Voting in Thailand and Mexico

Earlier this week there was a big story in The Bangkok Post about Americans voting in Thailand. "Hundreds of US expatriates exercised their voting rights at polling stations Feb 5 in Thailand that had been set up to allow Americans abroad direct participation in the Democratic primary for the first time. There are about 20,000+ US residents living throughout Thailand. US overseas voters will be represented at the Democratic Party Convenstion in August by 22 delegates." [To my knowledge there has not been any kind of similar action by Republicans here. Although it seems as though any Americans we meet over here are more likely to be Democratic in the issues they support.]

I took the photo above of Jim when we were staying in the small town of Creel at the Copper Canyon in Mexico in 2002. One evening after dinner, we heard fireworks and music outside our guesthouse and ventured out to see what was happening. It looked like the whole town had converged on the square where there was a big rally. There were "candidates" speaking urging everyone to make a commitment and VOTE - but about what, we weren't sure. Of course, the speeches were all in Spanish. Folks seemed happy to have us there and generously handed us ballots with which to vote. We were able to figure out that the activity was some kind of fund-raiser for computers for kids in the schools. I took this shot of Jim as he dropped his ballot in. [Wish I'd thought to take a matching photo this week when he voted on the temple grounds in Chiang Mai.] We decided to vote in different boxes just to keep everyone happy.




Here are a few more photos from our trip to the Copper Canyon.

"Regarding travel? The more time you have, the less money it takes."

Your road is everything that a road ought to be...and yet you will not stay in it half a mile, for the reason that little, seductive, mysterious roads are always branching out from it on either hand, and as these curve sharply and hide what is beyond, you cannot resist the temptation to desert your own chosen road and explore them. -- Mark Twain

Chiang Mai Flower Festival

Every year, on the first weekend of February, the city holds its Annual Flower Festival, that includes a parade of marching bands, displays of native dress and culture and beautiful floats, creatively designed with intricate arrangements of all the flowers in bloom now. (During this festival, there were 3000 different orchid species represented.) This year there were floats designed of temples, tributes to the King's sister who recently died and historical events in Bhudda's life and in the city of Chiang Mai. In the photos (link below), you will see there are not throngs of people watching the parade as everyone knows the floats will be on display for several days parked in the midst of the festival for picture taking. It's another food-and-craft-fest plus creative flower and planting arrangements, along with many kinds of orchids and other plants for sale.

If you want to see more photos that Jim and I took, go to Chiang Mai Flower Festival photo album .

Obama or Clinton in 2008

Excerpts from The New York Times editorial endorsing Hilary Clinton, January 25, 2008:
". . . Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton would both help restore America’s global image, to which President Bush has done so much grievous harm. They are committed to changing America’s role in the world, not just its image. . . . On the major issues, there is no real gulf separating the two. They promise an end to the war in Iraq, more equitable taxation, more effective government spending, more concern for social issues, a restoration of civil liberties and an end to the politics of division of George W. Bush and Karl Rove."

"Mr. Obama has built an exciting campaign around the notion of change, but holds no monopoly on ideas that would repair the governing of America. Hearing her talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America’s big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience. The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can’t foresee. The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president."

More here about the Times Editorial Board Endorsements of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic race and Senator John McCain in the Republican field.

Caroline Kennedy:
"Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

"Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process."

Senator Ted Kennedy:
“With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion, Senator Kennedy declared. "With Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign — a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us,” he said.

The New York Times:
"The Kennedys and Obama hit the same contrasts again and again in their speeches: the high road versus the low road; inspiration versus calculation; future versus the past; and most of all, service versus selfishness. . . . Talk to Democrats in D.C., and it’s amazing how many who know the Clintons well — many of whom worked in the Clinton administration — are eager that they not return to the White House."

Commentor and journalist David Brooks:
"After his callow youth, Kennedy came to realize that life would not give him the chance to be president. But life did ask him to be a senator, and he has embraced that role [and came "to live a life of service"] and served that institution with more distinction than anyone else now living — as any of his colleagues, Republican or Democrat, will tell you. And he could do it because culture really does have rhythms. The respect for institutions that was prevalent during the early ’60s is prevalent with the young again today. The earnest industriousness that was common then is back today. The awareness that we are not self-made individualists, free to be you and me, but emerge as parts of networks, webs and communities; that awareness is back again today."

Luang Prabang - Laptops for Kids

While in Luang Prabang, Jim visited The Language Project, which is part self-learning center, part computer lab and part library, and talked to an American woman working there. Jim wrote, "They had just received two of the cheap laptops developed by folks at MIT to distribute to developing nations where computer access is too expensive or too high tech. The computers use Linux operating system but the staff has no experience with Linux. Yet. Also, the computers came without manuals. Two volunteers were busy trying to figure out how to use them."

The project developing this idea is One Laptop per Child. "The computers are quite small, made of plastic, and look like toys. The original ones were designed with a windup crank attached to the side of the notebooks to generate electric power and cost about $100. Apparently that didn't work out so well and now they come equipped to plug into conventional electrical outlets and cost $178." [They have a 500MHz processor and 1GB of memory.]









Jim left Luang Prabang after a week or so and hitched back down to Vang Vieng. One day, he took off on a long walk looking for a cave near the Nam Song river in Vang Vieng. It was a longer walk than anticipated and on the return to his guesthouse, he was getting realy tired. Two Lao boys on bikes stopped and offered to help him out. One of the bikes had a seat on the back, so Jim steered that one and of the boys got a ree ride all the back into town.

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. -- Freya Stark

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. -- Lao Tzu

Poverty in America

I just finished reading The Working Poor - Invisible in America by David Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land which I would like to find soon. Maybe it will help me better understand what is going on over there.

Here is a brief excerpt describing the population of people who are fully employed and working hard and yet live below the poverty level in the United States. “They help you find merchandise in Walmart; they wait on you in stores, harvest your food, clean your offices, sew your clothes. They package lights for your kids’ bikes and they assemble books of wallpaper samples to help you redecorate. . ."

"One little girl in the intensive care unit, [she] remembered, had an extreme allergy to cats. The family had a cat. We said, ‘Oh, you really need to get rid of the cat. The child’s really allergic to the cat, and we think that’s part of the reason she has these really bad asthma attacks.’ And the parents looked at me dead on and said, “But the cat kills the rats.’ Clearly the house was the problem, but the solution was part of another problem.”

I would recommend this book to anyone. It will open your eyes and give you a new perspective on being poor in America, not unlike Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Eating Thai Style

This is my favorite noodle cart setting up for the night, usually around 5pm, at the top of my lane. This guy makes the best noodle soup I have tasted in Thailand. I eat there a few nights a week.

Thailand may boast the finest street food on earth; it has long attracted migrants from across Asia, so its street cuisine, both at vendor carts and in tiny restaurants, blends many styles of cooking. Here's a slide show that was in The New York Times recently that describes dining out Thai style.

The Thai lifestyle and eating habits lend themselves to street meals. Since Thais normally eat many small meals rather than three squares and traditionally prefer to meet outside the house, street food suits them. Most Thai dishes can be cooked relatively quickly, and Thais are fastidious about cleanliness, important to customers worried about eating alongside a road. It never ceases to amaze me that foreigners travel half-way around the world to get here - and then eat in western style restaurants with western-style prices rather than enjoying fresh and inexpensive delicious Thai food cooked to your specifications right in front of you!

Every Sunday these monstrous buses are parked on a street near my guesthouse unloading Thai tourists for Chiang Mai's now famous Sunday Walking Street that I wrote about in the last post to this blog.

How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you — you leave bits of yourself fluttering on the fences — little rags and shreds of your very life. — Katherine Mansfield

Sunday Walking Steet

A few years before I starting coming here, the idea was launched to shut down the main street outside the gates of the moat every Sunday and to promote the crafts of local artisans. My second year the weekly festival moved inside the old city and has grown every year to be this massive event that takes over the main streets inside the moat. The Thais call it Sunday Walking Street as it and all side strees are closed to traffic after setting up in the afternoon.

Vendors carefully arrange their mostly handmade wares - colorful embroidery of hand-woven hill tribe fabrics, homemade paper lanterns, the intricate work of Chiang Mai’s silversmiths, woodcarvers and more - along with some junky imported trinkets. There are also street musicians - traditional and pop - Thai dancers, living statues, and puppet shows.

The 70-degree evening air is filled with the smell of food cooking along with scented oils and candles as you walk along as many of the several kilometers as you can manage, through a showcase of quality handicrafts and delicacies from all corners of the Northern provinces. Click here if you want to see my photo album of shots I took at last Sunday's market. [Remember, you do not have to sign in. And there is an option for selecting smaller photos if your connection is slow.]

This is just a small sample of the handwoven cotton shawls that are available in every imaginable color combination.






These silk scarves also in available in a variety of shades and hues.





You can eat just about anything imaginable from Phat Thai, roasted chicken, fried grasshoppers, Khao Soi, som-tam (spicy papaya salad), sticky rice, hot spicy sausage, curry, fresh and fried spring rolls, crispy pork rind and hundreds of local tasty treats still to me, even after five winters here.