UNESCO seeks funds to clear Plain of Jars of bombs PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO appealed on Thursday for funds to help Laos clear the Vietnam War-era bombs that litter its legendary Plain of Jars. The U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation said its Director General Federico Mayor had pledged $50,000 in seed money for an international fund to clean up the ancient site. "We must bring life back to this plain," Mayor said during a visit there earlier this week, UNESCO said in a statement. "Jars were sown here, bombs were sown here, let us now sow peace." The mysterious Plain of Jars, north of the capital Vientiane, is a grassy open tract strewn with hundreds of huge stone urns whose ancient origins and purpose are unknown. The ground is pockmarked with craters from the secret 1964-1973 U.S. bombing campaign against routes that communist Pathet Lao guerrillas might take to attack the pro-American government in Vientiane or the royal city of Luang Prabang. The unexploded ordnance, which still kills and maims peasants more than two decades after the Vietnam War ended, comes in the form of bombs, mines and tennis ball-sized anti-personnel grenades the Laotians call "bombis." Laos has been trying to attract tourists to see the jars, which weigh up to a tonne apiece and are said to date back to the second or maybe the sixth century. Archaeologists speculate the jars could have been used as funerary urns or might have stored wine and grain. They are not even sure if they were hewn from boulders or cast in a primitive cement of buffalo skin, sand and sugar cane. Newsgroups: soc.culture.laos Subject: Miao or Hmong? From: akm74@aol.com (AKM 74) Date: 6 Feb 1998 22:56:11 GMT Miao or Hmong? Joakim Enwall University of Stockholm. Two terms, Miao and Hmong, are both currently used to refer to one of the aboriginal peoples of China. They live mainly in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hubei. According to the 1989 census, their number in China was estimated to be about 7 million. Outside China they live in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma, due to migrations starting in the 18th century, and also in the United States, French Guyana and Australia, as a result of recent migrations in the aftermath of the Indochinese wars. Altogether there are approximately 8 million speakers of the language. This language, which consists of 30-40 mutually unintelligible dialects, belongs, together with the Bunu language, to the Miao branch of the Miao-Yao (Hmong- Mien) language family. The term Miao was first used by the Chinese in pre-Qin times, i.e. before 221 B.C., for designating non-Chinese groups in the south. It was often used in the combinations 'miaomin', 'youmiao' and 'sanmiao'. At that time the people lived in the Yangtze valley, but later they were forced by the Chinese to move further southwards. During the Tang (613-907 A.D.) and Song dynasties (960- 1279 A.C.) the term 'nanman' was used for the same peoples. However, the name 'miao' reappeared in Fan Chuo's book on the southern tribes, Manshu (862 A.D.). During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) 'miao' and 'man' were both used, the second possibly to designate the Yao people.1 Western researchers do not treat the terminological problems in a uniform way. Early writers used Chinese-based names in various transcriptions: Miao, Miao-tse, Miao-tsze, Meau, Meo, mo, miao-tseu etc., but due to the influence of the Hmong of Laos (a sub-group of the Miao people) some contemporary researchers have adopted another terminology. Judith Wheaton Fuller, in her Ph.D. dissertation, defines the Miao language as 'the hmongic (Miao) branch of the Miao- Yao language family'.2 William A. Smalley uses the term Miao for the Miao of China, while using the term Hmong (1) as a general term for the entire people, and (2) as a specific term for the speakers of the Hmong dialect spoken by one part of the Miao in China and by almost all Miao outside China.3 This results in statements like 'In the eighteenth century antagonism between the Miao peoples and ethnic Chinese came to a head as some Hmong revolted against steady Chinese incursion into the areas where they lived,...'. I, at least, find this a bit confusing. The Miao themselves use various self-designations and the Chinese traditionally classified them according to the most characteristic colour of the women's clothes. The list below contains the self-designations, the colour designations and the main regions inhabited by the four major groups of Miao in China: Ghao Xong, Red Miao west Hunan. Hmu, Gha Ne (Ka Nao), Black Miao southeast Guizhou. A Hmao, Big Flowery Miao northwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan. Hmong, White Miao, Green (Blue) Miao, Small Flowery Miao south Sichuan, west Guizhou and south Yunnan. Thus only one group out of four uses the term Hmong. Furthermore, it is only this group which has speakers living outside China. It is these non-Chinese Hmong who advocate that the term Hmong be used not only for designating their dialect group, but also for the other groups living in China. They generally claim that the word Miao is a derogatory term which should not be used at all. Instead the term Hmong is to be used to designate all groups of the people.4 I do not agree, however, and maintain that this is a result of confusing denotation with connotation. Dr Yang Dao writes: 'These [Chinese] invaders gave to the Hmong the appelation "Miao", which later became "Meo" and which means "barbarian" - an expression formerly used, in Europe, by the Romans to designate other peoples.'5 This meaning is not found in any dictionary available to me. The word 'miao' has been taken over by other peoples in southeast Asia, Vietnamese, Lao, Thai etc. in the form Meo. Though many of the speakers of those languages (and of Chinese) undoubtedly consider the Miao to be barbarians, this by no means proves that the word itself has that denotation. It is, of course, also possible that the speakers of Lao, Thai and Vietnamese, who have taken over the word 'miao' from Chinese, have lost the original meaning 'seedling' and use it only to designate a people whom they consider to be barbarian. If pronounced with the wrong tone in Thai the word means 'cat'. This might explain the strong resentment against the term 'miao' among the Hmong groups in southeast Asia. In China, however, the situation is different for two main reasons. The Miao groups have different self-designations and only a small proportion use the word Hmong. The rest have no feeling that Hmong is in any way preferable to Miao as a common designator. Since the official classification of the minorities in the 1950s some minority groups have complained about the word used in Chinese to designate them and have asked for the government to change the official usage. The Miao groups of China have, to my knowledge, voiced no such concern. The second reason is purely pragmatic: it is impossible to introduce the word 'hmong' into Chinese as this syllable does not exist in the Chinese language. As a matter of fact, this is also the case for the English language, as few speakers are able to pronounce an unvoiced nasal. However, in English, unlike Chinese, it is at least possible to write the word Hmong. Many Hmong living in the West believe that every people should have the right to choose their own self-designation in other languages. At first this policy might seem reasonable, but it would result in numerous problems of spelling and pronunciation if implemented universally. What about 'Kartveli' for 'Georgian', 'Shqiptar' for 'Albanian', 'Euskaldun' for 'Basque', 'Deutsch' for 'German' etc. etc.? I propose that the term Hmong be used only for designating the Miao groups speaking the Hmong dialect in China and for the Miao outside China. This usage is by now well established in Western literature. However, I think that it is best to use Miao as a general term, especially as this is in accord with tradition and is also practical for making the situation clear to persons not specialising in Miaology. Many persons have already been confused by the present terminological state and see no connection between the Hmong and the Miao. There is perhaps not much that can be done about this now, but I hope that some people will understand the relation between the words Miao and Hmong better, if they are used in a more logical way. To my Miao friends I just want to say that the basic meaning of the word 'miao' in Chinese is 'young plant', which in an agrarian culture is certainly a more positive concept than that of a 'swede' in the western world. NATURE: THAI DROUGHT PREDICTION SHOWS NEED FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS CHIANG MAI, Thailand, (Feb. 4) IPS/PANOS - Already reeling under an economic crisis, Thailand is also on the verge of facing another calamity -- its worst drought in over 90 years. But over-confidence in the industrial sector, which has raked in double digit growth figures over the last two decades, has led to the neglect of natural calamities, leaving the country unprepared and increasingly vulnerable to the vagaries of nature. Disaster preparedness is becoming a key aspect of development activity everywhere as natural calamities strike countries all across the world -- from Ethiopia to North Korea and the United States -- threatening to undo gains made in the economic and social sectors. Recent research, carried out by Charlotte Benson for the Overseas Development Institute in London, looks at the economic impact of natural disasters in Fiji, Vietnam and the Philippines. According to her paper, "The Economic Impact of Natural Disasters in Southeast Asia and the Pacific," disasters are repeated, rather than one-off events. Because of this, "high hazard vulnerability" is by no means inevitable. Better systems for assessing hazard risks and the right planning and management can avert large scale disaster. The Asia-Pacific region is reported to experience around 60 percent of all major natural disasters, resulting in losses of $5-10 billion per year. Available records show that floods occur most frequently and cause the most damage to property while tropical cyclones and associated storms cause the greatest loss of life. The region also experiences all other major types of natural hazards, such as droughts, earthquakes, tidal waves (called "tsunami"), volcanic eruptions and landslides. "Factors such as the choice of crops grown and where, the composition of the manufacturing and service sectors and the health of a country's national budget, all play important roles in determining the extent of vulnerability," Benson says. One example is the way Fiji expanded its all-important sugar industry onto more marginal lands where crops are more vulnerable to natural hazards. This, along with the increased age of the country's coconut trees which makes them more vulnerable to disasters, have made natural disasters in Fiji costlier in the 1980's than the 1970's. Benson adds, "Poverty alleviation programs in the countries researched have paid little attention to hazard vulnerability. They largely ignore natural disasters, rather than recognizing the potential threat they pose to sustainable, equitable development and attempting to reduce the overall hazard vulnerability. Even governments with relatively limited financial resources can do much to reduce hazard vulnerability." As with many other countries, Thailand is prone not only to droughts, but also floods, many of which bring Bangkok, the center of industrial growth and the capital, to a standstill. The last such flood was in 1995 when the city was deluged for months on end. In Thai villages, vast tracts of agricultural land were inundated, while millions of baht worth of livestock and aquaculture were also lost. Of utmost concern to scientists and academics working in the area at the moment is Thailand's complete lack of preparedness in dealing with natural disasters, whether it be earthquakes, floods or the severe drought predicted for this year. The Agriculture Ministry says the drought will be the worst in Thailand since 1906. Rainfall across Thailand in 1997 was so poor, water levels in a number of reservoirs are at a record low. As a result, the pre-monsoon period from mid-February to the beginning of May is expected to be critical. The Interior Ministry says almost a quarter of the villages in Thailand will be hit by drought. Corn and rice farming in six provinces in the north, covering 6.4 million acres of land, could suffer, as could many thousands of acres of lychee and longan orchards and soybean farms, according to the Northern Regional Agricultural Extension office. "Natural disasters in Thailand are a serious problem," says Sanny Jegillos, senior manager at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, "and it is unplanned development which has created this problem." In addition to the drought, government scientists are predicting a major earthquake along the Thai-Burma border in 1998 or 1999, which could lead to the collapse of a number of dams in the region. There are at the moment nine active faults in Thailand, mostly in the northern and western parts of the country, along the Burmese and Laos borders respectively. "If the earthquake forecast is accurate," says Issara Suwannabol of the Sukhothai Dhamathirat University, "the provinces west of Bangkok will become a scene of huge tragedy. And we still have no plans to cope with it. There are no clear government guidelines for disaster prevention and emergency management. Laws are outdated, rules lack strict enforcement, there are too few resources and too many state agencies that lack cooperation." Thailand has more than 50 disaster guidelines which sometimes contradict each other, and are known to be outdated and impractical. There are 30 state agencies, 10 committees and 20 departments under 12 ministries responsible for natural disasters. Inevitably , when disasters strike, cooperation and rapid response are a problem. Other factors have contributed to the country's increased vulnerability to natural disasters. These include deforestation and conversion of woodlands to commercial agriculture holdings and tourism resorts, environmental degradation of watersheds and marine coastal resources, damage to water tables and the rampant paving over of Bangkok without regard to its natural drainage system. According to the Bangkok-based Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), groundwater sources accounted for close to 95 percent of water required by more than half of Thailand's factories located in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region in 1990. The direct impact in some areas has been land subsidence of 5-10 centimeters per year, and increasing water shortages in the city. As Benson notes in her report, "a successful disaster prevention and mitigation program entails far more than large-scale budgetary allocations. Instead, it involves various factors such as a government's ability to enforce laws and encourage the private sector and communities to participate in prevention and mitigation initiatives." She concludes that broader government and donor policies have generally failed to identify natural disasters as a major threat to sustainable economic development. However, since many countries are now considering environmental consequences in their project appraisals, it is perhaps time they began to look at the potential impact of natural disasters as well, she says.