The news from Vientiane

Terry has been in Vientiane Laos for the past several days, so here is today's news from the Laotian capital.

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With the Mekong River so high as it passes Vientiane, it is not surprising there is flooding in lowlying areas.

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I've been in Vientiane Laos for the past several days. I've been rather busy and haven't had much time for exploring, so I'm depending on the Vientiane Times to keep me up to date on what is happening here.

Here are some of the stories making news today.

Laos may soon have a revamped national anthem, one which sounds "more powerful and stirring" and better able to "inspire patriotic spirit" among the Lao people.

According to the Vientiane Times, the first draft of the new national anthem is now complete, with the updated version to be played at a symposium on Friday to seek the opinion of various sectors within the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

Many of the news items are quite familiar to Thai readers. Like their Thai counterparts, Lao students seeking to enter a university take a set of national examinations.

"This year's exams include physics, mathematics, chemistry, literature, geography and history which are set to run for 90-120 minutes," reports the Vientiane Times.

"The exams will finish up today, with the students receiving their results by the end of this month."

About 6.000 of the 16,000 exam-takers will get university places. The Lao newspaper quoted a high-ranking government official as saying that lower scoring students would be encouraged to take on other fields of study at other institutions. The other options available to them include studying for a diploma at a private or public vocational training institute or heading to a teacher training college or other school. (So, it seems the teaching profession does not rank highly in Laos either.)

Compensation for land lost to economic development projects is an issue in Laos as well as Thailand. Villagers seem hesitant to make complaints, however, so the story of one resident who did complain to the National Assembly is a newsmaker today.

Here in Vientiane, the Mekong river is very high after the recent heavy rains, so it is not surprising that some provinces are experiencing flooding. Champassak province has been the worst hit.

Finally, the Vientiane Times reports that an official Lao font for smart-phones is almost ready. Judging from my riverside walks, smartphones are a big hit here as well as just about everywhere else in the world. More troublesome I expect for this city is the popularity of motor vehicles. Traffic jams are becmong a part of city life .

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