Hi,

We are connected to all sorts of people all over

Thailand--from lofty intellectuals to impoverished and oppressed villagers.

And everyone we have run into outside the program knows the program

director (who teaches most classes and is a good friend), and refers to him

with the honorary title meaning teacher, "ajaan". I have seen so much in

two and a half weeks it's unbelieveable--a word of caution to any who would

consider this course, though, there literally is not enough time in the day

for all the lectures, reading and studying you need to do. Oh, well, the

life of a repo man is always intense.

Things are still pretty good around here. I spent last night in a protest

village with people who have been protesting against the Pak Moon Dam since

its inception in 1994. They take turns living in the protest village and

trying to till the inarable land that the government offered as compensation

for land which is now a reservoir. These villagers had been in the protest

village (w/o permanent structures) for five months, and they still rally

every night. I travelled w/ two other students and the revolutionary

speaker and leader I mentioned before, who created the first

widely-published magazine critisizing the government in Thailand's (Siam's)

history. He speaks and laughs like a lion might if it grew up in Britain,

if you can imagine that. At any rate, I'm beginning to see multi-national

corporations and US Gov't policy from the opposite end--random note: from

my experiences here, we can not blame the depletion of the rainforests on

local slash-and-burn farmers. Those that I've met have extremely strong

beliefs in animism and in spirits of the land, and do their own reforesting

traditionally. Also, traditionally a farmer would clear so little forest

for his family's needs as to create no threat. It is only now that we have

the government driving down crop prices to boost the GNP/GDP and attract

foreign investors and multinational corporations making mono-cropping the

law that the farmers must clear huge patches of forest and drain the soil of

water and nutrients.

I'll see you before I can believe it.

-- Joe