Travel: Nongkhai

Nongkhai, 7th place in the World’s best cities to live in
By: Supanida S.

Nongkhai is my hometown. I was born there and had lived there for 15 years. I thought that it was just another city near Meakong River in northeastern of Thailand. However, when my mum told me that Nongkhai has been ranked the 7th in the World’s best cities to live in by the Modern Maturity magazine, I was surprised! Oh, How come? I started to be curious since then. Maybe because of I am used to it, so I might overlook the beautiful things that surround me.

So, my latest journey back home, I decided to pretend that I am a tourist to Nongkhai instead of being the host myself. Are you ready to start the journey with me?

I decided to catch a train from Bangkok to Nongkhai. The ticket for second class air condition compartment costs about 600 baht. When I arrived Nongkhai, first thing I saw was the bright clear sky which I have never seen in Bangkok. And the air was so fresh, I could smell the grass because the other side of railway station is a wide green moor.

I was hungry at first I decided to go to my favourite restaurant but I realised I went there as a tourist. So I asked the Tuk Tuk man who was so kind to me, to take me to any good and also cheap restaurant for the breakfast. The Tuk Tuk dropped me at one small restaurant which has no shop’s name, but the shop looked so bright and clean. It was kind of a home-made restaurant. I ordered Two Vietnamese buns, pan eggs and hot chocolate. It was a very nice meal and I was so full. Guess how it costed? It costed only 50 baht. It would be surprising for people in the big city but the cost of living in Nongkhai is very cheap.

After that I asked the restaurant owner about the nice hotel. She told me the long list of hotel names which are in different grades. I decided to pick the small hotel which located by Maekong River side. The hotel was so nice and the view is wonderful. I rent a bicycle of the hotel to sight seeing around the city. Nongkhai is a clam and charming city. There is a combination of the modern city, the ancient and the nature. Starting with the river side road, you can fill up your lung with the pure fresh air and fill your heart with the wonderful view. Mee Chai road is the road that represents the ancient city, there are so many ancient buildings and homes along the road side where people live in a traditional way. Prajak Road is the road represents the modern life, providing anything you want as in the big city. Nongkhai also have Indo-China market where you can do shopping without concerning about money that much because the stuff is cheap.

Finally I have an answer for myself that it is not surprising that it has been ranked 7th as one of the best cities to live in the World because of the charm of the city itself, friendly people, delicious meals, nice places for traveling and more important thing is everything is cheap. Lucky for me, this wonderful city is my hometown.

Human Rights: Prisoner's Life

I was a prisoner”, what do you think about me?
By Little Wish

“Never return” is the phrase written on the jail gate. In fact many prisoners, who have been released, always return again. Why? Is it because of prisoners themselves or because of us?

“I had sworn that I would not go back in jail again,” Nan, who did not want to give her full name, 20 years old woman prisoner who has been arrested twice, said with tears. “But I had to, they didn’t give me a chance. I have to sell it again; drugs. I had no choice. I didn’t have any money. I could not get the legal job. No one hired me. No one wanted to work with me.”

Many employers do not want to hire the ex-prisoners, believing that they may cause a problem.“It depends on what they have committed but personally I don’t want to hire the ex-prisoners,” said Mr Thanong Khanthong, The Nation editor, “I want to avoid the problems as much as I can.”

Most of people are scared and feel unsafe when working with the people who have committed crimes.“I think we should give them a chance but it is still scary for me if I have to work with the ex-prisoner,”said Boonmee Suknum, 40 years old house keeper, “it would be hard…”

While, many ex-prisoners ask the society to give them another chance.

“You have no idea what we have been through. I know I’ve done wrong. And I’ve paid by getting imprisoned. Life in jail is the worst thing,” said with tears, Nan, the prisoner, “But when I went out it was worse, when people disgusted me and gave me that look even I tried to become a new person.”

Life behind the jail wall, how is it? Have you ever wondered how the criminals live? A hundred of prisoners have to stay, sleep and eat in the same one room like sardines. The old torn maps are their beds. For those who do not have relatives sending food or money, they have to work to get money. Some may iron the clothes for the warders, cooking or doing some thing you cannot accept. Some have to go inside the nose level tanks that are full of faeces, dig them and clean up. Some have to work as prostitutes in order to get money to buy toothpaste.

They suffer both physically and psychologically, in their minds.

“I always dream of the life outside the jail,” Dao, who did not want to reveal the full name, a woman prisoner said. “How my daughter and my family are. I always think if I were out now, what would I be doing. I am just counting for the day I will be released every day, every hour.”

While some wish they could turn back time.

“My parents, they cannot accept it and never ever visited me,” a 19 years old woman prisoner who want to be unnamed, a half Thai-Chinese with a beautiful face, was sentenced for 3 years imprisonment on drug criminal, said. “I miss them so much. I know I’ve done wrong. I wish I could turn back time.”

Giving the second chance for the prisoners is the issue that many nonprofit organizations are working on.

“We want people to give them a chance because no one wants to do bad things and everyone has done wrong,” said Mrs Somsong Boonaroonraksa, a former vice-president of the Catholic Commission for Women in Thailand. “We should change our attitudes toward them.”

Thai Catholic Commission for Women is another organization which has been working hard on this issue. They always organise workshops to ‘lift them up’ and cultivate inner morals for prisoners.

“We came for cheer them up,” said Dr Lamduan Chinmanophan, the committee of Thai Catholic Commission for Women. “The reason for doing this is to change them to become good people once they are released. To prevent them from hurting us again, we should help them to become good people and the most important thing is giving them a chance to start again.”

Not only the nonprofit organizations that have their concerns on this issue, the warders and jail officers also take this as a serious issue.

“While in prisons, we teach them how to work; cook, bake, make bags and so on. Because we want them to get the job and do not want them to come back,” said Mr Phonchai Waithayavijit, the chief officer of Samuthsakorn provincial jail. “We are doing our best to prevent them going back to their same track and hurt others. It’s up to you now that you will give them a chance to make up themselves, allowing them to do good deeds.”

Thai education needs reformation not free tuition!

By Little Wish

From the past every government try to solve Thai education by launching the free tuition policy. But it seems not work or not effective at all for many years. Thai education system needs to be reformed not just to learn for free.

Government has launched 15 years tuition free policy. The policy itself aims at the fair distribution of education. But in the real world the students need the opportunity to learn equally effective. It would be useless if the education itself is not good or effective.

The resolution of political problems, Corruption, Family problems, Drugs, Prostitution and other social problems rest on “Education”. Therefore, government should take the quality of education as a serious issue. Quality of education involves the quality of teachers and of the textbooks. These two elements are vital in the process of producing good quality students who will become good adults in the future.

“In far-away provinces, the public schools have only few quality teachers and some have none,” said Mrs Aucharapan Kerdkaew, a teacher at Kasetsart University Demonstration School, “the government should increase public school teachers’ salary to motivate people to apply for public school teacher jobs because nobody wants to be public school teachers due to a low salary.”

Government should not launch the tuition free policy to be just another proof that the government is working. And to do so, there is just another opportunity for the politicians and greedy merchants to corrupt. Government should solve the real cause of educational problems and listen to people voices.

According to Suan Dusit Poll, survey about the education reform, 88% said that it is the time to reform Thai education system because of all Thailand social problems can be solved with the quality education.

Many people believe that good education will make the students graduate with quality and can work effectively. Some wish every school will have good quality and internationally recognised, want Moral, Ethics, and Cultures to be included in the lessons. Moreover people demand that everyone should receive the same quality in education especially the students in rural areas. Therefore, tuition free policy is not a right answer for solving Thai educational problems.

Thai Media lost their ethics?

By Little Wish

I wonder why media nowadays lacks of responsibilities to the society. Media only aim at how they can sell their products and overlook the moral, ethics and righteousness.
Media now see the audiences as the customers who they try to sell the products. They will do everything for selling even if it is not proper but they will do it, if they can sell.

Most of Free TV stations are trying to get as much of market share as they can by putting a lot of soap operas and entertainment shows. They reduce time for news and knowledge programmes in order to put non-sense programmes which they believe that can sell.

I think media has gone mad. They are lost in the world of greediness. They do not know that they blind people in the entire nation from not letting them know the news and useful information. Moreover media also injects the bad value for children and teenager.

Not only the TV but Thai Newspaper nowadays have also forgotten to think about the moral. Exposing the sexy picture of the superstar on the front page to get the customers attentions or using scary picture of crimes to be the newspaper sell point, these all are unacceptable for me.
The news sections inside the cover seem to have been reduced and more sections about gossip superstar, superstar porn clip or any superstar scandal have been included.

Media expresses too much of entertainment stuff, so it influences the people especially the teenagers to get lost in the material and non-sense world.I want media to realize that part of social problems they are responsible for. And it is the time for media to take any action to show the responsibilities before everything is too late to be changed.

Thumbs up for “La Bohème”

By Supanida S.

Drawing you to the world of the Bohemians or gypsies in Paris around 1830 when the bohemians were facing many controversies and lived in poverty. “La Bohème” the opera can make you see another scene of Bohemians’ life which is beautiful and miserable. It is the story about lives of four best friended artists who try to survive from poverty, Rodolfo, a poet, Marcello, a painter, Colline, a young philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician. The opera represents the love story of young poor couples, Rodolfo, a poet and Mimì, a seamstress and Marcello, a painter and Musetta, a singer.

La Bohème is the four acts Italian opera written by Giacomo Puccini. It is one of the most operas that have been repeatedly played. I have seen many operas since I was young. But I have to thumb up for La Bohème indeed. I love this opera because it is not the opera in the huge form but it combines all aesthetic senses; love, romantic, friendship, comedy, drama, and sadness. How amazing. I strongly recommend people who have never seen an opera before to see this opera because it is easy to understand, no need of deeper interpretation, have a flow, and the most important thing is that it is enjoyable.

La Bohème was recently performed in Thailand by the coordination between the European Chamber Opera and Bangkok Opera, took place at the Sheraton Grand Sukhumvit Hotel. I went to performance. It was great because I know that the opera societies in Thailand are not successfully supported. The budget is very low compared to other countries. However, personally, because of this limit, the director, Stefan Sanchez, the conductor, Somtow Sucharitkul and actors all used their highest potential and abilities to do their best. It was a charming and attractive performance for me. In this performance, they did not have any extravagant backdrop or even the stage was very small.

In Act one, there was only a sofa and a small table on the stage but the actors from the European Chamber Opera performed and sang really beautifully that the audiences did not give ay attention to the prop. I liked Act two the most because it was hilarious and fun. The director put perfectly queue and Musetta role sang a wonderful attractive waltz, “Quando me n’vò” or When I go along. Talking about music itself, Somtow Sucharikul, Thai conductor of Bangkok Opera had done very well with his small orchestra and choir. This made me know that this was a nice coordination between Thai Opera and the European Chamber Opera. As I could see in the last scene, which was closed with the death of Mimi and a wonderful memorable song and acting.

For those who missed this performance would not be regret because Bangkok Opera will perform “La Bohème” again this August. But this time the leading actor and actress will be Nancy Yuen and Israel Lozano which are the popular opera singing pair from Madama Butterfly. I can guarantee this upcoming performance that it would be as great as the first La Bohème because it will be under the same director, Stefan Sanchez, artistic director of European Chamber Opera, conductor, Somtow Sucharitkul, founder of Bangkok Opera, orchestra, Siam Philharmonic and Orpheus Choir. Moreover Nancy Yuen and Israel Lozano are very professional opera singers. I have seen them both in Madama Butterfly. Their voices are very powerful and beautiful also their acting. And definitely, I cannot wait to join this “La Bohème” return.

Live for Others

By Little Wish

Warming smile with modest gesture is the way Mrs Jiranun Sakultangphaisal greeting. A 45 year old woman, who dedicated her life to work for society and the people.

“I think if all the people are caring and loving, this world would be a better place for us all to live”, said Mrs Jiranun. “Just start from your little circle, and extending it to the community. What we do will be beneficial to ourselves, our surroundings, and would hopefully lead to a cease in problems in society.”

She is a Board of Directors of the Thai Catholic Commission for Women, the Chairman of the Parish Council, Local Governmental Corporation Committee, Board of Directors of Bangkok Opera Foundation and recently she just has been appointed to be one of Top 100 Leading women of Thailand.

She said that every social works she is doing are varied and she is happy to be part of helping people in different ways.

While she was giving an interview, there were at least 3 phone calls to her. She told that everyday there will be many persons; friends, colleagues, and her workers call for life advice and even talks of Dharma. She told that even she is a catholic but she think Dharma is the best way that can lead people out from sorrow.

Everyone who knows her would know that before she decided to work for the society and the people, she was a famous business woman in Northeastern of Thailand. She was an owner of two biggest shopping malls in Nongkhai.

She said that while she was a business woman, her life was so busy. She did not have time for others even her family. But after the economic recession in 1997, which affected her business a lot, so she began to think of others.

“I faced many harsh problems at that time, I was so depressed that I did not know what to do,” said Mrs Jiranun Sakultangphaisal. “It was of family that reminded me that money is not as important as time I could give to them. And what would the society be like if everyone only thinks about themselves and money. That was what inspired me to ‘live for others’.”

15 years tuition free education, will be effective?

By: Supanida S.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s fifteen years tuition free education policy is not that easy in practice and heading to failure. Many educational people, teachers, parents and students are criticising that this policy will be effective and will reach the good quality or not. The issue of corruption, doubt in fair distribution and its high budget may cause many people to doubt the policy if it is that easy in practice and will be effective.

The government launched the new policy for fifteen years tuition free education for Thai students from kindergarten to grade twelve, which costs about nineteen thousand million baht. The policy aims to support for the tuition fee, textbook, education kit, school uniform, and extracurricular activity. This tuition free will not be available in every school. The school students who have those rights must be under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, the Vocational Education Commission, or the Office of the Private Education Commission. This new plan will be executed on May 17th, 2009.

The policy itself is very good but in practice is not that easy. There are many gaps for corruption. If the government does not strictly keep an eye on it, this would be another opportunity for corruption again.

“The main idea of the policy is good but the practice is unlikely to succeed because the corruption in Thai politics still exists,” said Mrs Aucharapan Kerdkaew, a teacher at Kasetsart University Demonstration School.

Corruption is a big problem for Thai society. It seems that there is no where to an end. And it is a great obstacle for many good policies. The new policy is not executed yet, but the scandal has already appeared. It is about the price of the textbooks that the government will provide to the schools for free, is higher than the price of textbook in the private schools. Therefore, to think further, there would be another corruption concerning with the education kits and school uniform for sure. Unclarity in auctions will happen. The greedy politicians and the merchants will start to take the advantages from the children, our own future.

What about distribution? It must be distributed thoroughly. What measures can be taken to ensure that the students who need help will get this support not the one who does not need it? And did the government consider about “Ghost students”; the students who did not actually go to school but the school puts their name on the list of students in order to get the money, how can the government measure the actual number of students? Maybe the government will distribute some power to the local legislative to manage their own budget. But it is back to the same old problem, corruption. In the local legislative, there are also many corruptions and it is quite hard to scrutinize because it seems like a normal practice to the local people.

“The Education system’s structure is too big thus we need to separate the structure into smaller organizations for easier operation but still need the central organization to scrutinize the separated organization because the separation will open the opportunity for the local politicians to make profit from the government budget,” said Mrs. Aucharapan Kerdkaew, a teacher at Kasetsart University Demonstration School.

Quality is another issue of concern. Everything is likely to be free, so what about the quality and the standard? Who will be the one who ensure that the education kits and school uniform will not be in a lower standard? Including textbook, it is the most crucial thing for learning. Government plans to set up the committee to responsible for purchasing textbooks for every school in the same curriculum. It will be a problem for some schools that the textbooks do not fit the students and the teacher. According to the plan of The Office of the Basic Education Commission, textbook itself is free but the students must borrow it and pass away to the other after they finish that course. The textbook will last for three years then the committee will distribute the new version to the students to continue the same pattern of borrowing.

Again the scandal about the old curriculum textbook, has been heavily criticizing. As the policy will effect in the upcoming semester, this textbook problem falls into the students in next semester. The Office of the Basic Education Commission has placed an order to purchase textbook with the 2001 curriculum and the school cannot purchase the latest version. Then do you think this will be the effective way for the student to learn? Textbook or the curriculum must be changed or edited every 5 years like many countries in the world. So if the students use old textbook, the long run problem will occur to our future.

Nineteen thousand million baht will be spent on this project. Majority of Thai people are wondering where does this budget come from, and believing that the policy needs the very high budget that the government has no potential to effort the price because the whole country is facing very serious economic depression.

Those are the doubts that need the government answers and ensure of the well scrutinizing of this policy. The policy would be effective with quality or not, depends on the practice of the government officers. This is just the planning process but many signs have shown the unlikelihood that this policy will not work.

When will the politicians stop being greedy?

By: Supanida S.

I wonder when Thai politicians will stop corrupting and when the merchants will stop their greed. This week if you follow the news, you will know the news about the low quality of free school milk. When I saw this news, firstly I was so upset and then started blaming the greedy politicians and the milk vendor. Poor little children! Why they have to be the victims for the greediness of the adults? For me, this is unacceptable.

Recently, the director of Pak Lek School in Choomporn’s Phato district complained about the lack of milk quality that the government gave the children for free. The Pak Lek School’s students refused to drink because it is tasteless. And the teachers believed that it simply made from powder with high proportion of water. After this became a big story, the Food and Drug Administration did the laboratory test and confirmed that the free milk has the fat level of only 2.6% while the FDA standard is 3.2%.

Milk package was just a small plastic bag with the label writing “school milk” and the expiry date on it. There is no approval sign of Food and Drug Administration and nor the name of manufacturer. Free school milk project is under the control of the local administration. I think this is a result of the local administration and the local suppliers who are blinded with greed. The supplier intend to not print the manufacturer name because they know that this milk is low standard and produced in the bad will and tries to cover themselves if people know that milk is lack of standard.

I do not know how they can be so greedy. They can do anything to get the profit as much as they can even hurt the others or at least, the children.

This is not the first time that free school milk scandal has happened. It had happened along since the project of distributing free school milk was launched a decade ago. The true objective of distributing free milk for the children is, the government wants to promote children’s physical and mental growth. But in the real world, seem that the objective is just like the cloud that can see but it is nothing. No one take it for serious matters but see it as an opportunity for gain money and a lot of profit.

Milk provides a powerful nutrition package of nine essential nutrients including calcium, protein and potassium which is essential for children. Milk also contains seven different vitamins and minerals needed for many body functions. Nutrition in milk will help the physical and mental development and performance of children. So what will happen to the children who did get malnutrition? But more worse is the toxic milk.

The current free milk scandal is now on an investigation process of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission. They are preparing to investigate into the bidding process. I think it is good to do so. But I wonder why we have to wait for the story to become people interests before the investigation happen. How the manufacturers can produce drinking milk without the FDA approval? And could it possible for the local administrative accept tones of milk with label containing only the word “school milk” and not having the name of manufacturer itself.
When the politicians will do the thing for the people with the heart and think of the public more than themselves? When the merchant will stop being greedy? When will people stop being selfish? So when the corruption will come to an end?

Now Thai people see the corruption as a normal thing. Do you think it is right to think that way? The Officials from the top of the Thai hierarchy until local officers are all related to the corruption. There are so many corruptions occur. Therefore it might be the reason to make us use to it. But for me, it is not an excuse for us to just sit down and accept it. So what is the point of having the Anti- Corruption Commission and the court? And we, as the citizen, why we just be a watch dog for our society, our lives, our future and our children? We cannot just bow you head down and accept the fate that our advantages are taken away by those we have chosen (Politicians). It is time for us to help each other to stop the corrupted politicians and greedy merchants. Dare to fight for the right thing.