Paradise Is Still Burning

[villagefarang]

So I get that it was therapeutic to voice your thoughts on this smoke story. It's always nice and feels good to be popular I get it.

My wife and I were recently fined 15,000 baht because one of our staff had lit a rice stubble pile. (Even though they were told NO BURNING. Someone called it in and there was a police response to put the fire out. So the laws are being better enforced and are having effective results. More so than last year (which was extremely bad). So although it isn't fixed yet, does not mean nothing will happen to stop the smoke. This year is the first year that I actually see enforcement of this fire ban. Village burning is entirely a different can of worms. So you see I still have hope for the TV posters as I do for the Thai people and the ritual habit of burning.

I am pleased you get the therapeutic nature of writing and, yes, being popular sure beats some of the alternatives, especially here on TV. I appreciate your understanding.

It also appears being fined got your attention but as you so astutely pointed out, “Village burning is entirely a different can of worms.” I have not seen any enforcement where we live here in the North, and after the last rain, things went from very good to very bad in a matter of days.

As nice as it is to have Mother Nature step in, to provide a little relief from time to time, I fear it slows progress toward a more longterm solution. For the foreseeable future I am keeping rain on my wish list as I don’t hold out much hope for punitive measures.

It is easy to talk about punishing and dehumanizing strangers in another part of the country but when they are family and neighbors you risk breaking down the entire social structure of the community, without first providing viable alternatives and time for them to be adopted.

[bigbamboo]

Here's a schematic map of the Isaan

And here a sattelite picture

Ahead of the Chiang Mai area by some years. What's producing this degree of deforestation? Can't blame poverty, the folks in Laos and Cambodia are poorer. The population of Isaan is higher than of Laos and Cambodia combined, but no match in density for the Netherlands or England which are as green as it gets.

Now that is amazing.

[kevvy]

On my blog I tend to steer away from news events or the more sensationalized aspects of Thailand. Therefore I have been avoiding the burning problem except in passing comments. Finally I realized that it had become a pervasive part of my life and was affecting everything I do and don’t do.

To help relieve the fatigue and frustration of being confined to an air-conditioned room I finally broke down and wrote about the burning. It helps sometimes to purge ones muddled mind and put things down on the page. I am glad some of you approve of what I wrote and I appreciate your comments.

cannot wait till you bring out your book , i will buy the first copy..well done VF

[villagefarang]

On my blog I tend to steer away from news events or the more sensationalized aspects of Thailand. Therefore I have been avoiding the burning problem except in passing comments. Finally I realized that it had become a pervasive part of my life and was affecting everything I do and don’t do.

To help relieve the fatigue and frustration of being confined to an air-conditioned room I finally broke down and wrote about the burning. It helps sometimes to purge ones muddled mind and put things down on the page. I am glad some of you approve of what I wrote and I appreciate your comments.

cannot wait till you bring out your book , i will buy the first copy..well done VF

I am not at all certain I have a book in me but thanks for thinking I do. I am perhaps better off continuing to giving it away on my blog. The thought of going commercial doesn’t settle well with me, for some reason.

[kevvy]

On my blog I tend to steer away from news events or the more sensationalized aspects of Thailand. Therefore I have been avoiding the burning problem except in passing comments. Finally I realized that it had become a pervasive part of my life and was affecting everything I do and don’t do.

To help relieve the fatigue and frustration of being confined to an air-conditioned room I finally broke down and wrote about the burning. It helps sometimes to purge ones muddled mind and put things down on the page. I am glad some of you approve of what I wrote and I appreciate your comments.

cannot wait till you bring out your book , i will buy the first copy..well done VF

I am not at all certain I have a book in me but thanks for thinking I do. I am perhaps better off continuing to giving it away on my blog. The thought of going commercial doesn’t settle well with me, for some reason.

just enjoy what you are writing now , as we all love reading them.

[vijer]

My suggestion is that the Thai government stop stealing from the people with the BS rice scheme and that they buy every village a tractor that can be shared for free.

[canuckamuck]

I would feel very sad for that tractor, in my village they can't even borrow a hammer without wrecking it. And 80 percent of the farmland is on a slope which only a dirtbike can climb.

[VocalNeal]

Everyone should keep pigs to eat all the scraps distributed by the factories weekly.

Everyone should use the pig poo to make methane gas and supply free power.

Just like everyone in the world should have a solar panel or a wind turbine.

Alternative energy rules.

Will it happen? Token gestures at the moment! Maybe in 100 years if the planet hasn't followed suit with Mars.

CCC

Everyone should knit their own shoes!. Oh well there is a dreamer everywhere.

As for the burning. They (the locals) were doing it generations before any posters or farangs moved up north, so live with it. Don't like it move somewhere else where either they don't burn or the topography of climatic condition are different. They used to burn stubble in Europe for generations. Only the advent of really big tractors and the level of rainfall allowed the fields to be ploughed twice so the biomass gets ploughed back in.

Get the pig poo methane poster above to come up with a better financial use for rice straw and the problem would disappear over night.

[Chittychangchang]

Everyone should keep pigs to eat all the scraps distributed by the factories weekly.

Everyone should use the pig poo to make methane gas and supply free power.

Granted it's a simplistic idea. There's not been any other solutions put forward to adress the problem. The rice company's could venture into the pork and gas business. Killing two birds with one stone is the phrase that springs to mind, however they are making so much money from rice ...can they really be bothered?

Just like everyone in the world should have a solar panel or a wind turbine.

Alternative energy rules.

Will it happen? Token gestures at the moment! Maybe in 100 years if the planet hasn't followed suit with Mars.

CCC

Everyone should knit their own shoes!. Oh well there is a dreamer everywhere.

As for the burning. They (the locals) were doing it generations before any posters or farangs moved up north, so live with it. Don't like it move somewhere else where either they don't burn or the topography of climatic condition are different. They used to burn stubble in Europe for generations. Only the advent of really big tractors and the level of rainfall allowed the fields to be ploughed twice so the biomass gets ploughed back in.

Get the pig poo methane poster above to come up with a better financial use for rice straw and the problem would disappear over night.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Chittychangchang