[Thurs. March 5, 2009, 12:50 pm Thai time] OK, for those of you who are thinking of us out here with green tinged thoughts, let me say that not everything is perfect and especially planning travel adds bits of tension that I could certainly do without. I know this will get no sympathy, but I just want you to know that we have to work for some of this. Another volunteer called yesterday to ask what I thought about her visa options. Thailand lets Americans in without a visa for 30 days. Then you have to leave and return. You could get a visa for 60 days before you come, but we didn't. Last year we could take a bus to the Burmese border, cross the border, then return for another 30 days. But those days ended last December or so. You only get 15 days on those trips, and you are limited to two such trips. She'd been planning to go back on a Burma border run when she found that out. So she was headed to Cambodia. And that's why we took our trip to Kuala Lumpur last month. If you fly back, you still get 30 days.
So this time we planned ahead and got a visa for Vietnam and booked our tickets with a night at a friend's house in Bangkok on he way. But then he called and said he had to go to Kathmandu on business could we stop over on the way back from Vietnam.
Well, I do need to work and J is teaching Swe, but we do have long stopover in Bangkok Monday, so we can meet a while. But then we thought, we should just go to Vietnam a day early. I changed the ticket and now we'd be arriving March 5. But our visa was valid beginning March 6. But surely we can wait in the airport until midnight (we were scheduled to arrive at 8:30pm). Then I found out that no one would be at work on Tuesday when we were going to be back. More demonstrations in Bangkok.
And so I was able to change the ticket to return on Tuesday, not Monday for not too much extra. But it said pending. At the Chiang Mai airport it still said pending and he said check in Bangkok. We had all day in Bangkok, because we thought we were going to be visiting Jim and his wife. Jim was in my Peace Corps group stationed in Maesod, nearby where I was. He lives in Bangkok.
So we got to the Air Asia counter in Bangkok and he fixed the return ticket. Mind you, on Air Asia you can't book from Chiang Mai to Hanoi. You have to book Chiang Mai Bangkok roundtrip. Then Bangkok-Hanoi roundtrip. And if your Air Asia flight is late and you miss the connection, you need to get a new ticket. So we left time for delays. But the price is relatively low. But rising with the changes. So, after he changed the ticket, I asked, unofficialy, about our visa situation. He said it wouldn't work. Air Asia wouldn't let us fly. We couldn't wait at the airport in Hanoi like we thought.. He checked with his supervisor. NO WAY. He gave me a phone number of the Vietnamese Embassy. While I was calling, Rachel, another AJWS volunteer in Chiang Mai, showed up to change her ticket. If we had planned to meet here it wouldn't have been so easy.
After trying the embassy several times, I looked for wifi to see if there was another number. No free wifi. The information desk gave me another number. The line was busy, but my phone kept autoredialing and finally connected. The man said if we got our visa from Bangkok he could change it, but we couldn't fly today if we didn't change it. Well, the travel agent sent it to Bangkok. So Rachel was meeting her friend out front to get a taxi to someone's house. We all got in the cab and we got dropped off at the Embassy and they went on. But it was 11:35am and the sign said closed from 11:30-1:30.
But someone came out, so we took advantage of the open door and went in. To the window. I explained and he said I'd talked to him. It turned out that our visa was done in Khon Kaen, not Bangkok. If in Bangkok we could have done it free. But he said he could do a new visa for 1400 Baht each (about $45) each. Did we have pictures? Luckily we did. Come back at 3:30pm.
Our plane leaves at 6:30pm. We should be able to make it back to the airport in time. I was thinking that since we were in town, I could go out to Government House where the farmers are demonstrating, but there isn't going to be enough time now.
So we got lunch at a street noodle shop and now we're in the lobby of the Meridian hotel where I can do the work I had planned to do while waiting at the airport. I have a manuscript to review for a journal.
So, there is a lot of little stuff that has to get done when traveling like this. And even though I know that everything will turn out all right, there are still the adrenalin moments as you wonder how you're going to make it all happen. And I haven't even talked about booking a hotel in Vietnam. I think we did ok. A new place in Hanoi called the Hanoi Boutique Hotel in the Old Quarter. It just opened in January so they've got low prices. We'll see if that works out well.
I have a bunch of other little posts to catch up on, but I really need to read this manuscript. It's the second time round - I was a reviewer on the first round so I need to do it.
Meanwhile we're just down the street from the embassy and J will check earlier to see if the visas are ready.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Thai army chief denies existence of secret American prison
From Thaivisa.com
One million percent? The higher the percent is above 100%, the more suspicious I get.
Thai army chief denies existence of secret American prison
General Anupong Paochinda. Photo: MCOT
BANGKOK: -- Thai army chief General Anupong Paochinda on Wednesday strongly denied reports that a secret United States prison existed in Thailand where suspected terrorists were held.
The denial followed a report in the Bangkok Post newspaper that documents supplied to the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a secret jail existed in Thailand, where some suspects were tortured for information.
"I can say 1 million per cent that a secret jail like this has not existed in Thailand," General Anupong said.
One million percent? The higher the percent is above 100%, the more suspicious I get.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
CSAs and other Creative Ways to Sell Vegies
One of the functions of my organization here, and ones it works with, is to help farmers be self-sufficient and sustainable. But ultimately you must have a market for your goods. Tok (it's an unaspirated T that sounds a lot like a D) is working on his dissertation and has been working with farmers for a couple of years now. And despite his T-shirt (a gift he told me) he talks about marketing and about going to a seminar on branding. Last year he took me out to Mr. Diraek's farm when I got here. And last week we talked about getting consumers to buy shares in the farm. I talked about people I knew in Anchorage who did just that, and got a huge box of fresh vegetables every week or so all summer. I promised him I'd get him information on how people do that in the US. So here's some of that information. With pictures of today's trip out to one of the farmers' markets where they sell their organic produce.
I discovered the word is CSA or Consumer Supported Agriculture. It's done a variety of ways. From Local Harvest:
UMassVegetable gives a detailed description of CSAs. Here's a bit on how they work:
Brookfieldfarm.org explains what a share includes on their farm.
Here's link to a photo tour of the Brookfield farm.
Heirloom farms has 'workshares' as well as CSA:
These are jackfruit.
This is Khiew - it means green. Mr. Diraek is her husband. She was tired after getting up around 4am to get things to the market by 5 or 6am. We got there late when most people had already left. She said this was hard work. Tok showed me a powerpoint yesterday where he's got various marketing ideas in the works - from CSA's to home and office delivery. In some ways, this is really a return to Thailand's past where food was grown with natural fertilizers and not full of pesticides and farmers sold their produce locally. And it's also part of a worldwide trend. They key is making it work right. As Khiew's tired face shows this isn't easy. But they are doing the most important job - producing good food.
These are the prices agreed upon by the farmers. They're a good buy.
And here is one of the farmers' id certifying his organic credentials. A New York Times article today says that consumers aren't always aware that US organic labeling doesn't mean the food is safer than non-organic food. It's only about how it is grown. That farmers work hard seems to be true around the world. But they are trying out new ways to connect with consumers.
Continuing with the varieties of CSAs,
Alaska's Glaciervalleycsa expands the idea by getting produce from Outside Alaska as well as Alaska (it's year round). The interesting thing is that you can order a
box (they choose what goes in the box) when you want, but you don't have
to get a box every week. One reader posted a message that this wasn't really a CSA because they imported food from elsewhere. The response was, well, if they are going to provide food year round in Alaska, they have to. Are the vegies they get any different from what Safeway and Fred Meyers sells? I don't know.
And there is even a site that advertises for
Internships, Apprenticeships, and Jobs on Organic and Sustainable ...
Here's a site looking for organic volunteers and employees. It says
"Educational Exchanges in Sustainability" This appears to be the page
for Alaska farms. I'm not excited how the site looks on my computer.
Here's from one of the Anchorage Daily News blogs about CSA's in the
Anchorage area.
And an Alaska Farm: Alaska Organic Farm
To what extent can Alaska farms feed Alaskans? How much can rural Alaskans grow in the summer? In greenhouses in the winter? You can argue that these kinds of grown foods aren't traditional foods, but they would be much healthier than a lot of the food sold in rural Alaska.
I discovered the word is CSA or Consumer Supported Agriculture. It's done a variety of ways. From Local Harvest:A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.
A CSA season typically runs from late spring through early fall. The number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and has since grown to over 2200.
UMassVegetable gives a detailed description of CSAs. Here's a bit on how they work:
How Does CSA Work?
Money, Members and Management
A farmer or grower, often with the assistance of a core group, draws up a budget reflecting the production costs for the year. This includes all salaries, distribution costs, investments for seeds and tools, land payments, taxes, machinery maintenance, etc. The budget is then divided by the number of people the farm will provide for and this determines the cost of each share of the harvest. One share is usually designed to provide the weekly vegetable needs for a family of four. Share prices reflect many variables and average between $300 and $600. Flowers, fruit, meat, honey, eggs and dairy products are also available through some CSA.
Brookfieldfarm.org explains what a share includes on their farm.What's in a share?
- Between 5 and 18 lbs. (14 lbs. avg.) of produce each week from the first week of June ‘til Thanksgiving
- We think this will be sufficient produce for 2 adults (non-vegetarian) or 1 adult (vegetarian)
All shares also include:
- a variety of Pick-Your-Own (PYO) vegetables, herbs, berries, and flowers (we harvest about 90% of the food for you - but some items are strictly PYO - beans, peas, cherry tomatoes, flowers, and strawberries)
- the opportunity to purchase our own bulk produce at wholesale prices for canning and freezing
- the opportunity to purchase Brookfield Farm raised beef and pork
- a weekly newsletter during harvest season with recipes, farm news, and other good stuff!
- access to Brookfield Farm's 50 acres of land for recreational use
- the opportunity for your family to participate in educational programs and seasonal festivals
A Share is Seasonal:
- Throughout the season, your weekly share is made up of the freshest vegetables available from the farm. The variety and amount in the share depend on the season and the weather.
- Here’s a sample of what you might get in one week’s share in June and September: (You can click the link to see what's in the shares)
Here's link to a photo tour of the Brookfield farm.
Heirloom farms has 'workshares' as well as CSA:
What is a Workshare?
A workshare is someone who works 8 hours a week from the middle of May through the end of October in exchange for a share of the farm's produce. Workshares differ from one-time volunteers and CSA members who perform a work commitment in that they develop some skill and speed over the course of a season, which gives them an important role to play in meeting the farm's labor needs.
These are jackfruit.
This is Khiew - it means green. Mr. Diraek is her husband. She was tired after getting up around 4am to get things to the market by 5 or 6am. We got there late when most people had already left. She said this was hard work. Tok showed me a powerpoint yesterday where he's got various marketing ideas in the works - from CSA's to home and office delivery. In some ways, this is really a return to Thailand's past where food was grown with natural fertilizers and not full of pesticides and farmers sold their produce locally. And it's also part of a worldwide trend. They key is making it work right. As Khiew's tired face shows this isn't easy. But they are doing the most important job - producing good food.
These are the prices agreed upon by the farmers. They're a good buy.
And here is one of the farmers' id certifying his organic credentials. A New York Times article today says that consumers aren't always aware that US organic labeling doesn't mean the food is safer than non-organic food. It's only about how it is grown. That farmers work hard seems to be true around the world. But they are trying out new ways to connect with consumers. Continuing with the varieties of CSAs,
Alaska's Glaciervalleycsa expands the idea by getting produce from Outside Alaska as well as Alaska (it's year round). The interesting thing is that you can order a
box (they choose what goes in the box) when you want, but you don't have
to get a box every week. One reader posted a message that this wasn't really a CSA because they imported food from elsewhere. The response was, well, if they are going to provide food year round in Alaska, they have to. Are the vegies they get any different from what Safeway and Fred Meyers sells? I don't know.
And there is even a site that advertises for
Internships, Apprenticeships, and Jobs on Organic and Sustainable ...
Here's a site looking for organic volunteers and employees. It says
"Educational Exchanges in Sustainability" This appears to be the page
for Alaska farms. I'm not excited how the site looks on my computer.
Here's from one of the Anchorage Daily News blogs about CSA's in the
Anchorage area.
And an Alaska Farm: Alaska Organic Farm
To what extent can Alaska farms feed Alaskans? How much can rural Alaskans grow in the summer? In greenhouses in the winter? You can argue that these kinds of grown foods aren't traditional foods, but they would be much healthier than a lot of the food sold in rural Alaska.
More on Community Development Ideas - Ohio
[Wed. March 4, 2009 11:30am Thai Time]
Sunny, a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Nepal and returned to Anchorage to become a math teacher and now works at UAA, forwarded an article from NPR. It's about two young men who have returned to their rural Ohio hometown to help out after a plant closure put people out of work. This is the kind of local community empowerment and idea creation and implementation that I've tried to get at in the two pieces on Rural Alaska. Here's a snippet, the link has the whole article.
Rather than throw away items because it costs more to fix than to buy a new one, let's take advantage of the people who know how to repair small appliances and who need work. Let's take advantage of all the 'resources' we throw away each week and find ways to reuse them. Let's do more support of local farmers this coming growing season and grow more at home as well.
Larger organizations also serve some purposes, but in the last 15 years or so, we have allowed, encouraged takeover after takeover, until we had organizations that were so large, that so many people depended on, that when they went bad, everyone was hurt. And economists think that we have to pour billions of dollars into saving them. In the meantime, we need to be creative, take initiative, and become a community that doesn't wait for politicians and ceo's to tell us what we can and can't do.
Sunny, a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Nepal and returned to Anchorage to become a math teacher and now works at UAA, forwarded an article from NPR. It's about two young men who have returned to their rural Ohio hometown to help out after a plant closure put people out of work. This is the kind of local community empowerment and idea creation and implementation that I've tried to get at in the two pieces on Rural Alaska. Here's a snippet, the link has the whole article.
We've become a nation of employees who are dependent on organizations - government and business - to hire us, pay us, etc. We work so hard that we don't have much time for real community involvement, real oversight over government agencies and over corporations. It seems that one of the responses to the current economic problems is to have more people take control of their own lives with small scale businesses and cooperatives.Rembert is 24, with dark hair and a beard. He almost bounces with enthusiasm. He also was accepted to the Peace Corps and was set to go to Ecuador. But then, DHL Express, Wilmington's largest employer, announced it was going to shut down its domestic air-freight operations, leaving thousands without jobs.
"As soon as the announcement came out I knew, wow, this is going to be some sort of case study in how a small community deals with, you know, an incredible economic shock," Rembert recalls. "So I came back, and I immediately started a blog."
That was his way of trying to figure out what to do. Rembert and Stuckert like to talk things over a lot. And they began to think that maybe some of the Peace Corps philosophy, of helping communities help themselves, might be just what Wilmington and surrounding Clinton County needed — that this might be a chance for some real economic change. Something, Stuckert says, that would last.
Rather than throw away items because it costs more to fix than to buy a new one, let's take advantage of the people who know how to repair small appliances and who need work. Let's take advantage of all the 'resources' we throw away each week and find ways to reuse them. Let's do more support of local farmers this coming growing season and grow more at home as well.
Larger organizations also serve some purposes, but in the last 15 years or so, we have allowed, encouraged takeover after takeover, until we had organizations that were so large, that so many people depended on, that when they went bad, everyone was hurt. And economists think that we have to pour billions of dollars into saving them. In the meantime, we need to be creative, take initiative, and become a community that doesn't wait for politicians and ceo's to tell us what we can and can't do.
Interesting Google Search Terms - February 2009
Here are some of the Google search terms that got people to my blog this past month that were interesting or strange or reveal problems with Google search. And while people got here through other search engine, the search terms of other engines are always as clear as google's.
Of course, this is a good example of taking a scrap of information and jumping to unfounded conclusions. Maybe it was just an employee whose home router was hijacked and he was making good use of downtime at the office.
There are five different posts merged into there. Google gives you the one with the first word in the search - in this case - death. But I looked at what else that person got.
Look at this:
You'd certainly think that Tony Ball had been murdered in 2000 in a guest house if you didn't read this carefully. But Tony Ball is in one post and ..."south Wales, who was murdered" is a different post.
So the person who got to my blog, it appears from the sitemeter tracks, never found the pictures of Tony alive and well on Saturday morning.
That's it for this month.
- story of famous person who want to know english
- why people born
- names of famus people the discoverd bits of the earth
- how old would you be if you born in 1908?
- on planes why do famous people get to be in firstclass easy and normal people have to try hard to get in?
- maimonides and stress management
- drunk i stole a card reader what do i do?
- how to get in a hotel room without getting caught
- i looking 4 job bakery in bangkok
- do foxes go into rabbit holes
- what does it require to live there in alaska
- rid trees of doves
- hamatria anger
- linksys rules for radicals
- linksys router hijacked
Of course, this is a good example of taking a scrap of information and jumping to unfounded conclusions. Maybe it was just an employee whose home router was hijacked and he was making good use of downtime at the office.
- The Death of Tony Ball in Chiang Mai
What Do I know?: What Basic Need Does the Death Penalty Serve for ...
The reason they support the death penalty is what I would call one of the gut .... Sommersturm at CMU Film Space · Birding with Tony Ball · LOL in Thai · Earthal Eclipse? .... [January 13 - We're in Chiang Mai, Thailand until April] ...
www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-basic-need-does-death-penalty.html - 19 hours ago - Similar pages
www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-basic-need-does-death-
There are five different posts merged into there. Google gives you the one with the first word in the search - in this case - death. But I looked at what else that person got.
Look at this:
WORLDTWITCH - Thailand Natural History Resource Guide - Birding ...
Maekok River Lodge - Rare birds of Ban Thaton by Tony Ball ... south Wales, who was murdered in a guesthouse in Chiang Mai in August 2000. Last month, a Scottish backpacker Mark Lemetti, 24, was beaten to death in southern Thailand. ...
www.worldtwitch.com/thailand_tours_travel.htm - Similar pages
www.worldtwitch.com/thailand_tours_travel.htm - Similar pages
You'd certainly think that Tony Ball had been murdered in 2000 in a guest house if you didn't read this carefully. But Tony Ball is in one post and ..."south Wales, who was murdered" is a different post.
So the person who got to my blog, it appears from the sitemeter tracks, never found the pictures of Tony alive and well on Saturday morning.
That's it for this month.
Monday, March 02, 2009
What Basic Need Does the Death Penalty Serve for People?
[Monday, March 2, 2008, 11:40 pm Thai time]
Why is this issue important to you?
I’m sure that the desire for revenge is hard-wired into human brains. It’s part of our DNA. If someone wrongs us, we want them punished. But what is different about humans who actively support the death penalty from humans who oppose it?
I don’t know the answer, but as Alaskans once more consider whether to reinstate the death penalty we should be asking people on all sides to look deep into their psyches to search out why this issues is important to them and if it isn’t, why not?
Siri Carpenter, at the American Psychological Associations Monitor cites Phoebe C. Ellsworth, PhD, a professor of law and psychology
A Gallup Report written by Lydia Saad posted last Novemer 2008, suggests that since 2001 the numbers haven't changed and remain about 64% in favor of the death penalty. She adds that most people do not believe the death penalty is a deterrant. The reason they support the death penalty is what I would call one of the gut level feelings.
Is that what caused Reps. Mike Chenault and Jay Ramras to feel strongly enough to sponsor a bill to reinstate the death penalty?
I couldn't find anything from Jay Ramras on the topic and an email sent last week hasn't been responded to. But Mike Chenault has a statement on his legislative webpage about this bill.
Here are some quotes from it. (I'm excerpting points I think are of interest, not just selecting things to make him look good or bad. You can look at his whole statement at the link above to see if I'm leaving out anything important.)
He also anticipates a common objection to the death penalty:
And he's not worried about costs - which is a reason, according to the New York Times, a number of states are looking to get rid of the death penalty.
But my question is, what is it that deep down motivates people to fight to impose the death penalty when there are so many other important issues out there? People don't usually tell us their deep down unconscious reasons for doing things, mainly because they're unconscious reasons and they aren't aware of them. We have to look at clues. If we want to know what animals went by last night, we can look for tracks in the snow. This is like that, but much more slippery. Rep. Chenault does leave this track in his statement:
But I recognize that this certainly gets to a fundamental issue that faces all human beings - that we cannot control everything. However much we might try, we can't control the world, only how we react to it. But not everyone recognizes that.
"As a husband and father." What does that mean?
Here's where things get dicey. I'm going to create a story to explain the above. That's all I'm doing - trying to come up with an explanation. It's a hypothesis, a guess. Read it with that in mind.
The husband and father is, in our culture, as in many others, supposed to protect his family. But when someone violates our safe space and kills a wife or child, that husband has failed in his duty to protect. In addition to the loss of a family member is the guilt one feels for not being able to protect them. And I’d go on to hypothesize that one way that guilt can be assuaged is to kill the murderer - after the fact. The death doesn’t bring back the lost family member, but it shows that I have done my duty by avenging my loved one’s killer. And that may explain why for some people, settling the score is more important than being 100% certain you are taking revenge on the right person. Or perhaps that need for revenge convinces one that this is the right person, even when it isn't. We need to take action. We do. And we don't want to know it was against the wrong person.
I too am a husband and father and I too have thought about my inability to protect my family from things that could happen to them. But I also recognize that life is full of dangers that I can’t protect my family from. I’d rather see us spend money that educates people how to parent better, how to reason better, and how to cope with frustration in non-violent ways. I'd rather see money spent to work with kids as they develop their moral competence so that fewer people are likely to commit heinous crimes.
What do we do with socio-paths? These are the people that Chenault fears - people who have no functioning conscience - who commit the kinds of heinous crimes that Chenault wants to use the death penalty for. These people are ‘morally disabled.’ Most have figured out how to live in society without becoming serial killers. But how do we prevent the Ted Bundy’s? And if we fail, does the death penalty offer "true justice"?
And why, when so many good people die daily for no obvious reason, should I care about saving the life of a killer? Because society intentionally killing someone is different from an individual or a natural phenomenon killing someone. We are better than that.
Perhaps my deep down motivations arise from the knowledge that my grandparents - all four of them - died in Nazi Germany because they were Jews. The death penalty for Jews was legal there. OK, I know some of you are saying, "But, that's a whole different story." I'm not talking here about rational reasons, but about deep down gut reasons. The reasons that cause us to seek out rational reasons to argue for our gut reasons. But I could add rational reasons to that argument if pushed.
Basically, if the question is life over death, and there is any doubt at all, we should pick life. If we put the death penalty off the table, if we take it away as an option, then we can start in on discussions about alternate forms of justice for the heinous crimes that Chenault talks about. And we can, more importantly, talk about what factors in society increase and decrease the likelihood that people will turn to crime. And then ways to dismantle the factors causing crime and supplementing those factors that increase the likelihood that people will become law abiding community members.
Civilization is about learning to curb our destructive impulses when the our instincts kick in. We generally believe that physical fights are not the way to solve problems and it is mostly illegal to hit another person. Even though it may well be a genetic inheritance from the times when self-defense was the only defense. We have constraints on sexual contact as well.
Laws don't prevent everyone from hitting or raping others, but they do establish expectations of how people should behave. And the vast majority of people, most of the time, abide by these limits. Not simply because the behaviors are illegal, but because laws make sense, generally. We have created alternate ways to settle disagreements - not always satisfactorily I acknowledge. (I could write several more posts on the wrongheaded restraining of natural behaviors too - like making young kids sit still for long periods of time when their natural behavior is to be active, or preventing women from breast feeding.)
I think the call for revenge is one of those impulses that society should find alternative ways to resolve. South Africa developed its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Another approach is Restorative Justice which
And we know from story after story - whether it is the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Mafia, Palestine and Israel - that revenge often leads to a continuing cycle of revenge.
So, what's in your psyche that causes you to react strongly for or against the death penalty? I don't want to hear a list of rational arguments. I want you to look down deep to see if you can find those unconscious stirrings that get your juices flowing on this topic.
Why is this issue important to you?
I’m sure that the desire for revenge is hard-wired into human brains. It’s part of our DNA. If someone wrongs us, we want them punished. But what is different about humans who actively support the death penalty from humans who oppose it?
I don’t know the answer, but as Alaskans once more consider whether to reinstate the death penalty we should be asking people on all sides to look deep into their psyches to search out why this issues is important to them and if it isn’t, why not?
Siri Carpenter, at the American Psychological Associations Monitor cites Phoebe C. Ellsworth, PhD, a professor of law and psychology
"When people have committed themselves to strong support of a position, a position that is ideologically self-defining, of course it is hard to change," explains Ellsworth, "because it would look as though the commitment were not real--as though they are fickle about values they claimed were very important."Since Ellsworth considered the death penalty 'ideologically self-defining," and since the percentage of Americans supporting the death penalty had dropped from 75% to 60% by 2001, she and colleague Samuel R. Gross, JD, wanted to know what psychological factors accounted for the drop.
The psychological factors Ellsworth and Gross have identified include:But this is rational stuff. I'm looking for the deeper psychological reasons. Things that cause people to feel strongly and thus push them to act or not act. Things that cause people to change a strongly held ideological stance.
* New information. Strongly held attitudes are more likely to shift when people believe they have new information, in part because they can "save face," even as their views change. In the late 1990s, Ellsworth and Gross maintain, heightened awareness of cases of innocent people being sentenced to death and increasing publicity about DNA evidence in capital cases made the problem of wrongful convictions appear new to many people, leading them to change their attitudes.
* New script. New information about wrongful convictions has been reinforced by a new "script," or way of organizing one's thinking about the criminal justice system.
"Ten years ago," notes Ellsworth, "the idea that you could have someone who was wrongly convicted and sentenced just seemed implausible to many people." More recently, however, stories of incompetent lawyers and of police who ignore alternative leads in investigating cases have replaced people's belief in a fair judicial system and made the notion of wrongful convictions more salient. Ellsworth argues that this new script, or shift in what information is salient, has weakened public support for the death penalty.
* New sources. Prominent republicans, including George Will, Pat Robertson and Illinois Gov. George Ryan, have publicly expressed reservations about the death penalty. Such unlikely sources of opposition to the death penalty have probably helped shift public opinion, Ellsworth argues. As she puts it, "It doesn't identify you as a liberal weenie anymore to say you're against the death penalty."
* New option. In 1997, the American Bar Association called for a moratorium on executions until it can be certain that the death penalty is administered fairly and impartially. And last year, Gov. Ryan announced such a freeze in his state. This option allows people to change their attitudes without betraying their earlier beliefs or appearing to join the enemy, Ellsworth and Gross argue.
Princeton University social psychologist Penny S. Visser, PhD, observes that the social psychological forces that Ellsworth and Gross identify share a common feature.
"In a sense, they provide political and psychological cover for changing a long-held attitude," she says. "They allow a person to maintain--to themselves and to others--that their old position was correct then and that their new position is correct now."
A Gallup Report written by Lydia Saad posted last Novemer 2008, suggests that since 2001 the numbers haven't changed and remain about 64% in favor of the death penalty. She adds that most people do not believe the death penalty is a deterrant. The reason they support the death penalty is what I would call one of the gut level feelings.
Open-ended questions asked in previous years have shown that most Americans who favor the death penalty do so because they believe it provides an "eye for an eye" type of justice.She amplifies this a bit in the conclusions:
According to a 2003 Gallup study, close to half of Americans who supported the death penalty cited some aspect of retribution for the crime as the reason
Is that what caused Reps. Mike Chenault and Jay Ramras to feel strongly enough to sponsor a bill to reinstate the death penalty?
I couldn't find anything from Jay Ramras on the topic and an email sent last week hasn't been responded to. But Mike Chenault has a statement on his legislative webpage about this bill.
Here are some quotes from it. (I'm excerpting points I think are of interest, not just selecting things to make him look good or bad. You can look at his whole statement at the link above to see if I'm leaving out anything important.)
The impetus for HB 9 really comes from what I view as society's inability to reform or rehabilitate certain criminals.He agrees with the majority cited in the Gallup Poll above:
People who commit the most monstrous of crimes will not have the opportunity to reoffend if a death sentence is imposed.
I don't believe it's a deterrent to crime, I believe it should be an option for the justice system to brandish against the most heinous unremorseful criminals in our society.He goes on to talk about a man awaiting trial in Federal Court for "the torture and brutal murder of another woman" who wouldn't be facing a possible death sentence if the Feds didn't have jurisdiction and he had to be tried by the State of Alaska.
He also anticipates a common objection to the death penalty:
No one supports innocent people being put to death for crimes they did not commit. .Though I would add that some would be less concerned than others if such people were put to death. He goes on to say that
I've included safe guards in the legislation to help ensure that people are not wrongfully convicted and sentenced to deathI appreciate that he’s honest enough to recognize that ‘help ensure’ is the best that we can do here. He doesn’t write, ‘that will prevent.’ Would he lose sleep if an innocent man were put to death because of his bill?
And he's not worried about costs - which is a reason, according to the New York Times, a number of states are looking to get rid of the death penalty.
Another argument against the death penalty is the cost associated with keeping someone on death row. Frankly, I don't believe that cost should get in the way of dispensing true justice.Now, if I were a real, paid journalist, I would look up Chenault's record on funding rural justice programs to see if he is consistent on this.
But my question is, what is it that deep down motivates people to fight to impose the death penalty when there are so many other important issues out there? People don't usually tell us their deep down unconscious reasons for doing things, mainly because they're unconscious reasons and they aren't aware of them. We have to look at clues. If we want to know what animals went by last night, we can look for tracks in the snow. This is like that, but much more slippery. Rep. Chenault does leave this track in his statement:
As a husband and father, I can tell you that I empathize with people whose families are hurt or killed and they take the law into their own hands. I want this legislation to give Alaskans the confidence that we have a system of justice they can rely on to handle the most heinous members of our society.I'd rather rely on a system of education, employment, and law enforcement that prevented such crimes in the first place. The death penalty wouldn't bring my family member back.
But I recognize that this certainly gets to a fundamental issue that faces all human beings - that we cannot control everything. However much we might try, we can't control the world, only how we react to it. But not everyone recognizes that.
"As a husband and father." What does that mean?
Here's where things get dicey. I'm going to create a story to explain the above. That's all I'm doing - trying to come up with an explanation. It's a hypothesis, a guess. Read it with that in mind.
The husband and father is, in our culture, as in many others, supposed to protect his family. But when someone violates our safe space and kills a wife or child, that husband has failed in his duty to protect. In addition to the loss of a family member is the guilt one feels for not being able to protect them. And I’d go on to hypothesize that one way that guilt can be assuaged is to kill the murderer - after the fact. The death doesn’t bring back the lost family member, but it shows that I have done my duty by avenging my loved one’s killer. And that may explain why for some people, settling the score is more important than being 100% certain you are taking revenge on the right person. Or perhaps that need for revenge convinces one that this is the right person, even when it isn't. We need to take action. We do. And we don't want to know it was against the wrong person.
I too am a husband and father and I too have thought about my inability to protect my family from things that could happen to them. But I also recognize that life is full of dangers that I can’t protect my family from. I’d rather see us spend money that educates people how to parent better, how to reason better, and how to cope with frustration in non-violent ways. I'd rather see money spent to work with kids as they develop their moral competence so that fewer people are likely to commit heinous crimes.
What do we do with socio-paths? These are the people that Chenault fears - people who have no functioning conscience - who commit the kinds of heinous crimes that Chenault wants to use the death penalty for. These people are ‘morally disabled.’ Most have figured out how to live in society without becoming serial killers. But how do we prevent the Ted Bundy’s? And if we fail, does the death penalty offer "true justice"?
And why, when so many good people die daily for no obvious reason, should I care about saving the life of a killer? Because society intentionally killing someone is different from an individual or a natural phenomenon killing someone. We are better than that.
Perhaps my deep down motivations arise from the knowledge that my grandparents - all four of them - died in Nazi Germany because they were Jews. The death penalty for Jews was legal there. OK, I know some of you are saying, "But, that's a whole different story." I'm not talking here about rational reasons, but about deep down gut reasons. The reasons that cause us to seek out rational reasons to argue for our gut reasons. But I could add rational reasons to that argument if pushed.
Basically, if the question is life over death, and there is any doubt at all, we should pick life. If we put the death penalty off the table, if we take it away as an option, then we can start in on discussions about alternate forms of justice for the heinous crimes that Chenault talks about. And we can, more importantly, talk about what factors in society increase and decrease the likelihood that people will turn to crime. And then ways to dismantle the factors causing crime and supplementing those factors that increase the likelihood that people will become law abiding community members.
Civilization is about learning to curb our destructive impulses when the our instincts kick in. We generally believe that physical fights are not the way to solve problems and it is mostly illegal to hit another person. Even though it may well be a genetic inheritance from the times when self-defense was the only defense. We have constraints on sexual contact as well.
Laws don't prevent everyone from hitting or raping others, but they do establish expectations of how people should behave. And the vast majority of people, most of the time, abide by these limits. Not simply because the behaviors are illegal, but because laws make sense, generally. We have created alternate ways to settle disagreements - not always satisfactorily I acknowledge. (I could write several more posts on the wrongheaded restraining of natural behaviors too - like making young kids sit still for long periods of time when their natural behavior is to be active, or preventing women from breast feeding.)
I think the call for revenge is one of those impulses that society should find alternative ways to resolve. South Africa developed its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Another approach is Restorative Justice which
focuses on restoring the losses suffered by victims, holding offenders accountable for the harm they have caused, and building peace within communities.And, of course, putting money into prevention as well as intervention would help eliminate much of the need for revenge in the first place. The idea of prevention is found in many fields, including prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault and prevention of school violence, just to name a couple. Lots of tools are out there.
And we know from story after story - whether it is the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Mafia, Palestine and Israel - that revenge often leads to a continuing cycle of revenge.
So, what's in your psyche that causes you to react strongly for or against the death penalty? I don't want to hear a list of rational arguments. I want you to look down deep to see if you can find those unconscious stirrings that get your juices flowing on this topic.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Birding Challenges
One view from our balcony is this mass of leaves and branches and vines. We hear the birds, but if they aren't moving about, it's really hard to see them. There was a olive backed sunbird moving about when I took this picture, but when I enlarge this and scan each square inch I only see something that looks a little like a bird, but I think it's just a leaf.
But this red bellied squirrel (that's what Tony Ball called it and the websites I looked at didn't really have any good pictures but some mentioned a red bellied squirrel in Thailand) has been entertaining us since we got here. I also saw a striped squirrel in the trees on the other side at the same time, but not clearly enough to get a picture. The red squirrel's belly is vaguely the same cinnamon color as the lettering in the picture.
The pictures from the book are from นกเมืองไทย by นายแพทย์บุญส่ง ดสขะกุล, the second link is to a site in
English telling about the book's author:
Dr Boonsong Lekagul (1907–1992) was the most important personality in shaping the modern conservation movement in Thailand , and devoted most of his life to the study and conservation of wildlife. The country's national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and current high level of environmental awareness, are part of his priceless legacy.
There's also been a brownish bird - well in small flocks of up to about 7 or 8 - that looked sort of like a bulbul, but really not too distinctive. Tony Ball suggested Saturday that it sounded like a streaked eared bulbul. But you look in the book and there are a bunch of birds that look a lot alike and you have to go back and look for details. One trick that makes it easier is to look at the maps to see which birds are in your area (though this isn't foolproof.)
Sunday, when the birds came by, I looked carefully at one that got close enough, for the white streaks, and sure enough they were there. Tony also reminded me that the pictures in the books are of one bird in one pose in one lighting condition, and in this case, as rendered by the artist. So colors aren't always quite what they seem. So our not so green birds do fit here.
Rural Alaska Issues - Part 2 View from Rural Thailand
[Sunday, March 1, 2009, 9:24 pm Thai time]
This is the follow up to a previous post in which I commented on some of the stories coming from Alaska blogs as a prelude to thoughts I have on rural Alaska issues while working in rural Thailand. There are a lot of similarities between how Alaska Native peoples are treated and the way the various 'hill tribe' peoples of Thailand are treated. I did share this with a couple of people at work including a hill tribe member, but let's treat this as a rough draft, a starting point for thinking.
The way dominant societies treat ethnic minorities, especially marginalized minorities that have not fully assimilated into the dominant culture - at least in this case - looks pretty similar. We probably have a lot to learn from each other's situations.
What impresses me here is how my organization here, and the various networks they are part of, have a very well thought out philosophy of intervention into the villages which focuses on community involvement, development of local leadership abilities, and giving the villagers information as well as documenting data from the village. There is a strong emphasis on helping the villagers understand the macro dynamics that are affecting the villagers future and helping them to determine how they want to deal with that. They are almost adopted villagers themselves.
I don't know that there is a similar coordinated effort happening in rural Alaska. While there are plenty of State, University, non-profit, Federal, and Native organizations that are working on Alaska Native issues, I suspect that there is not the same sort of long term involvement, trust, and empowerment that I see with my organization here and the villages they work with. My organization is part of several national and international networks all committed to a basic process of development.
If I understand this right, the irony may be that a lot of the inspiration comes from Western funded NGO's (non-governmental organizations). Certainly, one of the issues that I think most of the Thai organizations don't take too seriously, but all have in their missions if they have Western based international funding, is "gender issues." It's there because the funders require it. But the community development aspects they take very seriously, and at my organization, they realize the importance of the gender issue, but they just aren't sure quite what to do with it.
As I compare Alaska and Thailand on this (and my Alaska knowledge here is based on a lot of glimpses into what's happening, but no serious, comprehensive study) I'm struck by one significant difference.
In the US, the focus for improvement is based on the individual. The individual must learn how to get a job, how to support a family, etc.
With my organization here, the focus is on the macro environment and how it affects life for Thai villagers. This includes things like how International Trade Agreements affect the price of rice or corn or rubber. How the importation of Western financial systems has changed how Thais think about land - from the source of life to commodity - and how this affect farmers. This is the sort of thing Phil Munger is doing when he talks about the fishing industry's likely role in the decline of salmon for subsistence in the Yukon. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the story, there aren't enough facts or links to supporting data. But the focus is right. And the approach of the organization I'm working with is that the answers have to be community answers. [The link to Phil's post isn't working for me, but I could get there by going to February 2009 and scrolling down to Tale of Two Rivers.]
These are broad generalizations. There is pressure to individualize problems here in Thailand too now. And Alaska Native organizations often emphasize community solutions. But I think, generally, this is a significant difference in approach. And my guess is that Europeans also think less in terms of individuals and more in terms of societal impacts on the individual. We know that Alaska Natives survived on their own for thousands of years before Caucasians came into their land. US organizations, like mine here in Thailand, would be emphasizing how changes brought by the US government, by missionaries, by State government, and industry have impacted Native abilities to survive on their own. Members of my organization have close relationships with villagers maintained through regular visits to the villages, multi-village leaders meetings, and visits to the Chiang Mai office by villagers. The villagers understand the organization has goals, but also that their well-being, independence, and ultimately sustainability are the goals the organization is seeking to help them achieve. I don't know that such efforts are going on like this in Alaska.
As you can see, these are still very much developing thoughts. But I do think that Alaska Native leaders might learn a lot by coming to Asia to see what organizations like mine are up to with local villages. My guess is that the approach is more sophisticated and better coordinated than what's happening in Alaska. But I also think that local villagers here would benefit from visiting Alaska Native villages.
The villager that J is tutoring in English is headed for the Asian Rural Institute at the end of March for nine months of training in sustainable and organic agriculture as well as 'servant leadership' and community development training. I would guess that Alaska Native villagers would benefit from that program as well. A similar program that focuses more on the climate of the north might be more appropriate, but I'm not sure what exists.
There are no easy answers. But my organizations understands that power and politics are important parts of the equation and they have attorneys helping with legal matters and they negotiate with government officials on policy.
OK, I'm rambling. Time to stop. Consider these thoughts that are still in the preparation stage, but I'm putting them out here to try to make sense of what I'm seeing.
This is the follow up to a previous post in which I commented on some of the stories coming from Alaska blogs as a prelude to thoughts I have on rural Alaska issues while working in rural Thailand. There are a lot of similarities between how Alaska Native peoples are treated and the way the various 'hill tribe' peoples of Thailand are treated. I did share this with a couple of people at work including a hill tribe member, but let's treat this as a rough draft, a starting point for thinking.
| Factors | Northern Thailand | Alaska |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic Proximity | Connected by road, easy motorcycle ride, 30 - 120 min to Chiang Mai | No roads to major cities. Local and hub villages connected by snow machine, river, air. Expensive air to Anchorage. |
| Ethnicity | Ethnicities, languages different from dominant Thai.Different ethnicities, languages different from dominant Caucasion. | |
| Language | Most speak own languages and Thai, and some limited English. Some younger may not speak either well. | Older people speak own languages and English. Younger speak English and less and less traditional languages. A few villages speak more traditional languages and have new school programs to teach traditional languages. |
| Clothing | Wear various combinations of traditional clothing and Western clothing. | Traditional clothing now usually for special occasions. |
| Food | Mix of traditional and Thai. (Thai food more similar to traditional food than Western food is to traditional Alaska Native) | In villages eat mix of traditional and Western food. |
| Physical Appearance | Could pass as Thai. | Easily recognized as ‘different’ from dominant Caucasian population, even if dressed Western. |
| Historical Settlements | Nomadic with temporary (2-3 years?) settlements | Nomadic with seasonal camps and moving to follow game. |
| Health compared to national average | Life span of some groups higher than Thai. Other health stats probably lower | Most statistics worse |
| Income compared to national average | Significantly lower. Includes subsistence farming and hunting. (Ethnic Thai farmers do the same.) | Significantly lower average. Includes subsistence hunting and fishing. (Some Caucasians do the same.) |
| Government policy | Lip service to cultural diversity, de facto policy = Settle in one place. Assimilate into Thai culture | Lip service to cultural diversity, de facto policy = Settle in one place, Assimilate into US culture. |
The way dominant societies treat ethnic minorities, especially marginalized minorities that have not fully assimilated into the dominant culture - at least in this case - looks pretty similar. We probably have a lot to learn from each other's situations.
What impresses me here is how my organization here, and the various networks they are part of, have a very well thought out philosophy of intervention into the villages which focuses on community involvement, development of local leadership abilities, and giving the villagers information as well as documenting data from the village. There is a strong emphasis on helping the villagers understand the macro dynamics that are affecting the villagers future and helping them to determine how they want to deal with that. They are almost adopted villagers themselves.
I don't know that there is a similar coordinated effort happening in rural Alaska. While there are plenty of State, University, non-profit, Federal, and Native organizations that are working on Alaska Native issues, I suspect that there is not the same sort of long term involvement, trust, and empowerment that I see with my organization here and the villages they work with. My organization is part of several national and international networks all committed to a basic process of development.
If I understand this right, the irony may be that a lot of the inspiration comes from Western funded NGO's (non-governmental organizations). Certainly, one of the issues that I think most of the Thai organizations don't take too seriously, but all have in their missions if they have Western based international funding, is "gender issues." It's there because the funders require it. But the community development aspects they take very seriously, and at my organization, they realize the importance of the gender issue, but they just aren't sure quite what to do with it.
As I compare Alaska and Thailand on this (and my Alaska knowledge here is based on a lot of glimpses into what's happening, but no serious, comprehensive study) I'm struck by one significant difference.
In the US, the focus for improvement is based on the individual. The individual must learn how to get a job, how to support a family, etc.
With my organization here, the focus is on the macro environment and how it affects life for Thai villagers. This includes things like how International Trade Agreements affect the price of rice or corn or rubber. How the importation of Western financial systems has changed how Thais think about land - from the source of life to commodity - and how this affect farmers. This is the sort of thing Phil Munger is doing when he talks about the fishing industry's likely role in the decline of salmon for subsistence in the Yukon. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the story, there aren't enough facts or links to supporting data. But the focus is right. And the approach of the organization I'm working with is that the answers have to be community answers. [The link to Phil's post isn't working for me, but I could get there by going to February 2009 and scrolling down to Tale of Two Rivers.]
These are broad generalizations. There is pressure to individualize problems here in Thailand too now. And Alaska Native organizations often emphasize community solutions. But I think, generally, this is a significant difference in approach. And my guess is that Europeans also think less in terms of individuals and more in terms of societal impacts on the individual. We know that Alaska Natives survived on their own for thousands of years before Caucasians came into their land. US organizations, like mine here in Thailand, would be emphasizing how changes brought by the US government, by missionaries, by State government, and industry have impacted Native abilities to survive on their own. Members of my organization have close relationships with villagers maintained through regular visits to the villages, multi-village leaders meetings, and visits to the Chiang Mai office by villagers. The villagers understand the organization has goals, but also that their well-being, independence, and ultimately sustainability are the goals the organization is seeking to help them achieve. I don't know that such efforts are going on like this in Alaska.
As you can see, these are still very much developing thoughts. But I do think that Alaska Native leaders might learn a lot by coming to Asia to see what organizations like mine are up to with local villages. My guess is that the approach is more sophisticated and better coordinated than what's happening in Alaska. But I also think that local villagers here would benefit from visiting Alaska Native villages.
The villager that J is tutoring in English is headed for the Asian Rural Institute at the end of March for nine months of training in sustainable and organic agriculture as well as 'servant leadership' and community development training. I would guess that Alaska Native villagers would benefit from that program as well. A similar program that focuses more on the climate of the north might be more appropriate, but I'm not sure what exists.
There are no easy answers. But my organizations understands that power and politics are important parts of the equation and they have attorneys helping with legal matters and they negotiate with government officials on policy.
OK, I'm rambling. Time to stop. Consider these thoughts that are still in the preparation stage, but I'm putting them out here to try to make sense of what I'm seeing.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Looks Like Pete Kelly was Right
Situations like this are why I try to qualify everything I say. The world is complex. I think we like sports because at the end of the game, things are resolved. There's a winner and a loser. Decided. But the rest of life isn't that simple. And with the various drug and other scandals in sports, sports isn't that simple either. Thus making categorical statements can easily lead to foot-in-mouth disease.
Unbeknownst to me, when I posted about the BP-ARCO charter on February 2, Dermot Cole had the previous day published an article in the Fairbanks Newsminer on the same topic. But he'd done a lot more checking of the facts. (Thanks to the person who emailed me that article.)
In a second post on this topic, I was way too emphatic on this. But I'm glad to see that I did put this qualifier in there:
I, of course, should have read the whole charter carefully. But at least I wrote at the time:
Lesson for next time: Even if you can't read the whole document, you can at least use the search feature to see if your key terms (in this case "charitable") show up again somewhere else in the document.
So, Conoco-Philips folks, when your blog bot got you to the previous posts, why didn't you just make a comment to clarify things?
So, sorry Pete, I was wrong and you were right on this.
Unbeknownst to me, when I posted about the BP-ARCO charter on February 2, Dermot Cole had the previous day published an article in the Fairbanks Newsminer on the same topic. But he'd done a lot more checking of the facts. (Thanks to the person who emailed me that article.)
The charter does not spell out an expiration date for the contribution plan and the other commitments.
The document does have language, however, which says that as of this month, no one can go to court and allege that charter is being violated.
It amounts to a backhanded expiration date.
After Jan. 15, 2009, there can be “no action alleging a failure of performance,” the charter says.
BP and ConocoPhillips will continue to make contributions to the university and other causes in the years ahead, as they value the good will this engenders.
But it’s worth pointing out that their recent change in policy is linked to the 10-year expiration of the charter agreement. . .
I have asked Attorney General Talis Colberg for clarification on the issue and for his view of the significance of the expiration date on the various elements in the charter.
The agreement says that while the state could have brought legal action to enforce the environmental stipulations, the provisions on Alaska Hire and charitable giving are “corporate citizenship commitments to the Alaskan community at large.”
“The parties do not intend for these other commitments of Section II to be enforced by lawsuits and no right of action is created with respect to them,” the charter says.
In a second post on this topic, I was way too emphatic on this. But I'm glad to see that I did put this qualifier in there:
Maybe I'm wrong, but what was the point of the State signing an agreement with the oil companies outlining conditions for BP's purchase of ARCO if the conditions are not mandatory?I still find it strange that the then Governor, Tony Knowles, would agree to something that isn't enforceable. But I have no idea of what all was going on in the negotiations over this. Perhaps the oil companies flat out refused to sign the agreement without that clause.
I, of course, should have read the whole charter carefully. But at least I wrote at the time:
But we were in high gear preparing to go to Thailand and what with the traveling and getting into things here, I didn't get around to posting that agreement. (It's down below) I haven't had a chance to study the whole charter, but I expect there is plenty to chew on. [emphasis added]
For the time being, let's just look at the part that discusses community charitable contributions:
Lesson for next time: Even if you can't read the whole document, you can at least use the search feature to see if your key terms (in this case "charitable") show up again somewhere else in the document.
So, Conoco-Philips folks, when your blog bot got you to the previous posts, why didn't you just make a comment to clarify things?
So, sorry Pete, I was wrong and you were right on this.
Sommersturm at CMU Film Space
We already heard about Film Space last year - free Saturday night films at the art building at Chiang Mai University - but somehow we never made it there. It's not far - a ten minute bike ride - so we decided to go tonight. So I googled to see what was on tonight and found Thomatfilms a blog that covers what's playing in Chiang Mai. Thai doesn't have a final 's' sound, so they substitute a 't' sound if there is an 's' at the end of a word. So I'm guessing Thom is punning that with at films. Bi-lingual jokes are fun.
This yellow car was parked in front of the Design Center. I'm guessing it's a piece of student art. From Thomatfilms we learned:
There's a little restaurant - Din Dee - run by a Japanese woman right there too, with a great space. It's a round, earth building. There's something about being in a round room that feels right to me.
After dinner, it was almost dark, and a sliver of a moon hung over the mountains and you could see Wat Doi Suthep lit up on the mountain.
We were looking forward to watching the film up on the roof, but something was wrong with the sound, so it was going to be in a room. Which turned out to be air conditioned, something we haven't experienced much. Evenings have generally been cool and we like using the electric fan rather than air conditioning anyway. But they did turn it off near the end of the movie and it slowly warmed up, so that when we went out if felt nice and cool outside.
My first reaction watching the film was, "Was this still a problem in Germany in 2004?" Well, probably the story was written ten years before it came out and there was a gay rowing team called the Queerstrokes, so some folks were a little more out than others. But anti-gay stuff is just part of all attacks on people who are different from the norm, by people who need to pick on someone else to cover their own insecurities. And coming to terms with sexuality - straight or gay - is scary for most people.
The movie was nicely done, nearly all the characters were likable, even the ones who weren't at first, showed some decent views of themselves. And the only thing I could see that would have gotten it its R rating were bare female breasts. Unless gay automatically rates an R.
This yellow car was parked in front of the Design Center. I'm guessing it's a piece of student art. From Thomatfilms we learned:
During February, Film Space presents “The Month of Iron Hoofter.” March is “The Month of Bad Luck Money.”
Film Space is to the right and in the back of the CMU Art Museum, in the Media Arts and Design building across from the ballet school. Now that the weather is cool, they are resuming their rooftop showings, weather permitting. You might want to bring something to sit on or lie on. A contribution is requested in the donation box at the entrance – you should leave 20 baht. Well worth supporting.
At Film Space Saturday, February 28: Sommersturm / Summer Storm (2004) by Marco Kreuzpaintner – 98 mins – Germany, Comedy/ Drama/ Romance.
Fourth and last in the “Hoofter” series: gay love in Germany. Tobi and Achim have been best friends for years. As cox and oarsman, they have helped their team win several rowing cups in the past and are now looking forward to the big regatta in the countryside. But this trip is no summer camp anymore and the first problems soon arise. As Achim’s relationship with his girlfriend grows more serious, Tobi starts to realize that his feelings for Achim run deeper than he’s willing to admit to himself.
There's a little restaurant - Din Dee - run by a Japanese woman right there too, with a great space. It's a round, earth building. There's something about being in a round room that feels right to me.
After dinner, it was almost dark, and a sliver of a moon hung over the mountains and you could see Wat Doi Suthep lit up on the mountain.
We were looking forward to watching the film up on the roof, but something was wrong with the sound, so it was going to be in a room. Which turned out to be air conditioned, something we haven't experienced much. Evenings have generally been cool and we like using the electric fan rather than air conditioning anyway. But they did turn it off near the end of the movie and it slowly warmed up, so that when we went out if felt nice and cool outside.
My first reaction watching the film was, "Was this still a problem in Germany in 2004?" Well, probably the story was written ten years before it came out and there was a gay rowing team called the Queerstrokes, so some folks were a little more out than others. But anti-gay stuff is just part of all attacks on people who are different from the norm, by people who need to pick on someone else to cover their own insecurities. And coming to terms with sexuality - straight or gay - is scary for most people. The movie was nicely done, nearly all the characters were likable, even the ones who weren't at first, showed some decent views of themselves. And the only thing I could see that would have gotten it its R rating were bare female breasts. Unless gay automatically rates an R.
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