I Little Slave

One of the greatest things about my job as Department Administrator at OHSU is that I have a fascinating faculty. They write books about their experiences and I am trying to read them all. It's a daunting reading list, but always interesting.

This week's read: "I Little Slave" a prison memoir from Communist Laos by Bounsang Khamkeo, a counselor at the Department's Intercultural Psychiatric Program.

"A haunting narrative of undaunted will"

"Raised in the hierarchical society of traditional Laos, Bounsang Khamkeo earned his doctorate in political scinece in France and returned home in 1973 to a country in political chaos in the wake of the Vietnam War. He worked for the government until 1981 before being imprisoned by the communist Pathet Lao government after running afoul of a politically ambitious boss. I Little Slave is the account of his seven year struggle in prison to stay alive and keep sane in spite of harsh physical privation and endless psychological abuse. Khamkeo's story is a moving and important one at a time when political oppression and crimes against human rights are on the rise throughout the world."