flooding

2011
1942
so bangkok is on its way to being more flooded. no one trusts what the prime minister has to say on the issue because she's been mostly concerned with saving face while in burberry boots. you have people who are severely affected and those who are not. most people who could leave the city did, but there are some who just couldn't leave their homes, and so there they are on the second floor living off of the water and dry food they bought two weeks ago. some say that the govt' gave residents of BKK the long stick and the rural provinces the short stick (to prevent flooding in BKK, the gov't barricaded BKK from the floods but in consequence exacerbated the flooding else where since the water levels could not be relieved), but it seems as though, through all the panic, concern, and loss of faith, everyone has gotten the short stick.

some friends of mine fled to tokyo for the week and i was going to do the same until i reconsidered. it would be better to stay in the country to hear all of this information more or less first hand, and stay in touch with family and family friends near by so! i am in pattaya, a beach city two hours from BKK. quite the tinsel town: many phalang kee nok (bird shit tourists) with thai girls along their side. actually hundreds of them out on the street, two girls for every meter you walk, on the look out for some european, anglo saxon, chinese, japanese, indian, and so many others that come here for the sex tourism. it's quite despicable and as a result i wear jeans at the beach to make sure no one is confused about whether or not i am a call girl.

the traffic isn't usually as bad as this, but there are so many people who have come to pattaya because of the floods. i actually haven't seen that much flooding with my own eyes, only water levels up to 30 cm, but the footage on tv, which is always a little behind on what's really happening, is crazy. such fast flash floods, people living on their roofs, pets floating in buckets, and so many people getting sick, that's the worse part. it makes me wish i could actually do something. it's the first time i've had the thought "maybe i should have been a doctor." and if it's bad now, think about what these people will have when the all the water is gone? so little money, possibly no work, and food will be terribly expensive (so many food crops are ruined this year) following this aftermath. despite how tired my ears are (it's talked about every day at every hour) i can't turn my ears off to all that is going on.