As we round out the four year anniversary of the war on a virus I’ve been pondering how unwinnable wars are in general. Pitting the human race against the human race has no winners.
“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” Smedley Butler
I suppose if you are well to do you might be able to abstract “winning” as being a fatter portfolio or sone idealogical thing about money and power. But in the world of the real flesh and blood it is only chaos and destruction.
Even that world of feeling pretty at a party, or money and power, feels so fake to me anymore. How were people’s egos built up and crafted to see those as the most important things? God created life and man created money. Which should hold more sway?
Greetings from a construction site in Phuket. If I had to estimate our new location just look at a map of Phuket and try to figure out where the exact center of the island is. I’m around there somewhere. Unfortunately being inland it is very hot, averaging 95 F/35 C in the daytime. If Ka could swing for the next construction site to be on the beach or something that would be great. Hopefully there is no next construction site.
Leveling every tree and plant in the area down to bare dirt to start is not congruent with my nature loving style:
I’m sure it will be a lovely house after they build it up and put all of the approved perfectly landscaped plants back in. My husband has planted a small vegetable garden in the corner:
You could definitely classify the current living situation as temporary. But an interaction a few days ago at 7 Eleven had me thinking about something.
Also don’t poke the bears, Ka.
My husband wasn’t kidding about there being many farang in the area. With Loch Palm golf course nearby and the closest other landmark being BIS, that is British International School, the premier private academy on the island, there’s no doubts some elites are passing me in their private cars. It’s a rich farang area.
There’s lines of red light bars on the main strip filled with beautiful Thai women hoping to cash in. There’s clear hierarchies in areas like these and my husband bears all of the markings of a lowly, low paid Thai construction worker. In Isaan our reputation as a couple preceeded us, in Bangkok people take what you say at face value without asking questions, and when my half Thai daughter was with us people could easily assemble us as a family. Here none of that is going on and Ka is sporting the tan from all of the long hot days in the sun. Most of the time his shirt is dirty too.
So some days ago we walked into the 7 Eleven. Two men were speaking in Russian language to each other and the older one noticed me, giving me clear hey baby nice body vibes.
“Excuse me?” My husband said, putting his arm around my waist possesively. “This my wife she.” Both men arched their eyebrows. I got the strong vibe that neither of them would normally talk or interact with somebody of Ka’s stature at all. “Where are you from?”
“Oh we stay all around.” The younger man said breezily in very good, albeit somewhat accented English. It’s rare for the Russians to speak English or to even show that they can.
“You stay near the golf course? Loch Palm?” Ka persisted.
The younger man rolled his eyes as though such a thing was below him. “I don’t like golf.” The man said, looking at me with a hey baby vibe.
“Okay thank you so much. Have a nice day.” My husband said as he hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I could tell from both of the men’s eyes that this did not compute. They began talking to each other in Russian again, bought their top shelf liquor and left.
“Please don’t poke the bears, Ka.” I said as we left the store. But it occured to me that these men had built careful hierarchies in their heads. Whatever probably corrupt things they had done to enjoy money and status did not matter as much as the money and status did. Everything was for sale. They could pick any woman they wanted to. Yet I’m not interested in indecent proposals.
They can’t see any other side to the world. How sad. Ka threatened something in them.
Beware the Ides of March indeed. There’s a nervousness I sense in the air around here. These things must stay hidden and operate on a subconscious level. Once it comes to the surface they have to resort to straight up murder. To them this is what winning looks like:
Travel website Kayak has now moved a feature to exclude certain airplane makes and models from your flight searches:
Remember when things lasted?
Lab grown meat being promoted as vegan is about as wrongheaded as electric cars being promoted as energy efficient
And why would they do that unless their goal is to starve people?
Sometimes all of the money in the world just doesn’t get things done. At least not in a way that promotes the well being of the people living here:
It’s all castles in the sand. But so far I suppose all is as well as it could be. At least my husband got his new passport!
It's so hard to comment - because all I want to say these days is: Those F*****s! When will it stop!??
Im pretty sure those fridges were from the 70's. There were two colors, "harvest" green or gold. They became ugly to everyone over the years as the colors became "dated." Now we wish we still had one🤗