Ready to face tougher circumstances

Although I had been going back and forth about whether or not I really wanted to go to Thailand (see my first few posts..) mainly because of personal emotions coming into play, I have overall, I believe, been so excited about going to Thailand, ever since I found out in February that I had been accepted into the program.

Beginning in March, however, I began to have separate worries - due to the political protests that began between the Red Shirts and the government (See my posts in April for some background info).

For the past few years, though, the government and its people have been in conflict, so although the protests were starting up again, one of my program directors even said that, "[the institutes we'll be working for] are located closer to the "downtown" area but are universities and are normally not involved in political situations."

That was, until, the protests started having actual shootings, people (including media personnel) being killed in crossfires...

One of the first killings grabbed international attention because a Japanese-camera-man (Reuters) was killed in crossfire, and most recently, a Thai Red-Shirt General by the name of "Seh Daeng" was shot in the head (and is in critical condition) during an interview, right after saying, "The military cannot get in here."

How ironic, indeed.

------

It's just confusing to me, since:

1. I was reading an LA times article about the rising violence, which, towards the end, gave me the impression that: yes, the protests are turning bloody, but it's only concentrated in one part of Bangkok, so the rest of it is fine.

2. The U.S. Thai Embassy closed, and was evacuating people out of Bangkok.. And the State Department has issued a warning, for U.S. citizens to not travel to Bangkok.

That is why I have been trying to scour through ALL Thai-protest related things, recently (thank goodness I'm out of school, now, to actually spend time away from my chemistry-readings and problem sets, guilt-free!), and have found things like this guy in Bangkok's (Newley Purnell) Twitters for actual, on location, updates.

Here's just a little perspective on where the violence is actually occuring in Bangkok..

http://newley.com/2010/04/27/map-of-red-shirt-protest-areas-in-bangkok/

On May 15, The Bangkok Post:

http://newley.com/

And, actually, here's more of a real-time version on GoogleMaps that I think should be more accurate...

------------

So.. where will I be (IF, at this rate, I ever even go ..) in Bangkok? The Institute that I'm staying at is located more on the outskirts of Bangkok and is thus, safe...

But, where I'm working, Chulalongkorn University - is... pretty much smack dead center/around the protests... how convenient..

[you can see in the second map, is pretty much on the block to the left of 'Chulalongkorn Hospital']

Minor Complications - Winning Battles

With the date of departure for Bangkok approaching, I was already starting to get nervous with certain complications. Mainly, these involved things such as:

1. Wondering when on earth I'd get my Thai VISA application letter (only to find out that it had been sitting in the main area of my apartment's building for close to an entire week, without anyone bothering to actually give it to me...grrr!)

2. SPEEDing to just take any picutre of myself to slap onto the VISA application form, which worked out to be quite... an unattractive picture of myself (right after I took a shower, with my hair still wet and weird) on a 10-second timer in my living room at about 2 o'clock in the morning.. Then proceeding to load these STRAIGHT onto my computer to load, crop, make sure they were the right size, then print out not only one, but two copies of the cursed portrait shot...

3. Rushing my way through the VISA application form with my heart pounding - this, now, around 2:30 in the morning. Then, remember my teachers'/mom's wise words of : "Remember to look over your work to correct mistakes!" I freaked out when I realized I had checked a box next to "married," scrambled to get my white-out to correct the preposterous mistake of saying that I was married... only to read it again, later, to find that the box was not only next to "married," but underneath my father's name.... forcing me to pull out my white-out YET again and check the "married" box, to legitimately (effectively... cancel the temporary marital separation of my parents, haha, and instead) patch up my parents' union.

4. Realizing at 3 o'clock in the morning that it was RIDICULOUS of me to even stress myself out at such late hours of the night over this application in the FIRST place, since... I couldn't even send out the application on its way to the Thai Consulate until, at the earliest, 9 o'clock in the morning, anyway...

Why.... must I stress myself out like this?! I don't even do it that often (or, do I?), but when I do, it's always to such an extreme!

Anyhow. The list continues (oh good god, I know.)

5. Waking up at 8:30 in the morning to make sure I was showered and prepared to get to the post office FIRST thing at 9.

6. Arriving at the post office, only to find that only ONE "teller" was working the post office, so I had to grab a number (paper tag?) to be helped...

7. Waiting for close to an hour for my turn to actually arrive!

This ONE old guy was just.. MAN! I dont' know WHAT he was doing, but he had this BOX of (10 or so?) huge envelopes that were covered in post stamps, and he was just buying first-class-postage for all of them to be shipped...

But, the interesting thing was, I guess in order to account for insurance, he had to state what was in the envelopes, which... [okay, this already sounds creepy of me, but, hey! He was talking pretty loudly... or is it a SIGN that I should just be a secret spy?? Ooo~!] ended up being various amounts of CASH!

So... is there some sort of DEAL going on, or.. does this man just have several grandchildren that he gives pretty decent allowances to, and in varying amounts depending on which one he likes the most?!?!

<--- Sorry, my mind likes to make up stories about possible lives of people I see, day-to day. :)

It keeps life interesting, no? Please excuse my tangents....

8. FINALLY buying the postage for the envelope I needed to send to the LA Thai consulate, and for an envelope for the Thai consulate to send back to my home-home .... but not having any tape with me at the moment to actually SEAL the blasted envelopes!

9. RACING to a nearby Walgreens to buy tape, then running back to the closest mailbox to finaaally send my passport+visa app.

10. Calling my parents everyday to see if they had gotten my passport+completed VISA, yet, from the Thai Consulate, but then.... getting a call from my dad saying that my check had not been accepted, that the money for the VISA had to be paid in a money order !

I knew that the VISA couldn't be paid by cash or by personal check, but... how was I supposed to know what a money order was?! The first time I heard about one was through my father at THAT moment... and the whole thing sounded just silly to me, but, whatever~

In the end, my father took care of the financial issue (having family living in the LA area is SUCH a convenience~), and my VISA just arrived... two days ago! (A total of a week and a half at the Consulate)

VISA complete... but, as I will put in my next post, my fears that have been building up for the past few months (concerning the Bangkok protests) have just been escalating...

Countdown to tuk tuks, miang, and... protests?!?

So, I just realized this morning that... yet again, in a month, I shall be in a foreign country.

This realization came to me when I was walking one of my best friends (from LA) to the BART station, this morning. This past weekend, she had been wonderful enough to visit me up in the Bay area for my 21st birthday - which was great! Hitting up an Irish pub for my first 'legal exposure' to those 'drinks o' sin,' haha... Lots of walking around SF, eating tons of Mediterranean food, trying out different wines, and in general... enjoying the weather spending time with my closest friends.

Anyhow.

Although my friend has traveled several times before, she has always done it in groups, family, etc... so while I was fixing chocolate-chip-pancakes this morning for the two of us, the usual bottom-less tummy of my friend couldn't even finish one pancake, for feeling a little anxiety about riding on the BART and taking a shuttle by herself to the airport. Even though I assured her that it took only 10 minutes or less to even walk to the station, and only about 30 min. to BART to the shuttle, 12 min. for the shuttle to the airport.... she was still unsure, trusting her iPhone that said that it'd take 17 minutes to walk to the BART... and about 45 minutes on the BART... etc. etc.

She got there about 1 and a half hours early for her flight....

So, of course, I chuckled to myself, thinking - yeah, I told you so!

But, you know what? Those sorts of things, you really do just have to experience for yourself, and while I was amused a bit by my friend's anxieties.... in the end, I was really proud of her for doing something on her own. It took her a bit of a push, but, she still did it. Sometimes those pushes come unwillingly or forcibly, but.... in the end, you gain some insight from it, and in turn, become somewhat of a more independent and mature person. Branch out of the comfort zone, and.. who knows? You'll either adapt or stay strong to your own identity.

----

In any case. I realize that a lot of times, I do like to just try new things, push myself to (a moderate?? haha) limit, and just... see how I survive. Perhaps I'm just acting like my one guinea pig?? haha.

Anyhow. Thailand's just one of those little pushes I'm giving to myself, I guess, and I can't wait to live it.

-------

So, about two months ago or so, my sister sent me this article that just, literally, made me drool.

You see, I'm the type of person who plans trips according to meals. This past weekend, for example, I was giving my friend a tour of SF, but! Before starting off our journey, asked the oh-so-dire question of: what would you like to eat for dinner?

Here was plan A: start off at Embarcadero, walk along the pier, perhaps eat some seafood for a snack, go to Ghirardelli Square, Lombard St., then end up in either N.Beach or Chinatown or Union Square for dinner.

Here was plan B: start off in Union Square to do more window shopping, walk up Chinatown and N. Beach... Lombard St, Ghirardelli... then end up in Fisherman's Wharf to have clamchowder bread bowls for dinner.

In the end, we chose plan A - but, you see what I mean? FOOD is important to me.

A friend mentioned to me once that she sometimes forgets to eat.

------> WHAT?!??????

I was appalled, to say the least.

Anyhow. back to my brilliant sister who sent me this article about a particular type of Thai street food, 'Miang' : http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2010/03/miang-can.html

Let's just list some common ingredients:

Peanuts, lime, chili sauce, wild pepper leaves, ginger, pickled cabbage, fried pork skin, cilantro, rice vermicelli, eggplant, mint..

ummmm...... yeah. I'm stoked.

Interesting turns of events...

So, I just read this article in Wall Street, titled "Thai Protests Draw Protests in New Twist," an appropriate name, indeed...

Despite many people's beliefs that the Red-Shirts consist of the entire population, and that everyone wants Abhisit to step down, there seem to be quite a few pro-government protesters, as well!

In fact, the Yellow-Shirts (of the PAD party, who are known also for their airport seige, a year ago) are suggesting that they might start protesting (pro-government) next week!

Other people just seem to be fed up with all the protests, and just label themselves as being part of the "no-color" group.

The protests occuring in Thailand, though I know are so much bigger in comparison, made me think about all of the financial/anti-fee/anti-privitization protest that were (or are!) going on on the Berkeley campus, or, for all UC campuses, for that matter. Sure, it's awful that our tuitions are going to be raised, and it's even more terrible that people who really do come from low-income families might not be able to come to school, next year.

But, sometimes I wonder if all the protesting is actually effective?

Yeah, the protest are a platform for us to voice our opinions, display our emotions, and show what type of people we are... people who want others to notice our agony and passion for our cause and assist in facilitating change. But, what it comes down to, is that we just need to have a a sitdown with the top officials of this crazy bureacracy (or IS it, anymore??) and just.. talk some sense into them.

The point that I really wanted to get to , was that there were a couple articles in the Daily Californian (Daily Cal, student newspaper for Berkeley) commenting on how disruptive all the campus protests are, and if anything.. are just hurting the university even more.

Firstly, the protests on campus disincline both professors and students from attending class, that day - which cut short our days of academia even more, and if anything, are just cutting more value from the high tuitions that we're already being obligated to pay.

Secondly, damages from protests, setting up alarms systems, the need to have police there JUST in case, etc. etc. is just costing the university SO much money.

If anything, I sympathize with those who are energetic and passionate enough to go out on the streets, march all day, yell out their frustrations and hopes for a better future.

But, in the end, I feel like only diplomatic, "peaceful" measures will actually produce results.

Penny for your thoughts? :/

Welcoming a Fresh Start

So, before starting off today's blog.... here's some stuff that has been happening, recently:

* The protests have conglomerated in the more commercial areas of Bangkok, forcing many businesses to close early/close for the whole day. At least the protesters have food court options?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8621964.stm

* Amongst the people who have died in the protests have been a Japanese cameraman (for Reuters) while he was filming a dispute between the police and the red shirts. Very unfortunate, indeed, but the fact that a person in the media's life was actually taken, and a foreigner, nonetheless.... might finally give more press attention to the protests that are going on, at least to the rest of the world?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8616339.stm

* Here's a good background blurb by the BBC on the protests. I should have read this before I did all of my back-and-forth research on all of the PM's, corruption scandals, etc! (see previous post!)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7584005.stm

* On a much lighter note... the past 3 days in Thailand were supposedly less violent, especially since... the past 3 days were a national holiday in Thailand!

Get ready for it...

3...

2..

1!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

April 13-15 in Thailand marks the Songkran Festival, which was apparently brought originally from the Burmese, who adapted it from the Indian's Holi Festival (Which, many Berkeleyans, at least, associate with gathering in Lower Sproul Plaza to throw coloured powder and water at each other, ending in an explosion of tie-dye not only on your clothes, but on your face, hands, legs, HAIR... you name it!).

Besides going to the Buddhist monasteries ("Wat"s) to pray and give food to the monks to pay respects, Songkran seems to include a LOT of water-splashing/throwing, mainly for cleansing. Apparently, people commonly pour water (sometimes scented with herbs, flowers..) over the Buddha statues within their household shrines, collect that water which is now "blessed," and pour it over the more respected individuals of their families (elders, etc.) to give good fortune. The water throwing definitely seems welcomed, especially since April is apparently the hottest month of the year in Thailand.

Some cool sayings? Yes? Let us begin...

* สวัสดีปีใหม่ or สุขสันต์ปีใหม่ - Sa Wat Dee Pee Mai! or Suk San Pee Mai!

- Happy New Year!

* สุขสันต์วันสงกรานต์ - Suk San Wan Songkran!

- Happy Songkran Day!

So! Cheers to a new year, and... hope that the government and red shirts finally begin negotiations...

Boring, but important, considering recent events

Time course of political events within the past 10 years...

Feb. 2001 - Sept. 2006 : Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai Rak Thai Party

* Thaksin Shinawatra

- founded the Thai Rak Thai Party in 1998

- first Prime Minister to serve a full term!

- "introduced a range of partly effective policies to alleviate rural poverty; highly popular, they helped reduce poverty by half in four years," as well as univeral healthcare, a drug suppression campaign...

- BUT! Faced allegations of corruption, authoritarianism, treason, selling national assets to international investors, tax evasion...

- Re-election in 2005 was a high success

* Protests in 2006 by the People Alliance for Democracy (Yellow Shirts) to unseat Thaksin

- Stands for uncorrupt politics, promoting justice, rule of law, very "nationalist" - almost fascist?

- Yellow, for the royal color - claiming they are defending the monarchy against the disloyalty of Thaksin

* A military junta (the Council for National Security) overthrew Thaksin's government in a coup while Thaksin was abroad in Sept. 2006

* Thaksin is now NOT welcomed back to Thailand... is now a citizen of Montenegro?!

- The Thai Rak Thai party was banned/dissolved --> But, some people formed into the People's Power Party!

Oct. 2006 - Jan. 2008 : Prime Minister/General Surayud Chulanont

* General Surayud Chulanont

- Worsening of perceived levels of government corruption!

- "raised the military budget by 35% and was accused of economic mismanagement, rampant human rights abuses, and flip-flopping on numerous policies," + economic growth rate was the lowest,

Jan. 2008 - Sept. 2008 : Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej , People's Power Party

* People's Power Party formed from members of the formal Thai Rak Thai Party

* Samak Sundaravej

- Leader of the PPP

- Accused of being a proxy for Thaksin (the exiled former PM)

- Before 2006, was a notable T.V. chef?!

* People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD)

- Re-established in March, 2008

- After Samak declared he wouldn't resign in response to protest threats, the PAD occupied Sundaravej's Government House, forcing him to work out of a military command post

- Raided Phuket International Airport, resulting in 118 flights canceled/diverted, affecting 15,000 passengers

* In the end.. Samak lost his position as PM, since... Once he became PM, he also resumed his T.V. chef job, but.... the government "ruled that it was unconstitutional for Samak to maintain his television career, to work in a private company while holding the office of Prime Minister, and disqualified him from office" !!!

Sept. 2008 - Dec. 2008: Acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongasawat- People's Power Party

* Somchai Wongasawat

- Thaksin's brother in law?!

* People's Alliance for Democracy

- Nov. 2008 - "Operation Hiroshima"

- Seized Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) for about a week

- Closure of Bangkok Don Muang Airport - domestic passenger terminals, for about a week

* People's Power Party

- Disbanded by the Constitutional Court on Dec. 2, 2008 - stripping party executives of their political rights for five years!

- Thus... b/c Somchai was in PPP, had to resign from being PM.

Dec. 2, 2008 - Dec. 17, 2008 : Chaovarat Chanweerakul - People's Power Party

*Chaovarat Chanweerakul

- was in PPP,

- was still a senior cabinet member while Somchai was PM, but... was technically not a party "executive", so, was still a viable PM candidate

- but... others criticized this, since he wasn't an executive, couldn't be PM, anyway?, thus... a very short lived PM-hood...

Dec. 17, 2008 - NOW: Abhisit Vejjajiva - Democrat Party

* Abhisit Vejjajiva

- Interesting note... "Abhisit's first act as Prime Minister was to send SMS texts to tens of millions of Thai mobile phone users. The message, signed "Your PM", asked people to help him solve the country's crisis. Interested phone users were asked to send back their postal codes, at a cost of three baht. Abhisit was criticized for violating privacy regulations in the mass SMS. The National Telecommunication Commission says that mobile phone service providers may not exploit client information, including phone numbers, without their consent. However, it did not seek actions against Abhisit.^[65][66]"

- Already some scandals, corruption, recalling of ambassadors, tenser relations with Cambodia,

- Pretty tight censorship - of internet sites that seem offensive to the monarchy, blocking of several foreign internet sites and TV programs

* Sondhi Limthongkul (PAD leader) Assasination Attempt - April 2009

- Sondhi's son blamed the government (Abhisit) as being behind the attempt

* Thaksin accused Abhisit and others for the coup that overthrew him

* National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship

- "Red Shirts"

- Claims that Abhisit took over the government, illegitimately

- Anti-PAD

- "It calls for the Thai Parliament to be dissolved so that a general re-election can be held. The UDD allies itself with the For Thais Party. They accuse the country's elite — the military, judiciary, certain members of the Privy Council, and other unelected officials — of undermining democracy by interfering in politics."

- Mainly rural and urban supportors ...

* 2010 Protests

- Started mainly on March 14 in Bangkok, to call for elections - began peacefully

- Pouring of blood on the Government House and other places in Bangkok...

- April 8 - A state of emergency was called by Abhisit

- April 10 - Protests took a violent turn: 21 people killed, at least 800 injured

--> BBC video on the latest...

RAMA!

Despite the fact that I've always wanted to visit Thailand, one of the reasons that I even looked for and applied to study in another country (which ended up being Brazil) for last summer was: that, particularly starting in 2008, SO many protests - i.e., the approximately week-long Bangkok airport seizure - were going on, and my parents deemed it unsafe to go to Thailand.

Considering the revival of the media's attention on the protests currently going on in Thailand and the fact that I AM going to Thailand, no matter what my parents say, I think it is only appropriate for me to finally read up more on what actually is going on behind all of this political unrest. As usual.. I'm going to be relying on Wikipedia and current news articles on the internet....

The current government of Thailand is structured as a constitutional democratic monarchy (it was an absolute monarchy prior to 1932)- the Prime Minister is the Head of Government while the Hereditary Monarch is the Head of State (as well as Head of the Armed Forces, Upholder of the Buddhist Religion, and Defender of the Faith). Just for reference, other countries that are consitutional democratic monarchies are: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and of course, the UK

So, basically, the king has very little actual power, but instead, is more of a symbol of Thai identity and unity. The current king, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (82 years old) aka Rama IX, is the longest reigning current monarch in the world (and in all of Thai history) with a reign of 63, going on 64 years May! And.. despite the thought that he shouldn't have too much political action, Bhumibol (with the help of his popularity) has helped mediate... or even express his own thoughts.. or perhaps even meddle... in several political moments of Thailand, including:

• During his long reign he has seen over 15 coups, 16 constitutions, and 27 changes of prime ministers.
• 1992 - Thailand's transition to democracy
• 2006 - before an election, the People's Alliance for Democracy petitioned Bhumibol to appoint a replacement prime minister and cabinet. What I liked about this, though, was that Bhumibol declined, responding that "Asking for a Royally-appointed prime minister is undemocratic. It is, pardon me, a mess. It is irrational." Well said, I think.
• But... then again, later in 2006, when a coup actually happened, Bhumibol told civil servants to follow a particular commander..... hmm..

Other interesting notes: Acts deemd insulting to the king is a criminal offence (YouTube was blocked in Thailand because of a king-insulting video clip, 3 years ago?!).... Bhumibol's also been involved in several social and economic development projects, is the wealthiest Royal in the world, suffers from lumbar spine stenosis, can pardon prisoners (including 25,000 on 60th anniversary of being king!), and is the only Thai King to hold a patent (for a waste water aerator, and several rainmaking related things?!). An American journalist (Paul Handley?) wrote a biography for Bhumibol called The King Never Smiles, which was banned in Thailand because it has "contents which could affect national security and the good morality of the people" !!

Interesting, indeed...

Anyhow... although I know that I've only just given a brief interesting intro for Thai politics..... due to the onslaught of my midterms (3 midterms this week!!), I am afraid that I have to call it a day, and will resume this story another time~