Dad and Bamboo playing a warped variation of cricket.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thailand's Political Upheaval (in a nutshell for my homies in the UK)
The current upheaval can be traced back since colonialists overlooked Siam, in favour of a buffer zone between British India and Burma and French Indochina. The disaster waiting to happen has been a long time coming, it survived the American Indochina cold war satelite wars and post cold war American capitalist aggression because of the West's artificial adoption of it in exchange for logistical and political support as its main ally in South East Asia. It’s therefore no coincidence that as the new World power order shifts East the one country left in the cold will be this one. The recent problems are symptomatic of a wider paradigm shift.
On the ground Thais are intellectually and politically immature making them vunerable to blatant rhetorical polital and economic exploitation. Born of their warped indoctrination of nationalist ‘virtue’ they become worryingly over enthusuastic to discard their well branded, purported national love ‘land of smile’ image for an incongruous quest for their self idealed nation, which can never work as no individual sees the same way. Class divisions are huge here, my Nana Booth’s one vivid re-collection was of a country polarised and she came here in the early 80s, history hasn’t been favourable to levelling out these discrepancies.
The most disappointing element to all this is that it all stems from a deep aminosity between two main media and political moguls who used to be close friends and business partners; Thaksin Shinawatra (who I'm sure you've all heard of) and Sondhi Limthongkul (one of the main protest organisers), people on the ground are so dumb they're willing to put their lives on the line for these super rich personalities. Neither side seems to have a set and coherent plan for what it wants apart from the other side out (or dead) and the PAD which stands for Peoples Alliance for Democracy ironically want an end to the current form of democracy in exchange for a Parliamentary appointed seats process which wouldn't really be democratic.
It’s like England dividing between Roundheads and Cavaliers but with more money, ego, yellow, red, fun and total lack of responsibilty involved. And a virile media waiting to pounce. In reality Thailand is far behind the rest of the world we live in and has been lucky not to have experienced hardship suffered akin to neighbouring Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam or Laos in recent decades, a few more false steps and turns of irreversible misfortune may just see Siam slip into the gulf.
On the ground Thais are intellectually and politically immature making them vunerable to blatant rhetorical polital and economic exploitation. Born of their warped indoctrination of nationalist ‘virtue’ they become worryingly over enthusuastic to discard their well branded, purported national love ‘land of smile’ image for an incongruous quest for their self idealed nation, which can never work as no individual sees the same way. Class divisions are huge here, my Nana Booth’s one vivid re-collection was of a country polarised and she came here in the early 80s, history hasn’t been favourable to levelling out these discrepancies.
The most disappointing element to all this is that it all stems from a deep aminosity between two main media and political moguls who used to be close friends and business partners; Thaksin Shinawatra (who I'm sure you've all heard of) and Sondhi Limthongkul (one of the main protest organisers), people on the ground are so dumb they're willing to put their lives on the line for these super rich personalities. Neither side seems to have a set and coherent plan for what it wants apart from the other side out (or dead) and the PAD which stands for Peoples Alliance for Democracy ironically want an end to the current form of democracy in exchange for a Parliamentary appointed seats process which wouldn't really be democratic.
It’s like England dividing between Roundheads and Cavaliers but with more money, ego, yellow, red, fun and total lack of responsibilty involved. And a virile media waiting to pounce. In reality Thailand is far behind the rest of the world we live in and has been lucky not to have experienced hardship suffered akin to neighbouring Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam or Laos in recent decades, a few more false steps and turns of irreversible misfortune may just see Siam slip into the gulf.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
That Luang, Vientiane, Laos
As soon as we get on line, I'll type something, until then just look at this.
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