Ants in My Pants
Friday, November 26, 2004
Thoughts from Thailand Part II
Night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Nov. 10-11: Woke up just before 6am, went and stood between the cars and looked to the east. The smallest of crescent moons was about 15 degrees above the horizon, and a bright planet another 15 above that, as if ready to drop in the moon's waiting saucer. Pink light in the background. Foreground: rice paddies, forests, mists rising, herons flying, small towns awakening. Great.
Life in Pai: here for 2 weeks now, maybe 1 more, before back to the beach. Great little town in the mountains, great chilled out people, good food, nice day and night life. Meeting many fantastic locals and travellers with great stories to tell. About to celebrate Loy Kratong, which I did in Chiang Mai last year; but now fun to do in a smaller environment.
Waves: damn it's great when the waves hit the beach, body surfing provides hours of entertainment.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Not an apologia, but anapologia
When I started travelling overseas 5 years ago, I will admit to being somewhat ignorant. Not, as some people accused Americans of being, of the rest of the world, but rather, of the opinion the rest of the world had of Americans. It was a little annoying perhaps, but fairly harmless stuff: the export of certain American culture. People would give me grief about Jerry Springer or Ricki Lake, or the McDonalds-ization of the world, or Brittany Spears. But hey, like I said, pretty harmless, mostly in jest, and I could easily respond with examples of better tv, food, music, etc.
After 9-11-01 I received a lot of support from my international friends, and I greatly appreciated it; there was certainly a feeling of good will and cooperation.
And then, at some point, I started hearing more and more complaints about American imperialism, when Bush started the full-court press on going after Iraq. It was a bit of a shift from the fairly light criticisms above, and I wasn't exactly sure how to respond. Sure, I knew I was opposed to Bush and his war-mongers, and my feeling was that all my friends back home were too (well, for the most part they were). But I still tried very hard to defend Americans from these sweeping generalizations that were being voiced: we were ignorant of the rest of the world, uninformed, uninterested, and unwilling to cooperate. I've always tried to maintain that there was a great distinction between Americans and the American government. Sure, I knew some people would back Bush whatever he did, but I always felt that the populace as a whole would surely be aware of his idiocy, incompetency, and radical right-wing thinking.
And now. Well. I'm lost. I can't really defend Americans as a whole anymore. Sure, I can defend the demographic to which I belong: fairly well educated, liberal, intellectual and reasonably secular (or non-maniacally religious). But America as a whole...well, whatever's coming our way, there's no way I can defend us. I am so astonished at this election. That people can honestly re-elect a lying, bull-headed, illiterate, environment raping, civil liberty eroding, apocalyptically religious thinking, coke-head alcoholic child of privilege who clearly is incapable of any kind of independent thought; it just amazes and disgusts me.
I can't even coherently end a post like this. One of the reasons I wanted to head off to Thailand before the Republican Convention, and this election, was the amount of frustration and aggravation any political discussion caused me. And now, once again, I am just apopleptic. No way to end a post like this neatly, whatever happens now, well, I guess it's the fault of all of us. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a BUMPY ride.
