a 'Beautiful Side of Globalization' They, in turn, can be pressed to make oil; mulberry trees and bamboo to make paper; jungle vine to make bags. "We are providing them with simple technology - really simple technology - like a pulper and a press," Hietala said. project Burberry is over, sell their own products. And that is where Carol comes in." Cassidy met Hietala and saw a version of the bag last year in a trade fair in Vientiane, Laos' capital and a few hundred miles from Pakor. Hietala said, "Vientiane is a small town. Everyone knows Carol. Everyone knows Lao Textiles. It's a very big thing. military tried to cut off supply lines to communists in neighboring Vietnam. departed, allowing communist governments to take power. The same government controls Laos today. Lao Textiles, which Cassidy officially opened in 1990, was Burberry Outlet the first American business in Lao. She was Burberry Online a pioneer when the government began to slowly liberalize foreign investment laws in the mid 1980s. Despite the leadership's reputation, Cassidy said, "It's been easy." The government first granted her a 15-year visa, then gave her a 20-year extension and has allowed burberry handbags outlet her to send her profits back to the Untied burberry handbags out States. She runs her shop, Lao Textiles, out of a graceful, refurbished French colonial mansion in downtown Vientiane. Inside, high-priced scarves and tapestries hang from the wall, studio lights highlighting the local colors that burberry outlet onlin fill her designs. Cassidy employs 50 weavers and a small legion of farmers who work from their own villages. Some of the farmers help weave the material they grow, and some simply deliver the silk. "Weaving is a global woman's language," she said. "When I arrived, Lao weaving was alive and well. It wasn't dead. I was just continuing a tradition." Cassidy had seen weavers in Mexico when she was 12, then studied weaving at the Art Academy in Norway. She worked for the United Nations in Africa before arriving in Laos in 1989. "I'm not really a typical American," Cassidy said, smiling, sipping a drink at one of Vientiane's few hotels. Burberry handbag sale Her textiles hang in the hotel's hallway. She hasn't lived in the United States since 1975, and described her son's ordeal in applying to college. "'You didn't tell me what the SATs were!'" Cassidy recalled him saying. She shruggred her shoulders. "We lived in Laos. We didn't pay attention to these things." She won't reveal how much money she makes, but said she's profitable - and that she has her share of famous, rich clients, whom she won't name for the record.