#31 “Tak Bai, on the other hand, I would classify as negligent manslaughter, that is, there was no intent to kill but death occured from extreme negligence and/or recklessness.” > This is quite right, I think. It was not an outcome of public policy (the “iron fist” Thaksin is often said to have had re measures in the South).
“Krue Sae, in case anyone was wondering, would be the totally justified, albeit unpopular, killing of enemy combatants by lawful combatants as recognized by all conventions of international law.” > This seems to be well below your usual level of reflexion.
#18 Truly a bizarre perceptional framework. I wonder whether reality still figures in all this. I mean, what can one say if the Samak government is labelled “authoritarian and oppressive.” One more issue: Since the PAD is so much in favor of transparency, do you know whether they have publiziced a list showing who donated what amount of money to finance their crusade?
PAD THAI -imho, probably includes from Light Yellow (the Reasoned) to Dark Yellow (the Rightists).
Reg, have you been to one of the protests? When you watched ASTV, do you understand Thai? (just wanting to qualify what you saw and listened to — whether you understood the language or whether you saw people speak angrily in foreign language).
I’ve been to the protests only once (first day they went to government house), and watched ASTV on the internet every now and then. I cannot claim I was watching all 24 hours, but what I see is the leaders shouting every now and then, but for most of the time, it is quite soft education sessions;
I understand those PAD guys have been there for at least a Month, have endured alot of Abuse, alot of Threats (probably life threatening), lots of Rain, Sun, and Uncertainty and perhaps Poked More. It is possible at this stage that they’re quite ‘pis*ed’. I’m quite sure they started out very very polite — the same way you would politely tell me to stop doing something reasonably, but as again and again I unreasonably resist and cause more damage, naturally you’ll be more ‘dramatic’ or angry. So I would understand why they are more ‘Dramatic’.
I think for the Educated (for which I think I am in this group), it is quite easy to educate me and convince me why Thaksinism is not good without being ‘dramatic’. So for this crowd, we’re just waiting for the courts to decide, not really needing much angry speech.
But there is another group, for which this more Dramatic (rightist, patriotic, etc) version is required. Persuasion for the popular crowd of simple people does not mean going deeply into stories, but going to nationalistic rhetoric — something that is very easy to understand, such as loss of land, making the king not feel well, selling a nation — those are quite easy to grasp and be rhetorical about. Also, if you’ve been there for 30 days and had to retell some story over and over, wouldn’t it be better for more improvement?
All in all, I IMHO, they are trying to keep the PAD movement alive, and show to the ‘bad guys’ that, Alot of Thai People are Awake Now and Watching Over Every Step They Make!” and that “Thai People are Not Sheep!” Thus the dramaticism.
karmablues and kuson, your comments reminded me of the highly articulate anti-Thaksin/TRT mass-emails that did the rounds many years ago. Pro-Thaksinite’s/TRT always countered with “where’s the evidence?”. The court rulings since the jailing of the Election Commission in 2006 (and the multiple cases of this week) has begun to provide vindication for those suspicions/accusations. Not surprisingly, the pro-Thaksinites are now saying “the courts are biased and the cases are politicized” – maybe, just maybe – but don’t forget the evidences are solid (anyone can go back to read the detailed rulings) and much more will be streaming out in the months and years ahead… (unless PMThaksin successfully engineers a military coup that white-washes all cases against him, PPP having failed him in parliament)
“Thailand is as good as it gets” – jonfernquest, tears welled in my eyes as I read your comments!!! That last sentence, although I don’t totally agree with, are sentiments that I’ve heard from many locals through the years. Indeed, as here, they were also uttered with conviction, but I always had my doubts (is it a case of the more you say it, the more you believe it?).
For foriegners, I always thought it is related to tourism, and the novelty of a new place eventually wears down. And, as we all know, Thailand is BIG TIME tourism – and very successful at that (see a recent article from Nation: “Bangkok voted world’s best city in travel poll ” in: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/10/national/national_30077784.php
reporting a poll conducted on Travel and Leisure’s online readers)
So to hear this from you (although who can’t really be strictly classified as a ‘foriegner’ – maybe a Thai permanent resident?), backed by your years of lived-in observations/experiences (amidst all the negatives we have been discussing here) does somewhat confirm that many things are indeed right and good about the country and its people…
The kuson debate – if that is the right word – is a rather polite version of what Sonthi, Chamlong and others have been shouting very much more aggressively from the PAD stage. The remarkable nationalism reminiscent of the rightists of the 1970s, the invocation Sarit, the renewed claim to be representing king, country and people, and the demands that the government be overthrown are the logic of proto-fascists. Watching all of this on Sondhi’s TV invokes, for me, feelings of 1974-75. This is not nostalgia, but a real fear for the slippery slope.
The drought in Australia, cited as the cause of temporarily high rice prices in Thailand by Thai food economist Dr. Ammar Siamwalla, a couple of months ago, is another good reason why basic hydrology for everyone might not be a bad idea.
I can’t speak to the issue of Thai farming economics, but in Cambodia, where the vast majority of farmers remain smallholders, this is a very real issue and a going concern. While it sounds from the article that Thai farmers perhaps have the capital to buy buffalo and experiment with the traditional plowing method, in Cambodia – where mechanization has really only taken hold in the last ten years – the majority of those who switched to mechanical tractors are now unable to afford the switch back.
I should probably read more on the ‘sufficiency’ issue – it hasn’t seemed overly relevant to my interests in Cambodia.
Moe Aung: “In other words will it just continue to enrich a handful of people as happens in so many parts of the world, as in India and China, with the dirt poor majority co-existing in squalor, or is there real political will to lift the living standards of the majority”
Well, there’s Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank (providing microcredit to the poor) who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2006, educated in the US.
To build up a pool of such innovation drivers requires a policy of engagement.
I think it is too simplistic to bring a ‘superior ‘1st World Democratic Prejudice’ view, scoff at the people who seemingly are seemingly undemocratic and label them as the ‘bad guys, bad losers’. Its very easy if you’re the 3rd party. That is, no one stole anything from you.
BUT If you’re the party been stolen from — if you’re the 1st Party–if you’re the Thai –however rich or poor, who has lived through day after day of corruption — haven been stolen your time, your opportunity, your dignity (if Thaksin or Chalerm represents the Royal Thai Government, I really do not know where to put my face), IMHO it would not be stealing from a thief. It would be merely bringing justice to the thief. PAD only had to do this because 1. The Police are under the Government 2. The Army would be a Coup –and they don’t do a good job in government anyway.
So all in all, I do not think it is a thief stealing a thief, but Justice catching up with the Thief.
Thanks for the thief analogy. Let me share with you my version of the thief story:
Thief steals ( Wrong number 1 ). Karmablues followed the rules and went to Police to lodge complaint. Police accepted complaint but since Police was in same criminal synidicate as Thief, Police dragged feet with the investigations endlessly. Therefore, though Thief should have been taken to Court and sentenced to jail, Thief remains free.
Thief then steals again, and again, and again. And repeatedly, Police drag feet on investigations. Not only that, but Thief-Police criminal syndicate decided also to go on killing spree of 2500 fellow citizens because they viewed them as scum. So Karmablues got fed up and did not follow rule anymore. Karmablues goes to Military to ask for help. Military catches Thief and confiscated the stolen property (which can be viewed as “stealing” since it’s the job of the Police and Court under the law, so ok Wrong number 2 ) .
So does Wrong number 1 and Wrong number 2 make a right?
You say no. I will agree. But for a different reason.
The reason it did not make a right is that after Wrong number 2, Thief leaves country, continues luxurious lifestyle, purchases Premier League football club, and continues with his mischiefs, etc. although Thief should have gone to jail if Police had in the first place done its job as required by law (and perhaps 2500 lives could have been saved as well).
IMHO the reason for the mess in the first place is the TRT/PPP does not respect the rules and pretend to respect the rules one that our King predicted very early on when he talked about “Double Standards”. When Thaksin in government in the past, he shifts the rules around for which in business this is his company’s main advantages. Now he’s in deep s**t and he’s trying to mend the Constitution. Do you see what I mean?
My brother and I used to fight when we were young. I remember my Dad hated us fighting and just came by and smacked us both. Now that we’re older, I feel guilty because I’m the one wrong and saw the flaw in my Dad’s logic of spanking us both, instead of finding the wrong party and then Punishing that party instead.
I hope you (and all the Non-Thais who come with a superior ‘1st World Democratic’ Prejudice where 80% of your population alreadyhave the factors that make Democracy works) can try to untangle the very reason why things happen the way they do in the first place. We in Thailand want Fair Elections, where the people are Well Informed, and Understand the downfalls of Populist Policies – i.e. vote reasonably. We’ve been trying for SO long, perhaps in some extreme ways we do feel we should ditch it or modify it to something that works for our situation ( a benevolent dictator some inner child says? hehehe). Ok now I’m blabbering.
I just how you can help at least appreciate what PAD are trying to do — to at least take out the Thaksin Self Interested Corruption System (TSICS), and let Thailand have a chance to restart politically, and do not wind up into TSICS again.
I’ve been in one of the protests and want to join in again. When you go there (at least the one i’ve been), I see alot of housewives, professionals also bringing in the elderly and the young children to join the event. I think its a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do as even a Tourist, as there’s free concert, water, and sometimes food, and quite a jovial environment where people smile at each other. It gives a glimpse — and contrast — to the normal City Life in Bangkok, where people only mind their own business and live in walled enclaves (well, in the protection of high walls) — and that’s the next thing to tackle after taking out TSICS.
Dear Sir,
We would like to import around 50000 Tons of RAW Salt Boulder from in 50KG Container based & interested to know the following information’s:
(1) Salt size in Bulk.
(2) C&F Chittagong Price.
(3) Lead Time.
(4) Chemical specification report on your Salt.
We are waiting for your reply by return mail.
Thanks & Regards
Shahidul Haq Sikder
Managing Director
Sikder Group of Companies Ltd.
1101/1 Malibagh Chowdhury Para
Dhaka-1219, Bangladesh.
Phone : 880-2-9337431,9337432,8312061
Fax : 880-2-9332626,8313642
#10 and 16: All right, Thailand has no acceptable political institutional stuctures, thus nobody has to respect any rules (certainly not any electoral votes), and everybody noisy enough can try to overthrow the government and assume power via a coup. Thus let us establish a true pluralistic democracy in Thailand in which collectively binding decisions are reached via shouting matches on the royal plaza. A few tanks on the sides of some of such self-appointed groups might spice up events a bit. What do we need a government for, anyway?
Jon, let me say that trade and commerce at a certain level, the market if you like, is never going to be stopped, however you try to enforce regulation/legislation. Burma has relied on cross border trade from Thailand for so long I can’t imagine how we could have survived without it. The Burmese black market used to be overwhelmingly Thai stuff, as you know, and Chinese goods, though they’ve been around for longer in Upper Burma from ancient times, only beagn to dominate in more recent decades through officially sanctioned trade and China’s booming economy. You are right of course in China stepping in in a big way but trade with Thailand is likely to remain a lifeline for Lower Burma for the foreseeable future.
Big business and international capital getting a lion’s share of the country’s resources and markets is however a different kind of animal. It is the nature of the beast to exploit, and trickle-down is all you can expect. They will be wealth creators and job providers as the orthodox view today would say. Whether the country gains ina meaningful way from this than low paid jobs, shopping malls and high rise buildings is a moot question. Burma has had a share of that just doing business within the East. Infrastucture and technological gains are very much dependent on what sort of priority the country’s leaders put to them. In other words will it just continue to enrich a handful of people as happens in so many parts of the world, as in India and China, with the dirt poor majority co-existing in squalor, or is there real political will to lift the living standards of the majority, not window dressing such as eye-catching shopping malls, stadiums and tower blocks without any improvement in health, education, housing and transport? Will we for that matter see the wealth created mainly in extremely well equipped and powerful security forces?
[…] a nice story, in a folksy sufficiency sort of way, but I am a bit sceptical. Ploughing with buffalos is very time consuming and I suspect that only […]
Historically water supply determines farming possibilities,
e.g. flood farming in delta areas, which determines
food supply, which determines carrying capacity of land,
which determines manpower mobilizable for warfare,
which determines whether a state will survive and expand,
one reason why flood farming Mons may have ceased to exist
as independent political entities, being absorbed into the rising
Burmese and Ayutthayan states.
Hydrology is still important, though differerently, since water supply has been one of the main constraints on increasing rice production during the ongoing food crisis.
Basic hydrology should be a fundamental part of the Southeast Asian studies curriculum.
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Ji Ungpakorn on the “carnival of reaction”
#31 “Tak Bai, on the other hand, I would classify as negligent manslaughter, that is, there was no intent to kill but death occured from extreme negligence and/or recklessness.” > This is quite right, I think. It was not an outcome of public policy (the “iron fist” Thaksin is often said to have had re measures in the South).
“Krue Sae, in case anyone was wondering, would be the totally justified, albeit unpopular, killing of enemy combatants by lawful combatants as recognized by all conventions of international law.” > This seems to be well below your usual level of reflexion.
Time to go home
#18 Truly a bizarre perceptional framework. I wonder whether reality still figures in all this. I mean, what can one say if the Samak government is labelled “authoritarian and oppressive.” One more issue: Since the PAD is so much in favor of transparency, do you know whether they have publiziced a list showing who donated what amount of money to finance their crusade?
Time to go home
PAD THAI -imho, probably includes from Light Yellow (the Reasoned) to Dark Yellow (the Rightists).
Reg, have you been to one of the protests? When you watched ASTV, do you understand Thai? (just wanting to qualify what you saw and listened to — whether you understood the language or whether you saw people speak angrily in foreign language).
I’ve been to the protests only once (first day they went to government house), and watched ASTV on the internet every now and then. I cannot claim I was watching all 24 hours, but what I see is the leaders shouting every now and then, but for most of the time, it is quite soft education sessions;
I understand those PAD guys have been there for at least a Month, have endured alot of Abuse, alot of Threats (probably life threatening), lots of Rain, Sun, and Uncertainty and perhaps Poked More. It is possible at this stage that they’re quite ‘pis*ed’. I’m quite sure they started out very very polite — the same way you would politely tell me to stop doing something reasonably, but as again and again I unreasonably resist and cause more damage, naturally you’ll be more ‘dramatic’ or angry. So I would understand why they are more ‘Dramatic’.
I think for the Educated (for which I think I am in this group), it is quite easy to educate me and convince me why Thaksinism is not good without being ‘dramatic’. So for this crowd, we’re just waiting for the courts to decide, not really needing much angry speech.
But there is another group, for which this more Dramatic (rightist, patriotic, etc) version is required. Persuasion for the popular crowd of simple people does not mean going deeply into stories, but going to nationalistic rhetoric — something that is very easy to understand, such as loss of land, making the king not feel well, selling a nation — those are quite easy to grasp and be rhetorical about. Also, if you’ve been there for 30 days and had to retell some story over and over, wouldn’t it be better for more improvement?
All in all, I IMHO, they are trying to keep the PAD movement alive, and show to the ‘bad guys’ that, Alot of Thai People are Awake Now and Watching Over Every Step They Make!” and that “Thai People are Not Sheep!” Thus the dramaticism.
Ta-Wiset (Magic Eyes) is watching!
Time to go home
karmablues and kuson, your comments reminded me of the highly articulate anti-Thaksin/TRT mass-emails that did the rounds many years ago. Pro-Thaksinite’s/TRT always countered with “where’s the evidence?”. The court rulings since the jailing of the Election Commission in 2006 (and the multiple cases of this week) has begun to provide vindication for those suspicions/accusations. Not surprisingly, the pro-Thaksinites are now saying “the courts are biased and the cases are politicized” – maybe, just maybe – but don’t forget the evidences are solid (anyone can go back to read the detailed rulings) and much more will be streaming out in the months and years ahead… (unless PMThaksin successfully engineers a military coup that white-washes all cases against him, PPP having failed him in parliament)
Southern violence and the state
Thank you hello for pointing that out, it’s my mistake. Cheers
The Thai state: doing some things right
“Thailand is as good as it gets” – jonfernquest, tears welled in my eyes as I read your comments!!! That last sentence, although I don’t totally agree with, are sentiments that I’ve heard from many locals through the years. Indeed, as here, they were also uttered with conviction, but I always had my doubts (is it a case of the more you say it, the more you believe it?).
For foriegners, I always thought it is related to tourism, and the novelty of a new place eventually wears down. And, as we all know, Thailand is BIG TIME tourism – and very successful at that (see a recent article from Nation: “Bangkok voted world’s best city in travel poll ” in:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/10/national/national_30077784.php
reporting a poll conducted on Travel and Leisure’s online readers)
So to hear this from you (although who can’t really be strictly classified as a ‘foriegner’ – maybe a Thai permanent resident?), backed by your years of lived-in observations/experiences (amidst all the negatives we have been discussing here) does somewhat confirm that many things are indeed right and good about the country and its people…
Time to go home
The kuson debate – if that is the right word – is a rather polite version of what Sonthi, Chamlong and others have been shouting very much more aggressively from the PAD stage. The remarkable nationalism reminiscent of the rightists of the 1970s, the invocation Sarit, the renewed claim to be representing king, country and people, and the demands that the government be overthrown are the logic of proto-fascists. Watching all of this on Sondhi’s TV invokes, for me, feelings of 1974-75. This is not nostalgia, but a real fear for the slippery slope.
Rain, forest, soil, river
The drought in Australia, cited as the cause of temporarily high rice prices in Thailand by Thai food economist Dr. Ammar Siamwalla, a couple of months ago, is another good reason why basic hydrology for everyone might not be a bad idea.
Today’s Australian drought news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7499036.stm
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD170905
A buffalo come-back?
I can’t speak to the issue of Thai farming economics, but in Cambodia, where the vast majority of farmers remain smallholders, this is a very real issue and a going concern. While it sounds from the article that Thai farmers perhaps have the capital to buy buffalo and experiment with the traditional plowing method, in Cambodia – where mechanization has really only taken hold in the last ten years – the majority of those who switched to mechanical tractors are now unable to afford the switch back.
I should probably read more on the ‘sufficiency’ issue – it hasn’t seemed overly relevant to my interests in Cambodia.
Ashley South on post-cyclone Burma
Moe Aung: “In other words will it just continue to enrich a handful of people as happens in so many parts of the world, as in India and China, with the dirt poor majority co-existing in squalor, or is there real political will to lift the living standards of the majority”
Well, there’s Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank (providing microcredit to the poor) who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2006, educated in the US.
To build up a pool of such innovation drivers requires a policy of engagement.
Isolation is bad. Engagement is good.
Time to go home
Oops… sorry, I forgot to put the tag to stop the boldface from overflowing. Apologies — I wanted to put it after ‘the’ and before ‘Thai’. hehehe
Time to go home
#19,
I think it is too simplistic to bring a ‘superior ‘1st World Democratic Prejudice’ view, scoff at the people who seemingly are seemingly undemocratic and label them as the ‘bad guys, bad losers’. Its very easy if you’re the 3rd party. That is, no one stole anything from you.
BUT If you’re the party been stolen from — if you’re the 1st Party–if you’re the Thai –however rich or poor, who has lived through day after day of corruption — haven been stolen your time, your opportunity, your dignity (if Thaksin or Chalerm represents the Royal Thai Government, I really do not know where to put my face), IMHO it would not be stealing from a thief. It would be merely bringing justice to the thief. PAD only had to do this because 1. The Police are under the Government 2. The Army would be a Coup –and they don’t do a good job in government anyway.
So all in all, I do not think it is a thief stealing a thief, but Justice catching up with the Thief.
IMHO.
Time to go home
Re #19
Thanks for the thief analogy. Let me share with you my version of the thief story:
Thief steals ( Wrong number 1 ). Karmablues followed the rules and went to Police to lodge complaint. Police accepted complaint but since Police was in same criminal synidicate as Thief, Police dragged feet with the investigations endlessly. Therefore, though Thief should have been taken to Court and sentenced to jail, Thief remains free.
Thief then steals again, and again, and again. And repeatedly, Police drag feet on investigations. Not only that, but Thief-Police criminal syndicate decided also to go on killing spree of 2500 fellow citizens because they viewed them as scum. So Karmablues got fed up and did not follow rule anymore. Karmablues goes to Military to ask for help. Military catches Thief and confiscated the stolen property (which can be viewed as “stealing” since it’s the job of the Police and Court under the law, so ok Wrong number 2 ) .
So does Wrong number 1 and Wrong number 2 make a right?
You say no. I will agree. But for a different reason.
The reason it did not make a right is that after Wrong number 2, Thief leaves country, continues luxurious lifestyle, purchases Premier League football club, and continues with his mischiefs, etc. although Thief should have gone to jail if Police had in the first place done its job as required by law (and perhaps 2500 lives could have been saved as well).
Yes, so two wrongs really did not make a right.
Time to go home
Ah, there we have it. Two wrongs makes a right, according to karmablues.
karmablues would support stealing from a thief, even though that would mean he was a thief as well.
Time to go home
#17
IMHO the reason for the mess in the first place is the TRT/PPP does not respect the rules and pretend to respect the rules one that our King predicted very early on when he talked about “Double Standards”. When Thaksin in government in the past, he shifts the rules around for which in business this is his company’s main advantages. Now he’s in deep s**t and he’s trying to mend the Constitution. Do you see what I mean?
My brother and I used to fight when we were young. I remember my Dad hated us fighting and just came by and smacked us both. Now that we’re older, I feel guilty because I’m the one wrong and saw the flaw in my Dad’s logic of spanking us both, instead of finding the wrong party and then Punishing that party instead.
I hope you (and all the Non-Thais who come with a superior ‘1st World Democratic’ Prejudice where 80% of your population alreadyhave the factors that make Democracy works) can try to untangle the very reason why things happen the way they do in the first place. We in Thailand want Fair Elections, where the people are Well Informed, and Understand the downfalls of Populist Policies – i.e. vote reasonably. We’ve been trying for SO long, perhaps in some extreme ways we do feel we should ditch it or modify it to something that works for our situation ( a benevolent dictator some inner child says? hehehe). Ok now I’m blabbering.
I just how you can help at least appreciate what PAD are trying to do — to at least take out the Thaksin Self Interested Corruption System (TSICS), and let Thailand have a chance to restart politically, and do not wind up into TSICS again.
I’ve been in one of the protests and want to join in again. When you go there (at least the one i’ve been), I see alot of housewives, professionals also bringing in the elderly and the young children to join the event. I think its a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do as even a Tourist, as there’s free concert, water, and sometimes food, and quite a jovial environment where people smile at each other. It gives a glimpse — and contrast — to the normal City Life in Bangkok, where people only mind their own business and live in walled enclaves (well, in the protection of high walls) — and that’s the next thing to tackle after taking out TSICS.
The price of salt in Myanmar
Dear Sir,
We would like to import around 50000 Tons of RAW Salt Boulder from in 50KG Container based & interested to know the following information’s:
(1) Salt size in Bulk.
(2) C&F Chittagong Price.
(3) Lead Time.
(4) Chemical specification report on your Salt.
We are waiting for your reply by return mail.
Thanks & Regards
Shahidul Haq Sikder
Managing Director
Sikder Group of Companies Ltd.
1101/1 Malibagh Chowdhury Para
Dhaka-1219, Bangladesh.
Phone : 880-2-9337431,9337432,8312061
Fax : 880-2-9332626,8313642
Time to go home
#10 and 16: All right, Thailand has no acceptable political institutional stuctures, thus nobody has to respect any rules (certainly not any electoral votes), and everybody noisy enough can try to overthrow the government and assume power via a coup. Thus let us establish a true pluralistic democracy in Thailand in which collectively binding decisions are reached via shouting matches on the royal plaza. A few tanks on the sides of some of such self-appointed groups might spice up events a bit. What do we need a government for, anyway?
Ashley South on post-cyclone Burma
Jon, let me say that trade and commerce at a certain level, the market if you like, is never going to be stopped, however you try to enforce regulation/legislation. Burma has relied on cross border trade from Thailand for so long I can’t imagine how we could have survived without it. The Burmese black market used to be overwhelmingly Thai stuff, as you know, and Chinese goods, though they’ve been around for longer in Upper Burma from ancient times, only beagn to dominate in more recent decades through officially sanctioned trade and China’s booming economy. You are right of course in China stepping in in a big way but trade with Thailand is likely to remain a lifeline for Lower Burma for the foreseeable future.
Big business and international capital getting a lion’s share of the country’s resources and markets is however a different kind of animal. It is the nature of the beast to exploit, and trickle-down is all you can expect. They will be wealth creators and job providers as the orthodox view today would say. Whether the country gains ina meaningful way from this than low paid jobs, shopping malls and high rise buildings is a moot question. Burma has had a share of that just doing business within the East. Infrastucture and technological gains are very much dependent on what sort of priority the country’s leaders put to them. In other words will it just continue to enrich a handful of people as happens in so many parts of the world, as in India and China, with the dirt poor majority co-existing in squalor, or is there real political will to lift the living standards of the majority, not window dressing such as eye-catching shopping malls, stadiums and tower blocks without any improvement in health, education, housing and transport? Will we for that matter see the wealth created mainly in extremely well equipped and powerful security forces?
Bring back the buffalo!
[…] a nice story, in a folksy sufficiency sort of way, but I am a bit sceptical. Ploughing with buffalos is very time consuming and I suspect that only […]
Rain, forest, soil, river
“Who cares about hydrological modelling?”
Everyone should care a lot more about it.
Historically water supply determines farming possibilities,
e.g. flood farming in delta areas, which determines
food supply, which determines carrying capacity of land,
which determines manpower mobilizable for warfare,
which determines whether a state will survive and expand,
one reason why flood farming Mons may have ceased to exist
as independent political entities, being absorbed into the rising
Burmese and Ayutthayan states.
Hydrology is still important, though differerently, since water supply has been one of the main constraints on increasing rice production during the ongoing food crisis.
Basic hydrology should be a fundamental part of the Southeast Asian studies curriculum.