Tag Archives: Laos

Looks like this is the “Fantastic People from D.C.” day on Veritrope…

The International New York Times published a story on the continuing crisis of unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs in Laos – and which featured my friend, CHANNAPHA KHAMVONGSA.

Channapha founded an organization called Legacies of War over a decade ago to encourage the U.S. Government to clean up the dangerous weaponry it left behind in Southeast Asia. The scope of the ongoing risk – primarily to Lao children and farmers – remains enormous: One bomb disposal expert quoted in the piece says ‘In terms of the amount [of ordinance] still in the ground, Laos is worse than any other country I’ve seen’.

It’s taken incredible perseverance but, it seems, things are finally moving in the right direction. According to Thomas Fuller’s article, the annual United States spending on the removal of unexploded bombs in Laos has increased to $12 million this year (compared to $2.5 million a decade ago) – due in large measure to Channapha and her team’s efforts.

Legacies of War is exactly the kind of NGO that most people should want to support – A leader dedicated to achieving meaningful results… and a track record that demonstrates she can deliver. The article reminded me that I’m overdue to make another donation – and I hope you join me in kicking a little cash towards this very worthy cause.

This is a link post – You can visit the site mentioned by clicking the main link above (or just click here).

Talk too much about what you want to do before you act, the theory goes, and you never will.

I once read an article which said that people should refrain from speaking about work they’re doing until it’s complete. As I remember it, there was a scientific study which suggesed that talking about doing something apparently “scratches the same itch”, neurobiologically speaking, as actually doing something.1

Talk too much about what you want to do before you act, the theory goes, and you never will.

I’m pretty sure I’ve taken that idea too far lately. There has been, in fact, a major change in my life which I haven’t written about yet. My plan was to announce it alongside some projects that I’ve been working on. But when I ended up being far, far busier than I had planned and all my work took much longer than I expected, I was still afraid to talk about things until they were almost ready to go because…

Well. You know.

[Read more…]

  1. You’ll just have to trust me on this because my Google-fu is failing me right now []

This week’s App.Net launch is a small victory for an idea: Instead of being cynical, people can make the culture that they’re looking for. In that spirit, I’m going to share a few people I think are doing work worthy of your support. (Grab those wallets and purses!)

I thought I’d bring something from the Veritrope.com Twitter Feed back into the site, via Storify…

This week’s App.Net launch is a small victory for an idea:

Instead of being cynical, people can make the culture that they’re looking for.

In that spirit, I’m going to share a few people I think are doing work worthy of your support.

Please check it out (and grab those wallets and purses!)

[View the story “Fund ‘Em Friday — August 17, 2012” on Storify]