I have been been very busy in my garden. The extreme hot weather made all plants very thirsty, I had to water them more often than usual. I could only work in my garden in late afternoon as the sun became less fierce and there’s more shade for cooler air. It’s surprisingly hot and dry this year so I had to pray for rain. By the time I finished my work in the garden, l had already missed the colourful sunset by the river. So, I paid a visit to some elderly villagers who used to look after my garden several years ago.
The elderly couple has been asked to look after an old dilapidated wooden house and a big garden. A Thai lady used to live in this house with her American husband. They lived happily together many years until one day the Thai wife passed away due to health issue. The American son-in -law has been living in the mother-in-law ‘s house for years. She was getting old and living on her own so it’s better to have close relative looking after each other in the house. So, this wooden house has been neglected till the whole place was swamped by wild climbers and covered with dense trees. People were afraid to go near this house for fear of many poisonous snakes and ghosts.
The owner wanted to sell his house with about three acres of land. So the local couple was asked to clean up the wooded area and look after the house. They were allowed to live there and make use of the land. It took them a few months to ckear up the land and was able to grow bananas and lemon grass for some income. As these villagers used to look after my house for me, I told them to take as many banana shoots as they needed. My gardener also gave them lots of lemon grass for planting.
Old generations of villagers would usually had about four to six years of education. This left them permanently on the lower rung of social class. They had been farmers from ancestral time. The price of rice has always been controlled by big mills’ owners. These rice middlemen became very rich and powerful supporters of local politicians. That’s why farmers were kept very poor and dependent on monopolistic rice merchants who exported rice at huge profits.
The cry for the local authority to set up a cooperative rice mill run by farmers and local authority was ignored. There was never any investigation into monopoly practice by wealthy merchants. There were no legal protections to saveguard the rughts for fair livelihood of these poor farmers. The government would occasionally give small financial assistance for gaining more votes during election time.
What’s worse was the setting up of farmers’ banks so that they could borrow money to buy expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Most farmers lost their lands because of huge debts foy buying tractors, fertilisers and pesticides. The artificially low prices of rice dictated by local merchants meant thst farmers would get into more debts and lose more rice fields. All the structures of local organisations seemed to be designed to get farmers into debts and take control of their lands. So, all the big plots of rice fields have been transferred onto the hands of wealthy people in town center.
The poor quality of local education exasperated me as these young students have become very passive with no aspiration for higher education or goals in their lives. They fell prey to mobile games, social media and pop culture, and eventually becoming drug addicts. Only the middle and upper classes families would manage to send their children to expensive private schools which would ensure that their children would proceed to university education. So, the poor got poorer and the rich got better opportunities to succeed in their careers.
This elderly couple told me a long time ago that they sold their land to pay for their children’s education. But they all failed as they had never been taught to be studious and work hard. The land was gone and their children had to become labourers at building sites. These poor people had no idea about doing homework, readings for hours; I could never find a book shelf or books in these poor people’s houses. So, I was very grateful to my parents for buiding a library for me when we were kids. My father even bought a whole set of Encyclopedia for me. That ignited my curiosity and my intention to become a medical doctor. (Luckily I changed my mind and wanted to become a lawyer.)
I once thought of setting up a library for local children but local tradition and culture would never make it a successful project. At least one of the elderly couple’s nephew got a diploma from the local technical college. So, he could find a decent job at the biggest beer factory in the local district. Only one of their daughters became a teacher in secondary school so she could support the whole family. She got a lot of life insurancd money as a result of her husband’ sudden death after taking the third vaxx jab. But she spent money too cheerfully on a new coffee stall (which never materialised). She’s now suffering from several adverse effects of her three jabs. Finally, out if fear for death, she agreed to take the ivermectin tablets I sent to her.
It’s tough talking to local villagers as I has to remind myself that I couldn’t win them over to my side with reasons or scientific information. Living among simple and down to earth people has been a very interesting learning process for me. Luckily they have accepted my weird way of looking at things and my strange body language. They still thought that educated people seemed somewhat abnormal.
The elderly couple were still wuite healthy and strong. They would gather bamboo shoots in rainy season and sell boiled bamboo shoots to vendors in local markets. They have lots of bananas and lemon grass which could bring in weekly pocket money. They have invested in planting marigolds which should bring in money daily. These flowers are in high demand as people used marigolds in making garlands and flower arrangements for temples and religious ceremonies.
Fortunately they still own some lands and a few houses. Their daughter gave them monthly money for expenses and they are all very stingy, they like to pretend they had no money. This was because their older nephew became drug addict and would often ask for some money. So, whether being rich or poor, all people continued to have problems in their families. It was as if some law of justice dictated noone would ever be completely happy without any worry; each should have at least one small problem for testing their human capabilities. I hope this elderly couple would be my friendly neighbours for many years and continue to be very healthy.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
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