Falling Head First Off the Noble Eightfold Path -
Bhumibol's Corruption of the Institution of the Dharmaraja

by Wes Man on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 12:04pm
 

"Old Master...look at you now...You have, in sum, assembled all the 6 robbers together. How
could you possibly get to the Western Heaven to see Buddha?"- The Monkey King, Wu
Ch'eng En "Journey to the West"

"That which the wise man will not take, the king will go through fire and water to obtain."-
Jack Kerouac, Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha

This is a story about The Noble Eightfold Path and how the Thai king Bhumibol has failed to
follow it.

In doing so, he has compromised the sacred institution of the Dharmaraja – the Buddhist Dharma
King – which he claims is the central institution representing Thai culture and the country of
Thailand. The king is considered the absolute center and guarantor of Thailand’s sovereignty.
Therefore his failure must be counted as one of the great tragedies in the recent history of
Thailand.

The Noble Eightfold Path is the central teaching of Siddhartha Gautama and the foundational
teaching of Buddhism. I was first introduced to these concepts from the American
Catholic/Buddhist writer Jack Kerouac. Being a basic and simple minded guy, I take what I read
at face value. I don't know about any Machiavellian exceptions for kings or royalty to these
guidelines. I am not aware of any rationalizations or equivocations that may be written in the
Thai language about these guidelines, and I don't know how or why anyone might have a special
pass for reasons of statecraft or national security. If you know of any exceptions or shortcuts
please tell me. Otherwise I will assume that failure, and especially conscious and premeditated
failure to follow these guidelines will not lead to wisdom, the cessation of suffering or to
Nirvana

My primary criticisms of Bhumobol come from his multivarious failures of ethical conduct. I
cannot speculate about the state of his mental discipline; but 60 years of violence, embrace of
militarism, corruption of justice and the rule of law, and contempt for democracy belie a troubled
mind indeed. Conduct, after all, lays the foundations for the mental discipline and wisdom which
lead to Nirvana. "All higher spiritual development is not possible without this moral basis."
To whom much is given, much is expected. Thus follows an outline of the Eightfold path in
bold, taken from an English language Theraveda Buddhist text that I found in a vegetarian
restaurant in Phnom Penh. My criticisms are in regular type.

The Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right Understanding (Samma ditthi)
2. Right Thought (Samma Sankappa)
3. Right Speech (Samma Vaca)
4. Right Action (Samma Kammanta)
5. Right Livelihood (Samma Ajiva)
6. Right Effort (Samma Vayama)
7. Right Mindfulness (Samma Sati)
8. Right Concentration (Samma Samadhi)

These 8 items are divided into three areas
(a) Ethical Conduct (Sila)
(b) Mental Discipline (Samadhi)
(c) Wisdom (Panna)

Ethical Conduct (Sila) -
The conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings - on which the
Buddha's teaching is based.

For the good of the many, out of compassion for the world (bahujanahitaya
bahujanasakhaya lokanukamaya)

The first and perhaps most critical charge is that the Thai king has split his kingdom. He has
divided his subjects. He extols those who support his politics and punishes unto death those who
have different ideas. This process began in the mid-1950s when Bhumibol and his supporters
overthrew the secular government of Phaibun, and has continued unabated and with impunity to
the present day, when ½ or more of the Thai population has been condemned to the status of a
hated “out group” - Serfs whose lives, rights thoughts and very humanity have been rejected by
the man charged with the station of their Dharma king.

Ethical conduct involves
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Speech =

1. Abstention from telling lies.
Bumhibol has equivocated to no end when it served his secular purposes, and hypocritically and
conveniently changed his position 180 degrees when he needed justification for any number of
his hypocritical interventions in Thai politics. Like advocating use of the constitution transfers of
power in 1992 and using this to shame Chamlong Srimuang for not following the impossible
path of amending the constitution when all hope of doing so had been compromised by
Bhumibol’s own appointments to the Thai “senate”. In the same conflict praise was given for
“following the constitution” to the brutal, corrupt and murderous general Suchida who Bhumibol
favored. Then Bhumibol started talking out the other side of his mouth by fully supporting use of
the Thai military to seize power in 2006 in complete contempt of the constitution and
international law. Now refusing to follow the constitution is fine when it serves to give power to
the monarchy and those who support Bhumibol’s despotic monarchist philosophy of
government.

2. Abstention from backbiting slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity,
disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups.

3. Abstention from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, abusive language.

4. Abstention from idle useless foolish babble and gossip.
When abstaining from these 4, one must speak the truth and use words that are friendly,
benevolent, pleasant, gentle, meaningful and useful. If one cannot say something useful, one
should keep noble silence.

Bhumibol always has the luxury of maintaining a fictional silence, when he has on his payroll, a
coterie of monarchist henchmen who can abuse, slander and libel opponents on his behalf. One
of the first cases of this occurred in 1956 when Royalist General Sarit's political party accused
Phaibun’s secular government of committing lesse majeste - which began the process of a
military overthrow of Phaibun’s government and the re-entrenchment of Bhumibol’s monarchy
which Phaibun and Pridi had opposed since 1932. The process continues up to this day when the
king can claim – with a straight face - that lesse majeste is an anachronism, while his thuggish
minions have increased prosecution of these cases by 1500% since the coup of 2006. Bhumibol
might only be accused of foolish babble when his public speeches are subjected to non-partisan
discursive analysis.

Right Action - Aims at promoting moral, honorable and peaceful conduct.
1. Abstain from destroying life.
Here are just a few examples: Bhumibol overtly or tacitly endorsed the Thai Army's butchering
of Thai citizens in 1972, 1976, 1992,and 2010. He sent Thai soldiers to fight in Vietnam, allowed
the US military to use Thailand as a base to attack Cambodia and to drop more bombs on Laos
than were dropped by all Allies combined during the Second World War. Lao people still suffer
scores of casualties each year from unexploded ordinence from the Vietnam war. Bhumibol
refused to provide clemency to 3 people who were put to death for the shooting of his brother
(which conveniently resulted in his ascension to the Thai throne.). Years later he equivocated by
claiming to have lost track of time.

2. Abstain from stealing.
This could include the premeditated overthrow of Phaibun's government in 1956, stealing the
Thai people's legitimately elected government in 2006, claiming the right to sociopathicly not to
pay taxes for 60+ years, charging usurious interest through the Siam Commercial Bank, and
possible – but as yet unproven - usurpation of the Throne itself

3. Abstain from dishonest dealings.
This might include endorsing the overthrow of elected governments, unconditional, generations
long support for gangster-like elements in the Thai military, looking the other way as sex tourism
is used to promote the Thai economy, refusing to pay taxes, using lesse majeste to jail all
opponents, practicing usery at the Siam Commercial bank to make a profit off the backs of one’s
own subjects, refusing to advocate for the political enfranchisement and economic emancipation
of poor and dark skinned subjects and treating the territory of Isaan as a conquered economic
colony.

4. Abstain from illegitimate sex.
No one knows if Bhumibol had any affairs, but at the end of 1957 the Queen’s younger sister
Busba became pregnant with no known publicly recognized suitor. She later married a guy who
was not her boyfriend. She had a daughter and divorced a few years later.
While the Busba affair cannot be proven, it is widely known that illegitimate sex is promoted as
10% of the Thai national GDP is based upon a certain kind of ‘tourism’. In defense, Thai
prostitution is claimed to be part of Thai culture, but it increased dramatically when American
soldiers – the long term defenders and promoters of Bhumibol’s monarchy - occupied bases in
Thailand in the 1960s. And because the king is the center of ‘Thai culture’ he carries ultimate
responsibility for continuation of this moral and economic exploitation of his subjects.

5. Try to help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life.
Including his son, who would definitely not pass provision #4 and who was sent to the best
military school in Australia, and is known to make videos of his wife crawling submissively on
the floor and holding lavish parties for his dog while Thai people sweat and labor for starvation
wages. The Buddhist king sent his son to military school(!!!) rather than send him to study
philosophy, languages, history, religion, ethics, politics, sciences or any other subject besides
killing.

Economic policy in Thailand has zealously followed the “free market” ideology which has
turned the country into a low-wage plantation, exploited by foreign corporations. Under
Bhumibol’s economic stewardship, Thailand has failed to follow documented and obviously
successful protectionist practices used by Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to establish economic
sovereignty and become rich, developed first world countries. This may be considered the price
of slavishly promoting and sponsoring corrupt, despotic, opportunistic military leaders who kow-
tow to Bhumibol's throne, but who also take every opportunity to loot the country and people of
Thailand.

Right Livelihood - abstaining from making a living through a profession that brings harm
to others, such as:

1. Trading in arms or lethal weapons
The king is Commander in Chief of the Thai military, both nominally and in actuality. Thus he
holds ultimate responsibility for their actions, corruption and misdeeds – although you would
never believe this given the craven treatment of the fact by all involved, including the Thai
media.

The Thai military is Bhumibol’s personal mercenary army and guarantor of monarchist power.
The king has been up to his neck in military intrigue for decades. This began in 1953 when
Bhumibol adopted General Phao’s brigade, (i.e., runners of Phao’s drug and protection rackets)
known as The Border Patrol Police (BPP) as being exclusively responsible for protection of the
Thai king.

2. Intoxicating drinks and poisons
One of the easiest rules to follow. This king smoked and drank openly for almost 40 years. A
Dharmaraja indeed.

3. Killing animals
This king is not and has never at any time been reported to be a vegetarian.

4. Cheating
This should be avoided, except in politics, where the king’s view will prevail at any cost to
fairness, democracy, truth, or the views and opinions of his subjects.
Live by a profession which is honorable, blameless and innocent of harm to others.

Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war.

War should be avoided, except against Vietnam, when the benefactor of your excesses – The
USA - demands your submission. A nation lead by a Dharmaraja should never engage in
aggressive war, except against the people of Cambodia and Laos who have long suffered under
the Chakri Buddhist war machine of Thailand.

Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood - these three factors constitute Ethical
Conduct which aims at promoting happy and harmonious life both for the individual and
for society.

This moral conduct is considered as the indispensable foundation, for all higher spiritual
development is not possible without this moral basis.
________________

This is the path. It is inconceivable that the king of Thailand and his advisers were unaware of
these practical proscriptions made by the Buddha himself. To think that Bhumibol spent the
entirety of his rule in direct contempt of so many of these practices suggests an unconscionable
failure of character and abdication of responsibility. His corruption of the Dharmaraja must rank
as one of the ultimate Buddhist transgressions in modern history.

Any excuse or rationalization for the king’s actions – however well-meaning they may have been
- must be measured against their impact upon Thailand. In the Buddhist year of 2553, The king
of Thailand has bequeathed unto his subjects a totalitarian dictatorship which bases its power on
violence, censorship, big-brother style policing of the press and the internet, the termination of
free expression in defense of monarchist power, and total intimidation of free thought,
Today in Thailand, the most lawless and sociopathic acts go unpunished as long as they support
the monarchy.

Children are hounded by the police for ideological political crimes. University students who
should be practicing inquiry and asking questions are blacklisted and hounded by dogmatic
professors. University theater is vetted for Soviet style party-line purity.

The entire structure of the Thai economy is set up to exploit the labor of large sections of the
population in order to enrich a tiny pro-monarchist elite - including the king himself who will at
the expense of his kingdom, die as one of the richest persons on earth. Prostitution is rampant in
Thailand and tolerated at every level. A fish rots from the head. Sane economic reforms that
might benefit the poor who are driven by desperation to work in these appalling conditions have
been studiously ignored by monarchists for generations. The structural and cultural sell-out to
foreigners in general and Washington in particular has been total. Reliance on foreign companies
to create jobs and employment is a rampant and functions as an economic cancer.

The Thai population continues to be terrorized by the lesse majeste law, which sends people to
prison for decades for crimes of speech, while murderers might at the same time, be jailed for as
little as 3 years.
 

The judicial system – entirely appointed by the king – is completely partisan and ideologically
committed to preservation of the monarchy at the expense of justice.
The majority of the Thai the population that demands enfranchisement and recognition of their
votes have been deemed an enemy of the state and thus of the monarchy. 149 protesters were
killed in April-May of 2010 and over 3000 people were sent to the hospital without comment
from the monarchy. So far not a single person has been held accountable or responsible for these
acts. The king is the nominal head of the armed forces and thus he carries the ultimate
responsibility for persons acting in his name, but as yet not one person from his camp has
acknowledged the magnitude of the tragedy.

The institution of the Dharmaraja could not have been more corrupted if there was a demonic
alien invasion with a plan to destroy its honor and integrity forever. The betrayal of Thailand has
been almost total and absolutely catastrophic in its impact.
However, because of Bhumibol’s Dharmaraja rule-of-terror, no Thai person who values their
life, family or career will ever publicly acknowledge any of these criticisms. Honest historians
will have the final say on the success or failure of Bhumibol in his role as Thailand’s Dharma
King.



Appendix 1 – Heart Sutra from the Monkey King
Old Master, you have forgotten the one about eye, ear, nose, tongue, body. Those of us who have
left the family should see no fault with our eyes, hear no sound with our ears, should smell no
smell with our noses, should taste no taste with our tongues. Our bodies should have no
knowledge of heat or cold, and our minds should gather no vain thoughts. This is called the
extermination of the 6 robbers.

But look at you now...Though you may be on your way to seek scriptures, the mind is full of vain
thoughts. Fearing the demons, you are unwilling to risk your life. Desiring vegetarian food you
arouse your tongue. Loving fragrance and sweetness, you provoke your nose. Listening to
sounds, you disturb your ears. Looking at things and events, you fix your eyes. You have, in sum,
assembled all the 6 robbers together. How could you possibly get to the Western Heaven to see
Buddha?

- The Monkey King, "Journey to the West" by Wu Ch'eng En



Appendix 2 - The remaining elements of the Noble Eightfold path:
Mental Discipline
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
Right effort is the energetic will
1. to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising
2. to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already arisen
3. to produce and to cause to arise good and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen
4. to develop and bring to perfection good and wholesome states of mind that are already
present

Right Mindfulness is to be diligently aware, mindful and attentive with regard to
1. Activities of the Body (Kaya)
2. Sensations or Feelings (Vedana)
3. Activities of the mind (Citta)
4. Ideas, Thoughts, Conceptions and Things (dharma)

A. Breathing and Meditation
B. How feelings and sensations appear and disappear within
C. One should be aware whether one's mind is lustful, given to hatred, deluded,
distracted, etc...
D. Know the nature of thoughts and conceptions, how they appear and disappear.
How they are developed and how they are destroyed.

Right Concentration - leading to the 4 stages of Dyana (recueillement or recollection)
1st The first stage of Dhyana - Passionate desires and certain unwholesome thoughts like
lust, ill-will, languor, worry, restlessness and skeptical doubt are discarded - and feelings of
joy and happiness are maintained.
2nd - All intellectual activities are suppressed. Tranquility and one-pointedness of mind
are developed, joy and happiness are retained
3rd - Joy also disappears and happiness and mindfulness remains
4th - All sensation; joy, sorrow, happiness and unhappiness disappear. Equanimity and
Awareness remain

Wisdom
Right Thought = thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment and thoughts of love and
non-violence are extended to all beings.
Thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of lack of wisdom - in
all spheres of life whether individual social or political.
Right Understanding (samma ditthi) is the understanding of things as they are. This is the
wisdom that sees ultimate reality. Reduced ultimately to understanding of the 4 Noble
Truths.

Mental penetration (pativedha) is seeing things in their true nature, without name and
label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurity and is fully
developed.
________
It should be understood that this path is not religious. It has nothing to do with belief,
prayer, worship or ceremony.

The 4 Noble Truths
1. Dukka - The nature of life is suffering. Understand it clearly and completely.
(parinneyya)
2. The Origin of Dukka is Desire or Thirst accompanied by all other passions, defilements
and impurities. Understanding is not sufficient.Our function is to discard, eliminate and
destroy it. (pahatabba)
3. Cessation of Dukka - Nirvana -The Absolute Truth / The Ultimate Reality. Our function
is to realize it. (sacchikatabba)
4. Realize Nirvana - Knowledge of the Path is not enough. Follow it and Keep to it.
(bhavetabba)

 On the Thai Monarchy
by Wes Man on Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 5:49pm
WARNING: I am American and I like democracy. If that makes you uncomfortable, don’t read
this…And, if you are a lover of kingly kitsch, stop now. This is the essay that will lose me most
of my Thai friends and never allow me to set foot in Thailand again (without going to jail). So be
it. Consider yourself warned. cc:letters@washingtonpost.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Human Beings are capable of incredible self-deception. We all have to fight that. We are very
vulnerable to myths. Because, some of them we want to believe. And just because they’re
fictional, why not keep believing them?
-Ralph Nader, speech in Seattle, May 7th, 2010
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Part 1 - The Mythical King
When you go to Thailand, some of the first things you will notice are the pictures of “The King”
along with other photos of members of the Royal family (save one…we’ll get to that in a
moment). But mostly it is just pictures of the King. Everywhere. On walls in people’s homes, in
businesses, on calendars, and huge pictures on freeway overpasses, in front of schools, hospitals
and military bases. The ubiquity of king photos, and ‘shrines’ to the king add a distinct air and
flavor of kitschiness to the whole phenomenon. It is very much akin to Elvis worship in some
parts of America, only enforced with a big stick.

For example, at the start of every movie in Thailand, everybody has to stand up to watch a 2 1/2
minute PR puff piece for the the King. If you don’t stand, these days you will be reported to the
police for “Lesse Majeste” (even 2 years ago this was not the case - me, I always used to go to
the bathroom and the popcorn stand as soon as the lights went down - when I posted such
opinions on thaivisa.com, my post was deleted as a threat to the monarchy and I was warned not
to do it again!).

The king seems to be universally and unquestioningly revered. Any criticism of the King or just
wondering what’s the big deal(?) is the equivalent of breaking wind during a Church sermon, and
will be met with harsh and bitter recrimination from even the lowliest members of Thai society.
The standard lines when you talk with a Thai person are these:
Thai Person: The King is good.
Me: Why is the King good?
Thai Person: Because he helps Thai people.
—Conversation is now over—-

This is always where the discussion begins and ends in an overwhelming number of encounters
with Thai people. Most people in Thailand won’t or can’t give any specific information
regarding this subject. Basically because most people are taught to accept these statements as self
evident, and true without question.

The king is thought of by many as “perfect” and beyond criticism. To underscore the idea of the
“perfection” of the king, you - and especially Thai people - are not allowed to criticize the King,
the king’s projects or the institution of monarchy. If you do, you will be charged with the crime
of “Lesse Majeste” (bad mouthing the king) and given a 7-14 year prison sentence.

It seems crazy to me that anyone so actually ‘perfect’ would need a law like this. Psychologically
speaking, it looks to be a cover for insecurity and weakness - and possible guilty feelings. Thai
Lesse Majeste seems to be used In the 21st century as a crude and violent means to shut up
dissent. Lesse Majeste protects what amounts to a feudal institution in the midst of nearly world-
wide post-enlightenment republican government. Thailand has a kind of Kingly Kitsch enforced
at the end of a rifle barrel, so to speak.

When I tried to dig deeper to find more information about why the king is so good and ‘how’ he
helps the Thai people, I get this:

Item number 1 - in 1992, the king met two opposing leaders in a civil unrest and stopped the
unrest (who or what was involved, much less if the unrest ~should~ have been stopped has never
been mentioned to me). OK bully. For the record, the king said in this case that the military,
which at that time was butchering Thai people in the streets (a familiar hobby), were his
preferred camp.

Item number 2 - if it comes up at all from everyday Thais:
The Royal Projects.

These are a series of projects cooked up by the king to “help” the people. What documentation I
could find online was pretty thin and heavy on the Public Relations.
Here are two Projects touted on the Royal websites:

1. Finding meaningful employment for Hill Tribes - that is “meaningful employment” in the Thai
capitalist economy - or employment other than their traditional sustainable ways of inhabiting
the land of northern Thailand. (Note: these people are not exactly considered ‘Thai’ people, even
though they live in Thai territory.) So helping hill tribes is sort of buying their acquiescence on
behalf of normal Thais.

2. Also are science projects dedicated to ‘investigating’ different kinds of sustainable plants and
crops to grow in the fertile soil of Northern Thailand. In my opinion, Thailand is one of the most
fertile farmlands on earth, and I think I would never have any problem sustaining any plant here.
Anyhow, these projects do not seem to be submitted to peer review from any outside agencies.
You won’t find many references -if any- to a Chinese or Russian university or Western
institution X’s scientific involvement in any of the Thai Royal Projects.

Other than that, details remain pretty thin. And I believe that is by design. These projects and the
money involved are as opaque as a bulletproof limousine window. There is no way to trace who
got the money, what the objectives were and how the project played out. The standard line is that
these projects always work. They are always successful. As usually with anything Kingly in
Thailand, criticism or questions are beyond the pale.
Here are the heavy-on-the-PR-short-on-details royal project websites:
http://www.rpf.or.th/general/english/achieve.html
http://www.tceb.or.th/the-splendour-of-thailands-royal-projects.html
http://www.royalprojectthailand.com/general/english/index.html
http://kanchanapisek.or.th/projects/index.en.html
Do a search for “Thailand Royal Projects Criticism” and you’ll get basically nothing - except for
one project involving Distance learning at a school in Hua Hin - (surreptitiously reported by
http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/ site) which may have resulted in corruption, seems
to have failed outright, and will require a lot more money to fix than the initial outlay.
So there you have it.
______________
The King is Good
Why?
Because he helps the Thai people.
Oh really? How?
1. He stopped civil unrest (in favor to the military). 2. He’s got Royal Projects
End of Discussion.
______________

Now…you will buy this line, boy, and no further questions or you’re looking at 7-14 years in the
Bangkok Hilton. So best to mind your manners - or else.

There you go. Try to run with that logic outside Thailand and see how far you get. For anyone
interested in rational discussion, and empirical or academic evidence, this kind of hiding behind
bushes and threatening people with a stick is annoying beyond belief. If it is all so “good”, why
not open up the books and prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I think the Thai people deserve a
little sunlight.

Over the two years I stayed in Thailand, The whole process began to sound like a bad broken
record. Something along these lines:

“Our designated guy wins. Period. You and everybody else in Thailand lose. If you don’t like it
pound sand, go to jail, or die. Now shut up and get back to work.”

Lastly, over the years, the Thai King has acquired a current net worth of US$30 billion,
consisting of cash and prime rent-producing real estate in Thailand. This fortune in a country
where the average income is less than $5000 per year. Draw your own conclusions.
__________________________
Part 2 -The fruit doesn’t not fall far from the tree.

The King’s son - Prince Vajiralongkorn - has gained a terrible reputation over the years as an
irresponsible over-indulged wastrel, now on his third wife. In a supreme act of doublethink, most
Thai people worship the royal institution but hate and despise the very son and appointed
successor of the “good” king.

I don’t know a lot about this guy but a few weeks ago a very unsettling (to me) home video of
his dog’s birthday party was leaked to the Thailand section of wikileaks.com
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_video_of_Thai_Crown_Prince_and_Princess_at_dec
adent_dog_party

Dog’s birthday you say?

Incredibly, this “family” video comes off as a kind of misogynist soft-core porn.
In the otherwise rather boring video, we see Princess Srirasmi , royal ‘consort’ or wife #3, in a
skimpy see-through dress, having dinner with her husband Prince V. They are sitting next to a
big swimming pool and surrounded by splendiferous accouterments. Servants and staff are
walking around delivering food and stuff in full view of the next queen’s bodacious T&A?.
Dude…it’s just too weird, and way beyond my cultural sensitivity level.

Then it gets weirder. Towards the end she falls on the floor in a staged act of submission or
worshipful reverence before - her squatting husband? - the next king? - her pimp daddy? - I don’t
know. It just seems a bit twisted and sick to me. Then they both sing “Happy Birthday” in lame
English, while clutching the little fluffy poodle (symbolism!?!).

I know it’s always great to see a good looking girl in a see-through dress, but, ahem, excuse
me…WTF is going on with being an exhibitionist in front of the hired help? Is she doing that for
herself? or at the request of Vajiralongkorn? … and then posing as a little slave girl ( a real
shining example to all the young Thai ladies), making the next king look like a sugar daddy?
What “family” purpose could any of this serve? The ostentation of this video in the midst of third
world Thailand is difficult for me to stomach.

I always think about the poor old sick Thai guy who used to sleep in the back of my alley
because he had nowhere else to go. Or the old lady who made her living as a bottle picker who
used to say hi to me everyday when I walked to work. Or the two middle age ladies who tried but
failed to run a laundry business, or the old couple - with the man retired - who tried but failed to
run a restaurant (they slept in the restaurant when it was closed), or the lady from Khorat who
tried but failed to run a pizza business down the street - despite me eating there 3 times a week.
These are Thai people busting their asses to make ends meet. When I compare these people to
their next ‘king’ and ‘queen’, I can’t fail to become nauseous.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this all gets even worse.

Bodacious Princess Srirasmi, is the designated “new” face of the institution of the Thai
monarchy. Therefore, within the last year in Thailand I noticed that her “picture” is starting to
pop up next to all the important ubiquitous pictures of the old King. This is probably a smart
move since she certainly is more attractive and better looking than anyone else in the family,
that’s for sure.

Finally, here is the deal breaker for me:
One day after watching this video, I saw a giant 3-story picture of what I thought was Srirasmi
hanging on the outside wall of Pattaya Elementary/Middle School #8
Here is the photo -
I am not 100% sure that this photo is her, but it looks an awful lot like this set up from a few
years back:
http://www.whoweeklymagazine.com/royalfamily_thai_detail.php?t=thai&t1=royalty&id=19
For the record, I think no other Thai royal would be caught dead in a short dress - even knee
length.

Either way, when I saw this giant poster on the school I immediately felt physically sick and
damn near lost it on the sidewalk. I understand that almost all people are well meaning - even the
Thai royals - but something horrible split open in my brain on that day and I have never been the
same. I worked in a Thai Elementary school and this was just too much for me. I still have real
daytime nightmares and severe physical and emotional problems when I try to reconcile the
royals plastering themselves all over Thai schools. These kids hardly have a fighting chance
when this sort of accept-the-monarchy-no-questions-asked line is pitched at them from such an
early age.

After this, I could only see the whole Kingly enterprise in Thailand is a gigantic unaccountable
self interested project - crazily enough with legitimate calls for oversight or accountability
punishable by prison or death.

In this system the people pay the king - in the millions of dollars per year (rather handsomely for
a 3rd world country) - and the king spends the PEOPLE’S money to “help” the people - but the
people can’t look at how or where the money is being spent. So why finance the spectacle? Why
not remove one layer and let the people spend their own money and oversee it every step of the
way?

To make matters worse, the king, by virtue of his silence after April/May 2010 has proven
himself to be a partisan yellow shirt as well. He obviously has no problem with the orders to
shoot down the red protesters in Bangkok. He has no problem with the unjust witch hunt against
people who voted against his Yellow shirt party in the last 4 popular elections. And now the king
is fine with delayed elections or no elections. I think Military rule is much preferable to
democracy for the Thai monarchy which benefits rather handsomely from the current state of
affairs. As long as the king who can’t take criticism or questions of even the smallest sort, and
his self-interested institution benefit, Thailand and the Thai people can prostrate themselves and
accept the moral contradictions or go jump in a lake.

Rational government in the interest of the whole Thai society has been overridden. Now we have
rule by appeal to emotion and irrationality. The Greek’s have a word for it: pathos. Pathos is a
form of persuasion based on emotion. The modern word is “Pathetic”
_________________________

Part 3 - Defense of the King and Stockholm Syndrome - What it means to be Thai today
The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government.
The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.
-Walter Bagehot

The Thai king hides behind state power, and claims to be the absolute center of Thai culture. He
tries to push the line that he represents everything that it means to be Thai. He’s “The Father”
and all other Thais are “The Children”. And thousands of Thai people unthinkingly and
unquestioningly buy into this idea. To me, it looks like it is easier for some people to be a slave.
Let’s excuse for a moment the total pig-headed arrogance of this idea…that in the 21st century,
what it means to be Thai is to be a vassal, a slave, a royal subject, a bend-over boy or a
bootlicker. My universally brilliant Thai students have shown me beyond any doubt that they do
not deserve this condescendtion.

In my opinion, Pridi Banyogmong - the father of Thai democracy who helped to establish the
first Thai republic in 1932, made a critical mistake at that time by ~not~ calling for the end of the
monarchy in Thailand. And 14 years after the establishment of a Republic, in 1946, Pridi’s
refusal to do away with the king led directly to THIS king, Bhomibol and his sycophants using
the Thai military to attack, overthrow and do away with the republic. And Thailand has
continued to live without substantial democracy, and without a republic ever since.

And when the results of any democratic elections in Thailand failed to please “The monarchy”,
the military has stepped in to overturn the election by performing coup after coup after coup (18
total coups since 1946 - all with the apparent blessing of “The Father”). It seems really clear that
Thailand has to choose either a king or a democracy. The way things are set up now, there really
is no other choice. If democracy is to succeed, then at some point the military has to be put on a
leash, and the king is obviously not going to do that.

A further rationalization used to support the monarchy is the appeal to history.
In the 1300’s the fist state that could be called Thai —- Sukothai —
came into existence. This model posted the King as the Father and the subjects as the Children.
Modern defenders of the monarchy point to this model and say that it is “the old way”, the
original state of Thailand and therefore the “good” way. I think this is an argument made by
masochists. This is kind of like claiming that modern America would be better and stronger if it
returned to its proper original state with the Articles of Confederation or as a colony of England.
I am not buying any of it. This is backward looking and requires sticking your head in the sand in
the face of the myriad of challenges facing all people in the modern world.

The one feature of “SukoThai” that is never mentioned by monarchists is the idea that in the old
days, if the King’s subjects had a petition or a problem, they could go to the king’s house , ring
the bell, and be offered an audience with the king who would arbitrate disputes and offer
guidance.

That sounds good to me. But try to do that in today’s Thailand and you’ll probably be shot on the
steps of the palace gate. The problem with today’s appeal to Sukothai is that it never includes
accountability of any kind on the part of the king.

The last line of defense (which by the way you hear a lot of these days) is that if the king is
abolished, then Thailand will cease to exist. If I can pick myself up off the floor before I laugh to
death, I suppose without a king, the mighty Lao or the great imperial Cambodian Army, or the
Burmese blitzkrieg will instantly overrun and annex Thailand. This is either the lamest argument
in history, or these military/monarchist guys are self-aware of their own incompetence,
cowardice and corruption. My bet is that without a king, Thailand would exist - just like Bhutan
(ex monarchy 2006) or Nepal (ex monarchy 2008) or France or America. Not only would it exist,
it would thrive.

As things stand now, the monarchy provides a convenient excuse for:
1. everyday people to sit on their butt and complain about everything but the monarchy.
and
2. for those who benefit from royal patronage (i.e. kingly apple polishers who want to keep their
gravy train rolling)

Being “Yellow” in 2010

Yellow is the color of the king, and the default setting for almost all Thais is to unquestioningly
support the King (and tacitly by default his “Yellow Shirts”). This is by far the easiest choice.
Calling kingly BS, or refusing to follow the proscribed King-Worship plan results in severe
ostracization and punishment in a society where social cohesion and conformity are considered
crucially important.

What do you do when you have grown up your whole life and you only know one way, you only
experience one idea of government? And everyone in your society follows only this path: to fall
on the floor and scream for a king. This is the essence of what many people today consider what
it means to be “Thai”. No other path is allowed, and to even speak of another path will subject
you to being outcast, or even jailed, or even killed? What would you do? Would you fall in line?
Most of the time before 2010 the yellow phenomenon was just amusing and annoying. But when
push comes to shove, it quickly becomes clear that the Thai military is actually the monarchy’s
private mercenary army. When Red-shirt protesters started turning up dead in the streets, it
seemed that the Thai military was just performing its proscribed job.

And after April-May 2010, I really began to notice people’s true colors.

En masse, average to middle to upper class Thais who claimed to be neutral, turned right around
and supported the king, despite the king’s silence (and tacit approval), and political benefit from
having his political opponents butchered like dogs in the streets. No questions asked. No
apologies. Even some red shirt people whose family members and friends were killed, never
wavered from the must-love-the-king meme. This is the essence of the Stockholm Syndrome - to
fall in love with your abuser.

One Thai girl who I think is a genius and the total bee’s knees, and who on good days I had
dreams of asking to marry me, turned up on her facebook page with the phrase “Love the King”
tagged to her name (maybe as a nice way to ward off the cyber police - but I doubt it). She is a a
good “Thai”, taking the easy route.

In my opinion, continuing to support yellow shirts after, the 2006 military coup, was annoying
but somewhat understandable…

Continuing to be yellow after the overturning of legitimate fair elections in 2007 and 2008 by
Yellow-minded judicial decision, was pushing the limits.
…But continuing to scream for the yellows after the killings in April and May to me was pure
madness. A complete toxic moral waste dump and a disgusting wallow in brainless brutality. All
with the unspoken, tacit approval of the monarchy and the elite members of Thai society.
And still the yellow people march on. They are insatiable and they will never be satisfied. There
is one Red Shirt woman who fled to Cambodia after the protests. She was arrested last week by
the Cambodian police and deported to Thailand, where she will presumably be charged with
terrorism and face a firing squad!!!!….in a Buddhist country!!!!!! On that day The yellows will
give a loud cheer and puff themselves up self-righteously. (I have seen this sick opera before -
last time it was ‘Sodom’ Hussein and America.) Little do the yellows know that they have led
their country into a monstrous anti-Buddhist hell on earth from which they obviously have no
plans or desire to escape.

I don’t think any of the yellow brutality is changing anyone’s minds, but it is turning the yellow
supporters into rooting, amoral, anti-human pigs full of hate and bloodlust. These are not people
I want to hang out with or be associated with in any way.
Presumably, someday, there will be another election in Thailand. And presumably the yellow
government will get its butt kicked once again - for the 5th consecutive time since 1998. And
presumably the Yellow Shirt tanks and helicopters will shortly thereafter hit the streets and Thai
democracy will die again. When the Thai monarchy is on a roll, who will stand up and stop any
of this?

My prediction is that the majority of Thais, unwilling to learn from history and taught from
childhood to scream to be subjects of a king, will get exactly what they deserve. Don’t ask me to
stand up and applaud.

Happy Bastille Day
Thank you for your support

US Military in Thailand 1952 - 2010

August 2, 2010 at 2:09 AM

The Beginning

In late 1952 , the CIA and the U.S. Information Service put out handbills and booklets in Thai declaring how Communism opposed [Thailand's] nation, religion and king. They exaggerated the threat by manufacturing fake communist tracts in Thai that attacked the monarchy. Over time, the United States expanded the effort into pictures, books and movies. In 1956 the U.S. had eight mobile teams putting on film and music shows contrasting the beloved king and queen with the evil spectre of communism.

Bhumibol also presided over the investiture of [General] Phao's personal brigade of aswan or knights, actually the thugs who ran Phao's drugs and protection rackets. [This group was the BPP.]

As the CIA client for anticommunist operations, the BPP was better trained and armed than the regular army. Its training center was next to the king's Hua Hin palace. As he [the king] used the BPP airfield, and they served as his local escort, a special relationship blossomed...

This special relationship was encouraged by both Phao and the CIA...

excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley
p 124-125

_______________________

1960s

Bangkok reacted [to Lao communist activities] by forming a counterinsurgency task force, the Communist Suppression Operations Command, or CSOC, run by Deputy Prime Minister Praphas along with U.S. advisers. Behind them was the massive force the United States had built up in Thailand, consuming the country like an occupation. In the early 1960s the Americans, together with Thai soldiers, were already conducting guerrilla raids into Laos and launching air strikes on Laos and Vietnam from Thai bases. By 1965 there were roughly 14,000 U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Thailand. A year later the total topped 34,000 accompanied by 400 aircraft. The American force was there ... to prevent the rise of a domestic Thai insurgency...and legitimized the Thai military's control of the country.

...Washington threw huge resources at winning the people's hearts and minds through development, hoping to avoid the problems of Vietnam. U.S. directed projects built roads, dug fish ponds and established social services in rural villages. Within a few years U.S. annual spending in Thailand equaled the total economic product of the entire northeast where the lion's share of it was deployed, all accompanied by anit-communist and pro-monarchy propaganda.

Arguably, the extensive U.S. presence and aid worsened the problems. Much of Washington's hundreds of millions of dollars dropped into the pockets of the traditional elite, the landowning aristocrats, Sino-Thai traders, and powerful bureaucrats and generals. Bangkok spent up to three times as much on arms as it did on education, and health services got much less. Strong economic growth came with high inflation near military bases, GIs on holiday carousing drunkenly throughout the kingdom, and  a very visible explosion of the sex industry

excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley
p. 184

_________________

1966

... Thailand had agreed to Washington's request for a large Thai combat deployment to Vietnam

Increasingly Thailand's generals were being accused of Dictatorship, by anitwar activists in the United States. Bhumibol told "Look" [magazine] that the American student protesters were ignorant and victims of communist manipulation. Thailand had to be wary of such communist trickery, he argued.

excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley
p. 188

_____________________

1967

In an interview with reporters, the king stressed the global communist threat and repeated that American opponents of the Vietnam war were victims of brainwashing. (New York Times June 14, 1967)

The regular [Thai] police were meanwhile being funded by another U.S. government arm, the State Department's secretive Office of Public Safety...The office offered the police 100 new aircraft and fuel.

[Eventually these were seized from the police by the BPP (king's personal guard) with the blessing of the king]
excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley
p. 191-193

_______________________

And more recently:

Thailand has served as an outsourced CIA sponsored Torture center. This started with Bush's War of Terror and allows the US military/government to avoid public relations problems in the US and further allows sticky legal issues to be avoided in 'der USA homeland'

March 2002: First Secret CIA Prison Built in Thailand

ABC News : the first CIA secret prison is established in Thailand at this time to house Abu Zubaida, the first important al-Qaeda target who is captured at this time (March 28, 2002). President Bush had recently authorized the creation of CIA prisons (see After February 7, 2002). After being captured in Pakistan and treated for gunshot wounds, Zubaida is flown to Thailand around the middle of April 2002 and housed in a small warehouse inside a US military base. He is waterboarded and interrogated (Mid-May 2002 and After)...Some reports place the secret prison at the Voice of America relay station near the north-eastern Thai city of Udon Thani close to the border of Laos, but this is unconfirmed. [Sydney Morning Herald, 11/5/2005]

http://tinyurl.com/27brk6y

Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, termed the detention policies used by the U.S. “Crimes against Humanity”:

“These instances of the enforced disappearances of human beings and their consequent torture, because they are both widespread and systematic, constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court, which have been ordered by the highest level officials of the United States government…”

Referring to President Bush and his principal advisers, Boyle continued, “Since these criminal activities took part in several states that are parties to the ICC Rome Statute, that renders these U.S. government officials [AND I MIGHT ADD - THAI OFFICIALS - THAKSIN's boys or ABBY's] subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court on the grounds of territoriality of the offense, even though the United States [OR THAILAND] is not a party to the Rome Statute.”

And there is no expiration date on these charges.

http://pubrecord.org/torture/7326/two-dozen-countries-complicit-torture/

**Thailand is at least 'looking into' buying a used submarine from the US Navy - which, if they do it, will involve ongoing purchases of spare parts, etc...

Thailand still conducts regular Military "exercises" with the US military - including naval and land war games.

http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=cobra-gold-2009&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Thailand as American Indian Reservation

"Let him always think he is master while you are really master. There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the forms of freedom; it is thus that the will itself is taken captive."-Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile Book II
_________________________________

Thailand is a market oriented, export driven, low-wage, "developing" economy and has been for decades. Thailand's biggest customers of cheap Thai-produced products are the US and Japan. Which countries do you think benefit most from this arrangement?

Thailand has been "developing" as an economy for 3 generations, while during the same period, countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have reached the status of "developed" countries - even approaching First World status. Why does Thailand remain a developing economy, while other similar Asian countries - with fewer resources - have reached the status of First World, developed countries?

Thailand hosts many foreign companies who use Thailand as a low-wage center of production. Foreign capital is brought to Thailand and used to build factories and labor centers where Thai workers - even highly educated Thai workers like engineers, and scientists - are paid wages much lower than workers from the countries (like Japan and the US) where the capital originated. Once the factory is in place in Thailand, products produced by Thai labor are sent abroad, marked up in price, and sold in foreign markets (like Japan and the US).

The difference in the cost to produce and the cost at which goods are sold almost always goes into the pockets of international (non-Thai) companies and corporations - almost never into the pockets of ordinary Thais. The actual profit produced by Thai workers is in this way removed (stolen?) from them. This is called "The Free-market economy" or "doing business in Thailand."

At no point in the past 60 years, under the tutelage of American occupiers and colonizers, has Thailand taken up protectionist measures, such as tariffs, taxes, or trade barriers to preserve the real capital that is produced in Thailand. It has been shipped off happily and without complaint to foreign companies, individuals, and investors for almost 3 generations, under the watchful eyes of the Thai monarchy and their enforcers, the Thai military. In fact, members of these two sacred institutions have often been the only Thai people to see any real profit from this business model and state of affairs.

Thus Thailand has served as a faithful off-shore low-wage, low tariff, no hassle plantation for foreign investors for a long time. Long enough that most people do not know any difference or cannot see a realistic way out of this situation.

Is Thailand colonized?

A. Thailand is a brutally capitalist country.

B. Thailand follows a regime of fractional reserve banking, and un-backed fiat currency (unbacked by gold).

C. Thailand controls monetary policy through a Central Bank, based on the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve.

D. Thailand is a low-wage, market economy, easy to exploit for foreign investors.

E. Thailand is a free-trade economy.

F. Thailand has high inflation - at 5% - and refuses to raise interest rates to bring it down, which might benefit average Thai people.

G. Thailand begs foreign companies to build factories and entices them to do so with low taxes, low pollution controls and low environmental oversight.

H. There is little or no employee welfare, protection or occupational safety oversight. Thailand has a traditionally brutal military force that has for decades, remorselessly and without complaint, butchered members its own population in the streets. If Thai workers dare to demand better working conditions, this will ultimately been their fate.

I. Thailand hosted up to 40,000 American military personnel during the 1960s, allowing the US to use Thai airfields to bomb Vietnam and allowing US marines to make incursions into the sovereign territory of Laos during the Vietnam war.

J. Thailand still offers the most disadvantaged of its young people as objects of affordable "Rest and Relaxation" for American soldiers on leave or in war games; or as human commodities for international sex tourism.

K. Furthermore, The Thai king underwrites (and benefits) from this state of affairs by:

•  having his own bank - Siam Commercial Bank, and
•  operating under the sacrosanct veil of the Buddhist Dharmaraja (Dharma King), thereby  demanding complete and total unquestioning, uncomplaining loyalty and submission on the part of Thai subjects - punishable at the very least by jail, witch hunting, harassment, and defamation.

If this doesn't look like an occupation, I think you are either a beneficiary of the current system, a willing supplicant to it, or living on another planet.

Thailand follows perfectly the model outlined in John Perkins' book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," where traditional modes of colonialism are rejected in favor of total economic subjugation and exploitation. Why should the USA crush Thailand militarily when Thai capital, ingenuity, sweat and labor have been perfectly co-opted and are willingly transferred to the US through bank interest payments, purchase of US bonds, direct transfer of capital through American companies or exploited by proxy allies like Korea, Japan and the EU?

Thailand like many similar countries, is owned lock stock and barrel as an economic colony of the United States. You can call it "Modern life," "The Development Process," "Free Trade" or a "Market Economy" ...(As Israeli zionists said:) you can even call it "Fried Chicken" but the results are always the same.

This colonial process might have begun in the 1950s with the encroachment of the US military and CIA into Thai society - with the willing encouragement and collaboration of the The Thai monarchy and military - and continues to this day with American military war games and shore leaves, exploitation of low-wage Thai labor and daily unrestrained capital flight from Thailand - to the benefit of foreign investors (with Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore also working as
proxies and regional vassals for American sovereign interest.)

This occupation is backed up by a relentless onslaught of consumerist, materialist, pro-freemarket based advertising - not to mention unending pro-monarchy, pro-military propaganda which begins in Thai childhood. And adult Thais - especially High Society Thais, the Military, the political, legal and academic elite, plus the middle class want-to-be's - they are the ones who benefit under the current regime and unquestioningly follow their proscribed roles as "Good Indians" who seek to preserve the status-quo at any cost in their hopes of following "The American Dream."

This dream is under assault today - even within the United States itself - as a financial based oligarchy is ascendant while what used to be the American middle class descends into debt slavery. I think many middle to upper class Thais who think that if they are well-behaved and play by the American rules will someday have a house, a car, 2 kids, a fine job, money in the bank and a secure future will be sorely surprised when they wake up in the not too distant future next to their impoverished countrymen - the ones whom they have exploited and denigrated for years as untouchables and stupid unworthy indentured economic servants and slaves.

The United States has a long history of occupying and exploiting foreign lands - beginning with the American Indians on the North American continent. It is not a far stretch to see the Thailand of today as a model of the traditional American Indian Reservation with Yellow-minded monarchists and militarists serving as the "Good Indians" and Red Shirted troublemakers as "Bad Indians." Dichotomies like this only serve to benefit the behind the scenes expropriators - like the United States and its designated proxies.

Please read the following account from an American Indian woman writer named Waziyatawin - regarding the state of colonization - both physical and mental - on American Indian Reservations in the United States today. See if the concepts herein do not transfer perfectly to contemporary Thailand as well as many other countries throughout the world:
_______________________________

Soldiers and military forts came...with the purpose of establishing American supremacy in a region...This was important for initially securing economic preeminence. The U.S...then [launched] systematic and profound attacks on [our] bodies and ways of being, dividing us and crushing us into submission.

Divide and conquer techniques are the hallmark of colonial manipulation. Those...individuals considered the friendliest to colonizer interests (that is, who offered the least amount of resistance) were singled out for special favors and rewards until they were firmly co-opted to do the colonizer’s bidding. Those who resisted colonizer interests most vehemently were targeted for particularly oppressive punishments. The collaborators are often distinguished in written records as the “friendly” or “good” Indians, while those who continued to resist co-optation were quickly identified as the “savage” or “hostile” Indians. The leaders, thinkers, peacemakers, warriors, spiritual leaders, healers and teachers who did not fall in line with the emerging order were isolated, dehumanized and diminished. Thus, colonizers ably and superbly fostered resentments between the two groups, pitting them against one another and always calling on the favorite “friendlies” to monitor their colonized cohort and enforce the colonial system. These divisions severely eroded the unity in Indigenous societies...

Even today, those who attempt to restore Indigenous ways of being in the modern world are dismissed by colonizers and their colonized puppets as angry, unrealistic, naive, less sophisticated, or even less intelligent than those mimicking the values and ideals of the dominant society. The "friendly" Indians invested in whatever small perks they gain from the colonial system are deeply devoted to maintaining the existing system and they defend its justness at every turn. Or, they have individually reaped substantial prestige and power from toting the colonizer's party line and as a consequence turn their back on the suffering of their [own]communities

... [Good Indians] see no need to seriously challenge the existing system because having bought into the American dream they are well on their way to achieving it. They actively participate in the blind march toward "progress," regardless of how that march continues to devastate the People, their homelands, or their relationship with the rest of the universe. Some of them talk about tweaking the existing system, maybe passing better legislation on this issue over here, or developing a more strategic economic plan over there, and they have abandoned the struggle for liberation. They, in fact, do not want liberation because it might affect their comfortable status.

And, because these "friendlies" offer no threat to the existing power structure, they become the favored pets, routinely lauded by the colonizers for their superior intelligence, insight, and commitment to the well-being of their People.

Still others live in daily fear. They [say] "we must simply try to negotiate the best scraps we can while we numb ourselves with chemicals, feed our addictions, and entertain ourselves with material goods and Hollywood entertainment. For if we challenge colonialism, even those small privileges might be taken away."[They are] afraid to even imagine a different reality...We have accepted trauma as a way of life and we continue to harm ourselves and others. All of this occurs in the context of a brutal and ongoing colonization.

A growing awareness of colonialism inexorably leads to a simultaneous dissatisfaction with the situation and a growing unrest...Recognition of this colonial reality is the first step toward our liberation. We cannot resist what we cannot identify and name.

An analysis of colonialism allows us to make sense of our current condition, strategically develop more effective means of resistance, recover the pre-colonial traditions that strengthen us ...and connect with the struggles of colonized peoples throughout the world to transform the world. When colonialism is removed from the analysis, we have little alternative other than to simply blame ourselves for the current social ills. This blaming the victim strategy only increases violence against our own people...Instead, we put our faith and actions toward making [great] change, looking to the highest potential of human agency.

Today...we have reached an era in which the existing system is on the verge of collapse, with colonizer and colonized alike resting near a precipitous edge. We can either succumb to the ongoing discourse of complacency propagated by the colonizing government, or we can mobilize for revolutionary change.

The original essay Colonialism on the Ground is available here:http://waziyatawin.net/commentary/?page_id=20

May the Spirit of Crazy Horse be with you always. Thank you for your support.

"Free your mind and your ass will follow." - George Clinton

written in Sihanoukville, Cambodia 2010

NYT & Thomas Fuller