There is so much talk

Living in Bangkok, I am hearing a lot of talk about what may happen in this country. I am not going to act on talk nor will I repeat it. However, I will say, as I often say, living here is like living in a Shakespearean play. It fits in with how I see this place existing in some type of time warp. It just is that the time warp takes you back socially and politically some 400 to 500 years. What is sad is that the time warp so negatively effects the ordinary, everyday Thai and especially the poor Thais. It all seems to be determined by the Thai elite for the sake of their own particular betterment at the expense of their own people. Sad but this is what happens in our world.

On Saturday, I go to Manila. I am away for 12 days as I go to be part of my Order's Intermediate General Chapter there. My basis for being invited is my experience of five years' living and working in Thailand. The Order is considering its position in Asia. So I am there to help in its reflections and deliberations.

We will see what happens next on a number of fronts. Life is never dull.

Stuck

My earlier reflections did hold a key. It came to me afterwards while on the bus home from work. It is as if Thailand is stuck in time. We are in 2010 but Thailand and its people are like stuck in a time warp.

It is a time warp created over time by the powerful few to serve certain select interests. The mass of people are like stuck in this warp created by the few. The masses are held within it. They have to deal with it, or just aren't able for it or just aren't even aware of it as simply this is the way it is in Thailand.

Just for what it is worth.

Our world can be so small

Our Liz challenges the faith community at Bangkok Cathedral at this very moment. Why?

While Liz and Empower are out there busy working to help sex workers build up their lives, the big issue at the cathedral is appropriate dress. As one who goes to the cathedral, I have to say that no one dresses disrespectfully, or at the very least, no one does so knowingly or on purpose. What I believe is at play is the old cultural differences.

We are in Thailand and we have to respect Thai ways but the cathedral has a mixed population. People come to it from other countries and other ways which may seem strange to the Thais. Some only come on a one off visit while others are regulars. What I see happening is that what is repectful for a westerner is not so respectful for a Thai. I understand the tensions that may arise in the presenting of this issue but but no one is being disrespectful. What really worries me is that some good people are feeling excluded by the way this policy is being presented in the community.

Even on this little issue, one could go on for hours but what is the central word is LITTLE. It really is such a little issue. No one means any harm and the whole thing is becoming too consuming and causing too much unnecessary strife. Why don't we follow the lead of our Liz and Empower and move onto a big issue and focus our time and energy on something worthwhile, like religious harmony, homelessness, social issues causing unrest? Why can't we let go of the little things and move onto what really matters to us as builders of the Reign of God?

Then there is something else that comes to my attention and I think it may be related. It is my recent more highlighted experience of the arrogant side of Thais. As I go around on my day, I notice more Thais on the street looking unhappy, appearing quite arrogant with their looks. Maybe this is nothing and only me, but it is happening in a country where it is so important to have the image of being friendly and to appear polite. It makes me wonder if anything is happening out there. I also repeat that the soldiers have returned to the streets - soldiers and not more police. They have not come back in big numbers but they have returned. What is that about?

As I say many times, life here is lived on many layers and the layer that matters most is the one below, the one you are not immediately experiencing or know about. This country is experiencing great pain because of unresolved and ongoing social issues. The political system is not working to deal with these unresolved issues. I suspect here is a key to what people are feeling even if they are not allowed or able to name their experience due to their cultuture, their ways and the constraints of a restrictive social hierarchy and system.

Liz

Yesterday, I mentioned Liz - the Australian woman who works with Empower in Chiang Mai. This NGO reaches out to sex workers. Liz is obviously a real character and is committed to her work and the people her work touches. I was most impressed by her.

For me, she is a gospel woman doing gospel work. I say that not even really knowing her. She may never go to a church. If that is so, I would still hold that she is a gospel woman doing gospel work.

It then makes me ask what is it that motivates the Lizzes of our world?

They are building the reign of God in such real ways while so many at church remain so inward looking and so judgemental, being overcome by trivial internal issues. It makes me wonder. The Lizzes in our midst do challenge those of us who publicly hold to the gospel and who know the call to build the reign of God.

Thank God for the Lizzes. They have something to say to us.

Developments

Well, at the weekend, armed soldiers returned to duty at my central shopping area known as Sala Daeng. There are only four of them but they are armed and they are there. I don't know what that really means but something has happened or is happening.

Then I see that Bob Katter has made his announcement independently in the Australian political scene. The way it is all being dealt with looks from afar as some sort of TV Quiz Show. We now have the big announcement - "And the winner is ..... !!"

Last week, I was in Chiang Mai for a network conference on migration in the Mekong region. It was a great but busy time. I was impressed by the ones I met working in this area of outreach to those suffering under the chaos of migration due to economic, social and political hardships. One person was Liz. She is an Australian working with Empower in Chiang Mai. There are so many Australians here in this region doing great work. We should be proud.

Empower works with sex workers. They run a bar in Chiang Mai as a social and meeting centre for ones involved in anyway in the scene. It is most impressive. You can sit and talk and listen; you can connect and do some good work; or you can have a go at do-it-yourself pole dancing. I must say that this physical activity is good exercise. Unfortunately, I didn't get any tips and I was not such a pretty sight.

Just something for today.

Back home

I came back home to Bangkok and within two weeks was in touch with huge differences within the local scene. On the surface, life in Bangkok seems quiet - funnily quiet - but under the surface there is a lot of talk that tells you much is happening and the social environment is dramatically changing.

The basic lesson is that when one does not deal with one's issues, they do not just go away but stay and become even pronounced. The same is true at a social level.

I do wait to see what happens next here and when. I only hope it is for the good of the people and their society.

It seems so long

It is two months since my last entry. I can't believe it. What has happened? Where has the time gone? I look at my diary. The time seems quiet in Bangkok but who knows?

I was home in Australia for three weeks from Monday 19th July. I was in Sydney for Provincial Chapter. The time with my Province was reaffirming for me here in Thailand. I left feeling missioned by both my Province and Order to return to Bangkok and my work.

From Sydney, I went to Brisbane to spend time with now frail and elderly parents who need care and attention. In the midst of the fray that is the chaos of my family facing transition and the unknown, I would say that an insight gained or relearnt is that the human species is basically made up of good people who are doing their best as they cope with their own tough reality and set of dysfunctions - those shared and those peculiar to oneself.

Despite all change, the Brisbane Ekka remains in tack. A great find at the Ekka was Big Wal, the firefighter - what a man!