Living the Life

To throw another random posting in the mix.... here's the lyrics from an Arrested Development (90s rap) song that have been on my mind lately...

Mr. Wendal
Here, have a dollar,
in fact no brotherman here, have two
Two dollars means a snack for me,but it means a big deal to you
Be strong, serve God only,
know that if you do, beautiful heaven awaits
That's the poem I wrote for the first time
I saw a man with no clothes, no money, no plate
Mr.Wendal, that's his name,
no one ever knew his name cause he's a no-one
Never thought twice about spending on a ol' bum,
until I had the chance to really get to know one
Now that I know him, to give him money isn't charity
He gives me some knowledge, I buy him some shoes
And to think blacks spend all that money on big colleges,
still most of y'all come out confused
[CHORUS:] Go ahead, Mr.Wendal (2x)
Mr.Wendal has freedom,a free that you and I think is dumb
Free to be without the worries of a quick to diss society
for Mr.Wendal's a bum
His only worries are sickness and an occasional harassment
by the police and their chase
Uncivilized we call him,
but I just saw him eat off the food we waste
Civilization, are we really civilized, yes or no ?
Who are we to judge ?
When thousands of innocent men could be brutally enslaved
and killed over a racist grudge
Mr.Wendal has tried to warn us about our ways
but we don't hear him talk
Is it his fault when we've gone too far,
and we got too far, cause on him we walk
Mr.Wendal, a man, a human in flesh,
but not by law
I feed you dignity to stand with pride,
realize that all in all you stand tall
Mr.Wendal, yeah yeah yeah, Lord, Mr.Wendal

...without really thinking everything through and editing and whatever. so, today my post is just how I talk... uneducated and hard to follow. haha. except minus the "like's" that my poor dad constantly tries to eradicate from my speech.

Last night I went to the movies with two of my pals (reason #245 I love Asia: movies for 3 bucks I can handle, $8-states price- no way, jose).

I know I fail to tell my faithful readers all the cool things that make Thailand unique... so now I will tell you about the man they love the most-the King. To be blatantly honest and meaning no disrespect, the guy is in a win-win situation. His whole job is to be a philanthrophist and who doesn't love a philanthropist? He doesn't have to be involved in politics- he just has to love the poor and write books about his dog. My sister might be the next individual to write a book about her dog... but I don't know if it will sell quite as well.

Anyway, the Thais adoration for him extends all the way into the movie theatres where before every show there is a 3 minute tribute to him and his work. During this song/video everyone stands up in the theatre to pay respect. I don't know who makes these videos but they aren't all the same and the one I saw last night was unlike any I had ever seen before.

The one last night was focused not on the King, but on the people in different postures of worship. Call me crazy, but literally my heart felt moved seeing these Thais from all different classes, all different regions flat face on the ground, waaiing (bowing with hands in a prayer-like position), raising their arms with a face of joy that expressed their hearts.

I never even thought about the Thai King during the whole deal- all I was thinking about was our God and why it is no wonder that he loves us to worship him with our lives, words, songs, whatever. He loves to be the object of our affection.

I think it comes so naturally for the Thais to put this man on a pedestal because we were created to be worshippers. We were created to have reverence for someone bigger, something greater than ourselves. We were created to be humbled out of love and awe.... and I think when that void is present- meaning, when we don't know the One for whom we were created to behave this way, us people will always find something else to put in that place. Don't get me wrong, the Thai King is a stud, but he is but mortal.

I was captivated by the beauty of crowds of people from all around the country- farmers, Muslims, old, young, city, village- all worshipping not because they have to but because they love to.

It's weird how a stupid video like that can stir my heart in a way it hasn't been stirred in a while. It was good to be reminded the heart God has to see all people worship him.

Currently Reading: Ezekiel.... does anyone know a good commentary that I could possibly get my hands on/download for it?

Last night I went to what I guess was a press conference. I'm not sure. It was a panel of individuals discussing the disappearance of one specific individual in Southern Thailand: human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelapajit.

Somchai has been working with the families of 'disappeared' individuals in the violent south of Thailand. Although I thought disappearances were something of South America's political past, apparently emerging 'democratic' Thailand still uses tactics of an authoritarian style regime upon its own citizens.

Considering Thailand's 2003 War on Drugs that ended in some estimated 2,000 mysterious dead, the disappearances are not a surprise, but a pro-bono lawyer?!?! Soon after stating in Bangkok that he was going to the south to bring back family members of the 'disappeared' to testify, Somchai met the fate of those he has tried to defend for over twenty years.

His family has been offered no information as to his whereabouts although it is an educated assumption Thai officials are behind it.

The issue of the disappeared Muslims in the south is devestating. The majority of those abducted (this abduction is assumed to be the government who is 'suspecting' these individuals of 'terrorist' activities) are high school and university students.

In addition to outright disappearances, individuals with little or no evidence of involvement in terrorist activities have been taken by the government for days on end and their families given the answer that the individuals have been 'invited to share information' with officials.

The officials fail to mention the extension of undending hospitality given to the locked-down 'guests' including fresh drinks of urine directly from the penises of the officers and testicle electricution to name a few.

On top of the disappearances and invitations for roundtable discussions, the government has exerted power in many unjust forms to fight their internal 'war on terror'. In the Narathiwat incident of October 2004 where 78 died in the back of an overloaded army truck, most of the dead were under 14 years old. Under Thai law, a child under 14 cannot be arrested.

Muslims arrested under the pretense of "national security" are given exorbitant bail fees making it nearly impossible to be released until the indefinite trial date. In one known case, the arrested was able to convince 19 families members to bring the deed to owned land; a figure amounting in 19 million baht ($475,000) and was still denied release.

Although the Thai constitution follows the same innocent until proven guilty system of justice, the Muslims in the South are repeatedly treated guilty until proven innocent.

The majority of families who suffer from injustice imposed by the Thai government cannot even afford bus fare to get to Bangkok for the trial. If they are lucky enough to raise enough money they will still be in a Thai language court- despite Malayu being the native tongue of the four southern most provinces.

Where is the justice? Liz hurry up and finish law school already. The world needs you.

A while back I played a game with some of my classmates here in the world of development studies.... and now I would like to play it with you, my readers. Those of you who are Christians, please give you answer as you see best aligns with Christian doctrine and honouring God.

What if a corrupt corporation decided they were going to give you exclusively one million dollars to head up any project you wanted in any corner of the earth? However... the corporation is not just corrupt, it is a fact that tens of millions of dollars had been 'earned' by nothing short of stealing from customers. Would you take it?

Think of all the good you could do with a million dollars... rescue prostitutes from brothels in Bombay... take kids off the streets of Sri Lanka... start HIV/AIDs clinics in South Africa...help serve those living in post-earthquake situations in Pakistan... start small scale credit programmes to alleviate poverty in Burma.... feed the dying in Ethiopia... build adequate education in remote Laos... make drinking water clean in Mexico... so many possibilities...

yet... the money given to you would still be the result of white collar crime.

Would you take it?

I know my answer, but I just want to hear from the crowd... especially you silent lurkers who I know exist.

PS- random note- sorry that my English has been transformed into that global British English with words like 'programmes' and 'honour' and whatever other spellings have been modified these days.

Here's one of their report cards... they are all pretty much the same 70-80% range, so I won't bother scanning them all for you. See what a little love can do for a "worthless street kid"? I'm convinced their oral English marks are a conspiracy because I have been in their class and they speak better than most children. And most kids in these schools are weakest in Nepali since they learn everything in English....

These days, it seems I just want to post other people's works. .. but here's another article- maybe not such a daunting title as the last one, but Goodbye Kashmir is an article about a woman's return to the war-torn area. I know some of you might need a quick lesson on the history of Kashmir but it's worth a look. It's making me think of my friend Raja I spoke of in a post of old. This is definitely my personal record for # of links in one post. Ha.

I read this article called The Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am Gospel and I thought some of you guys might like it.

I once gave a class on “Relational Evangelism”. I think it was the first class I ever taught, and to be honest I found it hard to fill five weeks of classes because I felt like it could be summed up in two minutes. It just seemed all too simple and all too logical to be put in a class...

Be someone’s friend. Love them. Care about them. Stop seeing a target and start seeing a person. Be yourself- the self God intended you to be- and surely the ‘object of your evangelism’ will be effected. Don’t talk in forced Christian-lingo- talk in love. Be the same fresh air of goodness that God is in your life in someone else’s life.

So simple, yet so often forgotten or overlooked as unimportant.

There are so many times that I don’t feel like my life is a testimony to anything. So many times I just think I do a lot of hanging out but not a lot of ‘things that make a difference’- ahh… back to that pride of feeling useful in evangelism… the same boy I talked about in my last post about evangelism, Patrick- the one who was never really saved at all- also gave me another piece of wisdom…

He was an architect, and I’m..well… unskilled. As a person who wants to work in developing countries I always kick myself thinking, ‘why on earth did I get a B.A.? I studied a conglomeration of abstract ideas of politics, history, and the worst of all, anthropology. I need to know how to do something tangible like build dams or set broken bones, or design schoolhouses (which was what Patrick was doing).’ Patrick often listened to me rant until one day he said, “don’t you think building relationships is useful to people?”

What a non-Christian thinks is coming out of relationship building is beyond me, but his words were so true.

Recently, I got to reunite with my pal, Jie. Jie is a decade older than most prostitutes I know. She only came to our ‘place of ministry’ once but after that I made it a habit to visit her at her place of work. I’d stop by for a couple of minutes every now and again to check up on her and let her know I was thinking about her.

Our relationship didn’t even go a foot-deep. We were surface level friends.

Yet, somehow despite the lack of any substantial depth to our friendship, something about it stood out to Jie.

After a few failed attempts, my visiting her bar and her working actually coincided. A year and a half have gone by since I last saw Jie- to be honest, I doubted she would even remember me. The growing excitement on her face as I came into eyesight proved me wrong.

As I left her bar Jie shouted, “Praw Jaouw Oih Pohn!” (God bless you).

It isn’t the fact that I think she memorized some ‘catch-phrase’ that made my heart skip a beat to hear those words from her mouth, but rather because she associated something different- a white girl paying attention to her- with something else different- the blessing of God.

Does she know what it means? Probably not really, but maybe what she does see is that whatever this thing is that she doesn’t quite know...it's different than the things she knows right now.

One of my other friends saw the boys at the festival and took this picture of Rashon and Saroj.... It made me laugh and reminded me of their rough-around-the edges selves. I love 'em.

I think this is what they call a juxtaposition.

ps- the soldiers pic is from the Washington Post... and the other is random.

Look how un-street my kids look!!! All six of those boys are my kids!
They are participating in a traditional dance for one of the October festivals in Nepal.

Left to Right: Roshan, Arjan, Gopal, Big Saroj, Durga, and San Saroj

Only 20-some more days until I get to ditch this Bangkok pollution for beautiful Pokhara, Nepal and my kids. Yay.

I met my thesis advisor in person yesterday and seriously his introduction was nearly as blunt as, "Hi, I am Giles, and I'm a Marxist." Then there is the Marxist paraphernalia outside the office.... I love the guy.

I am starting to love Dr. Bello, my professor and founder of Focus on the Global South more and more each day. Actually, most of my profs here... but this morning Dr. Bello gets center-stage.

Here is the introduction to his article "Commentary: Globalism" from the journal Race and Class:

Capitalism and community have always stood in contradiction to one another.

As social analysts from Marx to Karl Polanyi to John Gray have pointed out, capitalist relations are the acid, dissolving communal bonds and reconfiguring people into individual atoms whose relations to one another become mediated principally by the market. Under capitalism, there is nothing so sacred that it cannot be converted into a commodity, and traditional beliefs and norms preventing the commodification of land, labour and life itself have often fought a losing battle.

In the body of the text:

Capitalism constantly erodes man and woman's being-in-nature (creature) and being-in-society (citizen) and even as it drains them of life energy as workers, it moulds their consciousness around one role: that of consumer... Capitalism is a demand-creating machine that transforms living nature into dead commoditites, natural wealth into dead capital.

That being said... capitalism is simultaneously the bane and backbone of my existence.

To quote my dear friend and second half, chum of Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, California Senator Dianne Feinstein and the likes, Ms. Kimberly Bernard recently wrote me "I am in need of a revolution."

Sometimes I feel like that too- a revolution of society, a revolution of the masses, and most personally, a revolution of the heart. Actually, I feel like that a lot of the time. But if it were to come would I be ready? Probably not. Do I lack wise zeal? Probably. The one thing I also wonder... why are so many who are need of a revolution waiting for someone else to start it?

Yet... Rose has kindly advised me to be careful what I wish for.

On the note of revolutions and their Makers.... I got my Thesis Advisor, Giles Ji Ungpakorn yesterday and he is a real-live Marxist. I was under the impression that out-of-the-closet Marxists only lived deep in the hills of armed rebel insurgencies but I guess not. I'm wicked excited.

My Professor of Development Theory said yesterday in class something that I am still thinking about...to paraphrase:

"Not many people do things in the name of bad things: in the name of hell... but many people do things in the name of good things: in the name of heaven. But is it real?"

"Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel."
-Che Guevara

Just some of the latest news from the Bruderhoffers in Thailand.

Prostitution rings run by the Korean mob... and now the fate we all knew was soon to come. Denver, you are unique. The republican state who enforces liberalism. I am intrigued.

When He says "GO" he didn't say you had to get on a plane.

From the Denver Post, October 23, 2005
Denver police raided 18 Asian massage parlors and arrested 35 people in the past six months in a massive effort to curtail prostitution. The arrests in what police say is a $20 million a year local industry have also led investigators to believe that the massage parlors are part of an international effort to traffic in women who often are forced into prostitution to pay off those who brought them into the country.

In Denver, no traffickers have been charged, but authorities said some of the women here indicated they had not joined the sexindustry willingly. Arrested were prostitutes, madams and johns on charges including prostitution, solicitation and keeping a place of prostitution, Denver vice Sgt. Mark Fleecs said. Sixteen of the businesses are now closed. The busts also have revealed stories of human trafficking from women in the massage parlors described by police as too frightened to cooperate.

"We'll continue tobe very aggressive in addressing this disturbing problem," said Dave Fisher,division chief of investigations. Fleecs said his unit will keep the pressure onthe illegal operations as well as pursue trafficking cases when they hear aboutthem from the women involved. The problem, he said, is that the women are not willing to testify because those who control their lives in massage parlors have alleged ties to organized crime, such as the Korean mob.