It is mid-October, and I do miss the autumn leaves in NW Pennsylvania at this time of year. Here, we are still in the Rainy Season, which makes it a bit cooler than usual.
The political protests here in Thailand of the younger generation are significant. As I had written earlier, below, the young demonstrators have taken the unheard-of radical position of criticizing the Thai monarchy itself, which in itself can put you in prison for years. The protests have been peaceful thus far, but I see two very powerful cultural forces heading on a direct collision course someday soon. I was in the city yesterday – for a haircut, movie, and meet up with farang friends – and the mass transit was not very crowded, and yet I saw street vehicle traffic blocked up far more than normal in mid-afternoon, indicating there was action in the streets somewhere. Sure enough, news reports say there were thousands protesting.
My daily routines: I awake, open my tablet and first check my daily to-do list on my Evernote account (which is synced with my laptop and phone). Then I check my Gmail Calendar, then my favorite weather forecast site for the day’s weather, and only then can I check my email and daily local news, and then fine-tune my plans for the day. Then I mix some whey protein with skim milk, and wash down some daily morning meds with it. Half an hour later I have a light breakfast, followed up by a daily multi-vitamin/ multi-mineral tablet.
On any given day, I may do local food shopping and walking, or stay home and exercise. Sometimes I go further afield to grocery stores with a more complete selection, and maybe a movie. Movie selection is very thin, with old films showing as well as the very few newer releases. Movie attendance is still incredibly low, with only three or so other folks spread out in the big empty theaters (during weekday afternoons, when I have always attended to avoid crowds).
One striking new development I’ve just noticed in movie theaters is that a few Thai people are refusing to stand up when the King’s anthem is played before the film. I’ve never seen this happen in all my years here. Just before any film starts, a notice always appears on the screen in Thai and in English, asking everyone to stand up out of respect for the King while they show some clips of the current king’s life and play the royal anthem. For the late King Rama IX (d. 2016), everyone stood because he was so highly respected. But his son, now the reigning Rama X, never had as much respect and recognition as his father. I just noticed about two weeks ago in a theater that only half of us were standing, which astounded me. Yesterday, only two of us out of about half a dozen in the theater were standing. A sign of things to come? Wow!
-Zenwind.
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