Hello, may I speak with the Governator, please?

Posted on 28 May 2008 by christao408

There are any number of urban legends circulating via email, so I was especially amazed to receive one today that is actually true. I called the number myself just to make sure, after searching extensively online at snopes.com and elsewhere to discount it. The Governor of California’s website (http://gov.ca.gov/) indicates that the number listed in the email is the public number for the Governor’s office.

Here’s the body of the email:

Support the CA Supreme Court’s Decision on Same Sex Marriage
The office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is polling reaction to the
California Supreme Court decision overturning the ban on gay marriage.
Most of the response they are getting is in OPPOSITION to the court action.
To vote in support of the Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriage:
1. call 916-445-2841
2. press 1 (for English) or 2 (for Spanish)
3. press 5 (for hot issue topics)
4. press 1 (same sex marriage)
5. press 1 (for support)
After you’ve done this, please send it on to all supporters you know.

“Hi, dis is Ah-nold. I’m not at home right now…”

Sure enough, when I called the phone was answered by a voicemail system identifying it as the Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. I pressed “1” to continue in English. I was provided an interesting series of options:

Press 1 for office hours, mailing address, or the Governor’s email address
Press 2 to voice my opinion on pending legislation
Press 3 for information about Maria Shriver (I kid you not, that’s option 3!)
Press 4 to invite the Governor to an event or to schedule an appointment with him
Press 5 to voice my opinion on current hot issue topics

After selecting number five (despite my overwhelming desire to select number three and learn more about Maria) I was given a number of different issues on which I could voice mu opinion:

Press 1 for the recent state supreme court decision allowing gay marriage
Press 2 for the Governor’s proposed K-12 education budget
Press 3 for the Governor’s proposed higher education budget

There were probably some additional hot issues but I didn’t listen that long.

After choosing “1” for the recent state supreme court decisions allowing Tawn and I to finally be legally married in the State of California, although it won’t give us any federal rights such as immigration, I had the option of pressing “1” to show my support for the ruling or “2” to show my dissatisfaction with it. Of course, I chose number one.

There is just something incredibly funny about this whole thing.

It says so much about our level (or lack) of participation in an ostensibly participatory democracy. We can’t be bothered to write a letter, let alone an email. Pressing a total of 15 buttons is all the effort we can take to express our opinions on political matters.

At the same time, especially if you’re in California, I’d appreciate you giving Arnold a call and letting know how you feel. He’s already stated that he does not support the proposed constitutional amendment that is designed to overturn the court’s ruling, which will be on the November ballot. As a moderate Republican, Arnold’s support is very valuable to the cause of equal rights for gays and lesbians.

Still, this is a very surreal way for the public to get involved in politics, isn’t it?

Is sticking a knife into someone positive or negative?

Posted on 28 May 2008 by christao408

An interesting musing on what the dhamma (the teachings of Buddhism) says about homosexuality, from a blog by a monk of 32 years who lives in Singapore. A brief excerpt:

“Is sticking a knife into someone a positive or a negative action? It depends! If the knife was held by an enraged violent person it would probably be negative. If it is held by a surgeon performing an operation to save someone’se life it would certainly be positive. From the Buddhist perspective, sexual behavior is not judged primarily by the gender of the people involved, by the dictates of a code of behavior drawn up in the Bronze Age or by whether a legal document has been signed, but by its psychological components. Homosexuals are as capable of wanting and of feeling love and affection towards their partners as heterosexuals are and where such states are present homosexual sex is as acceptable as heterosexual sex.”

To read the rest of this thoughtful article, click here.

Trip to the land of honey part 1

Posted on 26 May 2008 by christao408

Saturday morning Tawn and I joined Aori and Paul on a trip to the floating market at Bangnamphung (literally, “The place of honey”) in Phra Pradaeng. It has been the better part of two years since I last wrote about Phra Pradaeng. It is a near-island created by an excessive bend in the Chao Phraya River, somewhat to the south of the main part of the city. Unlike all the surrounding areas, Phra Pradaeng has undergone minimal development and is mostly covered with banana and coconut plantations. A fantastic place to ride a bicycle, it has more in common with the countryside on the outskirts of the city than it does with the industrial area, port, and financial centers that lie just across the river from it.

We drove down to Aori’s house in Bang Na to pick them up, then continued to a temple at the edge of the river. Parking at the temple is ostensibly reserved only for people coming to the temple – the signs specifically say there is no parking for the floating market.

So we spent some time at the temple first, feeding the cows and water buffalo, praying to the Buddha statues, and donating some money.

This is the first temple I’ve seen that have farm animals. They are there to be donated to needy families in the countryside and you can make a donation and feed them. It was a regular petting zoo although, as Tawn found out, the cows don’t like you to touch their foreheads, above.

The sala or pavilion was right next to the river, open on both sides and enjoying a pleasant breeze. Dozens of adherents were coming and going, making offerings, receiving blessings, and prostrating themselves before the images of the Buddha and several revered monks. I found it curious that this cat was just lying on the carpet, above, unconcerned about all of the people coming and going around him.

A large family arrived all at one in two vans to receive a blessing, above. The monk, in order to be heard, was holding a small microphone – a very modern addition to an ancient ceremony.

The ferry runs about every twenty minutes and carries a lot of traffic across the river, including a lot of motorbikes which are the primary form of transportation on Phra Pradaeng. This is a well-organized system with pedestrians first, followed by motorbikes, then any bicycles. A recording plays just as the boat is landing with a little patriotic music and then announcements about the embarking and disembarking procedures. It sounded more like an amusement park than anything else.

Once we were seated onboard, a stream of about two dozen motorbikes followed us on, above, directed into the correct place by the deck hand, below.

Even on the hottest days, there is a nice breeze on the river. As we worked our way across and slightly up the river, we had a good view of part of the Khlong Toei port area, where all of the oil products are off-loaded. There are numerous industrial plants and factories in this area. I’m curious what will happen in the next few years as the Skytrain extends into this end of town and more and more condominiums and residential developments drive up the land values. Will the factories move and will the area gradually be rezoned?

Thankfully, this polluting smokestack was only running for a short while. When we returned later in the afternoon, the sky was much cleaner.

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow…

Just how “farang” shouldn’t I be?

Posted on 26 May 2008 by christao408

When I write these entries, I also post a link to them on my Facebook account because I have many friends who don’t regularly read my blog. (As opposed to the many regular readers of this blog who have become friends.) On Saturday I wrote an entry about this little boy, pictured right, playing on a sidewalk while his father operated very loud construction equipment nearby.

I wrote that two of the questions crossing my mind were why the boy was sitting there and why nobody had any hearing protection on. I didn’t rail against the injustices of the situation, demand that Thailand change, or harumph about how superior things are in the west. I simply wrote that those were questions that crossed my mind.

You can perhaps imagine my surprise when I received the following comment on Facebook from a former Thai language classmate of mine, a European man with whom I studied around December 2005:

“How long have you been living in Thailand? I am amazed that you are still thinking like a novice farang. Let Thailand be Thai.”

I’m not sure what qualifies my thinking as that of “a novice farang” nor what I did to suggest that Thailand shouldn’t be Thai. Was I being culturally insensitive to suggest that the loud noise could cause hearing damage to the young child and his father? Was I being too “western” to wonder why they didn’t have any hearing protection on?

It seems to me that concern over the wellbeing of people, especially children, is a pretty universal value and not one that I should grow out of the longer I live here. Maybe there is another stage of thinking after novice farang: “jaded expat”. The jaded expat sees the lives and wellbeing of the locals as disposable commodities since he won’t be living here in five, ten, twenty years to deal with the long-term effects.

What are your thoughts?

A braise in Bangkok

Posted on 25 May 2008 by christao408

With all this cloudy, overcast weather as of late – providing a wintry look, if not wintry temperatures – I’ve been in the mood for something braised. A nice chunk of meat, slowly cooked in a pool of simmering liquid until it is just falling off the bone… mmmm, that’s good eating!

Tawn doesn’t eat a lot of meat, so I had to provide plenty of advance notice about our dinner. Thankfully, he was willing to try so long as I also made mashed potatoes.

The recipe was a fairly simple one, adapted from the Junior League of San Francisco’s cookbook. Lamb shanks, aromatics, potatoes, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, and red wine. I was supposed to include parsnips and pearl onions, neither of which I could find at the market.

I started by seasoning the shanks, dredging them in flour, then browning them in an oven-proof pot. This is supposed to be a Dutch oven ideally, but I haven’t one of those. Maybe Santa will bring me one…

After browning, you remove the shanks and cook the aromatics (carrots, celery, onions and in my case, Japanese spring onions and garlic) until they are lightly browned. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or so, then add the chopped tomatoes and red wine. Stir well and then add the potatoes.

Partially cover it and then put it into a medium-low oven for three hours or more, turning the shanks occasionally, until the meat is super-tender and loose from the bone. From that point, cook about one more hour so that the connective tissue is fully dissolved.

From there, remove and reserve part of the sauce, and allow the remainder of the ingredients to cool. They can be refrigerated overnight to allow the flavors to develop further. When you are ready to eat, reheat the food in the oven for about an hour or until warmed through.

On the stove, you’ll strain and reduce the liquid until it has made a nice sauce. I added some additional wine and a little beef stock to round out the flavor. I probably should have added the stock to the original dish, but those are lessons learned for next time. Below: the first time I’ve used all four burners!

Finally, after all that work you will have your finished product. Serve it with whatever other dishes you like. In my case, buttermilk horseradish mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus with lemon-olive oil dressing.

The meat turned out delicious and flavorful, although I hadn’t cooked it quite as long as I mentioned above so some of the connective tissues were still connecting. Not a problem, just a little more work with the fork and knife. Still, a very nice attempt at a wintry dinner.

The next day, though, skies were clear and summery again!

Truck Envy

Posted on 24 May 2008 by christao408

Walking down Soi Lang Suan after brunch, I snapped this photo of a young boy – probably not even three years old – squatting on the sidewalk playing with his toy truck. As near as I could figure out, he’s waiting for his father, who is in the cab of the Caterpillar.

What first crossed my mind was that he seemed to be looking on with a certain sense of jealousy, envious of the much larger truck his father had to play with.

Questions that also crossed my mind included, “Why is this young boy just sitting there on the sidewalk while the construction equipment was producing a deafening racket (I had walked with my hands covering my ears until I snapped this photo) as it tore up the street?” Also, “Why is nobody, including the father, wearing any hearing protection?”

Posted on 23 May 2008 by christao408

Sitting here at my computer, even though it is early afternoon the sunny sky has turned as dark as dusk. The wind picks up from dead stillness, rushing through the bedroom balcony and slamming shut the bathroom door before leaving through the living room windows in a furry.

After that brief outburst the stillness returns and the air feels as if it is solidifying. If I wave my hand through it quickly enough, I imagine that water will condense in its wake.

Then the first few drops fall on the open windows, splatting against the panes with ripe fullness before the intensity can no longer be held back and the storm lets go its torrents.

Posted on 22 May 2008 by christao408

Every third Wednesday of the month, the Bull’s Head Pub on Sukhumvit 31/1 hosts a trivia night. Tucked away behind the Villa Market, next to a Japanese bakery, the Bull’s Head is one of a half-dozen pubs in the mid-Sukhumvit area designed to cater to the expat Brits and Aussies who live in our fair city.

Stuart had previously invited me to attend the trivia night and this time the stars aligned and my schedule opened. I discovered a scene much different from the smokey, crowded contestants-put-on-the-spot-by-a-witty-host scene that I had imagined. This is in part due to recent legislation that bans smoking inside pubs and restaurants and also in part to the fact that Wednesdays are a slow night at the pub and they are trying to encourage, not discourage, potential customers.

Participants operate in teams of their own making, composed of as few or as many members as they choose. Stuart plays with two other people, a British man named Richard and a Thai one named Jay. Each team sits at their own table and food (and of course, drink) can be consumed as the match occurs. When ordering, the waitress asked my name, which I thought was quite unusual and forward of her until Stuart explained that they did that so as to keep separate bills.

The match is composed of five rounds of ten questions each. The host announces the topic categories for each round prior to the match and each team can select a “joker” round, for which they will earn double points for correct answers. Last night we chose “Current Events 2007” as our joker round. Other topics were “Music”, “Sports”, “General Interest” and “Sci-Fi Shows”. As the host reads the questions, the team writes answers on a sheet of paper. Afterwards, teams exchange papers and score the answers.

Questions favor British and UK references and on several political and sporting questions we would have been at a loss without Richard. The music questions (in which snippets of each song were played with one point given for correct artist and another for correct title) were all about very contemporary artists so Jay’s knowledge of music was helpful. The sci-fi show questions were actually a sheet of thumbnail pictures of different shows’ casts and we had to identify the shows. Stuart and I were able to help with that although I was very disappointed that “Doctor Who” was not a correct answer.

We concluded the first round with a massive lead over the other six teams as it was our joker round. After the second round we had a narrow lead. By the third we were a bit behind and by the fifth we were in third place with the leaders (who apparently win every time) a good 20 points ahead, out of 120 possible points. The winning team received a bottle of vodka. Members of the second and third place teams received a warm bottle of Heineken each. Lower-placed teams received a variety of useless crap.

Still, it was good fun. We need to expand our team by at least one person to incorporate some additional general knowledge expertise. If you have such qualifications and will be around the Big Mango on the third Wednesday of the month, please let me know.

In other important news, the Japanese Tourism Authority has announced that Hello Kitty has been signed on as an official ambassador for the Yokoso Japan! (Visit Japan!) campaign. The cartoon feline, created by Japanese company Sanrio, is one of the world’s most recognizable characters and will be used to target potential tourists from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where she is especially popular.

Kitty’s online profile indicates that she lives most of the time in London, so one wonders if she is planning on relocating back to Japan for the duration of her assignment as animated ambassador.

Left: Kitty in kimono accepts this prestigious assignment. As usual, Kitty was speechless as she apparently has no mouth.

Spontaneous Singing in the Boarding Area

Posted on 21 May 2008 by christao408

Above: Not quite 5:00 in the afternoon and yet the sky is dark as a storm consumes the central part of downtown Khrungthep. Picture taken from the Thong Lo station looking northwest.

According to the guides, charts and historical patterns, we’re a little bit ahead of the normal rainfall for May, which as I understand it, marks the first of the two monsoons (the other is in September, the wettest month by far). For the better part of the past two weeks we’ve had daily rains. Not just the late afternoon thunderstorms mind you, but drizzly, temperamental rains that come at all hours of the day and night. Our power cut out twice yesterday evening and once again while we slept last night, waking us up a while later when the unconditioned room became too warm because the air conditioner had been reset by the power interruption.

The rains are okay by me as they keep the temperatures cooler, especially with the dark clouds blocking out the tropical sun. Sure, you have to plan a bit so you don’t get caught on the back of a motorsai without protection, as Tawn did on his way home this evening. Actually, he had protection, but he sacrificed his sweater to wrap his bag.

I encountered this funny advertisement on, of all things, airliners.net. It is for a British travel website called lastminute.com and as far as I can tell from a bit of research, the advertisement is exactly what it appears to be: a Candid Camera-type moment in which a group of professional actors conduct an ad hoc musical performance in the waiting area at London’s Stansted Airport to the surprise and amusement of those in the lounge.

From my perspective, this is pretty much the story of my life: breaking out in spontaneous song to drive my personal story line forward. Does that happen to you?

Pigeon-holing Farang

Posted on 20 May 2008 by christao408

When I lived in the States, I felt that I was a more tolerant than average person. I made a conscious effort – and largely a successful one, I think – to not prejudge people I saw or met. Walking down the street, I would not categorize people on first look and I tried to radiate compassion towards everyone.

Somewhere along the process of moving to Khrungthep, my compassion burned out, my prejudices returned, and new ones were born.

As much as I’m ashamed to admit it, when I’m walking down the street here in the Big Mango, I make perfunctory judgements about many of the people I see. For the most part, I’m making these judgements about farang as I don’t know as many of the cultural signifiers for Thais as I do for westerners. There are some exceptions, of course. I can spot the Money Boy and the Hi So pretty easily.

Among the farang I can recognize instantly the Clueless Tourist, the Angry American, the Drunk Aussie (easily confused with the Drunk Brit and somewhat less easily with the Drunk German), the Sexpat (homo and hetero versions), the Lonely Planet Backpacker and the Gone Native.

Let me be the first to admit that it is inherently unfair to others and unskillful to my own growth as a person to have relapsed into this prejudicial shorthand. I know that and am actively trying to relearn the lessons I was much better at living while in the United States. It just seems that there are so many people who so readily live up to these various categories of farang that it is easy to lazily slip into the habit of categorizing them instead of getting to know them first.

All of which must make me the archetypical Self-Righteous Expat, subgenus Holier Than Thou Anthropologist.

Hopefully that is not the case!

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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