Currently I’m trying to understand contemporary Thai politics. The lens I’m using is about 15,000 political campaign posters plus hundreds of news articles that I gathered in Thailand during the election last June and July. Right now I’m honing in on a number of themes and attempting to understand (well…’guess’ is a better word) what is driving those themes. Ultimately, I’m realizing more and more that it’s a mere attempt at simplifying social chaos into a coherent set of statements. While we might be able to (appear to) explain part of the social world within a few statements it strikes be as very much a process in the creation of illusions, soon to be replaced by new modified illusions. An unending stream of false understanding.

The hotel was basic, but clean, and I shared a room with a Professor called Rob from New York. He specialized in computer hacking…or preventing it. He said it was all much the same. He was getting a connection to some other part of China where he was visiting his girlfriend. It wasn’t Beijing, so I had no clue as to where it was, but I nodded in a knowing kind of way. We went to eat at a food stand nearby. In figuring out what kind of meat was on the sate sticks I followed Rob’s lead and made animal noises and exaggerated gestures. We both got blank looks so we just picked randomly. Whatever it was, it was good.

Next morning, the other passengers had left for early flights, but I had the whole day in Shanghai to wait for my plane. I had breakfast in the hotel’s rotating restaurant high above the Shanghai skyline. Unfortunately no one hit the rotate switch. I had the feeling that a rotating restaurant looked good on paper, but probably very annoying in practice. In addition to various Chinese breads, noodle and rice dishes, numerous eggs were on offer. It made me wonder why the hen gained such a monopoly on the edible egg market in the west. Maybe there’s a book in that, “Eggs: A History of the World”.

A friend of mine told me a few places to visit in Shanghai so I got them scribbled down in Chinese by a guy at the front desk, in case I needed to get a taxi. He seemed to have trouble with the word ‘temple’, though I presume there is a word for temple in Chinese.

I wandered around the local area a bit. It was a built up area, but very clean with lots of people on push-bikes and pavements you can actually walk along. (In Indonesia a combination of tropical weather, exhaust fumes, non-existent pavements, or pavements with wide gaping holes leading straight down into a sewer make it a challenge to walk.)

By chance I came across a subway/metro line. Large groups congregated around the ticket machines in a bit of a frenzy to get tickets and there appeared to be a bit of confusion over the myriad of subway lines. With it all in Chinese, I decided that I’d just get a cab. Exiting the subway, a stocky guy on a huge fuck-off motorbike beckoned me. A trip across town on the back of a bike seemed like a good thing to do so I showed him my translated destination. Hunched over his beast of a machine he looked up at me puzzled, grinned, and told me to fuck-off back down into the subway…or at least from his intonation, that’s what it appeared he was saying.

I took his advice, fought my way though the crowds, and with a bit of help from a few school kids, got a ticket for somewhere that sounded vaguely close to my destination. Past the metal detectors, through the styles, and with the help of a couple of old people, who gently waved me in the right direction with brightly colored flags, I found, and boarded a train. The train seemed brand new and was barely full. I was disappointed. I had been hoping and expecting it to be packed and needing the services of some guy with a big stick who would push me headlong into a sweating heaving train. After a few stops a uniformed guy came through the train shouting on an abnormally large megaphone. Everyone got off the train. I quickly followed suit. Never ever mess with a guy with a whistle, or a megaphone. We all boarded another train across the platform. At the next stop a big crowd raced into the carriage. The quick and nimble dashed forward, and with a few jumps and shimmies, they dived for the remaining seats.

I arrived in one of the busy shopping districts and walked up and down a wide pedestrian walkway. Modern skyscrapers loomed overhead and department stores opened out onto the expansive walkway. Tuesday morning and they were busy. As I wandered various astute touts who noticed that I was the type who lived to shop approached me with “Shopping, Shopping, DVD, T-shirt, Bags, iPhone, Socks, Watch, Watch, You Want Watch”.

I did a bit more walking down the promenade by the river and took photos of people taking photos until it was lunchtime. In a restaurant down one of the side streets, I stopped for lunch, ordering some meat dish, a few pork dumplings, and a pot of tea. You must have tea in China I thought. The restaurant was packed with large groups sitting around more than a dozen tables, all sharing numerous dishes that rotated in the center of the tables. This must be where the rotating restaurant idea came from. I soon noticed that I was not only the only one sitting at a single table, but I was the only one drinking tea. Everyone else was drinking beer, except for a few old dudes next to me who were tucking into a bottle of vodka with their noodles. Later I found out that tea was twice the price of beer. (Even later, at the airport, I notice that bottled water was twice the price of bottled tea – it really is another world.)

A large bowl of meat in a spicy soup soon arrived and I tucked in. After a few mouthfuls the waitress returned and looked a bid distressed. She took back my meat soup “No, no, no…no order this’. Everyone in the restaurant looked on with quizzical looks. I wasn’t quite sure if I wasn’t allowed to order that dish, or if there was some mix up in the order, but soon another meat dish was delivered. It was just as good, so I went along with it.

Another train ride and a visit to a temple made me feel like I had attained a deeper understanding of Buddhism in China…or was it Confucianism…anyway, it was cultural and I felt like a proper tourist, doing the things that proper tourists do. Across the road I had a coffee next to a park. In that awkward, self-conscious, ‘I just arrived in a new country’ -way I said thank you in Chinese. I think it sounded more like a stutter, but I felt like I was beginning to blend in. A return journey, a quick nap, a trip to the airport, more phone calls and officials arguing about me at immigration, and I was on my way to Bangkok.

This is my place in Jakarta. I’ve been here for almost a month and a half and it’s flown by. The apartment is nice and centrally located in Menteng, though it’s a bit pricey. Anyway, it’s good for now. Most likely I’ll be living cheaper in North Sumatra. Plan to head there soon. Just waiting on my research visa.

http://www.quietamerican.org/index.html

From Design Anarchy by Kalle Lasn.

“In the year 3000, Earth is in the terrifying grips of the Space Cold War with the Union of Mutant Socialist Planets, a communist group which has been inflicting terror on peaceful, democratic, freedom-loving planets and turning their inhabitants into COMMUNIST MUTANTS! Their leader is the Mother Creature, a mutant who has been driven insane from years of consuming irradiated vodka. As Captain Harry McCarthy of Earth’s Anti-Communist Force, your task is clear: destroy the Mother Creature and the Communist Mutants before Earth falls victim to their evil, gift-economy ways!”

Do they still make games like this? Well apparently they were thinking of it. In 2000 a game was developed for the Sega Dreamcast. The story went…it’s 3050, the space cold war is over. With the collapse of the Union of Mutant Socialist Planets the 4 Super Capitalist Planets have won and they convene to plan reconstruction and restore order. However, they are unaware that the collapse of the Union of Mutant Sociaists Planets was a trick. With the help of the Mutant Peoples Republic of Chizna they plan to attack and destroy the capitalists once and for all. This time you get to decide who’s side you are on – the Anti-Communist forces of earth or the Glorious Peoples Army of Rooskee!

In jumping back and forth between research on the massacre and the language books I’m struck by the inegalitarian tone of the language lessons. I’m learning more than just a new language. Suspecting that it was an old language book, I was even more surprised to read that the date of publish was 1997. Here is just one example from Book 1 — a conversation on buying a house,

Ibu: Ada enam kamar tidur, empat kamar mandi, dua dapur, dan satu kamar tamu.
Umar: Lalu, pembantu akan tidur di mana?
Ayah: Di kamar pembantu. Ada dua Kamar pembantu.
Tia: Di mana mereka akan mandi? Pasti tidak di kamar mandi saya, dong?
Ibu: Tentu tidak, ada satu kamar mandi pembantu.
Ayah: Dan, ada satu lagi.
Melati: Apa itu?
Ayah: Ada kolam renang dan lapangan tenis?

Mother: There are six bedrooms, four bathrooms, two kitchens, and one guest room.
Umar: Then, where will the servant sleep?
Father: In the servants room. There are two servants rooms.
Tia: Where will they wash? Surely not in my bathroom?
Mother: Certainly not, there is a servants bathroom.
Father: And there is one more thing.
Melati: What is that?
Father: There is a swimming pool and a tennis court!

The books I’m referring to are Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia Book 1 and Book 2 written by Vladimir Arnost and Novy Kusumastuty.

“an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees a single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angle would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistible propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This story is what we call progress”

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, p. 257 – 258.

I know he’s very well known in London, but I’ve just come across him now. While he is very popular amongst celebrities his identity still appears to be somewhat elusive. There are some photos on the net, but it’s hard to know if it’s him.

There are a bunch of interesting photos of his graffiti on his site Banksy.co.uk. From an aesthetic point of view I like the whimsical nature of some of his work and how he blends his stencil graffiti images with the environment. Also, what adds interest to his work is that it is politically driven – with a leftist and anti-consumerist slant. Aside from the images, the manifesto segment is very strange and chilling.

Also, there is a Banksy Group on Flickr which has a load more urban art.