Bring out the tiger in you...

'Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night' are the opening lines to William Blake's famous immortal poem about the fear and absolute dread people have of that most beautiful of wild animals. This weekend I checked out an amazing tiger sanctuary in the dusty hillside of Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where one enterprising abbot called Abbot Phra Phusit or 'Chan' to his friends started a tiger sanctuary.

Chan was so worried with so much illegal poaching in the area that he knew something had to be done to protect these beautiful creatures along with many others. As he says, ‘why can't we live together...after all we all have the same blood...and it's red'...A reflection by the Abbot-Pra Acharn Phusit (Chan).


For 1,000 baht (approx. 20 GBP) you can go down to the Tiger Canyon, a strange cavernous, almost subterranean area and have your picture taken with these magical beasts of the jungle, and see the ''distant deeps or skies the burn the fire of thine eyes'.

As it says in the guide brochure,

'Since its opening, Wat Pa Luangta Bua gained a reputation as a wildlife sanctuary. It started with an injured wild fowl given to the monk by the villagers, then peacocks came attracted by the calls of by then rather large colony of wild fowl. An injured wild boar stumbled in to the monastery and the monks cared for him until he could be released back into the forest. The next day he came back followed by his family group of about 10 animals. By now a countless number of boar find shelter in the monastery. Villagers also started to bring in unwanted pets: four species of deer moved in, followed by buffalo, cows, horses, wild goats and gibbons. All these animals are roaming the grounds of the monastery freely.'

It was in February 1999 that the first tiger cub arrived at the monastery . The condition of the female cub of Indochinese subspecies (Tigris corbetti) was very poor. It was only a few months old her mother was killed by poachers near the border between Thailand and Burma. After selling the cub, the new owner ordered a full taxidermy of the animal and had her stuffed. A local was hired to do the job, which luckily for the cub he did not finish. Although he injected her in the neck with the preservative formalin, the cub survived.



But if you think that's all you can see at this amazing sanctuary, you'd be wrong. There are peacocks, wild boars, horses, camels, buffalo, deer, and even a solitary leopard.



But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this place is the fact that you can actually interact with these animals on a one-to-one level. The experience is probably on a par with swimming with dolphins or riding an elephant for the first time. It's something sadly needed not like the wrestling with alligators kind of experience that Australian croc hunter, Steve Irwin, did in his TV show and who met an untimely death by forgetting the first law of nature - don't mess with wild animals in their own habitat or they are at some point likely to jump up and bite you as that stingray did with fatal consequences.



There is definitely something magical about looking at these creatures straight in the eye and even after many of them have been mistreated by humans they are still able to let you get close to them which shows a remarkable level of reciprocal trust not often seen in our harsh world of 'work produce consume'.


It makes you realise that we have lost something vital to ourselves as a species: that union with the animals that share our planet and it's only when we pay a few dollars to go to a zoo or a park or sanctuary such as the one in Kanchanburi, that we begin to realise this.

‘The Lady’s Not for Turning…’

Photo credit: @ http://forthardknox.com/

‘The Lady’s Not for Turning’ was something Margaret Thatcher famously said referring to her decision not to enter the ERM, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism which was seen as a vital fence to climbed over if the UK was to ever seriously show its intention to become a full member of Europe.

‘To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the "U" turn, I have only one thing to say. "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning." I say that not only to you but to our friends overseas and also to those who are not our friends.’

Here in Thailand, Thaksin’s wife, Potjdam, has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons because she decided that a U-turn was in fact just what she needed. Having got divorced from her husband of over 20 years, she entered Thailand (although a convicted felon from a corruption scandal). To be fair though, the divorce is widely seen as an attempt to distance herself legally from her husband in order to get access to his frozen funds. So why did she come?

This is the simple part. She came here to try to influence the election of a new government in Thailand after the previous one led by Thaksin’s brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, was forced to step down through a corruption case. Just as in the old days when Thaksin himself would be seen on the TV walking round small Thai villages handing out fresh, crisp 1,000 baht notes (about 20 GBP), Potjdam’s intention was to hand out sums, much larger of course, to secure politicians’ support for her husband and ensuring that his political party would be able to stay in power. Of course we now know that this didn’t happen.

This securing of political support was important though because only then he would he have the chance to get another bite at the 2 billion dollars currently tied up in Thai banks: the product of the illegal sale of his company, Shin Corporation, to Temasek Holdings, the state owned communications company of Singapore. With his boys in power, he could easily have appointed a few favourable judges to overrule the original decision and let him have his money back. As it is, he now only has till January 4th, four days from now, to present new claims to the money and if he fails, it’s lost forever in the bottomless coffers that is the Thai state treasury.

Despite the lady’s best efforts, Thaksin looks in a desperate situation, which is why I predict a wave of bombs and general disruption in the next few days and weeks. Don’t forget the bombs that went off last New Year here in Thailand and don’t be surprised to see more.

With his closest political ally, Newin Chidchob, and all the members of his faction, having all but abandoned their relationship with Thaksin, the deadline for presenting documents to the courts to get back the 2 billion US dollars a heartbeat away, his red shirt supporters exploding (or should that be ‘imploding’) like a wet firecracker, his diplomatic passport having been removed (and a lot of talk about taking away his regular Thai one too as he’s a convicted felon now), you can see that he’s something not unlike a cornered animal (I refrained from using the word ‘rat’) though some would say that’s an appropriate symbol for the man!


Can his lady save him? Can she do a ‘mission impossible’ and somehow rescue the situation? Or should she turn and hightail it out of town? Many people believe she should, and some say that's exactly what she should do - turn and run for it like a Betty Boob character - when the trappings of wealth are gone there's not much to stay for other than to get caught up in her husband's ignominious fall from grace!

Thaksin's Day of Reckoning is getting ever closer and many people, not just Thais but also the large ex-pat community believe he is getting payback for the wrongdoings during his tenure as prime-minister. The Thais have a saying that roughly translates as 'you get what you deserve' - Som num na! Perhaps Potjdam should run and hightail it before that happens. Or perhaps like Lady Thatcher, she'll say the same thing - 'The lady's not for turning'. We'll just have to wait and see.

Handshakes ain't what they used to be...

The news about hygiene is out now and the results are disturbing. According to an article on the BBC News site - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7667499.stm scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine swabbed 409 people at bus and train stations in five major cities in England and Wales. According to the research, more than one in four commuters has bacteria from faeces on their hands, an investigation suggests. The study was part of the world's first Global Hand-washing Day, dedicated to raising awareness about the importance hand hygiene plays in public health.

'We were flabbergasted by the finding that so many people had faecal bugs on their hands' said Dr Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The further north the researchers went, the more often they found commuters with faecal bacteria on their hands - men in Newcastle were the worst offenders.

'In Newcastle and Liverpool, men were more likely than women to show contamination - 53% of men compared with 30% of women in Newcastle and 36% of men compared with 31% of women in Liverpool.' I'm deinitely going to remember that next time I'm in either of those places.

Newcastle - men 53%, women 30%
Liverpool - men 36%, women 31%
Birmingham - men 21%, women 26%
Cardiff - men 15%, women 29%
Euston (London) - men 6%, women 21%

Ugh...imagine when you are shaking hands with people which after all is a perfectly normal, sociable thing to do and they have the remnants from last night's vindaloo (via their intestines!) all over their hands!! It just doesn't bear thinking about!


However, the following data suggests that the urban myth about manual workers and laborers being dirty may not be as accurate as first thought.

'Manual workers had cleaner hands than other professionals, students, retired people or the unemployed.'

Ok...I'm off...where's the soap!

The Lord of War or The Word of Law?

Image credit: © blog.synthesis.net.

Sometimes, just sometimes, no matter what you do, the law catches up with you. I remember seeing that movie with Nicholas Cage about a Russian arms dealer called Yuri Orlov who travels the world selling arms and munitions to the highest bidder. This story is true in that it is based on the real exploits of one Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, dubbed the "Merchant of Death" who was arrested here in Thailand in March. Many believe he supplied arms to the Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor to name just a few of the madmen of the world to make it onto his Christmas card list.

Image credit: © bangkokpost.com/2009

Viktor Bout now says: 'I was framed'. This is like the usual though funny rebuttal of the typical petty criminals so often found in British drama of the 1980s. I can just about still here in my head Del Boy uttering the same sentiments albeit in his own inimitable way - 'It's a stitch up in'it? I was framed weren't I. The fuzz were waiting for me to leave Sudan like...and that geezer wiv the turban. How was I to know he was one of 'em like terrorist geezers! I just fought he was, you know, like Paki Ali, the market trader on Camden High Street! Nuffin' to do wiv me mate! I ask ya!'

According to the imprisoned fugitive, the Americans set him up because they don't want better relations between Thailand and Russia. As he says himself, 'They have framed me because the US does not want relations between Thailand and Russia to develop more'.

It's hard to feel a patina of grief for a man who, if the film version of his exploits is to be believed, lived the 'life of Reilly' while the carnage of war that he helped supply raged on in the background of his luxury lifestyle. It is unquestionably true that if you are going to get into the arms business, you'd better have made a Mephistophelean pact with your maker that, when it's all over, you'll go willingly to shake the hand of the Grim Reaper because for sure that's where you'll be heading when the music stops and there are no more chairs to sit down on.

Sooner or later the The Lord of War was bound to be caught out by The Word of Law, niet?

Bush's New Shoes (size 10)

According to the BBC reporter, Humphrey Hawksley, 'It was billed as the start of a farewell visit to help define Bush's legacy to Iraq, but turned out to be full of surprises.' That's the understatement of the year! It was great to watch the look on Bush's face when he saw the Iraqi reporter take off his shoes and throw them at him in a news conference yesterday. As they say on Anderson Cooper's show 'What were they thinking?'

Click on here for a link to the story - http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/14/bush.iraq/index.html

For me though, it was the beginning of my day (early morning news) and probably the highlight of my day, too! As in Thailand where I now reside, taking off your shoes and throwing them at someone is considered the height of insult as the feet in Buddhist as well as Islamic cultural traditions are considered, not just the lowest part of body, which of course they are, but also closest to the earth and the furthest away from Buddha or Allah. Thus, Bush was treated with contempt by the reporter of the highest possible magnitude short of physically attacking him. A similar event was to happen a few days later in Thailand as if proof of the Thai practice of using shoes to express an opinion in a negative way - At a rally of About 55,000 people, 'An old woman was cheered as she struck the poster [of the new Thai primeminister] with one of her shoes - one of the rudest gestures a Thai can make'.

Bush's shoe thrower said 'This is a farewell gift from the Iraqi people you dog!' Then with the second shoe, 'This is for all the widows and orphans of those killed in Iraq.'

How did Bush respond? In a post shoe-throwing interview, he declares that it was funny, 'I found it amusing!' Yes, you may have Mr. Bush, but in your very last visit to Baghdad, when you wanted to go out in a blaze of glory like one of them cowboys you so admire, in them there Westerns, you wanted to stroll into Baghdad town on a black stallion, say how great things have been over the last 8 years of occupation in Iraq, and how you made that all happen, then ride out again without incident, you have been clearly told what the Iraqi people think of you. When a man of professional standing feels compelled to do something that is so out of character, he must be pretty upset to say the least; A man who was tortured and beaten during those eight years

In the same interview, Bush says (and for me this really is 'amusing' because of it's entertainment value), 'I don't know what his beef is!' Can you believe he had the gall to say that? As if every Iraqi shares his view of the situation Iraqis now find themselves in? At least with Saddam Hussein, the power was centralised and so people could more or less keep to themselves and avoid trouble on their own doorstep. Since Bush arrived most Iraqis are afraid to go outside for fear of suicide attacks or straying into gunfights with coalition forces. And he doesn't know what the reporter's beef is? Pullleeeeease!

On the same day, Bush gave a speech to the troops stationed in Baghdad. 'Thanks to you, Iraqi is now dramatically freer, dramatically safer, dramatically better'. This continual reference to drama is interesting for that's what many people believe - war is theatre, where drama continually unfolds on TV screens and newsreels throughout the world. How telling it is then later, when the Iraqi man interviewed on the street declares, 'It's true that Bush delivered us from Saddam Hussein, but now we are living in a tragedy.'

Culturally insensitive or crass exploitation of the world's indigenous people?

Has anyone seen this ad for burgers? The one about 'Whopper Virgins'? They invite indigenous people from various places to taste the two rival burgers - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/dec/04/advertising-food

'What happens when you take remote villagers from Chiang Mai in Thailand who don't even know what a burger is because they don't even have a a word for it in their language and ask them to compare the Whopper versus the Big Mac in the world's purest taste test?'

Others are the Inuit from Greenland, and another one is equally pathetic and involves Transylvania farmers who are all lumped together and called, quite rudely, 'Whopper Virgins'.

In an age when we have the highest rates of literacy ever in the world and more and more people are being educated than ever before through technology, which can reach even the remotest of places, shouldn't we expect a little more cultural awareness from the educated populace of the world?

What else can you expect from the American companies who care for nothing unless it resembles the greenback? I guess it's all part of what some have called the 'Cocacolaisation of the world' - the idea that individual cultures are being eroded and being replacd by one set of huge conglomerates which express American capitalist values and nothing more.

Reflective Journal Entry: Nine

I am starting to think a lot now about using a DVD as a gateway ‘into’ the world that my thesis will represent. It will be like a house like that lady at the europeana.com portal mentioned… as Viviane Reding, the European Information Minister responsible for its launch, said - '...it's like going into a culture like you go into a house - you enter the door, then go through the corridor and then you have a choice between different rooms with a different, organised way of understanding what you are looking for.' It was originally a French idea, spearheaded by them as an antidote to American dominance culturally, which is spread by Yahoo (when it's working!) and especially Google with its project to put millions of books online after digitising them. I guess that's why they called it europeana. It had to be shut down the same day because of 10 millions hits in an hour! Should be re-opened soon according to the site...

‘We launched the Europeana.eu site on 20 November and huge use - 10 million hits an hour - meant it slowed to a crawl. We are doing our best to reopen Europeana.eu in a more robust version. Meanwhile, the site you're in now is the project development site, with a video to give you a taste of what's on the real Europeana site.’(http://dev.europeana.eu/)

Anyway, I am now thinking of finishing the written forms e.g. the exegesis and artefact, then inscribing them into a DVD along with an architecture that might resemble some idea, metaphor, or symbol of the research outcome? Something in the shape of a house would be too obvious and simple and wouldn’t ‘add value’ to the project like businessmen like to say on the Lion’s Den! Rather I need something connected to the idea of art or education or something new and novel in itself? Perhaps each click on the DVD could help them navigate their way around Guantanamo or Abu Graib prisons? This needs to be developed.