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Vietnam/Thailand in May


sabu

14-Jun-2005
10:15:14 PM

are there many groups still up there?


cheesehead

14-Jun-2005
10:31:21 PM

When I left 3 weeks ago there were. No big-ticket organisations though


wonderdog

15-Jun-2005
11:11:04 AM

Where is the guidebook available from? Can I mail order it?


billk

15-Jun-2005
12:07:14 PM

Hi

In response to Sabu's question, there are between 100 and 200 volunteers on Phi Phi at any time. They are most organized by an organization called Help International Phi Phi, which is an offshoot of a Dutch organiztion that was founded to help people in South African townships and has since spread its involvement more widely.

The aid effort in Khao Lak is more spread out so its hard to judge exactly how many volunteers are there. Tsunamivolunteer, who Mat and I were with probably has around 200. The other volunteer groups are smaller.

There are also two Royal Thai Army construction teams in the Khao Lak area. They are fantastic guys. If only the Indonesian Military was doing similar things in Aceh.

I should qualify my previous comments about missionaries and what they are up to.

Firstly, as Mat noted in a previous post, there are many Christians there who were there out of the goodness of their hearts and have no truck with using the disaster as a tool to gain converts.

I worked shoulder to shoulder with some Mormons, who I had heard some not-good things about before meeting them. I was all ready to dislike them. Sure enough, they had been sent there on a mission. However, the rumours about these people were not true. Their mission was to help meet the material needs of the local people and they were explicitly forbidden from proselytising. They really struggled with Thai food, the weather and maybe with Thainess more generally. They probably also struggled a little with the amount of swearing and beer drinking the other volunteers got up to. All of that added to my respect for them.

As to the missionaries who were out to get converts, I didn't meet any of them directly. Funnily enough I didn't meet any of the Mafia either. However, I'm pretty sure that both groups of adversaries really are out there stuffing things up.


billk

15-Jun-2005
5:58:41 PM

Here are some links to stories about what the mafia is up to in Thailand:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Asia-tsunami/Thai-mother-fights-for-daughters-memory/2005/03/11/1110417688788.html

http://www.asinah.org/blog/2005/03/this-land-is-our-land.html

http://www.biz-day.com/read/general_news/31_may_05/zsevj-j/last_years_tsunami_returns_test_thaksins_sincerity.htm

I did some work at Laem Pom. Let me tell you, it doesn't look like the spot for a beach resort at the moment but that's what the "Far East Company" is supposed to have planned.

The mafia won't show their faces when there are any farang (westerners) around so the volunteers mere presence is a major obstacle to them. Also, by helping speed up getting houses built and families back into them, the volunteers may make the mafia decide the land grab just doesn't make good business sense.

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