Strunk and White Anniversary

The Elements of Style has reached its 50th birthday. Last week a friend sent an e-mail followed by one of those quotes that people sometimes use as signatures after their messages. Hers said,

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy." -- Dorothy Parker

I smiled at the quote, having come of age with Strunk and White, and having given away dozens of copies to young writers when I was teaching school.

But now I find that to my dismay that not everybody puts the little book on quite such a high pedestal as I have been used to doing. Or perhaps that the world has moved on.

The guest bloggers in a New York Times piece marking the anniversary say that The Elements of Style takes its own rules too seriously, and foists on readers the idea that there is such a thing as the one best style.

I continue to defend the book, especially for happy young readers, who often don’t know enough writing rules to be able to break them on purpose. For such writers Strunk and White serve as a sort of home base. Comfort food.

What Dorothy Parker probably knew and these bloggers have apparently forgotten is that we all start off wanting to be told what to do. After we finish going through puberty, or worshipping our coach/scoutmaster/pastor, or skimming the Lonely Planet Guide to whatever country we’re planning to visit, then we slowly branch out on our own. If our independence leads to mixed results, we can always return to our mentors.

State of Emergency Lifted

Today the Thai government announced an end to the 12-day ban on large gatherings, and to the detention of people suspected of inciting last week’s protests. The opposition had compared the prime minister’s tactics to those of Thailand’s nastier neighbors. The country’s former standing as a rising star in Asia has been tarnished more than ever.

In the past week several people have e-mailed me to ask what’s really going on with all the red and yellow shirts. Or as Jip says, why can’t people just start wearing orange and move on? I came across an analysis of the situation, written several weeks ago by a Thai academic. The writer oversimplifies the many-layered problems here, and below I’ve condensed his words further because some of what he wrote is already dated. But at least he offers a foundation for understanding the current stalemate:

We are faced with at least two major conflicts:

Conflict of goals: One side (Red shirt) wants a strong government that can deliver on policy promises; the other side (Yellow shirt) wants a weak government, because they think government is corrupt.

Conflict of means: One side (Red) believes that political conflict should be decided by election. The other side (Yellow) believes that the elections themselves are corrupted by money and by local influence.

… The Red is made up of rural-lower class, peasants and others who have benefited from the populist policies of the governments. The Yellow is urban-middle class who dislikes government corruption and doesn’t need the populist policies, but wants fairer deals in business and economics.

… The most recent election resulted in roughly 14-16 million for the Thaksin/Red side, 10-12 million for the Democrat Party/Yellow side. Red is popular in the North (Thaksin's area) and Northeast (poor and in need of development), while Yellow is popular in Bangkok and the South (high political awareness and the traditional Democrat's stronghold).

His sobering conclusion:

What these conditions imply is that violence could spread and civil war is not out of the question. Normally what evolves is either conflict between two groups of people and then the state machine intervenes, or conflict between two sides of the military and the people intervene. This time, however, people are divided and the state apparatus is also divided, therefore the prognosis is potentially quite dangerous.

Australian Inspection Tour

My trip down under succeeded as a scouting mission. The only downside was watching Thailand fall apart all week. Our good friend Margot happily helped me think through whether it would make sense for Jip to make the journey to Perth some day.

Jip’s favorite foods are available there. Handicap access isn’t an issue. It should be easy to find a time when the weather will cooperate. I even know now where we could hire local caregivers who speak Thai.

So that left the question of what would we do in Australia that Jip would enjoy, and that would be any different from the full and unvarying Bangkok routine that Jip would probably insist on following? Well, during this past week Margot and I beach walked, bird watched, crab netted, wine tasted, and souvenir shopped.

At a small island not far from Perth, people are visitors, birds are permanent residents, and the hourly boat can easily handle wheelchairs. Margot and I walked above the island’s beaches along a wooden boardwalk that passes right next to nests made by gulls, terns, pelicans, and even penguins. Jip would love that place.

In an estuary near Margot’s place we waded knee-deep and netted lots of crabs. Jip could sit on the dock and listen to us squeal each time we pulled one out of the water.

If Jip went to Australia we’d most likely skip the wine tasting and the souvenir shopping. We might not have time for those things anyway. Her routine would take up most of the morning. Margot, who is 80 but has more energy than most people half her age, goes to bed right after dinner (“I like my sleep”).

Looks like all Jip and I need to do is book tickets.

Quieter?

Back in Bangkok after a week in Australia, I find that the government has extended the state of emergency declared last weekend. Early Friday morning, a machine gun ambush left in intensive care the guy who founded the yellow shirt movement (the group that shut down two governments and two airports in the last few years). This guy and his followers played no role in the most recent protests.

I had thought things might be quieter than this. My neighbors had e-mailed me, saying that the city seemed deserted. Indeed, last week’s roadblocks are gone, as are the soldiers brought in to break them up.

Clearly the standoff between Thailand’s competing factions is far from over. Lots of rural and urban poor, led from abroad by Thaksin, still resent the way that the middle class, military, and monarchists and managed to take over last December without a vote. A year before that, candidates favored by today’s red shirts had handily won an election.

Among the demands of the red shirts, who suspended their street protests Tuesday, is the prosecution of the ambushed yellow shirt leader for his role in the airport closures.

Jip’s caregivers laughingly reported that they had heard the sounds of the demonstrations from our balcony, and that when their shifts were over they had had no choice but to return home by taxi—buses weren’t running for a few days. The guard downstairs was maybe a bit more candid when I asked him how he’d been lately. “Songkran was no fun this year,” he said.

Bangkok Viewed from Down Under

Distressing images from Thailand continue to lead the evening news in Australia. The stories here focus on the midair u-turn made by Australia’s prime minister when he learned en route that the summit meeting he planned to attend had been canceled.

What I see, looking at the TV footage, is that the latest clashes between protesters and army happened just a few minutes from our place. Even though Jip and her caregivers assure me that they’re not affected, it’s difficult to watch these events from afar.

Perth is lovely, and our good friend has been a great host for the past few days. Yet in many ways I'd rather be back in Thailand at the moment.

Big Face Loss

The Thai government suffered a major embarrassment this weekend when protesters shut down a summit meeting that was to have gathered leaders from around the region. This meeting had already been canceled once before out of the fear that it would be interrupted.

Three nights ago, the same group of demonstrators, most commonly called the red shirts, blocked key intersections around town, snarling traffic for hours. I got several phone calls at work from people who urged me to avoid my usual route home. They said the mob wasn’t violent, just inconvenient. After staying at the office a little later than usual, I took an alternate way and found the streets nearly empty. Word had gotten around.

The stated goal of the protesters is the “return of democracy to the people.” That phrase seems to really mean the return of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been living in exile since being ousted in a coup over two and a half years ago. He visited Thailand briefly last year, but took off again when it seemed the courts were about to find him guilty on corruption charges. For the past few days he has been rallying his supporters via videophone.

On Friday afternoon I headed from work to the airport for a previously scheduled vacation in Perth, Australia. Our office was among the few that didn’t have the day off. Thursday evening, thinking it could encourage people to celebrate rather than protest, the government had declared that Thai New Year would start one day earlier than planned.

Many roads remain blocked, but highways to the airport were clear. I confess that while waiting in a slow check-in line, I glanced around now and then to be sure there were no red shirts preparing to shut down outgoing flights. (The yellow shirts, supporters of the current government, did just that about four months ago.)

But it appears the red shirts had their sights set on the summit meeting rather than the airport. Watching the news here in Australia, I feel discouraged that Thailand remains so divided and directionless regarding its political future. Both groups of protesters during the past six months have been good at talking about what they don’t want, but it’s unclear to me what they do want, other than simply to hold power.

Reason Number 788 Why We’ve Got a Pretty Sweet Deal Going Here

I’ve been sent to the provinces for work reasons twice in the past two weeks. My job description rarely includes responsibilities outside Bangkok: in three years, I can count the number of trips on one hand.

Each time, I’ve had a spare hour or two between meetings, or while waiting for transportation back to the big city. My hosts could have found me a quiet corner where I could do some reading or plug in a laptop computer. But they never have.

Instead, they’ve always steered me to nearby massage shops. Further proof that this country has its priorities in the right order.

Mango and Sticky Rice Season

Our reward for putting up with the hottest weather of the year is the best fruit of the year. Mangoes, rambutans, mangosteens, and longans, are just a few of the delicious possibilities that start showing up in the markets around now. I noticed some good-looking mangoes for sale on the streets about ten days ago.

Jip decided to stick to some adage she learned in childhood about mangoes not being ready until April 1st. But I couldn’t hold off that long. Probably they’ll only be around for about ten weeks. Assuming I take a day off now and then, that means I’ll only eat about fifty servings of sticky rice and mangoes before they’re gone. No time to lose!