WILD NIGHT IN WARANGAL

Life is impermanent, how many times I keep repeating it? Too many? Just I feel is good never to forget it.

Here is the proof, yesterday on the train to here I was writing about how is great to be alive and feeling so well, I seemed to be one step away from Nirvana.
Now after a night spent in an Asha Nilayam`s toilet with even nothing to read but lot of stomach pain and diarrhea my view are a wee bit different.

Not that I wish to be dead of course, but today I feel extremely tired and the prospect of a 7 hours long trip back to Hyderabad (via a place called Parkal where there is another project I shall see for future consideration), a late night flight to Delhi and there an hour long trip to the Salesian House where I will sleep in order to save some money, is not so much appealing.
Adding to that I will be travelling with some old Sisters and with due respect Sister are notoriously not the funniest bunch of people.

My stomach this morning seems to have overcome its own Tsunami, but still I am a bit worried to have an emergency crisis while travelling.
While taking a cold bucket shower (again) it came clear to me that having a body means having to suffer.
Is the same concept of having a car and having to pay petrol bills or having a house and paying its mortgage.
Having a body simply means having pain, to suffer and ultimately dying, forgetting this we totally lose the perspective about life and we are in danger of thinking we may be immortal or all mighty powerful.

Of course mine is not absolutely a great pain, but this nuisance that happened tonight just made me think in this way.

In our life we can not escape suffering, pain and death.
Shall this be one more reason enjoy the best of times, to enjoy life when we are given the chance?
I think there is only a possible answer.

So today I will try to make the best out of it, hoping I can get some sleep in the jeep to make up what I did lose tonight. Is gonna be a long day again Khun Phu, just try to make it a good one, because at then it all depends on us how we want our days to be.

Yes, is still great to be alive, even tired, with stomach pain and even with my arsehole burning because of diarrhea.



Then I ventured out, just to say hallo to all children that were waiting outside for me.
Moving slowly like a real Khun Phu, I approached them and here was running towards me, smiling happily Vinay, a small boy whose face is totally deformed. I was simply amazed to realise how these children are keeping giving lessons to me, how unconsciously they really are helping me to keep a right perspective on life.
Me, a man who never liked to be photographed because I always did hate my big nose, always feeling ashamed of my big body now I am looking at Vinay`s devastated but smiling face, I look at all those children whose body is simply a wreck but they keep smiling.
Time for a change Khun Phu? I think it is.

PEACE AND LOVE.

Asha Nilayam, Warangal, November 29th, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

SO FAR SO GOOD

On the train that today will bring me from Hyderabad to Warangal (site of our Asha Nilayam project) I have once again time to think and to write. It will take me about 4 hours to reach my destination.

Will sleep there and tomorrow early morning travelling on a car back to Hyderabad via Parkkal where I will visit another project.
Finally ending up at Hyderabad airport where I will catch the night flight to Delhi.

So far so good. Lots of miles on my sandals for sure, by car, by air and now by train but also lot of satisfaction, the wonderful feeling of being alive and to share life with other unknown people, so good to feel to be part of that wonderful thing that is the flow of life.

Andhra Rani project was wonderful as usual, bringing me back so many memories and a very much intense and troubled period of my personal life as well.
But in general, our work is proceeding really successfully and, of course this is the most important thing, but once again a travelling experience such as this is jus wonderful.
Making it more interesting is also the fact that I do like to keep this site updated, I like to share my experience out there and also this help me to observe things better, to be much more aware of what I am doing and of what I am seeing.

I feel lack of awareness in our daily routine lead us to frustration and boredom, we are doing things so much automatically, without any perception that sometimes we are not even remembering having them done.
How many times did this happen to me? So many, but being awake, being aware of every moment of my day is making me feel so much alive and well.

And let me tell you… is great to be alive… I do not know for how long I will be walking on this earth but I really want to taste every moment of it.

Golgonda Express train to Warangal, November 28th, 2548
C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

BLOGGING

After a very nice evening in Madurai`s “Supreme Hotel”, with the good company of some very good friends (Salesians fathers), few beer bottles and a “Masala Dosa”, this morning I`ve been rudely awaken at 5.30 by my alarm clock.
A cold bucket shower (and here is the age starting to show, I swear I longed for a hot bath tub), a quick south Indian coffee and I am on my way to Madurai airport.

Now I am sitting in Channai Airport`s restaurant airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Hyderabad. I have still to wait 5 hours. Today is just a transfer day as I will reach our Andhra Rani Project just in the evening. So I have time to prepare my reports and relax a bit, and maybe to play my FIFA MANAGER 06 and try to lead Celtic to his 4th SPL Championship in a row.

Once in Hyderbad I will be too much busy again, train to Warangal, back to Hyderbad, flight to Delhi and finally flight to Kathmandu.

I feel extremely well, totally satisfied of what I have seen in our Tsunami projects. Work is going on. We are effectively helping the people, this makes me feel really happy and in great mood.
Of course great credit goes to those who daily work on the field, but still I feel we are like a community whose work is reaching its targets.
And that is good, very very good.
This satisfaction is mitigating the tiredness that is starting to creep in this old Khun Phu`s body.

Feeling totally relaxed and comfortable I have just time to wonder about one small thing.
And the thing is… why I am writing this? Why I keep publishing this blog, filling these pages with words, feelings and ideas? Who on earth is gonna visit the blog and read its contents?

First answer that spring in my poor and tired mind is:
This is just a kind of message in a bottle, out there in the huge sea of internet.
Maybe someday, someone, somewhere will pick up this bottle and read its message.
Maybe someday, somewhere, someone may share my views and something may start, life other than impermanent is also very much unpredictable.
And, after all one of the beautiful aspects of life is sharing, isn`t it?

Second and even more important:
I am writing for myself, because I just like it and this shall be a good reason enough for me to do it. Not always we have to do things for the others.
If one day I could share my ideas with someone I will be really happy but then… already I`m happy and satisfied like this so ...

PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYBODY

Chennai Airport, November 27th, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

DEMOCRACY, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Therespuram, Tamil Nadu, South of India:

Wow, shall be nice to be a rock star. Today I had a glimpse of it when, in a packed room, hundreds of kids and their mothers started greeting and clapping at me.
Wow, it was gorgeous, I was the star. Me, the formerly low esteem man finally had his moment of glory.
Just kidding, of course.
But I really thought how rock stars must feel when they are having thousands of young people screaming at their feet. Shall be exciting, isn`n it? Having so much power on so many people, must be like a drug or something, illusion at its maximum stage.

But my moment of glory just vanished when I got closer to these women and I listened to them, their stories, their problems and their agony.
Here are some of such stories, all real and tremendously true, stories directly coming from a fishermen slum called Therespuram, Tamil Nadu.

MARIA MONICA, her father was a fisherman who got burned when a stove caught fire in the boat. He is now unable to work, the family has no food and debts for about 15.000 rupees

MADATHI; her mother is deaf and dumb, his father lost his boat and got injured during a storm when he was out on the sea. In losing the boat he lost everything he had, except the debt which amounts of 40.000 rupees. (The was made to buy the boat he lost).

MARIA PRASANTH: his father went away with another woman. He has two brothers one of them is selling fish to help the family to survive but is not enough. They are literally starving, debts made by the father before he went away are Rs 20.000

KALAYARASI: she has a heart disease and need operation. Her mother came to me in tears asking for help. They need Rs 25.000 for the surgery. Father is a cook and earning very little, they already have Rs 10.000 debts.

MURGESHWARI, a handicapped girl, her mother died and now she lives with the grand-mother. Her father remarried and left her and the brother behind without caring. She is severely sick, grand mother she has no money to even have her visited by a doctor.

NANDHINI is a small beautiful girl with a heart disease. She will be needing injections until she will be 18 years old. She belongs to a very poor family, and she has 3 sisters and 1 brother. Father is a fisherman but is not earning enough to provide the medicines for his little one.

And at the end of the day I met with the “Widows group”, part of the “Poor People`s Bank Project” that we just did launch I the hope to ease those women`s problems.
Their tales of sorrow and pain are really heartbreaking.
Many of them did not eat for the last 4 days, they have no work because of the bad weather.
They all worked as labour in the fishing processing companies. Because of bad weather for the last 4 days no boat went to the sea, thus no catch and no work for them.
When they work they earn 1 rupee for every single Kg of fish they clean, maximum quantity they can clean in one day is 15 kg. So they are earning only 15 rupees a day.
They have average debts from 10.000 to 30.000 rupees, all of them, young and old have children and… they are desperate.

Shall I go on?
And now I can`t help thinking about some people, some very famous people who are shamelessly paid an absurd amount of money for what then?
To play football, basketball, golf, to sing, act or I think about the money wasted on war (ring some bell Mr. Bush) to export democracy.
What the fuck is democracy?
Democracy is there only for the rich people, what kind of democracy can be existing in this world when so many resources are wasted for simply nothing, while children, women, men and whole families are starving, dying and could be easily saved?

How can a system allow that sportsmen, artists, models, stylists and so many others could be paid such an awful amount of money, just to perform whatever they do?
Of course is not those individuals` mistake, they have been given those wages by the industry, by the power, by a wicked system which is using them to hypnotise the masses.
The problem lies in this system that pays them so much, in a system that promotes this model, where money and success, success and money only matter.
So I say fuck the system, I hate a system which only benefits very few rich people and deprives so many desperate and poor ones.
Fuck a system that allows famine in Africa, fuck a system that allows child trafficking, fuck a system which does not care about its poor, underprivileged masses.

Acceptance; Buddha talks about acceptance but this is really too much, seeing tears falling down from those mothers who have no food for their kids, who have not enough money to buy them medicines, who have to go to the loan sharks to get few rupees to survive and then have to struggle all life just to pay the interests?
Still I can not accept that, still anger soars inside me when I see all this injustice in the world.
This is something I can not accept, I may be far away from Nirvana (indeed I am) but still I can not turn a blind eye on this. All those tears could easily be dried with next to nothing but they keep falling from those poor women`s eyes, forever.

These people at Therespuram, will have a Tsunami to face everyday of their life.
TV cameras are now away their wonderful beaches, news people are looking elsewhere but reality still bites, here reality is poverty, hunger and death.
I feel so much powerless, frustrated and angry.

Fuck a system where money is all that matters, where a man could waste millions in buying a football team, where money is wasted in useless F1 cars, in movies, in wars, where even these people`s own corrupted governments are neglecting them..


Therespuram, November 26th, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

TSUNAMISED

After a night in Bangalore, two in Changanacherry here I am in Kanyakumari for another single night, next one will be in Tuticorin and the next again will be in Madurai. I realise I will never sleep more than one night in the same place until I will be back in Bangkok, not bad for an old Khun Phu.

I am here to visit the Tsunami affected areas of South Tamil Nadu. It has been nearly one year since the killer wave struck these shores and since my first visit here.

It is surely been an eventful year, we did lot of work for fund raising, three visits on the spot and a countless e-mails and phone calls with the ones in charge of the relief works.
It was worth, the have been able to overcome lot of problems, it surely hasn`t been easy but here I am, and allow me to feel proud of our work, proud to have been able to keep our promises and to have done our part in this tragedy`s relief.

Of course we are not the only ones who did our job right, so many other good people did their part too in trying to bring care and relief to those thousands of people all over South East Asia who have been so much affected by the seaquake. And this was really a great thing, all people being mobilised with a real positive energy to help the others.
It was great being involved in this and I may be selfish but I have to admit I feel really proud to have part of this positive energy wave, I can say: “I was there and I did my wee part in helping those victims”, and it makes me feel well.
Unfortunately, is also true that thanks to the Tsunami lot of people got shamelessly rich.
They stole, tricked and cheated the poor affected people, took the money that was meant to be for the victims and ran away. These are every day stories, like vultures those men blatantly misused the funds meant to be for whose who were in real and urgent need. Shame on them, really.

For our part we`ve built a big Water Tank (a God`s sent blessing in local people words) and here I am in Keela Manakudy distributing the fishing boats we did promise six months ago. It took longer than expected because we faced really unexpected problems but we did not back out and we did our duty.
Not a single penny was lost and every single donation we did receive is now in those floating pieces of wood.

I am happy, let me feel this way, I am happy to see those faces smiling, those faces whose eyes have seen death, misery, hunger and cheaters finally have something to cheer. Their shy way to give me a “namaste”, their shy smile which barely has teeth, with the eyes nearly closed as they would be afraid to make contact with mine, is a big reward for myself.
A reward that I do not even deserve because all this has been possible thank to the hundreds of people who donated money to help other human beings in a distant and far away part of the world.

Now back in the car and on the way to Tuticorin, where I will meet other poor people and children affected by the Tsunami, but not only by that.
They are affected and crushed by the loan sharks and by the rich people`s exploitation, never any change in the history of man kind, right?

Kanyakumari, November 25th, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

ILLUSION AND DUST

I know it may sound like a stereotyped social-worker/third world activist bullshit but being here, among all those poor crippled children, among severely hit C.P. patients really gives me food for thought.

What the fuck is life?
Is it the whores in Sukhmvit Road?
Or it is those children who can not even walk, they can just crawl their way into life?
Is this the Ying and the Yang?
Is not the first time I see those poor kids, I do not even remember how many times I did visit them but maybe coming straight from “Bangkok never ending party atmosphere” to here is like a punch in the stomach.

I watch those girls, Jinumol, Gilu, Sujatha etc. and I think about their lives, how they must be feeling inside.
I wonder what they hide behind their wonderful smile that, for an old cynical fart like me, can not be real. Life has been too much cruel for them to allow them to smile like in such a way.
I think about so many people I know in Switzerland who are unable to put on a smile even if paid 1.000 Francs.

Life is not fair, this is sure.
Why were they born like this? If there is a God, I wonder why does it allow this to happen?
Is this only a matter of bad Karma?

Fuck shit, I have no clue of course, but here I am among those smiling children who basically have nothing to cheer about their life and I admire them so much.
I will never know what their smile is hiding, I can only imagine what kind of pain and sorrow they are having inside, but at least they are putting on a brave face against the shit life gave them… at least they do… how many among us would be able to, at least, do that?

I can not do too much for them, unless what I am doing now and shall this make me feel better?
Nope, I know what I am doing for them is next to nothing, I wish I could do more but maybe this is simply their fate, life is about acceptance as Buddha said and one thing is sure we can not go against life, we can just follow the flow, we have no control about anything. Life is impermanent.

I see them gracefully dancing and I wonder “are they dancing for life or are they dancing despite life?”, but who cares at the end. I watch them dance, moving around with their “dead legs” and hope this moment will make them feel happy… despite everything.

PALAI, HOME FOR OLD PEOPLE:

If in Bangkok temptation was constantly staring me in the eyes here in Palai death is doing the same thing.
I look at those poor old people in here, they are practically just waiting to die.
I saw their old faces marked by time, pain and sorrow, I look at their crippled bodies and I think that this is what is going to happen to everyone of us.
Beauty, strength, stamina everything will disappear one day and death will uncover what we are really are…illusion and dust.

Changanacherry, November 23rd, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

THE GREATEST UNANSWERED QUESTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF MAN KIND!

Why are all Kerala men (and unfortunately few women too) bearing big moustaches?
Are Kerala babies born already provided with big moustaches?

Not even science could come up with an appropriate answer to this question.

During a 4 hours long jeep trip to Cochin airport to Changanacherry I did count thousands of men on the road and every single one of them was having a moustache on his face, some had black, grey for the older men but everyone of them was having hair on his face (and I repeat unfortunately also some women too).

Why?

BANGALORE NIGHT

Here am I, at Bangalore airport waiting to fly to Cochin, Kerala, Mercy Home Project, the first of the many I will visit in the next two weeks.

I had a decent night after all, being probably tired surely helped me to sleep a bit in that Hotel`s bed full of stains (and so was the pillow as well) and with no blankets.

In the morning could not take a shower as the water pipe was not working and the same applied to the toilet flush, not what you call 5 stars hotel I suppose. Thank God I was not suffering of diarrhea.

Is raining here and the weather is rather chilly, this time on the way back to the airport I did pay just 50 rupees as there was less traffic than last night.
This means the guys at the airport are really natural born cheaters, I suppose once they see a white skinned guy they increase automatically the price of about 100%.

Now I am sitting in one of the few tables available at the airport, in a “Coffee day” coffee shop.
At the same table, in front of me a young guy is eating something like a veggie burger, I can see practically everything that is in his mouth as he can`t seem to be able to keep it shut while chewing. He is chewing his food with some happiness I do believe and, unfortunately for me, I can see all the ingredients that were once in the burger and now are smashed in his mouth.

Now the young man is gone and another one, older, is setting in front of me.
Believe it or not this one is emptying his suitcase on the table where I have my coffee and computer. T-Shirts, pants and I pray to God he will not take out his used underwear at least.

Welcome back to India, Khun Phu..

Bangalore, November 22nd, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

KHUN PHU GOES TO INDIA, AGAIN

10 p.m. local time, flight TG 325 is about to land in Bangalore. I am back in India for the umpteenth time.
Stunningly enough I go quickly through the usually long process of immigration and custom, I collect my suitcase just to find myself out of the airport and start fighting with taxi drivers and auto-rickshaw drivers who want to charge 200 rupees to reach the hotel in the city.

Finally I find an auto driver who tells me the sweet words “meter sir” that sound like celestial music to my tired ears.

So after few minutes I am caught myself in the middle of Bangalore night traffic, the gas smell already deep inside my lungs and on my clothes.
Finally I reach the “so-called” Hotel and the meter says 60 rupees, I give 100 to the driver telling him “honesty always pays off, that`s the karma law”, he smiles at me and goes away happy I suppose.

My God, going from Bangkok to Bangalore is like first swimming in a beautiful tropical beach and then in some kind of polluted cold lake.
The hotel is lousy, totally. I am paying 1.000 rupees for a dirty and mosquito infested room. A/C is supposed to be there but is not working.
Better not mention the bathroom and its smell. I am simply very happy to have taken the soap from the “Park Hotel” in Bangkok, since here is obviously missing.

I venture out, the streets of the city are nearly desert, just few men wandering around apparently without goal, where are the ladies? Where are the girls?
And obviously I am the only “falang” in the area, even though here they would not call me in such way.

If in Bangkok temptation is constantly staring you in the eyes 24 hours a day here it seems that even if you search for it you would not find it.
At least I think so until an auto rickshaw offer to bring me in some untold place where I could find very beautiful and naked Indian women. This is India where everything is hidden, where (according to many people) there is no prostitution, no aids and no gays. Welcome to “denial country”.

Missing Bangkok? You must be kidding me, I miss so much Thailand, Bangkok and Surin but as we all know life is impermanent so here I am, with a job to do and tomorrow is another day.

Anyway I go on walking a bit, the smell of urine in not really a pleasant fellow, I saw few men pissing on the sidewalks, but I also notice few small malls, probably an attempt to modernity. I end up in a mysteriously still open “Coffee world” where I am writing these words on a piece of waste paper drinking so distant cousin to a cappuccino.
How I miss “Swenssen`s” and its beautiful waitresses.
Of course I am the only customer in the bar.

Good night.

Bangalore, November 21, 2548

C – Copyright CLAUDIO ROMANO

FLYING AWAY

I am about to leave Thailand once more, this time I will be flying toward the Indian subcontinent where I will visit India and, after a gap of 15 years, Nepal.

As I sit very comfortably in the THAI Airways V.I.P. Lounge (courtesy of my frequent flyer Gold Card Member holder) where I can enjoy free drinks and snacks I cannot help but think that this may be my last flight, my last beer, this may well be the last time I did speak to my kids and to my wife.

I am not afraid and I am not being pessimistic but is a fact that living in Thailand got me much closer to life and to death as well, got me much closer to the meaning of “impermanence of life” as in Buddha`s teachings. Is a simple and sure fact that every day, every normal routine day could be our last one but we often forgot that and so we also forget to try to make our best of our days.

I am just realistic, as I sit in this very comfortable chair and I think very quickly about my life. How lucky I have been so far (even with all the mistakes I`ve done), I am so lucky because I have the chance to love everyday some wonderful people and to receive love from them.
I may not be the wealthiest man on earth but this fact surely makes me one of the richest.

Will this be my last flight?
Or tomorrow will I reach Kerala and start my work with those poor unlucky, handicapped children from our Projects?

Well, if someone may be interested in that… just open the blog in the next few days and you will get the answer.
Take care

KHUN PHU GOES TO BANGKOK

One month ago Khun Phu went to Pattaya and got confused, extremely confused.
Then after some soul searching he thought to have cleared a bit of his confusion… he thought so, at least.

And now, in these days Khun Phu is in Krung Thep and, once again, he is a very confused Khun Phu and for the very same reasons as in Pattaya
This simply means his soul searching was surely not good enough.

Let’s proceed step by step, Pen Youm Youm as we say in Thailand.

1) Pattaya:

The brothel city of Thailand, a town that lives and prosper entirely and only on the sex business.
I travelled there with my wife to meet someone so please do not have any bad thinking.
We reached the city at about 4 a.m. and it was as crowded and busy as any Swiss city on Christmas Eve, I could not believe my eyes.
There were two main animals races around; young, tiny and, mostly, beautiful girls and old, fat, and mostly ugly men (of course Falang).
In those early morning hours I did discover with horror that still I am an extremely judgemental man, I did realise that my belief of having erased those old patterns after 2 years of Asia and a rather serious approach to Buddhism was just… another illusion.

It did scare me a lot do discover that still I was having inside myself all those rooted deeply Catholic concepts such as sin, sinner, guilt and so on.

It took a good breakfast, discussing the matter with my wife and observing all those old men happily chatting with their young friends to overcome those feelings.
At the end of the breakfast I understood that I shall accept life as it comes, that everyone has the right to have fun in his own way and that basically my judgement just mean that I unconsciously think to be better than the others… which is totally not true I assure you, as I am surely no better than anyone.

So I left Pattaya feeling much better and, surprisingly for me, even liking the place.

2) Bangkok:

I am in the capital city waiting for my passport and tickets for India and Nepal.
My wife is unfortunately sick so this time I am here all alone.
Is actually the first time I am going around Thailand alone and, honestly, in the beginning I was really feeling like a poor Issarn farmer for the first time in the big city.
Then once I started going around easily I really enjoyed being here.
Actually I love Bangkok and actually I hate Bangkok and for the same reasons… too much traffic, too many people, too much noise… but is alive, for a man grown up in a small village in Switzerland and now living in a rural village of Issarn, sometimes is good to see life pulsating at his best and at his worst.
Bangkok is just like life, it there is some very good things and some very bad ones.

But my old ghosts came back again one evening while I was quietly drinking a Guinness in a bar where a group of young Thai was playing loud rock music covers from Green Day, Simple Plan, Santana, RHCP to Cranberries.
I did fall again in the judgement trap when I saw some men well past their 40`s acting like dumb teenagers, dancing totally out of tune in front of some drunken young girls.
I found myself once again pointing my fingers at those men, without even knowing their stories and, maybe, their sorrows just judging them from what I could see on the surface.

Surely a funny and interesting thing was that the few young men in the bar (me included ah ah ah) were sitting quietly chatting and absolutely not being interested in doing the fools like their potential fathers were doing.

Again I felt really confuse, lot of question sprang in my mind such the meaning of dignity, self respect, respect to other people and who has the right to define everyone’s behaviour.

While sipping my beer I then decided to put a definitive stop to all those kind of useless and presumptuous thoughts:
After all “Who the fuck am I to judge and to question other people’s behaviour, let them enjoy their life as they like, let them have their “Sanook””?.

So I started enjoying even more my beer having fun watching those men dancing with less grace and posture than any elephant in the Surin’s Yearly festival.

I did just allow myself one more thought on the way back to the hotel, walking the narrow sidewalks of Sukhmvit Road, full of food stalls and people sitting on the ground selling everything possible and more.

I could not help but watching all those odd couples I was passing by, walking hand in hand like long time sweet hearts. Honestly I was not judging anymore but it was like my eyes were seeing a different image.

It was like the girl was actually walking holding the man’s dick in her hand, like a collar to a dog. I could figure out how she was actually dominating him, turning him into submission and exploiting his too obvious weakness.
Well, I like to think in such a way as some kind of revenge for those girls who may have been forced into prostitution by poverty or other forces but not for their own will.
Holding those old men’s dick, squeezing money out of them is probably their only way, their only weapon of revenge towards a world, towards a society who did turn them into just “meat for grabs”.

So let it be, let them fool all those falangs, let this be some kind of justice for them. They will probably not be able to escape their fate but at least they will sink with their oppressor.

Am I being judgemental again? Nope, this is just my opinion.

Krung Thep, November 20, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano

KHUN PHU

I suppose that the thousands and thousands of regular visitors of this „blog“ may wonder... “What the fuck does Khun Phu means?”.

Well, Khun Phu is simply what in Thai language is for Grand Father.
In fact yours truly is the proud GF of 2 wonderful babies ”Wee Liam” and “Sarah the Princess”.

Surely those of you who have the so-called “Sixth Sense” may have understood that before being GF I have been a father as well (and still I am) and of course I am so much proud of my kids and full of love for them. I can not put their photos in the blog as they are too many and I am afraid they may fill completely the memory space, but I assure you they are all so beautiful.

Note: to all young ladies in the audience, please do not be disappointed, I may be a Grand Father but still a young one, surely one of the youngest and fittest available.
The real problem is that I have been drafted again and it seems that there is no “buy out” clause in my contract. Sorry lasses.

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE?

In a few minutes I shall be landing at Don Muang Airport, Bangkok. Safety belt already tied, smiling and beautiful air hostesses are kindly collecting my headphones and putting my seat in the upright position according to the rules.
Once again I am back in Thailand, surely happy about it but after three weeks of Europe, after reading for 21 days news about the deadly avian flu that is about to spread all over the world, but mainly in South East Asia I start to feel extremely worried and anxious.
I do imagine after passing through immigration and custom to find myself outside the airport, on the streets of Krung Thep and seeing its sidewalks covered by a huge quantities of rotten dead bodies of humans and chickens. I imagine the few survivors walking like zombies after such huge devastation.
I am getting ready, “nueng, sawng, sahm” and here I am outside the airport and… to my big surprise everything seem to be normal. What happened?Maybe Bangkok authorities they did like their colleagues of Calcutta when some Pope went and visit the city: they hid the dirt, the rubbish and the poor people on the back streets!
Too good to be true anyway, I greet my friend Pe Daeng with a “Wai” and take my “Pusao” (a very old second hand Toyota) and start my road trip to the guts of interior Issarn, Ban Naudom, Rattana Buri, Surin.
And then I do realize one thing. How stupid I am, there are no chicken in Bangkok, the only ones are those fried by the lousy KFF. So I will have my vision of doom once I will enter the country side of Thailand, the rice belt of the Northeast.
I reach Saraburi and again everything is normal, but wait… Saraburi is not yet in Issarn so I told to myself to drive confidently until Korat, then I will start my journey to the “Bird flu Hell”.
Once again to my huge surprise nothing seems to be wrong in Korat and the same in Buri Ram and finally in Surin, Rattana Buri and Ban Naudom.
Oh, here I understand, the miracle of Tamiflu has probably reached those places and saved thousands of people. So I ask my wife and she doesn’t know a fuck about the miracle drug and very little about the Pandemic that is hanging on our very civilized world.
Here people are too busy harvesting rice, on which depends their livelihood to worry about something that is just on the papers and on the news. They are so lucky to live so far away of the media domination, as it seems that in the West all people who lives in front of the TV are getting ready for the imminent Armageddon!The evil power of the media hit again! People are once again scared thus so easy to manipulate and to be kept quiet. After the terrorist, SARS and many other things thanks God we have now the bird flu to fill our pages and to scare people, isn’t it?
Over there in Europe it seems there is no more Tamiflu available, people did rush to buy it at such a ridiculous high price and with no guarantee that it may be even effective. I suppose it was a really very good job by Roche PR people!
Anyway it seems that now all pharmaceutical companies are searching for a vaccine for this new virus.That’s is good but let me just wonder … how many people died so far of “Bird flu”?100, 200, 500 or 1.000 ?
Honestly I do not know, but let me ask you then…. How many people has George W. Bush killed? Many more I think, so why not try to produce and anti GWB vaccine?
And how many people has Osama Bin Laden killed? Many more I think, so why not try to produce and anti OBL vaccine? Or maybe the above GWB is attempting that in killing thousands of poor Iraqi people?
And how many people have Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouges killed? Many more I think , so why not try to produce and anti PP vaccine?
And how many people has religion killed? Call it “Crusade”, “Inquisition” or “Jihad” is the same fucking shit. So why not produce an anti Religion vaccine?
And finally how many humans have been killed by fellow humans being them Americans, Japanese, Germans, Chinese, whites, reds, yellows, blacks, blues, greens, purple or whatever! And how many innocent animals have been mercilessly killed by humans?
So for the sake of humanity and for our future generations why not try to prepare an anti human vaccine that can kill all really dangerous and deadly human viruses such as greed, selfishness, violence, bigotry and fundamentalism among many others?
As the Beach Boys were singing, wouldn’t it be nice?

And what about our darling chicken friends?Well poor birds, they are nothing else than, once again, victim of human madness and greed. Have you ever heard for “Factory farm” where those poor birds have to live for the sake of productivity and humans’ gain?Those environment, surely not their natural one, where they live in cramped, heated, airless sheds is a really breeding ground for any viruses.
That's what they call the "Karma Law" isn't it?
Blame the chicken? Nope, blame once again the so called “most intelligent” of animals, the “Son of God” according to the Christians. Wow, me I know I have not been a very good father for sure, but at least my daughters and son are way better than those of God, not bad after all, isn’t it?
Ban Naudom, November 15th, 2548
COPYRIGHT C – Claudio Romano