culture; culture

here's something sad:

At least 177 people have been killed in a stampede at a temple in the popular tourist city of Jodhpur in north India, the third such tragedy to hit the country in a matter of months.

The disaster happened early this morning as thousands of devotees gathered to mark the start of the nine-day Navaratr festival at the Chamunda Devi temple at the top of the Mehrangarh fort, in the state of Rajasthan.

Several hundred people were injured after being trampled to the ground.

what's more sad is that it was the fourth such stampede this year. and what's perhaps most sad is that after the third, in which 145 people were trampled to death (which took place very near where we went in june), constance and i realized that we simply weren't surprised. we just felt like this sort of thing was on the verge of happening in 15 different times while there. con witnessed it to a small degree on this bridge in rishikesh:


a minute later the rain poured, the bridge swayed, and people on motorcycles started running over old ladies.

loved india. im pretty sure it's the most interesting country in the world. met wonderful people. hate to make generalizations. i feel like i have a reasonable understanding of common humanity in general, but hate to infer that i know indian culture on any sort of level of depth after just a couple weeks there (even if con's been there much longer). but.. i suppose.. that's why i'm so curious.

what shapes these things? why, in similarly crowded bangkok, do people stop at stoplights? people here are almost maddeningly polite and reserved. what's the difference?

some odd combination of a billion people, breathtaking and cyclical poverty, unprecedented opportunity in a rising economy, a free market, a caste system, hinduism with a healthy dose of islam and mysticism, cricket popularity, the arrival of mcdonalds, giant mountains, open sewers, outdoor urinals, fantastic architecture, sikhs (the most photographable people in the world), a bewildering mix of subcultures, 22 official languages, colonial remnants, independence, bollywood, and an abundance of chicken tikka masala all in the nine thousand year-old cradle of eastern religion.

somehow from all that you get temple stampedes. i could explore this stuff for the rest of my life.

wooleyboogers; CORN

two articles today:

a fantastic look at what went down yesterday at the white house. and..(via constance, who flyfishes) a different take on (a smiling) dick cheney.

and a MONKEY EATING CORN IN INDIA:

geopolitical thursdays.

stratfor is an austin-based foreign policy think tank whose analysis i started reading thanks to constance's grandfather. they are realist, pragmatic and non-partisan (even if a bit right-leaning.. the site is run by this guy), as proven in their impeccable coverage of the russia/georgia conflict.

here are two long-ish, but very informative looks at what foreign policy would look like under both obama (here) and mccain (here). he avoids more speculative (albeit important) factors like leadership capability, age, experience, intellect and temperament, and focuses more on history as an indicator, the reshaping global geopolitical landscape, and past statements from each candidate (as outlined in the intro here). very nuanced, complex stuff, and a nice change from soundbite and checklist politics.

anyway.. discuss away if anyone reads them.

monsoon; modest mice

uh. yeah. got nothing today. here's a neat picture of the time we went to taiwan the other day.

oooh update: here's where im sitting now:



the mountain looks like its erupting but that's the best i could get. my camera is only ok, and i just slipped off the awning while trying to get on the roof. and its now raining. and i'm "not allowed to climb on the roof in the rain with hemophilia." haters. curry time!

palin tuesdays..

.. since the parents and not-so-anonymous comment-leavers keep clamoring for more.

just kidding. sorta. there's really nothing from her this week considering, at last count, while joe biden's given 84 interviews since tabbed as VP, palin's given exactly two.

two.

or as summed up in the wapost:

“Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment. Ms. Palin’s speech-making skills are impressive, but the more she repeats the same stump speech lines, the queasier we get. Nor have her answers to the gentle questioning she has encountered provided any confidence that Ms. Palin has a grasp of the issues.”

as a semi-journalist who believes in the valuable role of an independent and thinking press, and as someone who thinks the continuing "blame the media" strategy (the latest development of which is covered exhaustively on both sides here by a fantastic, non-partisan, truth-seeking blog) is distracting and maddening, the blackout seems a little appalling. straight talk mccain himself hasn't given a press conference in more than 40 days.

even if my wife and i are hollywood elitist liberals.

anyway.. here's what i'm reading to best understand the wall st. meltdown:

• paul krugman (lib.. really solid coverage )
• george will (conservative intellectual heavyweight)
• david brooks (the con libs love.. but cmon.. he's good)
• something james fallows wrote back in 2005.
  
• and.. courtesy of kurt.. our good friend and prescient uncle ron paul.

also.. first heard from kevin phillips on this fantastic show a while back. he's predicted all this pretty accurately. listen if curious.

update: finally found someone outside the bush admin who is (partially) defending the paulson plan

redesign; approximately

like?

expatting; place

learning a culture is hard. it's more than trying new foods or learning how to properly say hello. in india, it was the way waiters took our order. or the way indians did laundry. or the way indians would militantly wait in line like third graders awaiting recess until the train arrived, and then stampede on board. etc. it all said something about the invisible system created over thousands and thousands of years that influences everything.

here it's similarly difficult/interesting/maddening/enlivening.

so.. when someone from this site (which i wish i had created) approached me the other day (you can read my interview here), i started reading from some of the other thai expats. gladly, there's a ton of telling and resonant stuff which we feel like we're experiencing here.

for example.. according to nicolas from mauritius:

The first 2 years, all these customs looks sweet, very respectful to everybody, but I came to realize that it brings us and them to nowhere. So, now I tend to give my point of view and I try to speak with Thai people and force them to consider or see things they wouldn’t normally.

Every culture has good and bad things. We should strive to take the best of each and not just accept everything because we are in their country.

I’ve found out there’s a period of 3 years before expat people get into a crisis. At that point, they will get crazy over small things which they would usually tolerate then go back home or go through it and get a new philosophy on life. I’m right in the middle of this crisis.
....

I hate having Thais making enormous mistakes and try to hide it. Talking with the locals is pretty hard too because most of the time they will have no opinion. They will most likely answer what they think you want to hear. I have almost no Thai friends.

then there's vern from florida, who feels differently:

Overall, Thais are awesome! I don't have this generalized and jaded view of the Thais like most foreigners seem to have after a couple years. If you come to their country and try to live like it's your country - you'll not have a good time here. If you come to their country with the idea that you'll do what it takes to FIT IN, then you'll probably have a much better experience.

Thai people treat us extremely well considering foreigners USUALLY are not trying to fit into their culture and are seen as rude, ignorant, and impolite. Thai people seem to have an incredible tolerance for idiots in their country, which we in America don't have.

finally, there's andrew from the uk, who understands this biggest problems:

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in Thailand?

Positive, the wonderful people. Negative, it's too hot and there's no cheese.

monks; clouds

glue; tediouosity

the most annoying thing about thailand isn't the ubiquitous lizard poo we find splattered over and over around the house. it's the stickers. what in the world is in the glue here? what's wrong with this place? it's almost too much to take. almost. yes. we're moving to singapore.





and... something pretty:

monies; markets

here's a soft relaunch of my website. still needs some work, and i'm going to try and reintegrate some of the pictures from the old one. big thanks to bryan for the help. if you spot any errors, etc.. please let me know.

here also is a neat picture from the sunday walking street market in chiang mai (the best of the 37 different markets we've visited in thailand):

good ideas; bad habits

our town only sells instant coffee. it's tragic, and probably the source of all the recent political turmoil (it's happened in other countries). so we went to chiang mai last weekend pretty much just so i could find better coffee, and i came back with this: an organic arabica coffee company started as a development initiative to help opium farmers find a different cash crop.

it's good coffee, and a good idea. love good ideas.

like this one:

con and i got thai massages at the chiang mai women's prison last weekend, through a program helping women gain marketable skills and save some money to ease their transition back into society. i love ideas like these. love them. love them. there are a like a billion massage parlors in chiang mai, so we figured we might as well get ones that meant something.


problem is i'm wildly ticklish and sometimes have difficulty understanding instructions in thai english. so... as result of a series of misunderstandings and feather-like foot massage maneuvers, i spent the hour tense and giggling and clapping like a one-handed swan (which i understand is an insult to both the king, queen and buddha all in one, and, of course, is punishable by foot massage).

and then there's this idea:

i'll admit, i'm not a smoker, but i love smoking. the smell, taste, feel.. all of it. but from what i've seen, smoking seems a bit taboo in thailand. here's why... check out the surgeon general warnings on all thai cigarette packs:


it seems very very effective. click the picture for more information. between smoking and alcohol laws, thailand seems pretty progressive. ok fine.. it's just gross.

here instead is a pretty picture we took in india:

pugs; massaging thugs

Con and I spent the weekend in Chiang Mai. It was fabulous, and we did get massages at a women's prison, learn to cook curry at an organic farm and make friends from Italy, Australia, Scotland and Manchester. But I killed the internet at our house while trying to set up wireless upon our return, so now I'm blogging from an internet cafe next to a snoring pug where Google shows up in very very unreadable Thai.

So.. when in doubt and unable to post pictures.. complain about politics.

James Fallows, an Atlantic blogger/editor based in Beijing who I started reading in the run-up to the Olympics, wins with the best review of Palin's flop on ABC:

The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:

1) Ignorance
2) Lack of curiosity
3) "Decisiveness"

That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.

We don't know for sure about #2 for Palin yet -- she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3.

Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role.

This works as an interesting response to Charles Krauthammer (a conservative, a fantastic writer, and someone who called the Palin pick "near suicidal"), who gave an otherwise solid defense of Palin's performance.

phayao; peacock

met this guy today.. one of four westerners living here, and the kind of guy you hope to meet while traveling abroad, drinking chang beer at a lakeside bar.

anyway.. here's our town:





also.. sleaziest ad of all-time?

the source of it all; curry

starting to gain some clarity on what everyone is arguing about in bangkok. starting to find this place positively delightful.

Samak is a nationally famous chef, renowned among his culinary colleagues the world over. In Thailand, he is best known for his cooking show, Tasting and Complaining, and his nine-editions-printed cookbook, not for politics.

As the show's name implies, Samak roasted more than just spicy fish on the air. He also used the opportunity to vent steam on political issues of his choice. Picture Bobby Flay ripping the Bush administration on Iron Chef between platings, and you get the idea.

The trouble is, Thailand's constitution prohibits members of the cabinet from working for private companies while in office. Samak cut back on the show after assuming power just over half a year ago, but he has made several appearances since then. Now, Samak is in court defending himself against the gravest allegation of all: cooking while in office.

exciting times. meanwhile, check out this neat ELEPHANT BUILDING:

bangkok; peril!

the movie of the year is out. i haven't seen it, and rotten tomatoes says it stinks. whatever. i've been to bangkok and anything bangkok kills.



so go see it, and know that it's pretty much our life here. that and ong bak. and the adventures of phillip in elephantland. whatever. don't cross me. p-smoove!

stonewalling; hipshooting

While we were watching a lightning storm over a lake in Thailand last night, Palin began her ninth consecutive day without speaking to the press. So much for 'Straight Talk McCain'.

Here's Frank Rich (yeah, I know, Frank Rich) summing up well why this VP pick reflects so poorly on McCain:

"The McCain campaign’s claims of a “full vetting process” for Palin were as much a lie as the biographical details they’ve invented for her. There was no F.B.I. background check. The Times found no evidence that a McCain representative spoke to anyone in the State Legislature or business community. Nor did anyone talk to the fired state public safety commissioner at the center of the Palin ethics investigation. No McCain researcher even bothered to consult the relevant back issues of the Wasilla paper. Apparently when McCain said in June that his vice presidential vetting process was basically “a Google,” he wasn’t joking.

This is a roll of the dice beyond even Bill Clinton’s imagination. “Often my haste is a mistake,” McCain conceded in his 2002 memoir, “but I live with the consequences without complaint.” Well, maybe it’s fine if he wants to live with the consequences, but what about his country? Should the unexamined Palin prove unfit to serve at the pinnacle of American power, it will be too late for the rest of us to complain.

We’ve already seen where such visceral decision-making by McCain can lead. In October 2001, he speculated that Saddam Hussein might have been behind the anthrax attacks in America. That same month he out-Cheneyed Cheney in his repeated public insistence that Iraq had a role in 9/11 — even after both American and foreign intelligence services found that unlikely. He was similarly rash in his reading of the supposed evidence of Saddam’s W.M.D. and in his estimate of the number of troops needed to occupy Iraq. (McCain told MSNBC in late 2001 that we could do with fewer than 100,000.) It wasn’t until months after “Mission Accomplished” that he called for more American forces to be tossed into the bloodbath. The whole fiasco might have been prevented had he listened to those like Gen. Eric Shinseki who faulted the Rumsfeld war plan from the start.

In other words, McCain’s hasty vetting of Palin was all too reminiscent of his grave dereliction of due diligence on the war. He has been no less hasty in implying that we might somehow ride to the military rescue of Georgia (“Today, we are all Georgians”) or in reaffirming as late as December 2007 that the crumbling anti-democratic regime of Pervez Musharraf deserved “the benefit of the doubt” even as it was enabling the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. McCain’s blanket endorsement of Bush administration policy in Pakistan could have consequences for years to come."

Anyway.. because I looove the fairness doctrine, here's Foreign Policy's list of reasons to be wary of Obama.

this is not my beautiful house; how did i get here?

Finally made it to Phayao last night, where we'll be living. Our house is large and Thai and only sorta has a kitchen. Details, details. With a large yard, Constance will get to have her garden. We're three houses down from a large temple monastery thing. The town reminds of almost exactly of where we lived in the Domincan Republic, plus three 7-11s and a KFC.

There are mountains and a large beautiful lake, home to one of the seven underwater wonders of the world (who didn't memorize these when they were a kid). Chiang Rai, famous for being fabulous, is just an hour away.

Important update on beer sales: You're allowed to buy alcohol, oddly, between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm, then again after 5 pm. Breathe easier.

I'll post house pictures later.

Update II: The kitchen is in a separate house out back.. and until a few hours and 5,000 baht ago, was a bike shed. Same as it ever was.. Same as it ever was..

Update III: Underscoring my point about the protesters from yesterday..

Update IV: Raining, so no house pictures today. Instead, here's another fun one from Liberia (click for relevant post from, as you might've noticed, a blog I love):

palin; boy scouts

When news broke of Palin's preggo daughter a few days ago, I first rolled my eyes. I figured news would overblow it, giving the GOP a legitimate claim that the media is acting unfairly. It'd be distracting and annoying and irrelevant to her ability to be VP (especially compared to the 13 other things that have come out in the past week). But I still haven't heard a good answer to this question:

Should a parent willingly allow her pregnant daughter to be subjected to this kind of national shame?

It's just seems kinda icky. Lots of candidates turn down VP offers to protect their families. Palin seems intensely likable as a person, even if I think she could turn out to be the worst VP pick in several years, but this a seems like a bit of a character ding. Add the shotgun wedding (which seems unavoidably politically motivated) and her stupid stupid opposition to sex-ed classes.. and suddenly its not so irrelevant.

Anyway... she's solid and energizing on stage.. so there's that.

Concerning Thai politics:

Things seem to be sort of settling down here. Or maybe not. We sipped mochas across the street from the protest headquarters yesterday, and the whole thing just seemed a little funny. It's very real, and someone did die the other night, and there are a series of bounties out which I don't understand, and its the kind of uproar that led to a coup in 2006. But the headquarters looked like some sort of treehouse club — a bunch of young Thais sitting around behind a few weak lines of barbed wire looking angry listing to amplified propaganda with rags on their heads while tourists wandered by looking for coffee. I was more upset to learn today I couldn't buy beer from 7-11 until 5 pm. Yesterday's affair was very pleasant:


Also saw riot police protecting something the other night. I tried to snap a picture, but forgot about the flash and failed.. miserably:




Anyway.. we're having fun:

bangkok; perhaps they'll end this dispute in a THAI

we're here. thailand. bangkok. finally found internet access and got blogger to work. food is fantastic. blah blah blayaawn. yeah you don't care. what you obviously care about is the...

STATE OF EMERGENCY!

i've always thought that my wife and i have a bit of a destabilizing presence when we travel abroad. in fact, more accurately, she does. she's smoking hot, and when she walks down the street men tend to start spraying each other with tear gas. we've seen it everywhere. she was in nepal the day the king stepped down, ending like a million-year monarchy. we had plans to go to both darjeeling and rajasthan in india, but both were simultaneously shut down by separate anticipatory riots. we went north instead to himachal pradesh, leaving the earth there so shaky that a landslide crushed like a million people not long after our departure. (tasteless? whatever. my point is that she's hot.)

so we fly into bangkok at about 2 am on monday (two days after protesters had in anticipation disrupted flights at all three airports) and immediately our new thai friends start apologizing that their great nation had welcomed us with such familial strife. whatever. i think it's thrilling. we should all get to witness geopolitical history from the front lines at some point in our lives. and while im sure my presence (as proxy) started a fight somewhere in africa during my week-long stay in liberia last december, things in my first war-torn nation were alarmingly (actually, in reality, wonderfully/encouragingly/hope for humanity-ly) calm.

so when we awoke at 5 am today (jetlag) to the CNN news that riots had swept our new kingdom into a military-controlled sorta-tizzy while we slept, i was dismayed to learn that geopolitical history sometimes happens after 9 pm (jetlag). furthermore, beyond to the constant apologies from our friends, we haven't actually seen anything that suggests the country is in lockdown, even as we stay the week at a protest-fertile university. trains might not run tomorrow, but we spent yesterday at a mall which felt a lot like london, and tonight we'll dally around town in lonely planet bliss. thai strife is rarely that eventful anyway (the military's 2006 'silken coup' happened without firing a single shot).

regardless, i wore my best shirt today just in case i luck out and find myself walking down the soi with constance, locked into a tear gas clash on international tv.

anyway.. here's the best alternative explanation i've found. and a blog from someone who seems like he knows. and the best english newspaper in thailand.

meanwhile, we're here. thailand. living out the god-created desires of our heart abroad. learning to think, live and love in new ways best sparked when challenged by the delightfully unfamiliar.

here's our new house. our group here decided the last place (here) wasn't enough. now we have a yard. and three bedrooms. how frigging perfect is this place. come visit.

ricki tikki; yeesh this is gonna be fun

got married in india. leaving for thailand in two days. thinking about starting a cobra farm.





also.. really interesting interactive display from mother jones mapping out the sprawling extent of america's global military reach.

softball mittens; surly.

News:

• Cat Osterman and the softball Olympians lost for the first time in like a billion games since Barcelona. I've seen Cat pitch like a billion innings, and it's an odd feeling every time she isn't perfect. Gotta be a sour taste, as the softball is now dropped from the Olympics. But if lack of competition had anything to do with that, maybe this will be just what softball needs. Read Cat's mom's blog final conclusions here.
  

• We leave for Siam on Saturday.

• Con and I got a bunch of pots and stuff for getting married. Thank you everyone.

• My sister and I swam the entire length of Barton Springs. Suck on that Phelps.
  

• Blogging every day is more difficult than I expected.
  
  
• He could be nothing more than a gasbag, but Joe Biden comes off as impressive in the debates. I like him as VP.

• I hate it when political discussion digresses into name-calling. It's distracting and stupid. But "Mittens" for VP makes me giggle every time.
  

• Here's something fun: Yesterday, the front pages of both the RNC and DNC websites didn't mention John McCain a single time (the theory being that the GOP is trying to turn the election into a referendum on Obama, and that alternatively, that the DNC actually likes its candidate).

• This is my favorite picture I took in Africa:
  

visas; polychromatic monarchs

got our visas to the kingdom of thailand. we were concerned that we wouldn't. now we're ready. i've never had a king before. this is thrilling. i've been calling for the u.s to elect a king for years, and that's the problem. king king king king.

every monday in thailand is 'yellow shirt day', on which you wear yellow to honor the king. you don't put money adorned with the king in your shoe.. and you try to keep the money face up for respect. see.. this is good governance. now we're getting somewhere.

house; (hint).

our foundation in thailand sent us pictures of where we'll live in phayao. we expected a lot less than this:







oddly, it looks a lot like where we lived in the dominican republic.. which, at the time, also surprised me. apparently everything everywhere looks sorta like orange county. this is just one of limitless discoveries of american architectural soft power you'll make when you come visit thailand. (hint).

we're glad, though, that it seems big enough to host visitors. (hint). then again.. so are this and this (wealthy hints).

osterman; residual income

more cat (because olympic [i.e. jennie finch] ads seem more lucrative):

osterman better than phelps?

impossible comparison, of course. still.. while phelps might get his eight golds, only when his dominance causes the olympics to purge his sport will i be impressed.

thailand; bloggy blog blog blog

Just to clarify what we're doing (in.. woah.. two weeks):

Constance (my wife) got hired back in the spring with this Thai foundation, which keeps at-risk girls in school and away from traffickers (in addition to other community-building activities). She'll head fundraising, maintaining and expanding an existing network of international donors. I'll teach an English class, and contribute web and fundraising content. We'll spend considerable time in Bangkok, but mostly live in this town:


It's called Phayao, in the north. It's beautiful and probably interesting and has some problems. It's near Chiang Mai, which is larger and a famous expat destination. Phayao isn't even listed in Lonely Planet, but this guy thinks it has great food.

I'll also spend the days running this new business idea (hire me), and continuing work on the novel (it's coming along.. really.. believe me.. it is). I'll update more on that later.

That's about the extent of the details we know, and that's the adventure of it.

This blog will be largely about that experience.. (plus, irresistibly, about my thoughts on politics, culture, travel, religion, etc. — even if only in an imaginative attempt to stay apart of the national American conversation while a world away).

Osterman.

Looks like Cat Osterman (the bunco player.. below) is having plenty of fun in Beijing (here's her playing slaps with my first cousin, LeBron James).

I wonder.. I wonder.. Naw..

Reminder: read Cat's mom's Beijing Olympic blog here.

more finalists; marie

• me myself and thai
• PHILLIP'S HEAD
• as i gaze into the night sky ...
• i just love thailand!
• thai fabulous
• marie orchard
• drunk noodles, approximately.
• drunk poodles, exactly.

my mom suggested "neener neener (i'm in thailand and you're not)." my mom also "suggested" i put more photos of her on my blog.

i always listen to my mom.

things happening in subcontinental asia; china

Constance (of moving-to-Thailand-fame below) and I love India. Love the food, love the culture, love the architecture, love the Himalayas, love each and every one of the 1.1 BILLION people (more on how that part's not true later) living in the most historically and geopolitcally interesting emerging global superpower I've ever visited (we loved it all enough to get married there in June — read about it on Con's blog here).

Above all.. love the fact that yesterday, India won its first individual Olympic gold medal ... in its entire 9,000 year history.

Even India thinks that's funny:



Love, love India.

finalists; or "keep sending me suggestions"

Here are the best so far:

• Whyland
• Your Inner thai
• The Thai Master
• Switched-from-Motorola-to-a-PrimeCo-phone
• Celine Dion
• Positively Ngamwongwan St.
• Bangkok Skyline Rag
• It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only HEMOPHILIA)
• All The Pee in China
• Stuff Dykhuizens Like
  

August 30; things happening in Asia.

Constance and I are leaving August 30 for Thailand. We'll be there a year or two or three.

In the meantime.. here's an interesting take on the Olympics: Cat Osterman's* mom, Laura (my fifth grade science teacher), is keeping a blog while in Beijing.

Also.. I've been following this Beijing blog from an interesting Atlantic writer who lives there.

* Cat Osterman being the long-time friend and neighbor and classmate and NCAA softball strikeout record holder, whose 2004 softball olympic gold medal** once ended up hanging on my microwave during my annual Christmas full-contact bunco party.

** The same olympic gold medal Cat brought wadded up in her purse.

coming soon.

in the meantime...

www.philliporchard.com

also.. taking suggestions for a good title for this blog.

also.. starting a second blog about making monies via the internet while living abroad (thailand, for random example), and taking suggestions for a good title for that blog as well.