One of the things I like most about Chiang Mai is its menagerie of expats, but a Sea Gypsy in Chiang Mai blew me away.  I’ve met Slovakians, Slovenians, Ukrainians. I’ve even met President Putin’s TV producer (she says he’s got a great sense of humor and has no plans to invade the USA). Travel is broadening and, since Chiang Mai is such a tourist destination, travelers come to me. On Sunday mornings I have breakfast in Chiang Mai with a Tanka Sea Gypsy. Tanka Sea Gypsies were nomadic hunter-gatherers who, instead of hunting on land, hunted fish and gathered shells and moved with the tides and seasons around the rich Chinese seas. They’d been doing that for a thousand years before the idea of ‘nationality’ was even thought of. My friend Richard (as we call him) started earning his keep in 1950 at age 5, diving for sea shells which his older sister would clean and polish and sell to a dealer for pennies.

The Independence movements of the ’50s made citizenships important, and nations began demanding passports from everyone, even Sea Gypsies. Richard’s little family boat was moored in Kowloon, Hong Kong, when a HK Immigration officer showed up and offered the family Hong Kong citizenship! Passports were issued and the HK Government insisted that Richard and his sister receive an education. A few years later Richard won a scholarship to Edinburgh university, went into the financial sector and, eventually, became chief investment officer for one of the world’s largest banks.

Richard’s literal rags-to-riches odyssey is a classic

The Independence movements of the 1950s made citizenship important and nations began demanding passports from everyone, including Sea Gypsies. Richard’s little family boat was moored in Kowloon, Hong Kong, when a HK Government Immigration officer showed up and offered them citizenship. Passports were issued, the family was offered a tiny plot of land and the government insisted that Richard and his sister receive an education. A few years later Richard won a scholarship with air conditioning repair poway to Edinburgh university, graduated and went into the financial sector and, eventually, became chief investment officer for one of the world’s largest banks. He retired at 50, saying that he realized he was doing no good for anyone, and moved to Chiang Mai.

He married a ‘tribal’ girl (the Thai term for people who live independently – usually in the hills – from mainstream Thai culture) and lived, very comfortably, in the village with her while they raised their daughter. He bought a plot of land (“No titles, of course!” he laughs) and built a modest home for his family and became a patron of the village. Then, yearning for urban life again, he moved to Chiang Mai. He sees his daughter, now 14, every week: something he looks forward to eagerly, as she visits on Sundays. He has always given her what, in local terms, is a generous allowance but noticed that she had never even bought  a smart phone. He recently asked her mother what she does with her money. The mother explained that she spends all of it on the local tribal girls at the orphanage at the local wat (temple). It had never occurred to the monks, the mother explained, that teenage girls need tampons, for example. Richard, naturally generous, was delighted and proud that his daughter had been doing this for years without mentioning it.

Richard’s literal rags-to-riches odyssey, his return to his tribal roots, and pride in his daughter’s life choices inspired me. If you move to Chiang Mai you’ll find lots of wonderful people like Richard – and lots of opportunities to make a difference in the lives of children here. Having breakfast with a Sea Gypsy in Chiang Mai sounds exotic, I know, but such encounters are part of everyday life here – which is why I love it.

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Thai sex shows 100 years ago arrive long before the influx of GIs during the Vietnam War have revived  sex shows, but this kind of entertainment had already emerged as a feature of Bangkok night life by the 1920s.

In Sayam Rat, a popular newspaper from those times, described how employees from the Chai-oi ngiw (Chinese folk opera) walked around the city streets carrying placards advertising performances as “a humorous tale with interesting pornographic elements”–and Thai sex shows were born.

The campaign drew large crowds, largely from the Chinese community, to see a show that featured young male and female performers on stage. According the newspaper, the show began with the two protagonists admiring scenery in a garden, flirting with one another, then ‘falling in love’. As the performance unfolds the performers strip down and proceed to simulate copulation in a most ‘realistic fashion’ before a packed audience who ‘cheered them on enthusiastically’.

Sex With Ladyboys?

Expat Dan Cheeseman says 38% of expats in his area have had a sexual encounter with a lady-boy. He surveyed 300 subscribers to his newsletter and  80% of respondents at least said they found lady-boys attractive, so the 38% figure seems realistic, though Dan did not specify what an ‘encounter’ actually constituted. Another 16% who said they had not had a sexual experience also said they did not rule out the chance were it to present itself.

Here’s a video about Thai sex shows:

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Have you heard about Thailand’s Human Rights? Thailand’s recent coup d’etat has been surprisingly well-received by even my Red Shirt friends. Like them, I’ve been a steady supporter of the ousted Prime Ministers, brother-and-sisters, Thaksin. They did a lot for poor people and farmers. And even my wealthy Thai friends supported them. But it seems that there’s a darker side to Mr. Thaksin: he seems keen to sell out traditional Thailand to folks like Goldman, Sachs and UBS.

Top Human Rights Lawyer?

Have you read about ‘human rights’ problems in Thailand? Our media has been running regular ‘concerned’ tales of abuses with headlines like  “Top Thai human rights lawyer faces 150 years in prison for ‘royal insult’,” repeats almost verbatim talking points drawn from US and European media, as well as US-funded organizations posing as “nongovernmental organizations” (NGOs).

The “top Thai human rights lawyer” mentioned in the headline is actually a representative of an armed militant group, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) which killed over 100 and maimed hundreds more in multiple failed attempts aimed at overthrowing the Thai political order spanning form 2006-2014.

The militant group, organized and directed by ousted former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, represents yet another US-backed effort at undermining and overthrowing a political order obstructing its corporate-financier interests both within Thailand itself, and within the Asian region.

Information cited by RT regarding “lawyer” Prawet Prapanukul, comes from faux-NGO Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, created by the US State Department and funded annually by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), working exclusively to defend US-backed agitators as the current Thai government slowly tightens control over foreign-funded subversion.

Also mentioned is Human Rights Watch’s Thai representative, Sunai Phasuk, who was revealed in Wikileaks documents to be in direct contact with the US Embassy in Bangkok.

Phasuk also has a long track record of selectively condemning “human rights” abuses, condemning the current Thai government at every opportunity real or imagined, and omitting abuses carried out by the opposition, including broad daylight armed attacks carried out by the UDD on unarmed protesters in 2013-2014.

It is no surprise then, that both organizations conveniently omit what exactly the UDD is and what it has done throughout its sordid, violent history.
The attempt by both organizations to portray a UDD accomplice as a “human rights lawyer,” stands in contrast to the UDD’s status as the premier organization in Thailand actually usurping the rights of others through intimidation, violence, and mass murder. Read more…

Thailand’s Coup was a Reaction to Thaksin’s Agenda

Veteran Thai resident and analyst Frank Cartalucci says. I found his point of view sobering, so decided to share it with you. Here’s what he wrote:

The coup was carried out at the climax of half a year of massive and protracted street demonstrations against the proxy regime of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra was himself ousted in a coup in 2006 and has since fled the country, residing primarily in Dubai. With his formidable political machine left intact, however, he has been able to rule the country remotely through a series of nepotist-appointed proxies including his brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat, and his own sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

While the Western media continues portraying Shinawatra’s various proxy regimes as “democratically elected governments,” they are nothing of the sort. Shinawatra – a convicted criminal, neither on the ballot or even in the country but admittedly running his political party and those standing in for him as prime minister – is unelected and therefore a dictator.

Shinawatra’s ability to continue running the country remotely, and even contest elections despite being a convicted criminal evading a two year jail sentence, multiple arrest warrants, and a growing list of pending court cases is due not only to his impunity within Thailand, but impunity he has enjoyed as a result of significant and continuous support from Wall Street, London, and Brussels.

Ousted Government Was US-Backed Criminal Regime

Indeed, for over a decade, Thaksin Shinawatra has attempted to transform Thailand into a Western client state. An enumerated list of Shinawatra’s sovereignty-usurping concessions and crimes against the Thai people make it clear as to why the military along with Thailand’s other indigenous and independent institutions have been working systematically to diminish and uproot his political influence over Thailand:

• In the late 1990’s, Thaksin was an adviser to notorious private equity firm, the Carlyle Group. He pledged to his foreign contacts that upon taking office, he would still serve as a “matchmaker” between the US equity fund and Thai businesses. It would represent the first of many compromising conflicts of interest that would undermine Thailand’s sovereign under his rule.

• Thaksin was Thailand’s prime minister from 2001-2006. Has since dominated the various reincarnations of his political party – and still to this day runs the country by proxy, via his nepotist appointed sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

• In 2001 he privatized Thailand’s resources and infrastructure including the nation’s oil conglomerate PTT – much to Wall Street’s delight.

• In 2003, he would commit Thai troops to the US invasion of Iraq, despite widespread protests from both the Thai military and the public. Thaksin would also allow the CIA to use Thailand for its abhorrent rendition program.

• Also in 2003, he initiated what he called a “war on drugs.” Nearly 3,000 were extrajudicially murdered in the streets over the course of just 90 days. It would later turn out that more than half of those killed had nothing to even do with the drug trade. In this act alone, Thaksin earned himself the title as worst human rights offender in Thai history, and still he was far from finished.
• There’s much more on the Land Destroyer site, here

And here’s an interesting article about the recently-deposed sister of Mr. Shinawatra: Impeaching Yingluck Shinawatra

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