He’s outlived his use duly making a parting shot, and it’s for Min Aung Hlaing who just secured http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VM06S?rpc=401&”>another five years as the CiC (presumably a decision taken by the karlon or NDSC definitely ‘above the president’) to carry on making his power sharing partners know their place.
As for those so called Aid/NGO/HR that benefit from pushing their ware, that often benefiting only themselves, enjoying cronies life style ├б la Crusoe and have the gall to be critical of a culture that they do not know or care to know yet readily willing to destroy.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling them “dalans and a-lan-shues” (spies and agents provocateur). At least some of them are like latter day missionaries of the historic 3Ms, perhaps today even linked to corporations and definitely states which tend to be donors. He who pays the piper… if they are not looking for market share they are sure as hell looking for influence, an integral part of soft power diplomacy.
“Clearly as a spouse of an aid she will enjoy the Chauffeured Land Cruiser life style as well as all the royalty accompanying a white aid worker, that can only afford may be a third tier transportation in native country.”
These “Agencies” and this and that “NGO’s” with fancy made up “High Morality” themes (Equality- racial, religious, LBGTQXYZ, anthing easy to spot, environment protection, poverty alleviation – that is best one-, promotion of education, human rights, anything that sounds good) and Global Institutions like IMF, WB, ABD, XYZ’s are of course staffed with people who own second hand clapped out cars in their own “civilized” – and highly indebted and economically in deep-shit countries- now in those “Third World” dumps uncomfortably roaming around in beer-fridged limousines and four-wheels for the sole real purpose of being dalans and a-lan-shue’s.
Can’t blame them though. the local “elites” regularly join them. They are shamelessly called “Epistemic community” which is nothing whatsoever to do with dear Rene Descartes but the sort of intellectual version of comprador-bourgeoisie who will put on the touch on the country soaked with petrol by the “benefactors”.
Does the author regret not fessing to the falsehoods she portrayed the government as and the follow up on Mu Mu and Zayar??
Falsehoods: “Whether it was worth risking her own welfare and the agency’s reputation to produce Burma’s Spring”
Since 2000 there has been expelling of ZERO journalist especially female one.
So why the fuss about fearing for safety as an aid spouse.
May be Ms Russel might like to enlighten us on the issue of “House maid MU MU’ and “Fixer ZAyar”.
questions:
1)Ever thought about how Zayer is a fixer without the tacit approval of the regime?
2)Does Mu MU as a house maid expose Ms Russel and husband as merely a Crusoe like westerner at best at worst enjoying a cultural benefit and insulting the host?
How so ?
Clearly as a spouse of an aid she will enjoy the Chauffeured Land Cruiser life style as well as all the royalty accompanying a white aid worker, that can only afford may be a third tier transportation in native country
A ‘snag’ or the military simply driving a hard bargain from a position of strength physically as well as ‘constitutionally’? Far from going, going, gone on their part… like a habitual offender.
The Lady and her party hamstrung and hogtied in opposition for decades, hamstrung and hogtied ‘in power’ now? Has the prudent and pragmatic policy of not rocking the boat got it to a standstill? Or is it going to be stop go for the foreseeable future? This tug of war is just beginning.
So how does either party propose to pacify the public to avert popular unrest that both evidently fear so much and at the same time seem set on a direct course towards ?
This craze reminds me somewhat of the craze for Jatukham amulets which reached its heights in 2005-2006. This was a time of political turmoil but the popularity of the amulet was mainly due to the story of a guard being shot at 3 times and surviving and attributing this to the amulet. It is possible to read too much into the political angle….
To Westerners, it is perhaps astonishing if not distinctly risible that medievalism is alive and well in the 21st century, akin to an accused witch who, if she sank was considered innocent while if she floated it indicated witchcraft.
Earlier, Siam’s city-states still had deeply-held superstitions in animist traditions, where Buddhism was practiced in a way that was traditionally twinned with animistic beliefs in spirits and ancient superstitions, mixed with another borrowed religion, Hinduism. But today we are not living in Ancient Rome and neither are we possessed by placing wenches on a stool and then dunked into a river or pond.
Thais, as we all know, are deeply influenced by astrology. Prayuth and other sexagenarian spirits that inhabit the realm dutifully believe in the powers of black magic and voodoo. As Pavin once wrote, Prayuth claimed he had lineage to “ancient Egyptian sorcerers”, which perhaps alluded to the fact that maybe Cleopatra was his spiritual mother. He was also said to be able to “communicate with UFOs”.
At one stage he menacingly announced: “Today, I have a sore throat, a pain in the neck. Someone said there are some people putting curses on me. I had so much lustral water poured over my head I shivered all over. I’m going to catch a cold now,” making light of the black magic he said was being used against him.
Although it appears totally absurd to most Westerners, occult ceremonies are often used to put curses on political foes and some saw Thaksin being freed from his past karma as a “prince warrior in ancient times who had much blood on his hands”. It was still believed by some that the fugitive politician was, in a past life, a ruling prince warrior in an unknown northern principality, a man who killed and burglarised in Siam’s war with Burma.
As a symbolic return to past looting, in 2009 chunks of banknotes passed hands during rituals to pacify the spirits of Thaksin’s past-life enemies. The names of his foes were written down on paper and burned to ashes to put a curse of death and destruction on them in perfect harmony with celestial Buddhist practices.
In 2006, in Surin, Thaksin rode an elephant and performed the old ritual carried out by warriors before a battle by walking under a beast’s belly to boost his power and fortune. To scare off his enemies, he was given a magical elephant prod.
What, for us, had been a vague shrug of the shoulders now became an understanding of what these ghastly self-appointed “good people” in power actually believe: in ghosts and in past-life battles and death to their opponents. To us, this was all a gasping, wretched, idiotic, unedifying hoax.
Perhaps it is crucial for those in power that these cosmologies are not challenged by alternative worldviews but Thai discourses on “pure Buddhism”, as opposed to “superstition”, cannot construct a cosmology from below as it is centuries-old behaviour from the top that is dutifully repeated despite the lack of any evidence to support its effectiveness.
The blossoming of this child-like clinging to angel dolls for salvation and social pathology, with their “whimsical appearing paraphernalia”, could be a cogent argument for a Thai response that circumvents reality because of the pain of emptiness that counts for current Thai public discourse.
It cannot be dismissed as mere superstition as it is part of every day Thai culture that makes it manifest in the form of daily offerings of raspberry-flavoured pop that can be found in almost every spirit house in the kingdom.
Thein Sein won’t be attending after all, sending his deputy instead. The reason? Sorry, transparency is not their forte, neither the incumbent nor the incoming government.
All down to the military elite’s smartly worked out exit strategy. Now it’s the Lady’s exit strategy out of the constitutional straitjacket to unfold. People can’t wait.
“While they recognize the connection to Guman Thong in relation to the Luk Thep, they have difficulties to take the Luk Thep itself serious, and look at it more like a bit of a fad.”
Dear Nick, fad or not, I cannot see something very funny in something that has a – even remote – relation to cults that dabble in human fetes or dead children….
And regarding R.N. England:
“I have also drawn attention to the fact that the article only flatters the victims of the doll fad, without helping them in any way.”
This is the crucial point: this fad does not help people change their situation or be less oppressed, or whatever, it is a cop out. Like reading the horoscope in our oh so rational ‘Western’ society. And yet: the powers-that-be have frequently tried to suppress even this sort of ‘superstitious’ escape. One might ask why, if it is so useful to them.
You are not alone in that. Many people in the amulet world, especially the ones into Mahasanae, are in two minds as well when i asked about the Luk Thep. While they recognize the connection to Guman Thong in relation to the Luk Thep, they have difficulties to take the Luk Thep itself serious, and look at it more like a bit of a fad.
However, i find this article very important, as it points out that this is not just to be dismissed as “superstition”, but is indeed part of every day Thai culture, and therefore more than just an anecdote of orientalist amusement.
Yes, there is almost never a day goes by without something to laugh at in Thailand.
When these dolls first started showing up my wife came home and told me she’d seen a woman practically nursing one in public and it struck her as odd, sad and mildly humorous.
After seeing a few more and learning what they were about, we both found it a little bit crazy and had a laugh about them. I’m almost sure I may have knocked on wood when we talked about the unlikelihood of our daughter ever picking up on such a strain of “fashion”.
Neither of us would have found a social pathology lurking in the background though.
We both subscribe to a “different folks, different strokes” approach that often leads to laughter.
The social media frenzy when Luk Thep suddenly popped into mediated consciousness was nothing like that and neither was the MSM exploitation of its bizarro side.
It looked a lot like the same kind of “racism” at work that has seen Japan covered more for its oddball perversity than its status as an economic powerhouse.
I should have made it clear that the superstitious behaviour in question is repeated in a population, not necessarily in an individual, though it might be cured on an individual basis or through mass media.
No, the definition of superstition from behavioural science applies to the expenditure of scarce resources on dolls, under the illusion that they will bring good luck. I am not referring to the popular definition of neurosis, which, by the way, is easily refuted, as is the rest of your post. It may take several hundred blows with an axe to fell a tree, or a long political campaign to get rid of a tyrant.
I have also drawn attention to the fact that the article only flatters the victims of the doll fad, without helping them in any way.
Very nice article on a very interesting topic. I am a bit in two minds – I strongly support a respectful engagement with all forms of religious (and other) practice. But that needn’t prevent us having a laugh when things get ridiculous. I have always found Thailand to be a very funny place.
The triumph of institutions over an entrenched command structure I guess. Nurtured in part perhaps by the insufferable Burmese trait of all chiefs and no Indians trying to put their own stamp on it as opposed to rubber stamping, the uniformed presence notwithstanding, not least the Speakers no longer in uniform and keen to make their mark.
It bodes well for the future although I won’t hold my breath.
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Recognising restrictive regimes
Thein Sein does what he’s told to do. The excuse is to oversee the delicate transfer of power according to his spin doctor Zaw Htay. His other spin doctor the information minister Ye Htut will be accompanying the VP Nyan Tun to Sunnylands.
He’s outlived his use duly making a parting shot, and it’s for Min Aung Hlaing who just secured http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VM06S?rpc=401&”>another five years as the CiC (presumably a decision taken by the karlon or NDSC definitely ‘above the president’) to carry on making his power sharing partners know their place.
Review of Burma’s Spring
The cronies will have their reckoning.
As for those so called Aid/NGO/HR that benefit from pushing their ware, that often benefiting only themselves, enjoying cronies life style ├б la Crusoe and have the gall to be critical of a culture that they do not know or care to know yet readily willing to destroy.
Review of Burma’s Spring
I wouldn’t go as far as calling them “dalans and a-lan-shues” (spies and agents provocateur). At least some of them are like latter day missionaries of the historic 3Ms, perhaps today even linked to corporations and definitely states which tend to be donors. He who pays the piper… if they are not looking for market share they are sure as hell looking for influence, an integral part of soft power diplomacy.
Review of A Prince in a Republic
[…] http://www.newmandala.org/2015/10/24/review-of-a-prince-in-a-republic/ […]
Review of Burma’s Spring
“Clearly as a spouse of an aid she will enjoy the Chauffeured Land Cruiser life style as well as all the royalty accompanying a white aid worker, that can only afford may be a third tier transportation in native country.”
These “Agencies” and this and that “NGO’s” with fancy made up “High Morality” themes (Equality- racial, religious, LBGTQXYZ, anthing easy to spot, environment protection, poverty alleviation – that is best one-, promotion of education, human rights, anything that sounds good) and Global Institutions like IMF, WB, ABD, XYZ’s are of course staffed with people who own second hand clapped out cars in their own “civilized” – and highly indebted and economically in deep-shit countries- now in those “Third World” dumps uncomfortably roaming around in beer-fridged limousines and four-wheels for the sole real purpose of being dalans and a-lan-shue’s.
Can’t blame them though. the local “elites” regularly join them. They are shamelessly called “Epistemic community” which is nothing whatsoever to do with dear Rene Descartes but the sort of intellectual version of comprador-bourgeoisie who will put on the touch on the country soaked with petrol by the “benefactors”.
Review of Burma’s Spring
One year later.
Does the author regret not fessing to the falsehoods she portrayed the government as and the follow up on Mu Mu and Zayar??
Falsehoods: “Whether it was worth risking her own welfare and the agency’s reputation to produce Burma’s Spring”
Since 2000 there has been expelling of ZERO journalist especially female one.
So why the fuss about fearing for safety as an aid spouse.
May be Ms Russel might like to enlighten us on the issue of “House maid MU MU’ and “Fixer ZAyar”.
questions:
1)Ever thought about how Zayer is a fixer without the tacit approval of the regime?
2)Does Mu MU as a house maid expose Ms Russel and husband as merely a Crusoe like westerner at best at worst enjoying a cultural benefit and insulting the host?
How so ?
Clearly as a spouse of an aid she will enjoy the Chauffeured Land Cruiser life style as well as all the royalty accompanying a white aid worker, that can only afford may be a third tier transportation in native country
Recognising restrictive regimes
A snub is a snub.
Thein Sein is more beholden to China than USA
Seeing the ambassador touring Myanmar you might think USA still have not officially revoke the sanction of Myanmar.
Thein Sein has more pride.
Hope and reality in a new Myanmar
A ‘snag’ or the military simply driving a hard bargain from a position of strength physically as well as ‘constitutionally’? Far from going, going, gone on their part… like a habitual offender.
The Lady and her party hamstrung and hogtied in opposition for decades, hamstrung and hogtied ‘in power’ now? Has the prudent and pragmatic policy of not rocking the boat got it to a standstill? Or is it going to be stop go for the foreseeable future? This tug of war is just beginning.
So how does either party propose to pacify the public to avert popular unrest that both evidently fear so much and at the same time seem set on a direct course towards ?
Silencing by means of “superstition”
This craze reminds me somewhat of the craze for Jatukham amulets which reached its heights in 2005-2006. This was a time of political turmoil but the popularity of the amulet was mainly due to the story of a guard being shot at 3 times and surviving and attributing this to the amulet. It is possible to read too much into the political angle….
Silencing by means of “superstition”
To Westerners, it is perhaps astonishing if not distinctly risible that medievalism is alive and well in the 21st century, akin to an accused witch who, if she sank was considered innocent while if she floated it indicated witchcraft.
Earlier, Siam’s city-states still had deeply-held superstitions in animist traditions, where Buddhism was practiced in a way that was traditionally twinned with animistic beliefs in spirits and ancient superstitions, mixed with another borrowed religion, Hinduism. But today we are not living in Ancient Rome and neither are we possessed by placing wenches on a stool and then dunked into a river or pond.
Thais, as we all know, are deeply influenced by astrology. Prayuth and other sexagenarian spirits that inhabit the realm dutifully believe in the powers of black magic and voodoo. As Pavin once wrote, Prayuth claimed he had lineage to “ancient Egyptian sorcerers”, which perhaps alluded to the fact that maybe Cleopatra was his spiritual mother. He was also said to be able to “communicate with UFOs”.
At one stage he menacingly announced: “Today, I have a sore throat, a pain in the neck. Someone said there are some people putting curses on me. I had so much lustral water poured over my head I shivered all over. I’m going to catch a cold now,” making light of the black magic he said was being used against him.
Although it appears totally absurd to most Westerners, occult ceremonies are often used to put curses on political foes and some saw Thaksin being freed from his past karma as a “prince warrior in ancient times who had much blood on his hands”. It was still believed by some that the fugitive politician was, in a past life, a ruling prince warrior in an unknown northern principality, a man who killed and burglarised in Siam’s war with Burma.
As a symbolic return to past looting, in 2009 chunks of banknotes passed hands during rituals to pacify the spirits of Thaksin’s past-life enemies. The names of his foes were written down on paper and burned to ashes to put a curse of death and destruction on them in perfect harmony with celestial Buddhist practices.
In 2006, in Surin, Thaksin rode an elephant and performed the old ritual carried out by warriors before a battle by walking under a beast’s belly to boost his power and fortune. To scare off his enemies, he was given a magical elephant prod.
What, for us, had been a vague shrug of the shoulders now became an understanding of what these ghastly self-appointed “good people” in power actually believe: in ghosts and in past-life battles and death to their opponents. To us, this was all a gasping, wretched, idiotic, unedifying hoax.
Perhaps it is crucial for those in power that these cosmologies are not challenged by alternative worldviews but Thai discourses on “pure Buddhism”, as opposed to “superstition”, cannot construct a cosmology from below as it is centuries-old behaviour from the top that is dutifully repeated despite the lack of any evidence to support its effectiveness.
The blossoming of this child-like clinging to angel dolls for salvation and social pathology, with their “whimsical appearing paraphernalia”, could be a cogent argument for a Thai response that circumvents reality because of the pain of emptiness that counts for current Thai public discourse.
It cannot be dismissed as mere superstition as it is part of every day Thai culture that makes it manifest in the form of daily offerings of raspberry-flavoured pop that can be found in almost every spirit house in the kingdom.
Recognising restrictive regimes
US President Barack ObamaObama’s ASEAN Summit Signals Move to ‘More Overtly Hostile’ China Policy
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160211/1034611078/barack-obama-asean-summit-china.html
Recognising restrictive regimes
Thein Sein won’t be attending after all, sending his deputy instead. The reason? Sorry, transparency is not their forte, neither the incumbent nor the incoming government.
Passing over the gavel without a fight
All down to the military elite’s smartly worked out exit strategy. Now it’s the Lady’s exit strategy out of the constitutional straitjacket to unfold. People can’t wait.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
“While they recognize the connection to Guman Thong in relation to the Luk Thep, they have difficulties to take the Luk Thep itself serious, and look at it more like a bit of a fad.”
Dear Nick, fad or not, I cannot see something very funny in something that has a – even remote – relation to cults that dabble in human fetes or dead children….
And regarding R.N. England:
“I have also drawn attention to the fact that the article only flatters the victims of the doll fad, without helping them in any way.”
This is the crucial point: this fad does not help people change their situation or be less oppressed, or whatever, it is a cop out. Like reading the horoscope in our oh so rational ‘Western’ society. And yet: the powers-that-be have frequently tried to suppress even this sort of ‘superstitious’ escape. One might ask why, if it is so useful to them.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
You are not alone in that. Many people in the amulet world, especially the ones into Mahasanae, are in two minds as well when i asked about the Luk Thep. While they recognize the connection to Guman Thong in relation to the Luk Thep, they have difficulties to take the Luk Thep itself serious, and look at it more like a bit of a fad.
However, i find this article very important, as it points out that this is not just to be dismissed as “superstition”, but is indeed part of every day Thai culture, and therefore more than just an anecdote of orientalist amusement.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
Yes, there is almost never a day goes by without something to laugh at in Thailand.
When these dolls first started showing up my wife came home and told me she’d seen a woman practically nursing one in public and it struck her as odd, sad and mildly humorous.
After seeing a few more and learning what they were about, we both found it a little bit crazy and had a laugh about them. I’m almost sure I may have knocked on wood when we talked about the unlikelihood of our daughter ever picking up on such a strain of “fashion”.
Neither of us would have found a social pathology lurking in the background though.
We both subscribe to a “different folks, different strokes” approach that often leads to laughter.
The social media frenzy when Luk Thep suddenly popped into mediated consciousness was nothing like that and neither was the MSM exploitation of its bizarro side.
It looked a lot like the same kind of “racism” at work that has seen Japan covered more for its oddball perversity than its status as an economic powerhouse.
There’s laughter and then there’s laughter.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
I should have made it clear that the superstitious behaviour in question is repeated in a population, not necessarily in an individual, though it might be cured on an individual basis or through mass media.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
No, the definition of superstition from behavioural science applies to the expenditure of scarce resources on dolls, under the illusion that they will bring good luck. I am not referring to the popular definition of neurosis, which, by the way, is easily refuted, as is the rest of your post. It may take several hundred blows with an axe to fell a tree, or a long political campaign to get rid of a tyrant.
I have also drawn attention to the fact that the article only flatters the victims of the doll fad, without helping them in any way.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
Very nice article on a very interesting topic. I am a bit in two minds – I strongly support a respectful engagement with all forms of religious (and other) practice. But that needn’t prevent us having a laugh when things get ridiculous. I have always found Thailand to be a very funny place.
Passing over the gavel without a fight
The triumph of institutions over an entrenched command structure I guess. Nurtured in part perhaps by the insufferable Burmese trait of all chiefs and no Indians trying to put their own stamp on it as opposed to rubber stamping, the uniformed presence notwithstanding, not least the Speakers no longer in uniform and keen to make their mark.
It bodes well for the future although I won’t hold my breath.