Songkran Festival Part 2

Last week I showed you the basic Songkran ceremony as given by the local police department.   Today I'm going to show you the amplified version of that same ceremony sponsored by the local government.   This event occurred one or two days after the first ceremony in the same town of Nakhon Phanom.   The guest of honor was one of the former prime ministers of Thailand, Khun Chawalit Yongchaiyut.  Chawalit was prime minister at the time of the Thailand economic collapse in the late 90's.

The way it is written on the web was that Thailand in the early 1990's, liberalized financial inflow (they allowed enhanced borrowing to occur) and local firms borrowed in dollars and did not borrow carefully because there was no perceived exchange rate risk to these companies.  These borrowed funds triggered a property building boom that began to taper off in the mid 90's.   At near the same time, export growth, a key driver of the Thai economy, collapsed in 1996 and that lead to doubts about  the ability of the Bank of Thailand  in keeping the baht pegged against the dollar.  The bank mounted an expensive defense of the exchange rate that nearly depleted foreign exchange reserves (I believe the exchange rate was about 20:1 at that point in time).    Then it appears that the BOT, unable to continue to extend their efforts to hold the baht's value against the dollar, was in the unenviable position of being forced to allow the baht to float against the dollar and assume a value in accordance to natural market forces.  The floating of the baht  caused a sharp increase in foreign liabilities (Thailand owed foreign lenders greater amounts of money instantaneously when the baht's value fell) and these already cash-strapped companies became critically in debt.  This resulted in Chawalit going to the IMF (International Monitory Fund) and acquiring 14 billion dollars in assistance to help restore Thailand's financial market's stability.   Chawalit resigned about a year later in 1997 as a result of what appeared to be the poor handling of the IMF bailout and the financial crises that occurred on his watch.   So, the BOT did the original dirty work but Chawalit seems to have received a generous portion of the final credit.

Well, Khun Chawalit is from the Northeast.   This is his power base.  He is frequently an honored guest and at special events.  This Songkran was one of those events.  Both he and his wife presided over the activities during this day.

All the pictures you see here are in chronological order for this day.  This day is either April 11th or April 12th, 2002.

This event was held at a municipal park where they hold a number of events around  the year.   Typically what you see is a series of tents, and chairs, and tables.  You will also see people gathered around in groups, sitting on the grass, and vendors selling food items (as the local business folk rarely miss an event to make a few baht).   Khun Chawalit arrived in a motorcade that had a police escort.  The police customarily do this for VIPs during events such as this one.   He is the one in the maroon Thai styled jacket.

Khun Chawalit's wife is in the Saffron jacket.  As you see in the pictures, this was important enough to have a small film crew on hand to record Chawalit's appearance.   The first part of the event was some open table feasting.  Of course, they did not each much, this was more a symbolic token.  Take a closer look at the first picture of the food spread on that table.   In the foreground, Chicken, Crayfish, Crab, and Fish.  In the middle, a flattened cooked pig's head, and on the far end, bananas and an assortment of other native Thai fruit.  On the left table, cooking oil and a large container of incense sticks.   The incense were lit and are burning in the pictures below (see the white smoke).

One thing that jumps right out at you immediately is the string that tied between the tables.  I asked about this and one of my workers said this has it's roots in an Indian religion and as far as he was concerned there is nothing significant about how the Thai's use this except for the fact it's pretty or that perhaps it helps symbolize how the days events are tied to each other.

Here, you are seeing the master of ceremonies make announcements and then you are also beginning to see a nearby mound of sand.   This mound of sand interesting.   It's symbolic of bringing sand to the temple for a donation.  And we are talking about a real donation of sand.  We'll talk more about this in a moment.

The ends of the strings were put in Chawalit's hand and I'm not sure about the significance of this.  I would tend to believe this has something to do which him holding the reins of control of the festivities.  That is my best guess.

When a temple is built, sand is required.   Sand is a component mixed into the cement to pour the building's foundation and vertical supports.  The temple doesn't always have the money to buy everything it needs so it relies on the community at large to help with the building products.   This pile of sand is a symbol of building the temple through the donation of the sand.   Real cement is a relatively new concept in Thailand.   Does anyone know what was used previously to mix with the sand before chemical based cement became a main stream building material?  (there are two answers to this question and one will surprise you).   We also see water being applied and they are using a cup to plant sand on the side of the mound to show some symbolic building.

But wait, there is more.  Colorful flags are applied for decoration.  I am told that the flags don't have any meaning beyond giving the symbolic temple a more finished and beautiful appearance.

We are now moving on to the section of the ceremony where the monks are presented with some gifts and I presume they offer their blessings in return to the community.

These yellow plastic wrapped bags on the left side are assortments of common household goods.  If you flip through these shot (by clicking on them) you can kind of get a feel for the layout  and the dichotomy of the groups of people as they are sectioned apart from each other.

The next part of the ceremony involved the washing of the Buddha and pouring water on its feet.  This is part of the cleansing ritual for Songkran.  Some water was placed on the buddha's chest and some on the feet.  (as an aside: I am told there are 7 basic styles of Buddha; laying down Buddha, open hand Buddha, etc and that one of these Buddhas typically becomes a symbol associated with you based on the day you are born.)

This is an interesting section.  I asked my people about the long metal runners that funnel the water down to the monks.  They tell me this is only designed to make the water delivery faster as large numbers of people generally want to come through the monk line.   Again, as in last week, the water is a sign of cleaning for the new year and the monks return with blessing.  You will notice above the colorful pictures of what looks like a dragon heads.  These are small pictures of what is called Naga.   Nagas are protectors of the temples.  They always protect in odd numbers.   It's true.  Count them up in this picture and see what you come up with.   I am told that monks do things in odd numbers as well.

This was the time that I spooked his security detail.    Here I am, the only farang in the crowd and I'm just a few open steps from who once was, just a few years back, one of the most powerful men in the country.   Chawalit is probably still pretty damn rich and I'm sure he requires security on a regular basis.  (Never know when you have stalkers out there)  Security was only felt tense for a few moments and looked at me sideways one time.    After that, I was fine.  I am no stranger to getting in close for a picture.   I was once the photography editor on a high school yearbook staff but that was a long time ago.

This ceremony is a step up from last week.  Here, you see that the poured water is being caught on the table about another metal bowls.   Also, see the blankets and the 100 baht bills laying in front of the elders?  These are token gifts given as symbols of taking care of the seniors.   (As an aside:  Did you also know that a blanket can buy you a stray dog to eat?   This is true.  It has nothing to do with Songkran.  I'll have to tell you about that someday.)

Here is the dance troop that you saw up near the beginning of the photo shoot.   Notice how it is later afternoon in these pictures now.  And finally, the common folk are lining up to offer water to the monks.

Take a look at this last picture.  See the girl squatting down for a sit?   This is a very common stance in the country.  The poorer country folk are very practical without cash and have a knack for squatting like this when they are hovering somewhere where they don't want to be fully seated on open ground.

I believe this set of Songkran ceremony pictures are some of the best you are ever going to see anywhere on the web.  Next week I'll dig out the Songkran parade pictures and some street water fighting to round out the complete series on Songkran.

"Fiction Publishing" - A Growing Trend

I have seen a larger number of attacks against me on the web lately.  We are not talking criticism.  I hardly consider that malicious.  I rather like criticism.  It calls on me to strengthen my position through introspection.  

What is really despicable is when people lay allegations against me with purpose to smear my name without foundation.   I have no control over what people say, and I don't seek to have control over what they say, but as a reader, I think you should her my response to these allegations in clear concise terms -- so you'll know where I stand.

MangoSquash (mangosauce.com) has a new article out that allows pokes a little fun at me for a joke I made about Stickman, which ok, very funny.  MangoSquash-Dave builds his web site over fiction and jokes at other people's expense.   "We get it Dave".   But, what rubs me is that in addition to his own little ranting and raving, Dave entices anonymous readers (a hand full of them - they could all be the same person) to post really scandalous allegations.  I think this is low class and probably one of the fundamental reasons that he'll never have a profitable web site because Google will keep knocking him down for all the bad language.   Also, his stories target Thai entities could also land him in a spot of hot water if his identity ever became public knowledge as well, but of course this has nothing to do with me directly.

StickmanBangkok.com is now beginning to follow suit.  But, because Stickman's identity is known as Paul Owen, he finds that he must wrap up his attacks (which he knows are lies) inside other people's reader's submission articles.  These "other" writers use Fiction as their cover.   They say they are not writing about me, they say they are writing about Ann Rand's character "John Galt".   I pose this question: "Is this their way of steering clear of the purported Thai law that is really rough on people who publish false and obviously libel statements against others?"  (head scratch).   OR is this a technique that Stickman is endorsing to have the freedom of making statements against me without having to come out of the shadows to do it?   We all know that he doesn't feel the need to be straight up and respond to my writings directly.   He won't answer to his readership about some of the questions I have posed about his questionable business practices of the past (which for the most part are not currently being published).

A reader contacted me this week about a newly released article on the StickmanBangkok.com web site.  Here is what he said:

This reader obviously seems quite upset at this new fangled Stickman tactic.

My response to this was to do a little research and find out who wrote the article and contact them with a few simple questions.  The writer is a guy named Marc Holt.  Mark apparently owns a reality company and a web site company.   And Marc is a frequent publishers at the Stickman Readers Submission area of the Stickman web site.

I wrote an email to Marc asking:

He responded in less than 12 hours saying:

Does anyone really buy into this response?    This looks like a CYA response to me.   This seems to be the new Stickman tool of trade for moments like these when you just can't take any solid responsibility of what you publish.

This is exactly one of the complaints that I originally aired about the Stickman Weekly column (which is now in hiding).  I claimed that he was irresponsibly publishing unverified and probably false information and stories that wrongfully hurt others and was (just by chance) profitable to himself.  (part of his publishing 6 months ago hit very close to some friends of mine in Pattya and that was the original catalyst that started this "notstickman" site)

My airing of these issues lead Stickman to giving my name and personal information to MangoSquash-Dave, and then Dave released my personal information to the Internet in an effort to vilify me.  I in turn released Paul's information to the Internet.  Stickman wanted to Squash me using Dave's web site -- and Dave really enjoyed the publicity of it.  This was the highest traffic topic MangoSquash-Dave has ever had.   Dave loves web traffic no matter how he gets it.  And Stickman loves letting someone else do his dirty work for him.   So, this duo was a nice match up for the task at hand.

Stickman and friends have been diligently working hard to put up a "smoke screen" and keep the readers in the dark about their character.   I also believe they are applying this smoke screen by supplying a distraction and applying a principle that states "Say something long enough and loud enough and people will begin to believe it".   Well, unlike Paul, I'm willing to stand front and center and be accountable to accusations leveled against me. 

I will tell you emphatically and with vigor that I am not a pedophile nor have I ever engaged in pedophilia nor have I ever been involved with images or any business involving pedophilia.   Furthermore, if anyone has any evidence to the contrary, please step forward and bring your evidence to bear so it can scrutinized as appropriate.   Don't tuck your accusations into "works of fiction".   The farang Thailand readership deserves more respect than that.

People; what can I say at this point that I haven't said before.   Paul Owen enjoys sneaky tactics.  He is the most comfortable as a secret person behind the scenes.  He's is very unhappy that I put the spot light on him.   I'm sure at some point he'll publish some dirty laundry on me in some clandestine way.   It's bound to happen because I have not had a perfect life.   I have made mistakes along the way (so has Stickman).   So, it is possible that at some point, you may be seeing much more written about me and I may be forced to write parts of my autobiography early (what a work that will be).

Looking back at this Stickman article, I ask myself, "Why would this guy Marc Holt make an extra effort to jump into the soup with me and Stickman?"   I don't know this guy.   What is his beef with me?    Then it hits me --- he is in the real estate business.   It looks as if he owns Holt Reality http://www.holt-realty.com   I believe I have made some comments about buying real estate before.   I strongly discourage it because Thailand doesn't want farangs to own property (outside of condominium sales).  There is no legal foundation for foreigners to own real estate.   There is only legal loop-hole law that used to supposedly secure property for foreigners.   Some of these real estate people (foreigners are not supposed to be in this business), place the property in their own Thai family's name to ensure the final legal hold on the property for their clients.   Then they do things like 99 year leases, and make loans against the property, etc. with their client to help them feel like they have complete control on the property.   However, if push comes to shove and Thailand clamps down on these shady dealing, the Real Estate guy's wife may be the one in the end who becomes the real 100% owner.    Then, through no fault of his own, (Thailand did the dirty work), he and his wife take control of a fortune in real estate.   Now, I can't say that this is what Marc does.   I'm sure he probably slices and dices the property deals many many different ways.  But, what I am saying, is that he has taken an active role in fostering ill will against me.   And it is I who may be bringing you important information to keep you out of trouble when it comes to spending money on real estate.   Is this Marc's true motivation?     (By the way, don't believe me about the real estate market -- ask around.)    One last comment about Marc Holt's web site.  Here is a glaring red flag.   Look at his site and see the comment that says "Thailand property is a bargain! Buy realty in Thailand at low prices for excellent ROI"  (ROI is return on investment).   To my knowledge, Thailand doesn't want foreigners doing property speculation.  Yet, right on the front of Marc's page, he is appealing to your greed to perform a transaction that is heavily discouraged and made specifically illegal with very defined laws in Thailand.   He is trying to draw you into a deal that will perhaps involve skirting the law (if you want to keep control as a farang) to makes a buck in an endeavor that Thailand specifically doesn't want happening.   I'm not saying people don't make money off real estate because clearly some do, but I also know many lose on real estate "deals".  I specifically know first hand a guy lost 800k baht (and a number of us warned him heavily, but he was just too damn smart for us).  So, am I missing something here?  Why doesn't Marc make a statement like: "Thailand property is a bargain! Buy realty in Thailand because it's a great place to live." ?   No, selling property to farangs in Thailand can be very a lucrative business to Marc and the Thai wives' of the farangs who plunk their money down (just before the wife kicks the husband to the curb) and I'm sure that Marc as a responsible business man makes every effort to fully explain all these risks to his clients who in many cases put enormous amounts of their retirement nest eggs into real estate "too good to be true" deals.  Granted, its not Marc Holt's job to warn off husbands from shaky marital relationships, but how many times does he make any efforts to tell these guys directly that if she divorces, he loses everything?  And Marc, if I got it wrong please have Stickman publish a full run-down on purchasing real estate to make the correction in a full public way.  (finger snap and finger point) OH, but wait a minute.   Won't accounts of how farangs losing money on real estate kick the shit out of Stickman real estate ad revenue opportunities?  Damn I knew there might have been a reason that Stickman avoids hosting specific topics on his site.

Let me close this topic with a final important thought.   I think there is enough evidence now out in plain sight that suggests that Stickman isn't the squeaky clear character that people once thought he was.   At the beginning, I thought he was not responding to the public about my accusations because he didn't want to give me "The Galt" any free press to his thousands of readers.  Well, now after 6 or 7 long months, pretty much everyone knows about me and now I believe he will not respond to allegations because he can not respond.    I believe he can not respond now without bringing further negative commentary down on him from others who also are aware of his schemes.

So, my suggestion to you is that you should keep reading the Stickman's site (because there is some good material there), but be very skeptical of the products and services he endorses for a profit.  I highly recommend that you seriously check out anyone you see advertising there and get other recommendations before taking on any of those services (serious services).   I say this because shady people tend to work together.  This is prevalent in Thailand.    If one is rotten, many times associates are too.  Generally anyone that is highly reputable, will separate themselves quickly from someone else who is un-reputable.  This factor (and some other evidence) is what calls the long time major Stickman advertisers into question.   If you want to buy a burger, well, that is a low risk item, if you're talking about giving more than $1,500 dollars of your money to a Visa service or Thai Introduction service, or a Thai Business Brokerage without having thoroughly checked out the companies well -- perhaps someone should sound the alarm and wave the red flags for you.  Please do your own personal homework on these people first and shop the market.

Attention Galt Defenders:  Lay off the Sauce:

I am humbled that others would post comments in my defense over at MangoSquash (Sauce).    Guys, let me let you in on a little dirty MangoSquash secret (I guess this is an "open secret").    Dave carefully excludes comments as he deems appropriate.  That's right.  I stopped posting there a few months back when he rejected one or two of my comments that really nailed down a topic and defended my position.   He most certainly censors the conversation and pushes the energy into a direction that does one thing -- gives him more web traffic.   If he let you through his "filter" to defend me, it was because the hate energy was dieing down on that topic and he wanted to encourage Galt Bashers to get stirred up again.

Now remember, this is the same guy who cries like a baby (imagine this now) - squeeze your face together and squint your eyes, and drop a few crocodile tears while saying.... "Google took my web traffic away", "Google is censoring me".    For the love of Pete, how two faced can anyone be?

MangoSquashDave plays his readership like suckers.   He treats them like schools of piranhas and draws them into feeding frenzies just for kicks and web traffic.   And I'll bet you he feels pretty damn superior while he's doing it.  I'm sure he really amuses himself while digging through his worn out thesaurus (one hand on the book and one hand somewhere else).

My suggestion to all of you -- "Lay off the Sauce" and let MangoSquashDave twist in the wind by himself.   He is not a man doing constructive things anyway.  He feeds on hate and belittles people for fun and profit.   (I think I have said this before) This is exactly the type of guy who forces Thailand to make new law so they can stamp out unwanted disrespectful and demeaning behavior.   So, don't be surprised when Thailand tries to implement Internet publishing law that has far reaching consequences for those who are here in the Kingdom doing web work.

Possible Business Idea

I'm mixing in a business idea into this article.  This is an idea that will not only generate an income for you but it will also be a great public service.   However, some research would need to be done by a lawyer to see if it on the list of "approved businesses". This product could also step on some toes of a larger manufacturer in Bangkok - or Not. So I would assume some research on that angle would be in order as well.

I see a lack of understanding in country surrounding the use of disinfectants.   And the simplest of these is chemicals is common ordinary household bleach.   Bleach is really not a difficult product to make.  It's Sodium Hypochlorite (NaClO) and it's components are fairly well understood.   There is a basic explanation of the creation of bleach is here.

Bleach is a very common item world wide and I would guess there are companies out there who would sell dedicated machines to make this product.

The reason that I am suggesting this as a business opportunity is because bleach is very expensive in this country.   It's about 2 or 3 times the price as in the US.     Certainly part of the high price is due to the lower quantities that are sold, but you won't sell larger quantities if the price is high.   I'm willing to bet there is just one or two companies in the Kingdom that are in this business and they are fixing prices high.

There is another issue through with a product like this one.   The people in the country are not knowledgeable about the benefits of bleach for their personal health, so taking on a business like this on also means that you must be prepared to promote it with some education.

It's not a get rich quick business.  Its an opportunity to produce a product that always have value and will likely be in more demand in the future and it's a product that can serve a vast number of people.  What better feeling is there than to know you have made a great contribution to a part of the world who needs it?

I have seen enough country folks in the past 5 years to know they need more education on matters of disinfection and cleanliness as it pertains to bacteria, virus, and fungus.  If the Asian Flu did mutate into a strain that could be easily passed from person to person, I think you would see very large devastation in Issan just because the people are not aware of how to change their lives in ways to sanitize and protect themselves.  They are frequently eating out of the same bowls with fingers and common utensils.  They don't disinfect except with soap and in many cases that just isn't enough.  They also hold water in large tanks and really don't know about the dangers of bacterial growth in these tanks.  Bathrooms stay wet a majority of the time.  Local officials don't enforce health codes on local restaurants.   Public facilities suffer from lack of adequate water supplies and the list goes on.

There is a tremendous opportunity for someone to come into this area and try to lower the prices on this very valuable product, make a few dollars for yourself, and help put the word out so that people can improve the quality of their life.

Numbers for the Week

The numbers are a little bit on the down side right now.   I think 1,200 people read my article from last week.

Here is something that you might find a bit interesting.  This is a print of Alex.com tool that show the "reach" of a web site.   Reach is the number of people per million I believe.  This graph fluctuates up and down on any given day.  This screen snap shot was taken on March 16th.  As you can see, Stickman's numbers are above mine, but they cross paths with mine three times on this graph.  That means at 3 times in the past couple of months, I have had a stronger reach to readers than he has had.   How is this possible?  He has been around for 5 long years.   He has a small army of writers submitting numerous articles every week.   He has far far more material on the web than I do.   He is much more well known that I am, but yet, Alexa.com says that I'm on his heals and closing the gaps.    I submit to you that I may be growing -- but the most significant change is that Stickman is in decline.   It's his own damn fault.   His extended silence has painted himself into a corner.

All he had to do was come clean and give his readers a fair shake and face the accusations and resolve to be more responsible in his reporting.   That is all he has to do, and my work against him is essentially done.  I will have made him say "uncle".

This whole issue just keeps getting sticker for him every week.   His only "Save Face" choice now would be to raise a smear campaign against me.   That would be a logical thing option now.   Stick's too embarrassed to face his own errors.  He'll work through others to probably try to discredit me in some way.  His reader's submission articles that call me a pedophile are only just the beginning.   He is testing the water with you as the reader to see if you're going to be "Ok" with his new tactic.

The Wrap Up

Not much to say in this wrap up.  Except to say that my work is really getting busy.   Sales are up for the new spring season.   I may not be publishing this column every week because my first focus has to be on my company and my employees.

I really do enjoy sharing my thoughts and experiences with you and I hope you have gained a little better insight into Thailand and it's people.

Thailand is a place where you have to "keep your guard up".   That can leave you feeling a little sad.  That can make you feel as if you can't trust too many people.  It can be a lonely feeling, but this is one of the rules of the road.  And if you can't function like that, you are best off not living here.   I'm a little melancholy this week because of a break up with a local girl.  Seems like whether the girl is poor or rich there can be a great deal of complexities that come with relationships that just don't air out until sometime later after you have your heart wrapped up in things.  I'm a little down right now -- but you know what -- I'm solid in the knowledge that not long from now, I'm going to be over most these feelings and excited about another beautiful girl.  Thailand is a great place to be to help make that a reality.  But, before I pull the emotional "reset switch", I'm going to make a run down to Pattaya to lick my wounds.

Thanks for stopping by

John Galt