Last night I hopped a motorcycle taxi at the corner. “Where you from?” the cute young driver asked. “America,” I said. “America Pie” he sang to me all the way to my dentist appointment. “I used to work at cocktail bar,” he laughed, “and I learn all the words to American Pie!” I enjoyed the song but really hoped I wasn’t going to lose my knees as he dodged in and out the cars and other cyclists at terrifying speed.
Bar Girls Waiting For Customers To Buy Them A Beer And Whatever…
My favorite food in Thailand is one of the many varieties of noodle soup found on street carts. Street food is safe if you select a cart in early to mid day, when the food will be fresh, and watch to see that the broth has been boiling. There usually is a choice of wide or narrow noodles. There will be a table or two where I can sit and add ground chilis or chili oil, fish sauce or sugar (Thais put sugar in everything which is why I think Thai food appeals to Westerners) to a steaming bowl of rather sweet clear broth that I think is made with turnips. I usually request fish balls, fried ground pork or crispy pork and bean sprouts from a selection of meat and vegetables resting on shelves in a small glass case in front of the huge pot of broth. (I avoid the reddish-brown chunks in the case which my son says is congealed blood.) All for 25 baht or about 50 cents.
Visitors, to the south of Thailand, including foreigners, will soon have an opportunity to experience muslim life in a village in the province of Yala. A “Widower’s Village” is being built in Rotanbu Village under a resettlement project funded by Her Majesty the Queen. The 150 homes, built by the Thai military, are for Buddhist and Muslim women who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks and deaths caused by the Thai military in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Holiday makers can stay in a home for a week-end for 200 baht ($5) a day. The Queen requests that visitors not interfere with muslim prayer rituals out of respect for the Quran. There will be no time for loneliness, one woman says.
I called my son Doug yesterday morning. He had just returned from the fish market on Koh Samui with a salad bowl of large fresh gung (shrimp) with heads still on for $1.60 and had cooked up a traditional Thai omelet with puk (vegetables) and prik (chilis) and steamed rice. Doug does all the cooking. Lucky Luk!
On National Children’s Day in Thailand, it is a tradition for the Prime Minister to deliver a positive “motto.” This year the wealthy PM Thaksin who owns Thai Air and other assets said that children should read more and think for themselves so they become smart successful adults. A secondary student, however, respectfully asked the PM whether children should value honesty and simplicity over succeeding by any means necessary. Oops.
The irony is that the PM evidently does not believe in advocating the same for the adults ministers under him. Amid flagging popularity in the cities and on-going feuding with the press, Thaksin recently took a dog and pony show to Roi Et in an impoverished province in the northeast. In his “reality show” he says he has done all the thinking and ministers just have to follow his instructions, eg, women should add sticky rice to their hand-woven baskets to add value…never mind that the coconut milk in sticky rice would sour on it’s way to Bangkok.
Most people here seem to think (for themselves) as, one columnist put it, “it’s just a stunt to fool the farmers” into thinking he is doing something for them. “When he comes to camp out in Roi Et just to give us some buffalos, land or knock-down houses it goes to show he doesn’t understand the root causes of poverty.”
Most people reportedly are not even listening to the show as it is on pay for view TV that most cannot afford.
Nearly as diverse as New York, sitting in a Bumrungrad waiting room is a show of national and ethnic costume…many from the middle east…burkas, jalabas and Arabic head wear…males greeting each other by touching noses…or foreheads…I couldn’t tell.
The hospital, which caters to expats and foreigners, has an American CEO, is run by U.S. hospital standards and provides care in the English language. Most of the doctors have obtained their degrees and practiced medicine in the US…returning to Thailand to retire near their families with inexpensive household help, cooks and gardeners. Plush and efficient, it hardly even feels like a hospital. You are allowed to consult any kind of specialist you want without a referral…last year I saw a cardiologist who, upon reading an echocardiogram, adjusted my medication that brought down my blood pressure by 30 points. If I had had similar care in the U.S. much earlier I might have avoided a thickening of the heart muscle but doctors there avoid expensive tests and “unnecessary” referrals.
Today, I had a routine blood screen, chest film, physical exam and eye exam all for 5000 baht, or $125 and considering that my American insurance has a $1,000 deductible, it’s a deal to have medical care here. And that doesn’t even take into account the incredibly respectful and gracious Thai demeanor.
Nearby, in ironically named Washington Square, is the Bourbon Street Bar and Restaurant where an entire wall, surrounding a dart board, is covered by business cards. Here is a sampling that you would probably not see at home:
Halliburton, Trident Sea and Freight Forwarding, Salvaging, Finnish Friends of Thailand, UNICEF, BMW, Top Control-Henri (Hank) A. Brittain MSChE, Ph.d, Thunder Cranes, China Airlines, Japan Air Charter, Budweiser Worldwide Marketing, Unocal, Chevron Texaco, International Travel and Migration Company, Transair Cambodia, Advanced Concepts International, Special Forces-Operational Detachment Ft. Lewis WA, Weatherfold Drilling & Wells, NEM Energy Services, Commander US Naval Reserve, Baseball Ireland, Bush Pilot Expeditions-7 Continents, “Land Shark,” International Rigging.
And finally The Republic of Texas-Propaganda Minister of Land, Whiskey, Manure, Nails, Fly Swatters, Racing Forms, Used Boots, Wars Fought, Revolutions Started, Governments Run, Bars Emptied, Uprisings Quelled, Revolutions Lead, Wakes Conducted, Blimps Washed, Lost Wives Found, Computers Verified!
Since January 2004, southern Thailand has been gripped by a shadowy insurgency that has killed over 1,000 people and divided local communities along religious and ethnic lines. “Bangkok,” ie the Thai government, has responded forcefully to the security threat, but the violence continues.
So who exactly is behind the insurgency? To shed light on this murky conflict and provide a regional perspective on the security threat, last night the Foreign Correspondents Club sponsored a panel discussion of some of the foremost researchers in this field. Zachary Abuza, professor of political science at Simmons College, Boston, an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah who was responsible for the Bali bombings and author of a forthcoming book on the conflict in southern Thailand joined Francesca Lawe-Davies, a Jakarta-based analyst for the International Crisis Group who covers Thailand for this respected think tank and Don Pathan, regional desk editor at the Nation, a frequent reporter on the complex political, ethnic and social make-up of the south.
There are concerns that the wave of bombings could eventually spread to other parts of Thailand. For decades, the Malay people in the three provinces in the south that were incorporated in recent history into Thailand, have resisted a forced assimilation into Thai buddhist culture. The three Thai pillars of nation, religion (Buddhist) and monarchy just doesn’t jive with Islam. The feeling in the south is that this is our land and why should we change for you? The panel agreed that the violence seems to be spurred by an ethno-nationalist movement that wants to reclaim Pattani as the Malay Muslim homeland…their historic Islamic Sultinate…that they are very proud of. It includes Islam but does not seem to be part of the international Wahabi religious jihad.
There seems to be no infighting among the younger generation of resistors that have spurred bragging rights in other areas like Iraq in order to get on the international radar screen. Rather the motivation of local cells working autonomously with periodic coordinated attacks seems to be religious purification with incredibly long term goals coupled with a separatist movement that resents the perceived lack of respect from the Thai government. There is a perception of neglect and a sense of injustice due to the killings and heavy handedness of the Thai military that has fostered fear and alienation which allows the insurgents to manipulate the locals.
Many insurgents report that they don’t believe they will be successful in their lifetimes. The panel agreed that there doesn’t seem to be an endgame to the violence as long as “Bangkok” refuses to let go of the mind set of assimilation and apologize for the government’s mistakes. And who believes that will ever happen?
Six days of U.S./Thai trade talks in Chiang Mai has resulted in a stalemate with the help of 10,000 protesters…an alliance of 11 groups who are resisting trade liberalization. They are not ready, says the director of the AIDS Success Foundation, for expensive drugs caused by prolonged protection of intellectual property rights that will only benefit a few businesses instead of the Thai people. Other activists and academics have expressed grave concern that liberalized trade would open Thailand to foreign firms that would bring western values that would destroy the already endangered Thai way of life.
The irony was stark, however, when in the same week the Bangkok Post featured a glossy full page picture of Thailand’s beloved “Jazzy King” playing his saxaphone…celebrating six decades during which he has inspired, entertained and encouraged Thai people. He plays on Saturday nights at Klai Kingworld Palace on Hua Hin Beach south of Bangkok where the 78 year old king lives. He learned to play while he was studying as a student in Lucerne Switzerland. He and his band plays Dixieland, New Orleans and Big Band music and has jammed with the likes of Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton. He sometimes composes spontaneously while playing…an aide writing the notes while he blows.
Laughingnomad 