Police Fear Violence

Posted on by Laughingnomad

it has been raining and humid outside so am watching the Blue Sky Channel showing 4 different groups of protesters in Bangkok today. Comments on the ThaiVisa blog are interesting as usual. Of course I don’t have a clue what any the speakers are saying, singing, yelling and chanting.

A so-called million man march is being planned for tomorrow. This has a long complicated history but the bottom line is that exiled PM Thaksin has manipulated several groups to support his return to Thailand and others are dead set against not only his return, but his proxy government led by his sister that is currently in power.

At the Democracy Monument protest site, are a group of anti-Thaksin academics, representatives of labour unions from state enterprises, members of the Silom business community, political activists among others talking in front of thousands of cheering protesters with whistles and red, white and blue headbands.

The group on stage also includes leaders of the “People’s Army to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime” and the “Network of People and Students for Thailand’s Reform,” who have been holding separate rallies in Bangkok to voice their opposition to the government-backed controversial amnesty bill and the so-called Thaksin regime. The Student group is the most radical of course.

Meanwhile, pro-government red-shirt leaders have called on supporters to gather at Rajamangala Stadium today to discuss how to deal with what is expected to be a massive gathering of anti-government protesters tomorrow. The protesters are expected to split into 12 groups around Bangkok. The Chiang Mai 51 group has readied 150 buses to bring red-shirt protesters to Bangkok. So you can imagine what the traffic situation is going to be.

The police are worried that the red-shirt supporters will conflict with the anti-government anti-Thaksin supporters. 40 teams of rapid-response police officers have been set up to deal with the situation.

Toward the end of the day a grey-haired stately woman took the stage and voiced a plea to Thaksin to LEAVE US ALONE! LEAVE US ALONE! Then she said she was advised not to use rude language. So she swished her flag in the air with a “… OFF!”

I’m just going to sit in my guesthouse room with the TV and my computer for the day.

Oregon Thailand Hong Kong 2013-14

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Need new crowns on implants I got last spring while in Bangkok. Need to see my son Josh and his lovely Significant Other, Polly, in Hong Kong. And spend some time down south in Krabi Thailand with my son Doug and his little fishing boat.

On my yearly trip to Asia, I flew from Oaxaca to Oregon for a week where I picked up 6 months of mail and paid property taxes and ran a myriad of errands. Then Nov 9 spent 8 hours on a cramped Delta flight to Tokyo and another 5 hours to Bangkok. Every trip seems to get more and more uncomfortable. Hard seats make my butt bones hurt even with a pillow. Jet lag and culture shock makes me feel like my body and soul is rubber…stretching out over continents. Getting too old for this shit. But what better to do with myself than visit adult children scattered all over the world. 😉

In the metro on my way to the dentist I see this lovely ad.

Details here are not especially for my readers (if there are any) but a kind of diary to remind myself where I go when and what I do. Memory going fast! But while I am on it, dental work at the Bangkok International Dental Center is excellent and VERY affordable. Dr. Preeda completed dental school at the Univ of N. Carolina and spent a year teaching implant technology there. And for health care you can’t do better than Bumrungrad Hospital. Want a face lift? Ask for Dr. Poomee who spent 30 years practicing in Atlanta Georgia before retiring with a part time practice in Thailand. I asked for a partial but he wouldn’t do it for me. Said I wasn’t ready! Not ready? If I’m not ready at 69 when will I be? He said if you are not ready then results would be disappointing. Oh well. I don’t care anymore anyway. My life is in my face anyway. However I did get upper eyelids done to keep them from falling into my eyes a few years ago.

Have spent 3 days in a dental chair with 3 more to go this week. But the weather is wonderful. Dr. Preeda said winter got here 2 days before I arrived. It is 30F 27C!

I asked him if he had been out in the street protesting and blowing his whistle. He said no but that his 2 year old has been blowing his whistle constantly for days! My yellow-shirt friend will take me to the protest sites. With ear plugs. Hope it’s better than the hand-clappers in 2009-10! But I’d rather be here or in Oaxaca than the U.S. any day where the political drama makes me sick.

Read this morning that the Street Art is getting painted over in Oaxaca. Probably the most egregiously political stuff. Apparently Oaxaca will host the World Congress of World Heritage Cities, a major event bringing together mayors from five continents to discuss the problems of their cities and promoting comprehensive strategies, in order to protect the heritage and promote human development … So they paint over the Street Art??? Arghhhhh! Ruined my morning.

Mr. CANNOT and Mrs. NOHAVE

Posted on by Laughingnomad

OMG, it’s almost been a year since my last RTW! I am planning my next trip back to Thailand to get some teeth in November and to see my sons in Thailand and Hong Kong. I am beginning to anticipate…and remember…

An expat took his laptop battery to the computer shop opposite Makro in Samui to see if they had one or could order one from Bangkok. He approached the guy at the counter with his carrier bag. (There was no one else in the shop, and the guy was not busy doing anything)

“Sawasdee Krap”

(Silence)

“can you help me?”

(Silence)

“I have a laptop battery” (reaching into carrier bag)

“NO HAVE!”
(At this point the battery was still concealed in the bag)

“Can you….?.”

“CANNOT!”

“cannot what?”

“CANNOT!”

“Do you have……?” (producing said battery. He didn’t even look at it)

“CANNOT”

” I see…..Can you order from Bangkok?”

“CANNOT ORDER!”

“Are you saying that there is no shop in the whole of Bangkok where you can get a laptop battery?”

“CANNOT ORDER!”

Another expat:
“In Banphai there is a pharmacy, each time I go in, without looking up the man says NO HAVE. Hello I can see what I want on that shelf… NO HAVE…I go outside and get the [Thai] wife and she asks for the same item. He goes to the shelf and passes item to my wife 80 baht please. WTF.”

You may also encounter Mr. NONO and Mrs. SHOO-SHOO

I think there may be several things going on here.

Mrs. NOHAVE may not understand the request and don’t want to admit it to save face. Also may apply to MR. CANNOT, MR. NONO and MRS SHOO-SHOO.
Mr. CANNOT can not speak English in order to answer the request.
This may be followed up by Mrs. SHOO-SHOO
Mr. CANNOT and Mrs. NO HAVE, Mr. NONO and Mrs. SHOO-SHOO may be tired.
Thais are sick of dealing with farangs who don’t speak Thai
Thais are sick of dealing with farangs

Of course it may be true that they really CANNOT or NO HAVE.

When Is An Expat Not An Expat

Posted on by Laughingnomad

When I refer to myself as an expat in Mexico, I often get asked “what is an expat.” Now I am having to change my Mexican visa from a temporary one to a permanent one. Do I want to be a Residente Permanente? At least I will not have to renew my visa every year.

Today Garrison Keillor posted a poem by Paul Zimmer on his Writer’s Almanac web site entitled “Amongst The French.”

I do not have their words,
do not have their years or customs.
Passing them on the road,
shy as fog passing down
slopes into the valley,
I always give first utterance
or make an uncertain gesture.

My neighbors are kind,
knowing I am like rain,
that if they wait long enough,
in time I will go away.

It is the same for me in
all directions—under stars
swarming out of foothills,
on the gravel I churn
with my shoes—east, west,
north, or south—the same.
If I remained in
this friendly place forever,
I would always be a stranger.

This got me to thinking. It’s not just true in France of course. It’s true of anyone leaving their birth country and moving to another one. It’s true for me in Mexico and it’s especially true for Thailand. Apparently another “expat” has been thinking about this too and the following has been lifted from his blog Life In Prana

When is an expat not an expat?

Read More

World Watching

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I don’t have to talk about Snowden and Egypt, Syria and all the other countries struggling for self-determination. It’s all over the web. But I have a special place in my heart for Turkey…and my friends there.

On the first day of Ramaden, Istanbul Turkey broke fast with a mile long table along Istikal Street near Taksim Square. The water cannon trucks were menacingly standing at the end of the street.

Wait

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Set your dreams where nobody hides
Give your tears to the tide
No time
No time
There is no end, there is no goodbye

Disappear with night
No time
No time
No time
No time
No time

STANDING MAN

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Erdogan rallied about 200,000 bussed-in AKP party supporters yesterday, at tax-payer expense and gave a 2-hour hate-filled lie-filled speech while protestors and police fought it out in the side streets.

Police are getting edgy.

Couple thousand union people went on strike Monday and pushed through a police line until the chemical-added water cannons cut them off.

Many suspect Erdogan is already using the gendarmeri but is threatening to send in the army.

Meanwhile the Standing Man becomes top tweet. After 18 days of mass protest against the Turkish Government, sparked by plans to re-develop Istanbul’s Gezi Park, Monday’s headline was grabbed by a solitary act of defiance in nearby Taksim Square.

Performance artist Erdem Gündüz stood silently in front of the flag of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, hung on the Atatürk Culture Center — scheduled for destruction in the clearance of Gezi Park’s green space for a replica Ottoman-era military barracks.

Gündüz remained for six hours until he and a group that joined him in the silent stare were briefly detained by police. The act is being replicated in several international locations.

Standing Man

.

This Is What Fascism Looks Like
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=570701319648175

A savvy Turkish friend wonders if Erdogan wants civil war.

June 19 Update