Pattaya’s Persons of the Millennium!

The second most popular nomination was that of the late Alois (Louis) X. Fassbind. The man who became known as “Mr. Pattaya” through his promotion of this city world-wide, did not manage to make it through to the year 2000 with the Pattaya he loved. He is mourned in many places, not the least being the Banglamung Home for the Aged. An institution that was so strongly supported by him through his Fassbind Medical Home, and his provisions for it in his will. A flamboyant, “larger than life” person, his largess was as large as his persona.

The third most popular, and the “First Lady” nomination, is that of Sophin Theppajug. This woman embodies the growing spirit of the women of Thailand. After many years of subservience, Thai women are showing they have the spirit to achieve and accomplish, without the protective aegis of their men-folk. As a single parent, she has built up a successful commercial enterprise, but at the same time has not forgotten those less fortunate (or perhaps those less personally resourceful) than herself. She is an Associate Judge in the Children’s Court in Chonburi as well as being on the executive of many charitable organisations in Pattaya. Called “Noi” by her friends, she may be small, but her influence in Pattaya has been very great.

And the other nominations? In no order, other than alphabetical, they were - Amrik Singh Kalra, BJ, Bruno Forrer, Dolf Riks, Jean Wasser, Pol. Col. Jirat Pichitpai, Panga Vattanakul, Papa Ray Rogers, Peter Malhotra, Peter Muellman, Sister Joan (the Fountain of Life), Stoney, Sutham Phantusak, Wayne Tischbern, and finally “The working girls of Pattaya - all 10,000 of them!” All of these nominations have, in some way, helped mould and make Pattaya what it is today. We at the Pattaya Mail have been proud to see the “real” Pattaya folk come forward and nominate other “real” Pattaya people. We salute you all!

Over the next three weeks, the Pattaya Mail will bring you the stories of Father Ray Brennan, Louis Fassbind and Sophin Theppajug - the ones you have made the Pattaya People of the Millennium. The people who have stirred your hearts and imagination more than anyone else. We look forward to writing these pen portraits as much as we looked forward to receiving your nominations.

Jean Wasser	Pol. Col. Jirat Pichitpai	Bruno Forrer
Sister Joan (Right)	Panga Vattanakul	Dolf Riks
“BJ” Jones	Sutham Phantusak	Amrik Singh Kalra
Peter Malhotra	Wayne Tischbern	Papa Ray Rogers

Miss South Pattaya very “Bubbly” in victory!

The girls of South Pattaya put on a glittering display at Planet Rock last weekend for the second Beauty Pageant to discover (or should that be “uncover”?) Miss Pattayaland.

In front of a team of international judges (well, even though they all live here, they did come from different places) the Australian, the American and the European in the Kojak haircut deliberated hard and long before selecting a winner from the bevy of pulchritude.

Winners of the 2nd Miss Pattayaland beauty contest: The lovely winner Miss Supaporn from Bubbles (center), 2nd place Miss Napaporn from Passion A Go-Go (right), and 3rd place Miss Weelailat from the Carousel Bar (left).

The Pattaya Mail’s totally impartial judge, Dr. Iain, did suggest that in true Thai political fashion that vote buying should be mandatory and bestowing of favours even compulsory, but organisers Steve and Scott from Top Class Entertainment said that this was contrary to the spirit of the competition and transparency should be the aim.

Unfortunately for the judges, the same transparency was not evident in the costumes worn by the contestants, which were quite modest by South Pattaya standards.

Nine girls faced not only the eagle eyes of the judges, in fact the other Ian from the Pattaya Info advertising publication was seen rubbing his on several occasions, but also an appreciative and noisy audience who remained in good voice by gargling alcoholic liquids and were armed with assorted cameras and VCR’s to record their choice for posterity (or perhaps that should be to record the posterity of their choice)!

Judging was in both swimwear and evening dress categories and each contestant was interviewed on stage, giving the judges their opinions on world politics, macroeconomics in the Pacific Rim countries and their age. One out of three correct was considered a pass.

The lovely winner was 20 year old Miss Supaporn from Bubbles, followed by Miss Napaporn from Passion A Go-Go, a scant half a point in front of Miss Weelailat from the Carousel Bar.

The audience enjoyed it, the judges looked very satisfied (even if it were just “One mowah beeyah, Sir?”) and the girls all looked good enough to take home (to mother).

The nice people at Top Class Entertainment should keep this pageant going. It is good for everyone. Congratulations on a well run evening and of course, congratulations to Miss Bubbles, the beautiful Supaporn!

The combined British Chamber of Commerce Thailand, the Australian-Thai Chamber and the New Zealand-Thai Chamber met at Delaney’s Irish Pub last weekend for their first International Pub Night.

Peter Cummins from Pattaya Mail, Suwanna Viroochan of the Travel Clinic, Graham MacDonald Chairman BCCT Eastern Seaboard Committee, sponsors Paul Dobbs and Randy Nelson GM of Global Silverhawk swap stories.

With a fair representation of Americans as well as some expat English speaking Scots, Dutch and Welsh, it was truly an international night of networking.

It was also an extremely noisy night of networking as the throng downed several gallons of Carlsberg, courtesy of Paul Dobbs and Rick Nelson of Global Silverhawk and wolfed down the food, courtesy of Delaney’s.

Greg Watkins, the Executive Director of the British Chamber said that he was very pleased with the turnout for the first Chamber meeting of the year and he was sure that with the confidence in the business sector increasing daily that 2000 would be a good year for his members.

Gordon Sutcliffe of the Suttlett Group, Greg Watkins, Exec. Director of BCCT, Jimmy Howard - EOC (Thailand) Ltd., and Graham MacDonald, Chairman BCCT Eastern Seaboard Committee.

Jill Thomas, also from the British Chamber said things in Welsh, but her husband was not there to translate, while Ellis from the USA denied General Motors were going to produce Chevrolet Biscaynes at the new Eastern Seaboard facility, saying the Press got it wrong again, as usual.

The Poulsens, the undisputed leaders of the Pattaya Party Peoples Party were of course there, along with the Schloemers plus Jim the Rat-catcher and his lovely wife, without whom no Chamber meeting would be the same.

Terry, Carol and Kaylin Waters from International School of the Eastern seaboard (I.S.E.) with John Cuneen from Indoor Sport.

Jordie Fleming from Euromill stayed close to the bar counter all night, just in case they moved it, while Chris Ulyatt and Steve Fraser discussed wool quality. Graham Macdonald was seen in long trousers for the first time this century while Allan Davidson from Budget was seen talking to the VIA Rentacar people as he didn’t want to drive his Caribbean back to Bangers. Barry Young spent his time smiling when any camera was within range, hoping to become the most photographed person in Pattaya after Pierre-Andre and Mike Franklin!

Cameo appearances were made by the Scottish Chamber with member Jack Levy of the Delaney’s Dream Team seen straining some hops through his moustache while muttering incomprehensible things in Gaelic to mine host, Kim Fletcher, who kept on smiling as usual.

Like all the functions at Delaney’s it was a success, and how Pen, complete with bun in oven, managed to thread her way through the throng remains one of the wonders of the modern world. The Pattaya Mail will let you know when the next Pub Night will be held. Don’t miss it!

Submitted by Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor, Travel Impact Newswire

We went to Nepal in October which was quite a trip and opened up a lot of stuff for me that I had been simmering. It was a dream of mine to see Nepal since reading the “Snow Leopard” in college. It was all I hoped in terms of beauty and spiritual richness. It was all I feared in terms of drastic change and degradation. The rapidity with which that country is banging up against commercialization, loss of traditional life, dealing with huge foreign dollars rolling in (and a few getting very rich while most come to see themselves “needy”), the onslaught of hungry tourists is staggering.

In all, it was lovely. The trek we did out of Pokhara (three days up and down, and I do mean Up and Down the “hills” at the base of the enormous Annapurna group of mountains) was gorgeous. Peter’s parents and the boys went as well with porters to help carry the little ones. Most of the time I walked in solitude, following my breath (which often came in huge gulps so that part was easy!). The people in the villages lining the paths were open and warm. The country called me to honor the achingly beautiful world we live in. My God, it was breathtaking. I am grateful for the chance to have done it.

What was hard to see and be with is what is happening by the frontal assault of commercialization. Everywhere people are surrendering their simpler ways to embrace the call of commercial products, the profusion of fleece jackets and energy bars, of throw-away plastic bottles and all the garbage strewn along the path pretty much from one end to the other, the kids seduced by begging, of the choking exhaust in Katmandu, a filthy place, of stores full of products coming from afar and ads blaring the need for everything you really often don’t need but come to think you do.

People searching for “Western ways” (whatever that really means). It was so in-my-face there. As I read of the WTO upsets and the issues between the lines of popular press, usually unsaid, I come to have new perspective on “opening up countries to trade.” What does that really mean? Who benefits? Isn’t it large faceless businesses that only look to generate the most profit for the least cost that see the world as a huge consumer market place? 7-14 year olds as the target of advertising as, after all, they have all those consuming years ahead of them? What accountability do these corporations have? What accountability have we forced on them? Who is at choice? What if every price tag reflected the true cost of the product (how much water, gas, effluent in the environment, kids out of school to labor, etc, etc, etc, did it take to make that name-brand tennis shoe?). So many questions.

As I sit here in my fleece, typing on my computer, completely present to abundance, I am conflicted of course. I do not, nor could I, begrudge any one sufficient warmth, adequate food and housing, education enough material support to truly allow the pursuit of other-than-survival. What I am so aware of, however, is that the mindless consumption of things because we have been told we need them will never bring happiness. The growing cadre of rich and spiritually empty millionaires tells the tale. The “thing” will never fill the space. I am convinced it is in this inner space that spirit, community, accountability and service to each other and ultimately awareness of inter-connectedness lives and thrives.

We have been looking down the wrong hole for the cheese.

What is strange is I never even questioned the pursuit of the “thing” that means “success” and having “made it” until I could see the process at work. How powerfully we are convinced we need that “skin lightening cream” (the amount of ads for this one thing alone is AMAZING and speaks volumes), that extra brightening soap (never mind that the bleach product ends up on the ground outside the house, gets into the garden, the plants are affected and we end up eating them), that a name brand label costing three-times-as-much will somehow make us happier, sexier, more appealing (no thought as to the kids assembling the stuff never making it to school because the pull of 75 cents a day’s labor is more than a family of seven can afford to give up). And on and on.

I have no answers and am being thrown into a widening circle of questions. I feel overwhelmed at times by it all. It is more enormous than I can begin to perceive. I mean the end of it all is the desire by those-who-can’t-and-now-want-to to devour the same amount of resources that the “fully consuming” countries do. We would last about three months if “everyone did”. Used up. Finished. And would we be glad it ended that way? I doubt it. I can see going out with a bang but that seems a mindless kinda bang. Of course crisis will hit long before we ever get to that. We can still ignore it so it ain’t crisis yet. I do not doubt that it will be. I also am sure we will grow from the pain and somehow come to be the better for it.

How’s that for intense optimism? And so for me, the great “doer” (have I ever learned a LOT from meditation and trying to stay in the state of “being-not-doing”, whew) how to proceed? I stave off guilt and begin the task of “sweeping in front of my own house”, of stretching myself to live a bit more in alignment with what feels the right path, of becoming more aware of the nagging doubts that let me know a certain decision isn’t the way to go, of trusting that if I look to myself and my immediate world to make a difference, somehow it affects us all. Somehow. Trust. An endless path.

Whew, off I went. Thanks for staying with me. Helps a lot to even write it down.

Last weekend, we went to a festival deep in the mountains of Chiang Mai at a Buddhist forest monastery. It honored the Karen hilltribe people, one group among many faced with the loss of their homelands and being expelled as the Thais want to start a national forest (or a dam of agricultural project, etc, etc) in the area that they have lived in for hundreds of years. Because they live lives apart from Thai society and always have, they are not even recognized as being citizens.

A perfect example: the Akha hilltribe woman who lives with us, Me-Ah, just faced the bitter fact yesterday that all the thousands of Baht she has paid into the process of getting an identity card is probably for naught. She will have to begin the process again as she applied when she was 18 and now after two 1/2 years of paying out (her own corrupted village leader the main culprit) has to apply for the pink card of an “adult” and not the green card of a “minor”. She, her mom and dad, her grandparents and as far as anyone can remember were all born in the area she grew up in, high on a mountain. They migrated in centuries past from war in Tibet (or China). They are not considered legitimate. Sigh.

The lifestyle of the Karen is under siege, a way of being that has thrived for centuries is in danger of being obliterated. So powerful to be part of these people dressed in brilliant traditional clothing, dancing by the evening fires and playing the bamboo flute, sharing about the environmental sense of rotational crop planting, each field reused only after seven years and, oddly, a main complaint of the forest service here (talk about lack of communication), speaking of their fears of being arrested for farming fields that their families have farmed for centuries as they have no “papers”, speaking of the pull for better health care and all the benefits of “western ways” while finding the path to retaining their traditional wisdom and passing it on to children that want only the life they see now on Thai soap operas. Many wish to revert to the past and obliterate the electricity that brought the TV in the first place but most see that is not the way either.

How to proceed? Bearing witness. No answers, only questions and starting the process of finding the path. Very powerful for me.

And so I look to the Christmas holiday with eyes that feel more open than ever. The bounty and often excess of food, the profusion of gifts under the tree, the “I-want” call of the season. How to manage in such a way that I come out feeling enriched? I have no answers. Lots of questions. Searching. And that is as it should be I think.

I send love and peace. Thanks for being there.