DY5 Bulletin 6: 

PETROCHEMICALS, INDUSTRY, 
& CULTURAL HERITAGE

Friday 5 May 2000

Just over a kilometer from were we sit at Wat Phra Jedi Ngam, there are 3 large oil tanks. These were visible from Wat Khao Radpoon this morning. Sukhothai Oil, the owners of these tanks, has plans to build an oil refinery. They seem to have not yet raised the money for this project, but the oil is out there in the Gulf and big profits wait. We invited the local director of Sukhothai Oil and the mayor of Bor Tru, the local municipality where the tanks are, to meet with us, but so far they haven't arrived.

In Jana, further down the Gulf past Songkhla town, the government is pushing ahead with the Thai-Malay pipeline project. There are many things about this project that are controversial, including terms of agreement that seem to favor the Malaysians, but this isn't the place to go into them. What concerns us here is the local people and the responses to their needs. Who decides what happens in the many communities that make up this country? The local people who will been most immediately effected by changes? Politicians up in Bangkok, including their own MPs who they never see? Distant CEOs of multinationals? It might seem too radical to demand that local people decide everything, but that isn't what the organized ones are demanding. They just want to be informed of everything throughout the process = transparency. They just want to be able to express their needs, views, & concerns and have them listened to = democracy. They just want safe decent places in which to live, raise families, and enjoy their friendships = basic human rights. What do they get = none of these, except for a few staged "public forums" dominated by government speakers.

Down in Jana, local people are beginning to protest against the pipeline project. They say they don't want it because it will bring many problems to them, while most of the benefits will go elsewhere. When government officials say the people should sacrifice for the good of the nation, these people ask those officials if they would allow pipelines & refineries to be built next to their homes. The officials quickly change the subject.

Those who use oil, chemical, & other products the most, are also most politically insulated from the dangers. These dangers were brought to the country's notice dramatically when 3 oil tanks in Sri Raja, Rayong (3 hours east of Bangkok) caught fire last December. It took more than 2 days and many nasty chemicals to put out the fires. We still don't have much of the truth of what caused the fires, except for a general scapegoating of some workers. There hasn't been any questioning of the industry, the technology, the consumerism, the way of thinking, or the selfishness behind it all.

Some local NGO friends say that the people in Jana are pretty riled up this time, very angry. These friends are worried. Increasing numbers of people are waking up to the facts of corrupt paternalistic running of the country by government & business elites. More & more have stopped believing the promises. Some feel their backs are up against the wall, with no place to go. Desperation & anger make for a nasty mix. Still, the government places the usual games.

The mood, so far, is different up here in Ranote. The abbot of Wat Phra Jedi Ngam is critical of the greed and selfishness behind current development policies, but there is no organized opposition that we know of. Seems that most people don't know what is going on and that the government is doing its usual PR stuff. However, the situation is less further ahead than in Jana. There, the government is pushing ahead, seemingly in a hurry. Here, a lot of land has been bought and people enjoyed pocketing & spending the money. So far, no nasty pollution or destruction has occurred. How will people react when their lives are more directly impacted?

I have seen drawings dated in the 70s for a 30 year master industrial development plan for this southern seaboard. The World Bank and US government were involved in making the plans, but not the local people. A growth triangle has been discussed with Malaysia & Indonesia, but not with the local people. It seems the elites continue to see their countrymen as foolish children whose votes are bought during elections and whose needs are not much considered the rest of the time. Cultural changes, nonetheless, are afoot, as part of the globalization & other forces that the elites are serving & profiting from. There is no guarantee that the people around here will remain quiet & acquiescent.

The director of Sukhothai Oil and the mayor of Bor Tru never showed up.

Saturday 6 May 2000

This year's walking has ended. We had some joyful sharings during today's closing, including many old friends who dropped by to say "hello" & ask how things went this year. Some enthusiastic students from PSU's Bird Watching Club & novices from the "Kamin Noi Tammada Group" seem committed to bringing new blood into future walks.

So mark it in your calendars. We'll be walking again about the same time next year. Likely dates are Saturday April 21st through Saturday May 5th 2001. Necessities might move it up or back a few days, perhaps even a week, but not likely. Hope to see you there.

POSTSCRIPT

After everyone else, except for Mr. Serm, has left Wat Phra Jedi Ngam, I took a walk around at sunset. It's hard not to walk after walking every day for two weeks. Even my soles say "walk," the skin threatening to get stiff without the friction of skin on pavement. A bit later, pacing back & forth in the cremation corner at the back of the Wat, I realized that I now have a better physical connection with the Songkhla Lake basin than any area I have known in my life (excepting the much smaller area around Dawn Kiam & between Suan Mokkh). If there is a Dhamma-Yatra next year, I'll be here too. And in following years (until I just can't make it). There's something going on that I don't fully understand, but it must have to do with the roots Wendell Berry has written about so beautifully. Even if the destruction continues, tremendous beauty will continue, both in the lake & its sisters, and in the peoples & their cultures. My heart sighs in thanks for being a part of this. The part always has its duties to the whole, among them joy & reverence. Dhamma is duty that sets us free.

There is a lesson here for my planned returned "home" to the Midwest of the USA. Whenever the land for Liberation Park is found, walk that area. Walk every road in the county, stopping by churches to pay respects, visiting in stores, saying hello at schools, etc. Put out some notices that I'll be walking & welcome chats with residents. Walk until knowing the land with my body. By then, eyes & mind will also know a lot. Then the heart can call it home, too.

Thank you for your interest. Feel free to share these bulletins as widely as you like. Fax, reproduce, email, and publish them as much as you want. Please do not edit them in any way that changes the meaning or intent of the author, and accredit them to Santikaro Bhikkhu on behalf of "The Dhamma-Yatra for Songkhla Lake" © 2000.