It could never happen here, of course
The scale of the flooding in Pakistan is difficult to grasp. An area equal to that of the United Kingdom has disappeared under water. Mercifully the number of fatalities (estimated at over 200,000 and still rising, with the threat of epidemics and starvation on the horizon) is so far lower than other recent disasters. But the number of people made homeless, and consequently more or less resource-less, is already greater than that of the 2004 tsunami and the earthquakes in Kashmir in 2005 and Haiti earlier this year, combined. Estimates of the damage to infrastructure – bridges, roads, railways, schools, hospitals and other public services – run to over $4 billion. The cost in lost output, crucially including food crops, is still too large to count.
Help from around the world has been inadequate and slow, which may be partially excused by the size of the disaster. But it has been coming in from all over, even if Thailand’s $75,000 doesn’t quite match the contributions of technically bankrupt countries like Greece and Iceland and is even less than Angelina Jolie’s individual donation of $100,000 to the UN.
And what of the Pakistani government itself?
Well, as the floodwaters threatened the 1.6 million residents of Hyderabad, President Asif Ali Zardari was taking a helicopter ride to visit a 16th century chateau in Normandy. Sightseeing? No, his family owns it.
He also spent 4 days in the UK, and was booked in at The Churchill hotel where ‘royal suites’ cost £7000 a night. (And it should be mentioned in fairness that his predecessor, Gen Pervez Musharraf, normally stayed at the even more expensive Dorchester.) This is not a bed and breakfast so meal packs were ordered from an Asian restaurant at £18 a pop. Then the Pakistani High Commission in London announced that the President would forgo the royal suite in favour of ‘the cheapest 5-star hotel in central London’.
Now a cheap 5-star hotel still costs but perhaps this lavish slumming could be justified if the trip had a clear and urgent purpose in alleviating the misery of the ordinary folk of Pakistan. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have been the case.
The highlight of the trip seems to have been a meeting in Birmingham of the Pakistani People’s Party (the Bhutto/Zardari political brand), to which leading members of the Pakistani community in the UK were invited. And provided with buses to take them there, paid for by the Pakistani government. As was the conference centre, at a reported cost of £40,000.
A fund-raiser for unfortunate fellow Pakistanis? Not quite. It was arranged well before the monsoons and seems to have been the latest step in the choreography by which Bilawal, the son of President Zardari and the late President Benazir Bhutto will eventually waltz into possession of the family inheritance – the presidency of Pakistan. He’s just finished his degree at Oxford and is all of 22, so the time is obviously ripe.
While President Zardari’s trip seems to have been an extended Marie Antoinette moment, his trip to Birmingham involved a George Bush moment. An outraged Pakistani tried to throw his shoes at him.
But could the President have been doing more if he’d stayed at home, putting assistance to his compatriots ahead of tawdry personal political ambition?
I’m not sure. The media pictures of Ban Ki-Moon looking like a distraught Canute may attract the world’s attention, and consequently more assistance. But phu yai are never much use in filling sandbags or piggy-backing the elderly and infirm out of the rising waters. And Bush seems to have been more hindrance than help in the Katrina debacle.
There are arguments that even the appearance of concern by national leaders is valuable, but perhaps President Zardari could help in a more direct way.
He is reported to be the second wealthiest individual in Pakistan with a personal net worth of 1.8 billion dollars. In a country where a few are impressively wealthy while millions are impressively poor (and just made poorer), a personal gesture, like a cheque for a few millions, could be very welcome. It might even provoke generosity among his fellow plutocrats.
But then again.
About author: Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).
Comments
The Pakistanis should
The Pakistanis should consider themselves lucky, they do not have their head of state repetitively ranting the word 'self-containedness'.
He’s just finished his degree
He’s just finished his degree at Oxford and is all of 22, so the time is obviously ripe.
Yet Another 'Philosopher-Politician-Economist' no doubt. Oxford's speciality seems to be pasting gold stars on the foreheads of second and third generation congenital dictators from the colonies, and of others who covet "the brand".
Is Oxford going to contribute Bilawal's tuition, stolen from the Pakistani people, to their relief? I'd imagine it was well in excess of $75,000.
"Self-containedness" Doctor
"Self-containedness" Doctor J? I must travel in the wrong circles, I've never heard Thailand's own YAPPE-in-chief speak of his own "self-containedness"... is that just another way to say "smug"?
JFL: No, I didn't mean the
JFL: No, I didn't mean the 'YAPPE-in-chief'. I mean .................., er, the one who must not be named. Ask me no more, unless you can provide me impunity.
BTW, self-contained also means 'not dependent on others' or 'self-sufficient'.(correct me if I'm wrong)
If what happened in Pakistan could ever happen 'here', be content to what you are. You're destined to face such fate. A rescue package will reach you soon, after that, you're (entirely) on your own.
Ah... I see. My dim light
Ah... I see. My dim light switches on. Your English is fine, of course, it's my imagination that's lacking.
But forgive me if I expand a bit on my views on the 'sufficiency economy' and the relation thereto of he who must not be named.
It is not he who must not be named who repetitively rants the 'self-containedness' mantra, just as it is not he who must not be named who imprisons people for lèse majesté. In fact he who must not be named made a pitch once about 30 or 40 years ago for more self-sufficiency in the interests of increased individual freedom and a more robust economy and those who need not be named transformed that, as is their wont, into its own burlesque, known as the 'sufficiency-economy'. As well, with regard to lèse majesté, he who must not be named's words and actions are recorded as denunciations of the practice and pardons for those persecuted in his name against his stated wishes.
In fact we ordinary people know little to nothing about he who must be named, and more than we care to about the myth. As Pravit put it in Promises and Pitfalls Part 1
I would expand that to "most of our 'knowledge' and all of our feelings about the royal family". In reality what we "know" about the royal family are the projections of their figures on the walls of caves cast by our televisions.
But the idea of an alternative to lives of slavish acquisition is a good one, and it makes no difference proffered by whom. As the "miracle of compound interest" continues to take its toll in the US and thence throughout the world this ought to be becoming more and more clear.
But of course it's not. The
But of course it's not. The US is trying to re-ignite the burners in its bubble machine, and the compradors of capital here in Thailand to re-ignite the burners in the death and despoliation machine, at Map Ta Phut for instance. It seems the careless and greedy must finally bankrupt the system and poison the environment completely before they will stop. Or before we stop them... it's possible you know.
But it is certainly not the disastrous megalopolis called Bangkok but the countryside and villages of Thailand that have always attracted me. More to the point it is the nearly extinct form of pristine democracy that developed in support of that way of life. That is the pearl that ought to be guarded, nurtured, studied, and replicated... rather than exploited and destroyed.
I imagine the resources of the government being invested to start agricultural co-operatives, to start village and district credit unions, to finance the acquisition of several levels of agricultural production above the first level by villages and districts, the elimination of the middle men... I imagine the farmers truly reaping all they sow.
No one loves Thailand more than its farmers and, after several thousand years of exploitation by the "elite" of whatever description, they ought finally to be the masters and mistresses of their own land. I am sure they would recreate, if not a natural paradise, its nearest approximation throughout Thailand.
That, of course, it what strikes fear into the hearts of the "elite", who thrive and have thrived on their exploitation of the Thai land and Thai people, who have devised the meaningless phrase 'sufficiency economy' to describe their indefinite continuation of same.
As far as the accomplishment of this dream it is absolutely up to the people at the bottom of the socio-economic heap. All those above them think they presently have 'sufficient' rewards for their labors and ought to be happy and thankful that the upper layers have not taken it all, and utterly dispossessed them. In fact, the upper layers are looking for an excuse to do that very thing, to utterly dispossess the Thai people, and no doubt the lack of sufficient gratitude for their lot as 'sufficient' will probably work its way into the act itself as justification and excuse.
So it is time to act now. Or to be dispossessed and discarded. The "elite" have heart just 'sufficient' to do so.
Thanks JFL, my 'interactive'
Thanks JFL, my 'interactive' Wikipedia. : )
The 'sufficient' rewards for
The 'sufficient' rewards for the 'labors' of those in Enclave Bangkok :
Abhisit to ask Cabient to consider high-speed train project Tuesday
Military Expenditure as a Per Centage of GDP : Thailand
Of course my own country's
Of course my own country's contribution to the Pakistanis will be to murder more of them, whole families at a time, using killer, robot drones, controlled remotely by us American shift-men and women, "warrior-heros", from the comfort of our Barca Loungers, working our shifts at CIA and USAF outposts in Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota and the like. And glad to have a job, too!
Then we'll return home to our own families for supper, safe and sound from a hard day's "play" at our nintendo wars. Wars that are bankrupting us at breakneck speed even as they deliver an obscenely costly brutal death to some of the poorest people on earth from the skies above. The sooner they do bankrupt us the better from the point of view of the Pakistanis and the rest of the world.
"Gee, why do they hate us?"
Perhaps "they" hate us because we have the means to end all this murderous aggression, America is a democracy, ask the Thais or the Burmese... there's no censorship in the USA, there are no political prisoners, no lese majeste, no election commissions to disqualify candidates... and now, even a decade on, we cannot be bothered to pick up the tools laying at our feet to put an end to it all.
Collateral They blew up her
Collateral
They blew up her father's donkey. They
blew up her father. She and her sister tried to walk
to the city, but they blew up the bridge. The day
was almost over when they came back
and blew up her sister. She found a small cave
near her village and that night she watched
them blow up her village. In the morning she gave
her coat to an old woman who had scratched
out her own eyes because they blew
up her grandchildren. Then their soldiers came.
Most of them were young and never knew
such scenes, so many people injured, maimed.
One cried as he gave her a blanket and a cup.
That night their planes returned and blew her up.
- Greg Keeler
sorry for off-topic post, but
sorry for off-topic post, but not sure if Prachatai still keeps articles about Phra Supoj Suwajano in its archive?
Phra Supoj's mysterious
Many many thanks indeed JFL!!
Many many thanks indeed JFL!! I really appreciate this!! In fact I'm looking for articles about social changes in Northern Thailand.I have found a number of them and was thinking abt the articles about Prah Supot. I hope to use these articles (after some adjustments..) will be used as some sort of on-line lessons for students in the North and those who are interested.
Please post links to your
Please post links to your work when its done, Joy. I am just a mediocre student here in the North but I am interested in anything I can get my hands on.
Hi JFL, not exactly my work.
Hi JFL, not exactly my work. I'm actually just a small part of the team.:-)
Someone has just posted this link on FB. I think this writer's ideas/points of view are quite interesting:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRqPGq5hsFc&feature=player_embedded#!
(It's in Thai though.)
Thanks, Joy. I'll regard it
Thanks, Joy. I'll regard it as a Thai lesson. Whoever-she-is is an animated and sympathetic teacher.
(No subject)
So far the only part I think
So far the only part I think I understand is the point, for instance, that the word "communist" has no real translation in Thai, that it represents a "picture" of a bogeyman, that unlike the Japanese, for instance, who read in the very characters of the word itself the story of "community" and comaraderie, Thais have no real understanding of the denotation of the word, but are steeped in the word's connotations... supplied by whom?
I imagine that that idea is then generalized and that the point being made is that the conversation within Thailand about this or that social concept is not at all about the same thing that people in other countries are speaking of when they converse on the same subject.
Please correct my most startling misapprehensions.
I'll listen to it several more times.
Your Thai is really good JFL.
Your Thai is really good JFL. i think that's the gist of what she was saying!I'm keen to see other clips of the whole seminar9?). Sirote Klaimpaiboon is supposed to be very good too.
Sweet of you to say that my
Sweet of you to say that my Thai is "good"... but it's sort of... impressionistic? Imprecise. I don't understand spoken Thai well at all. I have farang ears. And I read at a snail's place. I wouldn't even call what I do 'reading'. I'll have to go over that one little clip again and again to gain any confidence that I really have got the right idea.
And real life is a one shot take... I'm clueless. It's good to go through the exercise. I have a lot to be humble about. And of course I admire you and Doctor J and the other Thais who read and write so well in English here. It's not rocket science, it's just time that I haven't put in... lately. I think my Thai used to be better, but has actually declined over the past couple of years.
Sirote is the guy from New Orleans? What's the name of herself? I'll look forward to more.
You mean the name of the
You mean the name of the lady? She is a writer, pen name is "Khampaka".
Sirote is teaching in BKK, i think (but not very sure)..Prachatai often interviews him and posted his articles (largely in Thai I think).
BTW a friend of mine said I should have summarized the gist of the clip when I posted it because this is an English site(sort of implying that I was lazy, not even mentioning the name of the writer in the clip--sorry!)
Ah... I had noticed that
Ah... I had noticed that คำผกา... but it's her pen name. What's she written? Maybe I can find something enjoyable to read and study Thai at the same time.
JFL: I googled and came up
JFL: I googled and came up with this: Lakkana Punwichai.
Presumably she is the same 'Khampaka' or 'Kham Paka' or 'Kham Phaka' ?
Ok... I didn't find any of
Ok... I didn't find any of her books online but I found a series of four interviews, on the subject of religion apparently, on prachatai :
เรื่องที่เกี่ยวข้อง:
I'll have a go at reading those and then come back to the youtube... an expert on the vivacious and loquacious คำผกา :)
Thanks for the pointers to substantial popular discourse in Thai. Usually I just read the magazine with the photogenic young couple on the cover at Chang Tot Pom Tu's.
Based on that City Life
Based on that City Life interview some of her views are indeed 'interesting' :)
If the theme of the thread
If the theme of the thread might be characterized as a people's betrayal by its elite there's news of the betrayal of the redshirts by the PPT party:
Pheu Thai-Gov't fence-mending talks on track
Thaksin and his stooges, like Jatuporn who seems to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and to have contributed to the May Massacre, are taking a different tack with regards to their, as opposed to the redshirts', perceived interests.
There are factions of the UDD that do seem to represent the people.
Red Siam disputes reconciliation plans
After cataloguing the ridiculous burlesque of disbarment that has characterized the Democrat and Military engineered rehabilitation of Newin and Newinomics: is the powerbroker moving forward to the past?, Chang noi opines
It is better to look at one's cruel situation without illusions : As far as the accomplishment of their dreams is concerned, it is absolutely up to the people at the bottom of the socio-economic heap themselves. No one... no one, has their interests at heart but themselves.
To hell with the PPT and all the rest. The redshirts need a redshirt party with their interests spelled out on their banner. And they need to staff it themselves, top to bottom.
It's an old game
It's an old game
I'm sure the
I'm sure the Democrat/BhumiJai Thai/Chat Patana/Military amalgam is happy to see the PPT disintegrating, but it seems to be money, from Newin, and the lack of it, from Thaksin, that's accomplishing the deed among the self-interested band of hirelings called PPT.
I'd say good riddance to
I'd say good riddance to them, as I wouldn't want anyone who would even consider heading to Newin or Banharms camp to stay in my team anyway.
(wish Chalerm would head off that way too:)
Yes I agree with that... but
Yes I agree with that... but I think the redshirts ought to make a clean break and create a new party, controlled bottom up. It's going to be awhile before the next election.
NPP seems a ready made
NPP seems a ready made vehicle for grassroots redshirts to join and control :)
Recycling has its limits. And
Recycling has its limits. And the emphasis on parties is a big part of the problem.
I imagine the yellow-red, right-left bifurcation to reflect the top-down/bottom-up perspectives respectively.
The right is always concerned about "the nation", "the race", "the language", "the religion", "the institution"... whatever it may be.
The left is always concerned about people, and by necessity, about the defense of people in the face of the overbearing institutions empowered by the right.
The Buddha pointed out that at the level of organization of the individual, the self is an illusion. How much more illusory are the institutional "selves" of our bodies politic?
Our individual pseudo-selves die off like clockwork, thankfully, but our institutional pseudo-selves persist for what seems like eons. I know it already seems like an eon the NPP has been around. Or the PPT for that matter.
It's time for a little death and reincarnation in the sphere of our institutional pseudo-selves, for us individuals to reconstitute our efforts to organize... as the slime-molds do. Once the problem at hand has been met the organization dissolves once again into the individuals of which it was composed. Always ready, of course, to meet the challenge and to organize in self-defense on demand.
NPP looks to me to be
NPP looks to me to be simultaneously the most leftist and the most rightist party in Thailand
Could you elaborate on the
Could you elaborate on the leftist characteristics of the NPP... being "cute" has its limits as well :)
I haven't got the time to be
I haven't got the time to be anything but 'cute', but you could try looking at the following links:
SEAS paper on Santi Asoke
Khun Pluem on New Politics Party
You are the only person who still calls me 'cute' :)
The first link seems a dead
The first link seems a dead end - please try this:
http://www.seas.at/aseas/3_1/ASEAS_3_1_A3.pdf
JFL: Hope those articles
JFL: Hope those articles explained why I think NPP has both extreme left and extreme right tendencies - please let me know if I've got it wrong.
Forgive me for calling you
Forgive me for calling you cute... I'd thought you were joking when you identified the NPP as having a leftwing component. But apparently you were, and are, serious?
Your first reference identifies a component of the Santi Asoke movement that is essentially a personality cult formed around Chamlong that supported and supports the NPP. Other factions of the Santi Asoke have interests, if not organization, that appeal to the left. There is no connection between Chamlong and any leftist ideas or actions that I can imagine.
Your second reference just strikes me as off the wall. The world therein described by Khun Pluem bears little resemblance to what I consider "reality". What he is describing as an NADP sort of "socialism" is one that, if it exists, is in no way socialistic at all.
I see no reason at all to divine any leftwing component in the NPP whatsover... unless you mean Socialism as in (NADP) National Socialistic German Workers' Party... which is universally recognized as a fascist archetype.
I never tire of putting the NPP's logo up here because it is so strikingly and incontrovertibly emblematic of their ideology and outlook.
Maybe its just my
Maybe its just my interpretation, and I'm not going to argue about it as I agree they are dangerous in the current form (unless redshirts join en masse and use it's ground up structure to change it, and especially that ridiculous logo:)
The SEAS article points out how the Santi Asoke would be turned off by Sondhi's use of animistic & Hindu magic rituals.
It also points out that by siding with Sondhi/Chamlong against Thaksin, the Asoke movement have turned away the NE farmers they were trying to help(convert).
Sorry HG for getting so off topic.
The SEAS article points out
The SEAS article points out how the Santi Asoke would be turned off by Sondhi's use of animistic & Hindu magic rituals.
The Santi Askoke movement seems only tangentially connected to the PAD/NPP... and Chamlong is that tangent.
It also points out that by siding with Sondhi/Chamlong against Thaksin, the Asoke movement have turned away the NE farmers they were trying to help (convert).
Glad you made that "convert". Beware the Missionaries of any hue. And did the masses of the Santi Asoke movement side with Chamlong against Thaksin or did they show up as "friends of a friend"... perfunctorily for the first few days of the PAD extravaganzas, and then withdraw, leaving the field to the warriors in Chamlong's Dharma Army.
And the phrase "Dharma Army" encapsulates very succinctly the bogosity of Maj. General Chamlong's devotion to the teachings of the Buddha and his right-wing, top-down, devotional approach to political institutions. In my opinion.
More than a few days. For
More than a few days. For instance, the Chiang Mai Vegetarian Society restaurant closed for several months during 2008 Bangkok protests against the PPP coalition government.
Ok... but is the Chiang Mai
Ok... but is the Chiang Mai Vegetarian Society in favor of restricted suffrage? I don't believe that Santi Asoke and the NPP are anything other than tangentially related.
Surely Sondhi and Thaksin are like two peas in a pod : trying to harness the concerns of the public at large to accomplish their wholly independent aims.
Thaksin is now driving his new! improved! monarchist bus over the bodies of last year's redshirted allies and Sondhi and/or Chamlong are as surely prepared to perform the same sort of "tactical" triage when the "need" arises.
The Chiang Mai Vegetarian Society and the redshirts need to get together... and to throw Sondhi and Thaksin under the bus.
The redshirts might as well
The redshirts might as well join en masse the Democrat Party, or Chart Patana, or Bhumijai Thai... or PPT... but why?
Why not join en masse their own, new redshirt party and devote their energies to defining their platform, putting forth candidates who will stand for office on the platform, and electing them. Rather than fighting rearguard battles against the stalwarts of some hostile party they are trying to co-opt?
Whilst it was a somewhat
Whilst it was a somewhat tongue in cheek type comment, I understand those other parties are top down type parties. NPP with Sondhi at the top looks the same, but my understanding is that the membership gets to vote on all big decisions - I prefer that model (but not the logo:)
I'd imagine that 30%... the
I'd imagine that 30%... the "morally sound" membership... gets to vote.
The others then "reconcile" themselves to the choice of their superiors.
My tongue is only partially in my cheek as well.
Interview with Khun Sombat
Interview with Khun Sombat Boongamanong, the man behind the Red sundays