You may have heard the recent news that Gord Downie, the lead singer of iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, has passed away. It was not unexpected, and Gord filled his last year with a tour that acted as a sad, triumphant thank you and goodbye to Hip fans across Canada and around the world. But unexpectedly, his death got me thinking about a few things,
Fair warning: This post is sort of a rage-filled rant against elements of western media, Asian governments, and the apathy that people show towards what’s really important in life. Why? Because I saw something today that broke my heart and got me mad. Cuss words may appear.
So, forgive me folks, I’m kind of pissed off now. I’ve written before about how a person changes when they become an expat; how living in a strange culture and being constantly exposed to new and different viewpoints can alter how one thinks about the world. It’s one of the great benefits of being […]
As you’ve probably heard by now, Thailand is in the middle of its 12th coup since 1932 (not including seven attempted ones). After 6 months of increasingly turbulent and violent protests, General Prayuth Chan-ocha finally had enough and said “Yeah, I’m in charge now.” This is my second coup in Thailand, and while neither I – nor most people – can say with any certainty what comes next, I can say that living through the Thai coups so far has not been what an uninitiated westerner would imagine them to be. […]
Bangkok has an endless number of things to blog about, but there are times – like right now – when it becomes a bit of a chore. The ongoing, and seemingly unsolvable, political crisis is dominating everything from lunchtime conversations to the evening news, and it’s a serious problem with serious and long-term consequences. I previously wrote that the best way (for me) to deal with it was to simply stop caring about any of it. To stop worrying and fretting and getting worked up, because no matter how much I did, it would have zero […]
As it does on a seemingly regular basis, Thailand’s protest season has started up again. As of today, the prime minister is in an unstable position and facing threats and calls for her to step down; boisterous, abusive mobs on both sides of the political divide are making threats to individuals and sometimes even attacking them for completely fabricated reasons; mobs have stormed several government ministries; and there’s a general air of uneasiness and behind-closed-door-edness in the air. This kind of thing has been going on for years now, and used to really upset me. I used to […]
It was back in 2007 that I started blogging. Part of it was that I figured my demented genius was simply too awesome not to be shared, but it was mostly because I liked saying "I have a blog." Those early days were full of mistakes and wobbles with my writing - when I look back it's quite coarse and unpolished, but I've left it alone because, well, it is what it is. At any rate, my first post was on November 9, 2007 and my first subject was one that I'm very happy to be writing about again tonight in this short post - Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. That old post was about the failed protests and yet another crushed bid for democracy in which ASSK (as I'll call her) could only watch from behind her gates. But happily, tonight, for the first time in 24 years, ASSK has left Burma and landed in Bangkok.
The flood crisis in Thailand is, as of right now (and probably for the next few weeks), still a big problem, but it’s a very strange big problem. If I wasn’t watching the news and monitoring the internet, I’d have no idea anything was amiss at all. Inner Bangkok remains dry, sunny, and business as usual (except now when I'm writing this, and it's raining). However, we are very, very lucky; many parts of Bangkok’s outer areas are disaster zones, with chest-deep water, abandoned homes, random electrocutions and hungry alligators swimming around. This afternoon I had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant with a friend, and 10km away thousands of people are sitting in their devastated homes wondering how – or if – they’ll ever get their lives back together.
Just thought I should write another wee post about the flood waters that are currently surrounding Bangkok and threatening to march right through the city. I'd say the most common element that everyone shares right now is stress; mental fatigue. The whole city is on edge - you can feel it. I said to my friend it's kind of like Max Brooks' excellent book World War Z - an army of zombies is marching toward your city - some of them are already here - and all you can do is build walls and wait. I'm very lucky in that I live and work in inner Bangkok, so for me, it's business as usual. Indeed, if it wasn't all over the news and the shelves weren't cleared out, I'd have no idea anything was amiss. But you know what? Despite all this, you'll never find a more upbeat, smiling group of people in a crisis than Thais - generally speaking.
For those that don't know Thai, the title of this post is a nod to the fact that central Bangkok is about the only place within a few hundred kilometers that isn't covered in 10 feet of water. Koh in Thai means island, and Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ) is the Thai name for Bangkok, so...yeah, a little island humor. Anyway, I figured I'd be remiss if I didn't post something about the flooding that's causing so much destruction. Despite millions of sand bags, kilometers of sluice gates and floodwalls, and thousands of army troops working their camouflaged asses off, much of central Thailand is underwater. As the crisis reached its peak a few days ago, there seemed to be more and more people that were blaming either a) Mother Nature, b) the Government, or c) Ourselves. One can understand some fierce sniping at the government and their plans that seem to have no basis in reality (more on that later) but really...everyone kind of knows that we brought much of it on ourselves.
Well, that was a long stretch with no updates – again. Freelance assignments are taking most of my time these days (not to mention a video game I downloaded against my better judgment), but it was a memorable week for another reason too – the one-year anniversary of the Bangkok Podcast. If you don’t know about that, well, click on the little box to the left and check it out. My buddy Tony Joh and I recorded our first show on May 17, 2010 and have done a show every week since then. It’s been a good time and we’ve had some pretty interesting guests. To celebrate, we decided to have a party, and with the help of some friends and sponsors, it was a great success.