Another day, another sad situation for some unfortunate people in an underserved country. As of this writing, there are nearly 1000 billionaires in the world, with a collective worth of $4.45 trillion. And, at the same time, there are 8 billion people living in that same world. Do the maths and you can see that something is wrong. This is 2022 – we should be much better than we are as a species. It’s probably safe to say that people want to get along with each other.
But, here’s an example of something that works though, and it shows what can be done between governments who you think might have very little in common: the Boten–Vientiane railway.
A collaboration project between Laos and China, the line’s northern end is directly connected to the Chinese rail system at Mohan in Yunnan, through the Yuxi–Mohan railway, and has provisions in the south to link with the Bangkok–Nong Khai high-speed railway in Thailand and possibly all the way to Singapore via HSR.
The first talks about the railway linking Laos and China began in 2001, with Laotian and Chinese politicians both having confirmed the plans in 2009. Lao politician of Chinese descent Somsavat Lengsavad was reportedly the driving force behind the project on the Laotian side.
Read more here, courtesy of the ever-useful Wikipedia. We’re donors – are you?
