Laotian subsistence economy

SULLIVAN: Others, of course, aren't as lucky, and while some play with the bombs because they dont know any better, others Silavon says, see them as a potential source of income.

Mr. SILAVON: Villages of people attempt to open to sell shell of the big bomb and explosive inside.

SULLIVAN: So what youre saying is people are so poor here that they'll actually come across a 250 or 500 pound bomb and instead of running away from it, they'll try to dig it up so they can open it, get rid of the explosive inside, and sell them metal for scrap.

Mr. SILAVON: Yeah, and also sell explosive as well.

Comments

[dsquared]

What's also frightening is that they've been doing this for more than thirty years now and there's still plenty of "scrap metal" to forage for.

[ajay]

Cluster bomb shells are the most useful - they're robust, roughly canoe-shaped, semicylindrical and about eight feet long. So: drinking troughs for animals, footbridges over ditches, piles to put your house or barn on...

[Alex]

The IWM North has a canoe from Laos made out of a piece of ordnance, although IIRC it's labelled as being a aircraft drop tank rather than a bomb.

[Richard J]

What's also frightening is this - there's c. 350 casualties a year in Laos from UXBs[1] from an agricultural labour force of c. 2.8m.

The Chinese coal industry has a similar work force, and 4-6,000 a year die in mining accidents.

On the rough assumption that there's not a clean cut dividing line between farmer and part-time bomb recovery expert, that puts the Chinese coal industry into perspective, I think.

[1] Unclear whether this means deaths or includes injured.

[ajay]

Reminds me of my favourite (only) fact about "The Deer Hunter" - it's a film about three Pennsylvania coal miners who go off to fight in Vietnam.
Statistically speaking, you were twice as likely to die in 1970 if you spent it as a coal miner in Pennsylvania than if you spent it as an American soldier in Vietnam...

[dsquared]

Although this is a great factoid (also, Bevan Boys had a higher mortality rate than soldiers did, although I think not as high as the merchant navy), the guys in "The Deer Hunter" were steelworkers, aye aye are sea.

[Chris Williams]

i

[Phil]

ObWI.

[Richard J]

E?

[ajay]

Hmm, quite right, dsquared. Why did I think they were miners?

[Phil]

Richard - on soc.history.what-if it was (is?) considered good form to include some reference to a "what if?" scenario in every post, so a post consisting entirely of chat or nitpicking would often end with an Obligatory What-If. We also used 'ObWI' parenthetically, to introduce a WI we didn't intend to develop but couldn't bear to leave out. The ObWI here, following Chris's correction, is 'Bevan Boys'.

[Barry Freed]

And here i thought you'd meant Obsidian Wings and that you were that Phil.