Jul

20

sex! kindergarten! US politics!

July 20, 2007

I was reminded of PDA and Thailand again today, and of the barriers that PDA has had to overcome in order to lead the fight against HIV in Thailand.

Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate for the US presidency, is facing criticism about nanny states and liberal agendas for telling Planned Parenthood that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is “age-appropriate,” is “the right thing to do, to provide age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools.” He argued that this education is necessary because “the statistics tell us that nearly half of 15 to 19 year olds are engaging in sexual activity…for us to leave them in ignorance is potentially consigning them to illness, pregnancy, poverty, and in some cases death.” Read more

Jun

28

condom day

June 28, 2007

I left my room above Cabbages & Condoms restaurant (next to PDA’s offices), where I was working on notes from the trip, at about noon today. I was headed down a little alley to a lady’s house to check on my laundry, which is a long story.

But I never got there. The scene in the PDA parking lot looked like this:

1 guy in a Santa Suit, with “Santa Condom” written on the back, like a sports jersey
2 women in dresses made entirely of brightly coloured condoms
1 guy in a police uniform, with “Cops & Rubbers” across his back
Several PDA staff carrying bags full of condoms
A German TV crew
Khun Mechai, the Condom King himself, who has a lot of claim to the 90% reduction in Thailand’s HIV infection rate

khun mechai condoms

Clearly I was going to have to investigate. Read more

Jun

23

our job is…?

June 23, 2007

Pattaya, PDA’s Birds & Bees resort (By the way, the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in my life. Its profits - $500K last year - fund PDA’s efforts in HIV, poverty reduction, and education.)

A comparative study:

1. The current US approach to HIV/AIDS education: By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds that countries receive through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) must be used only on “abstinence until marriage” programs - and can only educate about and distribute condoms to ‘high-risk groups’ like sex workers and truckers.

2. PDA’s approach to HIV/AIDS education, as evidenced by a sign here at Birds & Bees Resort:

Birds & Bees HIV sign

Jun

21

life = education = life

June 21, 2007

“If you know how life works, you know how to educate.”
- Khun Wichean, headmaster, Lamplaimat Pattana School

Lamplaimat Pattana School (LPS) is calm. This is the first impression I get upon approaching and entering this beautiful village school (grades K – 5). It’s a private school (with startup funding from a wealthy British businessman) with working farm plots, shaded outdoor spaces, rabbits hopping around the grounds, indoor and outdoor plants, and high ceilings. The children, sitting in stockingfeet on the floors of their classrooms, are just so…calm. They laugh, call out answers, and play games, but not in that manic, over-sugared and low-attention-span way.

Jun

20

“our sexual relations are better, and now I use a condom.”

June 20, 2007

19 June 2007
Cabbages & Condoms, Nang Rong, Buriram Province

Today was packed with PDA activities (including my promised swim this morning). We had a quick breakfast at Sap Tai and hit the road, going first to Jakkarat, Nakhonratchasima Province, one of PDA’s major projects. Jakkarat is tough to explain in a few words – it’s a web of PDA projects and systems that seem to fit together quite well – no silver bullets here. The Jakkarat area itself has had some of the classic problems underpinning rural poverty: migration of workers away to urban areas, crime, alcohol, youth disengagement, and lack of community coordination. Read more

Jun

20

upcountry

June 20, 2007

18 June 2007

After a morning of meetings at PDA and a rock’n’roll thunderstorm, we spent the afternoon driving out to Sap Tai, the PDA profit-generating mountain resort a few hours north of Bangkok. After an hour’s nap in the van I awoke to find myself blinking unsteadily at the biggest Tesco supermarket I have ever seen. A surreal sight. 5,000 baht at the ATM, and several mangostines handpicked for me by the very nice Thai lady also shopping in the produce aisle, later, we were back on the road. Outside the sprawl and traffic of Bangkok, Thailand so far looks like every movie I’ve ever seen about Viet Nam. Dark green triangles of hills rise out of the landscape, with a decidedly jungle-y feel to them. Think Ho Chi Minh Trail. We turned off the freeway after a while and did a slow wind into the hills, passing constellations of gamecocks trapped under wire cages, stream-side huts, dragon fruit farms, and a Thai winery (who knew?) along the way. Read more

Jun

18

3-D Development

June 18, 2007

One thing that keeps striking me about PDA is how 3-dimensional its seemingly simple projects and initiatives are. What I mean by this is that the incentives, rewards, development effects, and community involvement in each project fit together and enhance each other on a number of levels, creating outcomes that really seem to be more than the sum of their parts. Behind the quips and puns and simple, understandable language that characterise all conversations with Khun Mechai (PDA’s founder), these are really thoughtful, systemic approaches to poverty alleviation.

Take PDA’s Positive Partnership Project, for example. This programme is designed to de-stigmatise HIV+ people in their communities while providing them with training and access to credit to develop micro-businesses. Read more

Jun

16

3 a.m., Bankgok

June 16, 2007

Jet lag has got the best of me, so I’m sitting up at about 3 am, Bangkok time, having read through a stack of materials on PDA, with blogging a bit next on my list of things-to-do-instead-of-sleeping.

First I must say that I had the best Thai food of my life for dinner tonight, in a run-down outdoor cafe - chicken panang curry (the red kind) with lime leaves, and a cold Singha beer. Lovely.

As for PDA, the other reason I came here (aside from eating). Freya and I were picked up at the airport by Kipper, an American who has been living here for the past few years. One of the most interesting things Kipper told us today is how the businesses whose profits feed PDA’s work are set up. Cabbages & Condoms, for example - the restaurants, and the high end resorts - these are profit maximising businesses, owned by a few shareholders who are all ‘friends of PDA’ - the bylaws of each business state that the profits go to charity. Read more

Jun

12

sa-wut dee ka

June 12, 2007

3 days until Thailand. I have resigned myself to looking like a lunatic on all forms of London public transport, as I podcast basic Thai lessons and alternate between whispering and accidentally shouting things like ‘gloo-ay wee la tao-rai ka?’ (’How much for a bunch of bananas?’). I have found over time, through travels far-flung and closer to home, that people are always grateful when you take a shot at speaking to them in their own language. This has a lot of meaning, of course - you are meeting people on their ground, and understanding their way of thinking - for example, I can honestly say I think in different patterns when I am speaking Uzbek and understanding that dynamic is a fundamental part of bridging gaps between people. But don’t expect me to start writing poetry in Thai anytime soon - I will be lucky to get by with a ‘chun mee pee-sao kon neung’ (I have an older sister) and a lot of wild gesticulating. Read more

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Jul

20