China on the Rise, by Colleen

We have been astounded at how few Americans we’ve encountered on our travels.  A small smattering in Venice, Prague, and Luang Prabang.  But not many.  It seems the obnoxious American tourist busses have been replaced with Chinese tourist groups - we saw absolutely huge Chinese tour groups all over Europe and Asia, everywhere we went. A few people mentioned that perhaps Americans aren’t traveling as much because of terrorist attacks, which may be true in Europe.  Attacks in Paris, Brussels, London, Barcelona - perhaps these are keeping Americans at home?

Or is it Trump?

The Laotian Times cover stories today highlight the current divisions between the way Asian countries perceive of their respective relationships with America and China.  The paper discussed Trump’s visit to Asia, noting that in Vietnam he was very clear to begin his talks with his “America First” message, stating that he is open to trade, but wants to make sure that America isn’t “taken advantage of anymore.”  In contrast, and in the same day’s edition, the paper also published lengthy articles regarding the excitement over President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit, a discussion of Chinese investment in Laotian students, (China is offering hundreds of scholarships for Laotian students to study in China), and an article discussing the bolstering of development ties between China and Laos. China is also building a high speed rail line linking Shanghai to Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.  Additionally, billboards everywhere throughout Thailand and Laos are in Chinese and describe Chinese development projects throughout SE Asia. Chinese infrastructure is expanding throughout SE Asia, and goodwill is being built alongside these projects.  Empires expanding through railways and scholarships.

While Trump builds walls, bans immigrants, refuses investment abroad, even among allies, and evidently wishes to return America to a mythic time before the global economy, multiculturalism, and the internet, the rest of the world moves on.  No one is waiting for the Great White Savior, and China is filling the gap.  Interestingly, the most common greeting we encountered upon telling both Europeans and Asians that we are American was “Oh Yeah, Obama!  We love him!”  His presidency still garners goodwill across the globe.  But people are reticent to bring up Trump, and the most common response we received when we apologetically asked people what they thought of Trump was fear - most people asked if we thought he was as crazy as Kim Jong-Un. The second response was laughter, accompanied by pity.  A lovely young French man told me that so many of his friends just felt so sorry for Americans, so embarrassed for them, and so confused about how all of this transpired.  I had to agree.

It is difficult to travel internationally and to feel so deeply ashamed of our belligerent, bellicose, unqualified, greedy, terrifying president who is truly dismantling everything we supposedly stand for as Americans.  And it has been fascinating to observe Chinese presence everywhere we go.  We studied the rise and fall of the Roman Empire a few months ago, and I suppose we are living through the rise and fall of our short lived American empire.  I sure am glad Griffin is excited to be learning Mandarin.  

Democracy and despotism (by Greg)

I woke to the sound of a loudspeaker broadcast — all in Thai, so of course I couldn’t understand a word.  But the speaker droned on in the unmistakable tone of “official” broadcasts the world over.  The darned loudspeaker had been waking me up every day since we got to Thailand.  But since I was up, I decided I’d better write my long-overdue blog.  (I can’t very well tell my kids to stay on track with writing assignments when I’m behind as well.)  And what had been on my mind the last several weeks was the Thai king, or former king that is.

We hadn’t planned to visit Thailand at all, so I was completely unprepared when we arrived to discover that the entire country was prepping for the late king’s cremation ceremony in just a few days.  He had died a year ago after reigning for some 70 years.  And the one thing you hear constantly in Thailand is that the Thais love, love, love their king.  So I’d been thinking that flippant questions about where they’d kept his body were probably better left unasked.  In any event, it really did appear that the Thais loved and respected their king.  Much of Bangkok was shut down for the week of the ceremony - a huge, loud, frenetic, jam packed SouthEast Asian capital city rendered eerily quite and subdued.  There were huge pictures and memorials on almost every street corner, shop wall, subway stop, ... you name it.  

 

Huge numbers of volunteers were out preparing for the ceremonies.  And without exception the Thais was dressed in only black, grey, or white.  Apparently, people had dressed in somber colors for the entire year.  Even a week after the cremation ceremony, in the Northern city of Chiang Mai, that was still true.  Strange to see an entire population in muted colors.

Every Thai I asked about the king appeared genuinely moved, describing a humble man who rose early and worked every day for the good of the people, despite his wealth and position, and did a great deal especially to improve the lives of the poor in the remote Norht.  He is credited with many agricultural and economic improvement projects, and sharply curtailing the opium trade in the North.  Given our ever-more polarized and vitriolic politics back home, I couldn’t help but be suspicious of an entire population so unquestioningly in love with a king.  So I tried to research his legacy.  And it does appear that he is “credited” with a great many improvement projects.  But, as it turns out, it’s a crime punishable by prison term to criticize the Thai king or his family in any way. In fact, you can’t even openly discuss the succession, even though outside sources seem pretty clear that the new king, his son, is not well-liked.  

So just how “true” is the the late king’s glowing legacy?  I couldn’t really tell.  To be fair, I only did a bit of internet research, but most of what I found was the official story from government sources.  Not to say that characterization is false; while there is another story, it too seems somewhat hazy.  Thailand was an absolute monarchy until 1932, when a popular revolution forced the then-king to accept a constitution with significant limitations on his power — sort of on the British model.  In 1946, the 18-year old Bhumibol Adulyadej, was crowned after his elder brother died of a gunshot to the head …. (Yes, shot in the head.  I found almost no information about this.). 

Throughout his reign, King Bumibol (also called Rama IX) supported a string of military dictatorships.  He also brought back many of the symbols of a strong monarchy, and least according to some outside accounts, appears to have exercised a great deal of control behind the scenes. 

In the early 1970s, there was growing political unrest in Thailand, especially among students. At first, the king supported the demonstrators, even granting them sanctuary in the royal palace compound in 1973.  But as the demonstrations continued, the king began to support right-wing and paramilitary groups. These right-wing groups were anti-communist in name, and while there were definitely communist movements in Thailand at the time, it appears that any reform or anti-establishment movement was branded “communist.”  The right-wing opposition grew with the king’s support, and in 1976, massacred at least 46 (and probably over 100) student demonstrators at a University.  The king not only continued to support those groups after the massacre, he supported the ensuing military coup.  Since then, Thailand has seen a few short-lived returns to parliamentary democracy, but has mostly been governed by a series of military dictatorships.  The current regime came to power in a 2014 coup that abolished both houses of the legislature and prohibited all political gatherings.  

So, what’s my (admittedly cursory) conclusion?  The late king was a force of stability and prosperity for Thailand. Thailand never experienced the horrors of communism seen in Cambodia or Vietnam, and it clearly benefited from economic stability and foreign investment (although the king also amassed an astonishing amount of wealth even by the standards of other monarchs).  The king might even have been a true champion of the poor, although it’s hard to gauge his actual impact and motivations.  But, for all of that, he clearly was not a champion of democracy or individual rights.  

All of which has me thinking once again of the increasingly divided and vitriolic politics at home.  I don’t understand the motivations, or even the rationales, of Trump supporters.  But whatever their reasons, they do not have a problem with his authoritarianism — in fact, it seems to win him points with his supporters.  If I’m feeling generous, I suppose they must believe that a “strong” (i.e., anti-democratic) leader will bring stability and thus economic prosperity.  But even if that were true (and I’ve never believed it), are those folks willing to pay the price of authoritarianism?  I know we can’t directly compare Thailand.  But I just asked someone about the droning message over the loudspeakers.  Apparently, it’s the military dictatorship’s twice-daily “news” announcement - broadcast in every village and city across the country.  Maybe we can compare. 

Elephant cruelty Cruelty in Thailand

https://www.petaasia.com/issues/entertainment/elephants/

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40501667

South east Asia is an amazing place, it has incredible temples and food.  But if you look closer you can see there is a huge problem in Asia. This is the animal cruelty problem. I have only spent 5 nights in Bangkok and there were elephants in plays and tigers in cages.

In Thailand there are two sides of this story. The first is the tourist’s perspective, over 30 million people come to Thailand every year.  Mostly tourists will go to animal shows and ride elephants and take pictures and then go home. What they don't understand is that they didn't have a special connection with that wild animal, they didn't see the scars under that elephant's ear, and they most certainly did not understand that elephants in the wild will travel as far as 50 kilometers while the average zoo  space in Thailand keeps them in chains. Of the 45,000 elephants in the world 3,000-4,000 of them are kept in captivity in Thailand!

Most of the elephants in captivity were captured from Myanmar where they lure baby elephants into trap pits and if necessary shoot the mother.  When the elephants are in the hands of the Thai, they go through a process called phajaan. Phajaan is a horrible process that basically will break the baby elephant, the poachers will beat them and poke them with long nails or bullhooks and deny them food and water (some don’t survive.) A wild elephant calf will stay with its mothers pack for at least 16 years but now they are ripped away at 6 months.  After this process, the elephants are forced to work all day with not much food. Elephant’s skin is prone to sun burns, so a wild elephant will coat itself with mud for a natural sunscreen, but if captured, elephants have no work breaks, and will be riding around with a sun burn and 10 tourists on its back. In Thailand more than 13 million people took cruel elephant rides in 2017.

That cruelty is definitely happening, but what was not taken into account was what were the workers thinking. We should not treat the workers with disgust. I believe it is horrible to treat an elephant like that, but we westerners don't know what's it like to be living in Thailand in a small village. What if you don't have a choice, either be starving or be cruel to an animal to survive. In America we don't have as many jobs as we should have but in small villages in Thailand they make money off of tourists. A small village in Thailand doesn't need one million doctors like the USA does, there are less job opportunities. So if you want to help this cause, don't just donate to the Elephants. Also donate to the people of Thailand because if all the elephants are taken away, the people will be left with nothing and they will starve just like the elephants.

HOW TO HELP

https://www.saveelephant.org

https://www.worldwildlife.org

https://support.peta.org/page/1855/donate/1?locale=en-US

Selfies in Borobudur by: Rowan

On October 15, my family decided to go to Borobudur. We were all really excited we're looking forward to it. Unfortunately for us, it was around 90 degrees, but with the humidity it felt more around 120. We all piled into a car for an hour and a half, alternating between turning the AC up and down because the cars get really cold. When the drive was over, we stepped out into the hot fog and picked our way over to the entrance. On the way we were stepping over the ever present people, garbage, and random trinkets strewn across the roads. When we got to the entrance we were all ordered to put on sarongs and we were let in to Borobudur!

About 10 minutes into our tour with our guide, whose name in an English translation was “happy”, the first ambush started. 2 men came up to my mom and asked to take a picture with her. Not wanting to be rude, she said yes, and that was the beginning of our 3 ½ hours of fame.Quickly after the men left, 4 Muslim girls came up and grabbed my arm and then Griffins, and took turns with each of them holding our hands and snapping pictures. We were laughing and going along with it. Then a whole class came up to us to take a picture, and the whole Butwartz family became involved. After a couple of minutes of pictures we got on with our tour, and trust me, it was a peaceful 5 minutes.

I started to notice a bunch of school girls and boys sneakily taking pictures of Griffin and I, so it became hard to listen to what Happy was saying. I waved and they all waved and ran away, by that wasn't the last I would see them. We then were able to actually get a decent hour of actual learning in, but Griffin and I wanted to go to the top of the building, so we kind of ditched our parents. As soon as we got up to the top, the real beginning of picture-mania started. Out of nowhere, we were bombarded with a bunch of old ladies thrusting their kids and grandkids at us. That was the first wave, if you will, of our fiasco. Then it was little schoolgirls and boys who were really adorable and super shy, so we were more willing with them. Griffin got a lot of attention from schoolgirls who were giggling and he was always saying, “sorry I have to go find my parents now”. There were no other white people at the top, so we were on our own. Somehow it started to get hotter and the air got thicker and we had literal lines forming to get pictures with the white kids, is naturally, we started to run away from them. The top of Borobudur is circular and the exit is impossible to find because it looks like the entrance. We finally found the exit, and then, what left like the thousandth time, my arm was pulled away from where I was in the crowd, and I was face to face with a Indonesian boy. So from him I got an interview, and by then I was so tired and sweaty and annoyed that at the end of the interview I said, “okay yeah bye.” I was seriously exhausted!!

We ended up waiting for another hour down at the exit in the heat. By the end of my time at Borobudur I had taken pictures with grandparents, kids, moms, dads, aunties, uncles, school children, and even a deformed man with his parents. I had sweaty grandmothers wrap their arms around me without permission, no consent for the babies being shoved into my lap, men who took 5 minutes just to take one picture, people who grabbed me, made me stand up, and made me move so THEY could get a better light for their picture. By the end, I was so tired and also a little loopy, that I fell asleep in the car ride home. Borobudur was definitely the place that I had my 15 minutes of fame, and it's something I’m not going to forget anytime soon.