In my previous blog entry I talked about my office. It’s the office that ergonomics forgot. I have a wooden chair at the wrong height with a wooden desk. The chair doesn’t even have arse dimples. Much to my disappointment I’m fairly sedentary at the moment and I finish each day looking a little bit more like Quasimodo than when I started. That’s Quasimodo with a very flat arse. It’s a character trait that Victor Hugo didn’t linger on but I’m sure he had a flat arse.
At home it’s no better. We have a collection of wooden armchairs and a bench. All of them really poorly designed with regard to comfort. I’ve spent a good many hours squirming in those chairs trying to find a good sitting position whilst watching the plethora of space and astronaut related stories on Russia Today. Which reminds me, I don’t think anyone’s told the Russians that the space race is over. We get at least a weekly update on the progress of the space programme. It’s very odd but quite enjoyable. It’s like starring in a really crappy Laos version of ‘Goodbye Lenin’.Anyway, until quite recently, the most comfortable place I had to sit was a plastic garden chair positioned on the veranda so I could rest my legs on the balustrade. This position necessitates resting my dinner on my chest to eat, resulting in a really steamy face but it was generally the best of a bad job. 
I’ve looked for other chairs both in Pakse and Vientiane and have come up against three main obstacles to comfort. They are the wrong proportions for people over 5’5’’. They are all far too flat in the arse area and even the marginally softer sofas are all covered in leatherette, which given the average temperatures here, results in the removal of significant tranches of thigh skin.
So why are the chairs so uncomfortable? Although in some ways the subject seems quite trivial, I think it is indicative of some of the broader obstacles to development in Laos.
Bear with me on this one....Laos has the potential to be a fantastic and sustainable source for timber, with some of the best opportunities in ASEAN for developing the industry. This potential is currently checked by illegal logging and weak enforcement by the authorities but if these problems can be minimised, there are real opportunities to use the forest. The Vietnamese situation makes an interesting comparison. Here they have extremely strict controls on internal logging and have therefore had to substantially increase the quantity of timber imports to feed the factories and furniture industry which rely on the raw material. In some ways this provides a great opening for Laos but what concerns me is the lack of development of the secondary and consuming industries within Laos itself. It is true to say that there is currently significant investment in extractive industries and processing plants for raw materials like rubber but this investment is coming mostly from foreign companies looking to feed their home markets and international demands. Laos doesn’t seem to be succeeding at adding value.
The advent of sustainable and accredited rattan production in Laos is being trumpeted as a great success, which it undoubtedly is but like so many of the other natural products which Laos is so well placed to grow, the results are sent for export. The most comfortable chairs I’ve used in Laos are undoubtedly the rattan chairs found at some higher class cafes but in order to buy them, you have to seize the opportunity presented by passing Vietnamese traders.
Even in one of the areas of great success within the Lao economy, increased coffee production is being hampered by the lack of processing capability and resulting lack of profile for Lao coffee on the World stage. Lao coffee is accepted to be of a quality comparable to the best in the world yet you can’t find it on the shelves in Western supermarkets. Like Lao tea, it is exported and blended and you will no doubt have found yourself inadvertently drinking it but as a single origin product, commanding higher prices, whilst providing opportunities to further develop the industry it is impossible to get hold of.
Living in Laos there is perhaps a surprisingly large number of processed and prepared foods available. The vast and overwhelming majority of these products come from Thailand. There are some positive examples within Laos but for some reason they don’t seem to be thriving as they could. Processing can be carried out on a small, cottage industry scale to start with and seems to present a prime opportunity to diversify and stabilise farmers’ incomes but it doesn’t seem to receive the same attention as the larger scale industries like mining and rubber.
So, what was my recent success in the search for comfort? Well, I’ve bought a hammock and it’s a revelation. But where did I buy it? Sadly, I picked it up on a recent trip to Thailand when renewing my visa.
Anyway, I’m off for a nice sit down and a coffee.
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