Word: lao
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...Laos' linguistic legacy to the rest of the world comprises just one word: bong. Commonly used in the West to describe a water pipe for marijuana smoking, the word means bamboo in Lao and is indicative of what the country has come to represent to many of the youthful, Western travelers who have made this Indo-Chinese nation of 5 million a haven for narco-tourists seeking the Asian high life. At any given moment in Vang Viang, a town of about 20,000, at least 50 foreigners are here mainly to partake of the opium scene, and another...
...When Hong Kong-based Jardine Securicor hired Kerry to run its subsidiary, Lao Securicor, the company's client list included the Settha Palace Hotel, the Australian embassy and a sapphire-mining company that, despite the appearance of its dirty, three-story office building on Sihom Street in Vientiane, seemed on the verge of success. Gem Mining Lao held sapphire mining concessions, estimated to be worth $100 million, in Bokeo province, a region of dense forest, green rice paddies and rusty tin shacks where farmers were known to find sapphires and rubies in the red earth after heavy rains...
...initially it wasn't the government that caused Gem Mining Lao's problems. A falling out between Jeppesen and his investors in late 1999?he claimed they were bilking him out of his rightful share of the company, they alleged he was ripping off the best sapphires?resulted in the competing factions battling for support from the Lao government. It was a fight Jeppesen and Bruns ultimately lost. One insider says: "Bernie paid the wrong people off." The pair fled in late May 2000, leaving behind unpaid bills, few friends and a letter appointing Kerry Danes "to handle...
...then it was too late. To Lao officials, Kerry and Kay Danes and Gem Mining Lao were one and the same. With Jeppesen and Bruns out of reach, the government arrested the only corporate representatives left in Laos, the Danes. Held for more than six months before they were charged, the couple was finally accused of embezzling and selling sapphires. Prosecutors at the one-day trial provided little evidence to support the claims, and the verdict was typed before the trial even started. The case has provoked outrage in Australia and, though negotiations continue, calls are growing...
...shareholders who opposed Jeppesen believe the Danes did nothing wrong. "They've just wandered into the threshing machine through sheer inattention and ignorance," says Gary Shugg, who helped orchestrate the financing deal with Jeppesen that went sour. The sapphire mine is shut and in the hands of the Lao government, Jeppesen and Bruns remain in hiding and investors hold stock in a company that has no access to its only asset. The Danes' three children, living in Brisbane with their grandparents, can't understand why their mom and dad are in prison. Also bewildered are the locals who used...