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All around the city shards of splintered wood, once side boards for shanty town homes, lie encased in cement stones which support multi-leveled highways crowded with traffic. The stones rest on the bones of indigenous people, who were burned away during the Khlong Toey re-invention. Now a museum stands in the center of town, built by the recycled tin rooftops that once kept out the rain for the poor. Memorializing the lives destroyed through the process of change. The children who once preyed their hands and huffed gasoline along road sides now work as janitorial staff for the museum, or security staff for the endless parking lots spread out over the city.
Pan tip Plaza is now the largest internet shop in the world. Offering unlimited downloads by the hour for 999 baht. Street side food stands have been replaced by drive through windows, old Laotian ladies in shiny pink aprons and hats. The meat on a stick has been replaced by buns for legal purposes. The plastic baggies are still there.
Essentially the homeland culture has been reduced to holidays and festive fairs which are now ‘zoned’ activities located in the outskirts of the city or fenced-in parks. Thai ‘speak’ is becoming merely social slang to use when talking behind their enemies backs. The language war rages on, with German, English, and Swiss leading the pact. It’s found out that Thai’s have secretly been learning Chinese and Japanese since conception. Queuess are formed by the former motorcycle taxi drivers and street wars, fueled by revenge, brew in the back of their minds. The cultural notions of good times and relaxation have been swept away and replaced by the drive for success in an international market place. The children in primary schools stare with dry eyes at computer screens, learning programming language, forgetting about the sun, and preparing themselves for a life of early morning to late night office work, and group housing.
Air conditioned market places, designed with poorly engineered wiring, sport international designs at outlet prices as foreigners flock with all kinds of currency, while the ground rumbles from the subway cars running below the streets. The streets are swept clean with electronic portable vacuum cleaners, imported from London, run from the power of minimum wage by the workers who step over the places they once slept and begged.
Nana plaza has been torn down, replaced by an array of internet fantasy shops topped with cyber porn, virtual sex, and million miles a minute multi media schemes designed to keep people coming back. Patpong’s night markets are moved away and replaced by parking spaces for Mercedes Benz and Jaguars while international business men are served umbrella topped drinks from girls in plastic bodies and diamond tooth smiles.
The police still sit in their little dry aired booths, now with their feet propped up, reminiscing on the many years of drug wars, murders, and turning on their own corruption. They smile at the submission and fear they now have from the general public. Thaksin has entered his (9nth) term. Because of the implementation of internet voting he has been able to rig every election through the promotion of SMS ballot casting.
by Robin
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