Update from the Flood-Plains of Bangkok

My friend Karradine has sent me an update from Thailand.

====

A friend sent me a link this morning to tempers rising as the waters rise, but that’s been a local headline, recurring for a couple days now…

I asked around, and learned this: various parts of Bangkok benefit from ‘aid’ or ‘protection’ from different political parties, so some of what passes for ‘we can’t get the water out any faster’ is actually ‘you’re not an area that voted for us’ …

Even if there were NO shenanigans, with the widespread hardships and losses there are SURE to be SOME PEOPLE who believe they are being jerked around by Thailand’s power-mongers.

I can’t find a link for it, but here’s a link to what the floods have been like in the Rangsit area (about the size of Central Park) which suddenly and mysteriously drained away so much water that the streets were suddenly muddy but waterless…

There are several other important aspects of this chronic flooding which are starting to be talked about on public news channels:

1) the public health problem as the waters steadily become more fouled by human waste and garbage;

2) the public health problems as mosquitoes bloom by the millions AND as dirty water has contaminated public piped water, the picture showing a water filter before and after recent developments:

3) the soil-softening effects of hydrostatic pressure and resulting dangers of large buildings coming unmoored, unstable, or totally crashing down…

We’ve been out on two volunteer efforts so far, and have set up a Bangkok Flood Help account through PayPal, for those less fortunate in our immediate help-zone:

Donate to Help Flood Victims, PayPal account BkkFloodHelp {at} Gmail <dot> com. If you want to earmark it for a particular use, do so as you PayPal it.

==

And a second e-mail:

==

In Thailand, as in every other place in the human world, the light of unity is bright when it shines, but disunity and partisan preference leads to needless suffering, needless pain and needless loss of property and lives.

In Bangkok, pumps have been emplaced at various points across the greater metropolitan area. These are BIG, diesel-powered suckers lifting water through 18 and 24-inch ducts, 24/7; from flooded areas into better-draining canals or waterways.

But WHERE they get placed is a government choice, and the people know it!

The Red-Shirt demonstrations earlier this year, and the long-overdue election of another Taksin (pronounced Toxin) eased political pressures for a while, because the plunder mindset imposed on the Thai people by themselves (as in, WE WON the election, so WE WIN the plunder) falls apart when a natural disaster strikes across political boundaries, inflicts difficulties on high and low alike, and extracts payment of all in its path.

So this widespread suffering, and growing distrust of ‘them’ in the government, has seen rapid growth in measures taken during the Christmas Tsunami a few years ago: namely, People Helping People

Seeing that ‘government’ help all too often is too little, too late and too tangled in bureaucratic red-tape and record-keeping (IF the help actually GETS TO affected people needing it, and not simply stashed in some state, county or local party cadre’s bank account or warehouse), people have followed the leads of TV channels, Baha’is, volunteer organizations and others who have arisen to organize material aid, transportation and distribution by the people, FOR the afflicted people, with record-keeping and compassion…

…and it GETS TO the people, We the People, the Meek of the Earth…

despite the government’s formal refusal of aid offers from Germany, the USSA, Japan and others… People stepping outside the government and DOING what NEEDS TO BE DONE.