Ordinary People

Watching short documentary about a Thai female worker’s life, I am saddened by the current situation of ordinary Thai people. The show followed her life from the time she woke up, commuted to work, worked and went back home. Her wage (minimum wage) was 211 Baht but at the end of the day, she spent 212 Baht although she chose the cheapest mode of transportation and meal. The only way she could afford some basic needs (let alone her son’s education) was to work over-time. She said she had never dreamt of saving, just to get by day by day, she was happy.

But I am not!

 Travel into the city every day, I spend, just for the commuting cost, more than 100 Baht. More and more every day, I wonder how people here can afford to live and survive.

Back on May 1^st, Thai workers were asking the government to increase their minimum wage, roughly 2-3%, but it was turned down. Of course the government does not care about the poor although they receive votes from them, but they are more concerned about the rich who give them money because at the end of the day, they can use that money to buy back those poor voters anyway.

The government easily gave in to the demand from the sugar manufacturers and the rice producers to increase price because of the skyrocketing oil price. But they did not give the green light to the workers to increase their minimum wage as if the oil price did not affect the ordinary people and as if the poor were invisible in this society. Unfortunately, the labor movement has long died down, here or all around the world. Watching another piece of news from BBC about the widening gap between the rich and the poor and how the poor find it hard to afford to live in Germany, it makes me wonder if the people who live in this leaning welfare state cannot survive, how can the people who live in this poor country can?

Ordinary people around the world are being attacked from all sides. They are suffering from the high cost of living while their wage has been stagnant for years. They are being attacking by consumerism which is creating fake needs through advertising. Some people cannot afford a cell phone but they buy iPhone and some people do not need a car but they buy it anyway.

Observing all of these situations, I wonder how long this current unjust social structure can carry the world community or how long the poor can absorb all the burdens that the rich give to them before the whole system crumbles. I guess it is the same question that how long our Mother Nature can bare all the toxins that the human beings have thrown at her before she will fight back.

Every time when I see these ordinary people struggling so hard to get by each day, I think about the life of the next generation.

It is very scary.

Tae Athi

Food Crisis and the Opportunity

Been in Thailand for three weeks, besides the news of the skyrocketing oil price, food crisis seems to dominate the news here. From the local news to CNN, everyone seems to worry about the current food price crisis. More than 40 countries have stopped exporting rice to make sure they will have enough food to feed their own people. The price of rice here is increasing as well and a lot of people are complaining the government that they should stop exporting rice or at least reduce the amount of the export in order to make sure we will have enough rice to feed our people or to keep the price stable. But some people believe the high price of rice will make Thai farmers’ life better which I really doubt if it turns out to be true. I do not really think that the ordinary farmers will gain the benefit from this crisis as much as the middle men or the manufacturers.

Come to think about it we are entering the dangerous world, we are facing both the high price of oil and food. Riots are happening in several countries particularly in Africa because people just cannot afford food anymore. Several reasons cause the recent food crisis but the skyrocketing oil price plays a big role. When the oil price increases, the cost of everything increases including food. Plus the high oil price motivates a lot of farmers to grow corns, which is the main ingredient to produce ethanol, instead of growing the key food like rice or potato. As a result, while the demand for food has increased, the supply goes south.

Why oil price is so high nowadays? Traditional theory to explain this phenomenon is the economic explosion of both China and India that drives the thrust for oil to the roof. It indeed plays a major part of this problem but a big part of it is also from those speculators and hedge funds which help fanning the fire. And of course here it is OPEC. World Bank, a tool of the rich countries to control the poor ones, urges the farmers from developing countries not to switch from growing food to oil substitute plants and urge those countries not to stop exporting food. But World Bank does not urge the OPEC countries to produce more oil, the big oil companies to reduce price or the speculators to go easy on the oil demand in order to curb the price and hit at the heart of the problems.

I think the developing countries should turn this crisis to be an opportunity. If the rich oil countries can form one of the most powerful gangs on the planet to control the precious black gold, the developing countries like Thailand, Vietnam, India or Brazil should be able to form their own group to control the demand and supply of food especially rice.

NAFTA and Pennsylvania Primary

Since Pennsylvania has a big portion of blue collar workers who have been suffered from any economic agreement especially NAFTA, both Clinton and Obama have promised to amend the deal if they are elected president.

Although the Democratic Congress has successfully blocked the trade deal between the United States and Columbia, I really doubt if they can (or are willing to) reverse this world’s largest trading bloc which is running around $930 billion last year.

I think any blue collar workers who believe any candidate would do anything about NAFTA if elected president are kidding themselves. Washington has been under the big corporations’ control. All those powerful commerce groups will be able to put a lot of pressure on both sides of Congress not to touch NAFTA. The Democrat base particularly those labor unions are getting smaller and much less powerful.

Instead of worrying about the job the American have already lost, both candidates should talk about how they are going to create more jobs, how to protect the workers’ right and when they are going to raise the minimum wage like their party has promised to American people two years ago.

Tae Athi

Real Mid Life Crisis?

According to “Is Well-Being U-Shaped Over the Life Cycle?” mentioned in the Atlantic this month, according to a recent study of 500,000 Americans and Europeans, the researchers consistently found a “turning point” in midlife: happiness falls as we progress from youth into middle age, bottoms out in our 40s, and then rises again into the golden years. The authors estimate that American men are least happy at age 49, and American women at age 45. The decrease in happiness between ages 20 and 45 equals about one-third of the drop a person would report after losing a job. A range of theories may explain this “U-shaped curve.” Perhaps older people can better count their blessings, or maybe they know themselves better in maturity and can “adapt to their strengths and weaknesses” without getting carried away by the dreams of youth. The data suggest that rather than buying a Harley to shake the midlife blues, 40-somethings might head to Europe: while Americans have grown grimmer over the past century, Europeans report feeling happier and happier.

Besides those explanations, I would say the golden age years happen when their kids have finished the college, the house mortgage is paid, they see their own mortality and become more spiritual.

Tae

MY AIDS Walk New York 2008, Fund Raising!

Since 1986, AIDS Walk New York has raised $97 million for HIV programs and services in the tri-state area, and has grown into the largest AIDS fundraising event in the world. In 2007 alone, 45,000 participants, many of whom were members of 2,400 corporate and community teams, raised a record sum of more than $6.8 million for Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and 60 other local AIDS service organizations.

Thanks to everyone’s help, last year, I could reach my $1,000 fund raising goal in one week and $2,395 at the end.  The money was poured in from some of my friends and some people who I did not even know me but happened to find out about my fund raising and compassionately donated the money to help our community to stop this deadly epidemic. Again, thank you so much for everyone’s support. (Please visit last year fund raising page here to see the names of last year donors).

This year, I raise my fund raising goal to $2,000 and hopefully will be more.

This how it works; I am going to be the one who walks (and donates) on May 18 and you guys pledge whatever amount of money you can spare to sponsor my walk. All money that I raise will go to the AIDS Walk New York and they will distribute that money to the HIV related organizations in the tri-states areas in order to fight against AIDS and to improve the lives of thousands of men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS, and those at greatest risk for infection.

Also, you guys are more than welcomed to walk with me on May 18. Last year 45,000 participants crowded the Central Park, my friends and I walked from 60st on the east side cut across the park to the Riverside drive on the far west until 111st. It was a fun three hour walk with people from all walks of life, races, ages and sexual orientations.

Every week I will summarize how much donation I have received and list your names in this web page in order to publicly thank you your generosity to sponsor my walk and fight against HIV and AIDS.

This year, let’s break our goal again and show the HIV and AIDS patients and their family how much we deeply care about them!

Please visit my fund raising web page here and please forward the page to your friends and family and encourage them to sponsor this wonderful event!!

To learn more about AIDS Walk New York, please visit AIDS Walk New York 2008

Thank you very much

Tae