wong said.
For instance, he said, some employers attempted to cut headcounts as an excuse from the minimum wage increase, or cutting paid meal breaks in order to conform with the new wage requirements.
While convincing its members in the government to yield to their demands, the federation will also take it to the streets, Ip said.
Some 5,000 workers will join a mass demonstration on May 1 to push for their proposed minimum wage increase, among other demands, Ip said.
At home with the homeless in Sham Shui Po
Chan Kwok-cheong has two beds: one for chilly nights and the other for warm weather.
His big roof is the wide bridge that stretches along Tung Chau Street at Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong.
On a Wednesday morning, the 58-year-old man woke up inside a box of plywood strips fully covered with printed tarpaulin.
His head could almost touch the ceiling, as he sat on an old single-sized mattress.
He went outside head first, almost kneeling, and took a couple of steps to reach his second bed at the Temporary Market’s wall.
Sitting on the bed, he placed his cellphone on a wooden table with old newspapers.
An agency, whose name he chose not to disclose, calls him if he gets a job, but it does not happen everyday, he said.
He earns HK$450 by cleaning malls or parks for eight to nine hours a day. Depending on his body condition and mood, he can earn an average of HK$3,500 a month.
Unlike his neighbors, Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees, Chan is entitled of government medical services.
He will also have his own housing unit in the next three years, he said, as he applied for public rental housing in 2012.
The Housing Authority says the average waiting time for general applicants is over three years, while for elderly one-person is nearly two years.
Chan may get a house by 2017, but the waiting list might tell another thing.
There were about 130,200 general applicants for public rental housing as of September, HA says.
To build a 40-storey housing public block takes five years on “spade ready” sites and seven years for a typical public housing development, the authority says. In its report, there were 14,057 housing units produced for 2013-2014.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying earlier pledged to reach the targetted 470,000 units, 60 percent of which for public housing, in the next 10 years.
Chan took a slice of bread with his nicotine-stained fingers and spoke in between biting and chewing without teeth.
“I don’t have problems here, except mosquitoes,” he said, adding that the things he needed most are mosquito coils.
He picked up rubbishes around his area and threw them to nearby trash bins.
His laundryroom, toilet and bathroom are all-in-one at Tung Chau Street Park, right beside the market.
Unthreatened by the government’s order to evacuate, Chan said, “When I’d get the house, I might be dead already.”
Chinese immigrants, Vietnamese refugees and homeless Hong Kong citizens find shelter under the bridge along Tung Chau Street in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ continues
More people had filled up last Wednesday the streets in Mong Kok and Central to continue a mass demonstration called ‘Occupy Central’ that demands universal suffrage in choosing Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017. The protesters held rallies simultaneously, allowing some speakers to express their opinions and emotions.
Children in costume run towards the celebration of National Day held at Tamar Park (September 27, 2015).
A man holds a placard expressing the protesters' opposition to the government along Connaught Road (October 1, 2015).
Occupy Central was on its fourth day during the 65th National Day on Oct. 1, which was a public holiday here. Some protesters witnessed in the morning the flag-raising at Golden Bauhinia Square. South China Morning Post reported that some students made gestures and chanted to show their opposition to the government and chief executive Leung Chun-ying at the ceremony.
"Umbrella Revolution" was coined to represent the movement after the police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters at Central in the evening of Sept. 28 as most of them used umbrellas as shields. Others wore goggles or wrapped themselves with cling film or plastic bags.
Attending the protest last Wednesday morning, David Leung, 30, said Umbrella Revolution was not a ‘real revolution’ because it did not aim for a total change of the system. “We just wanted to get back the promise that we had at the beginning,” he told this reporter. He meant by promise as the exercise of people’s democratic rights. He said he joined the protest without knowing the outcome mainly because he is a resident of Hong Kong and of his love for Hong Kong.
Asked whether or not he supported the call for the chief executive’s resignation, Leung did not directly answer the question. He said, “The next [chief executive] will be same since Hong Kong is part of China.” He added that it is possible to slow down the process of changing Hong Kong as similar to China.
Very difficult, but not impossible
Edwin and Peta McAuley, who owns the Edwin McAuley Electronics, Ltd. in Hong Kong and have lived here for at least 35 years, joined and supported Occupy Central. Walking through Connaught Road last Wednesday, along with his wife and daughter, Edwin McAuley told this reporter, “It is difficult for China to back down, but not impossible.”
Peta McAuley said the best scenario is that protesters would continue to be non-violent so that it could go a long time. “Hong Kong people are doing what they should do, which is taking advantage of the opportunity of freedom of speech,” she said, adding that they have to be patient.
The McAuleys said they had been in several protests in Hong Kong, especially the mobilization to support protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. They were not concerned about having a vote in the Hong Kong government. “I’ve lived here for 35 years without a vote. I am concerned about competent leadership, but one thing that would convince me to leave would be corruption,” Peta McAuley said. She added that what differs Hong Kong from China is the rule of law.
“Democracy”
Tony Tong, 27, from Mei Foo district, said some students joined the strike at first to evade classes, but they learned about democracy during the sit-ins. University students began their strike, which was led among others, by Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism, on Sept. 20. They held sit-ins in parks nearby government offices.
Tong had not joined the protest, but he said it was “the most powerful accumulated energy that I have ever seen.” He said with such “energy”, people can bring peace and food for the world when they persist as it is “really a waste to just ask for a vote.” He said he was touched by the protesters’ courage, but it was “not the time to support” such movement. “I know it is right to want freedom, but I don’t think Hong Kong is that bad,” he said.
“Real democracy is that, at least, there is no restriction to participate in the election of chief executive and everyone has the right to participate in this election,” Marcus Lau, 23, a student in Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said last Saturday. He was watching the program to commemorate in advance the National Day at Tamar Park, while policemen blocked passages to the LegCo Complex at Admiralty.
Lau was supposed to join the sit-ins outside the government headquarter earlier on Saturday. It was the second overnight of the students’ strike that was later supported by Occupy Central protesters. Later, policemen gave way when the program ended and more protesters swarmed to the area.
Lau said he was brave enough to do what other students did Friday night, referring to some students who attempted to enter the government building that led to their arrest. “I think, we only have [this] method to grab the attention from the government,” he said.
The political situation in Hong Kong affected “a little bit” Lau’s plan after graduation. He said he is not attracted to work for the government because his standpoint is not totally the same as that of the government.
While others have decided whether or not to support Occupy Central or Umbrella Revolution, Simon Yau, also a student of HKPU, said he did not support any side but admire the protesters’ braveness to express their opinion against the government.
“Democracy in Hong Kong right now is complex because of too many opinions from different people and different sides,” Yau said, adding that it is difficult to solve the situation. “I don’t know how to solve it, but I want the society to become better. The people should calm down and seek for solutions,” he said.
'Occupy Central' goes on during National Day
Barricades built by protesters at Connaught Road.
The protesters had formed patches along Connaught Road at midday on Wednesday (October 1, 2015), while the whole country commemorated its 65th National Day. Some of them went home to freshen up or spend time with their family and friends, but promised to come back in the afternoon.
On its fourth day, "Occupy Central" movement has been the biggest mobilization of Hong Kong people since the pro-democracy protest on May 21, 1989 that gathered about 1.5 million people to show sympathy to those who joined the Tiananmen Square protest, said Edwin McAuley, an expat in Hong Kong for 34 years.
Despite the on-going mass action, expatriates here did not sense a threat of safety. Occupy Central protesters had been the "most peaceful and polite in the world," reports said. Universities allowed their students to join or witness the protest while actively looking after their welfare. For one, the office of the president of Hong Kong Baptist University regularly emailed all students, teaching and non-teaching staff about updates of the situation and provided hotline numbers for their rescue and protection.
The political situation in Hong Kong is a ripe environment for journalism students to experience real news coverage and learn from ways of reporting from different local and international media organizations. Some students and residents here instantly became journalists as media outlets bought or commissioned their outputs to be published in their respective websites and TV stations. The protesters themselves became their own reporters as they had been active in social media, posting photos and tweets.
Journalists and photographers were in every corner of such financial hub. The world was watching Hong Kong shaped its history.
A man gives instructions to his fellow protesters on cleaning up the area at Central.
One of the protesters leans on a wall between two lanes on Connaught Road to relax. 
Asian migrants, youth groups support Hong Kong’s strikers
[caption id="attachment_62" align="alignnone" width="3264"]
Protesters gather at government headquarter in Admiralty[/caption]
by Lorie Ann Cascaro
Hong Kong — Groups of Asian migrants and youth expressed their solidarity to the Hong Kong people’s call for political reforms after police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters occupying the streets in Central on September 28.
The Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), Asia Pacific Students and Youth Association (ASA, formerly known as the Asian Students Association) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Hong Kong and Macau (BAYAN-HKM-New Patriotic Alliance) said they support the Hong Kong people and denounced the police attack against the protesters.
University students started the strike and class boycotts last week to call for universal suffrage to elect the chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in 2017. The strike swelled into a bigger protest action as thousands of students and supporters of Occupy Central movement joined the sit-ins outside the government headquarters.
Some protesters have been arrested and detained since their first overnight assembly last September 26.
Last September 28 evening, policemen fired pepper spray and threw canisters of tear gas at the protesters.
Since then, they coined their demonstration as Umbrella Revolution because they used umbrellas as shields from pepper sprays while others wore goggles or wrapped their faces with cling film.
“The right of the people to assemble and protest is being wantonly violated; and activists for democratic rights cannot stand by and watch how the fascism of the Hong Kong government unfolds,” the AMCB said in a statement on September 29.
In the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday, Hong Kong police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung said the police’s action last Sunday led to “some controversies”, and that he understood the difficulty of their task. He called the policemen under his command to stay “united and resolute”, the report said.
“Seeing the violence committed by the police, people from all walks of life have poured out into the streets and expressed their support,” Rey Asis, ASA regional coordinator said in a statement.
The group demanded from the Hong Kong government to stop the police from violently attacking the protesters and investigate on the violent dispersal and make the officers accountable for initiating or commanding the violence.
ASA also called on all its member organizations in Asia Pacific to support the people in Hong Kong.
BAYAN Hong Kong, the militant alliance of national democratic people’s organisations of Filipinos in Hong Kong and Macau SARs, said they sympathize with the Hong Kong people, “who in their desire to effect change and reforms are met with brutality and excessive use of force by the Hong Kong police.”
“As a people, Filipinos feel for those in Hong Kong who were at the receiving end of the brutality of the government and the police. We also suffered and we continue to suffer from repression when we call for change and for the people’s democratic rights,” BAYAN Hong Kong said.
The group said the Hong Kong people’s demand for political reforms “are rooted in the worsening economic condition that includes rising inflation, constricting social services, austerity, privatization and prioritization by the government of big business interests over that of the working people.”
The AMCB said, “The movement for universal suffrage has been gaining steam for the past years and is further being propelled by the government's lack of effective response to the problems besetting many of the Hong Kong people.”
Meanwhile, students continued to call support for class boycotts and strike in their university campus, posting banners and sayings on the walls.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions recently announced and called all workers to participate the general strike on October 1, the 65th National Day of the People’s Republic of China. Occupy Central earlier vowed to gather some 10,000 people to paralyze the financial district in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung said Tuesday Occupy Central 'won't change Beijing's mind', SCMP reported.
Protesters gather at government headquarter in Admiralty[/caption]by Lorie Ann Cascaro
Hong Kong — Groups of Asian migrants and youth expressed their solidarity to the Hong Kong people’s call for political reforms after police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters occupying the streets in Central on September 28.
The Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), Asia Pacific Students and Youth Association (ASA, formerly known as the Asian Students Association) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Hong Kong and Macau (BAYAN-HKM-New Patriotic Alliance) said they support the Hong Kong people and denounced the police attack against the protesters.
University students started the strike and class boycotts last week to call for universal suffrage to elect the chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in 2017. The strike swelled into a bigger protest action as thousands of students and supporters of Occupy Central movement joined the sit-ins outside the government headquarters.
Some protesters have been arrested and detained since their first overnight assembly last September 26.
Last September 28 evening, policemen fired pepper spray and threw canisters of tear gas at the protesters.
Since then, they coined their demonstration as Umbrella Revolution because they used umbrellas as shields from pepper sprays while others wore goggles or wrapped their faces with cling film.
“The right of the people to assemble and protest is being wantonly violated; and activists for democratic rights cannot stand by and watch how the fascism of the Hong Kong government unfolds,” the AMCB said in a statement on September 29.
In the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday, Hong Kong police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung said the police’s action last Sunday led to “some controversies”, and that he understood the difficulty of their task. He called the policemen under his command to stay “united and resolute”, the report said.
“Seeing the violence committed by the police, people from all walks of life have poured out into the streets and expressed their support,” Rey Asis, ASA regional coordinator said in a statement.
The group demanded from the Hong Kong government to stop the police from violently attacking the protesters and investigate on the violent dispersal and make the officers accountable for initiating or commanding the violence.
ASA also called on all its member organizations in Asia Pacific to support the people in Hong Kong.
BAYAN Hong Kong, the militant alliance of national democratic people’s organisations of Filipinos in Hong Kong and Macau SARs, said they sympathize with the Hong Kong people, “who in their desire to effect change and reforms are met with brutality and excessive use of force by the Hong Kong police.”
“As a people, Filipinos feel for those in Hong Kong who were at the receiving end of the brutality of the government and the police. We also suffered and we continue to suffer from repression when we call for change and for the people’s democratic rights,” BAYAN Hong Kong said.
The group said the Hong Kong people’s demand for political reforms “are rooted in the worsening economic condition that includes rising inflation, constricting social services, austerity, privatization and prioritization by the government of big business interests over that of the working people.”
The AMCB said, “The movement for universal suffrage has been gaining steam for the past years and is further being propelled by the government's lack of effective response to the problems besetting many of the Hong Kong people.”
Meanwhile, students continued to call support for class boycotts and strike in their university campus, posting banners and sayings on the walls.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions recently announced and called all workers to participate the general strike on October 1, the 65th National Day of the People’s Republic of China. Occupy Central earlier vowed to gather some 10,000 people to paralyze the financial district in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung said Tuesday Occupy Central 'won't change Beijing's mind', SCMP reported.
Pro-Beijing and Occupy Central at Tamar Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUaRcqzJWJg
While Pro-Beijing camp is celebrating in advance the 65th year anniversary of the foundation of People's Republic of China at Tamar Park, policemen block pro-democracy protesters from entering the LegCo Complex at Admiralty to join the second night of Hong Kong students' strike and Occupy Central movement. After the program, more supporters gathered at the complex.
While Pro-Beijing camp is celebrating in advance the 65th year anniversary of the foundation of People's Republic of China at Tamar Park, policemen block pro-democracy protesters from entering the LegCo Complex at Admiralty to join the second night of Hong Kong students' strike and Occupy Central movement. After the program, more supporters gathered at the complex.
Another Day: A story about living in Vientiane’s wasteland
By Lorie Ann Cascaro on November 22 2013 7:39 pm
VIENTIANE, Laos (MindaNews / 22 Nov) – Welcome to “Disneyland”! It is a mosaic of blue, black and white polyester unevenly blended with brown soil surrounded by green shrubs and bushes. It was a gloomy Monday morning and the air is redolent of putrid residues or whatever people in Vientiane would call “waste”.
In a vast land of piled up rubbish that form like small hills, a tiny village hides behind the bushes at the side of a paved road inside the Km 32 landfill in Vientiane Capital. It is as colorful as a playhouse as shanties are thatched with used tarpaulin, posters and plastic curtains that used to be big grocery bags.
A man in his 40s, clad in a camouflage coat and faded black pants, is burning scrap electric wires near his hut. The smoke has blended with the gray sky. His hands are black with soot as he removes the plastic coverings to reveal the metal wires. “I earn 1,000 kip for every kilo of these metals,” says Mr Lumsy Sipanya as his eyes, shaded by a dirty whitish cap, are fixed to the flame.
In front of every house in the village has a black portion on the ground that is a mixture of ashes and burnt soil as a remnant of burning. Their income is quite sustainable for a bachelor like Mr Joy, 30, who has been living inside the wasteland for a year now. They can earn 100,000 kip a day, or at least 2 million kip in a month, for selling used electric wires.
“I don’t want to go back to the city anymore. No job can suit me. Here, I can earn enough for my own needs,” says Joy while fixing his motorbike. He is wearing fake gold bracelet and earrings.
Most of the houses are empty. Smoking cookstoves and soot-coated pots are left on the ground. Some packs of salt and other seasonings, used plates and plastic cups seem to tell that the inhabitants had to hurry after breakfast.
Over 200 individuals are working in a dump site not far from the village, according to Mr Bounkham Luangparn, 35, who is hired to manage a total of 30 households living inside the landfill. Most people who collect recyclable rubbish are outsiders. Some of them rummage plastic bottles, scrap metals and cellophane bags. At least 200 tons of garbage are dumped in the landfill everyday, a garbage collector told Vientiane Times while taking a break outside the small management office.
Children also play in the “Disneyland” in a purposeful manner as they help their parents, who taught them how to scavenge and help gather the collected rubbish that can be sold. It was almost noontime when two boys arrived on a motorbike towing a steel cart full of plastic cellophane. One of them, wearing a Spiderman-inspired sweater, detached the cart from the motorbike, and then the other boy drove away.
A seemingly three-year-old boy walked barefoot while eating a pack of uncooked instant noodles like some chips. When he finished it, he went to an old lady’s house to buy refreshment. He handed a thousand kip bill to the vendor while receiving a plastic bag of brown liquid and ice cubes. His mouth immediately caught the straw and indulged in delight.
Mr Bounkham, who has lived and worked in the landfill since its inception about six years ago, says their children have not had any serious diseases such as malaria, dengue nor diarrhea. The residents get free potable water. A doctor visits them regularly to conduct medical check-up, he says as he sits in a straw hammock tied to a manzanita tree beside his humble abode.
Separated from his wife, Mr Bounkham does not have any plan to live somewhere outside the landfill. He hopes that his kids will get a good education to have a chance to choose another kind of life. But, for the kids who work and live here, they do not go to school. “They’re not interested,” he says.
The sun never comes out but “bor pen yang” (it does not matter). These villagers continue to live each day, seeing hope for survival where most people would find as an utterly stinky and filthy place in Laos.
[Lorie Ann Cascaro of MindaNews is one of the fellows of the FK Norway (Fredskorpset) exchange program in partnership with the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists. She’s currently in Laos and hosted by the Vientiane Times.]
Read more http://www.mindanews.com/feature/2013/11/22/another-day-a-story-about-living-in-vientianes-wasteland/
Lao farmers need no ‘magic’ to adapt to climate change
By Lorie Ann Cascaro on September 24 2013 4:20 pm
VIENTIANE, Laos (MindaNews/24 September) — The sky is still dark when 48-year old Ms Kham Phanyavong leaves her house at 3:30 AM on Saturday. She has to be at That Luang organic market before the customers arrive. She pays 40,000 kip to transport four baskets of vegetables from Nontae village in Xaythany district here. In her baskets are long beans, onions, morning glory, cucumber, papaya and carrots, all from her garden.
Earning four million kip a month, cash comes in regularly from selling vegetables and not from her two rai (0.32 hectare) of rice farm.
Her land that she tills along with her husband and six children produces 35 sacks or about 3,500 kilos of khao niaw (a variety of sticky rice) every year. But, everything is enough for her kith and kin. “Our farm doesn’t have irrigation,” she tells MindaNews. She says rain comes less frequent nowadays, causing the rice paddies to store less water. When it rains, flood destroys the plants and washes away essential nutrients from the soil.
Her farm yields enough to feed her own family. She doesn’t know if it can yield more with proper irrigation and fertilization. She does not blame “climate change” but rather talks about adjusting her farming period to the changing weather patterns. Learning from experiences in the past, she has to replant rice seedlings to the paddies two or three weeks before the yearly “big rain” so that the plants will not be uprooted by the flood that happens after two days of heavy downpour.
Vientiane is one of the six major flood-affected provinces in Laos, including Savannakhet, Bolikhamxay, Khammouane, Attapeu and Champasak.
“Climate change” is not a common term for most farmers in Laos. But, the Lao government recognizes the impacts of climate change by signing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995 and the Kyoto Protocol in 2003. The government developed its National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change (NAPA) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
In the NAPA 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Chair of National Environment Committee Mr Asang Laoly says Laos has seen in recent years “more frequent and severe floods and droughts which are alternately occurring each year.” “Temperature is continuously increasing and the rainfall is erratic, resulting in a number of adverse impacts to the economic system, environment and the livelihoods of people of all ethnic groups.”
Over three decades, from 1966 to 2009, Laos has felt the impacts of climate change through the increase in temperature with an average of 0.1 degrees Celsius (C), between the northern and central part, and between the central and southern part. As observed in the rapid assessment, the average temperature in eight northern provinces increased from 23.0 to 23.2 C; 26.3 C to 26.6 C in five central provinces; and, 26.9 C to 27.3 C in four southern provinces.
Data from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) show that drought occurred in Laos from 1995 to 2005 “characterized by higher and irregular increases in temperature.” The country also experienced large floods, including flash floods in the northern and eastern regions as recorded in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2005. More recently, experiences with typhoons have been made in the south of the country.
In an earlier interview, UNDP technical advisor to the National Agricultural Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) of Lao PDR Mr. Manfred Staab said farmers can tell their stories of climate change events. As an example, he cited that previously a farmer grew enough number of seedlings in a single batch at the start of rainy season, but now the start of the rainy season is interrupted by dry periods. “When the second of third sequence of rain comes after the dry intervals, they don’t have any seedling anymore and have to try starting the whole process again.”
“Let the farmer fully understand what is actually happening to help them becoming aware that they need to change their livelihood, too. Either you may decide to move to another area if you can afford to do so, or you adapt to this changing environment,” said Mr. Staab.
Improving the Resilience of Agricultural Sector to Climate Change Impacts (IRAS), which is a project of NAFRI funded by the UNDP, has introduced alternatives to the farmers in two vulnerable districts each in Savannakhet and Xayaboury provinces. These areas are identified by the project as prone to flood and drought, and have a high percentage of poor farming households.
As a pilot project, IRAS has catered to nearly 500 households until 2015. In their latest results of agriculture and water management activities, significant improvements can be seen in some villages.
He says the strategies and adaptation practices that they taught to rice farmers are “not really new” and “not surprising ideas, but solid and demonstrated activities”. Aside from introducing new rice varieties that are adaptive to rainy and dry seasons, he cites proven alternative farming practices such as raising chickens, ducks, fish, pigs and frogs, and storing of water in reservoirs and large containers. He hopes that Lao people will learn from the project and replicate the activities in their own villages.
“It’s not anything magic here. The farmers know how to grow rice but they just have to deal with it differently with the farming system, opening up options for diversification of crops, fruits, vegetables, livestock. Just opening their viewpoint for existing choices with economic benefits.”
Back to the village in Vientiane, Ms Kham is unknowingly becoming resilient to climate change by doing crop diversification as she is also planting vegetables aside from rice. Thanks to her organization, the Vientiane Organic Farmers Group, that provides her seeds and trainings. The farmers sell their vegetables on Wednesday and Saturday morning in That Luang esplanade, and Monday afternoon at the Chao Fa Ngum Park here.
(Lorie Ann Cascaro of MindaNews is one of the fellows of the FK Norway (Fredskorpset) exchange program in partnership with the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists. She’s currently in Laos and hosted by the Vientiane Times.)
Read more http://www.mindanews.com/environment/2013/09/24/lao-farmers-need-no-magic-to-adapt-to-climate-change/
Laos kids express hope for the future through images
By Lorie Ann Cascaro on September 7 2013 3:59 pm
Through drawings, photos and role play, children from different provinces met in Vientiane to express their vision for their villages by the time they reach 20.
VIENTIANE, Laos (MindaNews / 7 Sept) – Luxon Keodavonh from Donkhoun village in Khammuan province’s Xebangfay district wants to be a soldier when he grows up. He will be 20 years old in 2020.
“My two siblings and I are living with my mother in Khammuan. Our father left us for reasons I don’t know. But, when I become a soldier, I will earn a lot of money and will give it to my mother to support us,” he told Vientiane Times.
He is one of 12 children picked by World Vision Lao PDR (WVL) to join the “Hearing the hopes of children for Laos in 2020” forum in Vientiane last Tuesday.
Coming from 12 provinces, they were selected as children’s council members to tell government partners about life in their communities and what they wanted to achieve by the time they were 20.
Using crayons and coloured pencils, the children used drawing to express how they envisioned their villages in the year 2020.
“The school in my village is very old; I want it to be fixed. My village also needs a hospital to treat sick people,” Luxon said, showing his own picture to participants.
Khamphay Vilayvong, National Leading Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Foreign Relations Department senior official, attended the forum along with representatives from government and non-government organisations and agencies.
Children also presented photographs they had taken in their villages.
Twelve-year-old Chansy showed a padlocked toilet in her school in Seanmeaung village in Champassak province’s Soukhuman district.
“We cannot use it because there is no water and we cannot keep it clean,” she said.
Vongphachanh, 13 and from the same village, showed a picture of a water pump.
“It’s very difficult for us to use this,” he said. “We need a sustainable water supply.”
Lattana from Pakbok village, Ngoy district in Luang Prabang province, showed a photo of farmers in cabbage farm.
“In the past, we grew a few vegetables only for us to eat but now we are growing vegetables in a very big field to eat and sell as well,” she said.
Photos taken by Phengkham from Samyaek village in Phoukoun district, Luang Prabang province show a market in her village and farmers climbing a steep hill while carrying huge baskets of vegetables.
She said the stalls in the market didn’t have strong roofs, the place was not clean and her family needed a vehicle to transport their goods.
One photograph from Khamla, from Vangxieng village in Phonthong district, Luang Prabang province, was of two men riding a bamboo raft along a river. One man is holding on to his motorbike, while the other is maneuvering the raft.
“The villagers need to build a bridge to cross the river more easily and safely,” Khamla said.
The group dramatised scenes of two families to show how parents can violate their children’s rights by not sending them to school or by depriving their daughters of an education.
WVL National Director Amelia Merrick said she had felt discouraged hearing children’s stories last year and had realised World Vision was not working fast enough to help the children in its 24 target districts.
She said it was around then her friend Sombath Somphone, a well-regarded Lao community worker who has been reportedly missing since December, told her stories of change.
“He told me, ‘I have seen it different in Laos, Amelia’,” she said.
“Mr Sombath said our greatest hope is listening to the youth and listening to the children. He said the children in Laos are very smart and they have great ideas and want to be a part of the change in Laos.
“Today I believe that it is true because I have been inspired that it can be different.”
More than 46,000 children are enrolled in WVL’s child sponsorship programme, which is run in rural communities in five provinces – Luang Prabang, Borikhamxay, Khammuan, Savannakhet and Champassak.
Unlike Luxon’s dream of becoming a soldier, Seua, who led the group singing, wants to become a policeman.
“But, I can also be a singer,” he said, showing his teeth in a shy grin.
The small boy sang along with the other children in a song honoring soldiers who fought for the country’s freedom, while Vongphachan, 13, played a wooden beat box like a true professional. (Lorie Ann Cascaro / MindaNews with Patithin of Vientiane Times)
[Lorie Ann Cascaro of MindaNews is one of the fellows of the FK Norway (Fredskorpset) exchange program in partnership with the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists. She’s currently in Laos and hosted by the Vientiane Times.]
Read more http://www.mindanews.com/around-mindanao/children/2013/09/07/laos-kids-express-hope-for-the-future-through-images/
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