31 December 2010

New Year’s Eve 2010/2011

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31 December 2010. I’ve been reading and enjoying yet another Dan Simmons novel, this one a horror story named Children of the Night (1992). It takes place mostly in the immediate chaos of post-Ceausescu Romania, and the horror a reader experiences here is not just from the vampires but also the horrors revealed of the recent communist regime there. The astounding occurrence of HIV among babies in state orphanages in Romania in the Ceausescu-era communist state; the remaining thuggish legacy of the socialist police state; it is all chilling. Add to this the local lore of Dracula, aka, Vlad Dracul Tepes (The Impaler) – is he a historical figure now long gone for centuries, or is he truly Undead? Some of the best historical research on Dracula is evident.
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People watching: I’ve been sitting outside in the shade watching people cross the small nearby intersection of sidestreets (aka, sois). From my hideaway spot, I can view the soi without being seen easily. A lurker in the afternoon shadows.
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I will have to declare myself on the side of the Stoics when it comes to basic human nature: i.e., people make up one huge universal family (aka, a “universal brotherhood of man”). Although I am profoundly retarded when it comes to learning foreign languages, I can still observe the obvious universal human behaviors. Groups of kids and adults here still show typical group behavior, e.g., leaders/followers, slackers/hard working entrepreneurs, good faith/bad faith, confidence/un-sureness. Loners/Lone wolves.
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I managed to catch a head-cold right after Christmas, and I’ve always thought the hardest colds to kick are the ones you catch in warm weather. My voice is still so bad that the cats scatter when I try to speak.
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It’s a nice afternoon, with temps not getting up above the 80sF, and the humidity is quite tolerable. Yet I still lit a mosquito coil and set it upwind of my chair. Biting critters still bite us every single day and night of the year, even now in our “winter.”
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I came back from a grocery run – the usual: ice, noodles, beer, plus a new fluorescent light bulb. The main soi is pretty quiet, because during this New Year holiday a lot of folks have left town to visit family in the provinces. Mass migrations, always with the worst traffic casualties of the year.
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I just saw one young family of 4 saddled up to go for a multi-day trip. They were all on one motorcycle, and the father and mother had small/medium backpacks and shoulder bags. First on the cycle was a little boy, sitting in front of his father and partially on the gas tank; then the father, driving the machine; then a little girl; and at the end was the mother, hanging on to the back of the seat. I felt sorry for the little girl because, sandwiched as she was between father and mother, she couldn’t see the scenery. Hope their trip goes well and they return safe.
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I was planning on reading more while sitting outside, but my music player has been playing some Miles Davis jazz, and that just makes me lean back and smile. With a big pint mug full of Chang Classic beer and ice, it’s all so Cool and Collected.
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Evening shadows are bringing in the more aggressive mosquitoes, so I’m going back inside. We will be back out for the fireworks.
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Happy New Year!
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-Zenwind.
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P.S. – Just logging on to send this, I received the bad news that Nomads pub, the great live music venue, is closing. There was always only a few of us there listening to fantastic music from acts such as The Soi Dogs Blues Band. So one shouldn’t be too surprised. Thais have been killing their tourist industry by frequent violence and puritanical alcohol laws, and the Euro and US Dollar have tumbled so far in exchange that one’s purchasing power is not what it used to be. The US$ has lost 1/3 of its value to the Thai Baht in the last few years. Thus, the good music venues have been drying up.
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17 December 2010

Mid-December

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17 December 2010. Woops! I forgot to post here on the middle of the month as I try to do. It has been a busy couple of weeks. What has most distracted me is just finishing up reading a Dan Simmons horror novel, Summer of Night (1991), a wonderful 600 page read that I may review at another time. I loved the book and could not put it down. Simmons is one of my all-time favorite writers.
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I did get into the city yesterday for a meet up with friends and a major book-hunt, lugging back a backpack full of good volumes. I got home late and am still groggy. Bangkok still amazes me – what a wild town!
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-ZW.

30 November 2010

December Eve Note

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30 November 2010: In the last fortnight I have been into Bangkok several times to visit with expat friends and have inspiring conversations. I also tried to catch some movies, e.g., “Red” and “Let Me In.” This last one is an English-language re-make of the original Swedish film “Let The Right One In” (2008), which I have on DVD. The re-make follows the original closely, and I think both are very good, telling a rather dark story of a young vampire and the bonding between two young 12-year-old outsiders.
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I also got to listen to the Soi Dogs Blues Band – at Nomad's pub – for the first time in many months. Nothing like the Blues to make me feel like a young man again, especially when they are playing songs from my teen years. Their third song of the night was “Little Red Rooster,” a Willie Dixon song I first heard covered by The Rolling Stones on one of their early albums in about 1964 or 65. The Soi Dogs have two excellent blues guitarists who often trade off leads and really wail. An expat guess singer sang “Hey, Joe!” very well, and a bluesman from Texas who was passing through played/sang on several numbers, giving us some very authentic blues. A great night.
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-Zenwind.
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15 November 2010

Mid-November Note Double Feature

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15 November 2010. I just may have sorted out my major computer problems. I could never have done it myself, but I’m lucky to have the help of my expat buddy down in Bangkok and Tuk here to show me the way out of the darkness. Now I have a ton of emails to answer but probably cannot get to all of them. If you don’t hear from me regularly, check this blog, as I try to post twice a month at least.
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Tuk got a 98% grade on her recent 50-hour English language course at her office, but I had been rather amazed, as I was helping her with her homework during that course, at how little she really knew about common English phrases and grammar points when she entered the course in August. We usually communicate adequately with each other in very abbreviated English words and phrases, but that doesn’t help her improve her knowledge of the language. This all points to me being a poor teacher to her for the years before this, and it also implies that she doesn’t understand – or care to clarify – most of what I say to her. Humbling.
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The rains have stopped and the air is drier and “cooler.” The sun shines every day, which is very good for me, one who always suffered severe seasonal depression every November-December at 42* N latitude as the northern days got shorter and darker. (If you suffer the same way while living in the Dark North, get a full-spectrum light, because they really work, and your pets might like them too. I left mine in the States, because the hours of summer and winter daylight here are close to equal.)
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I can now resume working on my suntan up on the roof – and maybe get in some astronomy as well. I broke out my climbing gear and did some needed work on my ladder system that goes from the 3rd story window of the house up to the roof. I replaced the fixed safety rope which parallels the ladder and which had been in the sun too long to be safe – UV from sunlight degrades nylon – and then I hung from it in my climbing harness while reinforcing the old rusty ladder with steel bar. The idea of the fixed rope is that I clip an ascender device on my harness onto the rope and then climb the ladder. The theory is that it will catch me if the ladder fails. I also have enough slings and gear to keep from getting hung up and to get up and down safely. In theory.
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I must say that it feels good to be up high again. On this note, there is an old Zen motto which had summed up the Zen novice’s job description, and which I have amended.
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The original Zen motto goes:
“Haul water. Chop wood.”
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The Barlow Corollary:
“Climb high. Watch moon.”
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Below is a separate blog post on the recent US mid-term elections.
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-Zenwind.
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Power Divided

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15 November 2010. Here are some musings on the recent US mid-term elections. Power in Washington, DC is now divided up.
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US politics bores me to death more and more as I see the same historical cyclic re-runs, decade after decade, with only name changes among the actors and parties. In longer historical views, it is the same. But in the overall philosophical view, I remain “cynically optimistic” about humanity’s future. I have hopes that someday, long after my own lifespan is over, humans may outgrow the perverse love of political power – much as the childhood bully finally grows up by learning to leave people alone and in peace (unless, of course, that bully grows up to be a politician, in which case he makes bullying a lucrative career).
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Power in the US federal government is now divided up between the major parties, and that is always good, no matter who the particular players of the moment are. The division of political power is always better than a monopoly hold of power by one party or faction, and this holds true regardless of which party has been in power, whether it is the “liberals,” conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, etc. When one party holds all the reins of power, they commit mischief and grievous harm.
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Stripped to essentials, the perennial political issue is Liberty versus Power, and the seductiveness of Power always gives it the advantage. (“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” said Lord Acton.)
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Politicians of any stripe, while they take their turn as the minority opposition position in the cycle, will at that time express their most radical libertarian rhetoric. But the moment they gain any portion of power they arrogantly wield it and then some other individuals, from opposing factions or parties, lose liberties. As the astute songwriter for The Who, Pete Townshend, once put it: “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss.” (See his full lyrics, below, to “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”)
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The only thing saving real people from complete authoritarian domination by their government is this ongoing in-fighting amongst the power-grabbers, a kind of competition for the votes of a people not yet completely cowed – that, and a solid Constitution which somewhat chains down the monster of Power.
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*
Won’t Get Fooled Again by Pete Townshend
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“We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet,
And the morals that they worship will be gone.
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong.
They decide and the shotgun sings the song.
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[chorus]
“I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution,
Take a bow for the new revolution,
Smile and grin at the change all around,
Pick up my guitar and play,
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray,
We won’t get fooled again.
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“The change, it had to come,
We knew it all along,
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all.
And the world looks just the same,
And history ain’t changed,
‘Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war.
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[chorus]
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“I’ll move myself and my family aside,
If we happen to be half left alive.
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky,
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie,
Do ya?
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“There’s nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me.
And the slogans are replaced, bye-and-bye.
And the parting on the left
Are now the parting on the right,
And the beards have grown longer overnight.
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[chorus]
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“Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss.”
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[~lyrics by Pete Townshend ~ Performed by The Who~]
*
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10 November 2010

Marine Corps Birthday – 2010

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It has been 235 years since John Adams stood up before the Continental Congress and made the motion that they create two battalions of Continental Marines. Recruiting soon began at Tun Tavern (appropriately) in Philadelphia, and the rest is history.
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I celebrated 10 November 2010 by tipping a few pints, contemplating the Corps’ history, and by watching the James Cameron film Avatar (2009), which has an element of tribute to Marines, past, present and future. I wrote a review of the film and its relevance to the USMC here.
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-Zenwind.
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01 November 2010

Halloween Note

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In the spirit of Halloween, I posted the lyrics to “Werewolves of London," by Warren Zevon, on Zenwind. My favorite werewolf films are “Werewolf of London” (1935) starring Henry Hull; “The Wolf Man” (1941) starring Lon Chaney, Jr.; “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” (1957) starring Michael Landon; and “The Wolfman” (2010) starring Benicio Del Toro.
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Ahooww-Oooooh!!!
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14 October 2010

Mid-October Note and Nietzsche’s Birthday

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Happy 166th birthday, Nietzsche, wherever you are! What a guy!
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It is mid-October, and we are expecting the monsoon rains to end someday soon and for drier, cooler monsoon winds to come down from China. Things have generally been going very well for us, except that Tuk just came down with a bad flu, perhaps the 2009 variety. It could not have occurred at a worse time for her, as she is extremely busy at work with new responsibilities. I am feeling healthier now than I have in many years. I am in hopes of not catching Tuk’s flu virus.
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I still do not have a reliably working computer at home, so I am posting this from an internet café. Without having time on the internet at home, I am reading a lot more using that quaint archaic information technology (which some of you older types will remember) called “books.” Using another archaic technology called “pen and paper,” I am writing notes and drafts for reviews.
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Police presence on the streets is becoming more apparent these days, as there have been a lot of small bombings throughout the greater Bangkok area in recent months. One last week was in a district not too many klicks away from us in our own province, when a bomb-maker accidentally blew up himself and a few other people in his apartment building. They found one of his arms, and via fingerprints they identified him as a Red Shirt activist. Why am I not surprised?
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I have just written a review of an extraordinary book that I have read: Mountains of the Mind: a history of a fascination by Robert Macfarlane (2003). I have posted the review on my main blog, “Zenwind,” here.
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I just found another book that will be my immediate project to read and review: Climbing – Philosophy for Everyone: Because It’s There. It is another volume in the increasingly rich collections of books, from several publishers, each dealing with various subjects via philosophy, e.g., TV shows, books, movies, music, food, drink, etc. Stay tuned for a review notice of this climbing volume someday.
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-Zenwind.
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30 September 2010

End of September Note

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I am still not able to write much because of endless computer problems. But we are all doing very well and trying to stay dry during the delightfully cool monsoon rains. So no one should worry about us because of long silences. I am feeling better than ever, exercising and dieting. If I were still actively boxing, I would be a Middleweight now, having come down from the Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight classes in recent months. Lean and meaner than ever.
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My old computer is all but dead, but I saved important written document files even though I cannot use them yet. I have a new laptop, which is fast and sleek, but the store-installed software was pirated. A very good friend of mine has been extraordinarily helpful sorting through this mess for me and advising me, and he has remained cheerful throughout it all.
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I have been sitting in front of screens so much lately, trying to figure out computer problems, that my hind-end is too sore to sit anymore, so I'm going into Bangkok to raid more bookstores and either meet up with libertarian friends or else catch the Soi Dogs Blues Band at Nomad's pub. ("A night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.")
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-Zenwind.

31 August 2010

End of August Note

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It is still almost impossible for me to get online, so I’ll just leave a short note here while I have some limited access. We are all doing very well (except my computer), and there really isn’t much news.
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I am feeling more fit than I have in a long time, and today I just returned from a long march through an area of the city that is new to me. I am in my explorer mode, my true nature.
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Tomorrow the plan is to take the boat downriver on a shopping expedition and jump ashore like a raiding Viking. I need to get another pair of solid sports sandals, and of course I also plan to sack a number of bookstores. Ooh rah!
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-Zenwind.
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21 August 2010

Offline: Computer Down

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21 August: My home computer is increasingly dysfunctional, so I can barely even log online these days. I will ask Tuk to look at it when she gets more time. Damn addictive technologies! – we get so that we depend on them.
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My point is that family and friends can now expect even longer silences from me for the foreseeable future.
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-Zenwind.

03 August 2010

Reviews of Dan Simmons’ novels

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I have four new posts on Zenwind blog about Dan Simmons and his novels. He is a favorite of mine, and I will read anything I find of his. My Intro Review is followed by three reviews of his books: Ilium/Olympos; the Hyperion Cantos; and my favorite, The Terror.
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-Zenwind.
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01 August 2010

Vampire Book Review: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

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The Historian (2005) by Elizabeth Kostova is a fine novel. Here is my Review.
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-Zenwind.
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Reading, Reviewing, and Recovering from the Hot Season

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During the Hot Season of spring and early summer, it is hard to be active and productive because of the oppressive heat and humidity, and one becomes weak. This year’s Rainy Season monsoons are weak due to El Nino-related weather patterns, but the clouds have relieved the wicked heat a bit. On recent nights, I have been able to go outside without a sweatband on my head. But I still put ice in my beer.
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I’m trying to exercise and build up some strength after the long period of heat and inaction. I have dumbbells and a very light routine of lifting, and after six weeks I’m feeling much better.
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I’m also getting into a more ambitious reading program and working on long-abandoned drafts of reviews. I missed a big book fair in downtown Bangkok this week because I was feeling too sick to travel. (We had gone out for movies and dinner, and I ate too much; it takes me days to recover from such big meals, but I can rarely resist them.)
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Here is my Review of the novels of David Gibbins, a marine archaeologist and historian that I enjoy reading.
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18 July 2010

New Book Review: Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam War

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I have just posted a new book review on my Zenwind blog. It reviews Karl Marlantes book, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (2010). One of the best war novels I’ve ever read.
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13 July 2010

The Runaways: Joan Jett before The Blackhearts

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Movie Review: Fearing that this film’s limited showing will soon end in Bangkok theaters, I took an early boat downriver to the city just to see The Runaways. It’s a film about the late-‘70s all-girl band that Joan Jett was in before she hit it big with The Blackhearts. The long boat and rail trip there and back knocked the hell out of me, and I’ll be incapacitated and in pain for several days, but it was worth it.
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I was never familiar with the music of this band, The Runaways, because in those days I was on the go, climbing in all my spare time, and I was oriented to rock radio rather than albums. And The Runaways’ brief fame was more overseas than in America, and they were especially popular in Japan. But I do remember Joan Jett and The Blackhearts later hitting the radio waves in the early ‘80s. Wow!
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“I love rock and roll!
Put another dime in the jukebox, Baby!”
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This film isn't really a classic, and it doesn’t make my list of my favorite reviews, but it does present the raw and rude nature of the ‘70s. Kristen Stewart plays Joan Jett quite well, and Dakota Fanning plays The Runaways’ teen singer Cherie. The downward spiral of substance abuse was a basic part of that infamous decade. If you want a sample of the ‘70s, and/or if you like these young actresses, you might be interested in catching this film on DVD.
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30 June 2010

Reading Thoreau’s Walden

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I have just finished reading Thoreau’s Walden. My immediate reaction is one of mild shock, and I am astonished at the likenesses between Thoreau and myself.
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Let me explain. I had always thought that I had read most of Walden, either completely or in major part. But I hadn’t. I had tried to read it in excerpts or from library copies when I was in high school, but I could never finish it then. I was bored with its length.
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I always recognized – from the bits of Thoreau that I had read and from reports of his life – that he and I were very close spiritual brothers. In my first major hitchhiking trip in 1968, right after high school and before the Marine Corps, I went to Concord, Mass. and to Walden Pond. It was an almost “religious” moment for me to stand alone at the site of Thoreau’s cabin.
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I know that I will read Walden again and savor it over time, and eventually I may write a longer review of it. Here I will just say that I have found a true personal classic.
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25 June 2010

Book Review: A Man on the Moon, by Andrew Chaikin

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I have posted a book review of Andrew Chaikin’s A Man on the Moon on my primary perennial blog, Zenwind. A great book.
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21 June 2010

CNN and BBC Slammed by Freelance Reporter

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21 June: Freelance farang reporter Dave Sherman wrote this article slamming the news coverage of CNN and BBC during most of the Red Shirt protest crisis of April and May. Thai news people had made the same complaints but the farang networks and reporters had defended their reporting. Dave Sherman voices the viewpoints of many Bangkokians, and it is well worth reading.
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-Zenwind.
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18 June 2010

Lumpini Park

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18 June: Yesterday was an all day trip for me into Bangkok. The main event was an evening meet up with my Bangkok libertarian friends, but I caught the boat in the morning for visits to theaters and bookstores and to take a city walk.
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In mid-afternoon I took a long walk, the middle leg of which was in Lumpini Park, one main scene of the Red Shirt occupation last month. I had walked past it before but never through it, and it is more beautiful than I expected. There are many ponds as well as a lot of shade trees and pavilions.
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I saw two monitor lizards on the shore, similar to but maybe not exactly the same species of monitor lizards we see at the house. (Tuk calls them “crocodiles” or “monsters.”) The adult was almost 6 feet long from snout to tail, and the other maybe 3 feet long. As I approached them they headed into the water and swam away.
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My main reason for going to Lumpini, besides the exercise and exploration, was to stand in the spot where a Red Shirt protestor fired 5 grenades from an M-79 grenade launcher at the Sala Daeng Skytrain station on the night of 22 April. The attacks killed one woman bystander and wounded a number of others. The Red barricade at that time was right by the statue of King Rama VI, facing the Sala Daeng intersection. (King Rama VI had created this park in 1920 when this was the outer edge of the city.)
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The M-79 was my main weapon in Vietnam, and I had checked out the general location of the attacks earlier, determining for sure that it was all within the M-79’s range. But now I was where the former Red barricade had been, and I could look over the ground from the perspective of the grenades’ exact trajectories going out.
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It was a exact match to the location of the TV news video footage of the shooting – minus the barricade – where a loud “bloop” of the M-79 was heard and an explosion a few seconds later at Sala Daeng station. The idea of that weapon as such an effective urban weapon still amazes me.
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I was soaked in sweat and very dehydrated, so I headed to an air conditioned theater to cool off. By the time I met my friends, my backpack was completely loaded down with books.
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In our group, we are mostly Americans but also have two guys from India whose insights and wisdom are really refreshing. We learn a lot from each other, which is what friends are for. We had incredible conversations on just about every subject in the cosmos, and we didn’t leave until after 1:30am closing time. Sadly, some of the world’s problems were left unsolved.
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Arriving home after 2:00am, the streets were quiet and cooler, and our cats were waiting up for me.
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16 June 2010

New Post on Zenwind Blog: "Satori on Parris Island, 1968"

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16 June 2010: I just added a post to my long-term project blog, Zenwind (linked above). The title is a play on the title of Jack Kerouac’s novel Satori in Paris, and it records a special moment in USMC boot camp.
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Street-Fighting Tactics Used by Red Shirts and Army in Recent Crisis [long post]

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16 June 2010: Here I want to analyze only the street-fighting tactics used in Bangkok in the last few months by the Red Shirt protest movement and the Royal Thai Army’s tactics in response. (Questions of ethics will be set aside now, as they have been addressed earlier. Both sides are blaming the other for the death and destruction, and the official inquiry panel looking into the violence is only now being formed.)
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Overall, both the majority of Red Shirt protestors and the majority of Army troops followed non-violent methods.
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Most of the protestors acted peacefully throughout the rally. A small minority among the Reds were armed and ready to use deadly force from the start. Widespread arson, should the rally be broken up by the Army, was recommended beforehand from the Red rally stage by some, but not all, of the main Red leaders.
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The Army’s policy was to be as non-violent as possible, and most troops showed very good fire-discipline. However, once both sides had taken casualties, a small minority of individual soldiers did get trigger-happy and shoot without care into unarmed protestor crowds.
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From the beginning, the Army leadership was extremely reluctant to use force against the protestors. The government had ordered the Army to disperse the rallies a number of times, but police and Army did nothing. Many of the ultra-conservative Yellow Shirts criticized the government and the Army for their hesitancy, and they were threatening to take to the streets themselves against the Reds.
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Gen. Anupong, the Royal Thai Army commander, insisted that this crisis must be solved through peaceful political means and not force. There was also an issue of which Army commanders were loyal to the government and which to the Reds, and this paralyzed the Army until they sorted it all out.
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One of the tactics of the Red Shirts was optimal use of M-79 grenade launchers. With an explosive projectile almost as powerful as a hand grenade and a maximum effective range of 375 yards, this proved to be an efficient urban weapon. Most often used at night here, a grenadier could fire from the shadows and be gone before the slow, looping round detonated.
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The leader of the armed Red Shirt faction was the rouge Army officer Maj. Gen. Khattiya, aka “Seh Daeng” (“Red Commander”). He had been training a group of Red Shirts – his “Ronin” warriors – in hand-to-hand combat techniques. Many of the armed Red Shirt “men in black” were suspected of being ex-Army Rangers under his command. Khattiya’s rhetoric had long been full of violent threats. Because of his breach of Army rules in playing party politics, Gen. Anupong had suspended Khattiya in January 2010. The next day several M-79 grenades were shot at Gen. Anupong’s office from moving vehicles on a highway overpass.
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The Army’s policy when trying to clear protestors out of an area was to have unarmed troops with only batons, shields and helmets in the front rows confronting protestors. As back-up if needed were troops with rubber bullets and tear gas. Only in the last resort were troops with M-16s, and their orders were to fire in the air if needed and to aim at protestors only in self-defense of troops.
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The reluctance of the Army to engage is evident in the early instances when Red protestors, armed with clubs and rocks overwhelmed the security forces, chased them away, and took batons and shields away from police and soldiers. Later they took M-16s and even combat vehicles away from troops. The Army was becoming a joke.
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On 9 April the Army even fired tear gas into the wind and back into their own faces. On that same day, I had walked through the newly Red-occupied intersection of Ratchaprasong, the prime shopping district in Bangkok, and thought that these tough-looking characters looked like they could take on the Army. (See blog entry on 2 June, “My Experiences with Red Shirts.”) I remember thinking that the Army should seal off this area now, and allow anyone to leave but no Reds to enter – after all, the main stores had by now closed – but the Army didn’t do this for another month.
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The first big bloodbath was on 10 April, when the Army finally moved in to try and clear the Reds out of their first main rally site, Phan Fah bridge. As Army Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Dapong admitted later, “It was worse than we thought.” The Reds’ armed faction, the “men in black,” showed up in the night shadows amongst the more peaceful Reds with AK-47s, M-16s and M-79s. Right off the bat, the Army commander on the scene, Col. Romklao, was killed (either by a rifle or an M-79 round, reports vary), decapitating the Army’s command structure and causing chaos in the ranks. This hit required good inside intel, and it spooked the Army into not knowing whom to trust. Five soldiers were killed. As the unarmed frontlines of troops fell back, the armed soldiers fired into the oncoming Red lines, and over two dozen Red Shirts were killed.
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After this, the Red leaders decided to abandon the main Phan Fah rally site and move all their people to the Ratchaprasong shopping district because it was more defendable. It would also disrupt Bangkok more. The Red-occupied area then expanded east from Ratchaprasong and then south to Lumpini Park and just north of the Silom/ Sala Daeng area, the financial district. (I had thought that the Army should never allow the Reds to occupy Lumpini Park, but of course I wasn’t consulted.)
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The Reds built massive barricades around their positions on the streets with old tires, sharpened bamboo stakes and barbed wire. The Reds desperately wanted to take over the Silom financial district to further paralyze the city, so this Lumpini Park/ Sala Daeng border became the flashpoint of violence.
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On the evening of 22 April, Red Shirt M-79 grenadiers fired 5 grenades from Lumpini Park at the Sala Daeng Skytrain station, killing one civilian and wounding many. This was the maximum range of the M-79. Video footage from right behind the Red frontline barricade in Lumpini Park recorded the unmistakable sound of the M-79 (“bloop”) from the shadows, followed a few seconds later by the explosion at the station.
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On 3 May Prime Minister Abhisit offers a compromise reconciliation plan. Elections will be held early – at the end of the year – and the Red protestors must stop their rally now. The Red Shirt leaders were close to accepting it, but spoilers among the Reds derailed it, and Khattiya was thought to be the main spoiler.
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On the evening of 7 May Red gunmen on a motorcycle did a drive-by shooting into a group of policemen at Sala Daeng, killing one. (I was 400 yards away, unaware of it, while listening to live music in Nomads pub.) Later that night an M-79 attack killed another cop.
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On 13 May a sniper shot “Red Commander” Khattiya in the head while he was being interviewed by the NY Times at Lumpini Park. We will probably never know who exactly ordered the killing, but all bets are that it was Thai Army. Taking out Khattiya was a brilliant way to decapitate the command of the armed and violent Reds – just as the hit on Col. Romklao had decapitated the Army command on 10 April; and perhaps there was revenge involved because Col. Romklao was a respected former bodyguard to the Queen.
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From 14-18 May the Army finally tightens down with a quarantine of the Red Shirt rally, from its main stage at Ratchaprasong (where the more peaceful Red Shirts are centered) down to Lumpini Park (where the violent ones are). There is not much choice for the Army now, because the embassies of the USA and the UK, among others, are in the direct neighborhood of the Reds’ spreading occupied zone.
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Reds were allowed to leave Ratchaprasong but not to enter. The bulk of the peaceful Reds were there, while the violent ones went elsewhere. The Reds utilized motorcycles for quick transport to and escape from various flashpoints in the city. They would hit the Army at weak points while most of the troops were massed elsewhere.
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In the early hours of 19 May, the Army is finally ready. They move on Lumpini Park. They use armored vehicles to smash over and through the Red barricades. The Army moves into and clears out Lumpini and then the neighboring streets, and by the end of the day it tightens the noose on the Ratchaprasong Red center.
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The Red leaders surrender to the police at 13:30 and tell their Reds to go home. But the violent Red factions start burning buildings as they had threatened to do. Central World Plaza, one of the finest malls in Southeast Asia, is invaded, looted and torched. Firefighters cannot get near the building for many hours because Red snipers are shooting at them, so the fires burn on.
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The Army halts for the night before trying to take Ratchaprasong, because they don’t want the cornered Reds to panic and give rise to a bloodbath. To the west of the rally center, the government has buses ready to transport any Reds back to their home provinces for free. Inside the Ratchaprasong area is a big temple that is accepted as a safe zone by all parties, and the peaceful Reds go there for the night. (There are 6 bodies found the next day in the temple grounds, and both sides blame the others for the killings. Still a mystery.)
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The Army learns from the Reds and starts using motorcycles tactically. Squads of soldiers armed light with M-16s are on cycles and rush to trouble spots. On this evening of 19 May there are two of these “mounted” squads just outside our house with other soldiers who are guarding a street to a utilities office complex. Suddenly they roar off to another part of the city.
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After 20 May the city starts recovering and getting back to normal. There was a curfew for a while during the next week or so. Now (16 June) there is still a State of Emergency in Bangkok, which gives the police and Army room to move against any Red underground threats, but this will be ended soon.
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Both sides learned a lot from this crisis. The more hard-core violent Reds will probably go underground and make selective attacks on government targets. The Army learned a lot about crowd control and urban combat. We probably have not seen the end of this mess.
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-Zenwind.
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12 June 2010

World Cup Soccer Tournament

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The entire culture here has stopped – for the World Cup, the most popular sporting event in the world. The news commentators talk and write of nothing else. As the World Cup is only held once every four years, like the Olympics, fans and players are really up for it when it does come around again.
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As for a minority opinion, it is said:
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“There are only three sports: Mountain Climbing, Auto Racing and Bull Fighting. All the rest are merely games.” -- attributed to Hemingway.
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I like that, although I have never tried bull fighting and I wonder why he didn’t mention boxing.
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I never was a soccer fan, and I get so sick of seeing it on Thai TV news here nearly all of the year. But I will say that these World Cup players look extremely competent at their game. The play is definitely much better than the ordinary footage throughout the year. As it is a worldwide national-team event, feelings run high. I will also say that soccer demands incredible stamina from the players, who run up and down the pitch at full speed with no time-outs.
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Also, I was never much of an American Football (gridiron) fan. But seeing soccer so much on TV, I yearn for some good old football. There are farang sports-bar venues downtown that show American football, and next season I’m going to look them up. But for now, it is the soccer players' moment.
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In about 5 hours – 01:30 hours for me here – the teams of the USA and England will square off. Of course, I must stay up to see it. I have popcorn and beverage ready.
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-Zenwind.

02 June 2010

My Experiences with Red Shirts

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2 June 2010: I think that I am a fairly good judge of individual character. Although my experiences are limited, here are some of my impressions of Red Shirt people I have met.
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On 9 April, the day before the first big exchange of gunfire between the Reds and the Army at the Phan Fah area, I walked through the Red-occupied area at Ratchaprasong intersection, the prime shopping area of Bangkok. The Reds had been starting to occupy this area for a week, and after the violence of 10 April they would move their main rally area here from Phan Fah because it was more easily defendable and would disrupt Bangkok life like few other spots. The peaceful Reds, the photogenic families shown on TV, would soon be transferred to Ratchaprasong for the last stand.
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I had finished important business at the US Embassy not too far away, and I took a taxi to try to get to Siam Square on the other side of Ratchaprasong. But the Red Guards had blocked all entrances to Ratchaprasong except for their own vehicles. Finally, I just paid the taxi driver and got out to walk through Ratchaprasong to get to Siam Square.
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As I got out of the taxi I noticed two things. The first was the smell. Urine and garbage smells were far stronger than one usually smells in downtown Bangkok. The second impression was how extremely tough-looking the people were there. Everyone was dressed in red except me. I got mean glares from very thuggish-looking people. Even the women looked mean – not at all like the ones filmed for TV audiences in front of the rally stage.
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The whole atmosphere reminded me of a seedy rock festival that was taken over by one of the more thuggish biker gangs. I didn’t see a kind face in the whole of the few blocks I had to walk through, and I was glad it wasn’t nighttime. I remember thinking that these characters could easily take on the Thai Army.
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My last up-close encounter with a Red Shirt was on 19 May and was much different. This was the day the Army moved in to disperse the rally at Lumpini Park and Ratchaprasong, but this was in our neighborhood far from the action. I was heading to the local store to stock up on batteries, ice, tea and lots of instant noodles, because no one knew how the day would end.
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I rounded the corner and saw a meek little guy in a red shirt and in a pathetic situation. He looked entirely out of place in the city. I would guess that he was a rural guy. He looked very scared, as if he believed the exaggerated Red stories about troops shooting indiscriminately at protestors.
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I saw him on the narrow sidewalk leading to the store. He was crouched down and counting his money from a plastic bag, and I could see that he didn’t have much. That small change and his clothing were the only things he had. I remember thinking that he was probably fleeing from rumors of the Army action downtown and trying to get through the city and go home to the north.
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As I returned from the store, my hands were full with huge bags. I came across this same little Red guy on the narrow sidewalk as he was trying to urinate against the wall, at noon on a crowded street. He looked desperate and humiliated, as women and kids were passing by. I felt so sorry for him and tried to keep from looking his way during his embarrassing plight.
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The crowd moved me along before I could really think about it, but later I wished that I could help him somehow. I had no money on me because I’d spent all in my pocket at the store. I would have liked to have given him some money and food that he didn’t have to cook, but that wasn’t possible.
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I hope he finally made it home okay. I am still haunted by this brief encounter, because I missed an opportunity to help the unfortunate guy.
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Case FOR the Red Shirts

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2 June 2010: I sympathize deeply with the good people among the Red Shirt movement (but not with the violent Reds or the Red leaders). These are the decent rural folks from upcountry, the North and Northeast, who had hoped for justice, opportunity and a voice. Video footage of the earlier rallies showed these people in front of the main stage: women, old men, kids and grandmas, smiling and looking sincere and harmless. These were the people who were later shoved aside as the violent Red elements took over.
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The poor and under-represented folks from the provinces have always been systematically shut out from economic empowerment by the corrupt Bangkok elites who control all policy. Massive government corruption has always been the rule in Thailand’s history, and the Bangkok elites have always excelled in blocking and exploiting the poor rural majority by their unholy alliance of political power and economics.
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But it has been slowly getting better for the rural poor in the last couple of decades with more opportunity, education and communications. Once these people understood their potentials and the political obstacles to them, they rightfully demanded a voice.
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Their “voice” ended up being a shrewd billionaire opportunist who sought out and harnessed their votes by promising them the moon. Populist rhetoric and government handouts bought their loyalty and votes. Thaksin became an elite of one, adding to his vast wealth through corrupt political means, and he exploited the poor for his own purposes in that they had vast voting numbers – and “democracy” is just a numbers game that can never guarantee justice by itself without a solid constitution that limits arbitrary power. Thaksin became an autocrat and was finally overthrown in a coup.
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I suspect that many of the peaceful Reds have now had cause to be disillusioned a bit, as many of them certainly witnessed firsthand the uglier thuggish behavior of many of their fellow Reds who are more hardcore and violent. Most of them certainly know now that the claims to be a totally “peaceful,” “non-violent” and “unarmed” movement were blatantly contradicted by the armed and violent Reds in their midst that started to dominate the rally toward the end.
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So, for Bangkok it’s back to business, but what about these people who have always been institutionally shut out? The reforms needed are not redistributions of wealth but rather a leveling of political blocks to economic opportunity. Laws, regulations and customs that give economic monopoly advantages to elites – elites who are politicians, or family of or cronies of politicians – must be abolished.
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There must be constitutional changes that separate economic activity from political power – in the same way, and for the same reasons, as the American separation of church and state. Protect property from force or fraud, protect contracts, but no economic advantages should ever be gained from political power.
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It is about fairness, justice and the radical limitation of political power. But it is also a practical concern: if the legitimate grievances of these good people are ignored, the streets will see red again.
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29 May 2010

Rough Edges

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There are still many rough edges to my blogging here. I am having difficulties with links and comments. To use a URL in my text, you may still have to highlight, copy and paste it. Sorry. I’ll get it right someday.
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-Zenwind.
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“An Open Letter to the Red Shirts” by Somtow

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If you are only going to read one Somtow article, read this one. It speaks of hope.
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This was written two days after the Army dispersed the Red Shirt rally and after the thug element of the Reds’ arson rampage. Somtow speaks to the best elements among the Red Shirt movement, and attitudes like his are badly needed if this country is ever going to heal.
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-Zenwind.
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“Don’t Blame Dan Rivers,” by Somtow

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Author S.P. Somtow (or his Thai name, Somtow Sucharitkul) is a Thai-American composer and writer. Educated at Eton and Cambridge he knows the West, and being Thai he knows Thailand. As he was raised in England, English was actually his first language before moving to Thailand at age 8.
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This article, “Don’t Blame Dan Rivers,” was posted on 18 May 2010, the day before the Royal Thai Army moved in to end the Red Shirt rally in the heart of Bangkok. It addresses the bad quality of Western media reporting on this Thai crisis. Dan Rivers is a CNN reporter, and most Thais think CNN got it way wrong on many things. Somtow blames problems with preconceptions and language for the media mistakes.
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Immediately after reading the above, read this following one, “A Few Small Clarifications,” which addresses a few questions many of us had about the above through its hasty writing.
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I have become a big fan of Somtow’s writing, as I agree with him about a lot of things.
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28 May 2010

Inside Report on “Men in Black” During Standoff

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Here is a good article from Asia Times Online: “Unmasked: Thailand’s men in black,” by Kenneth Todd Ruiz and Olivier Sarbil, 29 May 2010.
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Ruiz and Sarbil stayed with the Reds’ gunmen during key times of the conflict. The article speaks for itself, and I highly recommend it.
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Thoughts on Thai Violence, #7

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Timeline of Violence in Bangkok:
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2008: The “Yellow Shirts,” an ultra-conservative group, gives the nation an example of mob politics by taking over Government House and the nation's main airports. Not as much an armed group as a mob. They set the tone.
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April 2009: Red Shirt demonstrators take a lesson from the Yellows and end the ASEAN (Assoc. of South-East Asian Nations) summit by storming the venue, sending diplomats scrambling for helicopters for escape. Police did nothing.
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March 2010: Red Shirt protestors come into the city by the thousands. Their original primary headquarters is around the Phan Fah bridge, near the Democracy Monument area. Many decent rural folk are among the hotheads.
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3 April: Reds also start to occupy the central shopping district, Ratchaprasong.
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9 April: (After business at the US Embassy I try to get to Siam Square, but the streets are blocked by Reds. So I leave the taxi and walk through the Ratchaprasong intersection, which is soon to be the final Red central headquarters. Tough looking crowd.) PM Abhisit has been ordering the protestors to disperse from all their sites, as it is an illegal gathering, but the Army has dragged its feet.
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10 April: Army finally tries to move protestors out of the old part of town near the Phan Fah bridge area. Troops went in unarmed but for batons and shields, backed up if necessary by troops with rubber bullets and tear gas, and ultimately with armed troops only in backup to defend lives of troops if fired on, in accordance with international norms. Army is surprised by armed “men in black,” i.e., Red-allied snipers who fire on troops. Deputy Army chief of staff Gen. Dapong says later: “It was worse than we thought.” An Army colonel in charge at the scene – Col. Romklao, a former bodyguard to the Queen – was shot down by Red snipers, who had good inside info and targeted him at the start of the engagement. The soldiers take casualties and shoot back, and dozens are killed. Videos show men in black shooting from the shadows. It is suspected that many in the Army and police are Red allies. It is well known that suspended general Khattiya, known as “Seh Daeng” (Red Commander) is one of the more radical Reds and claims to be their military advisor, accountable only to Thaksin.
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22 April: M79 grenade attacks on Sala Daeng Skytrain station and area business district. Grenadiers were shooting from the Red stronghold of Lumpini Park.
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30 April: 200 Reds storm nearby hospital looking for suspected troops. None are found, and hospital evacuates. Red public credibility drops dramatically.
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3 May: PM Abhisit offers compromise reconciliation plan: Dissolve Parliament in late September; new elections on 14 November, address rural complaints; but Reds must stop protest now. Red leaders look like they will accept it at first, but hard-core elements – probably Khattiya and Thaksin (from abroad) – spoil its chances.
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7 May: Reds commit a fatal drive-by shooting of policeman and a later M79 attack. (I am about 400 yards from the shooting, but unaware of it, as I am listening to a live gig at Nomads Pub.)
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13 May: Red military advisor Khattiya (aka, Seh Daeng) is shot by sniper while bragging to NY Times reporter. He dies later.
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14-18 May: Army starts moving slowly against the Reds’ headquarters area by blocking streets, letting all who want to leave out but no one into the Reds’ area. Armed Reds start trouble elsewhere in capital.
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19 May: Army moves to clear the Reds out. Important embassies are within the Reds easy reach, e.g., US, UK, so Army must move. They take back Lumpini Park and move toward the Reds’ center, Ratchaprasong. It is pre-arranged that the unarmed peaceful Reds, including women and children, be sent to a nearby Buddhist temple as a safe zone. Several Red leaders surrender to police and tell the other Reds to stop the protest and go home, and they are booed by many Reds for this. Hard-core Red Guards try to persuade unarmed Red women and children – who have been staying for safety in the nearby temple – to rejoin main rally site, lying about the situation returning to normal. They want human shields and a massacre of innocents to make the Army look evil. Government provides free bus transport to Reds who want to return home in the provinces.
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19 May, evening: radical Reds start burning and looting. Over 35 buildings are torched, including the incredible Central World plaza and the old Siam theater (one of my favorites). Armed Reds fire on firefighters so that they cannot even approach the blazes for many hours. Reporters take off their green press armbands because instead of protecting them they are now making them a target of enraged Red snipers.
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We are still under curfew, but things have settled down for now. We expect more Red violence at any time in the future.
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Thoughts on Thai Violence, #6

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Cast of Characters in Thai Crisis:
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(This post will give context to later ones.)
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Abhisit: Prime Minister and member of Democrat party. Educated at Eton and Oxford. Became PM by parliamentary coalition after Red-allied governments had been removed for corruption by courts. Reds do not accept his legitimacy as PM. He seems like a good guy who got mixed up in the dirt of Thai politics.
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Suthep: Deputy PM.
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Yellow Shirts: Ultra-conservative royalists and Bangkok elitists. To protest former governments they didn’t like, they used mob demonstrations in 2008 to take over Government House and the airports. They recently have thought PM Abhisit was too soft on Red Shirts.
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Red Shirts: A conglomeration of factions against Abhisit government, usually united by being supporters of former PM Thaksin. There are several Red factions:
1) There are many poor rural and urban folk who have never been included in political processes, and who see the democratic dream promised them by Thaksin as new hope. Thaksin became popular with them because of his government hand-out goodies and by his arrogance against the traditional corrupt Bangkok elites. So, many Reds are Thaksin fans who have been manipulated by the violent factions.
2) Many communists like Dr. Weng are leading the large leftist Red faction.
3) Many rogue military/ police. 4) “Men in black,” snipers and M79 grenadiers who used deadly fire against Army from the shadows. 5) Thugs, plain thugs who like to break things, burn things and hurt people.
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Thaksin: former PM and main leader of the Red Shirts. Ex-police officer and billionaire electronics tycoon. Did his post-grad police studies in the USA. Very popular among rural Thais and urban poor. Clever at demagoguery and winning support by giving out goodies. Elected PM in 2000 and 2004. Infamous for his blatant lying. A killer, who when PM presided over a “war on drugs” that resulted in 2,700 extra-judicial killings of alleged “drug lords”; he gave district police leaders quotas, numbers of suspects to get (very Stalin-like); no trials, no due process, just gunning them down; very few casualties in this “war” were cops. He made the southern separatist violence worse by his heavy-handed policies of killing Muslims there. Ousted in military coup in September 2006. Later convicted of abuse of power and corruption while a PM, and sentenced to 2 years in jail. On the run in exile ever since. Desperately wants to be back in power. Thaksin needed a bigger bloodbath to discredit Abhisit government, but the Army actually showed great restraint in the end. Now Thaksin is charged with being a “terrorist” under a law he designed earlier as PM against his enemies. Kind of a karma boomerang. There was nothing in Abhisit’s 3 May peace deal for him, so he is suspected of spoiling it from abroad.
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Gen. Khattiya: Known as “Seh Daeng” (Red Commander), he was a suspended Army general who always talked violence and said he took orders only from Thaksin. Claimed he was Reds’ military advisor. Probably trained and commanded the Reds’ “men in black” armed faction, who started the killings of April 2010. In this role, he probably planned the 10 April killing of the Army CO on the scene, Col. Romklao, when the Army tried to move protestors out with only batons and shields. This incident started the cycle of armed conflict as armed soldiers came in to back up the unarmed ones. It was probably a later Army plan, learned from him, that had a sniper take out Seh Daeng himself on 13 May – both as revenge and as eliminating a key violent player. Another karma boomerang. Seh Daeng is quoted as saying earlier: “Brother Thaksin doesn’t want the protests to end. If they do, he cannot return home.” He was probably a key spoiler of the attempted peace initiative by Abhisit.
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Other Red Shirt leaders:
Veera: the most peaceful Red leader, who left the stage when Reds turned violent.
Weng: hard-core Red, communist leader of the Reds’ leftist faction.
Arisman: hard-core Red, he called for burning Bangkok as well as mosques.
Natthawut: hard-core Red, he called for widespread arson.
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Thai police: They did very little to stop the Reds at any time, and they are considered “tomatoes,” i.e., red. Some police actually shot at the Army.
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Royal Thai Army: They were very slow to follow Abhisit’s orders to clear protestors. They did not want a massacre and only moved when ready. Some elements in the Army, including some generals, are “watermelons,” i.e., green outside but red inside, so it took a while to get into gear.
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26 May 2010

Blog in Slow Motion

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My blogging has stalled out this week. My internet connection has been an off/on thing. Also, we are trying to figure out exactly when and how to get to the new Immigration Office (the one inconveniently built out in the boonies and known by few taxi drivers) for a final stamp of approval after last month’s ordeal of a new visa application, and it is complicated by a major holiday this Friday (Visaka). Plus, I’m still suffering from news-overload, media-exhaustion. The recent crisis has been in our faces so intensely for so long, and everyone seems tired of thinking about it.
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Things are almost back to normal. There is still a curfew, but it has been narrowed to midnight to 4am. The Skytrain and subway systems still have shortened hours also, so a late night in town is difficult. Nomads Pub had long been planning a special Bob Dylan music night in celebration of Dylan’s birthday on Monday 24 May, but they had to cancel it due to the restrictions. Bangkok is a city that likes its late, late hours.
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I may venture into the downtown tomorrow for my first visit to the former battle zone in almost 3 weeks. It will be an all-day adventure, getting on a boat for the first leg and then rail. If I’m physically up to it, I’d like to walk through the heart of the former Red Shirt area with the looming ruins of the burned-out Central World, once the second-largest shopping mall in Southeast Asia. My curiosity is nagging me. Hopefully, I will have a big day tomorrow.
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-Zenwind.
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22 May 2010

Thoughts on Thai Violence, #5

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Western News Coverage of Thai Crisis
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22 May 2010. Two days after the “Battle of Bangkok.” I have not written for a while because I’ve been a bit sick and had been hospitalized earlier in the week. (No serious illness – and not combat related – just some temporary complications in the usual ailments, i.e., acute bouts of dukkha and chronic samsara.) I’m still quite tired and weak. So my analysis of this whole crisis has not been formulated yet. We are all still sorting it out and learning a lot.
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I still plan to write of my own conclusions and feelings later, but for now I just want to mention the Western news media coverage of this whole long saga. It has been very poor. Forget CNN, whose misunderstandings of the situation have outraged Thais of all colors. Their presentations are a joke. BBC was always a bit better and now might be learning a few things after investigating things deeper. I have neglected to read much Al-Jazeera English online news lately, but the high quality and objectivity of their coverage has often surprised me. (Yes, Al-Jazeera. You might be surprised by their rather high standards. Don’t believe Dick Cheney’s lies and/or ignorant comments about them.)
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Caveats: 1) I cannot speak nor read Thai, so my info comes mainly from native Thais whose first language is Thai and who are also fluent writers in English. 2) Admittedly, Thai intellectuals writing in English are middle-class Thais, as opposed to the Red Shirts who are often poorer rural folks and lower-class Bangkokians. 3) Middle-class values and preconceptions will always color the news I read in English here. 4) I am bourgeois myself, growing up on a Jeffersonian small family farm, rural and lacking much money but thoroughly middle-class. Therefore I have to be extra critical and suspicious of my sources.
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At a later time, I will try to post links to some good English-language writing on this situation from great Thai analysts. What is remarkable about these writers – to me – is that, although they are middle-class and have a good grounding in Western ways, they still seem to be able to understand the heart of the Red Shirt masses’ grievances and dreams of the future. It might be the wisdom of thinkers like these – with their broad-based universal humanism – that holds out hope for reconciliation in the Kingdom of Thailand. The reason I cannot just simply link them now is because I may need to introduce some background info to provide context, and that will take more energy than I have right now.
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-Z.W.
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20 May 2010

Thoughts on Thai Violence, #4

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(Start reading first from “Thoughts on Thai Violence, #1” below this.)
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It is midday on 20 May 2010. Our neighborhood is quiet, but TV and internet news shows several arson sites in Bangkok still smoking. Things seemed to have settled down a bit after the curfew, which is extended 3 more days. The Royal Thai Army troops who were outside the corner of our house have gone, but police and security people are still there.
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For the last few posts, I have been recording recent news of Bangkok’s Troubles. Now comes the hard part, i.e., analyzing the whole mess. And, frankly, I am too tired to do so right now. Maybe it’s always best to sleep on it when coming to conclusions. I have strong feelings – both good and bad – about all parties in this conflict, and it will take a while to sort out. I’m also a farang, a Westerner, who will probably never really understand this place.
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One weird thing did happen as I just returned from my midday grocery run for ice, beer and other fluids. The police and security guys are located just over the wall that separates our courtyard and entrance alleyway from the sidewalk and street where they are. To be in the shade, many of them were relaxing with their backs to their side of the wall, talking and laughing. I turned off from their position on the corner and entered the little parallel alleyway to our gate on our side of the wall.
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Both my hands were loaded with heavy bags, and I struggled to open the sliding bolt in the gate’s lock. To my horror, when the bolt finally slid open it made the very loud sound of a metallic “ka-cthunk!” – just like a bolt in a heavy machinegun. All conversation on the other side of the wall immediately stopped, and I was expecting to hear the sounds of the workings of small-arms actions as panicked cops locked and loaded. As quickly as I could, I swung the gate open wide, knowing that the hinges would squeak loudly and hopefully reassure those on the other side, which it did.
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We are all a little jumpy these days.
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19 May 2010

Thoughts on Thai Violence, #3

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(Start reading first from “Thoughts on Thai Violence, #1” below this.)
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It is after sundown, and there are several rifle squads of Royal Thai Army outside on the main street. They are guarding a sidestreet entrance to a utilities office complex, and they seem to have the situation in hand at the moment. Our neighborhood is quiet.
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I have to say with amazement that the Army is learning very fast after a slow start last month, when the Reds took them by surprise on 10 April by being better armed than expected and better informed – i.e., the Reds “men in black” snipers took out the Army commander on the scene at the very start of the engagement. Now the Army is using squads of soldiers on motorcycles as quick-response teams, copying the Reds’ efficient use of cycles.
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You might not believe me on this at first, but the Army is also showing exceptional fire-discipline in their operations. The huge number of fatalities since 10 April – i.e., over 65 – may be astronomically high, but remember that the Army has been facing many armed Reds mixed amongst the peaceful Reds, and they have had to fight it out in a densely-packed city. Also, many of those civilians killed were killed by the Reds.
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Don’t get me wrong, I am not totally unsympathetic to some of the more peaceful complaints of many in the Red Shirt movement. I will address those issues in a later entry.
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Here at home, Tuk and I share a small walled outdoor courtyard-kitchen with her parents next door, as well as a shared locked gate. Today Tuk’s mother put up some sharp-edged corrugated steel to top a weak spot on the top of our wall. Tuk has several bags packed in case of sudden flight. I asked her where she would go, and her planning had not yet gone that far.
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The ladies of the family are nervous. Somehow I suspect that this is their first perimeter defense.
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Thoughts on Thai Violence, #2

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(Start reading first from “Thoughts on Thai Violence, #1” below this.)
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19 May 2010: Tuk is now home, her office sending everyone home early. The staff of English language news sources The Bangkok Post and The Nation have also sent staff home. The city is shutting down for the day.
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Confirmed: the Reds torched one of the three old theaters in Siam Square, the Siam Theater, and it has collapsed. I am pissed off.
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A few Red snipers had been targeting rescue workers a few days ago. Now all reporters are advised to take off their green reporter armbands, which once made them safe but now a possible target. A few firefighters have been shot this afternoon while trying to extinguish fires.
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The fire lit by retreating Reds at Ratchaprasong’s elegant Central World shopping complex has been extinguished. Reds had broke through glass and threw fire bombs inside, causing flames on first floor.
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Thoughts on Thai Violence, #1

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(I will add short updates and thoughts here about Thailand’s present troubles. Instead of trying to write one document, I will just post bits and pieces. The whole situation is hard to integrate or to fathom.)
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19 May 2010: We are ok here – so far – but the day isn’t over yet, and info is coming in faster than I can read. Tuk even went to work today, although she was concerned enough to call me several times asking me if anything was happening on the streets nearby.
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The original core leaders of the Red Shirt protestors have either quit earlier, surrendered to police just now, or fled. The surrendering leaders told the protestors at the main rally site of Ratchaprasong, the heart of Bangkok’s shopping district, to end the protests and take the government-provided buses to go home. Many protestors booed this message, indicating that many will not heed it. The Army has now occupied the main inner city Red enclaves of Sala Daeng and Ratchaprasong.
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The problem now is rioting and arson in other areas of the city, and even in other provinces. Red Radio has just told the Reds to: “Light the fire if you’re near a bank. Everyone is your own leader.” That appeal to violence and mayhem speaks for itself. A curfew for Bangkok has just been announced, and I do believe that full Martial Law will be next. Bangkok, to our south, has a haze of smoke rising from massive tire-burnings.
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Fires were started at or near the two finest malls in the kingdom before the Ratchaprasong Reds dispersal. There is also a rumor that my favorite old movie theaters might be torched. If this is confirmed, I will be too angry to write. I have just checked the keenness of the edge on my Cold Steel.
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Rampaging Reds are now assaulting reporters. Now isn’t that the stupidest “tactic” you ever heard?
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I’ll post this and write more at another time.
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16 May 2010

Thai News in English

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The two main English language newspapers in Bangkok also have online news services. They are essential reading for keeping up with developments here.
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The Nation.
This website is kept more up to date. Three good sections of this are: 1) “Today’s Big Stories”; 2) “Breaking News”; and especially, 3) “Tweets from The Nation” which is often very fast reporting but should be taken with a grain of salt since it is very raw info. Also occasionally interesting sections are “Nation’s Bloggers” and “Today’s Editors.”
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The Bangkok Post.
There are usually four featured articles. To the right of them is section for “Breaking News.” But a quick way to see all relevant stories is to click on “Local news” on the far left and just above the main headline.
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Bangkok Dangerous, for real

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We are still staying home, sitting out the madness that has gripped much of Bangkok. Even on our western side of the river – where no bad incidents have happened yet – the traffic is impossible due to the entire center of Bangkok being a battle zone and major roads there are blocked.
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It is raining hard and cooling things off a bit. I may go out for an ice and grocery run to a local store, but no further today.
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Tomorrow was to be the first day of the new school year, but schools in the Bangkok area will postpone it until the 24th. Kids should be happy to hear that.
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13 May 2010

Violence in Bangkok Again, and Again

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We are safe at home while watching the Bangkok news unfold minute by minute via TV, radio and internet. It’s a sad insane tragedy unfolding, and there will probably be many dead and wounded before morning or in the days to come.
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The renegade Red-supporting Thai Army Maj. Gen. Khattiya, known as “Seh Daeng” (Commander Red) and infamous for his violent rhetoric, was shot this evening and is in critical condition with a head wound. Apparently a sniper took him out as he was hamming it up to newsmen. He just couldn't stay out of the limelight.
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08 May 2010

A Night of Death, Part 2

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Still oblivious to the fatal Red attacks in the Sala Daeng area that I had just left, I was cruising north toward home in a taxi at 1:15am Saturday morning when another type of death confronted me.
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As the taxi driver sped north up almost-empty main expressways on the Bangkok side of the river, we suddenly noticed brake lights and traffic disruption ahead. There were a lot of motorcycles and cars ahead slowing down and parting for some kind of obstacle in the four-lane road.
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Then the driver braked hard and we saw it. A motorcycle was on its side in the middle of the road, and a young person, possibly female, was lying still astride it, apparently unconscious and possibly dead. My Boy Scout instincts demanded that I stop to offer whatever first aid I could, but the traffic pressure behind and around us prohibited any possibility of stopping.
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Next, further down the road and also in its middle, was a severely damaged motorcycle still smoking. A bit further beyond it was another young person lying in a pool of blood around his/her head. I can confidently say that – even on such brief examination from the taxi – this person was dead. To lose so much blood so quickly from your head is fatal.
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My taxi driver called it in, but someone else already had because two ambulances were approaching fast from the opposite lane.
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As we continued north, we maneuvered our way through hundreds of motorcyclists, who were moving more slowly now and apparently freaked out by the accident behind us. None of them were wearing helmets – odd because helmets are mandatory in Thailand and are usually seen on main roads.
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They were late-night teenage motorcycle racers. It is a culture that has been around for a while. Hundreds of teenagers assemble late at night, usually on weekends, and race in mass rallies on the nearly empty streets. What surprised me was the percentage of them who were female, either as passengers or drivers.
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This did not make the main news, however, since it is commonplace here.
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-Zenwind.
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A Night of Death, Part 1

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This time, I was in the general area of some of the protest-related killing as it happened.
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Friday night, 7 May 2010, 10:45pm – a drive-by shooting from a motorcycle into a crowd of anti-Reds and policemen. One cop died from wounds. At that time I was 400 meters away enjoying the music of Peter Driscoll at Nomad’s Pub. We never heard it or knew about the shooting at the time, and I only heard about it the next morning.
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After seeing an afternoon movie in another part of town, I took the Skytrain to the Sala Daeng station – the station that was blasted by 5 M79 grenades on 22 April with one fatality. This is the financial district as well as a famous/infamous entertainment area, and the police and Army have stood their ground preventing the Reds from taking it over. The Reds are massed and encamped on the other side of the major Rama IV Road at Lumpini Park, just within M79 range of the Skytrain station. It is the flashpoint of the Troubles now.
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I got off the Skytrain at Sala Daeng about 8:15pm and immediately noticed the armed camp atmosphere. A fully-armed and fully-geared soldier stood there facing me as I disembarked. On the street-level of Silom Road, there was a heavy presence of police and soldiers. As I walked to Soi 4 and Nomad’s, pimps were still in business offering me either boys or girls as I passed. (Some industries never close for hell or high water.) Turning down Soi 4, it is a noisy party atmosphere spilling out from the bars into the narrow sidestreet as I headed to Nomad’s at the dead-end of the soi.
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The music from 8:30pm to 1am was excellent, and we were completely unaware of trouble 400 meters away.
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I left Nomad’s about 1am Saturday morning. The police and Army presence on Silom Road was even thicker, but I still didn’t realize what had happened earlier. The Skytrain was of course closed, but I tried to go up the stairs to a pedestrian cross-over so as to get on the other side of the street to get a good taxi connection, but soldiers stopped me and made me turn around. They were holding the high ground. I crossed the street elsewhere through stalled traffic and got a taxi to take me home in a direction away from the Reds’ stronghold.
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At about 1:30am, while I was en route home, some grenade explosions occurred a bit farther north from Sala Daeng and across the Rama IV Road at police checkpoints around Lumpini Park. One cop died there and many were wounded.
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Just when we thought there would be a peace deal completed. Well, TIT (This Is Thailand).
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-Zenwind.
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Old-Time Rock n Roll with Peter Driscoll

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I had been to Nomad’s Pub – down at the end of Silom Soi 4 – in the past to hear Peter Driscoll and the Cruisers play early Rock n Roll – usually pure ‘50s stuff – and I’m hooked. Peter played alone last night with just his acoustic guitar from 10pm to 1am. I normally leave before midnight to catch the last Skytrain north, but last night I stayed to hear the last note. (Little did we know that violence was taking place on the streets outside less than half a klick away: see next entry.)
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Peter is a walking encyclopedia of early American and British Rock, a real historian. He usually prefaces the next song with info about who wrote it or covered it, and adds interesting details about what they are doing these days. Born in 1942, Peter is 8 years older than me and thus has more first-hand knowledge of early Rock, knowing many Rock legends personally. He is also a fine gentleman and great off-stage conversationalist.
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Yesterday, Friday 7 May 2010, I made my first foray into downtown Bangkok in a month just to hear Peter’s gig at Nomad’s. I didn’t want to miss it. It was a blazing hot day, and I only got to see one movie in the afternoon because the Red Shirt protestors have turned the downtown into a slum and are keeping my favorite theaters closed. Waiting for gig time at Nomad’s, I searched for an air conditioned place and ended up at the Bangkok Hard Rock Café for an hour and a half – where the drinks are much too expensive, although the Rock videos are entertaining. I clutched cold beer bottles to cool off.
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I got to Nomad’s before the introductory gig by a young American and I got to talk with Peter and with Paul, Nomad’s musical director. Sadly, not many people frequent the farang bars since the Troubles started in Bangkok. These musicians deserve a much wider audience.
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A great evening of music.
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-Zenwind.
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05 May 2010

Thai Army Wins: by doing nothing

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Hopefully, this ongoing Thai political crisis of 2010 may now be seeing light at the end of the tunnel, and the Royal Thai Army has been the power behind the scenes, stubbornly holding out for a peaceful solution. Today is Coronation Day, a national holiday commemorating the crowning of the King and Queen over six decades ago, and it is an excellent time for political compromises and saving face for all concerned. A most auspicious time for peacemaking.
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This week, PM Abhisit compromised by announcing that new elections will be held on 14 November 2010, with the House dissolving around the last half of September. The Red Shirt leaders compromised by giving up their call for immediate House dissolution. After a few more details are hammered out, perhaps the Reds will go home and end the mobocracy of recent weeks. The government’s position has been hurt by the Army’s refusal to use more force, and the Reds’ position has been hurt by some of them invading a major hospital last week.
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The Army chief, Gen. Anupong, as well as many Army officers at all levels, have been against any forceful removal of the Red Shirts from their barricaded camp in the middle of Bangkok’s premier shopping district. It would be a terrible fight because of the lay of the land, and many Thais would be killed. Right after the 10 April fatal fight elsewhere between the Army and the Reds, Gen. Anupong declared that the situation demanded a peaceful political solution rather than a military one.
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Times have changed. In the 1970s, the Army would simply lock, load and gun them down. Over the last several weeks, the PM and Deputy PM have repeatedly ordered the Army to forcefully evict the Reds. But the Army has hardly budged since the 10 April surprise of well-armed Reds and 25 fatalities. The Army’s recent actions have been only defensive, i.e., holding the Reds back from invading the financial district. By not moving, the Army underlines its key role in Thai politics – you can do nothing without them.
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Gen. Anupong is due to retire in September or so. He does not want a bloodbath as his final legacy as Army chief. He may be eyeing a future role in politics. He may be refusing to take more lives, finding himself in the uneasy position of being both a soldier and a Buddhist. Whatever his motivations, he has helped to keep the peace and to keep the Army’s reputation untarnished. The Royal Thai Army has staged a “coup” that is not really a coup but has shown where the true power lies.
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-Zenwind.

03 May 2010

Cat and Mouse Game with Cop

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The other day I went for a long walk on the local streets in order to get some long-needed exercise. During the Hot Season here, one tends to spend too much time indoors. I walked as far as I could before my feet got too hot – threatening blisters – then turned back. (I’m a tenderfoot.) Before going to the house, I headed to the local store to get ice and cold drinks.
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I must have looked a sight: drenched with sweat after my march, red-faced and wearing a bandana sweatband. But most around here are used to seeing the local neighborhood “farang” and his eccentric ways. “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”
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As I was cruising the aisles of the store, I noticed a policeman in the store, one I’d never seen before. (Since Thailand’s recent Troubles escalated, there have been extra reinforcement cops stationed at our corner police station.) It hit me immediately: he was stalking me in order to bust me.
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Explanation: the laws on alcohol purchases in Thailand are byzantine. You can buy beer, wine and spirits only from 11am to 2pm (the time bracketing lunch hour) and then again from 5pm to midnight. Two legal windows in time.
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I knew that I had arrived at the store about 2:15pm and thus could not buy beer, but I wasn’t looking for beer because I already had some at home. I was at the cooler loading up on ice tea and soda. The cop was hiding behind an aisle watching me and hoping that I would try to buy some beer so he could bust me.
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He would try to settle it just between us, i.e., he would demand a bribe and had no intention of taking me in. Just like a farang being caught littering or for a traffic violation, he would ask for about 2000 Baht (US$62). He probably thought I was just a visiting farang unaware of the rules. He stood behind me, watching, as I unloaded my basket at checkout, and he disappeared when no alcohol was found. Sorry to disappoint him, as he most likely thought it was easy cash.
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-Zenwind.
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30 April 2010

Immigration Bureau Blues

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“I’ve got the blues,
The Immigration Bureau blues.
I’ve really, really got the blues,
I’ve got them clear down
To the bottom of my shoes.
Blue, blue, blue, blue,
Boo Hoo,
I’ve got the Immigration Bureau blues.”
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Wednesday – and for the last month – it was that dread time of year when we must prepare for and visit the Immigration office to renew my one-year Visa. It’s a horrible experience, as anyone knows who has often dealt with bureaucratic institutions and the curious souls who haunt such places. It is extra horrible for us because April is the hottest, muggiest time of year when you want nothing more than to stay inside in front of a fan.
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Take a number. Sit and wait. Experience boredom and frustration enough to give a Zen master the blues or make a Saint fighting mean.
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When you do finally get to sit face-to-face with an official, you always find that the rules have suddenly changed regarding which forms to use, about how many copies of each document to prepare, what additional documents are required, what other esoteric rituals you must master and hoops you must jump through, etc. In fact, the only predictable thing about such bureaucracies is that you will be hit with major surprises that are impossible to foresee. We have a running checklist of specifications required in the previous four years’ experience, a checklist of documentation, info required, number of copies, etc., but we never see the next new unexpected task. Kafka would feel at home here, and Sisyphus would recognize the unrelenting drudgery.
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And it’s not just annual changes in rules, because usually two or three different immigration officials whom you meet on the same day will dictate two or three different versions of the rules to you. You can absolutely bet on such contradictions. If your karma is bad, you run into an embittered sadist enthroned as a paperwork tyrant. With good karma, you have your final interview with an official whose view of the rules is more casual and relaxed, one who smiles and waves you off as being in the clear.
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The police/immigration officer sits across from you with his/her wizard’s array of official forms, rubber-stamps, staplers, paperclips, pens, etc. Their performance is a completely enigmatic alchemy of paper and permissions, and they hold the keys to the kingdom, your fate in their hands. You never know what will happen.
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Our karma was good this Wednesday. They have built a new Immigration office just for our province. It is still far away and out in the boonies, but it is better than the old downtown Bangkok office that smelled of refugees and dirty farang. The office is small and not too busy, so the three police/immigration officers were not under much pressure. The place was more relaxed than the old office. Again, two officers interpreted the rules and requirements differently, but we lucked out and got waved through after only two hours. My brand new passport only confused things for a short while.
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I must go back in a month to get a final visa stamp – if, that is, they approve it. They will use the month to double-check our bank accounts and consult our local police to make sure that I’m not too shady a character.
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“I’ve got the Immigration Bureau blues.” But I feel better for now.
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-Zenwind.
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Welcome to "Zenwind's Musings"

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Welcome to my blog – a blog that I will actually use for semi-regular blogging. Since no one else will probably ever read it, it will most likely end up being me writing to myself.
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(My older blog – which is simply named “Zenwind” and is linked here – is a more long-range perennial website that I use for recording some of my favorite adventures in climbing, some of my favorite poems, as well as reviews of favorite books and movies. That Zenwind website is a very slow creation.)
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Here on “Zenwind’s Musings” you can log in to see if I’m still kicking and still writing now and then. Don’t expect polished prose here, just updates that will keep my typing fingers nimble and keep my mind from the worst ravages of senility’s onslaughts.
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I have just returned from a shopping trip. (Last day of a bookstore special sale!) I took a taxi out but walked about 5 km back in 100*F heat with a wickedly high dewpoint pushing the Heat Index well over 115*F. No wonder my mind is fading out.
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Later.
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-R.B. aka, Zenwind.