One World Insight Blog | Douglas "Las" Wengell

Asia Power Unifying: Rail link from China to Singapore

In the planning stages is a rail network that will connect China, into Vietnam, through Cambodia, into Thailand, down Malaysia and to the southern tip of mainland south-east Asia, Singapore and its huge port. Much development is required. The French built Vietnam’s rail line a century ago and anyone who has traveled on it knows that it is cumbersome and slow. Cambodia’s rail network collapsed over decades of war and neglect. (Phnom Penh, the capital, lacks a train station.)

 

It’s completion will be a major boon for Asian commerce and supply chain manufacturing efficiencies. It would also be a pleasure as a traveler…

China’s Neighbors Falling into Beijing’s Orbit

I wonder what China’s neighbors think about its boundless growth –  the implication of being tethered into Beijing’s widening orbit. The answer: uneasy.

Firms in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, even India, are having a tough time competing with China (never mind bygone Western manufacturers).  From conversations with business men in Hong Kong and Thai businessmen heading back to Bangkok, everyone, including the Americans, share a frustration with the undervalued renminbi because it makes Chinese goods cheaper to the Walmart’s of the world and hurts domestic exports.

As I write, the airport screen is reporting that Vietnam is devaluing its currency by 5 percent, to compete with China. Hanoi’s travel budget just increased.

The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say.

New Delhi firms are filing unfair-trade complaints with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, similar to NAFTA, and we’re talking mighty, fast-developing India.

The Asia Tigers are becoming the Asian Tiger. America is less of a concern so long as it keeps buying, goes the rational, but “their manufacturing is toast,” said a Beijing business man,  with an hint of spite. 

It’s taking a lot in order to grow itself into a first world society.  It’s frustrating legions of businesses outside its borders. When will it step up responsibility commensurate with its prosperity? When will it help patrol shipping lanes, or offer financial assistance to its neighbors, and be a global arbiter that befits a superpower?

How will China, a historically insular and to-itself civilization, act in the region, and on the global stage? China’s neighbor’s are not the only uneasy observers.

Last fall, during a speech in Washington, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singaporean leader, reflected widespread anxieties when he noted China’s naval rise and urged the United States to maintain its regional presence. “U.S. core interest requires that it remains the superior power on the Pacific,” he said. “To give up this position would diminish America’s role throughout the world.”

The Fragile Stability of SE Asia

A longstanding political crisis that has divided Thais into bitterly opposed camps became a national embarrassment and, with the deaths of protesters, tragedy . It’s also a testimony to the fragility of Southeast Asia, when you consider that socially stable, democratic, relatively prosperous Thailand is the kind of vacation destination deemed safe by the Secretary of State, and popular among Westerners. Of course, that’s not true at the moment.

The immediate crisis had been escalating since mid-March, when tens of thousands of members of the increasingly heterogeneous “United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship” began their takeover of the streets of Bangkok. The activists from all over Thailand carried their tents, sleeping-mats and food supplies into the area around the high-rent shopping-district of the Rajprasong intersection, which is Bangkok ground zero. The red-shirts' political representatives held intermittent talks with the government of Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva; but these broke down in the first days of April, and the protestors then vowed to stay in place until the parliament was dissolved and new elections announced. And they have.

The crackdown was launched three days after Abhisit declared a state of emergency, which provided the government with broad powers of arrest, censorship, and suspension of civil liberties. Among the first measures taken was the blocking or closure of independent media, including thirty-six websites; the popular bilingual news-site Prachatai was one of those affected. So much for democracy.

This prepared the ground for the more stringent actions on Bangkok's bloody Saturday night: the use of water-cannons, tear-gas, and live ammunition to force the red-shirts off the streets. Twenty-one people are reported to have been killed and over 800 injured. The government will do anything to avoid that from happening again.

Thailand now peers into the abyss. Thailand's crisis traces its deeper roots to the mid-2000s with the rise, fall and subsequent exile of Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist leader elected in 2001 and ousted in a military coup in 2006. The confrontation between red-shirted pro-Thaksin republicans with a political base in the rural poor versus yellow-shirted royalist conservatives backed by the urban middle and upper-classes - fails to convey the political heterogeneity that has been emerging under misleadingly unified banners. But there are other dynamics at play: the cross-class, cross-space, and formation of the red-shirted alliance in the streets of Bangkok, as well as those writing, posting, and otherwise supporting them elsewhere in Thailand and abroad.

The Thai word phrai has become an ubiquitous reference-point by red-shirt members of the UDD. Phrai can be rendered in English as “commoner”: it is a direct reference to the feudal era, which officially ended in 1932 with the transformation of Thailand from an absolute to constitutional monarchy. Thomas Fuller, the New York Times's Bangkok correspondent, criticized a popular red-shirt bumper-sticker which reads: “The blood of the phrai is worth nothing”. This may be “overblown rhetoric”, says Fuller. “There are many stories of upward mobility in Thailand and, despite the presence of tens of thousands of protesters, the anger has not translated into personal attacks on the wealthy. The main target of the protesters' ire seems to be the system: the perception that bureaucrats and the military serve the elite at the expense of the poor.”

 

It is class war, a byproduct of rapid development and unequal economic implications, exactly the situation Beijing fears. “The battle is between the army that supports the establishment, government and Bangkok's urban elite against the people from the provinces … It is a class war,” said a prominent University president.

The state’s use of violence to repress the red shirts has not succeeded; they remain in key locations throughout Bangkok, defying Abhisit Vejjajiva's demand that they evacuate the city's streets. The red shirts continue to call for the immediate resignation of the prime minister, the dissolution of parliament, and plans for new elections.

 

Thailand's crisis continues as the American State Department looks on with concern. If US-ally Thailand can’t be put in the “stable” category, who can?

Fellow Travelers and a Superwoman Solo Biker

Moving on the tourist circuit, it’s inevitable you encounter fellow travelers. I have more conversations than I can recount. Here's a few of recent.

A young Finish woman studying biology and ecology, pondering whether to become a nun.

Or a German woman traveling solo for six months, complaining that “people back home are cold and it’s hard to meet people like when you’re on the road.”

Or a young Polish couple, who cannot find suitable employment in Poland, despite his graduate degree in engineering and her specialization in tourist. They worked in a UK factory to save money to make this trip possible. They are resigned. “We love our country but there’s nothing there for us. Maybe, one day, our kids but not us.”

Or two Hong Kong Chinese biking there way through Indochina. “China has made life harder in Hong Kong. Too many emigrants. You can’t afford to live there. There are no good jobs for people like us.”

Then you come across the truly amazing. Like New Zealander Kylie, who I met in Laos and is biking, solo, a woman, across Europe and Asia, from London to Auckland, taking boats where necessary. Her stories biking through Pakistan and Iran defy belief. Go girl!www.bugbitten.com/kyles

Mekong River to Laos River Crossing

New year, new country. Heading to Vietnam by land, so will have the opportunity to see remote Laos for a week or so. It’s a seven hour bus ride from Chiang Mai, Thailand to the border of Laos, where a Swede couple and I cross the Mekong to Huay Xai, Laos and board a slow going boat for a two day journey down river to the once French occupied cultural pearl of Luang Prabang. Will sleep at Pakbeng on the river.

Today Thailand Deports Vietnam War Era Hmong Refugees

As  I write tribal and ethnic conflict lives on –  not far from the highland river crossing. Thailand is deporting to Laos 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers who are at risk from persecution by the government. They were soldiers or family members of soldiers -- the "forgotten allies" -- who decades ago fought in a secret army set up by the United States to combat the communist insurgents who eventually took over the country in 1975.

Secretary of State Clinton and her peers are speaking out, to no avail. Thailand and Laos, however small, are sovereign, after all.

Chiang Mai New Year, Full Moon

OK, I am a travel snob. Hate all the Westerns bringing their fraternity revelry to Thailand. Head west of the old city, to the university district, where I stumble on the place where Thais, and only Thais, hang out.

Stumble on a New Year concert, too. Hip Thai scene.

Hundreds of Thai “candle kites” ascend the night sky in a pearl of shimmering light. I marvel knowing it's been five months since leaving Vermont, USA.

Meaningful Male Monkhood

In Thailand and  Laos, I have had the opportunity to befriend young monks, many of whom you see going about their business to/from school, friends, temples. (Women are to keep their distance and never touch them.)

Udone’s story inspires. He is Laos and came to Chiang Mai, Thailand for college, since educational opportunities across the border are not good. Orphaned at fifteen, he showed up in Chiang Mae and found his way to one of the many Wats (Buddhist temples), where he found free room & board in exchange for temple and community service. This is a common scenario and explains why most of the orange-garbed monks walking about are school aged. They take Buddhist vows for a few years, learn philosophy and right livelihood, practice discipline and go to school during the day. In return they participate in daily temple life and serve the local community. Most leave the priesthood by their mid-twenties and have a family. Thus their time builds character, discipline, and supports a positive transition to adulthood. The community “subsidizes” and benefits from their service.

Udone and other young monks I chatted with struck me as remarkably mature by Western standards. Naïve they are not. They understand the hardship and temptation outside the Wat. They have seen friends turn to drugs and premature sexual relations and other distractions to “becoming a man.” All have stories of struggle and hardship. Udone hopes to go back to Laos and help his people, but he is concerned about his economic prospects.

It’s an excellent example of a society in relative harmony about life transitions, and helping young men – the majority of whom cause the most trouble to every society – become positive impact citizens.  I ponder the troubled wayward young men in America, who have no place to turn, and too often end up in prison or drug rehab. Girls and young women are not addressed in this equation, Udone empathically acknowledges, suggesting that as the generations mature maybe one day this will change.

ChrisThaisMas Day, Buddhist Thailand

Finishing writing in the university town of Chiang Mai. So many Westerns I am not entirely sure I am in Asia.

The Thais bend over backward to please tourist. On Christmas Day many shopkeepers don Santa outfits and hand out gifts to patrons. Of course, they are not Christian. One realizes how profoundly the Western paradigm is the de facto standard of culture and commerce.

E-Commerce, Thai Style, set to Take Off

Thailand’s turn. E-commerce operators are seeing 30-50% year-of-year growth, as the middle class grows and Thais become more comfortable shopping on the Internet. Similar trends in China but on a smaller scale.Yes, Thais do love shopping.

http://www.weloveshopping.com/

The Changing Face of Thai People

Ing Doi House

There are lots of expats in Pai, I discover. I was speaking to a British bungalow owner who is married to a Thai woman; they have two kids. He’s been in Thailand for over a decade. They all observe that the Thai middle class is just beginning to take off. It’s a big deal for many to come from Bangkok for the weekend. New to being a tourist, they innocently take photos of everything, no matter how trivial.  One shopkeeper joked that they can be so gullible that they would buy Pai’s “morning mist” if sealed in a can.

Others lament that the younger generation doesn’t want to follow in the agrarian traditions of their ancestors. (Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice.) Rice fields are being converted into property. Machines are tilling the fields more.

Modernity is on its way. Civilized and welcoming, rich in heritage, here too is a society eager to embrace a Western future, to discard tradition for modernity, to be cool. And with it all the problems that plague industrial societies.

Can you blame them?

Writing from Pai, Thailand, Ing Doi House

Pai is a small town near the border with Burma. It used to be a backpackers hangout. In the last few years, three Thai movies have featured Pai as a hip, young lovers paradise. Since then, it’s become a hot destination for Thais, so while touristy, I enjoy it.

I am staying at one of many bungalows outside of town, overlooking the valley. This one is owned by a mixed Thai-American couple. The bungalow is a mere $15/night and a meal about $2, with wireless internet and great company. Many guests have been coming for years. One could get used to this.

I’ll take a week to catch up on India and China, and relax.

www.ingdoihouse.com

Train between Chiang Mai and Bangkok

 Heading for the hills and delighted to get out of Bangkok. The overnight train to Chiang Mai inspires. By dawn, the train makes its way up the mountains, through valleys, forests and rivers.

The Thai Underground: Sex, drugs and money laundering

Everything is for sale. The government has cracked down (successfully) on drugs, especially coming from the Golden Triangle up north, where the border with Laos and Burma meet, and it prosecutes under age prostitution. It’s now illegal for officials to accept bribes.

As for money laundering, there’s a huge building of people dedicated to its prevention.

Globalization on Western Terms

Herein is the biggest critique of globalization. The “imperial” Western firms squish the local traditions with a dose of Madison Avenue marketing.

There is globalization; and there is a globalized, technology-enabled world. For better and for worse, both are advancing rapidly in Asia.

Modern Art in Thailand

Susanna and I scout our some galleries today. I am delighted to discover an impressive modern museum of art in the heart of bangkok. As in China, you can see these artists struggle with the sacred and the profane, their rich cultural heritage and their hedonistic (but untrue) reputation. In China and Thailand, and all of Asia, individualism is butting up against collective social values.

The huge mural (pictured) at first looks like a colorful, childlike fantasy of Thailand. Look a little closer and you’ll discover self-mutilation, murder and sordid sexual images.

The Beloved King of the Thai People

A lovely thing is how Thais venerate their honorary head of state, King Adulyadej, the longest reigning monarch in the world. Pictures and monuments to him are ubiquitous. I arrived just a few days after his birthday, and for a week the city goes crazy celebrating him. Many of the decorations were still scattered throughout the city.

Twice a day, in the non-touristy areas, you’ll hear a thirty second anthem on the radio and television. Even at a busy market or restaurant, Thais will stop what they are doing, stand and pay tribute to a figure they adore. Similarly, movie theaters open with the anthem, as I discovered seeing Avatar in Bangkok.

Adulyadej is hugely admired by his people. Tourists are instructed that under no circumstances should you do anything to offend this relationship. Aging and in ill health, many Thais wonder what will happen to Thailand after he passes, as they don’t much like his son yet they adore the daughter. Girl revolution, anyone?

Lowly Miramar (Burma)

I meet travelers who have ventured into Burma, now xx. Run by dictators, sanctioned by Washington, oppression and poverty rampant, its infrastructure is rubble. However  I hear the people are a delight, desperate for tourist income and contact with the outside world.

“It’s at least twenty years behind,” said one traveler who was there. It’s not easy for Americans to get in – but it can be done. One look at its Embassy in Bangkok and you have an idea of where it stands in global standing.

Zanny Bangkok, Thailand

Before I head to the mountains of Thailand, I’ll check out Bangkok. The hostel is run by an American expat named Dave. This man has seen a few things, this much is clear. In the morning I meet a German woman who just arrived from Australia, and we set out to see what we can in two days. Suzanne is curious to me. She is a young woman traveling alone, not the first I have met. It’s difficult enough to find American travelers. She and others buck all stereo-types of who travelers.

Bangkok is hot, flat and crowded. We navigate using boat canals, 3-wheel taxi, feet and the Sky Train, Bangkok’s relatively new elevated train. See Grand Palace, Grand Temple, Big Reclining Buddha and City Center.

In the evening we venture into the infamous Red Light District. For those who haven’t seen such flesh for hire, it’s a site to behold. After India and China, socially conservative, Bangkok in general and the Red Lights District in particular is a shock. Thailand knows how to host tourists. It’s comfortable and cheap. There are loads of Westerners. The atmosphere is street party.

There are glimmers of authenticity beneath the mayhem.