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International Perceptions of the United States of America |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Sunday, 01 August 2010 05:40 |
It is amazing how little it is possible to get done sometimes, surrounded by the myriad distractions of modern technology as we often find ourselves. The internet in particular is a WONDERFUL tool and source of information, but it is all too easy to get sucked into the mindless descending spiral into the land of talking cats or hilarious news stories. Of course it is always fun to see what new gaffe a politician has made, or see another photo gallery of the latest tragedy. To join in with the rest of the nation in the information-overload-inspired “Two Minutes Hate” (speaking of which, is the topic of the 2MH still BP, or have we moved on? I am not as up on the current outrage as I once would have been).
These past few weeks I have been finding myself farther and farther away from the outrages of the West...farther and farther away from the general attitudes of the Americas...farther and farther away from the political machinations of the government of my birth...and I think I like it. It is puzzling sometimes, to take a step back and see the US in the grand scheme with the rest of the planet...to talk to people, both Thai and Expats (primarily from the Commonwealth territories...UK, Wales, Australia) and to see how the States are viewed internationally. It is actually quite amusing, and I think I have really pinned down the best way to describe the international view of the States.
Do you remember being in Kindergarten? I remember running around the playground, playing “Boys Versus Girls” and getting our collective male asses handed to us most of the time unless it involved throwing. Playing tag or dodge-ball (just roll the ball, you wouldn't want to HIT someone, would you?) Or crawling around in the “Red Tube” between the play structure, or OOOH, this was my favorite! The steel tricycles...the ones all laid back and low rider like...those were awesome. I doubt kids even get to play with those anymore...too many opportunities to get hurt...I know I did. We would run over each others hands, tricycle-joust, race around the painted ring inside the kindergarten fenced yard...I digress...
Anyways, do you remember that one kid? Everyone had that “one kid”, if you didn't you were the “one kid”. In my case, his name was Alex. I believe Alex came from a disadvantaged background, parental problems or something like that, and he was just...a little below the curve intellectually speaking. In later years he was a nice enough kid, but in kindergarten he was the “Brute Squad.” He had a clear foot of height on all of us, myself included (which was usually rare, even then) and he liked to hit things and take what he wanted. Cookies, tricycles, steering wheels, those awesome red rubber balls, the blue market...really...anything he wanted. He had that “tard-strength” I heard it once called...(I think Adam Corolla said that). He would take what he wanted, screaming semi-incoherent frothy frustrations, and basically be an ass. Everyone tried to stay out of his way for fear of being bullied, people would offer cookies if he walked by figuring that if you offered him one, he might take it and go away instead of taking all three of the cookies your mother packed in your lunchbox for you. Like the man in “Of Mice and Men” he didn't know his own strength, and while he wasn't always malicious, he was always to be feared.
This is the way much of the world views the US and our policies. I spoke with a Welsh man today who had a good chuckle about the hypocrisy of the entire system, from our international policies to our energy policies. The Australians and Thai were intrigued to see what Obama was going to do, hoping he would end the shoveling of money to the corporate elites and big-bank cronies, then shook their heads in dismay as the string of checks continued unimpeded out of Washington. They watch America's continual societal endorsement of large-scale corruption and wonder how we continue to weather our own self-created storms. The world watches in a mixture of amusement and fear as the US thrashes like an off-balance Gulliver in a world of Lilliputians unsure of what to do should the giant finally topple.
I love the country of my birth deeply, it is where my heart lies and my family lives, but its people have become lost. Lost in a world of trash-TV and awash in a sea of marketing and product placement. Why think about the rest of the world when the next episode of Lost is coming on? “Oh my god, genocide in Afric.......wait......is that DANCING WITH THE STARS?!?! I LOOOOVE that show!” Most Americans are malnourished (this does not mean in our case starving...it means our nutrition is muy malo...very bad.) and over-medicated entertainment addicted zombies. We are awash in a flow of information that is so large and so frightening that it is easier to focus on the latest entertainment fad and remain comfortably asleep and apathetic to the changes in the world around us. We are creatures within the confines of the shimmering walls of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451...watching our shows and being supremely concerned with the actions of others in a world that doesn't exist...while we ignore the world that does just outside our door.
Unplug...step out of the cave of your life into the bright light of the world beyond. Stand blinking sleep from your eyes in the harsh burning light of reality. Sometimes is may hurt, but it is better to live the truth than to hide in a dream world of artificial light, color, and sound. |
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The Madman Across The Water |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Friday, 30 July 2010 01:54 |
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I rode bus 23 once as a child. I seem to remember it picking me up at the corner of the street I lived on and carrying me to school. To Miss Smith's class, if I place the time period correctly. I was a child, totally unsure of where I was going, totally unsure of the bus I was on...I asked the driver, a kind hearted by hard faced woman, if it was the bus that took me to my elementary school...every morning. Every morning I would double check to ensure I was bound for the correct port of call.
Those feelings, so long forgotten in the mists of old memories, returned in part today on my voyage to Bangkok as I sit on Bus 23, recently departed from the Ekkmai bus station. As a child, you must ask directions and rely on the goodwill of strangers and family to ensure you get where you need to go. When you are too young to read, you depend on others pointing you in the right direction. Today, bumbling around Bangkok, I felt more completely lost than I have in a LONG time. I felt like the child, lost in a world bigger than me, and that I cannot understand. I am not the type of person who is often found completely without a clue...but that was me today. It wasn't a bad thing, just a foreign one. We as human beings generally keep ourselves in one very small region that we can grasp easily and could all benefit from a little expansion of range..
As a segue into this little internal conversation, I am sitting on the bus from Bangkok to Ban Phe right now, and the in-drive entertainment is some sort of Thai show that consists of a bunch of Thai men dressed in bluejeans and white shirts, singing some song and beating one another with sticks, fans, pans, and fish...I have no idea what is going on. While it does not have the stunning WTFness that Japanese TV has, I am still completely at a loss...the girl sitting opposite me, who is somewhere between the ages of 12 and 80 (I never can tell with Asian women), is finding it hilarious...I REALLY wish I knew what was doing on, she has a beautiful smile, but I wish I knew what was so funny! :P
Anyways, today I went to Bangkok with a twofold mission: 1.) Help a friend get to the airport, carry bags as necessary, etc. and 2.) Talk to China Airlines about the ticket I had been forced to purchase to Vientiane before I got my boarding pass at LAX. Since my wonderful friend was kind enough to allow me to tag along in her cab she purchased for the trip, I went on her time schedule compounded by a phenomenon called by the Thai people “Thai Time”. My friend, Autumn, was supposed to leave in the cab at 11:00...it didn't show up until 11:40...which put us at the airport somewhere in the vicinity of 1:30. We got separated when I went to go talk to China Airlines, which said I needed to go to their downtown office to sort out the issue. Wanted to get things done, I went outside and hopped in another cab for a trip to the city center. I arrived there after spending almost two hours in traffic in the cab.
I arrived at the Siam Paragon, which Google said was very near where I needed to go. Turns out, Google knows exactly jack-shit about downtown Bangkok. After much walking and asking questions, I was finally able to get someone to write the address in Thai so I could go and catch a tuk-tuk to take me to the place. Google said the distance walking was under 1km...it took us almost 20 minutes to get there driving. I arrived at 5:20, only to discover that they closed at 5:00...so that mission was a failure.
There was then the adventure of taking the train to the Ekkmai station, which has a bus stop nearby. The problem with little diagrams and the like is that they really don't show scale, and are often terrible at showing directions. Thus far my approach in Thailand for navigation is to walk in an every widening circle around a point I know to be near my intended destination until I stumble upon it by accident. This does not always work out so well....and tonight...well...lets put it this way. I walked down every single street BUT the one with the bus terminal, up until just before the bus left. I bought a round trip ticket back to Ban Phe, and will be back in Bangkok tomorrow to sort this business with the airline out. As it is, I am pretty tired, I missed eating all day except for some tea and a croissant this morning, and I am looking forward to a plate of pad sie gai and a large Leo beer upon return to the Bedrock Guesthouse and Grill...I think I need to fix Aum's computer too... no rest for the people who are stupid enough to let someone know they have a useful skill. :P
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Written by Jason Brink
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 03:06 |
 In the beginning there was the song, and it burst from the stars and ravaged the earth with its melodies. Some of the notes struck the the stones in the form of stars hurled from the sky to crash down to earth. Others became waves, churned by the melody and tempo to beat upon the shores. Still others became wind, reedy and lilting as a piper’s pipe, winnowing from the scattered chafe of the earth the seeds of life before casting them upon the earthquake-tilled ground. The song grew and grew, weaving together to form the blades of grass, the trunks of trees, the majestic arc of river paths and the deep cacophonous boom of the earth. The music twisted, crashed together, burst apart, and then finally lay still.
It is always remarkable, the way you learn new things. New pictures of reality given to you by those you meet, new ways to tie the world together. As we were walking down the street to go meet a couple friends at Moka, a local place near the water that serves a reasonable facsimile of western pizza, I noticed she was humming a little song and very quietly voicing our surroundings...giving name to them in song. Generally speaking, she is a very sing-song type of person to begin with, and it is amusing to listen to her sing whatever it is that may have come to her mind. I asked what the significance of the singing was, and she explained to me that it was tied to aboriginal spirituality in Australia, and that at the beginning of the world before time, everything that exists in our world was sung into being. That these songs were called song-lines, and when traveling the aborigines would sing the story of their journey, which would allow other to make the same journey by following the signs from within the song.
She went on to say that the Aborigines believe that the world is held together by these songs, and that were the songs to cease to be sung, the objects in them would cease to exist. With these songs acting as a sort of collective memory, it is a perfect example of the belief that “if I don’t remember/see/think about/acknowledge it, it doesn’t exist. The belief that we in our remembering, control what happens in the world around us.
I do not believe that the world can be made or unmade by a song, but I do believe that there is a very important lesson here...that we can through our remembering of truths, and forgetting of slights and offenses. How much could we possibly make things better if we, as a race, let ourselves remember our human relation, and forget the walls that divide us. How much would the world change if everyone just forgot the dividing lines of their religions? How much more peaceful would the world be if we let ourselves move past the theological barriers that have held us apart for so long and recognized the common aspects of our humanity.
 I laugh a bit when I write thing, because it really makes it sound like I should be wearing patchouli oil and sitting up in the top of a big tree somewhere trying to keep the evil lumber company from destroying Gaia, but that's not really my thing and everyone who knows me knows that very well. I am not a hippy, but when you look at causes of loss of life globally it almost always comes down to a REALLY REALLY REALLY stupid reason behind the conflict. Christians v. Muslims, Muslims v. Christians, Pagans v. Christians, Christians v. Pagans, Christians v. Christians, Muslims v. Muslims... I don’t understand why everyone can’t give it a rest. There is no need for us to fight one another, even from a religious standpoint. Every single religion without question has within it the basics of the concept of peace and goodwill. There are certainly outliers which twist the meanings of their religion to match the most terrible and violent interpretation of their religion; radical Islam, the Westboro Baptist nutjobs, and others like them...but by and large most people desire nothing more than to be left alone. The average Muslim bears no ill will towards the average Christian, nor does the average Christian bear any ill will towards the average Muslim...I think deep down everyone recognizes that they are all just human beings. If we could just for a moment stop singing the songs of destruction, stop chanting the rhythms to unmake the world, perhaps we could learn a new song.
Personally, I know there are many things that I have seen done over the years....many slights and offenses both perceived and real. I have made a choice to let them go...to let them fall by the wayside my mind, it is of no profit to hold things against people, its done, its over...moving forward from here.
That's my rant for the day. In other news I spent some time at the hospital in Rayong getting another dose of the TwinRix Hep A+B vaccine. Incredibly beautiful hospital, giant, clean, and shining. I was VERY impressed. The language barrier was something of an issue, but at least I am already in the Thai system now in case something happens. I even have a little hospital ID card and everything.
I am headed to Bangkok today for some shopping and paperwork purposes, and to help a friend with her baggage at the airport. Should be back in Ban Phe by later tonight, but I might end up staying over there somewhere. Always a big adventure.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 29 July 2010 03:29 |
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The View from Saikaew Beach |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Sunday, 25 July 2010 02:33 |
 There are many benefits to living within a merit based society...people are not quite so quick to be total asses to one another, while you will get cheated occasionally, its not nearly as frequent as if you were in a place that is NOT merit based. For example, most foreigners will get roughly the same price for cab fares and ferry tickets as the local Thai populace will. Some drivers will try to cheat you, but overall its pretty even.
People are often kinder to one another, smiling and thinking that its better to live in a society in which everything seems happy than one which they don’t. The Thai people are often very helpful and if it looks like you are in a spot that you can’t quite communicate your needs to someone, another who can help will intervene and help arrange things without being asked, and will often not ask anything for it.
However, there are points at which a Buddhist merit based mentality is something of a roadblock, and this is in the department of animal control. It is against Buddhist morality to kill needlessly...a belief that I often hold as well, i.e. don’t shoot a bluejay for the sake of shooting a bluejay. However, when there are so many dogs that they are actually a credible danger to all passers by, something should be done about it.
The first few days I didn’t notice the dogs, you would see them here and there, but it wasn’t a huge deal. 99% of them are just fine, doing whatever it is that they feel they should be doing and living side by side with their human neighbors. One, Scout as he has been named, sits on the first step of the market in Ban Phe, but doesn’t bother anyone. Sometimes he will look balefully at you, but he never bothers you. Other dogs however, do not have the same good behaviour as Scout does. Riding my bike in the morning I often get scampered after half-heartedly by one dog or another...I have been outright chased once...but its not a big deal...I can see them on the side of the road and avoid them by crossing in another area.
On the island of Koh Samet though, it is a different story.
Perhaps I should explain Koh Samet and the situation surrounding it before I continue with the dogs.
Koh Samet is an island on the eastern seaboard of the Gulf of Thailand...it is a beautiful mass of trees, rocks, and white sand dropped into the ocean. It is possible to take a ferry from Ban Phe to Koh Samet for just over a dollar...a good price for a 40 minute ferry ride. To get to the ferry you must walk far out on this long pier that seems to have been assembled by the rejected toothpicks from the toothpick factory. The two girls I was with, both travelers from the states, didn’t feel quite secure on the pier...I was reasonably sure I was going to end up swimming in the harbor.
 We made it to Koh Samet, walked through the national part security checkpoint like we belonged on the island and without looking around and gawking like a tourist, and thus avoided the 200 baht entry fee (about $6.50). They are used to having teachers around, so if you don’t LOOK like a tourist, they will usually just assume you are a teacher and living in the city...they were too busy dealing with the three boatloads of Chinese tourists who REALLY looked like tourists...I think the sign that indicates whether a Chinese citizen is a tourist or not is a fanny pack...there were plenty of those to go around. We walked through the line of beach bars and dinner houses to the far end of Silver Sands Beach to a beach called Saikaew, where we met up with a few other people and began absorbing sunlight and drinking the impossibly large bottles of thai beer that can be had for about a dollar.
Scattered about in the sand, either flopped out on one side or dragging their asses through the side like they were trying to excavate a channel, are dogs....dogs of every shape and size. There was no portion of the canine family was neglected in this gathering. There was not much commonality between each of them other than the fact that they were all manged to the point they had no hair...just weird wrinkled skin.
Most of them were not a nuisance, they would just sit in the sand or follow you around, not looking the least bit interested or threatening. They were simply EVERYWHERE. As the day began to wind down, and people moved from the beach to the bars, they dogs began to congregate nearer to those of us who were still on the beach...namely my group. By the time we got off the beach, there was a good 30 dogs following us around...they, as all dogs do, decided it was time to start fighting. Nothing like a dog fight going on around your legs. Makes me wish I had gotten my rabies course before I left.
We had spent the entire day on the island, and were just getting ready to return when one of the girl’s Thai boyfriend arrived...on a sailboard. Tony Ja here had sailed all the way from the mainland to the island, then around the island to where we were and would not be able to return until the next day when the wind reversed direction. During the contemplation of this event, we managed to miss the last ferry returning to the mainland. Unfortunately, as this weekend is a Thai holiday, there were no rooms whatsoever to be had on the island for any sort of reasonable price. There was one room that I could have shared with one of the girls, but we both didn’t really feel like staying on the island overnight and we both had rooms we had already paid for on the mainland. It was only a $15 added cost, but still... So, we went and stood on the pier to see if we could hop a speedboat back to the mainland.
The other thing that plays into this is that it is storm season in Thailand, and we had been watching a storm brewing out in the gulf all day. As we arrived at the pier is began to rain...first a sprinkle, then a full on tropical deluge. We hopped in a convenient speedboat and were bound for the mainland, cutting arcs storm chop, being drenched by sea spray and rain, and generally having a bad time of it. I wasn't too worried about it until the speedboat driver started grunting and feeling around for his life vest under the seat... we made it without incident, but it was a journey.
So exhausted was I upon returning, that I collapsed into bed after rinsing the sand off me, had a very brief moment to wish my very good friend a happy birthday (HAPPY STILL BIRTHDAY!!! I wish I was there to share it!), and then literally passed out. Today should be a bit more low key...I want to get some writing done.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 25 July 2010 02:52 |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Friday, 23 July 2010 01:59 |
 Every time I have gone anywhere globally, I have always noticed that everywhere in the world manages to lag behind the US in popular culture by about a decade...which is not a bad thing. I don’t say this attempting to flaunt the cultural superiority of the US, only to point out that its odd sometimes to hop in a taxi cab with a thai driver, and speed down their immaculate expressways while he croons very very very badly to Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby, One More Time!”
To take a trip on the Thai expressways made me realize a couple things. :)
First, good lord Californian roads suck...think back for a bit to a decade ago and think about the roads. We don’t really notice how bad they have become because its a gradual process, but the Thai roads are without exception in fantastic shape. I am on the south-eastern side of Thailand, and every single road I was on, both in Bangkok and outside, were fantastic.
Secondly...well...first I should qualify this. As most of you know, I got back from Haiti not too terribly long ago, and spending time in Port-au-Prince gave a new meaning to the concept of litter. I am also from an area that is very dry, so things do not break down...ever...so if there is a paper tossed into the grass on the side of the road, its pretty much there until the sun breaks it down, or someone picks it up. However, one thing I have noticed is that most of the roads here in Thailand are very clean. Not immaculate, but very clean. From where I am, I think I can see maybe one or two pieces of litter blowing around in the 100 meters of road I can see.
Anyways, yesterday consisted of a journey from Bangkok to the small town of Ban Phe on the South Eastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand. I am currently staying at a small place called the Bedrock Guesthouse and Grill...neat place, its a little on the hot side, but then again I am staying in one of the fan rooms for $6/night...instead of bucking for the $18/night room with the AC. My room even came with a free lizard...I have named him Bob...seemed like a good name for a lizard.
 This morning, I went for a ride along Road 3145 (wonderful name, isn’t it?) which runs along the beach here. It was beautiful, in the pre dawn light. The road is long and straight, with tall pine trees on both sides, a few businesses here and there, but pine trees in front of jungle for the rest of it. It really is a remarkable thing. I didn’t have my camera with me for the ride, but I will be bringing it along tomorrow.
Socially, I have fallen in with a group of expats from all over the world, there are two Aussies, two Brits, and a South African...good group of guys, spent time talking to them last night about all sorts of things...very interesting group. They all spend time doing various things in the area...one owns the guesthouse here, others do various odd sounding jobs are various locals around the region.
I am off to brave a bit more of the world today...I am going to catch a ferry out to Koh Samet later today I believe, just wander around a bit, see some things. It will be good to get out on the water.
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Last Updated on Friday, 23 July 2010 05:44 |
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Crimson Cannonball: The Non-Blog of Jason Brink
