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News from me and Thailand and other
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"Biodiversity cannot be saved by environmentalists alone - it must become the responsibility of everyone with the power and resources to act." World Conservation Union (IUCN) Director General Achim Steiner.
News from Thailand -
There have been very severe floods in the North of Thaialnd, just South of Chiang Mai. The train line has been cut, so far 51 people are confirmed dead, many people have lost their homes and huge areas of farm land have been swamped and so a year's worth of livelihood is also gone. Almost immediately the King and Queen has asked for the Army to help and they were sent with amazing speed, rescuing people and giving out food. They will re-build houses for people. Today (the 2nd day after the floods) the Prime Minister, Khun Taksin is visiting the area and talking to people. Below are a couple of headlines in todays paper"
"Flooding death toll now at 51. The devastating floods in the North wreaked havoc over a wider area yesterday, cracking a reservoir in the northern province of Phrae and destroying an earth dam in the northwestern province of Tak, while the death toll climbed to 51. Villagers from more than 900 households in tambon Pong Daeng in Tak's Muang district had to be evacuated when about one million cubic metres of water rushed out of the earth dam to inundate thousands of rai of rice paddies. Many cattle were lost in the deluge."
" Woman sees husband swept away. Nothing could prepare La-iad Fongfoo, 33, for the most horrific moment of her life as she watched torrents of muddy water swallow her husband and ravage her entire village in Laplae district of Uttaradit in the blink of an eye. Mrs La-iad clutched her hands tight with tears streaking down her face. Minutes seemed like hours for her as she searched frantically for her lost husband Wuthichai."
Monks (or ex monks) Boun Savat and Boun Thavee have gone back to Laos for a month. Boun Thavee has already disrobed and Phra Boun Savat will do so in Laos.
I have less than AUD$2. Despite all my plans I am now almost broke again. The woman who brought my house in Krabi still hasn't paid me the total amount; and the Army was supposed to pay me a large some of money 4 months ago, but lost the paperwork and then changed the rules and now the decision on whether to pay it or not has been sent from one bureaucrat to another. Although largely the Australian Army are useless fools, I am impressed with my boss, a Colonel who actually has tried to help and contacted me to check on the progress of the payment. This is what leaders are supposed to do, but I have rarely come across one at a high rank that actually does look after their employees. Hopefully soon Antipodeans will send me some money.
The house we are renting has been sold. The owners have asked us how long we want before we move out and we have said that perhaps we can move in late July or early August. Kanchana has worked hard to clean this house up and get it set up and she is upset and worried about having to move again. But she'll be OK.
I have been studying Muay Thai boxing 3 days per week. My Thai language skills are getting better - very much so regarding reading, although speaking and listening don't seem to be improving much.
Disturbing News
In the very Southern provinces of Thailand the violence is continuing. Last week two young Thai teachers were kidnapped by Muslim insurgents and were beaten. One is now brain damaged, in a coma and will die soon. She was a young Buddhist teacher from the North who had come to help educate the village's children. To me the people that did that seem quite sick and deserve no leniency, but it is good to see that the Thai Army is cool headed and along with the arrests they have made of the criminals involved, their main emphasis since then has been to increase their communication with Southern Muslims and villagers. Slowly they do seem to be quelling the violence with less and less towns reporting incidents.
Whilst checking the Australian news today I notice that the government is now saying that aboriginal law is not to be used by aboriginals - they must be judged by white people's laws. Recently they have been talking about taking children from parents to protect the children from domestic violence. Earlier this year I noticed that it was reported that the Aboriginal Affairs Minister said that aboriginal culture was now irrelevant and should no longer be practiced, as all Australians should live in the same way. The government has also recently been pushing aboriginals to no longer live in communally owned areas, but to have private ownership. From the outside, over a period of time, it would seem that this Australian government is pushing hard to finish off what little remains of aboriginal culture.
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