Busy busy busy

Thailand is a great place to be for someone with friends scattered all over the world. People seem to quite enjoy coming to Bangkok... so that means I don't have to worry too much about having friends over... I guess the downside is that I have to revisit the same sites every year to show people around ... but that's ok, cos I get to see the people I love!

Currently, Kirsti and her boyfriend Seppo are here in Thailand, and are staying in BKK until my birthday and joining me for dinner :) Yay!

So yes... today took them to Wat Phra Kaew, Silpakorn University, on the ferry across the Chao Phraya River and Siam Square *phew* What a day!









Just to change the topic... I had a brilliant start to this day... I was published in "The Nation". I wrote a letter to the editor criticising this person who had totally bashed Thai people... I wasn't happy at all!

Here's what I wrote:

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with the author of the yesterday's opinion piece, my agreement does not extend further than the title and the first sentence: "Thaksin alone is not powerful enough to cause society's ills." I concur that it is certainly short-sighted and shallow to blame one person for all of society's ills. However, I have not gotten the impression that anyone - let alone everyone - is doing so, as the author suggests. Naturally, the prime minister, being the figurehead of the TRT party and of Thailand, will be the focus of most of the attacks. This does not mean, however, that anyone truly believes that he is the spawn of evil in Thai society.

The author turns around and blames everything on Thai society. However, by calling Thai society "unethical, selfish and greedy", the only thing the author really highlights is his own patronising attitude toward Thai people. Firstly, he believes that Thai people have all been duped en-masse into believing that one man can somehow be the root of all ills. Secondly, by highlighting that everyone is to blame - "teachers, students, politicians, monks, community leaders and followers" - he has managed to stereotype an entire nation.

Does the author not also, as he put it in his piece, "blame everyone else for [his] problems"? I am suggesting that stereotyping is discriminatory, and that in itself is a problem. Is this patronising attitude of the author truly the fault of the citizens of Thailand?

He also refers to Thai people as being short sighted by nature, and that this attitude is what causes society's ills. Perhaps it has not occurred to the author from his perch that he too is a member of society as long as he resides in Thailand.

Valisa
Bangkok

Just to end on a different note: Indy has an answer to everything, and that answer is SHRIMP! "Kung Khrap!" says Indy.