Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Crunchy Dilemma [Mark Krikorian]
I'm a fellow-traveler with the crunchy cons, but this conundrum is ever present, from a story in today's NYT on tourists overrunning a picturesque town:
A poor, landlocked nation with a population today of 6.5 million, Laos was a battleground during the Vietnam War and its aftermath and has been isolated from the world economy since then by a Communist government.
Tourist brochures describe Luang Prabang as a place where “time stood still”; poverty and hardship have allowed the past to linger.
“The paradox is that Unesco gives out the Heritage Site label partly to reduce poverty, but reducing poverty is reducing heritage,” Mr. Rampon said. "If you want to preserve heritage, you must keep poverty."
04/15 02:35 PM
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