Long Shadows Moving In Chiang Mai's Sois

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup, TV CM Friends,

We feel ... we don't know how to articulate what we feel ... we feel as if we see long shadows cast from the events in Bangkok moving here, right in our tambon, right in our small moo baan. We feel no danger from the freshets of high wind, and the possible coming rain, but these shadows ... they are streaked with red and yellow, and we feel they have veins, perhaps even hidden arteries : we sense there is a bloody history in their core, and a potential for a paroxysm of violence that could reach ... yes ... even our beloved Chiang Mai with some unimagineable maelstrom of violence.

We can only really express what we feel in another kind of language, a language of the heart, a poetry :

Thailand April 26, 2010

ripe fruit dangles, sweet, ready to fall off,

look: ladders: here, leaning against trees,

and, there: empty baskets nested, ready;

why are no people busy picking the fruit ?

the sun is not high yet, no storm looming

over distant blue mountain outlines seen

so clearly through sweet-clean musky air;

why do we hear only bird-calls, and river's

muted rush; where is childrens' laughter ?

how has the usual patter of joke and story

been swallowed-up by something absent

we can't put a finger on, feel in the heart ?

i am listening for your ghost, love: tell me

why people kill each other and forget fruit

Edited April 26, 2010 by orang37

[jackdawson]

get the <deleted> out (while u can)

[whiterussian]

Sawasdee Orang!

You are not the only one seeing the long shadows..

However... I bought somtam today, and asked the lady if she was a red or a yellow.

Her reply was "Red! - you know about red and yellow?!!" with genuine surprise on her face...which made me feel slightly less insecure at being an outsider in this situation that has the potential to upset pretty much everybody. Phew, after 4 years Im still seen as a tourist by the locals!

But of course thats just me, and my safety... but its a start.

[siamshot]

Thank You for the post, orang37...

[BigWheelMan]

Depressed people always write poems. I hate depressed people.

Stop now mate, before it`s too late

I`m a poet and didn`t know it.

[chiangmaibruce]

My wife told me late today about a Pattani-style murder in the street near Good View Restaurant. I was surprised not to see anything about it in this forum or in the TV news clippings forum ... has anyone else heard about this? It was in an online Thai news site.

According to reports happened in the early evening with plenty of people around ... the lady killed was an owner of an adjacent spa ... just missed was her nanny carrying her child ... killed by a gunman on a motorbike.

Definitely a very worrying development for Chiang Mai ... and a terrible and tragic thing for this family.

[IanForbes]

Nice one, Bill. The reader can interpret the poem as they wish.

It's easier to discuss the heart and soul of the problem when you are outside the heat of the battle. Thais are not stupid, despite what some people might think. They might be gullible, but that is far from being stupid. Most people deal with life on a personal level and are influenced by personal experiences, and by friends around them. It's no different than an educated man coming to Thailand for the first time and looking for love. He is gullible mark for any conman or con-woman to fleece.

[whimsy]

My wife told me late today about a Pattani-style murder in the street near Good View Restaurant. ....

... the lady killed was an owner of an adjacent spa.

Terrible murder. It has been reported by CM Mail and on Thai Visa here

[CMX]

orang37

I don't sense it but fear it - a cusp

[chiangmaiexpat]

There is definitely a high potential for violence.

We have already seen a number of bombings in Chiang Mai supposedly carried out by red shirt supporters.

During the weekend, a counter protest by the multicoloured group formed in Nimmanhemin Road. There were around 50 people on Saturday.

On Sunday, more than 200 were expected, but the red shirts threatened the organisers with violence, so the gathering was cancelled.

Cheers, CMX

[jackr]

It'll probably kick off up here when the army rip into Rajprasong.

We can only really express what we feel in another kind of language, a language of the heart, a poetry

A classic example of the need keep the whisky out of reach when posting.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

It'll probably kick off up here when the army rip into Rajprasong.

Depends on how they go about it.

Meanwhile, there's no viable leadership, or even constructive guidance anywhere to be found.

[CMX]

"We can only say that we do care, and we care because we grieve for the loss of human potential, in others, in ourselves, and in the larger collective entities of nations, and the world. Every life, we believe, has a God-given potential, and a "drive," we believe, to "grow" towards self-realization and loving productivity just as plants have phototropism, the inherent drive to grow toward light." orang37

Somewhat out of context (written by orang to mourn the fate of women's lost potential here and now, in a string that got closed later for bickering), this Rogerian assumption can confer a longer view. Perspective is all.

In Thailand, daily news reports and immediacy (as everywhere,, by way of immediate and sensationalist media) is right in our faces, like it or not. Worse is a personal loss.

PS There is a huge between difference someone who is depressed by reading poetry and the author. I was decked by the notion that all depressives are poets - no, double-decked. Seems to me that I had some happy poets stuffed down my throat. Limericks too. Anyway, if anything, Shakespeare was bi-polar.

Edited April 27, 2010 by CMX

[Soulwy]

Orang37...thanks for the poem.

I know there are things going on here, but I don't see it. Or when I see it, like this afternoon at the Nimm road, I don't feel worried. I don't know what it was, but it looked like a peaceful demonstration (no yellow nor red) I think is was a pro-King demonstration, it was pretty pink-ish.