[L’ancien café in Pakse, 5/10/23] Yesterday, I paid for ten more days at Lankham Hotel, so that’s 30 days in Pakse, at least. Next week, I’ll get my second visa extension. If a country doesn’t control its borders, the concept is meaningless. Since the 27 Schengen countries ignore their mutual borders, the autonomy and integrity of each are weakened. If a boat person reaches Lampedusa, an island just off Africa, he’ll be taken to mainland Italy. From there, he can work his way into France and Austria, then Spain or Germany, etc.
May 11, 2023·edited May 11, 2023Liked by Linh Dinh
When you commented that "Laos is one of the poorest and weakest nations in Asia, but Laos haven't lost their distinctiveness," it put me in mind of an article I read a month or two ago by Paul Kingsnorth, titled "We Must Become Barbarians" (https://unherd.com/2023/03/we-must-become-barbarians/): From that article:
"In his 2009 book 'The Art of Not Being Governed' — subtitled, 'an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia' — the historian James C. Scott...lay[s] out the history of a vast upland region he calls “Zomia”, straddling territories from India to Malaysia, which has managed over centuries to avoid assimilation by encroaching states. And secondly, [his aim is] to rewrite the standard story of historical progress as it applies to the region. The 'hill tribes' and 'barbarians' living outside civilization’s walls, he says, are neither 'left behind' by 'progress', nor the 'remnants' of earlier 'backwards' cultures; they are in fact escapees. 'Hill peoples are best understood as runaway, fugitive, maroon communities who have, over the course of two millennia, been fleeing the oppression of state-making projects in the valleys — slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labour, epidemics and warfare.'"
Kingsnorth offers the mindset of these people as a possible antidote for what ails modern society. The entire article is worth your time.
Following up some other trail in someone else's substack I stumbled on a reference to Pacse:
"In 1966 Ted Shackley was placed in charge of CIA secret war in Laos. He recruited Morales to take charge at Pakse, a black operations base focused on political paramilitary action within Laos. Pakse was used to launch military operations against the Ho Chi Minh Trial. In 1969 Morales moved to Vietnam where he officially worked as a Community Development Officer for the International Development Agency."
about an unpleasant person by the name of David Sanchez Morales who spent his life doing dirty work for the CIA and was possibly involved in JFK's assassination.
Yeah. Friend of Jim here. His general point is worth bearing in mind everywhere. Life has carried on in anarcho-syndicalist bands outside the state areas. An interesting wrinkle on the contact period here in the New World is that the cities died back most fiercely in the plagues. So the new arrivals met mostly the more anarchist Indians, who they mingled and struggled with for a few centuries until Wounded Knee. They held out better than the Irish did in the UK. Linh’s America in his postcards is a survival of that world.
E Michael Jone's book "Slaughter of Cities" claims that people did not flee Black crime in the cities, but powerful people encouraged crime in the cities to clear them out and buy the land up for a song. That seems crazy except we see it happening now again with the Soros prosecutors who will downgrade serious crimes to misdemeanors and allow a tiny sociopathic minority of people to prey on everyone else causing anyone with the means to do so, to flee. Then the movers and shakers can buy all the property up for a song and remake the areas into "smart cities". No fad or trend here in the US is by accident. Introducing "Sexual Liberation" from "controlling parents" and "oppressive Churches" is not an organic cultural evolution but an intentionally engineered outcome. E Michael Jones' book "Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control" provides the receipts for this claim. I heard on NPR a bunch of old ladies proud that they have chosen to protect the environment by choosing to not have kids! NPR's way of marking Mother's Day, no doubt! While the US has a collapsing birth rate, only exacerbated by the sterilizing GMO jabs. We are indoctrinated into hating ourselves, our parents, parents in general, our families, our cities and our society so that a small handful can enslave us. The US didn't bring the father of sexual liberation, Alfred Kinsey, to occupied Germany to help the German people. They brought this sadistic pedophile enabler "expert" as a weapon for social control. Did you see that one of the co-owners of Porn Hub is a Rabbi? I think there are some pretty important differences between the Jewish Religious belief system and the Christian one. Too bad we are not allowed to discuss it in "polite" company.
Hi Aimee - I am going a bit afield (sorry to sidetrack your blog Linh) but do you know of Patrick Henry Omlor (1931-2013)? Very briefly he was a Catholic layman and scholar. He believed the Vatican II revolution presented a separate church and separate religion. He gave clear definitions and examples of dogmas the RC Church believes and teaches - things which no one has the authority to change. He then contrasted the true Liturgy and valid authority with the Novus Ordo religion, which of course asserts that it itself is the same RC Church. A collection of his works entitled "The Robber Church" can be read online.
Linh wrote above: The more you can read into anything, the more fascinating each second of your life. Each of us deserves a biography of at least a thousand pages; even the briefest sketch or glancing mention can be fascinating. Everyone does everything differently.
All true. Astonishing, is it not? Linh has said, "I'm fascinated by the quotidian." That's because our very existence---not to mention our apprehension of it---is extraordinary.
Laos sounds great for you. Funny, I was just telling a friend that my sense is you have the same feelings and perceptions about city neighborhoods as many other ethnic urban white NE megalopolis and our age do, black Americans definitely included, but I wasn’t sure you had written them down. So now you have. One of those things that, as you say, develop in local understanding. If you made those remarks at the GOP convention they would mean something entirely different. Still, I would watch.
When you commented that "Laos is one of the poorest and weakest nations in Asia, but Laos haven't lost their distinctiveness," it put me in mind of an article I read a month or two ago by Paul Kingsnorth, titled "We Must Become Barbarians" (https://unherd.com/2023/03/we-must-become-barbarians/): From that article:
"In his 2009 book 'The Art of Not Being Governed' — subtitled, 'an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia' — the historian James C. Scott...lay[s] out the history of a vast upland region he calls “Zomia”, straddling territories from India to Malaysia, which has managed over centuries to avoid assimilation by encroaching states. And secondly, [his aim is] to rewrite the standard story of historical progress as it applies to the region. The 'hill tribes' and 'barbarians' living outside civilization’s walls, he says, are neither 'left behind' by 'progress', nor the 'remnants' of earlier 'backwards' cultures; they are in fact escapees. 'Hill peoples are best understood as runaway, fugitive, maroon communities who have, over the course of two millennia, been fleeing the oppression of state-making projects in the valleys — slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labour, epidemics and warfare.'"
Kingsnorth offers the mindset of these people as a possible antidote for what ails modern society. The entire article is worth your time.
Following up some other trail in someone else's substack I stumbled on a reference to Pacse:
"In 1966 Ted Shackley was placed in charge of CIA secret war in Laos. He recruited Morales to take charge at Pakse, a black operations base focused on political paramilitary action within Laos. Pakse was used to launch military operations against the Ho Chi Minh Trial. In 1969 Morales moved to Vietnam where he officially worked as a Community Development Officer for the International Development Agency."
This taken from https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmorales.htm?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
about an unpleasant person by the name of David Sanchez Morales who spent his life doing dirty work for the CIA and was possibly involved in JFK's assassination.
Yeah. Friend of Jim here. His general point is worth bearing in mind everywhere. Life has carried on in anarcho-syndicalist bands outside the state areas. An interesting wrinkle on the contact period here in the New World is that the cities died back most fiercely in the plagues. So the new arrivals met mostly the more anarchist Indians, who they mingled and struggled with for a few centuries until Wounded Knee. They held out better than the Irish did in the UK. Linh’s America in his postcards is a survival of that world.
E Michael Jone's book "Slaughter of Cities" claims that people did not flee Black crime in the cities, but powerful people encouraged crime in the cities to clear them out and buy the land up for a song. That seems crazy except we see it happening now again with the Soros prosecutors who will downgrade serious crimes to misdemeanors and allow a tiny sociopathic minority of people to prey on everyone else causing anyone with the means to do so, to flee. Then the movers and shakers can buy all the property up for a song and remake the areas into "smart cities". No fad or trend here in the US is by accident. Introducing "Sexual Liberation" from "controlling parents" and "oppressive Churches" is not an organic cultural evolution but an intentionally engineered outcome. E Michael Jones' book "Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control" provides the receipts for this claim. I heard on NPR a bunch of old ladies proud that they have chosen to protect the environment by choosing to not have kids! NPR's way of marking Mother's Day, no doubt! While the US has a collapsing birth rate, only exacerbated by the sterilizing GMO jabs. We are indoctrinated into hating ourselves, our parents, parents in general, our families, our cities and our society so that a small handful can enslave us. The US didn't bring the father of sexual liberation, Alfred Kinsey, to occupied Germany to help the German people. They brought this sadistic pedophile enabler "expert" as a weapon for social control. Did you see that one of the co-owners of Porn Hub is a Rabbi? I think there are some pretty important differences between the Jewish Religious belief system and the Christian one. Too bad we are not allowed to discuss it in "polite" company.
Hi Aimee - I am going a bit afield (sorry to sidetrack your blog Linh) but do you know of Patrick Henry Omlor (1931-2013)? Very briefly he was a Catholic layman and scholar. He believed the Vatican II revolution presented a separate church and separate religion. He gave clear definitions and examples of dogmas the RC Church believes and teaches - things which no one has the authority to change. He then contrasted the true Liturgy and valid authority with the Novus Ordo religion, which of course asserts that it itself is the same RC Church. A collection of his works entitled "The Robber Church" can be read online.
Very enlightening Postcard. Thank you, Linh Dinh.
Linh wrote above: The more you can read into anything, the more fascinating each second of your life. Each of us deserves a biography of at least a thousand pages; even the briefest sketch or glancing mention can be fascinating. Everyone does everything differently.
All true. Astonishing, is it not? Linh has said, "I'm fascinated by the quotidian." That's because our very existence---not to mention our apprehension of it---is extraordinary.
I read it was 110F yesterday in Laos. Is that possible? Hydrate, bro!
Beautiful piece. Also enjoyed your short video of the L’ancien café. Looks like a really cool place to hang out.
Laos sounds great for you. Funny, I was just telling a friend that my sense is you have the same feelings and perceptions about city neighborhoods as many other ethnic urban white NE megalopolis and our age do, black Americans definitely included, but I wasn’t sure you had written them down. So now you have. One of those things that, as you say, develop in local understanding. If you made those remarks at the GOP convention they would mean something entirely different. Still, I would watch.