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More Pictures of Portugal
Europe
Spain and Portugal - More pictures of Portugal
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- Written by: Richard_McKie
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- Category: Europe
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The Lao People's Democratic Republic is a communist country, like China to the North and Vietnam with which it shares its Eastern border.
And like the bordering communist countries, the government has embraced limited private ownership and free market capitalism, in theory. But there remain powerful vested interests, and residual pockets of political power, particularly in the agricultural sector, and corruption is a significant issue.
During the past decade tourism has become an important source of income and is now generating around a third of the Nation's domestic product. Tourism is centred on Luang Prabang and to a lesser extent the Plane of Jars and the capital, Vientiane.
Easter /'eestuh/. noun
[Middle English ester, Old English eastre, originally, name of goddess; distantly related to Latin aurora dawn, Greek eos; related to east]
Macquarie Dictionary
I'm not very good with anniversaries so Easter might take me by surprise, were it not for the Moon - waxing gibbous last night. Easter inconveniently moves about with the Moon, unlike Christmas. And like Christmas, retailers give us plenty of advanced warning. For many weeks the chocolate bilbies have been back in the supermarket - along with the more traditional eggs and rabbits.
Gough Whitlam has died at the age of 98.
I had an early encounter with him electioneering in western Sydney when he was newly in opposition, soon after he had usurped Cocky (Arthur) Calwell as leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and was still hated by elements of his own party.
I liked Cocky too. He'd addressed us at University once, revealing that he hid his considerable intellectual light under a barrel. He was an able man but in the Labor Party of the day to seem too smart or well spoken (like that bastard Menzies) was believed to be a handicap, hence his 'rough diamond' persona.
Gough was a new breed: smooth, well presented and intellectually arrogant. He had quite a fight on his hands to gain and retain leadership. And he used his eventual victory over the Party's 'faceless men' to persuade the Country that he was altogether a new broom.
It was time for a change not just for the Labor Party but for Australia.