Unexploded Ordinances

Visaya Phattaphone

Mr. Reuter

Economics

October 15th, 2014

Unexploded Ordinances

Look at the picture above. Beautiful isn’t it? Welcome to Laos, a landlocked country in the heart of Southeast Asia. With a population over 6 million people, Laos is a country that is gaining attention in the international community through increased tourism but also through a dark secret: unexploded bombs.

In 1954 after gaining independence from France, all of Southeast Asia saw a new threat loom on the horizon. The threat of Communism. Vietnam was the first nation in the region to assume a communist regime and it would be this regime that would eventually control all of Southeast Asia. In an attempt to stop said regime, The CIA and US military forces intervened and created South Vietnam and the Royal Lao Army in the late 1950s. Eventually the Vietnam War began and Laos was induced into the conflict. In the mid 1960s following JFK’s assassination, President Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the presidency and would become the president who would escalate the Vietnam War. Between 1964-1973, Johnson would authorize a massive bombing campaign in an attempt to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail and ultimately win the war through this superior air power. Many of explosive ordinances dropped on the Laotian countryside range from mortars and landmines to cluster munitions. In total, by the time the Vietnam war ended nearly 200 million tonnes of bombs along with 266 million cluster munitions were dropped on Laos with 30% of the cluster munitions failing to detonate. In fact, since so many bombs were dropped on Laos, the final bombing run total would come to one bombing run every 8 minutes for 24 hours for 9 straight years.

With all this history, how does it all tie to economics? The Laotian economy to this day is attempting to grow thanks in part to less restriction from the communist government but . The problem lies within the reality that economic growth cannot occur with all of these UXO’s littering the countryside. Every year, villages that attempt to develope are halted with the threat of UXO’s. There’s also a parallel between the 42 poorest districts of Laos along with the areas hardest hit by UXO’s Families are impacted because many practice agriculture and rice farming and typically the father or the head of these families are injured or killed resulting in a lowered GDP Per Capita for any family. The average GDP per capita is $1,645 and may be forcasted to decrease even further with such a threat. There’s also a tremendous negative externality from all of these UXO’s. Families will also show a tendency to suffer from the Income effect. Families will suffer from an income effect because the majority of their income will be directed towards taxes and paying for quotas for their crops instead of sending children to school. Luckily there are some positive externalities to this situation. Since 1996 when the government of Laos initiated UXO clearance programs, a market for scrap metal has developed and has resulted in cheap available housing for families. Another market for prosthetic legs have developed from this situation as well.