The Profile Image

Finally I found the perfect image for my profile! I came across these set of signs in Cardiff: apparently Dewi is Welsh for David. Coincidence? I think not. It’s just that some society, somewhere got it completely right! :) So if you keep looking for something, somehow, somewhat, somewhere, you will find it.

Crossing Borders

I left Bangkok yesterday for Cardiff, UK to present in another conference – this time on creativity in higher education. After thinking mostly about spaces and the fights among different stakeholders for spaces in the past few weeks, the shift in mind set will have to come in faster than the jetlag between continents. Meanwhile, other shifts that I must adapt to present itself along the way.

Un-halted stroll straight into the boarding area in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (even after the New Year’s Eve’s bomb), in contrast with going through two highly secured posts in Singapore’s Changi Airport: one right off from the plane (What were they thinking? That someone would bring a bomb all the way across continents without being noticed by security guards in other continents to bomb Singapore?) And another before going into the boarding area.

Or maybe I’m already spoilt by the laissez-faire attitude towards security in Bangkok – where I can just stroll in and out of places without once going through metal detectors or security checks that can be found in most of Jakarta’s places. But the security in Changi makes the ones in Jakarta look like a joke (which is true most of the time: they are just put up for shows only). At Changi, you would have to take off your jackets and put all electronic devices out in view (including getting your laptops out of their compartments).

As walked out of the 12-hour long plane ride between Singapore and Amsterdam, the twenty degrees centigrade difference in temperature hit me. Fortunately for me though (as I can’t stand being cold), the weather is not as cold as I thought it would be. Unfortunately, as I read on Financial Times on board, global warming has caused an unseasonably warm winter throughout the world.

Now I’m sitting here in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for an eight hour transit, working on lesson plans for my students this coming term that I should email to another lecturer so she can take care of my missing the first week of class at the university. The ‘communication centre’ is just across the void from where I’m sitting, but I have decided not to send the files to my colleague because it costs 3 Euro (US$4.25) to get 15-minute worth of internet time. Mind you, it costs nothing at Singapore’s Changi Airport for the same amount of time, and if you run out of time, you can still log in again for additional time, which is practically unlimited as long as no one is waiting for you. Meanwhile, a 15-minute worth of internet time costs only 20 Baht (US$0.70) in the more expensive internet cafes.

Suddenly I feel so poor, cold, and jet-lagged.

The Peculiar Thai Way

On New Year’s Day, despite the bomb that blasted in parts of Bangkok and killed three people, the streets were still swamped by tourists and locals paying homage to the many temples of Bangkok. Not much difference with previous days, except that on New Year’s Day, there were many more people wearing yellow t-shirts walking around – making an interesting landscape of yellow subjects moving at different tangents in different speed across the urban landscape.

The Thais love their king so much that every Monday, the day that the king was born, they would put on something yellow (the Thai royal color) to express their love for the king. Pictures of the king in different occasions can be found the moment you step your feet on Thai’s ground, and in about every other house and public places you go. Most were of his pictures in royal suits waving from a balcony. Others were his trips to the countryside, sitting on the floor discussing matters with local officials, and even of him touching a homeless person.

This past New Year’s Day coincided with Monday, and the cityscape is especially swarmed with yellows. The picture below is taken in front of the Grand Palace on January 1, 2007.



Still related with the sense of paying homage to the royal family as well as to the kingdom, at precisely 8 o’clock every morning, most public places like the sky train and train stations would turn on the national anthem on loudspeakers. And instantly, all activities were put on hold and everyone would stand on pause until the end of the song when suddenly, as if someone has pressed the play button again, people resume their activities. The picture below is taken at the Hua Lamphong Train Station on December 20, 2006.



An interesting pause in everyday life of the city, often colored by shades of yellows, but especially more so on Mondays.

Taking Down [Hi-]Story & Making [Hi]Story

On December 30, 2006, as Saddam Husein was executed at Iraq’s dawn, a small community was woken up abruptly at Bangkok’s dawn by the sound of hammers knocking down doors, windows, and walls. The dawn is not the only aspect on how the stories relate.

Wang Lee community has been living in Chareon Krong 52 Lane by the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. Renting out shop houses on a land that belongs to Wat Yannava for the past 80 to more than 100 years, they are currently under threat of eviction from this temple landlord.

Two years ago, the temple decided not to extend their leases, and instead offered the land out to gain much better profit from a developer. 40,000 Baht (US$1,100) was offered as compensation for a family and approximately half of the community accepted the offer and moved out. But the rest want to stay, for the reasons that they have no where else to go, and they have formed an interlinked of families that make up a living history of Bangkok.

Most of Wang Lee community members are descendants of Chinese immigrants in Bangkok, some still have three and few even four generations living under the same roof. Their shop houses are living proofs of historical trading between China and Thailand. Although the buildings do not fall under historical conservation of Bangkok, they are nevertheless constructed ingeniously for the local climate. The shop houses are designed to be naturally ventilated, crossing the opening on the first-floor of the shop front to a double- or a triple- floor height ceiling with manually-operable roofs for ventilation.

Nevertheless, these facts do not seem to matter for the temple landlord. For the past two years, the chief monk at the temple has not agreed to meet directly with the people, making them start a series of negotiations with various government agencies, and a social activism supported and facilitated by NGOs and university lecturers. The community has lost in a court battle against the temple, and although the community has applied to appeal the case, the temple landlord has set up a January 4, 2007 deadline for all tenants to move out.

Hoping that the appeal to the court will delay the deadline, the community did not expect some twenty construction workers to come early in the morning, on the long New Year Day weekend, before the deadline is actually due.

As I arrived at the area, some fourteen empty shop-houses were already partially demolished.

Anxious citizens, shouting, talking, standing, staring
Fingers typing and phones ringing, informing, repeating, urging
East to West pacing, policemen standing, sitting, idling

Displaced doors and windows, knocking, banging, moving
Wooden stacks and piles on concrete pavements, waiting
Knocked-down walls of hundred years, grieving

After knocking down security measures and making signifying holes in the shop houses, the construction workers abruptly left the premises. The act of terrorizing has been achieved. Nevertheless, the community has not given up their hopes in keeping their living history, thanks to political, governmental, social, civil, and academic supports they have received. Click here for Bangkok Post's version of the story.

As Saddam’s execution made the day’s world [hi-]story (history and/or hi-story), what to make of the living [hi]story (history and/or story) of Iraqis people? How much would his death really matter in the making of current and future suffering and/or happiness of most Iraqis people and others affected by Saddam’s life? As parts of Wang Lee’s shop houses became history, what to make of the living [hi]story of this historical community in Bangkok? They may or may not succeed in keeping their homes, yet what has been gained, or lost, during the process of taking down parts of the history?

What if the hi-story of major relevance to few (media and political, or private enterprise in this case) is replaced by the [hi]story of everyday people? Perhaps only then could everyone look forward to the New Year.

Have a Happy Holiday (Brought to You by ...)

Apologies for the long absence from blogging. I'm currently in Bangkok, conducting research on Bangkok's urban poor. More to report later when I have access to internet on a more regular basis. But for now, here's some pictures of Christmas in Bangkok, in which Christmas is not even a public holiday, but where Christmas is nevertheless celebrated - however commercially. The stars above the trees are of the sponsoring banks.

On a more sincere end: Wishing all of you a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year.