A Jolly Good Drug War
by Matthew McDaniel- in Thailand
Dear Friends:
The drug war heats up with everyone and their
brother getting shot except drug dealing business men, drug dealing
politicians, drug dealing army, drug dealing cops, as these all
get to stay "clean" or go on vacation, a Thaksin mandated
vacation, rather than the morgue, which is where they belong with
their lessers if we are going to be fair about this.
The good side to all this if there is any,
is that Thailand is finally getting a lot of notice about their
rather regular extra judicial killings which are suddenly jumping
up, course they told the UN which is invetigating, to go away
as they don't have time for such nonsense.
Meanwhile in Pah Nmm Akha where the Akha
Nature Conservancy takes shape, drug traffic pushed out of the
cities has jumped way up, everybody and their brother making it
on motorbikes to the closest hilltribe border villages to see
if they can make up for falling supply and rising prices.
Handing out mandates has not been our style
except with missionaries, army, police, forestry and a few others,
so not so odd that we hand out mandates to the drug runners coming
through the village that with carrots stacking in the wings, the
drug runners can get out and stay out or get the stick or the
knife as the case may be.
We stage for another war here, while the
politicians and Thaksin sip sodas and crack peanuts in the gallery.
A jolly good drug war.
Meanwhile, the Akha Nature Conservancy which
is taking shape will help Akhas get their coffee and tea plants
started, as well as plant native tree species on the deforested
lands or poorly reforested lands by the rather ner do well forestry
department, to reclaim water shed and also to protect rice lands
and other useable areas for food supply. An Akha village is still
a heck of a bargain per person on use of the environment ratio
to consumption of natural resources per person.
Your donation, directly assigned to the nature
conservancy, can buy two broad leafed trees for each US dollar.
For coffee or tea, ten cents buys one plant
for a needy family. Coffee and tea do not require sprays, insecticides,
pesticides, herbicides or the cutting of trees. As well they provide
cash rewards in 18 months for tea and 3 years for coffee. Market
is stable at $4 a pound at the Akha doorstep, this years supply
already completely bought up.
We've been running this project a very good
long time and a mighty fine number of people benefit either by
coming to the project or getting good info off the web, or seeing
projects that we run in action, all for free, that we think it
time a few more people stepped forward and donated for the benefit
to all.
I've been rather busy, hoping to get the
journal number two typed up and out the door, just a few things
on the plate.
Thaksin has yet to discover that poverty,
bad policy makes for drugs, and that villages without encouragement
or poverty alleviation don't make good allies in this war.
Neither do on again off again torture progroms.
Be a donor, help keep the Akha alive, come
see our projects and where the money get spent, and what we get
done in a real time environment.
A little bit goes a long ways to offering
hope and protection to endangered communities and environments.
Matthew McDaniel
The Akha Heritage Foundation
Maesai, Chiangrai, 57130 Thailand
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304 USA Inquire to donate while in Thailand
