Lao Service Listener and Reader Comments
I have been listening to RFA regularly. You guys have done a wonderful job. You guys have open ear and eyes for all of Lao people. Doesn't matter Lao people live inside Laos or live abroad. Please, keep it going.
Zachary. April 2008
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“Hello! I felt sorry to hear about news a few days ago that RFA in the Lao language is of no use to the Lao people. It’s good for me to hear RFA in Lao language. The program is good and interesting. We miss Laos a lot, especially Lao expressions of the good old time. We love to hear Lao sabkao. The vocabulary that you use in the news is so intellectual and high-level… Maysouree and Manichanh’s voices are so sweet. My best regards.”—Lao listener in France, Oct. 2005
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“Every day I download the 6:00 and 18:00 [Lao] radio broadcast from www.rfa.org. Then I copy those files on an MP3 player, which then I bring to Khampeo Pholulamdeth, who is in the throes of death at the hospital of Troyes, in France. Today, listening to RFA is for Khampeo the best pleasure that one can offer to him. On the MP3 player I also add the daily broadcast of Voice of America in Lao to which he listens with equal interest. Khampeo Pholulamdeth is my [father-in-law] from my marriage with Keokousohn Pholulamdeth, the third of his six daughters. For years, Khampeo Pholulamdeth has been director of the Lycée of Pakse and was on the point of becoming Lao minister of education when the Red Khmer revolution broke out. The day when the Communists arrested him in his home in front of his wife and children, they shot his dog dead in his backyard, and then seized all his belongings. It was the last time before years and years that my wife saw him. In effect, following his arrest he was interned for more than 10 years before being welcomed in 1987 by his children who had immigrated to France some years earlier.”
“Born on Jan. 10, 1928, Khampeo studied at London and Paris and established a close relationship with the United States when he was a Laotian official. Until the last day he didn’t believe that the Communists would succeed in taking over his country and, stubbornly, he refused any offer to refugee in United States. Still today he is firmly confident in the near defeat of Communism in Laos… In France, focused on buying a new house where he could spend his last days with his wife as peacefully as possible.”
“Six months ago, Khampeo suffered as suddenly as unexpectedly from internal bleeding and was sent in emergency to the hospital. The diagnosis said that the trouble originated from cirrhosis whose cause is likely to stem from Hepatitis B contractedin Southeast Asia. Since then his health suffered dramatic and rapid deterioration until he definitely lost the use of his legs and his short-term memory began to know some sporadic shortcomings. He is unlikely to survive more than three months from now. This morning he asked me to bring him a Big Mac and some fries for his dinner with the evening’s RFA broadcast. Best regards, Dominique R. Poirier.”—RFA-Lao listener in France
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“Dear sir or madam: Your news is very good and very interesting. I often check up on the internet and I found that the Free Asia news is always like the fake news. Addition, you like the third hand of Americans and Lao immigrants who [don’t] like Laos. Now I am in Laos surviving better than the time [of the] Kingdom era. Everything is…changed… You just make up bad stories about Laos…I believe that if all of you come back to Laos and govern the country, our land will become colony of America or Thailand. Good bye.”—Listener in Laos
“I have been listening to news from Radio Free Asia quite often. There is a considerable amount of news worth following up on, such as news about the over 6,500 Hmong in Thailand, news about/from Laos, etc. I am so proud of your team in the US.”—Professor Shigeru Takehara, Reitaku University, Japan
“Hello. Maybe you remember me because I complained about the broadcaster’s reading last time but this time I am not complaining because you improved your reading. Vice versa, I would like to thank you and your team for presenting objective and true news. I am a teacher at a small elementary school in Laos and I admit I am poor but I have complaints about the current government. I think that this government doesn’t create positive conditions for me and my colleagues. I don’t like talking about politics because I am not a politician. Yes, I am afraid when I talk about politics, particularly when I have an opposing political thought to that of the current leadership. You know that human rights are not well known in Laos.
Yes, I am proud of being Lao but when I see the current situation in Laos with corruption and bureaucracy it makes me sad. I follow the Thai TV and news and I just envy my Thai colleagues. Looking at their conditions compared to Lao teachers’ conditions is just like looking at the American dream.
In conclusion I wish you and your team a nice day and I’ll talk to you later.”—Teacher in Laos
"Many, many people in Laos tune in to RFA. They like very much RFA’s features, such as ‘Lao Culture,’ ‘Lao History,’ and ‘Saynamkhong’ or ‘Mekong River.’"—Senior Lao official
"I want to point out one good thing about your Lao language. Your Lao grammar is excellent because you have been using the old rules…"—Lao listener in the United States