YouTube clip of Western kids in Laos...

[pacman]

I was only offering a little perspective. Irrational bias indeed. How do you work that out?

And if you think those giant joints they can clearly be seen smoking are cigarettes, please be advised they are not.

And you write I am worried about addiction to lesser problems... ? What are you on about?

How is a kid addicted to narcotics, a lesser problem?

Read what is the on the menu shown on the clip - opium has been available in Asia forever & it isn't any less dangerous today.

Please understand that I don't care about them smoking & drinking while having a holiday. I drank my way through Asia in the 70's too.

I smoked hash in Nepal & India that was so strong, it would cause us to "trip", a very weird experience the first time I can tell you.

I am no moralist nor do I want to be, but the 1000's I referred to were not witnessed by myself. Two mature German guys told me in detail what they had seen. Were they exaggerating? I don't know.

To cap off your extraordinary post, you say that: "Your priorities on what is dangerous seem totally out of order."

May I return the compliment - to prioritise cigarettes & beer as worse than ganja, opium, speed, etc seems far more out of order to me. Am I wrong?

I made it clear that they were welcome to have fun, I don't care about a few happy pizzas, they can drink & smoke till it comes out their ears for all I care.

If it doesn't hurt anyone, if they enjoy it, fine. It's the other stuff that a few will be tempted to try that worry me. Until you have witnessed it, like I have, please don't shoot me down for pointing out the negative side of their holiday fun.

Irrational bias?? Good lord...      

[manarak]

alcohol, nicotine = good
weed, coke, opium,etc. = bad.

must be a european thing.

thought like that in the past too, when I also still thought that everybody is a member of the great human family, and that we all strive to live in harmony, tolerance and peace. I had Jean-Jacques Rousseau in class and I believed all men were intrinsically good.

now I know better: my fate matters only to a few people, many others don't like me, others are out there to get me, and the vast majority is indifferent but still competing with me, for jobs, housing, ladyboys... life!

In my job I see every day complete fucking morons who wouldn't have had a chance of survival if they had not been protected by laws and regulations in our society.
Most of them are managers.

I now view the whole drugs stuff differently - as Stogie says, "natural selection".
Of course I will try to protect my children from these dangers. But this is MY job, not the government's.

[azza33]

(blonde_havoc @ Mar. 19 2009,11:52) God there were some enormous douche bags in that video. I'm embarrassed of my generation.

They were just a bunch of people having fun... that's all Vang Vieng is about. I was there only a couple of years back and i too got too pissed - whiskey buckets at $2US a pop have that effect

To each his own.. i only got wasted on alcohol.. but if someone else wants to try whatever - then it's their life and they take on the consequences.

Lighten up - you only get one shot at life so you might as well enjoy it!

[pacman]

alcohol, nicotine = good
weed, coke, opium,etc. = bad.

must be a european thing.

thought like that in the past too, when I also still thought that everybody is a member of the great human family, and that we all strive to live in harmony, tolerance and peace. I had Jean-Jacques Rousseau in class and I believed all men were intrinsically good.

now I know better: my fate matters only to a few people, many others don't like me, others are out there to get me, and the vast majority is indifferent but still competing with me, for jobs, housing, ladyboys... life!

In my job I see every day complete fucking morons who wouldn't have had a chance of survival if they had not been protected by laws and regulations in our society.
Most of them are managers.

I now view the whole drugs stuff differently - as Stogie says, "natural selection".
Of course I will try to protect my children from these dangers. But this is MY job, not the government's.

I agree with you, in spite of the tone of my posts, if it doesn't cause the user or society any harm, then why should a line of coke be any worse than a brandy after dinner?

I know a few occasional heroin & coke users who are pillars of society. I was shocked to learn their little secret but they never hurt a fly.

I know I will be called hypocritical if I don't condemn them, it is just a shame that most users are unable to exercise such control. My attitude is that it is their life, who am I to tell them what to do?

[Guest]

this is one of the comments left on you tube.

Western imperialism did a lot of good for white people. I say we need another world war to settle this again.

Maybe they're catching up from lost childhoods.

How is this the fault of the filmmakers?

its not their fault but the filmmakers see themselves as a hierarchy of backpackers.
When travelling you meet these dry people everywhere.
Mostly mainland europeans but there are a fair share of brits too.
They seem to think without booze and hookers one can have an authentic SE Asiain experience

reminds of a well known Oscar Wilde quote
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

[Stogie]

In my experience (and I have some) film makers film what they want you to see and are almost never balanced and are always judgmental.

Films and documentaries are tools used to enhance an argument or belief. They are creatively edited to give you one side of an argument or opinion and are not fair minded and neutral.

I didn't see any young kid in that doco NOT smoking or drinking. That clip was designed to give you the idea that anyone and everyone who goes to Laos was exactly like the kids who were featured in that clip.

The hundreds of thousands of us who have done occasional visa runs there over the last ten years can tell you this is obviously not the case.

[jimslim]

(pacman @ Mar. 19 2009,17:24) I smoked hash in Nepal & India that was so strong, it would cause us to "trip", a very weird experience the first time I can tell you.

Oh you little rascal !

That sounds like fun , got any left

[Stogie]

(jimslim @ Mar. 20 2009,03:56) That sounds like fun , got any left  

Just the harrowing cruel memories... and a curious tale these German blokes were spreading about the place!

[pacman]

    harrowing cruel memories...         if only every year since then was made up of such times...   they were the days...      

(Gawd, I am really sounding like my father...   )

As to the "curious tale" of the German guys, an Australian couple who were imprisoned in Laos over trumped up charges, made reference to the Laotian police involvement in drugs when they were released & back home.

Secondly, a large drug importation stopped by the Australian Federal Police was reportedly sourced from Laos.

There are reports that a drug problem in Laos exists if you want to check, so I was inclined to believe these serious gents when, for several hours, they told me what they had seen while there.

Again, others must have seen it. I read the menu shown in the film clip, it does point to a very liberal attitude to say the least.

The truth always comes out. Someone must be able to confirm what is happening, either way.

Now, where's my bong?

[pacman]

(Stogie @ Mar. 19 2009,15:50) Hey Pacman, I hear your concern, but you're assuming that we all have a purpose in life and if we aren't achievers then we are failures.

Some people are neither and are just content to drift through life with nothing ventured and nothing gained.

I actually envy them in a way. They have a blissful inner peace that I'll probably never know.

I have learnt not to make too many assumptions about people, particularly guys like these who are in holiday mode & way outside their normal routine.

I don't know where you get the idea that you fail if you don't achieve. That's too judgemental, even for me.

I question just how content those who drift through life really are. No ambition equals either low intelligence or dependency problems to me.

I believe their contentment is the facade they present to the world in order to deflect the criticism of society.

That's a bloody big assumption on my part but definitely fits the ones I know who fall into that category.

Don't ever envy them, they live unfullfilled lives & concoct all manner of excuses to justify their shortcomings.

If you want inner peace, do what I do, meditiate...    

[jadeite]

I question just how content those who drift through life really are

Heh, that describes just about every Thai person I know. And they are very content to do just that. Thinking is a bad thing to them and there is a Thai saying "don't think too much". I envy people who can enjoy and live each day as if it is their last. They aren't keeping up with the jones' or workaholics or rich. I would describe them as content. They know they aren't going to be world travelers or rich in retirement and they don't care. They have their food, family, and friends all around them and that's enough.

[Tomcat]

(pacman @ Mar. 20 2009,10:52) I question just how content those who drift through life really are.

What contented and happiness are is a matter of debate.

Several worldwide studies have been done to try to map this out in the past .

Obviously its hard enough to define these things anyway but taking 20 different points that most agree on it came out that some of the the "happiest" people were not Westerners but the inhabitants of slums in India and Brazil and so on....

[Holmes]

Since no one is trashing the filmmakers, I'll jump in. If it was an honest attempt to portray a relatively strange environment to viewers who might never get a chance to experience it, I'd say good for them. But look how they plug in the message of DOOM, with the weird account of the Swedes dead of "unknown" causes. They interviewed a very articulate female "backpacker", but they used her only to paint a picture of the phoniness of the backpacker experience.

These video "journalists" will soon obtain a grant from some moralistic foundation to "document" the horrible life of a prostitute in Phuket, the jewel of the Andaman. They'll be equally objective in that project, I'm sure.