The Heart Of The Day

My extraordinary friend Lyn Horine put flowers on my parents’ graves for Memorial Day because I wasn’t there! And she didn’t even know them!

Whew!  What a ride! A week in Vegas, a month in Salem Oregon, a week in Hong Kong, 5 months in Thailand (4 in Bangkok and a month on Koh Samui) a week in Hong Kong again, 2 weeks in Salem, 10 days in Vegas and now back home in Oaxaca. Right now, I don’t care if I see another airport again!

Oaxaca is in the middle of an historical heat wave. Am I still in Thailand? Three fans on in my bedroom at night. Oh where is that Thai A/C?! Too hot to go grocery shopping!  (Maybe I’ll lose some weight.) Tomorrow I’ll just water my plants and drink what’s left of my Arizona Iced Green Tea.  And then take a nap.

Yesterday got my glasses replaced that son Greg's new yellow labrador puppy ate. Puppy? At 16 weeks he's huge...but oh so loving! And he's so cute when he carries his own leish in his mouth when we go for walks. ... [Continue reading this entry]

You can just imagine the look on my son Josh's face in Hong Kong today as my chair collapsed out from under me in Las Vegas as I disappeared from view in his skype video frame! He he. Fell on ... [Continue reading this entry]

On couchsurfing.com there is a thread on a forum with people talking about places they didn't like and why.  After reading a few posts, a very funny couchsurfing friend who I shall call the "Green Lady of England" finally let ... [Continue reading this entry]

Embedding is disabled but remember this very touching LBJ election TV ad when Johnson ran against Barry Goldwater in 1964?  It ran only once and then was banned. Ironic.

Had an outside lunch with son Greg, his Punjabi surgeon friend, Jody, and his wife Heather, and Greg Smith who was a classmate of Greg's in high school. Playing with Val, Greg's 16 month old yellow lab who is constantly underfoot.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

About 10,000 Bangkok residents, including teenagers and foreigners have joined hands to help the (BMA) clean Ratchaprasong Intersection and surrounding areas in the ‘Big Cleaning Day’ activity. Said that they must help clean Bangkok together because it is their home. ... [Continue reading this entry]

The current situation in Thailand is not necessarily due directly just to the political history,  but indirectly because of all the long-standing alliances and divisions between parties, the military and the privy council members who are all trying to position ... [Continue reading this entry]

Simon Montlake has an article in the Christian Science Monitor speculating on the political future now that the rally is over. It doesn't bode well for Thailand because neither the the Yellows (PAD Party) or the Reds (Thaksin) ... [Continue reading this entry]

 Well, the most you could say about this recent conflict in Thailand is that even if the rancor remains for decades, there is a whole generation that is now politicized.  The Reds from up-country have undergone a process known here ... [Continue reading this entry]

After a week in Hong Kong,  just in time to avoid the worst of the burning of Bangkok just up the road from Sukhumvit 20 where I was staying, I flew to Portland Oregon with a transfer in San Francisco ... [Continue reading this entry]

Boston Globe Incredibly good photos of Bangkok during Red Shirt Crackdown Photos and narrative explaining the political situation in Thailand

Just about eight minutes after the Red Shirt leaders gave their last speech on the main rally stage to jeers and tears, just before they gave themselves up to police who were closing in, flames and black smoke from burning ... [Continue reading this entry]

Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, May 19, 2010; 2:06 PM

BANGKOK -- Thai soldiers launched an assault Wednesday against "red shirt" protesters in a military operation that forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender but left parts ... [Continue reading this entry]

Part of above speech with English subtitles telling the Red Shirts to burn the country. [Continue reading this entry]

Thaksin's vendetta is wrecking the country By Sopon Onkgara The Nation

BANGKOK: -- After a few days of armed skirmishes between rioters, terrorists and government troops in areas around Rajprasong, an end to the trouble remains elusive, despite the deadline given for the ... [Continue reading this entry]

I have this theory that when Thaksin met with Hun Sen in Cambodia he arranged to have Cambodian mercenaries come to Thailand. It makes sense, while there is no love lost between Thailand and Cambodia, why all of a sudden ... [Continue reading this entry]

He is talking about Thailand (the house) and the King of Thailand in code.

So the Reds are keeping up the pressure in Bangkok. My yellow shirt friend didn't want me to take a taxi to the airport yesterday for a flight to Hong Kong (taxis being almost all Red because most ... [Continue reading this entry]

This Red opposition, called the "Royalists" (PAD Party) who support the King of Thailand but also termed by many Reds as "the Bangkok elites" because the "ignorant" Red farmers feel they are condescending and derisive and too fond of old ... [Continue reading this entry]