The Orient Express bowls ‘em over

The seventh fleet US Navy band, the Orient Express, under the charge of Musician Master Chief Rob Roy has been wowing the locals and tourists all over Pattaya with their very professional brand of music.

Boogie down to the US Navy beat!

With gigs in Walking Street, Big C, the Royal Garden Plaza and the Amari Orchid Resort in front of the Henry J Bean’s Bar and Grill, it was a hectic four day schedule for the navy musicians, but a schedule they obviously relished.

There was no doubt about the band’s ability to get the crowds to their feet and dance their cares away to a huge variety of musical styles (and a corresponding number of dancing styles as well). Even young Christopher Haeberli, who celebrated his 8th birthday at the Amari venue, was seen beating time with his birthday cake fork. It was just that kind of music and that kind of night.

Lieutenant Lesley Hull-Ryde from the Public Affairs Department of the US Navy was thrilled at the response from Pattaya for the Orient Express, and many locals expressed the hope that they would be back next year during the CARAT exercises.

U.S. Navy doc treats Thai patients

Story and photos by Ensign Christina Skacan,
CARAT Public Affairs

Fortunately Lt. Amy Rindfleisch loves children. Solo, she treated approximately 100 of them without X-ray machines, nurses or labs.

Like all doctors, Rindfleisch made the rounds, seeing her Thai patients as part of a medical and dental civic action project during the Navy’s premier bilateral exercise here known as Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training, or CARAT.

“It’s challenging to perceive the interaction from the child’s point of view - a lot of things they perceive as scary,” said Rindfleisch, a native of Exeter, N.H. Many of the children had never before seen an American, let alone an American doctor.

Doc Amy with a very young patient

“If you can get a child to smile, to laugh, it’s a lot of fun and very rewarding.”

The U.S. Navy sent three doctors and a dentist to treat more than 400 medical patients and almost 100 dental patients, extracting 120 teeth in eight hours. Royal Thai Navy medical professionals helped translate so Rindfleisch and the American team could really talk with their patients.

She diagnosed flu, pneumonia, upper respiratory illnesses like asthma, rashes and scabies. Scabies result when microscopic mites burrow under the skin, causing an itchy reaction and detected by scratch marks.

“We saw whoever showed up, villagers young and old.” One patient suffered from a painful furuncle, a little walled off ball of pus under the skin, requiring drainage. Rindfleisch lanced it with a scalpel.

“In the clinic we’d do a culture, lab work, things we do not have time to wait for. It’s different out here. We just read the symptoms. It’s a little like shooting from the hip.”

A Boston University grad, Rindfleisch completed her residency at Connecticut Children’s Hospital then shipped out to United States Naval Hospital, Okinawa, Japan. She currently serves in the Navy in exchange for a scholarship she received for her four years of medical school.

“This is an opportunity for the Thai people to receive free medical care and supplies they could not otherwise easily obtain.”

Referred by the local Buddhist temple, Wat Soi 8, villagers waited in long lines at Nikom 3 elementary school to receive treatment and to fill their prescriptions for Tylenol, Robitussin, multi-vitamins and other basic medications.

Wilai, 15, carried her sister, Kanongwan, younger than 2, to see Rindfleisch. Through the translator, Wilai noted her sister’s symptoms: running nose, cough, fever, very sore throat and diarrhea.

“Times like these it’s good to fall back on experience,” noted Rindfleisch.

Working without the typical clinical support, the doctors used many visual diagnoses.

Rindfleisch says she’s grateful for the clinical support she gets at Naval Hospital,Okinawa - or anywhere in the United States.

“One thing that frustrated me the most was I will not be able to follow up on chronic cases, like asthma, which need continual care.”

Whether or not the Thai villagers will have the money for - or the access to - quality medical care concerns the doctor. Without preventive care and maintenance of chronic cases, the overall health of the sick villagers will not improve.

Rindfleisch will serve three more years in the Navy, then decide on her future. A colleague recently asked her what she will do when she leaves the Navy.

“Who says I am getting out?”

Sailors reach out to Thais

Whither Thai Education - Or Wither Thai Education?

As the great education debate rages on at all levels of Thai society, the advent of Child Friendly Schools could well be a panacea to the classroom ills. Established by the Office of the National Primary Education Commission (ONPEC), the Mahidol University’s Institute for Nutrition Research and UNICEF, amongst others, a network of these schools now exists in the north and northeast and is likely to become nation-wide ultimately.

Story and photos by Peter Cummins

A number of rapid changes are overtaking the Thai education system. The more traditional “chalk and talk” method and the entrenched “rote” system of attaining knowledge are under strong attack from the radical “child-centred learning” concept now being vigorously promoted throughout the Kingdom’s schools.

Meal time at Kookard: a free lunch

Schemes such as the Rajhabat Institute’s alternative learning centres being set up at department stores, in shophouses and, even, the countless unfinished abandoned buildings blighting the Bangkok cityscape, are further eroding the traditional system. This “shophouse school” idea adds to the confusion and promotes quantity - rather than quality - education.

Even at the governmental level, there is enormous conflict, with the erstwhile Education Minister recently resigning in anger over opposition and endless counter-proposals to his education reform bills.

Where are the rights of the child in all this confusion? Is child-centred learning the answer? Or is the child being lost in the midst of the controversies? It is, at least, a start but it has also driven a wedge between teacher and student, tradition and change. The Education Act of 1999 brought into force a child-centred education system aimed ideally to promote creativity, independent thinking and to develop analytical skills. Up until the promulgation of the Act, knowledge was imposed upon the student body by the teachers who instructed their charges to commit tracts of text to memory and accept, unquestioningly, old precepts, beliefs and values.

Now, it appears that education is a rudder-less ship upon a turbulent sea: almost 700,000 teachers nation-wide - many of whom are products of the “rote” method themselves - have to ‘re-learn” how to teach. Probably more alarming, however, is the vast body of students who, freed from traditional constraints by the Act, are unable to cope with a self-imposed academic discipline and the new necessity of selecting reading and studying priorities formerly set by the teachers. The bond which existed in many schools between teacher and student is under severe stress.

Child Friendly Schools

But there is an alternative and it is taking root in a most positive and fruitful manner. Known as the “Child Friendly School” (CFS) concept, it was launched in the north and northeastern regions which, in the course of just two years, has reached some 120 schools. By the end of next year, the principals concerned expect that upwards of 200 schools will be “child friendly”. Eventually, all primary, and even secondary schools, could become part of the CFS network - perhaps becoming thereby, the panacea for Thailand’s troubled schooling system.

The children make hats from their milk ration cartons

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), totally dedicated to the welfare and well-being of children everywhere, strongly advocates the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and has subsequently been implemented universally with just two countries refusing to accede.

UNICEF, within the context of children’s rights related to education, leisure and cultural activities, collaborated with the Thai Government’s Office of the Primary Education Commission (ONPEC) and, in 1998, brought 400 young people together in a Children’s Assembly. Dr. Kasama Varavan, the secretary-general of ONPEC, was astounded at the revelations emanating from the Assembly “which,” Dr. Kasama said at the time, “proved to be a turning point for teachers who, up until then, had been beyond criticism”. The students’ comments were instrumental in bringing them together with teachers, parents and community leaders country-wide.

The Thailand Child Friendly School Programme was thus launched by the Office of the National Primary Education Commission (ONPEC), with the collaboration of the Art and Cultural Institute for Development (MAYA), Save the Children (based in the USA), the Mahidol University’s Institute for Nutrition Research, Save the Children and Life Skills Foundation, as well as considerable financial and advisory assistance from UNICEF.

The DFS philosophy, while incorporating much of the child-centred education idea, rather steers a middle path between the traditional and the new and aims particularly at bringing education to disadvantaged children.

UNICEF feels that it is this group which most needs the benefits, mental and physical advancement which education fosters. Yet, ironically, it is the very children from this strata of society who have been excluded from schools for a myriad reasons, not the least of which is economic hardship. Many children from poor families, who may have been fortunate to enrol in a school, are often obliged to drop out due to the financial burden imposed on their parents by school fees, books, uniforms and other expenses related to a child’s attendance.

This unfortunate trend has been clearly recognized by H.E. Anand Panyarachun, the UNICEF Ambassador for Thailand who pointed out recently, “That specific UNICEF-supported projects, such as assistance to educating school drop-outs from poor families have been actively promoted by the Thai Royal Family.” The creation of the CFS is at least a start to the means of addressing this enormous problem.

Ban Kookard School

The Ban Kookard School, one of the five within the radius of the Khon Kaen district is situated some 80 km south and is a viable - and vibrant - example of the success of the CFS.

The Kookard School: a sea of happy faces

A child friendly school, according to the UNICEF definition, is “A secure place where children can receive appropriate health care as well as providing the most effective child-centred learning.” The CFS promotes lively participation in all school activities while respecting the rights of the child, in accordance with the clauses of the Convention.

As one enters the spacious grounds of the Ban Kookard School, the immediate impression is one of confidence, enthusiasm and a zest for life. Everywhere – in the school grounds, in the recreation areas, in the classrooms – a sea of smiling faces exudes the exuberance of these children.

The Kookard School fulfils all the criteria of a CFS, by protecting the rights of each student, promoting child participation and ensuring a healthy, friendly environment. A key to the success of Ban Kookard, as with any of the other schools, is an active student, teacher, parent and community partnership working together to formulate values and realistic goals. A school curriculum, jointly prepared, aims at developing the individual’s life skills and preparing the child for a rewarding life in the community.

The Kookard faculty members: everybody is happy

No children have been rejected for admission to Kookard and no child has ever been expelled. Quite the contrary, for a frequently updated management information system (MIS) profiles every child - background, parental status, subjects, skills and grades - and allows teachers and supervisors to anticipate any potential conflict inherent in the biodata.

Any form of physical punishment is strictly forbidden and thus the children develop in an environment that carries no threat of retribution. The CFS programme includes all children and, because many of the schools are located in border areas, a special emphasis is placed on admitting the disadvantaged and children from minority groups where language becomes an impediment to learning.

The school provides education from primary one to secondary three, for children aged seven to 15. Thereafter, the young adult can go on to a vocational training or a trade school. Some have enrolled in the nearby Chonnabot Community College where some enterprising CFS graduates are running a college-wide radio programme, dealing with the gamut of student problems and finding answers to their questions.

As Gamini Abeysekera, representative of the UNICEF Office for Thailand said recently at UNICEF’s fiftieth anniversary of operations in Thailand, “As the UNICEF ship, filled with funds and supplies, technical assistance and communications material sails into the next fifty years in a sea of children, let us wish it a safe voyage to embark on the emerging challenges.”

Undoubtedly, the future of the Child Friendly Schools is one of these major challenges. They could well be the answer to Thailand’s monumental education problems.

Royal Heritage invests in Thailand’s future

Computers for Thai Kids Project

Martin McNicholas and Malcolm Boden, directors of Royal Heritage Asset Management donated a much-needed printer to the Pattaya Computer Club’s ‘Computers for Thai Kids Project’. The idea came about when Martin McNicholas met Glen ‘Jeep’ Holthaus and his wife Lek. Martin happily donated a new color printer to them as a means giving something back to the community.

Martin McNicholas (back row, 2nd right) on behalf of Royal Heritage Asset Management, donates a much-needed color printer to the Pattaya Computer Club’s “Computers for Thai Kids Project”, run by Jeep (back left) and Lek (back right).

After over 3 years of existence, the Computers for Thai Kids Project is still going strong today and has quietly managed to support over 80 children to continue their education where as under normal circumstances the children would be forced to leave school due to financial hardship. The project also donates computers to government schools throughout the country to assist children in learning computer literacy, which has become important in today’s ever growing computer age.

Jeep added, “We only give computers to schools where there is someone who can use them and teach the children, as well as repair them when something breaks down...” This idea ensures that it is the children that receive the full benefit. Glen and Lek fund the entire program by themselves through selling sandwiches and drinks at sporting events, such as the regular Hash Run on Mondays. Any donated items are repaired and then given to a government school.

The donation by Martin and Malcolm is the first color printer that the project has received and will be put to good use by the children, especially when comes to printing out letters and pictures, when they start learning more about graphics programs. Many of the children go to ‘Jeep’s Joint’ after their school day to learn what they are unable to in school. Many of the children are also “street kids”, who otherwise would never get an education.

This worthwhile project will continue as long as there is a constant supply of computers and funds to educate children in need. It is certainly an investment in the future of the country.

If you would like to help Jeep and Lek with sponsorship, computer or tuition you can contact them on 038-424 998 or email at [email protected] 

The Origin of Dragons

by Suchard Krephitmai

These days we forget that in the middle ages no one questioned that fact that dragons were real; they were considered responsible for all natural disasters and other unexplainable phenomena.

No one ever sat pondering over the question where dragons might originate. They were thought to have existed from the beginning of time and they were a major topic of conversation.

During the 17th century scientists began to doubt the real existence of dragons, but conceded that these creatures were at least possible. A new question arose if they existed: how? The old Christian explanations on the creation of the earth crumbled. Additionally there was severe doubt whether such fierce animals were really God’s creatures. But the Bible never explicitly mentioned the creative powers of the Devil. Could there be another way for the origin of dragons?

Golden Dragon

In 1683 to 1691 Eberhard Werner Happel published his Relationes Curisosae, a collection of curiosities. Of course Happel could not ignore the dragon. He first presents the story of Deodatus de Gozon, a young knight of St. John who killed a dragon on the isle of Rhodes in 1345. Happel afterwards lists some well-known facts: Dragons are many fold - some possess wings and others don’t, some have four and others two legs. Their feet could be compared to those of goose, lions or eagles, but all dragons are said to be venomous. But then he suddenly states that they are monsters or miraculous creatures, which could not spring from an ordinary copulation of two common animals of different species. (Of course he mentioned the mule as an example of such a bastard.) And he gives the explanation: It is well accepted that dragons inhabit the remotest dwellings such as caves, cliffs or deserts. Only eagles, vultures and other birds of prey are their companions. In fact they dwelled there even before the dragon. To these places they brought their prey - snakes, birds, rabbits, lambs, dogs, and even little children! - to lacerate and devour them. And there the remains decayed. But still remnants of the semen of these unlucky victims survived. Of course it was impossible that this seed could develop ordinary animals. But through time the semen of various creatures would intermingle and at last a kind of “fermentational putrefaction” would give birth to a dragon. Logically, this dragon will show features of all animals involved: head and tail of the snake, wings of a bird or bat, ears of a rabbit and legs of whatever kind of being.

Happel certainly had not invented this strange and peculiar theory. But where was it derived from?

There are still those out there today that believe in dragons and make up stories and poems. Surrounded in mystery and legend, the romance of the dragon is found in cultures all around the world.

Updated every Friday
Copyright 2001  Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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Updated by Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
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