The Redemptorist School for the Blind holds Sports Day

On the 24th of March Khun Sittichai Kittikul, the veteran district chief of Banglamung, presided at the annual sports day of the Redemptorist School for the Blind. Father Raymond Brennan, founder of the school, Khun Aurora Sribuaphan, head of the school, Khun Choocheep Jaiseri, director of the school, and other local and foreign volunteers attended this fun event.

The festivities began with a beautiful parade.

The games are usually held in December of each year. But this year it was decided to postpone the event because during that period the school had sent 9 athletes to the FESPIC games held in Bangkok. So this year the sports day was held to coincide with the end of the school term. It also gave an opportunity for relatives and the public to attend and watch the fun and games of the blind students.

The games are held as an encouragement for athletes to instill in them the spirit of sportsmanship and to train themselves to prepare for handicapped games both on the national and international level. Most importantly, it showed that handicapped people are capable of performing various sporting activities.

Blind man’s soccer-not an easy sport to master.

There was a colorful parade to start the day. Then the sports men and women went about earnestly competing in their various sports competitions, such as swimming, judo, football, table tennis, volleyball goal ball and athletics.

At the end of the competition Khun Pairat Suthithamrongsawat, Mayor of Pattaya, presented trophies to all the proud winners and participants.

Amazing Taste of Thailand

There is scarcely a city anywhere in the world that does not have a Thai restaurant. Now, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is capitalizing on the global popularity of Thai cuisine to draw it into the tourism promotion campaign.

Thai food enjoys a world-wide reputation for its unique flavors and tastes. The subtle mixing of herbs and spices and market-fresh ingredients makes dining a special culinary delight.

Eating ranks high on the scale of pleasures in Thailand and is a communal affair. The staple is rice, either ordinary or glutinous, and is always accompanied by a variety of dishes. Thai meals blend spicy, sweet and sour dishes, providing diners with a balanced feast. Usually, there is a soup, a curry, a steamed or fried dish, a salad, and a variety of sauces. Desserts consist of fresh fruit or one of the many traditional Thai sweets.

Chili peppers are an essential ingredient in Thai cooking. Other important ingredients include coriander, lime and tomato, fish sauce, garlic and black pepper.

Although these ingredients are found in most dishes, the food differs from region to region. In the North and Northeast, glutinous rice is popular, while in the Central Region, fragrant plain rice is popular.

In celebration of Amazing Thailand, a number of food festivals and promotions are being organized. The Thai Food Festival organized annually around November will be made even more impressive during the Amazing Thailand campaign, with co-operation from several related food fair agencies. Leading restaurants throughout the country will be invited to participate.

Regional food promotions are being held in throughout the Kingdom to promote the different cuisines from each region. Similar promotions are being held by Thai restaurants abroad with an offer of door prizes of trips to Thailand.

Thai cooking lessons, offered in hotels, are being given added promotions, and Thai food and fruits will be promoted world-wide via various marketing strategies.

Thai food for healthy living

Many herbs and spices used in Thai cooking have beneficial medicinal properties. For example, the chili contains capsaicin, a biologically active ingredient beneficial to the respiratory system, blood pressure and heart. Other therapeutic uses include its properties as an anti-flatulent and digestant.

Garlic oil and its organic sulfur compounds are known for their cholesterol lowering properties and can be used as an expectorant and diuretic.

Other Thai herbs and spices, such as marsh mint, sacred basil, turmeric and cumin are used regularly in Thai dishes and are known to protect the stomach from upset.

The fresh ingredients used in Thai cooking make it easier for the body to digest than processed food. Fresh ingredients enable the body to break down the food easily and to absorb the vitamins and minerals.

Thai food differs from region to region. In the North and Northeast, glutinous rice is popular, whereas in the Central Region, fragrant plain rice is more popular. A blend of Chinese-Thai food is popular in the larger cities such as Bangkok.

The Central Region is also known for its Royal cuisine, a more sophisticated version of regional cuisine. This style has been influenced by the kitchens of the Royal Court, where dishes are elaborately prepared, making each meal a culinary masterpiece.

In the North, glutinous rice balls are eaten with curries. Northern curries are generally milder than those in the Central and Northeastern regions. Burmese influence is evident in several dishes, including Kaeng Hang Le, a pork curry deriving its unique flavor from ginger, tamarind and turmeric.

Northeastern food uses a lot of seasoning. Meat is scarce in villages and freshwater fish and shrimp are the principle source of protein.

In the South, coconut is used in many dishes. Its milk is used in spicy curries, its oil is used for frying and its meat is used as a condiment.

Fresh seafood is abundant in the South, where lobster, prawns, crab, squid, clams, scallops and more are popular dishes. Cashew nuts are also used frequently as a snack or in stir-fry dishes.

Fresh food is used in every kitchen nation-wide. Visitors to Thailand can choose from a number of venues to learn the art of Thai cooking. For further information, visitors can ask at their hotel for nearby schools.

My grandfather was on the Titanic...

by Ariyada

Mike Synnott, an English gentleman born in Liverpool, comes from a family with a great history of seamanship. On his father’s side it goes back to 1861 when his great-great grandfather started to train as an officer on the Cunard Line. Eventually he became an officer on the "Lusitania", a well-recognized name for all those who know about seafaring. He stayed on board until he retired at an advanced age, and finally passed away at the age of 104. This tradition of seamanship was passed on from father to son, as Mike’s father was captain on the original Queen Mary.

Mike Synnott proudly displays the key to the captain’s quarters of the Titanic.

The men in Mike’s mother’s family also loved the sea. One of the most ‘famous’ amongst them was his grandfather Harry Lowe. He happened to be the fifth officer on one of the most tragic and still most legendary ships: the Titanic.

Mike inherited a special item from his grandfather Harry: the key to the Titanic captain’s office.

According to Mike’s grandfather, Captain Smith ordered Harry to get his gun out of his office, and told him to shoot a few times into the air to prevent people from panicking when the passengers tried to rush recklessly into the lifeboats. He did as he was told, yet it didn’t help to solve the panic.

Harry was lucky, he survived because he was ordered to command a lifeboat. In order to that, he had to board it.

He soon gathered four lifeboats to co-ordinate a rescue. His boats rowed in circles as long as possible looking for survivors. They were able to pick up quite a few people, yet most were already dead after having been floating too long in the icy sea.

It was a clear, starry night, yet too dark to see very far. Only the huge shadow of the Titanic, slowly capsizing, lit by some still working light chains, towered over the scenery. After Harry realized that the Titanic would be going down, he tried to get as far away as possible with his lifeboats, knowing that the suction of such a huge ship going down would take everything with it.

The screaming and the fear of all those people aboard the Titanic haunted Harry Lowe all his life. He never talked much about this tragic event. He just went pale when somebody tried to bring the subject into the conversation, and usually left the room. But Harry’s wife, Mike’s grandmother, related to Mike a few stories of the tragedy. Harry had nightmares all his life and grandma often heard him screaming and talking in his sleep. It seemed that Harry was mostly bothered by the thought of all the 3rd Class passengers who had to die because there weren’t enough lifeboats. Most of the 1st Class passengers bought seats on them. Yes, they bought them! All the other passengers, without enough money and only being treated as third class human beings, were bound to die because of the ignorance, greed and thoughtlessness of the Reeders.

After more than six hours drifting around, Harry was rescued by the "Carpethia" and it was then when he realized that he was still in possession of the captain’s office key. He eventually passed it to his eldest son, Mike’s father, who then, before he died, gave it to Mike.

Harry Lowe, a survivor of the Titanic, died in 1942 as the captain of his ship "Laconia". With a lot of Italian prisoners on board, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine during the 2nd world war.

Mike wasn’t deterred by the tragic accident of the Titanic. He carried on the family tradition and became a sailor. He was hired on Queen Elisabeth II in 1967 when it was built in Glasgow, joined her maiden voyage as first officer in 1969 and finally left in 1970 when he was promoted to captain on a cruise ship.

Mike joined the Falkland war as a RNR. He was wounded trying to rescue soldiers. In 1995 Mike retired from the sea. The reason why he retired early was once again the ignorance of the reeders. "After being on the bridge for 36 hours in very bad weather, they called me to ask why the arrival of the cruise ship would be delayed," he says. "That really made me angry and I quit."

Soon after, Mike started his own safety company and now works for Cat Tech Company as a consultant, which brought him to Thailand. Mike plans to spend another few weeks at the Thai Garden Resort before he returning home to Bottlesford. Mike carries his grandfather’s key chain wherever he goes and told us that he will pass it on to one of his sons and, of course, it will be the only one out of his 4 children who decided to become a seaman.

So you’d like to manage in Thailand?

by Dr. Henry Holmes

Several forms of anger

Most Thais are capable of several forms of anger or, more precisely, several ways of displaying anger, frustration or displeasure. But in the work environment, the accepted standard for most managers is much more muted than, say, in certain Mediterranean countries. Let’s say, a "cooler" rather than a "hotter" approach tends to be the mark of a manager who wants to preserve his dignity and effectiveness in the workplace. In Thailand, apologies are almost always appropriate but, in cases where there has been a "loss of face", they cannot be expected to restore the relationship to normal.

The overseas manager who accepts an assignment in Thailand will generally find that he can use 80 - 85% of the "good management" skills he used to get the job done elsewhere. Within that other 15% lies an interesting array of management skills and approaches to which Thais seem to respond especially well.

Listed below are a few areas where somewhat specialized approaches best suited to Thai colleagues seem to have a good chance of success.

* Being able to get reliable information from Thais, in voluntary or non-routine situations.
* Identifying certain non-verbal behavior, which may express information we need to know.
* Ways to issue instructions that turn out the way you hope they would.
* Increasing commitments to deadlines.
* Raising colleagues’ sense of urgency toward particular tasks.
* Conducting meetings in which Thais are willing to participate.
* Finding ways to develop the skill of accountability among colleagues.
* Knowing (and being able to apply) certain deeply-held Thai values on and off the job, which serve as valuable motivators and signs of your good will.
* Ways to ensure loyalty (i.e., maintain low staff turnover) with methods apart from mere salary incentives.
* Skills for changing practices in order to improve performance.
* Ways to administer discipline and/or dismissal by methods seen as fair and humane by Thai standards.
* How to organize parties for staff, of a sort that they will a) actually attend, b) look forward to the next time, and c) even bring along spouses.
* What roles the company and the manager and spouse, as individuals, play in mayor events involving staff, clients and government.

Will be continued.

Read next time about: The two sides of Thailand.

For over 25 years Dr. Henry Holmes and his colleagues from Cross-Cultural Management Company have been helping organizations improve their teamwork and management skills.

Holmes, a graduate of Massachusetts and Harvard, recently co-authored the book "Working with the Thais" (White Lotus Publishers), now in its fourth printing. The company courses were featured on BBC World Television.

In 1999, the company will offer five training courses on the Eastern Seaboard, under sponsorship of Hemaray Industrial Estate:

* A good start with Thais
* Skills of Cross-Cultural management
* Train-the trainers
* The keys to assertiveness and accountability
* Making effective presentations, in Thai or English

Please call 02-391 8586-7 for details.

Listing of events for the Pattaya Festival 1999

Between 12 - 19 April

Event	Date 1999	Start Time	Location
Festival Grand Opening Parade	12th	18:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Fireworks display	12th	18:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Light and Sound show	12-19	19:30	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Bowling competition	12-13	09:00	Pattaya Bowl, North Pattaya
Foreign football stars competition	12-18	10:00	Pattaya Park Hotel Jomtien Beach
Amusement center	12-19	18:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Exhibitions and product displays	12-19	18:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Thai custom shows on stage	12-19	19:00	Central Pattaya stage
Red cross shop Banglamung	12-19	19:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Magic and skill shows	12, 16, 19	19:00	Central Pattaya stage
Thai & Krapuan Boxing competition	12-16	19:30	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Beer drinking competition and beer festival	12-17	20:00	Pattaya Walking Street
Classical and string band concert	12-19	20:30	Stage
Eastern Cheerleader competition	12, 13, 15, 17	21:30	Central Pattaya stage
Motorcar and Motorhike racing	13-14	09:00	Bira Circuit Pattaya
Fishing competition	14-15	05:30	Pattaya Bay-Boats leave the fishing pier
Yacht racing	14th	10:00	Royal Varuna Yacht Club Pattaya Bay
Wine serving race competition	14th	10:00	Pattaya 3rd Road at the festival location
Foreign Volleyball competition	16-18	10:00	Pattaya Park Hotel Jomtien Beach
Truk Ko competition	16-18	10:00	Pattaya Park Hotel Jomtien Beach
Rally & Free Concert	17-18	07:00	Bangkok-Pattaya
Family rally	17-18	07:00	Bangkok-Pattaya
Water Ski competition	17th	09:00	Pattaya Water Cable Ski
Windsurf competion	17-18	10:00	In front of Somprasong Plaza Jomtien
Speed boat, Jet ski, Banana boat racing	17-18	10:00	Jomtien Beach
Dog show competition	17-18	10:00	World Dog Center (Pattaya Dog Garden)
Merit Making ceremony Naklua	18th	08:00	Lan Pho Naklua
Parrot competition	18th	09:30	Around the Pattaya festival car park
Merit Making ceremony Pattaya	19th	09:00	Wat Chai Mongkhol
One Lai caravan parade	19th	12:00	Wat Chai Mongkhol
Golf competition	19th	12:00	Phoenix golf course
Beach beauty contest	19th	19:00	Stage

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