COMMENTARY
ALFRED THA HLA
Illegal motorcycle racing gangs who recently claimed a policeman's life; a video game that wills teenagers to kill an innocent taxi driver - these are the summa cum laude graduates in the elite scourges that plague our society.
I played my first game of Gallaga on the second floor of the old Lido theatre in the 80s; Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Mario Bros and Tecmo Bowl followed before stopping at Gran Turismo.
Fastforward to today's internet cafe's and the combination of violence and gruesome graphics delivered by online gaming goes way beyond PG-13.
A friend saw his teenage daughter develop uncharacteristic aggressiveness from online gaming, and immediately walked to the department store to stop the hi-speed internet service.
Shifting gears to motorcycle gangs, unfortunately this is not as easy as shutting off your internet service.
Maybe a transcendental approach could serve as an alternative to alleviate this disturbing trend which one would equate to as scum of the earth.
Last month I walked into Khun Mae Siri Krinchai's week-long meditation retreat at Wat Intharawihan which houses the 32-metre-high standing Buddha called Luang Pho To, near the vicinity of the Rama VIII bridge overlooking the Chao Phraya river on the side of the Bank of Thailand.
Some say that getting high on ecstasy delivers the same results when compared to certain stages of meditation in either the deep tranquil forests of India or Wat In.
Any yogi, a term used for participants of Khun Mae Siri's programme, would beg to disagree but then everyone is entitled to their personal beliefs.
Just look at the principles of democracy and ahimsa preached by Article 63 of our constitution and compared the NBT building and the front lawn of Government House. After seven days at Wat In performing daily life at an excruciatingly slow pace; I walked out into the real world in a slow mode.
I then put my forehead on my mother's feet for the first time as I prostrated in a traditional wai gesture.
Mom (in tears) was like, "what's wrong with you son?"
And I still have my angst while driving but with a heightened state of awareness - harnessed with a "let it be" reaction when confronted by rogue-like driving - an improvement I'd take anyday.
An epiphany made me realise that this meditation retreat is a possible remedy for motorcycle racing gangs.
Remember the dek waan (male) and sakoi (female) members of motorcycle gangs who allegedly strangled the life out of Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Samrit Taemthong?
Personally I'd rather pit these scum against hordes of angry protesters wired on kratom leaves (mitragyna speciosa) in some closed-door stadium.
Or throw them at the mercy of an irate government leader whose verbal diatribes and promises of retribution to the protestors (and members of the media, it seems) are anything but worthy of an individual assuming the state's highest office.
But then society as we know it, would not exist if such whims were as easily fulfilled, just like a magic spell in a Harry Potter flick.
Instead, subject them to a dose of seven consecutive 16-hour days comprising: noisy fan blowing over a thin mattress separating body and hard floor, waking up at 4am, white attire, walking jong-krom style back and forth for three to five metres in slow steps of up to seven patterns, meditation, three strict vegetarian meals per day, no conversation and calling it a day at 9pm.
Cool speakers like Varakorn Raiwa and Pol Col Norawat Charoen-Rajapark will explain in layman's terms the Buddhist version of heaven and hell which could have a profound effect.
On my seventh night while brushing my teeth I watched a mosquito suck my blood till it swelled up and fell off. Standard procedure would have involved smacking its excrement back to mosquito heaven but I let it be.
I'm actually trying to talk to ants in my apartment by telling them to move out or else they might be squashed.
Sure, laugh ... the writer swears he's of sound mind, but that's what Norawat did with his termite problem, and it worked, apparently.
This is hardly an attempt at building a pious image; judging from a lifetime of misdeeds, I'm nowhere near to getting bonus points on the 30-odd levels of hell to heaven.
But I'm merely suggesting that maybe Khun Mae Siri's meditation retreat could tone down these motorcycle gangs in one way or another.
It makes more sense than sending them off to some youth correctional facility where God knows what will happen to them behind closed doors; they'll come out worse than scum and rev up their motorcycles the moment they are released.
Why not round up the scum and send them to Khun Mae Siri - hopefully they'll walk out of the retreat as good sons and daughters of our society.
Alfred Tha Hla covers the auto industry and related issues for Motoring Section, Bangkok Post
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