Pray For Me Brother

*

So somewhere between Super Girls and Super Pussy on Patpong they knelt down before the monk and handed over their offerings, he and the two Thai boys, his sleeping companion and his friend, because no Thai came alone. Everyone know he is too crazy to have a relationship with, drink too much whisky, too many girls. Everyone but him. And even as these stale thoughts ricocheted around his aging head, he was with different company now. I have a new boy now, the words falling on muffled air, despite the phone line. He couldn't help thinking, as they headed towards Surawong, what are the chances of seeing him again. How would they react. This is my new friend. The introductions. As if any of this tired, obsessional thought mattered. They knelt, there in the tattered streets, before the monk, it being a period of Buddhist holidays, and were prayed over. All the time, thoughts disappearing like flocks of pigeons up through the shambolic houses, up past shuttered windows and closed rooms, scenes of a thousand orgasms; of sweat and indignation, cheating and service. Up and away in the morning clouds, already dusky, already damp, already the heat of the day marking a triumphant return to form.

Your health is not normal, you take a lot of pain killers, Mr Jue, their translator in difficult circumstances by dint of being shacked up with a falang, said on the phone. He tried to explain: he had just given up coffee because of high blood pressure; and he missed those mornings at the Anan Cafe with the swishy boys like he missed the morning dealer before work or the boys in Penang with their eternal cry: Hey Johnny, you want something. In other words he missed that morning coffee as if it was heroin, it was the one thing that added sparkle, coherence and meaning to an ordinary morning, made it all worthwhile. There in the footfalls. There in the most delicate shadows. When he stood on Silom and waited for Aek to purchase the offerings. He had thought they were heading towards the Wat, perhaps that was the original plan, but as it turned out they stopped on Patpong; and as the monk approached from the other end, pale, unsmiling, they lined up along the side; every step orchestrated, told what to do at every point. Pray for me brother, he felt like screaming, but in reality the pain of his disoriented head and the muffled confusion of his emotional state meant he might as well have been part of the walls, part of the weather, there between Super Girls and Super Pussy.

Then they went and had breakfast at the corner open air restaurant at Patpong, the owner asking if he spoke Thai - passah Thai - and he having to respond: nik noi, little. Chinese porridge, putting aside the liver. He is there 24/7 to take care of you, Mr Jui said. Sometimes he just forgot how strange they seemed to them. He caught Aek the other day asking one of his friends: what does this mean? And then he mimed him going: "F...ing hell." With all the intonations. They had to explain they were just swear words, an expression of annoyance when everything was not going right, the phone kept dropping out or the internet was wonky, or Skype didn't do what it was meant to do. These were the fortunate times, when everything was blessed. The patients with a pot plant live longer, the movie line went, and it was probably true, those with pets, with lovers, with something in their life, they all lived longer. Did God, that demented, tortured, brutal, authoritarian God he had grown up with, count as a comforting presence? Perhaps for those without sin, those who had sacrificed all in His name. But what was this, as a spiritual experience, when the monk mumbled words he could not understand and their offerings were immediately replaced into a large bucket carried by a helper.

I know why we met, why the Buddha sent you here, the boy said, because you were lonely; and I can help you. Well that's as may be. The boy certainly helped to relieve his wallet; and lead a merry dance. But the same thought kept recurring to him: I wouldn't be here if I hadn't been there. Young Peter has gone and the apartment is quiet without him; always downloading music, his many passionate concerns. Off to the eternal city. The Spanish Steps at sunset, St Peter's Square at dawn, The Sistine Chapter, that fountain, Bertellini, whatever it's called, the Colloseum, walk along the Tiber River, these things you must do. Everything else will fall into place, he told him. Just to look across Rome from the Spanish Steps in those hours, minutes before dawn, was something not easy to forget, the rising clamour, the most beautiful of sights, when he wandered alone as if these were the most profound moments, and found himself, well found himself everywhere, shooting heroin in the back streets of Naples, coursing through the back lanes, lingering in neighbourhoods where the well dressed Italians ran straight up against stylish sleaze, and he could scent every possibility in the air, and could feel the gathering paces of a curdled storm, and knew that behind the fabric of things, the surface gloss, lay a different, more profound, more important world, if only he could break through. And there was only one way to get there. Or only one way he knew.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIkk0CUHMP_fMcrg9CqTa38dJIgwD9H70HC82

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A war crimes tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer on Monday to a prison term that will see him serve less than half a day for every person killed at the notorious torture center he commanded.
Survivors expressed anger and disbelief that a key player in the genocide that wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's population could one day walk free — despite being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"I can't accept this," sobbed Saodi Ouch, 46, shaking so hard she could hardly talk. "My family died ... my older sister, my older brother. I'm the only one left."
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was the first major Khmer Rouge figure to face trial more than three decades after the "killing fields" regime tried to turn the country into a vast agrarian society — leading to the deaths of 1.7 million people.
As commander of the top secret Tuol Sleng prison — code-named S-21 — the 67-year-old Duch admitted to overseeing the torture and deaths of as many as 16,000 people.
He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but will spend only 19 in jail — 11 years were shaved off for time served and another five for illegal detention in a military prison.
"It is just unacceptable to have a man who killed thousands of people serving just 19 years," said Theary Seng, a human rights lawyer, who lost both her parents to the Khmer Rouge and has been working with other victims to find justice.
"It comes down to serving 11 1/2 hours per life that he took," she said, adding that if prosecutors could get only such a lenient sentence in a case where the defendant admitted his guilt, they could expect even less in the upcoming trial of four senior Khmer Rouge figures.
The U.N.-backed tribunal is scheduled to try the group's top ideologist, 84-year-old Nuon Chea, its former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 79, and two other top leaders, both in their 80s, early next year. Unlike Duch, they have denied any guilt.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Thai-Governing-Partys-Victory-Overshadowed-by-Bomb-Blast-99232824.html

A weekend by-election victory by Thailand's governing Democrat Party has been overshadowed by fresh concerns of political instability after an overnight bombing in central Bangkok. The blast left one person dead and up to 10 wounded at a bus terminal near where anti-government protests were held in April and May.

No group claimed responsibility. Bangkok and more than a dozen provinces have been under a state of emergency since the protests.

The blast overshadowed a crucial by-election victory by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjaiva's governing Democrat Party over the opposition Puea Thai Party.

Analysts saw the by election as a vital test of support for the government, after the army dispersed the anti-government red-shirt protesters in late May. The clashes left 90 people dead and almost 1,900 injured.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranaj Smutharak said the election was a step forward to political normality after the recent turbulence.

"This is a vote of confidence in democracy in Thailand. So I think hopefully this will continue and provide itself in the subsequent national elections will be relatively peaceful," said Buranaj. "But of course the reconciliation process will determine whether that can be achieved and how long it will take."

The by-election winner is a former investment banker. The opposition Puea Thai Party candidate was the leader of the anti-government "Red Shirt" movement and is in prison facing charges linked to the protests

Chulalongkorn University economics professor Sompob Manarangsan said the results of the by-election underscore a sharp divide in Thai society.

"One of the very clear messages is that the opposition group of people to the government, in particular from the 'Red Shirts,' is still very strong and still very united, even with the nominee from the Puea Thai Party is still in jail," Sompob said.

The government had hoped the by-election would mark a major step towards the country stepping away from the political turbulence of April and May.

The bombing, however, has raised more questions about the country's political uncertainties, said Human Rights Watch Thailand representative Sunai Pasuk.

"All in all, having an explosion go off in the evening of an election day would raise concern about political stability in Bangkok," Sunai said. "It would raise concern - it does not matter who did it - but whether the political climate has returned to normalcy or not."

Last week, a government-established committee for political reform and reconciliation called the state of emergency to be lifted. But a government spokesman said the bombing makes the case for keeping the decree in place.

Picture: Bangkok. Peter Newman.