Bangkok Post: Forum

by **MoCuishle** on Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:54 pm

Heya Fast Eddy,

Good to hear from you, I have stayed online to await your respone so that you could be more measured and I could reply. Thank you*

"Rose coloured glasses"? No, I don't feel that is a valid comment. I worked in English prisons for five years, I worked as a therapist in a group for violent and abusive men. I earned my right to see clearly and to stay in my heart in the midst of the most awful human suffering.

I worked for Palestine and wept when Israel launched it's last assult.

"Thankfully on the whole, our countries have got passed such excesses though as you mentioned America still has some way to go given the conduct of 'W'. :evil:

I think I was very shocked at how his family felt that his actions were exceedingly trivial given that in their opinion such low class citizens who use buses don't deserve human rights and the right to life.

First of all I have to ask "who are our countries?" This is so divisive! I do not know anything about his parents feeling that l only low class citizens use buses. Do you know that is absolutely true?

The criminal justice system in the UK and in the US is a huge money making operation. Illiterate, poor and mentally ill peope are regularly locked up mainly because they are vulnerable. Incidentally when Lord Archer was imprisoned, he made a fortune selling his "prison diaries" even though it is illegal to make money from your crime in the U.K. And he is still in the House of Lords! Yeah, that is my yuk thing, that p****s me off. It costs over 20,000 THB to keep one person in prison per week in the U.K. Can we really afford that? Watch it all fall apart now.

I have a friend who works as a teacher in a private Thai school and she regularly tears her hair out because the the parents will pay more so that their children "pass" their exams or go up a class. She has tolerated, with great patience parents who do their children's homework because they are more concerned with results and their "ego status" than with the true spirit of education. She is one of those extraordinary people who look with real*eyes.

As do I. I don't think that acceptance and change comes when one is judging another as inferior or evil. I feel it comes when we endeavour to go beyond our blind emotional reactions and strive for understanding.

Twinkles to you Fast Eddy.

MoCushle

by **pachangamac042** on Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:24 pm

Dear MoCushle, welcome to the forum first.

Well mate, you sound a bit like a priest to me. A spoiled kid kills some people, his parents pay out some money and what a great system?

On the other hand, friends of mine have been innocently in jail, because they were accuse of crimes and denied bail. They spend between 3 days the one because a traffic accident, even he was fully insured and obviously not guilty, an other one spend three month in jail for murder, even when the murder happened he was on visa run to Malaysia, and an other one for forged cheques, spend 4 month in jail and was only released because the authorities found the real criminal who forged them.

This is Thailand, my friend. And my suggestion to you, keep a low profile if you want to enjoy this country for a long time.

As for the spoiled kid, let him do his time, he may like it and become a man after all.

Enjoy the forum Mo :cheers:

by **fast eddy** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:40 am

Nice one Pach - I was thinking 'missionary lovey' myself

Then of course there are all the 'unsolved' murders where men of uniform have been involved - remember the British couple in Katchanaburi who were offed by the cop? et al:evil:

Mo - Thanks for staying on line and waiting for me to reply to your opinion :cheers:

I'm afraid I couldn't reply to your reply as I had a class to teach. Welcome to Thailand its a wonderful place compared to many others in the world and generally speaking, the people are wonderful when compared to many in other parts of the world

Don't be in a hurry to grow-up too quickly. You may have heard the expression 'you can't put an old head on young shoulders' and what you will read next is meant most sincerely as you are in the honeymoon stage of living full time out here. Enjoy and don't look too deaply into those around you - that time will come when you have to learn to avoid the minefields and pitfalls :roll:

Yes, rose coloured glasses, for sure - and so it should be when you've just stepped off the plane (relatively speaking). You have started a new life which stands diametrically opposed to your previous one in the uk prison service!

Enjoy the beauty and tranquility that greases the wheels of everyday life out here and don't dig too deeply. As Patch says, lay low, keep your head down, enjoy the beaches, sunsets, trecking in Chiang Mai and all of the touristy stuff with a clear mind :idea:

Enjoy your freedom to step outside into the sunshine whenever you wish rather than the surroundings of a victorian jail

Enjoy the laughing children, chattering birds and the sound of spoken Thai by beautiful ladies rather than the slamming of doors and the harsh jangle of keys during slop-outs and lock downs

Make friends with the locals and tourists who you bump into during your day to day life - open your mind to other cultures and the way they do things and the pros and cons of their cultures versus what you percieve of Thai culture and all that you know of the cultures you have left behind (both the uk and the prison service) rather than having to witness or

stay one step ahead of prison riots, plots to jump the jailers, random flash points/riots, cell searches, putting people through reception, young boys being pimped out, stabbings, sadists et al which was a part of your old life in the prison system Happy days Mo. Above all, forget about Jeff Archer and his ilk - get over it and get on with what maybe the best part of your life in Thailand

As to Mu Ham, I think all of this occured while you were still holding therapy classes for male rape victims/sado-masichists and wife/child abusers back in the uk. Yes, I'm sorry to say, that it was all over the news channels and papers that his parents viewed the victims of Mu Ham's hissy fit with the bus as pretty much equal to soi dogs and the death warranted as much sympathy as roadkill :evil:

Many Thais as well as non-Thais were incensed by this reaction from his parents - especially given that his mother was an ex- Thai beauty competition winner and had represented the country in international competitions :roll:

Of course, he was allowed bail even though he'd murdered an innocent bus passenger who was waiting by the bus and injured others in the group. He was allowed to keep his driving liscense as the authorities stated that using a car to murder another human being and depriving them of their right to life as well as depriving the victim's parents of enjoying a long life with their son/daughter didn't constitute a traffic violation! :evil:

I can accept your stance to support Mu Ham as your working background and training is based on and around such people - you have to try to garner something positive from such an evil act :twisted:

However, while you opine that he and his parents are wracked with guilt and grief for all the harm Mu Ham caused it wasn't long before he rammed another bus full of passengers with his Merc :twisted:

Are you beginning to get the picture/ :lol:

And guess what? He's still not in jail/a mental institution or a straight jacket :roll:

So, the upshot is Mo, enjoy your new life and leave behind your old predudices/certainties as you are in a whole new world.

Enjoy it as much as you can, help people along the way and they will help you in return or others further down the line will give you a lift/opportunity. :idea:

Most of all, be very careful when around young rich kids as you never know when they will kick-off and the law will not protect you in these cases. This is Thailand :cheers:

Cheers

Fast Eddy

by **fast eddy** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:41 pm

I thank you for the compliment.

It is difficult to summarise the situation which is so broad on so many levels. Culture shock is a series of ups and downs - first year or so one's sure one's in utopia and one defends it to the hilt (virtually speaking) and then over the course of time the rose glasses slip and the discovery of a murky undercurrent is akin to the deepest betrayl from a loved one. Then one rationalises, compares and contrasts and so the process goes on... 8-)

I think that is why a lot of us contribute to the forum and our places along the journey are at so many differing points that (hopelfully) we can draw strength from others to get us over the hump and back to the warm fuzzy feelings or pick up some sound advice to help us to avoid a big crash just waiting to happen :roll:

Anyway, having been out here full time for 17 years, I've very little recollection of what I left behind - though I do accept that I was out of the uk before PC became the norm so have never bought into it or have been affected by it. Perhaps this comes across in my postings :lol:

As Father Gibbons used to say to me, my bro and sis when he came around for Sunday Lunch
'I call a spade a spade'!

cheers

Fast Eddy

by **pachangamac042** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:32 pm

Hey Fast Eddy, have you read the opinion commentary in todays BP? Great reading. Suddenly many things make sense. Great system. :mrgreen:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... ur-country

by **fast eddy** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:16 pm

Cheers

Patch for pointing out that great article. Wow! It's really hitting the fan now - people have just seen and had enough of this one law for the hi-so/connected and one for the rest of us :evil:

Mo, you should check out the link - but maybe not because you want to prolong your honeymoon as long as possible and rightly so.

I remember one of the first stories I read in the BP about a bar owner who had a visit from a gang demanding protection money or else... He played for time, citing that he hadn't taken much cash this evening and that tomorrow would be a better time as it would be a weekend. Having agreed to this, the extortion gang turned up at his bar the following evening. Unbeknown to the mafia, the owner of the bar was cop and invited his off-watch along to the pub for a free night on the turps. so when the gang showed up he introduced his buddies - to which they showed their own warrant cards and replied 'Oh! We're cops too - no sweat we'll just try the next bar along!' :lol:

It sickens me that an author of a few derogatory lines against a certain member of a special Thai household is rotting in prison having been arrested at the airport, given no bail and sentenced to 3 years in prison whilst a murderous hi-so little swine like MU Ham is swanning around living the privelidged life of Railey :evil:

I really hope things take a turn for the better and we see an end to such disparity of justice in Thailand :roll:

cheers again Patch

Fast Eddy

by **pachangamac042** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:31 pm

You are welcome fast eddy. But for your hope, for things to take a turn, I am afraid that they may just take a double u-turn, and keep going on as usual. :oops:

by **fast eddy** on Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:49 pm

I think you're spot on again Patch :roll:

Maybe its time for me to shut up shop and take the Mrs for three months to vegitate on a beach - no news :lol:

Get this, the Thais who rent the ground floor of our building finally fired their dayworker about a month ago as she was often two hours late in opening their shop and really didn't do much of anything. Foolishly, they didn't supervise her departure from the building but did it by phone - of course they paid the price :roll:

When they turned up the next day the photocopier and computer had taken a hike :evil:

They reported it to the police who replied ' we think it wasn't the girl you fired but she let a friend in to carry the stuff away for her - what can we do?' My thoughts were to re-enact every cop show I've seen and put the girl through the good cop/bad cop routine while she is held in custody. Basically, if you don't tell us who you let in the shop to steal the equipment we're going to book you for it!
I guess the cops just couldn't see any payoff for them :evil:

cheers

Fast Eddy