Train journey and some reflections on the disappearance of the country.

The warnings of rainstorms have been broadcasted over the mass media so that people in affected areas could prepare for possible flooding. The northern provinces have been badly affected by flash floods and several roads have been blocked by landslides. So, some villagers were cut off from the nearest towns. Several small local dams had their old earthen walls damaged so thousands of rice fields were under water. Even here, the incessant rain made rice fields flooded with rain water for two weeks. Some villagers told me they wouldn’t be able to harvest their own rice this year.

This hit me directly on my head as I realised that if the severe flooding could damage most of the rice fields in several provinces, that could lead to starvation, food riots and social unrest next year. Almost everyday I would hear about big chain restaurants went out of business and factories announced a close down without any warnings. There was no report about thousands of factories workers and staff in those chain restaurants. A few days ago, a news channel reported on factory workers protest against the Chinese owner for not paying their compensation according to labour laws.

Traveling on the slow train was a test of stamina and patience as any sudden delay could happen like hitting a cow by the track or missing a passenger who went down to stretch his legs. I often fell asleep shortly after the train took off as I had to get up very early for my journey. But I tried to be alert when the train made its journey around a big reservoir and the perimeter of the nature reserve where more tigers and panthers have been recorded by hidden cameras in the forest. I could only admire those mountainous areas far away, I wished I could have a chance to drive along the narrow roads through the reserve and national forest once again.

Unfortunately, the rainstorms and monsoon rains didn’t reach the areas around this reservoir. We were in the middle of rainy season and the water level was still less than 50% capacity of the reservoir. This reservoir supplied water to several towns in central Thailand. One town close to the national reserve has become very popular among rich people who wanted a second home in green surroundings with fresh clean air: Korad or Nakorn Ratchasima. Several of my friends had lands and houses close to the mountains in Korad. One even had two big real estate projects selling plots of lands to wealthy and high society people in Bangkok.

I was persuaded to have a look at the plots of land and real estate projects years ago. I knew straight away that these places would be over crowded with big expensive houses for upper middle class clients. The problem would be the shortage of running water. Several real estate projects were dependent on underground water which came from the national forest. But the density of population and expansion of the urban areas would bring lots of problems in the future. A few years ago, my friend who owned the projects told me that the natural spring on her land had dryer up completely. Another problem was the traffic jams during long weekend holidays.

I have never seen the reservoir so dry up like this before. Villagers could let their cows feeding themselves on grasses and weeds inside the reservoir. People could drive to into the reservoir to do fishing. The huge reservoir was initiated by the previous King (King Rama IX), he foresaw the need for fresh water by growing towns and expanding of agriculture years ago. I hoped the rain clouds would be blown by strong wind towards the forests around Korad soon.

This part of the journey was the most enjoyable as the train actually traveled over the water on a long track specially built for this purpose. There were some tourist train to this reservoir in which the train would stop on the bridge for an hour. Tourists would be allowed to have a walk along the bridge to take photos. These special trains had old steam engine so they only operated on special occasions.

Looking from the train, I could see huge area of undeveloped land. I thought our country wasn’t overpopulated as people just huddled together in some crowded cities. Some small town had less than a million population! There’s still lots of opportunities to lead self-sufficient lifestyles. But most people tended to seek the convenient and comfortable lifestyles in big cities where jobs were more plentiful. However, with robotic and AI, lifestyles would be drastically changed in less then ten years. So, I wished more people would realise that fiat system would eventually be discarded and the ability to grow your own food as much as possible, would become the most important aspect for survival. The comfortable and colourful lifestyles in the cities would only be viable for the wealthy upper class.

I was shocked to learn that some politicians were pushing for a new law to allow foreigners to rent land in our country for up to 99 years! This reminded me of Hong Kong in which she was under British rule for 99 years. The commissions and corruption money would be enormous for those involve in these projects. The Chinese would be the largest groups of new land owners. So far, grey money from mainland China had bought up several private universities and provided Chinese curricula for Chinese students. This has been a neat way to gain easy entry and long stay in Thailand for those Chinese professors, students, administrators and investors.

There was no limit to the amount of money these investors could pour into acquiring prime real estate projects and condominiums. The Japanese company was rather modest as they only aimed for acquiring suitable locations for rich clients to retire in the north of Thailand. Everything inside these establishments was up to Japanese standard and Japanese language would be the main language. It’s like small Japanese village for retiring people. On the past, some districts in Bangkok were ‘owned’ by Japanese money. But the adverse economic conditions had meant that most companies had to return to Japan. So, their armies of Japanese employees and businessmen had to return to Japan. These people had made golf very popular in our country and lots of golf clubs appeared in various mountainous spots.

There used to be an area in Bangkok where most of the people there were from mainland China. You could only see Chinese language signs everywhere and people spoke only Chinese. It’s like a small Chinese town. The Chinese immigrants and businessmen bought up all the townhouses on the area with the help of local nominees. I knew of a Thai university bought by Chinese investors and they turned all the houses around the university into students’ housing units. But during the long lockdown, businesses went haywire and many Chinese people returned back home. Nowadays, the area became very quiet with many empty buildings.

I guessed that the government’s policy to boost foreign investments and the Chinese ‘one belt, one road’ project would make Chinese investments much more lucrative than before. I have met some rich Chinese people who bought condos in Bangkok and their children were at international schools here. Many Chinese businessmen have been operating illegally in Thailand. Some had opened factories to compete with local industries at much cheaper prices. A few industries have already went bankrupt without any warning signs or intelligence of what’s lurking under the surface. It’s very hard for honest businessmen to make money these days as bribery and corruptions have become wide spread.

There have been more frequent news of the arrest of several owners of illegal factories producing fake cosmetics, drugs and imitation brand names goods. Lots of fake products were being sold widely online. The bigger culprits were the money laundering schemes by grey money from China. They aimed to purchased all the luxurious housing projects via local nominees at much inflated prices. The others were the scamming call centers which recruited local staff and Chinese speaking staff to scam people in China and in Thailand.

The latest trend in illegal Chinese operation in the country was the kidnapping of rich Chinese youngsters for ransoms from their rich families! The other lucrative business was online gambling which has made young students addicted to online gambling. I am afraid that if the government’s new policy on legal casinos, possession of land up to 99 years by foreigners and tax exemptions for investors came into operation, the consequences would be disaster for most Thai people. It has been estimated that there were one billion millionaires in China. How about the number of billionaires! Half the Chinese millionaires could buy up everything in Thailand. Then, we have to ask Elon Musk to transfer us to live on Mars!

Our country would become another colony of the wealthy investors similar to what happened to Hong Kong. The traditional cultures and values would be gone, national identities would all disappear. What’s worse would be the implementation of social credit scores system to control the working class. Protests and demonstrations would become illegal and punished severely. All the natural resources like oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper, potassium including rare earth deposits would be plundered. Thus would be worse than losing independence to the Burmese over three hundred years ago. In the old days, people could rebel and fight the aggressors and oppressive powers. In the future, our brain waves and thoughts would be monitored like some school children being monitored in classrooms.

In the end we would become like robots or bees in a hive. The concepts of freedom, democracy, spirituality or individual rights would become ancient history. So, the train journey on this occasion had led my mind wondering about the future of my country. Though the trend could become very pessimistic under present governmental context, the future is still full of unintended consequences and uncertainty. I don’t think that AI could actually control all human mind. Some hidden bugs might create unexpected havoc which could change the whole ball game by the controllers. I hope and pray that humanity would wake up and realise their hidden potentials. So hopefully some enlightened people could create a revolution which would create a new and sublime reality for peaceful and loving humans and sentient beings.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay