& VN 2020 Mekong Group
As part of our Asia Pacific Security Engagement Initiative, we are launching LMI 2020. As the name implies, it is a multiyear vision for how the United States can help each of our partners together as well as individually to build a more prosperous region through each of the LMI pillars. Hillary Clinton
We think the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020 has great potential, but it can only be successful if we have the full participation of all the partners, because we need your ideas and we need your very constructive and candid dialogue with us. Hillary Clinton
In this article, the author - who has spent numerous years monitoring the evolution and, sadly enough, also degradation of the Mekong – will attempt to review the progress status of the implementation as well as development of the “Lower Mekong Initiative 2020”. The author will also offer his own proposal, “The Mekong Institute Project”, in response to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s call for ideas and dialogue.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN THE U.S. AND MEKONG REGION
- Very early on in the 1940’s, American dam builders had set their eyes on the vast hydropower potentials of the Mekong. In 1957, under the auspices of the United Nations, more precisely of the United States, the Mekong River Committee was established with four member states: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- To facilitate the planning of the development projects for the Mekong, the United Nations divided the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) into two basins separated by the Golden Triangle: the Upper Basin encompassing the Yunnan Province of China and the Lower Basin comprising of the countries downstream the river: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- From 1967 to 1971, amidst the ravages of the Vietnam War, the United States and the World Bank jointly financed the construction of the Nam Ngum Dam located on a large tributary of the Mekong. This is the first hydroelectric dam built in Laos.
- The program to develop the Lower Mekong Basin was quite ambitious. It aimed at raising the standard of living of the entire population of the region. However, the Vietnam War spread to all the three countries in Indochina putting an end to the construction of the hydropower dams on the Mekong main current and other exploitation plans as well.
- On July 23, 2009, the American Secretary of State launched the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) advocating the establishment of “The Mekong River Commission and Mississippi River Commission Sister-River Partnership” [4]
- On July 7, 2011, the United States Senate passed S. Resolution 227 “calling for the protection of the Mekong River Basin and increased U.S. support for delaying the construction of mainstream dams along the Mekong River.” [8]
- On July 13, 2012, at the Fifth Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial Meeting, with the induction of a fifth member Myanmar, the American Secretary of State proposed the “Lower Mekong Initiative 2020” marking the long-range and expanded commitment of the U.S. to the development of the Lower Mekong Basin.
- The American Secretary of State warned the Mekong countries not to follow in the misguided footsteps of the United States of over a century ago when it rushed into the building of hydropower dams and had to face up to the unwanted consequences not long afterwards. She added that her country is willing to finance research on the impacts of the hydropower dams on the Mekong. [2]
FROM THE LOWER MEKONG INITIATIVE 2009
More than three years ago (7/23/2009), on the occasion of the ASEAN conference and responding to the request from the United States, the foreign ministers from five countries met in a sideline meeting in Phuket, South Thailand. The participants included Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton of the U.S. and her four counterparts from the countries in the Lower Mekong Basin: Cambodia, Laos Thailand, and Vietnam. At the close of the meeting, an unprecedented press release was issued covering the topics of common concern especially in the areas of Environment, Public Health, Education, and Infrastructure Development in the region.
The American Secretary of State stated the importance her country holds toward the Lower Mekong Basin and each of the countries in question. On that occasion, she also reiterated the commitment of the United States to work toward the peace and prosperity of the ASEAN region as a whole. The four foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam [at that time Myanmar, a country in the Lower Mekong Basin had not joined the club yet] welcomed the closer cooperation of the United States with their countries in the areas of mutual concern in order to secure a lasting development for the region.
The five ministers discussed various topics such as: how to cope effectively with climate change, fight against infectious diseases, and expand the application of technology in the field of education. Special emphasis was reserved for the development of rural areas as well as infrastructures.
They reviewed the common efforts underway and agreed to open up new venues for cooperation. The ministers particularly applauded the initiative named “The Mekong River Commission and Mississippi River Commission Sister-River Partnership” opening the door for the sharing of technical experience and know-how in areas like: adaptation to climate change, coping with floods and droughts, development and impact evaluation of hydroelectricity, management of water resources, and food safety. [4]
Later on, the American Department of State issued this 2009 fact sheet pertaining to the Lower Mekong Initiative:
- Environment: US$ 7 million to be earmarked for environmental programs in
the Mekong Region. The most noteworthy recommendation was the establishment
of “The Mekong River Commission and Mississippi River Commission Sister-River
Partnership” to share the common experience working with those two rivers.
The U.S. will seek congressional approval for an additional US$ $15 million
in 2010.
- Health: US$ 138 million to be used in the treatment and prevention of infectious
diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, pandemic
influenza … and plans to hold a “US-Mekong Conference on Integrated Approaches
to Infectious Disease”.
- Education: US$ 16 million in this field and 500 Fulbright scholarships reserved for students and scholars each year, expand the Internet network to rural communities, and hold a “US-Mekong Forum” on the Internet.
TO THE “LOWER MEKONG INITIATIVE 2020”
More than three years after the Phuket Conference in Thailand, two different meetings were held on the same day of July 13, 2012: The Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial Meeting and the Friends of the Lower Mekong in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
[Fig. 1] From left: ASEAN Director General Arthayudh Srisamoot of Thailand, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Laotian Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin during the 5th LMI Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh, July 13, 2012. Photo: Heng Sinith / AP
At this meeting, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton circulated a new and long range commitment of the U.S. to bolster the Lower Mekong Initiative that was introduced since 2009.
Mrs. Hillary Clinton stated: “As part of our Asia Pacific Security Engagement Initiative, we are launching LMI 2020. As the name implies, it is a multiyear vision for how the United States can help each of our partners together as well as individually to build a more prosperous region through each of the LMI pillars.” It could be said that the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020 reflects an extended, heightened, and long-range strategic view the United States holds toward Southeast Asia.
Considering the huge potentials that could be derived from mutual cooperation to deal with the challenges in the health, infrastructure, environment, and education fields, an Action Oriented Group was set up to improve the assessments of the effects of climate change and exchange the best experience pertaining to the management of large rivers like the Mekong.
Below is a list of several steps to be taken to implement the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020: [1]
- Vietnam will co-chair a strengthened Pillar on Environment and Water which
will include a broader focus on sanitation, flood management, urban water supplies,
and related issues.
- Myamar will co-chair a new Agriculture and Food Security Pillar which will
foster our collective efforts to sustain food security for people throughout
the Mekong region.
- Laos will co-chair building a Connectivity Pillar which will focus not only
on how best to build roads and power lines, but also how to close the so-called
digital divide and strengthen ties among our institutions and people.
- Establish “a group of outside independent experts who could offer fresh thinking on subregional integration, sustainable development, economic competitiveness, and other areas of mutual interest.”
Along with the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020, the American Secretary of State also raised “critical questions concerning the dams on the main current of the Mekong”. She observed: “In the past, I have urged partner countries to pause on any considerations to build new dams until everyone could fully assess their impact. Some studies have explored the benefits of generating electricity, but questions – serious questions – remain about the effects on fisheries, agriculture, livelihoods, environment, and health.” [1]
The Lower Mekong Initiative 2020 also calls for the U.S. to contribute an additional US$ 1 million to the Mekong River Commission to finance further research for a sustainable development policy of the Mekong including the assessments of potential environmental effects of the dams on the main current. Another US$ 2 million is earmarked for technical assistance to develop fisheries and improve the living conditions in rural areas.
The Lower Mekong Initiative 2020 offers bright promises for the future. Nevertheless, for it to succeed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clearly sees the need for all the interested parties to get involved. As a result, she issued this call: “We think the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020 has great potential, but it can only be successful if we have the full participation of all the partners, because we need your ideas and we need your very constructive and candid dialogue with us.” [2]
To respond to the Secretary’s call, in this article, the author will attempt to elaborate on realistic steps that could be taken to work towards the objectives set forth in the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020.
FROM AN EXPERIENCE IN THE PAST
It was in the 1960’s and the Vietnam War was escalating with no end in sight. The author was then attending medical school and served as editor of the school’s publication “Y Khoa Tình Thương” whose office was located on Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Street. In that capacity, we were in a position to meet with delegations of international students organizations like the World University Service (WUS), and foreign newsmen. I still can recall several names such as: Takashi Oka of the Chistian Science Monitor & New York Times, Jean-Claude Pomonti of Le Monde, and also Phạm Xuân Ẩn of the American weekly Times (only after the war did people find out that he was a strategic spy for Hanoi)… [14]
In general, the foreign press was very interested in learning about the “viewpoint” of Vietnamese youth and students in regard to the War that was raging in the country at enormous costs in human lives and the billion of US dollars or so the United States poured monthly into the conflict to pay for bombs and airplanes. Amidst that scene of complete desolation and devastattion, unexpectedly bloomed a rare flower: the US$ 2.7 million Medical School Building financed evenly by the American Medical Association and Vietnam’s national budget. Designed jointly by a group of American and Vietnamese architects, it was built in 1966 on Hồng Bàng Street and served as the new home for the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon formerly located on 28 Trần Quý Cáp Street. [12]
This project also planned for the construction of a modern 500-bed Teaching Hospital on an adjacent lot with the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon complete with a helipad during the second phase. However, this plan never came to fruition as the Americans began to disengage from the War. At that office of the “Y Khoa Tình Thương” Magazine, we recalled having told, more than once, the visiting American reporters that after the Vietnam War people would no longer remember how many fighter planes or helicopters were shot down but the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon will always represent in their mind a constructive symbol of America in Vietnam.
[Fig. 2] During the Vietnam War, the construction of the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon was begun in the spring of 1963 and completed in the fall of 1966, as the American Medical Association’s project in South Vietnam. Original plan of a modern University Hospital on adjacent land was not fulfilled.
Almost half a century later, the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon on Hồng Bàng Boulevard, that “made in USA” edifice [whose cost was not much higher than that of a downed helicopter] still stands there braving the elements not only as a physical presence but, more than that, as a meaningful and beautiful symbol in the mind of the Vietnamese on both sides of the conflict.
TO A PROJECT BORN IN LAOS
The time frame was the year 2,000, and the location the Mekong Delta where Vietnam, the country located at the mouth of the river, has to suffer from all the nefarious effects emanating from the irresponsible exploitation projects upstream the current. It is in this country that we can witness the combined impacts of climate change along with salt intrusion and the rising of the sea water. For that reason, the author has put forth a proposal to establish a Department of the Mekong at the University of Cần Thơ, Vietnam to act as a “think tank” on an international scale where research and instruction could be carried out to provide the needed “gray matter” for the entire Mekong Basin. [13]
Sadly enough, a decade has gone by. To this date, the University of Cần Thơ
remains unable to start a Department of the Mekong. It was not due to a limitation
of manpower or physical assets but more importantly because the universities
and colleges in Vietnam lack an “autonomy status” and therefore unable to take
on such an endeavor.
- Also during that same year 2000, no immediate threats were detected coming from the 11 dam projects on the main current of the Lower Mekong Basin. It was not until the first part of 2006 that the Chinese, Malaysian and Thai companies received the green light to perform feasibility studies of the “run-of-river” dams in the Lower Mekong Basin.
- Of the 11 dam projects in the Lower Mekong Basin, 9 are located in Laos. The two remaing ones are the Stung Treng and Sambor dams in Cambodia. The first dam on the main current scheduled for construction, the Xayaburi 1,260MW, is currently raising a lot of controversy for the entire region.
- The nation of Laos with its 9 existing dam projects on the main current and a countless number of others on the tributaries will offer an ideal location for the construction of a Mekong Institute that will be the “intellectual lighthouse” guiding the way for all the development efforts in the region.
- The need for a coordination hub: even though there already exists a coordination hub run by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Bangkok, the American Secretary of State is of the opinion that it is high time to relocate it closer to the Mekong to facilitate and increase cooperation and communication. [1]
- Narrow the development gap: Laos is a country with scarce natural resources except for its hydroelectricity potential. It is ranked as the poorest and least developed of the 5 nations in the Lower Mekong Basin. The building of a Mekong Institute in Laos would represent a concrete step to shrink that development gap. This is also a worthy reparation for a country which was ravaged by the Second Indochina War it did not directly participate in.
- Last but not least, apart from performing the work expected of it, the Mekong Institute will also represent the most cost-effective investment and an eloquent symbol of enduring American cooperation during peacetime.
A MEKONG INSTITUTE IN LAOS
Below is the proposal the author advocates with concrete steps leading to the establishment of the “Mekong Institute”:
- The buildings of the Mekong Institute of the future will be designed by American and Laotian architects - like it was the case with the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon which was jointly drawn up by an American and Vietnamese team. That entire complex should reflect a harmonious combination of modern and Laotian traditional architecture. The construction costs will be shared evenly between the countries bordering the Mekong and USAID. While the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon functioned within its national boundary, the Mekong Institute will be endowed with a larger standing and scale that are commensurate to its role as an “institute for scientific research and education” for the entire region of Southeast Asia.
- The “Mekong River Commission and Mississippi River Commission Sister-River Partnership” offers a golden opportunity for this “Mekong Institute Project” to be embraced. The Mississippi River Commission with its centuries-old history, dating back to 1879, has amassed a rich treasure chest of experience gained through both achievements and failures. It would serve the Mekong countries well to learn from those failures in order to avoid the mistakes committed by their older partner. They should also learn from the “long-range vision” adopted by the American planners in the document named “America’s Watershed: A 200-year Vision, An Intergenerational Commitment” on August 20, 2009.
- While waiting for the Mekong Institute complex to be built, to give it an early start, this institution can temporarily be housed at the National University of Laos (NUOL) in the capital city of Vientiane where the headquarter of the Mekong River Commission may also be found. Established in 1996, the National University of Laos is a fairly young institution. It is also the only university in the country and maintains close relationship with a number of foreign colleges especially in Japan. Interestingly, it is also a member of the Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network (GMSARN) and ASEAN University Network (AUN) as well.
[Fig. 3] Logo of the National University of Laos (NUOL) in Vientiane, NUOL is a partner of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Academic and Research Network (GMSARN) and ASEAN University Network (AUN).
- Also during that same year 2000, no immediate threats were detected coming from the 11 dam projects on the main current of the Lower Mekong Basin. It was not until the first part of 2006 that the Chinese, Malaysian and Thai companies received the green light to perform feasibility studies of the “run-of-river” dams in the Lower Mekong Basin.
- Of the 11 dam projects in the Lower Mekong Basin, 9 are located in Laos. The two remaing ones are the Stung Treng and Sambor dams in Cambodia. The first dam on the main current scheduled for construction, the Xayaburi 1,260MW, is currently raising a lot of controversy for the entire region.
- The nation of Laos with its 9 existing dam projects on the main current and a countless number of others on the tributaries will offer an ideal location for the construction of a Mekong Institute that will be the “intellectual lighthouse” guiding the way for all the development efforts in the region.
- The need for a coordination hub: even though there already exists a coordination hub run by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Bangkok, the American Secretary of State is of the opinion that it is high time to relocate it closer to the Mekong to facilitate and increase cooperation and communication. [1]
- Narrow the development gap: Laos is a country with scarce natural resources except for its hydroelectricity potential. It is ranked as the poorest and least developed of the 5 nations in the Lower Mekong Basin. The building of a Mekong Institute in Laos would represent a concrete step to shrink that development gap. This is also a worthy reparation for a country which was ravaged by the Second Indochina War it did not directly participate in.
- Last but not least, apart from performing the work expected of it, the Mekong Institute will also represent the most cost-effective investment and an eloquent symbol of enduring American cooperation during peacetime.
A MEKONG INSTITUTE IN LAOS
Below is the proposal the author advocates with concrete steps leading to the establishment of the “Mekong Institute”:
- The buildings of the Mekong Institute of the future will be designed by American and Laotian architects - like it was the case with the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon which was jointly drawn up by an American and Vietnamese team. That entire complex should reflect a harmonious combination of modern and Laotian traditional architecture. The construction costs will be shared evenly between the countries bordering the Mekong and USAID. While the Medical School Building of the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of Saigon functioned within its national boundary, the Mekong Institute will be endowed with a larger standing and scale that are commensurate to its role as an “institute for scientific research and education” for the entire region of Southeast Asia.
- The “Mekong River Commission and Mississippi River Commission Sister-River Partnership” offers a golden opportunity for this “Mekong Institute Project” to be embraced. The Mississippi River Commission with its centuries-old history, dating back to 1879, has amassed a rich treasure chest of experience gained through both achievements and failures. It would serve the Mekong countries well to learn from those failures in order to avoid the mistakes committed by their older partner. They should also learn from the “long-range vision” adopted by the American planners in the document named “America’s Watershed: A 200-year Vision, An Intergenerational Commitment” on August 20, 2009.
- While waiting for the Mekong Institute complex to be built, to give it an early start, this institution can temporarily be housed at the National University of Laos (NUOL) in the capital city of Vientiane where the headquarter of the Mekong River Commission may also be found. Established in 1996, the National University of Laos is a fairly young institution. It is also the only university in the country and maintains close relationship with a number of foreign colleges especially in Japan. Interestingly, it is also a member of the Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network (GMSARN) and ASEAN University Network (AUN) as well.
[Fig. 3] Logo of the National University of Laos (NUOL) in Vientiane, NUOL is a partner of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Academic and Research Network (GMSARN) and ASEAN University Network (AUN).
- Build a specialized Learning Resource Center storing all available books
and materials pertaining to: (a) the ecosystems of the world’s rivers and, in
particular, the Mekong and Mississippi; (b) the hydroelectric dams in the world
and their impacts; (c) the effects of climate change and seawater intrusion.
- The teaching staff at the Institute will include: experts from the Mekong River Commission, the Mississippi River Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Commission Dams (WCD), the International Rivers Network (IRN)… They can be invited to teach as visiting professors. The materials they use in their lectures would be invaluable considering that they are derived from actual experience.
- The student body at the Institute will come from the entire region. To be admitted, students must demonstrate proven language skills and meet the Fulbright Program’s criteria of “outstanding scholarship and ability to lead”. The awarding of scholarships should not be limited to participants living in Laos but be extended to all the countries in the region like Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and also Yunnan Province in China. One should not omit to include students from the country of Tibet, the cradle of the Mekong and all other major rivers in Asia.
- The main mission of the Institute is to train environmental engineers. Besides taking academic courses, the students will be exposed to real life situations through field trips to the important locations on the Mekong, the dams, and on-the-job training at the Mekong River and Mississippi River Commissions. To graduate, they must complete a small thesis on ways to conserve the Mekong’s ecosystem. Later on, a post graduate program may be added to the Institute’s curriculum.
- With such an academic baggage and a sense of mutual dependency as well as responsibility, this multi-national group of students will represent a crucial source of “gray matter” to the Mekong River Commission and the regional governments that are experiencing a severe penury of trained personnel. This young and dynamic group of specialists formed in the “Spirit of the Mekong” will usher in a new era of stable cooperation among the seven countries in the Mekong Basin. [7]
- The Mekong Institute campus can be used to hold international conferences, workshops, forums on the Mekong. Looking ahead to the year 2020, due to the impacts of the mammoth hydroelectric dams of China’s Mekong Cascade in Yunnan as well as of the “self-destructive development” adopted by the governments in the Lower Mekong Basin, Laos (with its 9 dam projects on the main current) and the entire Lower Mekong Basin are turning into a ruthless “environmental battleground”.
TO THE LOWER MEKONG INITIATIVE 2100
This project should be considered a long-term investment that is in sync with the “Spirit of the Mekong” and in harmony with the overall picture of cooperation and development of the region. The time factor we are looking at here is not limited to eight years (2012-2020). The Mekong Institute must be viewed in the context of a “100-year Vision”, the first century of this Third Millennium.
There are already too many “show-case” projects in Laos like: the Cultural Pavillion built by the Chinese in Vientiane and the Kaysone Phomhivane Museum by the Vietnamese at Kilometer 6… However, the Mekong Institute conveys a completely different message. It embodies educational and humanistic values beneficial not only to Laos but also to the entire Greater Mekong Subregion. It shows a concern for the happiness and wellbeing of millions of souls living in the basin and a determination to preserve the 11th largest river in the world with an exceedingly varied ecosystem second only to that of the Amazon.
Even if Mrs. Clinton will no longer remain Secretary of State after the coming U.S. presidential election or Mr. Jim Webb no longer stays at his post as U.S. Senator and it does not matter whether the next administration is Democratic or Republican, the foundation laid by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “The Lower Mekong Initiative 2020” for a sustainable development of the whole region must not be marginalized but built upon in consideration of its strategic and peace-building promises. Naturally, there is a steep but justified price to be paid for the preservation of the Mekong: safeguard the fish and food source, conserve an ecosystem deemed as one of the richest on this planet, and protect the existing livelihood of the 70 million inhabitants of the basin and of future generations. We should constantly remind ourselves of this mantra: “Endangered means we still have time. Extinction is forever” - Sea World San Diego.
NGÔ THẾ VINH, M.D.
California, 08/ 16/ 2012
References:
- The teaching staff at the Institute will include: experts from the Mekong River Commission, the Mississippi River Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Commission Dams (WCD), the International Rivers Network (IRN)… They can be invited to teach as visiting professors. The materials they use in their lectures would be invaluable considering that they are derived from actual experience.
- The student body at the Institute will come from the entire region. To be admitted, students must demonstrate proven language skills and meet the Fulbright Program’s criteria of “outstanding scholarship and ability to lead”. The awarding of scholarships should not be limited to participants living in Laos but be extended to all the countries in the region like Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and also Yunnan Province in China. One should not omit to include students from the country of Tibet, the cradle of the Mekong and all other major rivers in Asia.
- The main mission of the Institute is to train environmental engineers. Besides taking academic courses, the students will be exposed to real life situations through field trips to the important locations on the Mekong, the dams, and on-the-job training at the Mekong River and Mississippi River Commissions. To graduate, they must complete a small thesis on ways to conserve the Mekong’s ecosystem. Later on, a post graduate program may be added to the Institute’s curriculum.
- With such an academic baggage and a sense of mutual dependency as well as responsibility, this multi-national group of students will represent a crucial source of “gray matter” to the Mekong River Commission and the regional governments that are experiencing a severe penury of trained personnel. This young and dynamic group of specialists formed in the “Spirit of the Mekong” will usher in a new era of stable cooperation among the seven countries in the Mekong Basin. [7]
- The Mekong Institute campus can be used to hold international conferences, workshops, forums on the Mekong. Looking ahead to the year 2020, due to the impacts of the mammoth hydroelectric dams of China’s Mekong Cascade in Yunnan as well as of the “self-destructive development” adopted by the governments in the Lower Mekong Basin, Laos (with its 9 dam projects on the main current) and the entire Lower Mekong Basin are turning into a ruthless “environmental battleground”.
TO THE LOWER MEKONG INITIATIVE 2100
This project should be considered a long-term investment that is in sync with the “Spirit of the Mekong” and in harmony with the overall picture of cooperation and development of the region. The time factor we are looking at here is not limited to eight years (2012-2020). The Mekong Institute must be viewed in the context of a “100-year Vision”, the first century of this Third Millennium.
There are already too many “show-case” projects in Laos like: the Cultural Pavillion built by the Chinese in Vientiane and the Kaysone Phomhivane Museum by the Vietnamese at Kilometer 6… However, the Mekong Institute conveys a completely different message. It embodies educational and humanistic values beneficial not only to Laos but also to the entire Greater Mekong Subregion. It shows a concern for the happiness and wellbeing of millions of souls living in the basin and a determination to preserve the 11th largest river in the world with an exceedingly varied ecosystem second only to that of the Amazon.
Even if Mrs. Clinton will no longer remain Secretary of State after the coming U.S. presidential election or Mr. Jim Webb no longer stays at his post as U.S. Senator and it does not matter whether the next administration is Democratic or Republican, the foundation laid by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “The Lower Mekong Initiative 2020” for a sustainable development of the whole region must not be marginalized but built upon in consideration of its strategic and peace-building promises. Naturally, there is a steep but justified price to be paid for the preservation of the Mekong: safeguard the fish and food source, conserve an ecosystem deemed as one of the richest on this planet, and protect the existing livelihood of the 70 million inhabitants of the basin and of future generations. We should constantly remind ourselves of this mantra: “Endangered means we still have time. Extinction is forever” - Sea World San Diego.
NGÔ THẾ VINH, M.D.
California, 08/ 16/ 2012
References:
- Remarks from the Fifth Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial
Remarks; Hillary Rodham Clinton; Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 13, 2012 http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/07/194971.htm - Remarks at the Second Friends of the Lower Mekong Ministerial
- The Mekong Basin: A Challenging Neighborhood for The U.S. Ngô Thế Vinh;
http://www.vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/88
- The Mekong and Mississippi Sister-River Partnership: Similarities and
Differences; Ngô Thế Vinh, http://www.vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/58
- Challenge to Water and Security in Southeast Asia; U.S. Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations; September 23, 2010; http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=4c2fd291-5056-a032-52fd-414f26c49704
- China Sees U.S. as Competitor and Declining Power, Insider Says; By Jane
Perlez, April 2, 2012; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/asia/chinese-insider-offers-rare-glimpse-of-us-china-frictions.html?_r=1&hp
- Challenge to Water and Security in Southeast Asia; U.S. Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations; Presiding: Senator Webb, Thursday, September 23, 2010;
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=4c2fd291-5056-a032-52fd-414f26c49704
- The Senate of The United Stated; S.Res. 227, July 7, 2011, A resolution
calling for the protection of the Mekong River Basin and increased U.S. support
for delaying the construction of mainstream dams along the Mekong River. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/sres227/text
- The Mekong River at Risk 2012: With The “Spirit of The Mekong” We will
Together Develop the Basin. Ngô Thế Vinh; http://www.vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/80
- Mekong, Tipping Point: Hydropower Dams, Human Security and Regional
Stability; Richard Cronin, Timothy Hamlin; The Henry Stimson Center 2010;
www.stimson.org
- Upon Their Shoulders: A History of The Mississippi River Commission
from its Inception through the Advent of The modern Mississippi River and
Tributaries Project. Charles A. Camillo and Mathew T. Pearcy. Mississippi
River Commission; Vicksburg, Mississippi, 2006
- Saigon Medical School: An Experiment in International Medical Education:
An Account of the American Medical Association’s Medical Education Project;
C.H. William Ruhe and Ira Singer; Published by AMA June 1988.
- “Cần có Phân khoa Mekong cho Đại học Cần Thơ” http://tuoitre.vn/Tuoi-tre-cuoi-tuan/Tuoi-tre-cuoi-tuan/334051/“Can-co-phan-khoa-Mekong-cho-Dai-hoc-Can-Tho”.html
- Nguyệt San Tình Thương 1963-1967; Tiếng Nói của Sinh Viên Y Khoa; Ngô Thế Vinh; Tình Thương Một Thời Nhân Bản, Tập San Y Sĩ – Hội Y Sĩ Việt Nam Canada, số 184, 01-2010.
