Thailand’s Authorities threaten tsunami aid workers with 3 years jail.
Foreigners told to get work permits or face prison.
By Garry Harbottle-Johnson

THAILAND: 8 Feb 2005 – Just two days after Thai Rak Thai was returned to power in the general election, Sayan Chuaiyjan, Head of Phuket Provincial Employment Service has announced that foreign tsunami-aid workers must obtain Thai Work Permits, or face a maximum penalty of three years in jail, a 30,000 Baht fine, or both.

Enforcement will begin in March with no exceptions.

Admitting authorities didn’t enforce the law rigidly immediately after the tsunami, “because everyone wanted to help”, he added, “But now that the situation is returning to normal, we will have to start taking it more seriously.”

This announcement, coming immediately after the general election, has been criticised as timed to avoid losing votes for Thai Rak Thai in the tsunami affected southern provinces.

CHIANGMAI, Thailand – 1 January 2005

Welcome to 2005.

January is a time when both broadcast and printed press often have retrospectives concerning the year just finished. Yet why stop with just one year? Why not roll back the clock a little further?

According to (western) regulators and bureaucrats, we who were kids in the 1960′s, 70′s, and early 80′s, probably shouldn’t have survived into this century. The following are a few reasons for this, from friends now scattered around the world, and from me. How many can you relate to?

We’d spend hours building go-carts (soap box carts) out of scraps, and then went at top speed down hills; only to find we’d forgotten to add brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem, and got hell from our parents for destroying the toes and heels of our school shoes. We’d leave home after breakfast, and disappear all day. As long as we were back before dark, no one worried…

Abridged & Published in Chiang Mai CityLife Magazine – June 2004

CHIANGMAI, Thailand – 14 May 2004

Photographs in travel guides led me to Chiangmai expecting a city filled with monuments to its 700-year history and vistas of uniquely Asian architecture. The reality was somewhat different, and when the initial long-distance travel euphoria wore off, acute disappointment set in for the first two years of my tenure in Thailand’s northern capital city.

It’s the nature of travel industry information that only the good and the beautiful of destinations are portrayed. Tight holiday schedules need filled with pleasure and excitement, while writers and editors often overlook the needs of longer stay visitors.

The Thai government has in the last few years begun initiatives to capture long stay tourists and retiree expatriates, recognising them as significant contributors to foreign currency earnings, but what is on offer to entice them into remaining?

Cupid’s Caveat Emptor

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 12 Aug 2003 - Humans are social animals. We seek the company of others and prosper when we have it.

The prosperity gained from working with others is a dichotomy of modern life. Often it places pressures on our personal lives that make us become socially isolated after leaving the office. That western society suffers this is undisputed, but does it exist here in Thailand; both in expatriate and in native Thai societies?

Christmas is Coming

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 10 November 2002

Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat,
It’s time to stop the salads,
And give up on khao phat.

And of course, it’s time to drag out the tree, find a fairy, and polish your baubles (stop it – you know what I mean).

I Remember it Well ….
The Strengths of the Animals

It’s strange the conversations that one gets into when sitting in an expatriate watering hole.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 7 May 2002 – Not so long ago a bunch of us were sitting around glugging our favourite nectars (Diet Coke with lots of ice for the teetotal in 2002 me), when the subject turned to the comments that tourists make when visiting our adopted home city.

Lots of anecdotes came forward, many unprintable here, but also some wisdoms of the aged, imparted with the best of intentions, and which remain salutary lessons to us all. Here is one of my favourites….

A long, long time ago, in a restaurant not far, far away (apologies to Star Wars) a small group of British backpackers were in conversation with the owner of the hostelry. This was just before the (first) end of the last Millennium and a new beer had arrived on the market.

Windowsills

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 1 May 2002 - “Windowsills”, said the bearded one with much emphasis and reminiscent tones into the open top of his Carlsberg bottle, which had paused midway between table and mouth. The action, being an event of much significance amongst our small band of imbibers, riveted our attention. An event of such significance was so rarely seen that we also had to consider the utterance.

“Windowsills” we all mused. “What could he be considering?”

“Windowsills”, he repeated, “are wonderful things and you don’t see them in this country.” Then the green bottle completed it’s journey.

We considered the observation until the almost bald one admitted, “He’s finally flipped, the beer that refreshes parts that others don’t, has done the opposite to him.”

Published in Good Morning Chiangmai News, Thailand – May 2002

Hot Season
And Getting Hotter!

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 11 Apr 2002 - At approximately 7:00pm on Thursday 11th April 2002, as Chiangmai was anticipating the annual Songkran water fights, a solitary spark rose into the air over a poor area of southern Chiangmai city. Within ten minutes, the wooden shanty home was a bed of cinders and the owners homeless.

During the hot season, everything in Thailand is tinder dry, yet still people play with fireworks and carelessly throw cigarette ends away. The spectacle of “flashing the oil” often seen in Thai cooking is a particular hazard in older wooden homes. Who knows why this fire started, but praise must be given to the Royal Thai Fire Brigade who were on the scene within minutes of that first spark being seen. Crowds hindered the progress of other emergency vehicles arriving in the second wave – one youth parking his motorcycle directly in the path of a fire truck.