The meeting was billed as a Land Reform meeting. Here one of the Southern Thai staff members is writing up the agenda for Day 1.
16 January
9:30 Breakfast
10:30 - 12:00 Conversation Circle (this is apparently NGO jargon) on the capitalist system of agriculture/land use (lecture/presenter)
12:00 - 13 Lunch
13:00 - 16 Discussion - capitalist system of agriculture/land use
17:30 Dinner
19:00 Discussion on the situation, price, market for corn
I know that people are going to read this and react - what are these people communists? Somehow if someone is discussion capitalism, and they appear to not be enamored by capitalism, they must be communists. But it does make sense for Thai farmers to learn how capitalism is supposed to work and how what people in New York do causes the price of their crops to plunge.
It was still cold when we got up, but now the sun was out so it seemed like a good idea to start outside. Everyone introduced themselves. But sitting in the sun was getting too hot.
So we moved back inside. This is a floor side view of the meeting.
Another floorside view. The discussion ranged widely. The farmers in Isaan (Northeast Thailand) and the north had been growing corn for biofuel, as I understood it, but with the collapse of oil prices, the corn prices collapsed too. There was also a collapse in the price of rubber, which affected the farmers from the south who weren't affected by the cost of corn.
Here's the Bangkok attorney who gave several lectures the first two days. The discussion also touched on problems with education and the price of oil and shrimp. At one point he said something like "they are making Thailand into a factory for the West."
It was difficult to follow. I'd say I could get about 40% of the words, but what they actually mean when the other 60% is added in, well that I had to check on during breaks, and I really only got bits and pieces of what was going on.
Basically, as I understand it, he was trying to give context to the issues the farmers were facing.
In addition to the direct, on the agenda, learning, Bon got to see a computer program for tracking information - a problem that our organization was having last year. So this was a good opportunity, if she can get the program and make it work.
Different folks led the discussion at different times. Here's Pet facilitating. 
Sukaew, one of the farmers we work with - from the village with the mangoes - was one of the people who is going to help draft the plans based on the information gathered here. So he was always taking notes in a beautiful, but tiny, script.
The folks representing the slum dwellers and homeless from Bangkok were selling these T Shirts with the face of Mr. Suwit Watnu. I was told he was a leader of the people living in the slums and had died of cancer. Google told me this much: that he was from the Human Settlement Foundation and an adviser to the Campaign for Popular Democracy. But I couldn't find anything about his death.
Here Pet is leading the wrap up discussion on Monday afternoon. Here are some notes based on talking to various people. I'm satisfied with just knowing what the topics were at this point, and don't need to know exactly what they said about them.Clearly there was both a discussion of the immediate micro issues that the farmers face and the macro issues that help explain what the farmers are being impacted.
impact of global economic problems on Thai farmers
drop in price of corn and rubber
Laws affecting land ownership and distribution
Developing new plans based on the information gathered at these meetings
Money and banking
Issues around the difficulties of working together.
More items were added to the charts as a result of the discussions. In the end the group was planning a date for demonstrations in Bangkok to go along with negotiations with the Prime Minister. It seems like they settled on February 27, but that is clearly subject to change.
I'm starting to nod off. Time to get to bed.
A comment to your last comment:
ReplyDeleteI think Dimitri Medvedev's inauguration was splendid because the streets were empty and it was so precise. Could you see that he entered to the room exactly at noon. For me it was very impressive.
In my eyes the US lost its "greatness" in the past years due to its politics so for me Russia is greater than the US from every part of the World.
Readers: Ropi's commment is a response to a comment I made on his blog. He had a video of Medvedev's inauguration. It is a stark contrast to Obama's.
ReplyDeleteRopi: I see you have a second post about the inauguration which I'll comment on there. Yes, Medvedev's inauguration was neat and clean - the clip you had was well edited and looked like a James Bond movie. BUT, and it's a big BUT, the critical difference is CONTROL. Even though there were lots of police, FBI, Secret Service, etc. in Washington DC, this was a celebration of the people of the US and many of them were there in DC to take part.
In Medvedev's inauguration - as depicted in the video - the streets were totally empty. This was about the Russian power elite celebrating their control over the people of Russia. No ordinary Russian people were allowed to attend or even be on the streets. And why should he walk all that way by himself with no one to see him - except the camera to produce a video to impress young Hungarian men? This was all show, just like Russian democracy. From what we can tell here, the government is killing journalists who write things the government doesn't want to here. They made sure that nothing embarrassing happened during the inauguration. If it did, they edited out before showing the world. Even Nazi Germany included the people of Germany. I find the Russian inauguration very scary.
There's no question the US did some terrible and stupid things over the last eight years (and before). Democracy is messy. Authoritarianism can be very neat and aesthetic. One prioritizes heart and soul and the other power and control. I seem to recall that the Hungarians were not too happy when Russian troops ruled the streets of Budapest.
Yes, Russia is trying to regain some of the USSR's status in the world. But I would guess that your sense of Russia is hugely influenced by their proximity to Hungary. I suspect Mexicans feel the same way about the power of the US.
Well, I disagree about your comment on my blog. In Hungary Gypsies have their representation.
ReplyDeleteYou know Steve it is a very ambigous thing to mention Russian troops on the streets on the streets of Budapest because according to the Truman doctrine, American troops should have supported the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The revolutionary government even got promise from the US that they will help. I guess how surprised Hungarian politicians were when Russian tanks came instead of American ones.
If I had the possibility I wouldn't vote for Obama. However I don't want you sleep bad so I tell you that Obama is pretty popular in Hungary. For example on history class we discussed it once and he "won" there 7-2 (at least I wasn't alone).
I still say the inauguration was fancy because I would feel ashamed even if I am the one who is inaugurated. You know after a given amount of money spent on you, you feel bad and in my case 160 million $ is enough to feel guilty. Shouldn't Obama feel the same?
You mentioned emotions. I think during the economic crisis it is not the wisest to follow your heart because economic crisis does not feel guilty and the economy won't be working just by accident for Barack Obama's sake.
In Hungary the Prime Ministers are inaugurated a bit like Presidents in Russia.
I am sorry but I stick to my opinion as long as I am not convinced that it is wrong and you just strenghtened my belief.
And you study about Julius Caesar because he took part at constructing the present. For example he broadened citizenship in Rome which could be parallel to your civil war. He could do it 1900 years before the Americans could do it. Wouldn't it be smarter to accept his heritage which made for us? You know if people studies history better maybe there were less questions which starts as "Why do we need to study about ...?" I also believe the rpesent economic crisis would have been avoidable because I see some similarities between this and the Great Depression. I am not an economist yet but this make me suspicious. I mean why do we need to make a mistake repetitiously?
ReplyDeleteSo Julius Caesar wasn't just a general who conquered vast areas.
Ropi, sorry it's taken so long. Besides the meetings, I've been having trouble with blogger on Firefox. That includes having trouble posting comments from my account.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I think we are looking at the same thing, but focusing on different aspects. I agree with you that the financial economy of the Medvedev inauguration and the extravagance of the Obama inauguration. You're totally right there.
But I was looking at the two as symbols of their two types of governments. The Russian inauguration did not include the people, a good symbol for a government that decides FOR the people without their input. The US inauguration includes the people and reflects their participation in the government.
My point about Ceasar was not to question his importance. I know history is important and I know you know that. I used that as an analogy to suggest that not understanding the history of race relations in the US would make it impossible to understand what it means in the US for there to be a Black president.
I have to check what I said about gypsies. I do have a question - can a gypsy be elected to be the leader of Hungary?