Songkran & Alcohol Ban Blues

Today would normally be the beginning of an extended holiday week around the Songkran festival, the traditional Thai New Year (which falls on April 13).  The government canceled celebration of the entire holiday in an effort to stop transmission of Covid-19, reasoning that the enormous annual mass gatherings of people would increase infection.  All mass gatherings have already been outlawed during this ongoing crisis.  And many provinces have banned alcohol for a ten-day period. 

(Tuk will go in to work on Monday the 13^th, because she can work better in her office than online work-from-home.  Her office complex now has much, much fewer workers attending daily, but she has heavy managerial responsibilities and needs to be there.  It’s the electric company, and is deemed essential.) 

This government is nuts, like all the rest.  Like all would-be central planners, they don’t have a clue when it comes to any unintended consequences of their arbitrary decrees from on high.  Theoretically, they reason that if they ban all sale and consumption of alcohol during this ten-day holiday, then people will not illegally assemble together at parties and thus pass on infections.  Plausible.  Yet as soon as a ban on alcohol was announced for Bangkok as well as many other provinces, huge masses of shoppers crowded tight together in long lines at stores to stock up – not quite the social-distancing ideal they recommend. 

So, many provincial governors here, including Bangkok, have just decreed a ten-day ban on booze.  My province of Nonthaburi is not one of them, so I have been stocking up in case they soon follow suit.  I utilize alcohol for pain relief (or, more accurately, a relaxant) to relieve my chronic fibromyalgia pain.  I can go months at a time without using it, but it helps relieve my agony most when I am not able to exercise (such as now when the heat is unbearable) and/or when I am writing and researching, typing under deadlines.  My pain can be crippling, putting me into a fetal position ball of pain.  No other medicine works as well.  So, screw the ruling elite’s ban – and I don’t even socialize when I drink. 

On that note, I hold with the great American philosopher and Blues Rock singer-guitarist, George Thorogood – just a youngster, as he was born ten days after me – when he authored and released the 1985 song, I Drink Alone:  (Imagine here the slow bare Blues beat of drums and bass, along with the phenomenal lead guitar and the vocals George belts out): 

“I drink alone.  ...

  With nobody else.  ...

  And you know when I drink alone, ...

  I prefer to be by myself.” 

George Thorogood and the Destroyers, they are definitely “Bad to the Bone”.  American party music, even if you do drink alone. 

This is going to be a long hot week and way beyond.  I hope most of us will come up intact on the other side of it.  Stay well. 

-Zenwind. 

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Prometheus Awards 2020

The Prometheus Award nominees for 2020 have been announced by the Libertarian Futurist Society in two categories:  Best Novel, and Hall of Fame.  The deadline for voting, by voting members, is 4 July.  

The Prometheus Best Novel Award goes to a science fiction or fantasy novel published in the previous year that features libertarian themes, i.e., strongly pro-liberty and/or anti-authoritarian.  The Prometheus Award for the Hall of Fame goes to older works with the same libertarian themes, but in addition to novels they can be short stories, plays, film, TV, graphic novels, song lyrics, verse, etc.

Five nominees in each of the two categories are selected as finalists out of a larger field of nominees.  The Prometheus Awards – both the winners and nominees – have introduced me to some very enjoyable reading over the many years. 

Although I am not on the finalist judging committees deciding the five finalists, I am an Early Reader volunteer helping to screen possible nominees and sometimes nominating novels for consideration by the committees myself.  I have already read three of this year’s Best Novel finalists, and I screened and nominated two of them. 

1. One of my nominees was Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, a long-awaited sequel to her 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (which has been made into a TV series recently), which I had read back in the day because it was a Prometheus Award finalist in 1986.  This sequel is even more libertarian than the original, portraying freedom-loving individuals who risk all to smuggle women out of the misogynist theocratic American totalitarian state of Gilead into Canada in an “Underground Femaleroad” – much like the abolitionist network of the 19^th century -- as well as dissidents in positions of power within the Gilead tyranny who work behind the scenes.  It is a great closure to The Handmaid’s Tale.  Very well written. 

2. The second finalist novel that I screened and nominated is Ruin’s Wake by Patrick Edwards.  On a future Earth under a dystopian tyranny much like North Korea or Stalinist Russia, several interesting characters each try to achieve freedom while uncovering the secrets of Earth’s long-ago historical collapse into barbarism. 

3. Alliance Rising by C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher is a stand-alone novel in a series about the Merchanter Alliance, a loose network of independent trader spaceship families who are way out in the black far from Earth.  They try to preserve civilization by maintaining rights, consent, free trade and cooperation, while resisting oppressive monopolistic forces such as the centralized statist tyranny of the distant Earth that wants to take control of everybody.  A very good read. 

I have not yet read the other two finalists, but will start them soon.  They are: 

4. Luna:  Moon Rising by Ian McDonald is the third in his Luna trilogy about colonies on the Moon, with struggles over control waged between factions and family dynasties.  Individual freedom is at risk, and one of the threats, of course, is from those damned Earth governments. 

5. Ode to Defiance by Marc Stiegler sounds good.  Many adventurous humans have escaped the impoverishment of the United States’ socialist regime and have gone into space, living and working on an independent fleet of seastead spaceships.  But maintaining freedom is never easy.  This novel is part of Stiegler’s “Brain Trust” Universe series. 

The five Hall of Fame Prometheus nominees include three short stories, one novel, and the lyrics of a song.  They are: 

“As Easy as A.B.C.” by Rudyard Kipling (1912).

“Sam Hall” by Poul Anderson (1953).

“Lipidleggin’” by F. Paul Wilson (1978).

A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1971).

“The Trees” a song by Rush, from their Hemispheres album (1978), lyrics by the late Neil Peart. 

It will be difficult to vote among all these nominees in both categories because they are so good! 

-Zenwind. 

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Life in the Heat

After a three-day weekend with nighttime curfew and general stay-at-home routine, Tuesday saw a bit of normality return to the neighborhood.  There are some changes among the food vendors on the corners and along the streets.  Some long-time vendors have disappeared, and there a lot of new ones.  There are entrepreneurs with small pick-up trucks that are stacked with produce, fruits and vegetables of all kinds, and they travel and park wherever business promises.  My reliable popcorn vendor still pops fresh corn. 

Tuk is “working from home” online as of today, and she doesn’t like it because she cannot concentrate.  The cats want her to play with them, and she keeps getting calls from co-workers. 

I just rediscovered an old tropical essential that I’d forgotten since getting air conditioning:  Snake Brand Cooling Powder, a talc for relieving heat rash in this hot humidity.  I’d used it long ago, but today I found an old can and applied it.  It works. 

Blessed coolness.  Zen delight. 

-Zenwind. 

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Tropical Essentials

In this Hot Season, one appreciates the small comforts and bare essentials.  First, a pair of shorts with pockets, then sport sandals or flip-flops, then a bandana sweatband.  Going up in tech, I love a waterproof smartphone that resists massive sweating, as well as rain later in the year.  (I have had three wives and several girlfriends testify that I am too stupid to come in out of the rain.) 

A new essential in this Time of Plague are face masks.  We have long had good N95 dust masks available to protect against the toxic smog and PM2.5 pollution during our “winter” when there is no wind or rain.  They fit tight, are hot, and I don’t like the uncomfortable fit of the loops around my ears.  Also, on long marches I wear a sweatband bandana which covers the top of my ears, so putting the mask on and off is pure aggravation; I solved that by connecting the two ear loops with elastic cord around the back of my head.  This has always been good for neighborhood marches. 

Now, with the virus scare, we wear a mask every single time we step out, even briefly.  Surgical masks, which are also easy to get here, are much easier and comfortable to wear when I don’t wear a bandana – going to the store, Immigration, a doctor’s appointment, etc. 

Hand sanitizer is now essential, and besides using it religiously at home I have small bottles of it for when going out.  I reassure my Thai neighbors when entering stores, masked up, by cleaning my hands as I enter.  All of it is part of being polite and considerate here as well as being cautious. 

Re:  neighborhood markets, etc.  The convenience stores are still open at the moment, as are Tops food markets as far as I know (although I haven’t been that far from home for quite a while).  Neighborhood street vendors are thinning out a bit because of less foot traffic.  But my popcorn vendor next to the police station was still there this last week. 

As for more traditional tropical essentials, I would list fans as high on the list.  A/C is great, if it works.  Refrigeration is a modern marvel, and I make plenty of Ice in our new fridge.  Drinks are important (stay hydrated!):  beer, tea, chocolate milk, iced coffee, good clean water, etc. 

I have a treasured collection of stainless steel, wide-mouthed Thermos bottles, by Laken (.35L, .5L, .75L).  They keep liquids cold for an incredibly long time.  For the big .75L I throw in a lot of ice & fill with a pint of Beer Chang.  

Blessed Coolness.  Zen Delight. 

-Zenwind. 

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National Curfew

Starting tomorrow there is a nationwide curfew in place, keeping everyone in Thailand, except absolutely necessary (mostly medical) personnel, at home from 22:00 hours to 04:00. 

And in case I haven’t mentioned it yet, the Songkran holiday season is cancelled.  This is like cancelling Christmas!  Songkran, traditional Thai New Year, is in mid-April at the absolute hottest time of the year, and celebrations include throwing water on folks to cool them down.  Usually there are massive street water-throwing parties downtown, and even here one expects some water thrown at you when out and about.  There are a number of additional holidays this month before and after Songkran, and they are often linked up to provide very long periods off from work.  So, because it is a time when schools are usually out and folks are off work anyway, it is not a time of great productivity and thus fits a bit more easily into this stay-at-home scenario. 

It's too hot to move, and yet April is only beginning.  This heat and humidity remind me of 51 years ago in my first months in Vietnam.  The first thing I noticed landing in Nam was that Marines all had green towels hanging around their necks.  Medium-sized towels, dark green.  (All our white clothing, skivvies, etc. were confiscated, and we were issued green substitutes.)  The towels were for constantly mopping up the sweat from your face and hands.  If possible, you never touched your weapon until drying your hands first.  Those days were my first experience with horrendously wicked heat and humidity – tropical hell. 

These days a sweatband – a bandana rolled up as a headband – is essential equipment for dealing with sweat when moving, both inside and outside.  If it is a long fitness walk in the neighborhood, I add to the headband a wide-brimmed hat, and of course shades.  Now, with the mandatory face mask, I must look like some cowboy outlaw. 

The neighborhood folks are almost certainly accustomed over the years to this strange old gray-beard farang alien who strides rapidly over the sidewalks several days a week.  If I were another person, I might feel uneasy about being so different, but I’m long used to being oblivious to most expectations, and marching to different drummers is second nature.  

I am 70 years old yet feel tremendously young at heart.  Aside from a somewhat aged body, I still feel like a kid.  I never grew up, and by this time I guess I never will.  What’s the point? 

-Zenwind. 

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April Fools Day Cancelled

And I am NOT joking.  Anyone reporting false information publicly about the Covid-19 pandemic as a joke is looking at a possible two years in a Thai prison.  And a Thai prison during this Hot season is no joke at all.  Similar bans on joking about it are announced in India and Taiwan. 

Our province of Nonthaburi has just declared a Partial (nighttime) Curfew where no one is to leave their homes between 23:00 hours and 05:00 (11PM-5AM).  Southern Nonthaburi, where we live, is part of greater Bangkok.  One can hardly tell you’ve left the Bangkok city limits until you’ve gone far enough north to reach the province’s countryside. 

We are doing fine here.  Tuk may or may not be working from home after this week.  The heat is almost unbearable. 

Meanwhile, Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second city located up in the north, has been rated having the absolute worst air pollution in the world.  Farmers burning crops are the main culprit, and a big forest fire there is out of control.  Our toxic haze down here in Bangkok has eased up dramatically because of more winds – small blessings! 

-Zenwind. 

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Weekend Update

No absolute curfew here yet, but we are under an Emergency Decree, which is confusing in its interpretations.  Stay at Home is strongly urged (or is it ordered?), and movement is said to be limited quite a bit, but it is baffling on what that really means.  This government, like all of them anywhere, is hopelessly inept while being puffed up with power-importance, and it would be great comedy if it were not so tragic. 

Recent Immigration Office cluster chaos: 

I had to go to Immigration again this week for additional petty bureaucratic paperwork bullshit, and I found horrendous crowds there, probably because of sudden pandemic-related panic about new visa requirements, etc.  What happened to the “social distancing” so strongly recommended?  It was early in the morning when it is usually not terribly crowded, but lines were already outside the front door – in the sun.  I tried a side entrance, went upstairs to the relevant floor, and found a closely packed line of people going into infinity.  Not only would it be impossible to receive service before noon, but this stockyard, Petri-dish environment repelled me. 

So, I turned around, exited the building and found a taxi home.  Screw it.  I will have to pay a hefty fine for not doing the (utterly ridiculous) paperwork on time, but it was worth it just to get out of there.  Bureaucrats everywhere can go to Hell – a Hell with a torturously impossible queue as in the film Betelgeuse (1988)!   

Other than all that, we are trying to keep cool and civil as the temps go up toward 100*F with deadly dewpoints.  Music, books, and DVDs save the day – along with fans and iced drinks.  Cheers! 

-Zenwind. 

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Hot Morning Outing

I thought I would be out of the tropics by now, but I probably won’t be going anywhere for quite a while.  We are in stay-at-home lockdown, with such exceptions as Tuk walking to work and me foraging the neighborhood for food on foot – just as I did during the massive flooding in 2011.  (Thank the gods for 7/11 convenience stores, always well stocked; we have several within walking distance.) 

Today’s most urgent anticipated task was to try and find cat litter for our two felines.  I had to see if the little pet store down the road was still open during this round of forced closures, and if it wasn’t then I would have to figure something else out.  Then I got a call from Tuk just after 08:00 from her office.  She had forgotten an important data-drive in her home computer and needed it at work; could I take it to her?  So, I quickly showered and put on some of my more presentable clothes – but still short pants rather than long ones in this heat. 

I stepped outside at 08:30 and it was already sweltering beyond belief.  My face mask, quasi-mandatory wear now, just made it worse.  There was sweat stinging my eyes after going only 20 meters, in the shade.  I had a rolled bandana/headband in my pocket, but planned to use it only when I left the office campus.  There was some wind and a little shade, but the sun was brutal.  I handed off the thumb-drive to Tuk outside her office and then headed off campus by a back gate nearest the pet store, which I was happy to see still open for business. 

Now carrying two really heavy bags of cat litter in my backpack, I head down the road towards the 7/11 store.  I start feeling a bit faint and wonder why.  Holy shit, am I sick?  Then I realize I hadn’t had time to eat or drink anything and was most probably dehydrated from sweating so abundantly from the heat plus the heavy load.  I usually eat a decent breakfast with well over a pint-and-a-half of liquids, but not this morning. 

The 7/11 store has a powerful a/c and I am drenched.  Mask still on, my glasses fog and drip condensation.  Then I lift my head up a bit to see some upper shelves, and sweat that had been trapped by my mask streams down my neck, under my shirt and pants into my crotch.  Damn! 

As soon as I step out of the store, I mop the sweat out of my eyes again and put my headband on.  I arrive home soaked clear through.  And this entire trek was only one kilometer.  Sweat City. 

Once in the house, our feline masters briefly open their eyes and raise their heads just enough to glance at me.  I’m quite certain of what they were telegraphing to me with those looks: “It sure took you long enough; and, oh, do turn on the fan.”  Then heads back down and off to regal feline slumber.  And we think we are at the top of the animal kingdom’s hierarchy? 

-Zenwind. 

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Thailand Closing Its Doors

The noose is tightening.  In the efforts to stop the spread of the dread Covid-19 virus, the Thai government is starting to lock down the borders.  They are demanding before you can enter Thailand (even Thai citizens), that you present a medical certification that you have been tested and found negative for the virus within the last 72 hours. 

The US State Department has warned American citizens abroad that they should return to the USA right now before borders close down and they cannot return.  Well, I’m hunkered down here in Thailand, hoping that this crisis will eventually end and that I can possibly travel to the USA for my family reunions in the summer. I do not want to be trapped in America indefinitely and blocked from returning to Thailand.  

In addition to the bars being closed here, all movie theaters are closed as well as (gasp!) the massage parlors.  All Songkran celebrations, the traditional Thai New Year with water-throwing during the hottest part of the year, have been canceled, and this is a very big deal.  (All fun has been canceled in the Land of Smiles!) 

Face masks are worn by almost everyone, although many medical experts say that it is not of supreme importance to prevent you from getting the virus and many in Asia do not realize this.  Rather the masks are definitely good for stopping the spread of infection if you already have it.  So, wearing a mask is polite, it shows that you are concerned about the health of your fellow neighbors, and it puts folks at ease.  But the masks are so damned hot to wear in an already hot and humid climate. 

One possible glimmer of hope for us here is that these viruses tend to be less contagious in hot humid weather.  This may possibly be a reason that Thailand has a comparatively low infection and death rate so far.  Maybe.  Yet these reported rates look suspiciously low to me.  Is our Thai testing for the virus lagging and not telling the true picture of infection (just like the case in the USA)?  A prudent government would not want to hide numbers and later be revealed as lying about it.  Do we have a prudent government?  Anywhere in the world?  

We live in interesting times. 

-Zenwind.

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Hot Season Comes Round Again

It is getting hot again.  Sweltering, dripping, exhausting.  I just finished a successful visit to our provincial Immigration office for my annual renewal of an “Extension of Stay in the Kingdom” based on retirement.  Paperwork beyond belief.  I had it all in order, and it went smoothly.  An additional hassle was having old visa stamps from my old passport transferred to my new one, but that went well too.  The office is new, spacious and air conditioned, and everyone there wore face masks. 

Re:  The Virus.  I had been planning to bail out of this heat-infested tropical hell before April, our hottest and most horribly humid month, and fly to America to see the springtime blossoming from April into May.  But the Covid-19 pandemic is making travel anytime soon questionable.  I have two cousins’ reunions, one in June and one in August, and I will have to wait and see how feasible it is then to travel. 

I have stopped going out unless absolutely necessary.  The pubs, such as my beloved Rock Pub, are all closed in Bangkok for the rest of this month at least.  I’m not sure about movie theaters as of today.  My father-in-law is 87, frail and with a long history of breathing problems, so I do not want to bring a virus home to him. 

I have books aplenty as well as DVDs.  My exercise routines always peter out in the Hot Season when it’s just too damn uncomfortable to move. 

We are all well so far and can’t complain that much.  I will try to update this blog more often in the future. 

-Zenwind.

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