Kaz Phonesak Patafta, (born 25 October 1988 in Canberra) is an Australian football (soccer) attacking midfielder who currently plays for the Newcastle Jets. He attended Radford College in Canberra and received a football scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 2004. He is of Croatian and Laotian descent.
Lao National TV covered the story of Kaz
Until that date, he had been ignored by Australia's A-League squads but soon, two European giants, PSV Eindhoven (whose interest was due to the recommendation of then Australian national team manager, Guus Hiddink) and SL Benfica, expressed interest in signing him [1]. The Portuguese side won the race for the Australian youngster but his move overseas was initially blocked by Football Federation Australia because he was under the age of 18. He eventually joined Benfica's B-Squad in January 2006. His first game for the Benfica first team was against CF Estrela da Amadora in a pre-season game on 15 August 2006.
Kaz Interview
Patafta joined Australian A-League champions Melbourne Victory on loan for the 2007/08 season. He played his first game for Melbourne Victory in a pre-season match against Sydney FC, to which they lost 1-0. He has mostly made appearances off the bench in the 2007/08 A-League season, amid suggestions he is not physical enough, or even big enough for the league. His first goal in the A-League, a left foot shot from a tight angle, came in the round 20 encounter against Wellington Phoenix.
Watch his interview in World sport
In May 2008, Patafta secured a release from the remainder of his contract with Benfica with the assistance of the Australian Professional Footballers' Association. On 2 June 2008, Patafta signed a 1 year deal with the Newcastle Jets.[
International career Patafta gained attention when he captained the Australian Under-17 football team, the "Joeys", during the 2005 World Championships in Peru.[4]
"In a team where most of the players show good skills with the ball, Kaz Patafta has ensured his spot and has no replacement as a midfielder. A good reader of the game and the centre of command, this boy naturally became the captain of the Aussies".
Patafta was included as part of Australia's "train-on" squad before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, along with fellow promising young Australian players Kristian Sarkies and Neil Kilkenny. Unlike these players, he was not given a senior cap in the team's three pre-World Cup friendly matches.
(KPL) Thailand tops the foreign investment in Laos with 1.5 billion US dollars invested in various projects in the last eight years, has said the Investment Promotion Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The department said in its recently released report that the investment from Thailand made Vietnam and China the second and third largest foreign investment in Laos although they ranked first and third largest in the first nine months of 2008, in which Vietnam contributed 181 million US dollars and China did 111 million US dollars to the investment environment of Laos.
Thailand, also the first largest trade partner of Laos, ranked second in the list of foreign investment in the first nine months of 2008, which invested 173 US dollars in various projects across the country.
Top ten largest foreign investors in Laos in the last eight years include 1. Thailand, 2. China, 3. Vietnam, 4. France, 5. Japan, 6. The Republic of Korea, 7. India, 8. Australia, 9. Malaysia and 10. Singapore.
The total foreign investment in Laos has reached 6 billion USD, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos reported.
Top 10 list of foreign investors in Laos is as follows: 1. Thailand, (1.355 billion USD in 169 projects) 2. China, (1.138 billion USD in 237 projects) 3. Viet Nam (535.7 million USD in 120 projects) 4. France (428.2 million USD in 58 projects) 5. Japan (420.3 million USD in 33 projects) 6. India (350.2 million USD in 3 projects) 7. Australia (330.8 million USD in 27 projects) 8. South Korea (294.4 million USD in 105 projects) 9. Malaysia (135.2 million USD in 33 projects) 10. Singapore (101.1 million USD in 22 projects)
Other countries that showed high foreign investment in Laos include Canada (ranking 11), Swizerland (ranking 12), England (ranking 13), Russia (ranking 14), Norway (ranking 15), Taiwan (ranking 16), United State (ranking 17), Germany (ranking 18), Poland (ranking 19), Italy (ranking 20)
Lao agencies attributed increases in foreign investment to the country’s open policy and political stability.
According to the Department of Foreign Investment Promotion and Management under the above ministry, investors from 37 countries and territories have invested in 1,031 projects in Laos.
Lao singers and songwriters who have been harbouring dreams of becoming a star may have a chance for their big break soon, through a new television talent quest.
A team from Asia Sounds, an Australia-based music and media company, is currently touring Southeast Asian countries to promote its 2008 Asian Song Contest.
The team, led by the company's Executive Vice President of Marketing, Ms Adrienne Smith, met Lao Information and Culture officials in Vientiane on Monday to discuss the contest.
“We're in Laos to seek permission to invite musicians here to enter our competition,” Ms Smith said during an interview...more info>>
“We want to invite everybody to apply for the contest, which is open to all,” another member of the team, Mr Biag Occhino, said. “I hope that maybe someone in Laos wins it.”
As part of the music project, entitled Sutasi , which stands for “Sources of Unsigned Talents in Asia”, the team is looking for exceptional musicians and artists from throughout Asia .
According to the organisation's press release, Sutasi is an “Asian-level platform for discovering quality music and talent, with the aim of launching new-found talent to the Asian market and beyond.”
Winners will receive more than US$1 million in cash and prizes.
“We cannot say who will be the winner. Maybe they'll like the Lao music style, and we might win the hearts of the judging panel,” said Lao graphic designer Mr Praseuth Banchongphakdy, who is coordinating the competition in Vientiane .
“This competition is a good opportunity for Lao songwriters and singers.”
Songs to be entered in the competition can be written in the contestant's native language or can be a mix of languages, including English. The important thing is that the lyrics and melody are modern and appealing to listeners, Mr Praseuth said.
The company will choose 12 singers and 12 performers from the 11 countries in Southeast Asia , but those chosen will not be distributed evenly across the region.
“We might end up with five contestants from Laos or two from Singapore ,” Ms Smith said, adding that “the main criterion for success is quality,” and that she wanted as many people as possible to apply for the contest.
“It is not too late, and it's not important to us which country the contestants come from. It's more about the quality of singing and the performance,” she said.
The contest will begin in February in Southeast Asia, followed by East Asia in April and South Asia in August.
The contest is divided into two sections: a talent show in search of a star performer, and a song contest, to find an outstanding songwriter. For the final performance, songs written by songwriters who are not themselves singers will be given to skilled vocalists to perform.
According to the news release, the grand finale, scheduled for October next year will bring together the winning songwriter and singer from each region. The winners will be judged by a new panel of music professionals and via public votes throughout Asia .
Applications have been open since September 14; more people can apply by downloading the forms from www.sutasi.com. The closing date is November 1, but places are limited.
The Australian, Irish and Welsh backpackers I met at the Hive bar in Luang Prabang, Laos, invited me 10 pin bowling.
It's not the sort of thing you'd expect to do in a UNESCO-protected town high up in the mountains of northern Laos.
But not surprisingly this town has few western night clubs or late night bars. And the only place to drink late at night in town is at the bowling alley...more
But, by the time we'd had a few drinks of beer Lao, a deliciously spicy dinner at one of the many restaurants in town, then nightcaps of Lao Lao (or locally-made whiskey) with local Diet Coke (I'm not sure what was worse) we never got there.
I was lucky to find a tuk tuk driver to take me back to my hotel.
It was a fairly active night for what could be one of the most languid places I've ever been to.
It's almost as if time stands still in this French colonial town known more for its spirituality than bowling.
Even the Buddhist monks seem to move slower than normal.
And walking around town in 38 degree heat, I'm reminded that only mad dogs, Englishmen and then maybe tourists go out in the midday sun. It's so hot you can almost feel the air swallowing you. Everybody else seems to be lying inside or in the shade using as little energy as possible.
It's low season and local school holidays. They say Christmas time is better for visiting and can even get chilly at night.
I visit the 16th century Wat Xieng Thong, known as a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture with a tiered roof, glittering golden facades and richly coloured mural painting. It's a working temple and monks have hung their orange robes out to dry after doing their laundry.
I stop for an iced lemon tea and lunch at one of the riverside cafes overlooking the murky brown waters of the Mekong. The son of the restaurant owner is painting pictures of monks with pen and ink on saa paper made from the mulberry tree and its bark.
He tells me he's an art student. The town seems to be full of them, if you go by the number of art shops and galleries.
In the late afternoon, men play boule along the river front, on even the smallest patch of dirt.
In his book The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future (Allen and Unwin, 2006), former Australian diplomat Milton Osborne says the Mekong has ``always been a river for work, for travel and for fishing, and, not infrequently, for war''.
Luang Prabang was once known as Asia's sleeping beauty. The former capital of the ancient Lam Xang kingdom, with around 32 pagodas along with religious and historical monuments, was made a World Heritage town by UNESCO in 1995.
It has especially strong ties with Buddhism, being a traditional destination for novices and students of the faith.
Flying over the mountains on the way in, you can't imagine anybody living in such rugged land. This is the country where what became known as The Secret War was played out - US bombings including attacks on what came to be known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a North Vietnamese supply route through East Laos and the Cambodian-Vietnam border.
The Communist Pathet Lao took over in 1975; they've only opened the place to tourism in the past 10 years. Now, around 140,000 people or seven times the city's estimated population visit the place over a one-year period.
UNESCO's role is partly to try to support the town's growth within the framework of strict controls so the historic buildings are preserved.
Development must take into account ancient Laotian social, architectural and religious mores.
Buddhism is a force that underpins every aspect of life here. Around 6am every day, hundreds of monks and novices attend the alms-giving ceremony, where locals give them sticky rice, fruit and sweets.
Tourists are asked not to be obtrusive.
The Pathet Lao forced the last king of Laos, Savang Vathana, to abdicate, snuffing out a 600-year-old monarchy. Twenty years later, Christopher Kremmer, an Australian foreign correspondent, tried unsuccessfully to crack the mystery behind the fate of the royals - as outlined in his book, Stalking the Elephant Kings: In Search of Laos.
The former Royal Palace is now a National Museum, which is worth visiting for its rooms that give a glimpse of what life was once like for the royals. There's an eclectic mix of exhibits, including gifts from other countries, among them a boomerang from Australia.
It's where the Pha Bang Buddha is kept, which gives the town its name.
It's said to be have been cast in Sri Lanka in the first century AD and twice stolen by the Thais. But, it has been back in Laos since the mid 19th century.
A beautiful exhibition known as The Quiet in the Land of Buddhism-inspired images, including photographs, was on display in an outer building. Luang Prabang is now on the backpacker route. My new friends had made their way across country after doing an elephant trek near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand then crossed the border and came by boat up the river, taking two days to get there. Others come down the river from Vietnam.
And it's also a town with a growing number of more well-heeled visitors.
Many fly in to what is considered one of the most difficult airports to land in in South-East Asia.
The hotel where I'm staying, La Residence Phuo Voa, has a spa which overlooks the mountains with its own small swimming pool - lazing in it after a massage is like having a huge bath to yourself.
At night, staff place candles in the main swimming pool overlooked by the floodlit shrine on top of Mount Phou Si. The food at its Phou Vao restaurant is traditional Laotian cuisine alongside European dishes with local influences.
The walk up Mount Phou Si from the town gives spectacular views and is popular at sunrise and sunset.
Apart from exploring the town and its wonderfully photogenic architecture and temples, shops and galleries there's also the night markets full of traditional clothes, woven cloth, scarfs, jewellery and souvenirs.
The only two relatively close excursions out of town are the Pak Ou caves and the Kuang si waterfall. Many agencies run half-day tours. But then there's also bowling.
IF YOU GO: La Residence Phou Vao is from $141 per room per night for a garden view room. To book/query call Orient-Express Hotels (02) 8248-5200 or email: charlie.turnbullorient-express.com Also visit www.residencephouvao.com. Bangkok Airways flies daily and sometimes twice daily between Bangkok and Luang Prabang. Details: visit www.bangkokair.com Qantas flies to Bangkok. Visit www.qantas.com.
The Australian government will provide an estimated A$27.2 million (over 200 billion kip) in aid to Laos in the 2007-08 period.
The 2007-08 Budget, announced Tuesday night in Canberra, is a watershed for the Australian government's aid programme, and Australia's largest ever investment in reducing poverty...more info
In total, Australia will provide an estimated A$3.155 billion in official development assistance (ODA) in 2007-08, an increase over the 2006-07 budget of A$209 million.
ODA, managed by Australia 's overseas aid agency, AusAID, will increase by over 21.7 percent in real terms as the agency begins implementing major new initiatives announced in the budget.
Australian ODA to Laos will be used to further expand Australian engagement in improving the quality of, and access to, basic education. It will also support Australia 's commitment to promoting the country's integration with regional and global economies.
To reinforce Australia 's efforts to promote growth and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, the package of initiatives will make substantial new investments in critical areas, including education, economic growth, health and emergency and humanitarian response capacity.
These investments are guided by the 2006 White Paper on Australian aid and demonstrate real progress towards achieving the Government's commitment of a A$4 billion aid programme by 2010.
Miss Lao Charity Quest or Nang Sangkharne pageant is held annually by the Lao Community in Sydney, Australia. The aims were to select Miss Sungkharne for the Lao new year celebration, raising fund for The Lao Sunday school, creating awareness to the younger Lao generation about our beautiful Lao culture and tradition, any boys and girls can take part in this event.
Every Miss Sangkharne has her own partner as well as a flower girl (not shown on the photos) that’s why it was mentioned earlier that any boys and girls can take part in this event, after all, it’s for everyone to get involve, although we are mostly emphasis on Miss Sangkharne, that is Nang Sangkharne all about but the boys and the flower girls are worth mentioning. Lots effort and dedication, not to mention numerous of hours were put into it to make the event happen. Miss Sangkharne pageant cannot be operated without the love and support from their family especially the parents, friends and relatives to be involved in the whole process or event
All of Miss Sangkharnes are winners in their own right, they all beautiful, they have won the hearts and minds of the audience as well as the Lao community as a whole.
Apart from taking part, they also get to learn more about Lao culture, tradition, feeling proud to be able to do something useful for the Lao Community, by the time the Lao new year celebration is over, they will be gaining lots of Laotian friends, self confidence, learning Lao tradition, and the most important thing of all was gaining more Laotian friends along the way. That's why everyone is a winner. I was fortunate to be the official photographer for the night to capture this wonderful event on photos to share them with you. This shows that Lao people in Australia are still strongly believed in preserving Lao way of life and tradition which has been carried on by many generations. It’s up to us all to keep this wonderful tradition vibrant and alive.
I wish to thank the Lao Community, the participants and everyone who have made this event possible for us all to see.
