My Niece Nong Ja, Isaan Thailand.

This is the girl that keeps me sane, well also drives me a little crazy at times but I love her death. Nong Ja has been such a huge influence on Noot and my life as we have brought her up.

I have had people ask, “Why do you and Noot look after Ja and not her parents?”

I remember asking this question when I was a greenhorn here in Isaan Thailand and going out into Barn Nawk (Hillbilly country). “Why are there so many young kids with old people? (Grandparents and 40 plus people)”

And when the answer was their parents are away working in Bangkok, abroad and so forth, I would shake my head in disgust. I would think how bad these people were and that they were not good parents and so forth.

I knew Isaan was meant to be the poor area of Thailand. I had read the demeaning stories and heard how Bankokians spoke of Isaan people.

The fact is that all the factories need labour, the shops need assistants, the sex tourism industry needs the girls to satisfy the customers, and on it goes. This labour needs to come from somewhere and the Isaan area is huge, a massive area. There are not a lot of jobs in the Isaan area. Especially for the thousands upon thousands of graduates from the universities each year.

These kids need to work, they cannot work the farms, their parents do this, and a few of the others from the family, so they are sent to the city to find work, send money home to their parents from their meagre wage they earn in the city to help with the upbringing of offspring, parents and at times brothers that sit around drinking and smoking each day.

I remember one little boy, he was about 5 years old, his grandparents looked after him. He ran around in the village, half the time naked, filthy dirty and so on. When I enquired to where his parents were, I got;

Dad disappeared a long time ago and his mum works for a telephone company in Vietnam. How often does she come back to see him? “She hasn’t been back for three years, no time or money,” I was told.

This happens in villages all over Thailand, I used to joke of the missing generation, the late teens to 30 year old girls, many are just not there. There are the young kids, and then you skip through to 40’s up. There are plenty of 20 to 30 year old boys usually. Many are useless and spend there days doing a little work before drinking each evening at a local shop, fighting and riding off on their motorbikes smashed.

Ja's mum works in Singapore and comes back every 6 weeks for 10 days, and her father lives here in Ubon Ratchathani but runs his business so this leaves little time for him to look after her.

At first Ja’s parents were going to send her to Bangkok to her father’s parents but this idea was quickly knocked on the head. Then it was Noot’s mother, but her mum and dad wanted her brought up away from the Thai village lifestyle. Not that there is anything wrong with this.

Anyway, they approached Noot and me, Noot had just finished her degree and I wanted her to continue studying. Noot was not sure what she wanted to do. They offered her an amount of money per month that would take her years of hard work to earn. She earns double the salary of what my old team teachers at Assumption College earn.

I told Noot that it was her choice, but it would not help her if she wanted to try and gain employment with a gap after she graduated. She has continued her Japanese studies online, and I have had her doing some work for me during the day which means more time for me at home and less hours on the computer.

Ja will be off to school next year, well kindergarten part-time and this will free up more time for Noot and then in a few years she will be off to primary school. But this is not going to be in Thailand, 100% sure of that. This is still about three years away but plans are already in place for a move of destinations.

Is Noot doing the right thing? Should have she continued her studies? Would having a master degree in a certain field be worth a grain of salt anywhere but in Thailand, a bachelor’s degree isn’t in many fields.

All I can say is that I am so happy that Noot did decide that we would look after Ja fulltime, she has enriched my life so much, I have so many amazing memories just over the last two and a half years and look forward to all the years to come.

What Would You Do? What Are Your Thoughts?

Now before I say what the punishment should be for the people who did this, what do you think? What would you suggest for these cowardly dogs?

I read this report in The Daily Telegraph a newspaper from Sydney in Australia.

59 years old Marie Martin and her 9yo guide dog Lockie were on their daily walk to their local shops. Lockie has been Marie’s guide dog since she went blind 8 years ago.

Marie was listening to her reading machine in one ear while listening to what was happening around her with the other.

She said, “I heard a car pull up behind me, I felt someone behind me so I started walking a little quicker.”

What happened next is sickening and an absolutely cowardly attack.

She was hit over the head and pushed at the same time and she crashed to the ground.

She was tangled in Lockie’s harness and as she turned to face the person/people who pushed her, she was hit across the face with something solid and had her bag snatched.

Lockie panicked and fled home which was nearby; Marie then made her own way home. A friend arrived and took her to hospital to have the 3cm gash across her nose stitched.

Lockie has been traumatised as well as he is now growling at people approaching the front door.

Police have interviewed a 17 year old after they received information about a posting he made on Facebook, he allegedly bragged about the attack.

He has been released without charge pending further enquiries.

The people made off with $50 in cash and her reading machine.

What I would like to know is this? Before I offer what I think the punishment should be?

What would you do if this was your mother or grandmother?

I know what I would do, without any uncertainty!

And lets not go into the excuses of drunkenness, drugs, hard upbringing and any other bullshit these people will plead when caught.

Part 1. Why I Changed Schools, Isaan Thailand

I have been asked by a few people why I left my old school. Was there a problem? What really happened? I haven’t said anything as I wanted time to think things through before even thinking about writing about anything to do with Assumption College and my departure.

Plus it isn’t just one thing but a build up of things over time, so it cannot be pooled into a short post, or summed up in a few paragraphs.

This post will cover the very start and will not interest many people but maybe some. I will be candid and very truthful, there are plenty of teachers from the school who drop by this blog and if I try to sweeten the truth I hope they call me on it, but I won’t as everything I say will be what happened.

Back at the start of the school year, way back in May 2010, we arrived back at school and we had a new Brother. Brother Fern is his nickname, I met him and he immediately impressed me with his presence. He was very confident; he strode everywhere and was confident using his English.

Over the next few weeks I was more than impressed with Brother Fern, he was very proactive, walking the floors of the school, looking in classrooms making sure students and teachers were doing what they were meant to be doing.

Why did this impress me? Well the only other brother, Brother Sakda that I worked under who I can truthfully say I never had a problem with as I hardly ever seen him. In the 4 years I spoke to him maybe a handful of times; he walked past my classroom maybe twice in four years. And this was escorting important people or a committee.

So seeing Brother Fern, everyday walking past the classroom, stopping and looking at your class, checking of students was a breath of fresh air.

After just a few weeks, my secondary classes, year 10 and year 12 hated him; they despised him because he believed in the rules and enforced the rules. He would be at morning assembly, walking amongst students and offering advice for students stepping out of line. In the afternoons at home time, he would he there to say goodbye to students and also speak to any parents that wandered by.

This did not happen before. Brother Sakda was more of a background brother, Brother Fern was hands-on, and he was in control. I still to this day think he is good for the school, for the education of the students but as a person I do not have an ounce of respect for the man. He is a liar and once you have lied directly to my face, you will never get my respect back. He did this one day and from that day on I did not respect him, never wai (Thai greeting) to him, or spoke to him. More on this at a later date.

The first problem happened not long after school started. Something happened over the holidays that caught the school with its pants down, big red face stuff. Caught taking money from teachers that wasn’t theirs. As simple as that.

Foreign teachers have tax taken from their pays each month, 3% of their wage is deducted for tax reasons. This is fine as we all have to pay tax, or so I believed.

A teacher had gone to the government tax department here in Ubon as he needed his tax receipt for his visa. The teacher uses a marriage visa and was going to renew his during the holidays. This is where it gets interesting.

The lady at the tax department tells him, “you do not have to pay tax! You do not earn enough!”

Are you sure? Can you check? And so on but it was true some teachers on certain salaries, the first few years did not earn enough to have tax taken from their pays.

Well this did not sit well with some teachers once word went around. Why was the school deducting taxes knowing for certain that they did not have to pay taxes? And they knew as they did have to pay taxes for some of us who were over the tax threshold.

Excuses were, the money is used for visas and other things, but in the contract it states all visa fees and charges are paid for by the school.

So the first month was interesting as the calculations were made for how much each teacher was owed. Some teachers had sweet fuc$ all returned but others had a few thousand baht and one teacher over 20,000 baht. Greedy little pigs caught with the hands in the cookie jar.

Then I was approached, Jason you know the school has been good to you, and they have helped you and so on. The school has only been deducting 2% from your wage for tax (that is what is stated in the contract). I nodded my head and kept waiting for the punch line. Then it came.

Jason, the school hasn’t been taking enough for tax so you actually owe (I can truthfully not remember the exact amount) 30,000 baht. But the school doesn’t want you to pay because you have been a good teacher and so on.

I chimed in and said, “That is good because I would not have paid a red cent, it states 2% in my contract and if it was more than that then the school should have let me know. I am happy to pay my taxes.”

It went back and forward telling me that the school didn’t want me to pay it back and me saying that was good because I wouldn’t and I am not grateful that the school was being “so nice” to me.

Anyway, this made certain people not happy. How dare the foreigners complain about this and expect money back. So things started to sour from this time on. I believe it did but maybe other teachers didn’t.

And then things become nastier. How? Well some old teachers who no longer worked at the school contacted them and asked for their money back. One was owed 16,000 baht from memory.

Well accusations flew. Who told them? How did they know? The knives were out for the snitch. I wish it was me.

Well here you go. Any teacher who worked at Assumption College Ubon Ratchathani you could be owed money, contact the school and tell them, Brunty sent you.

It took a few months and some angry words from some teachers, some going to the finance office and asking strongly about what was going on. And I know that school was accused of stealing their money (the teachers) and the school didn’t want to pay it back. And this was effectively what happened.

It was explained that the money had to be approved by brother, and that it could not be paid until then. To cut a long story short, it was finally paid. I cannot remember the exact date or even month but it was at least a few months for sure as it really affected the atmosphere for a while.

Please, if you do not agree with what I have written or I am wrong then correct me if anyone from the school reads this as it is the truth from what I remember. You can remain anonymous of course.

But to me this really changed the atmosphere for me; foreign teachers had become trouble makers or people who were not Thai. See Thai people love Thai people because they are “yes” people.

If you are a senior person, have been longer at the school, a higher rank, have a bigger di##. Okay well the last one doesn’t matter; you are expected to just agree with anything that is asked of you. You are meant to say ‘yes’ to everything.

You are not aloud to be the stone that causes ripples in the flat water, very, very bad indeed. I had explained many times that most foreigners speak their mind. If they believe something is not right, is not a good idea, they will say so. There are the foreigners that suck ass, they are white Thais.

These are the ones scared shitless of losing their jobs, they need their jobs as they have Thai family and no other source of income. They need their work permit to stay in the land of smiles as they cannot afford a retirement or marriage visa, have the 800,000 in the bank for three months. So they just slide under the radar quietly. They do have a point of view but never in front of a boss or a Thai teacher.

If you say anything, anything at all in front of a Thai teacher, it will be spread like a wildfire during the lunchbreak and by the end of the day; the Chinese whisper has of course been manipulated into something outrageous and comical most times.

There were times where things were deliberately said in front of certain people as you knew that this would be the “news of the day” even if not true and just for fun. Like leaving certain articles on your desk, or say job applications laying around the office and see the enquiries of, “Who printed this? Who is looking for a new job?” It was funny at times, to me.

This school year, the camaraderie between the foreign and Thai teachers has been its lowest ever, many unhappy people. I personally couldn’t have cared less. I had a job to do and did it to 100% of my ability.

I did my job, my Thai team teacher and I got on well, she tolerated me and I her. As for my secondary classes, my team teacher never set foot once in my classroom, and I never expected her to. If you cannot teach senior students to understand what is being taught without the use of a Thai teacher, you need to adjust your lesson. As simple as that for me.

This is just the first instalment, part of the reason I changed schools. It will get a lot nastier yet, and there will be some unhappy people about the truth, but it is the truth and will be told.

The next part I am not sure when, when I get time I will start tapping away. But as I said, it was an accumulation of many things, not just one and there are things I did wrong. I am not claiming to be an angel. And I will lay it all out on the table. I have nothing to hide.

Brunty.

Old Pictures From Months Ago, Isaan Thailand.

I have been lazy of late… well lazy as always. I have so many pictures I haven’t looked at that have been taken over the past few months or longer. That is the only problem of having large memory cards of 16 or 32 GB. You can store a lot of photos before they even start to look a little full.

I have been trying to upload some old stuff lately and delete them off the card. The pictures that are deemed acceptable are backed up to an external drive so if anything goes wrong with the computer (touch wood it doesn’t) they will not be lost.

Way back on Christmas Day we had a busy day, we were up a little late, then headed out to a friend’s house for lunch until the early evening and then it was off to the expat hangout called N-Joy for Christmas dinner.

I stayed on for a few extra beers after dinner and all the girls returned home. I forgot that they hadn’t opened their presents. So they did that and took a few snaps as they were doing this below.

These were all presents sent from my mum and dad back in Australia, so thanks Nancy and John and Ja was pretty happy.

This is Noot’s glass bird, if you cannot be bothered looking at the larger pictures it says, “Thinking of You. I have you in my thoughts today. And hope you think of me. You are a friend who is very dear, As you will always be.

Well Noot thinking of mum and dad is a hard one as a Thai girl’s thoughts are, sleep, food, sleep, food, Thai TV drama, food and sleep but I am sure she fits it in somewhere.

Noot looking so happy.

Ben with one of her presents ready to be unwrapped.

The girls looking pleased.

This picture was taken before disaster. Just behind Noot’s presents was Ja, and as soon as Noot took the picture Ja tried to pick up the little angel looking thing in a snow dome. Of course it fell over and broke. Tears flowed, but not from Ja as apparently Noot really liked it as it was so lovely.


But the best presents were of course reserved for me. My lovely mother bought these for me as my father would never touch anything to do with Collingwood Football Club. The biggest, best and most popular football club in Australia.

Just in case you couldn’t read the cap insignia, Premiers 2010. And we will be adding 2011 this year as well, a shoe in.

And to end the blog, Nong Ja with Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. He is as big as her and she likes to fight him. Thankfully she was a little worn out here and happy to watch one of her Power Rangers DVDs.

Brunty

When Will The Students Killing and Fighting Stop, Thailand

It is hard for me to not get angry and criticise government ministers or the police at times just to name a few. I have people offer me advice and tell me to be careful what I write at times as I could put people offside and maybe my visa wouldn’t be renewed amongst other things.

I appreciate that people offer me advice and at times I have written things and then changed them to be more politically correct, but sometimes it needs to be told straight forward.

I have written about this problem before on many occasions, being the war that vocational school students wage on each other. These kids make me sick to the stomach and the government and police just piss me off as they seem to sit back and let the endless fighting and sadly senseless deaths continue.

There are over 800 vocational schools across Thailadn but the majority of the problems occur in Bangkok and its surrounding suburbs. These vocational schools offer an opportunity for all the kids that leave school at the age of 16, they can learn a trade and many other opportunities for them exist.

I would say that 95% of all students enrolled in Vocational schools are male and they cause 100% of the trouble. I will just go over a few of their latest senseless fights they have had.

I wrote back on September 2nd about a 9 year old boy killed by the fighting between vocational students, he was innocently on his way to school on a crowded public bus when he was shot.

Then on November 16th, rival students threw a ping-pong bomb onto a crowded bus trying to hurt rivals, it landed in the lap of an innocent 20yo who was a mechanic for Nissan, his girlfriend and soon to be wife were going to the market to buy food. The explosion ripped his stomach open causing his intestines to spill out of his body.

Then on the 21st of January 2011, a fight involving about 50 students, led to the death of two 16 year old vocational students. They were both shot buy gunmen under the age of 18.

This prompted the Education Minister, Mr. Chinnaworn Boonyakiat to close the schools as a week as a punishment and if further problems occur then they could be closed for good. Believe that when I see it.

Then last night as I sat waiting to watch the F.A Cup game between Manchester United and Crawley Town a news bulletin showed footage of a fight between rival students at a 7-11 store. It was disgusting seeing the complete disregard these buffoons showed for innocent bystanders as they went on a rampage through the store.

In all about eight or ten students were involved in the fight, two students are seen with weapons, one looked like it was a large knife or machete and the other a gun. I am trying to find footage taken by the security cameras in the store but no luck yet, but when I do find I will upload here and you can watch the sickening attack.

Two students had no chance, an 18yo was shot dead in the store, and a 16yo was seriously wounded.

They arrested three of the suspects and the 4th they know who he is and when they went to his parents house he had not been home, I hope they get this worthless piece of shit sooner than later.

Again the Education Ministry have ordered the schools closed for a week.

How can these people be so stupid! All this means is there will be lots of these kids wandering about for a week in large numbers. Closing the schools punishes the decent kids who want a trade qualification, and it give the dickheads a week to cause god knows what trouble.

The Office of the Private Education Commission director (Opec), said the ministry has threatened to shut down both schools for an additional week if a row erupts again.

Sorry, but fuck me. This is coming from so called educated and well schooled people. What is closing the school for a week going to do you Neanderthals?

The director from OPEC has ordered schools to increase security and keep a closer eye on students.

Oh come bloody on! This has been going on and on for years, it didn’t just happen overnight.

The mother of the slain boy said, “authorities should do more to tackle the problem of student brawls, as they have already resulted in several deaths.”

See this lady is sensible, it is the responsibility of the authorities, from the government, police, and the education ministries to get serious. They have blood on their hands. They sit back and these killings continue and yet they seem to do nothing.

She also said, "I'm asking to parents to help control their children so they will not cause others sadness,"

Yes, the parents. What are they doing? Now I am not trying to be nasty and sound derogatory but many of these kids are the scum scraped off the floor of the shithouse, they have been terrible at school, left at 16 years of age and just continued on their spiral toward a life that is equating to nothing.

Should parents be held responsible at all?

And then sadly the mother said this, "I believe my son will not be the last victim,"

Again this is sadly true as so many people know this is the case.

The Ministry staff will meet representatives from both institutes tomorrow to discuss measures to avoid a repeat of the incident. They will also call a meeting with six other vocational schools whose students have been involved in brawls.

This is an endless merry-go-round, meetings and was to stop the fighting and so on happen but innocent people are dying. If they were just killing each other I really couldn’t give a shit.

These are my ideas on how to start a clean up of the vocational schools.

The vocational schools have to pay for an elite special force made up of police officers or from the military, this force has unprecedented powers to stop and search any student. They can use whatever force is needed to search or detain a suspect.

The vocational schools students are banned from any for of public transport, special buses must be provided and paid for by these schools. They should be fitted with bullet-proof glass and windows that cannot be opened.

Vocational students are not allowed to wear their uniforms outside of the school grounds; they must wear civilian clothes to and from the school.

Have special sentencing laws for these students, double the penalties for students. If an assault is usually deemed 3 months in jail then make it six and so forth. Bring back chain gangs, hard labour for these fools. Make them work their asses off for the time they are incarcerated.

A mandatory rehabilitation programme back into the community and so forth are just a few of my ideas.

And the biggest, hold the directors, owners of the schools accountable. Make these people who are living rich aware they will have all their assets stripped and they could be jailed unless they make every effort to clean up their schools. This means not enrolling students just because they pay their fees as many schools do in Thailand.

And then the Opec director said “students who commit acts of violence lack a sense of social responsibility.” He believed, “they may be suffering from mental problems and require professional treatment.”

I am going to leave that well alone, but again this is coming from the head of OPEC.

Brunty

A "This is Thailand" T.I.T Moment, Isaan Thailand.

You have probably heard the saying, “This is Thailand” (TiT) saying if you have been in Thailand a little while. I often use it in some situations and will say T.i.T. I had a real doozy last night.

I was at home working away on the computer when I thought about dinner, it was after 9pm and I thought of something easy and different being porridge. I hadn’t had it for a while so I started getting everything ready.

I opened the fridge and the milk was nearly empty, no worries I thought. Nong Ja will need milk tomorrow so I just jumped on my motorbike and headed over to Big C shopping centre.

It is a minute away from my house. So I arrived and it was easy to park as most people have gone home and the car-park market that takes place every day from mid afternoon till 9pm, most vendors were mostly packed up and gone.

So I wandered up the escalator and grabbed a basket on the way into Big C. Made my way to where the milk is kept and was met with empty shelves, not a single bottle of milk. WTF?

I thought a joke, maybe a hidden camera show seeing how people react to empty shelves. I wandered off to grab a few other things before returning and hopefully seeing a Big C employee to ask what happened to all the milk. I already had an idea.

So I returned to the milk section, and there is a young guy packing the yoghurt and other products into crates. I asked the guy in English first, “where is the milk?” but was met with “what did you say, in Thai.”

So I asked in Thai and he happily with a big smile explained that it had been put away. So I enquired to, ‘why is it put away?’ and the reply was, ‘to keep it cool.’

He was just an employee and I smiled and said thank you. I made my way back to the entrance of the store and then down to where the managers usually congregate. Of course there was not a soul to be seen.

I waited a few minutes and saw some checkout people looking funnily at me. Eventually I made my way to one and asked, “Doo Jat Gaan Tee Nai Khrap?” or Where is the manager?

She replied with, ‘I don’t know!’ and then asked me to wait a minute the classic “bpeep neung”.

So after a few minutes a lady turns up, the manager and I ask if she speaks English, “Phoot Mai pben” or I cannot speak English.

So I asked her, “What time do you close?” ‘11pm,’ she answered. It was just after 9.30pm.

“Why is the milk all put away?” She replied, ‘To keep it cold, we do every night.’

“Why do you put away before closing time?” This was met with a stupid and blank stare.

She then asked, “Would you like some milk?” To which I replied using the ‘never mind,’ Thailand’s most popular saying.

I pressed on.

“Do you think it is stupid the milk is put away before closing time?” She replied, “I can get milk for you!”

I repeated the question again and again was met with a blank face, and then she said, “we do this every night.”

Now, I wasn’t angry, not at all. I was very calm and if anything found it amusing.

So I offered some advice.

I think it is a good idea that you do not put the milk or anything away until the store closes.

I asked, “What do you think?” This was met with ‘I don’t know.’

I could see that she was uncomfortable so I gave up; I said ‘thank you’ and was getting ready to leave when she asked, “would you like some milk?”

Now I appreciate her thoughtfulness but I politely declined and left and made my way around to the 7eleven and bought a small bottle.

So, what did I learn from all of this? I learnt that if I want to buy milk from Big C shopping centre I have to be there at least two hours before closing time.

I would have liked to ask why they put the all the dairy products away each night. I understand that they probably turn off the large refrigerated cases, but wouldn’t it be easier to have covers or pull down shutters and then just turn the fridge temperatures down.

But that is my T.I.T story that I thought was funny, I don’t know if you found it funny but I did and if you have a T.I.T story, please share and I would be more than happy to post if you wanted me too.

Brunty

The Battle of Two Wits, A 2yo and Brunty, Isaan Thailand.

The last few days have been interesting I can tell you. It started Last Thursday in the afternoon when I arrived home from work and noticed that Nong Ja had a bit of a cough. I was hoping it was nothing and just a itchy throat or something.

At school last week some teachers had been pretty sick with a flu, some had missed a few days of school and still have the remnants of the cold now, I didn’t get ill but I did have a little bit of a runny nose but that was it.

Anyway, Thursday night Ja coughed a little through the night and come Friday morning I decided that she should have some of her medicine kept in the fridge. I woke Noot before leaving for school (not a popular decision) and told her to give Ja the cough medicine and also if she gets a temperature the baby paracetamol called Sara.

So I went to school and called Noot about just before 1pm to check in and how Ja was, Noot said, “She will not take the medicine.”

This miffed me a little as Ja has always taken her medicines when needed, she has even asked to take it at times coming to us and asking in Thai to “eat medicine” if she felt unwell. So I found it hard to believe Ja didn’t want to take her medicine.

I arrived home Friday afternoon from school and Ja was her chirpy self, Noot said she had been coughing a little but had eaten and drank as normal so this made me happy. As the evening wore on Ja coughed and spluttered here and there.

So after we had dinner I got the two medicines ready and then said to Ja, “okay let’s take your medicine.” This was met with a flat ‘No’ and then I tried to explain that she needed it because she was getting sick and so on as you do with kids.

30 minutes later I was still getting the same response and thought I would try a different approach, I had read that people would put into their children’s water or juice, some said this was fine and others it was no good as it diluted the medicine.

With the medicine in some water Ja took a mouthful and spat it out complaining it tasted funny, cunning little cow she is…. What to do now as she had caught me out trying to be tricky and there goes the trust she had in me.

So I left it and left it until bedtime and then tried again, the same response came from Ja but I thought I was ready. I turned off the cartoons on the TV and this was met with blood curdling screams and howls of protest.

Then I tried to offer an option, I thought I had the upper hand here for sure. Okay Ja, you take the medicine and we will put on the TV and you can watch some cartoon for a little while. I had a grin like a Cheshire cat thinking how smart I was.

But the grin was wiped off my face quickly as Ja kept refusing to take her medicine. I didn’t give into her for the TV and angrily she eventually fell asleep, it took a good 30 minutes.

Friday and Saturday morning Ja’s coughing got worse, sometimes just the odd cough and other times small fits that woke her up but she would quickly fall asleep again. Also her temperature started to fluctuate, she got hot but not too hot and then would cool down. So a cool cloth to wipe her over and place across her head was done through the night. I can truthfully say I had maybe a hours sleep for the night.

Come Saturday I was tired and the stubborn Ja was coming to a loggerheads with the also Stubborn Brunty. After brunch, the medicines again came out and Ja again refused and that was it. I gave her a warning that I would force her to have the medicine (not that she understood). We had to force her to have medicine a few times when she was very small but for so long she had never been a problem.

So the showdown, I had the medicines ready, in the syringes and water on standby for afterwards. When I placed them in view on the table Ja was ready to take off, she knew what was going on. I grabbed her and laid he across my lap, Noot held her legs, I squeezed her cheeks so I could squirt the medicine in.

Well a disaster is an understatement. She got so worked up, like nothing before (I hated holding her down like this) and I did manage to get her to take some of the medicine but most was spat out with force ending up over me, and in her hair, eyes and over her face.

After a few minutes I gave up, I couldn’t believe how strong she was and also how upset she was becoming. So again a win to Ja. But I had one more thing to try. This was fail proof I thought.

Every Saturday and Sunday, Ja and I go to the market for a walk, buy a few things, just spend an hour or so wandering around. So I showered and dressed and Ja asked me “Jay Bai Nai” meaning “Jason, where are you going?” I replied with “to the market,” and Ja was up off the couch like a shot saying she was coming too.

Okay my plan was ready for action, “you want to come to the market” was met with a ‘yes’ and then I dropped the “you have to take your medicine if you want to go” but again she refused.

So on my motorbike with Ja in the background howling and screaming about wanting to come virtually broke my heart. But off I set, just to the local shop for a cool drink and to waste 5 minutes and then I returned home to Ja still crying and Noot looking a little ragged.

So I tried again with the whole scenario but Ja would just not relent, not a millimeter. I eventually gave in and took her to the market and we shopped as we always do and things were like normal, well except me feeling tired, frustrated and also a little stupid being beaten by a two year old.

So early afternoon we were off to the hospital, and the pediatrician listened to our hellish story and how Ja had turned into a monster, this was met with a gentle smile and the reassurance that kids can be trying at times.

While sitting in the doctor’s office, Ja kept insisting that we go home. The stethoscope came out and this is when Ja first whimpered a little. I doctor said that it sounded like a nasty infection and decided to give her a bad of fluid and also some medicine as well through the IV line once it was in.

This did go down well with Ja, she bawled when the needle was inserted (do not blame her) and was giving me looks that hurt so much even though I felt and also felt like telling her was her own fault even though she is just two and a half.

When the fluid and medicines had gone through we went and paid the bill, don’t have outpatient on her insurance and the bill came to 1,500 baht with about 5 medicines thrown in.

I asked the doctor, “what if I cannot get her to take these?” to which was replied, “bring her back tomorrow and we will go from there.

I thought that Ja might be a little more buoyed from the hospital visit, but when it came to medicine time she still refused and when we explained to her that she would have to go back to the hospital and have another needle, she replied with, “I won’t go.”

Poor Noot was getting down, she was frustrated, tired and at tethers end. I was not far behind her. We tried getting the neighbours to give the medicine to Ja thinking she may take it from them but also to no avail.

By Sunday afternoon Ja had coughed a few times in small fits and brought up thick yellow looking phlegm, each time she would go wide eyed and cry as she struggled getting this mucus up.

I told Noot that we needed to pack a bag as it looked like Ja would need to go to hospital again and this time more than likely overnight. Noot sat there just staring blankly at the TV, I could see in her eyes she was tired, worn out and when I again said that Ja was not well she freaked out a little, “I know, I know”

So I took Ja to the local clinic, only 5 minutes away from our house and they are pretty good there, I again went through all the shenanigans of the last few days, the lady readied and Ja received two more injections.

Back home I was met with, “where did you go?” and I said it will be okay until tomorrow but we still have to try to get Ja to take her medicine. I had been researching home remedies for the phlegm and cough with some of the suggestions being n the edge of absurd.

Ja likes yoghurt, and I had read about people putting the medicines into yoghurt so I shot across to Big C and bought her favourite coconut. So I would wait until she wanted some and try and slip the medicine into it and see if it worked.

So I was working away on the computer last night and I ventured out to check on all, on the table was an empty tub of yoghurt. I asked, “Who ate the yoghurt?” We did meaning all three of them.

I was ready to blow my stack as they knew what I had planned for the yoghurt but it was better to just turn around and go back to work. I went back out a little later to tell Noot that she would have to take Ja to the hospital tomorrow in the morning, met with no reply and just a blank stare at the TV.

When I reiterated this was important as Ja was sick, again it was met with, “I know, stop talking.” So knowing better I just went back to work and then off to bed.

Now sitting this morning at work and having the whole morning free I have read newspapers, looked at more suggestions on getting stubborn kids to take medicine and waiting to call Noot. So 11am just ticked by and I called, after “hello” I asked, “Have you been to the hospital yet?”

I think the reply was, “we haven’t showered and just finished breakfast and as the rant went on… I hung up.

Looks like an unhappy Valentine’s Day today in Isaan Thailand.

Brunty

Some of Australia's Scumbags Jailed, Not Long Enough.

I like reading newspapers, especially from back home to keep up with what is going on back there, but also many times I am disgusted at what I read. I keep forgetting that Australia even though we are meant to be an amazing country to live (is true) can have so many absolute pieces of shit living in it.

And another thing that really disgusts me is how useless the government run departments are back home. Here in Thailand it would not surprise me as it is just expected that government departments are useless and full of people who are skimming the cream off the top, under the table payments and the worst just not caring about their duty at hand (not all for sure but most is my opinion).

In Australia I am getting sick of reading about innocent kids being tortured by their so called parents and the majority of the time a government department know or knew about the living conditions, abuse and so forth going on. When you read stories after a child has died in their parents care and the abuse they suffered but before their death had been visited by government departments but they did nothing, people need to be charged and jailed, and that is not just the parents.

Photographer: Michael Burton Source: The Advertiser

One such case that has been in the news of late is of a woman, well a scabby bitch called Tania Staker(above), and three men being Luke Armistead, Michael Quinlivan, and Robert Armistead who put the 5 children through hell.

I will try and set the picture for you.

In a house in Adelaide, 6 adults and 21 children shared a house. They did this to defraud welfare payments, this is money given for free to people who cannot find work. There are many genuine people who are in this position but also the scum of Australia who will never work a day in their life and just collect welfare payments.

The house was a shithole, well it was worse, a squalor is even being too nice and the media named it “The House of Horrors.” A dead dog was rotting away in the backyard, the house smelt of urine and animal faeces were scattered about the place. But what Staker did to them is sickening.

She starved her kids, only her kids. All the other adults and children would eat first and “if” there were any scraps left they could then eat, apparently the only food eaten at the house was fish and chips or noodles. Because of this starvation their brains had shrunk, I didn’t know this was possible.

If any of the 5 kids were caught stealing food they were forced to vomit it up.

They were choked and beaten by their parents, and a cruel game of being made to line up against a wall and not move an inch for an entire day or longer, if the moved they were beaten. They at times had their feet and hands bound.

All the children were malnourished, and all had scabies. And it took a trip to hospital for the 4 year old boy that authorities finally found out about the squalor and torturous lives they were living.

The boy collapsed at home and was taken to the hospital suffering severe hypothermia with a body temperature of just 26C. He also was found to have a head injury, open wounds and of course malnutrition. The 4yo only weighed 1kg more than the 2yo.

Apparently Staker inflicted this reign of terror as she resented them and they posed a possible problem between her and her partner Luke. She was also jealous of the natural mother of a child as well. So she thought if she treated them bad they would leave. They were aged between 4 to 7.

She was found guilty of 2 counts of aggravated endangering life and 3 counts of aggravated creating a risk of serious harm, She has been jailed for 10 years with a non parole period of 6 years and 8 months.

The men have been jailed as well with non parole periods of 6 years.

Is this long enough? I don’t think so. They should never be released.

How could authorities not have known about this before the boy was taken to the hospital?

Aren’t there meant to be inspections by the welfare department checking these professional welfare cheats?

And Staker lived in Victoria before moving to Adelaide where authorities were aware of her I have read. So were these children again failed by the government, local or federal and the courts again failing them with such piss poor sentencing? These children will live with this for the rest of their lives.

And the sentencing judge, Justice Kevin Duggan needs to be cat and nine tailed. He made reductions in her sentencing because;

Staker had suffered horrendous abuse as a child, this left her with no parental instincts, or ability to empathize with her children.

Oh, piss off Justice Duggan, what a load of shit. Judges need to be put through a reality course, make them live in the real world for a while as sentencing across Australia is a joke the majority of times.

All these scumbags have a sob story of abuse, drugs, hardship and on and on. They choose their paths to walk, no-one else. All this shit and sympathy is shit and past so called history should be omissible in court. There are many victims who choose not to go onto a life of crime.

I hope they are not segregated in the prison and the prison population know what they did to become incarcerated so they get what they deserve everyday of their sentence. And if they don’t make it to the end of their sentence there would be no tears from me.

Just my opinion.

Brunty

Am I Being Too Harsh? A Brunty Rant Isaan Thailand.

I am sorry but I am going to rant. Today was the last straw after reading about a Bilby being named after a girl? I do not know this girl, never met her and 99% sure I never will.

Source: Herald Sun Newspaper Photographer: Chris Scott

The has been a bit of a media storm around this girl since she was thrust into the spotlight as a 16 year old, Jessica Watson was making a practice run in her boat Ella’s Pink Lady (Sponsored by Ella Bache) from Brisbane to Sydney when she ran into a 63,000 Tonne bulk carrier off of the Gold Coast in Queensland.

She had had been taking a 5 minute nap, checked her radar but somehow she missed this huge ship and went to sleep, the tanker tried to change course as they had seen her but couldn’t avoid the collision. Luckily the collision was minor considering what could have happened.

Okay I am sorry and will get on with it soon but, Jessica was making this test run as she was planning to sail around the world nonstop and become the youngest person to do this (unofficially as the governing body would not recognize the trip). After the collision there was a bit of a furore, people were scathing and said she should not be allowed to undertake the trip and for days, well weeks the newspapers and TV news ran stories about this.

My opinion was, let her go. It is her life she is risking and if she needed to be rescued that authorities made sure that her parents and sponsors pay every cent it cost to do the rescue. But as we know this cannot legally happen. If she lost her life at sea, charge her parents with neglect, so that was sort of my opinion at the time. Let her go but make sure there were clear stipulations if things went wrong.

She set off on her journey on the 18th of October 2009 from Sydney as quietly as possible even though the media had camped out waiting for her to set off. She returned 210 days later to a much larger reception of maybe 80,000 people.

Then more controversy as the journey eventually did not meet the WSSRC requirement of an orthodromic distance (shortest distance between two points in a straight line) of 21,600 nautical miles. According to her logs she sailed close to 23,000 nautical miles but this was also gybing and tacking.

I do think this was a great achievement and good for her to accomplish her goal and so on. I am happy for her.

But then she was nominated for Young Queenslander of the Year, she didn’t win thankfully but a girl named Yassmin Abdel-Magied, 19, who founded Youth Without Borders when she was 17. Then Jessica was nominated for Young Australian of the Year 2011.

These were the nominees for Young Australian of the Year 2011.

Young Australian of the Year nominees

ACT - David Bresnik (youth support volunteer)

NSW - Tara Winkler (orphan rescuer)This lady has helped orphaned kids in Cambodia, she started the Cambodian Children’s Trust. And you can watch a story on her from the ABC’s Australian Story. This young lady is an inspiration. It is 30 minutes long but 30 minutes well spent.

Northern Territory - Kalinda Griffiths (indigenous health researcher)

Queensland - Jessica Watson (adventurer)

South Australia - Vincent Bucksin (Aboriginal culture teacher)

Tasmania - Kirsty Albion (climate change campaigner)

Victoria - Angela Barker (Young care advocate) Went through a horrible time from the hands of an Ex boyfriend.

Western Australia - Clinton Heal (skin cancer survivor) Another inspirational story of a young person who has been through an amazing journey and is the founder of Melanoma WA after fighting his own cancer battle.

I have spent a few days reading anything that had been written about the nominees. It was hard as it was opening and reading pages here and there and took a lot of time but I didn’t want to seem that I had problem with Jessica Watson.

Jessica Watson won the Young Australian of the Year Award for 2011. I was a little miffed about this as were many other people when I was reading articles and the everyday Joe’s comments. Some people were just ranting and scathing, others were positive as I am trying to be.

I do think Jessica’s accomplishment was amazing for such a young girl, but it is an individual goal she set and it didn’t really contribute to anything in Australia, or change the lives of people in Australia or other parts of the world.

Yes, she probably inspired many people, and sailing numbers went up with kids and adults keen to learn how to sail. Her journey she found huge seas, suffered from loneliness (It was a solo voyage), she kept In contact with followers via a blog. But in reality, is this really an amazing feat?

On the Young Australian of the Year website they wrote, “She has shown that if you put your mind to it you can achieve what may at first seem impossible. Her courage and determination to defeat all odds is truly exceptional.”

Oh come on, I am sure I could come up with 50 people who have shown courage in a much different way, been through god knows what, given up all to help others and so on, but again I might be being a little tuff.

But what pissed me off and it shouldn’t have was reading a story in the paper where some idiots have named an endangered mammal called a bilby, Jessica. It is a nice little story but what made me get a little jacked off was this, “"It is a wonderful thing to have this rare bilby named after a teenager as rare and brave as Jessica Watson."

Rare and brave, oh bloody hell. But again maybe I am just being a little tuff.

Brunty

Thai Sport Day Shows, Isaan Thailand.

One thing from my old school Assumption College here in Ubon Ratchathani, that was always hard to get my head around were some of the costumes on certain days. For a Catholic school I am sure that some Saints would be rolling over in their graves if they attended one of our special days.

I think that it is all harmless, to a point. But sometimes the outfits are just wrong. I remember the first time I saw young primary 1, even kindergarten students dressed in what could only be described as red light working girls and asking if someone was taking the piss and playing a joke on me.

I then became numb to seeing outfits that would have parents back in Australia answering questions to child welfare agencies. The young students I always blamed the parents and the older students I also blame the parents.

I can truthfully say that if I had a daughter that was going to wear some outfits I have seen over my time at the school, she would not be setting foot outside and the school would receive a huge WTF is going on.

But many times I have seen parents dolled up worse than their student and I quickly realized it was a Thai thing that we foreigners just do not understand.

It isn’t just my old school but across Thailand that this happens, if you have ever been to a university sport day, you will know what I am talking about.

Anyway, below are some pictures from my last sport day at my old school, after the parade it was time for the shows, these are practiced for weeks with many hours of classes missed by participants.



These girls I think are secondary 5 or 6, so about 16 – 18 years old, I could only use a few pictures as others were not acceptable and had to be deleted. What is ironic about all this were the Brothers of the school and the highest Brother from Bangkok sitting watching these sorts of shows. I always thought that a Thai teacher would probably think this was not politically correct for Catholic Brothers to be watching, but again this would take common sense.

These boys did a boy-band lip-sync thing that was popular and there was lots of screaming and pretty tame.

Then some jumping rope and playing various sports were shown.

The one of the girls returned for some fire-breathing. I was, Oh, no! I hope nothing goes wrong. I had watched a show a while back where a young Chinese girl whose family were performers and one act was fire-breathers, it went wrong one day on video and her dad saved her but she was horribly burnt.

What worried me was how she kept the fuel in her hand, a big no, no if she did have blowback, if she panicked that entire bottle of fuel could have ignited. Below are just a couple of minor stuff ups.




Thankfully nothing went wrong and she did the show without any hiccups but I just thought of a student trying to do this back in Australia with Work Place Safety laws, no chance.



Next up was a Thai theme and as always the costumes are beautiful, the shows are much the same each year, but a lot of work goes into it all.





Each team does a show, it runs or at least 15 minutes, some can be very entertaining and different but often it is same thing just a different year.

As I said it is pretty harmless but what used to and still irritated me was the amount of time lost preparing for the day, and what made me even angrier were students who had no interest in studying or making an effort in the classroom, being so motivated and active if they have to dance like a pole dancer or shake their things like a $2 dollar call girl in Walking Street, and boys who wanted to sleep and just copy work becoming so polite and begging to get out of classes to go an practice dance routines, but again we are all different.

A Move is as Good as a Holiday, Isaan Thailand.

If you have read this blog before you know that I teach in Thailand, for years I worked at a private school called Assumption College but recently shifted to a government run school. The differences aren’t a lot when you look at the academic side, the students are pretty well the same. There are students that are very competent in English, your middle of the road and then the students who understand next to nothing.

One thing I have noticed that is different in the last 6 weeks is this; the majority of students’ politeness, respect they show. There are still the students who try and push the envelope and be the joker, they exist across the world.

I was very strict at the start to lay down the ground rules of my classes as the kids before had foreign teachers (no disrespect to them) that must have let them do what they liked.

The first class I noticed kids with phones out, or games, copying or completing work from other subjects, desks in no order just clumped together and that meant not being able to walk to the back of the class, and on it went.

I wrote a big “NO” on the board and then listed underneath it, phones, comics and so on. Also 1 week and then explained that if any of these items where seen they would be taken for that amount of time.

I also wrote, Be polite, show respect and in capital letters TRY, onto the board and explained that was all I wanted students to do, was to follow these three things in my class.

My first week was funny as my cupboard filled with phones, comics, books and so on. A piece of paper taped to each one with the student's name and date on it when it can be picked up.

I remember the first girl that answered her phone in class, a friend from a lower level had called her, I took her phone and she cried, and cried. She said she had to call her mum at the lunch break, so I told her to come to the office and she could do that at 12.30pm.

She arrived and she called her mum and then I spoke to her mum and told what happened and her mum was happy with what I had done. Another parent called her son during my class and he answered and when I asked, “why have you called him during class?” The response was, sorry, sorry and then she hung up.

Anyway, it took a week and the kids knew that what I said I meant. I walk into a class now and phones are turned off, books put away and desks are arranged properly. The “testers” as I call them, the students who see how far they can push the new teacher learnt quickly. A few warnings and then a call to their parents and a friendly chat about the behaviour or problem and each parent I called said, “thank you for calling and telling them” (only 5 students so far).

If these students start trying to go too far I make a I will call your parent signal and they settle down again, for a little while.

The other big thing I have noticed is this.

The school is not left wanting, after being at a private school where many students have parents with plenty of money and are given nearly anything they ask for or want (most students, not all) I was expecting the facilities to not be so fantastic.

I was so wrong. The internet which was such a sticking point at my old school was terrible, turtle like too often. The problem it caused was when you were looking for additional materials to complement what you were teaching, download flashcards and other teaching materials, it was frustrating. Hours and hours wasted over the years.

My new school the internet is just WOW, so fast, faster than my home. It has never been down. Yes this is a small thing but not to me.

The other thing that I laughed at was, in Assumption we had air-conditioned classrooms, a TV and that was it. When we needed a dvd player and such we went off to an office and signed one out and so on. Assumption had wifi internet, so when I needed that I could connect but many times and I mean many. I had planned a lesson needing the internet and get to the classroom and it isn’t working or the signal is in and out. I can tell you many times I had to count to 100 to keep my cool.

My new school has an individual landline that runs into each class; there is no wifi in the classrooms, so the students cannot access the internet. You walk in and next to your desk you have the line, plug it in and you are away, super fast internet.

Also the classrooms have a microphone and speakers set up in the 4 corners, this sends the sound out from the flat screen TV so all students can hear what is being broadcast. Also every room has their own DVD player, each department has their own as well, and we have one in the cupboard in the office.

Being able to use such media in teaching makes the learning experience for the students much more fun, you can show what is being taught in such a different light that captures their attention.

Materials, just in our office there are cupboards full of things a teacher needs, back at Assumption you needed to make a request, then this was checked by the head, this was then sent for approval from the Brother and you might get it within a week or not at all.

I would buy my own red and blue pens, for marking and doing school stuff, here they are supplied, bulldog clips by the box loads, stacks of folders, printer cartridges on standby and on and on. Small things but nice.

Sorry, I am getting carried away. Look, my old school looked after me, but I now see how much we were missing as well.

I have about ¼ of my old workload, seriously. My contact teaching hours are 6 hours less, 14 per week but I have not taught a full week yet, this week I only taught 9 periods.

And all the paperwork I had at my old school, I am talking too much. I don’t have one single Thai document to fill out at the new school. Not a thing. I only have correction to do and this isn’t a lot as the class I teach is “communication”, so we do lots of activities that require speaking and group activities.

Anyway, it could just be the ‘honeymoon period’; I might be looking through rose coloured glasses as they say.

Brunty