Cruelty

Something happened yesterday that stuck with me in an unpleasant way. Nicola and I (the nice English bird I've been kissing) were on the beach in the afternoon in Haad Rin, playing with three little puppies we found. There're loads of them around. One of them, a fuzzy little black and white thing, was just sleeping in the sand, so we left him alone as we squatted in front of him and played with the others. A little Thai boy ran up to us and grabbed a handful of skin on the little puppy's haunch. The puppy shrieked. Then the little bastard held it up in the air by its throat, choking it, then he threw it onto the concrete. Thye puppy screamed and kpet whimpering since he had hurt its leg. I wanted to give the brat the back of my hand and ask him how it felt to be bullied by someone bigger than him. Several problems. 1) Cabn't say that in Thai. 2) he's not my kid 3) his parents were there. 4) unknown cultural boundary about discipling someone else's kid. Apparently I would have been alright scolding him. Respect for one's elders is a pillar of Thai culture, so that would prbably have been alright. He was just showing off, showing that he could take from Farangs with impunity, or that he didn't care about offending us or something like that, I'm not sure exactly what, acting out for attention, something like that. Cruelty and disregard for animals is also a pillar of Thai culture. It's gotten much better since the king adopted a few strays a few years ago. He is a cultural role model and hero to the people, so what he does will be imitated. He was trying to get the stray dog problem under wraps. Sven told me a few years ago, it was too scary to walk on the beach at night. The packs of wild dogs were too numerous and too aggressive. Things are much quieter these days since the king adopted. most houses now adopt a few dogs and feed them, keeping them around. In turn those dogs keep the others away, having made it their territory. This combined with a spaying and neutering program has brought the wild population down a bit. The Thai's fairly brutal approach to dogs actually makes them really well behaved. Usually around here if a dog sees you pick up a stick, they assume you're going to throw it at them, not for them. Fetch is not the name of the game around here. They tend to be really well behaved. They know they can't come inside, they all understand, "Pai! Pai!" (Go!), and they tend to be quiet. I assume there's a certain selective pressure here in favor of being well-behaved and quiet. The bad dogs get killed. Only those dogs with a gentler nature are allowed to survive and procreate. Caliban, one of my dogs back at the Yoga retreat where I lived for a bit, was really sweet. He must have been part Basset or Dachshund or Corgi with those stubby little legs of his. A nice dog. Ying was mcu hmore trouble, always jumping up at you a bit too enthusiastically.


These brits are ruining the way I speak! All of this crap slang working its way into my vocabulary! I say things like pikey, bird, skint, fag, poof, all kinds of nosense like that. When I get back I'm going to need a linguistic reinstall. These people don't speak english.

On the 30th I'm leaving fantasy island.

Does anyone know if you can still send telegrams to the United States? I read in the paper that Western Union sent their last one in the states some months ago, but does anyone else do it?

Loyal readers, my apologies for writing so little lately. I've jsut been busy having adventures, living my nice life with my adopted family here, cooking up a storm, raging hard in Haad Rin from time to time, swimming, hiking, loafing, spinning my poi, reading, and drawing. Spinning my pi is a new party trick I picked up, even though it's an annoying hippie fad. It's fun and it's a way to get the blood moving and get my butt out of my hammock. Sort of like exercise, but mostly just for the arms and shoulders. What they are is two weighted banners on the end of two-foot strings that you whirla round you at high speed. It looks pretty cool if you've never seen it before. I tried it with the flaming wieghts the other night for the first time. No harm done. It's a nice little hobby. Not highly demanding, but I think hobbies that get your blood moving are quite salubrious. Helps you work off the buckets.

love
Tom